Donald Trump appointees continue to cause headaches

Steve Bannon was bad enough with his racist, woman hating, white nationalist positions when joining Donald Trump following a stint with one of the most bigoted publications in America, Breitbart News. In an earlier post I reported Bloomberg News saying Bannon is most dangerous political operative in America. Later post, his "darkness is good" statement reiterates the fact that he is racist, sexist and anti-Semitic. But Michael Flynn sounds even scarier.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was picked to be Donald Trump's national security adviser. He called Islamism a "vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people" that has to be "excised" during an August speech. This is not singling out those Muslims that do the bad things like 9/11 and various other attacks here in the U.S. and across the world, but lumping the entire Islamic world together. Like a basket with all bad eggs.

This man is a loose cannon and needs to be helped. By a psychiatric team that understands extreme provincialism. Apparently the three stars on his shoulders went straight to his head and Flynn now thinks he is commanding the American public. It won't work and Trump should be able to see the dangerous nature of both these appointments. Another example, Flynn was asked if Obama was a Muslim and after a flurry of incoherent statements basically said yes.

Here we go again. Shades of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

ARIZONA SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO ACCUSED BY OWN DEPUTY SERGEANT

It is possible that the toughest sheriff in the country will be taken down a couple of notches. Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been exposed by one of his deputies, a sergeant no less. "Sgt. Brett Palmer testified that Arpaio had personally instructed him to continue enforcing federal immigration law after Judge G. Murray Snow had prohibited the practice," according to the Arizona Republic. The blustery Arpaio has repeatedly denied targeting Latinos in his county for meaningless charges simply to shake them down as illegal immigrants. Palmer also said, "the emphasis within the department was focused on public perception because 'it’s our duty to make the sheriff look good to the media and the public.'” Well he looks like crap right now and that undoubtedly will get worse when Judge Snow makes his final decision. Arpaio's reelections are a result of the hate in this state for illegal immigrants but this litigation could wake up some of the dufuses that have voted for him in the past. He runs for his 7th term next year.

Arizona tough Sheriff Joe Arpaio under fire from all directions

The federal government issued a harsh report recently that illustrates the scope of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s civil rights violations against Arizona Hispanics.  It includes a history of racial profiling and discrimination, emphasizing the regular raids that Arpaio conducts to find illegals.  The investigation has been going on for three years according to the Associated Press, and exposes a culture of bias that starts with the Sheriff and works its way down through the agency.

Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division says that Arpaio stimulates this environment of hostility and bias by sending “racially charged letters” to top aides and even saved them.  DOJ’s expert on racial profiling said, “it's the most egregious case of racial profiling in the nation that he has seen or reviewed in professional literature.”  As an example here is an excerpt from the report:

“The investigation found a number of instances in which "crime suppression activities" were initiated on complaints that ‘described no criminal activity, but rather referred, for instance, to individuals with 'dark skin' congregating in one area, or the individuals speaking Spanish at a local business.’"

And then there’s Arpaio’s botched sex crime investigations where 432 cases had fallen through the cracks and were not investigated.  A now-retired detective left a “poor paperwork trail” which resulted in these unprosecuted sex crime cases.  The Sheriff tried his usual cover-up strategy by saying Phoenix police had a much larger caseload of similar cases.  Phoenix police countered that, unlike Arpaio’s inaction, they immediately assigned a task force to the issue.

The Sheriff’s latest headache is a Mexican woman, an inmate in the county jail, who claims sheriff’s officers mistreated her during and after a pregnancy which included shackling her while in labor and following a Caesarean delivery.  Miriam Mendiola-Martinez has filed suit against the Sheriff, his agency and deputies, which follows right on the heels of the federal report.  The Arizona Dept. of Corrections, the U.S. Marshall’s Service and the FBI have eliminated the practice of using shackles on pregnant women.

Arpaio giving up right to detain illegals

But that’s still not all.  On the day before Christmas, a judge ruled that Sheriff Joe Arpaio could no longer detain people for being in the country illegally.  The ruling is a direct result of a 2007 lawsuit against Arpaio and his officers of racially profiling Latinos in traffic stops that occurred during Arpaio’s infamous immigration sweeps.  At the same time the judge sanctioned the Sheriff for destroying documents related to the case.

