#Arizer Go

[thearizerway]

The ArGo (or Arizer Go) is a pocket vaporizer. This product produces smooth and tasty vapor, a unique characteristic of our Arizer brand. The swappable batteries of the product are an exclusive feature, and you can easily fine-tune its custom device settings using Arizer’s Custom Session Settings. Today, we will discuss how to choose the best portable vaporizer and why ArGo from Arizer is the top choice amongst other pocket vaporizers. Let’s find out more!

Why Pocket Vaporizers are in Great Demand

With a compact design, our pocket vaporizer offers a discrete approach to enjoying your dry herbs. Many other portable vaporizers can’t be as easily concealed in your hand during usage and carried in your pocket conveniently the way ArGo can.

The most significant benefit of our pocket vaporizers is mobility; you can take them wherever you travel, going for a walk or to a pub. You can conveniently use the device when you need to leverage it. Furthermore, you don’t need to rely on access to an electric socket as interchangeable batteries power our pocket vaporizer product.

The mobility enhances comfort and allows for multiple uses throughout the day. Moreover, the compact, small size, and discreetness of the device make it easy to keep it anywhere, hide it in your hand or tuck it away in your pocket.

With the best pocket vaporizers you can experience the tasty vapor without the restriction of remaining at home.

Choosing the Right Pocket Vaporizer for a Great Vaping Experience

The best portable vaporizers are hand-held and battery-powered products that allow on-the-go consumption of herbs.

The ArGo pocket vaporizer offers a comfortable and wide-open draw. This product is a top-tier pocket vaporizer with a captivating blend of pure vapor generation and flavor.

Arizer hits it out of the park with all its vape products, but for a pocket vaporizer, ArGo is the best vape option out there. It offers excellent and exclusive portability and discreet usage for its users.

Arizer leveraged its 15+ years of proficiency to enable this pioneering technology to upsurge the pocket vape experience with the ArGo. ArGo sets the benchmarks for pocket-size vapes in the industry by providing big clouds from a hand-held unit.

Our product’s all