The feds report had a number of other interesting revelations.  It found that Arpaio and his staff had tried to silence people speaking out against him and the department.  Hispanics are 4 to 9 times more likely to be detained in traffic stops than non-Hispanics.  From 2006 to 2009, 20 percent of traffic stops handled by Arpaio’s immigrant smuggling squad were done without reasonable suspicion and involved almost 100 percent Latinos.  Deputies were encouraged to make high-volume traffic stops in “targeted” locations, often arresting Hispanics who were in the country legally.  And there’s much more.

Another quote from the report:

“Investigators believe the sheriff's office followed a pattern or practice of unconstitutional treatment of Hispanics both inside the jails and in traffic stops, especially by the sheriff's human smuggling and work-site enforcement units.”

The Tucson Citizen newspaper commented: “Arpaio is equivalent to ‘Bull’ Connor and our Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is equivalent to Alabama’s George Wallace.”  “Bull” Connor was the bigoted Birmingham, Alabama Commissioner of Public Safety with control over a police force that directed the use of fire hoses, and police attack dogs against peaceful demonstrators, including children.  George Wallace was the Governor of Alabama and an avid pro-segregationist.  Both are very accurate comparisons to the people who run the state of Arizona.

Racist JT Ready with Russell Pearce

But wait, that’s still not all.  Randy Parraz, president of Citizens for a Better Arizona, the guy who was responsible for removing racist Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce from office in a recall election, is asking the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution to dump Arpaio.  Parraz has said in the past that he might consider a recall for Joe Arpaio as well as Arizona’s bogus Gov. Jan Brewer.

Unfortunately Arizona has all of a sudden discovered it is in the hands of a gang of bigoted, extreme conservatives that have almost brought the state to its knees.  Being the great place Arizona is, the question is will its people find their way once again and return to a sane environment to live and visit.

Arizona’s tough Sheriff Joe Arpaio challenges Obama birth certificate

This is one of those, ‘how many times are they going to go down this road’ issues.  Every time it is pursued, there is conclusive proof that the President’s birth certificate is valid. But Arpaio dredged it up again, probably for the publicity it will get him, giving it the credibility of an investigation demanded by the people of Maricopa, County in Arizona.  But then, what else would we expect from a state that has given us a bogus Gov. Jan brewer, and a racist bigot who led the state Senate, Russell Pearce?

And where else would the complaint Arpaio is investigating come from other than the Tea Party?  These are the same people, although from another local chapter, who placed fake candidate Olivia Cortes on the ballot in the recall election of Russell Pearce.  Legitimate challenger Jerry Lewis won handily, hopefully putting Pearce out to pasture permanently.  Arpaio backed Russell Pearce, as he did Andrew Thomas, who is facing disciplinary hearings with the Arizona state bar over questionable prosecutions.  And the latest, Sheriff Joe supports Rick Perry for president.

You have to wonder about this man’s judgment.  Randy Parraz, who organized the recall against Pearce, says Arpaio is next if he doesn’t back off on the “extremist brand of politics” exhibited by Thomas and Pearce.  Arpaio even looked bad in an investigation by fellow Sheriff Paul Babeu of nearby Pinal County, which resulted in the dismissal of three of Arpaio’s top deputies.  With newly energized Hispanics from the Pearce recall, at the worst Arpaio could be voted out in 2012 due to his actions against illegal immigrants.

Racist Russell Pearce with Joe Arpaio

Latinos accounted for 13 percent of the voters who supported Jerry Lewis in the recall election against Russell Pearce.  Lewis won by 53.4 percent to 45.3, proving that the Hispanic vote will determine the outcome of several elections in 2012.  It could rid the state of a bunch of conservative radicals that have placed Arizona in the limelight of ridicule for the past couple of years.  And there are many who say, if the progressives can pull it off in Arizona, they can do it throughout the U.S.

And while Arpaio continues his sweeps of illegal immigrants, arrests of illegals along the U.S., Mexico border are at the lowest level since the Nixon administration.  Even the Border Patrol is now concentrating on illegals with criminal records, realizing many of these Hispanics are working at jobs here and making a contribution.

But the latest that Sheriff Joe has to contend with are charges that he failed to investigate over 400 sex crimes over a three-year period ending in 2007.  Some of these were molestations of undocumented immigrants.  In El Mirage, where the sheriff provides policing services, suspects were even known in all but 6 of 32 cases.  Victims were as young as two, but the Arpaio’s deputies failed to follow through, leaving the cases hanging in limbo.

Obama with birth certificate

So the residents of Maricopa County, and the whole state of Arizona, should be wondering why Joe Arpaio is placing emphasis on some inane investigation of Obama’s birth certificate, when he should be going after predators who prey on the state’s children.  But again, no one ever seems surprised by the boneheaded politics of Arizona.  It’s just the way the state does business…at least today.

Where is the Hispanic vote likely to go in 2012?

The first question is will Latinos compound their recent increases in population to make their presence known at the polls?  They’ve let themselves down recently, as in 2010 when they sat back and allowed the Republicans to take over the House, although they did win the Governorships in Nevada, New Mexico and Florida. 

But a Pew Research study in 2010 found that 44 percent of Hispanic Republicans planned to vote compared to only 28 percent of Hispanic Democrats.  When it is clear that the GOP still views Latinos in a negative light, it is hard to understand these figures.  Have they learned a lesson with the recent continued rhetoric on immigration reform from the right?

Josh Lederman of The Hill blog looks at 3 states to follow in 2012, but winning them won’t be easy.  If the President had put as much effort behind immigration reform as he did with healthcare in his first year, the numbers might be different.  Seven out of ten Hispanic registered voters are not happy with their personal situation and “frustrated” with both parties.  The building influence of the Latino vote is impressive and has to be reckoned with.

There are over 50 million Hispanics in the U.S. and those who are citizens will represent 10 percent of the adult population by the 2012 election, according to Hispanic News.  With over 60 percent earning incomes of over $35,000, around 44 percent are in the income category that Democrats will probably most appeal to.  But a study by the Center for Immigration Studies says partisanship remains strong regardless of economic standing.  As an average, Dems have a 20.5 point advantage over Republicans.

Following this same study, Democrats have a whopping 32 point lead with college-educated Latinos.  And the longer these folks are in the country, the stronger they lean to the left.  But Hispanic News tells us that even with a rapidly growing population, Latinos still don’t register to vote like Whites and Blacks.  Much of this can be attributed to the bigoted anti-immigrant laws passed recently in Arizona and Alabama.  Even the legals are still skeptical of the likes of a Joe Arpaio. (Arizona’s Sheriff who regularly intimidates and arrests immigrants)

Only around 60 percent of Hispanic citizens are registered to vote, compared to 70 percent of Blacks, 74 percent of Whites.  The HN site estimates that 21.5 million Latino citizen adults will be eligible to vote in 2012, leaving over 8 million to get registered.  However, this could all change with President Obama’s recent deportation policy to concentrate now on criminals.  It helps relieve law enforcement as well as recognizing the fact that some of the migrants caught in raids like those of Arizona Sheriff Arpaio are honest working individuals.



The 3 states up for grabs, as reported by The Hill’s Lederman are Arizona, Florida and Nevada.  Arizona, with a Latino population of 1,895,149 in 524,806 households is looking much better since the anti-immigration bigot, State Sen. Russell Pearce lost his seat in a recall.  Also, former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, an Independent but loyal to Democrats, will run to take over Republican Jon Kyl’s Senate seat.  And one prominent state Republican has said that based on his pissing off Hispanics, Romney would be lucky to get 9 percent of the Latino vote.

 Florida, on the other hand, is a hard state in which to predict the Hispanic vote, because of its diversification of immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Central and South America.  A GOP strategist says you would insult them by making an appeal to everyone as a group. 

The question is, do even the Dems have the time and money to devise separate campaigns?  U.S. Sen. Bill nelson (D) will likely be running against Republican Connie Mack, whose criticism of Arizona’s immigration crackdown could garner Latino votes.  Total Hispanic population is 4,223,806 in 1,422,496 households.

Nevada, hard hit by a slumping economy fraught with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, has a smaller Latino presence; population 716,501 in 192,459 households.  Democrats are working hard in this state where Hispanics made up 16 percent of the electorate in 2010, giving Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) 66 percent support, 86 percent among Spanish-speaking voters.  Republican Dean Heller appointed to Jon Ensign’s seat after his resignation will run as an incumbent against whoever the Dems come up with.

The only state of the three not included in the USA Today/Gallup Poll 12 swing states is Arizona.  But with the recent extremist politics in this state voters seem to be fed up with, Arizona could go all the way over to the left side.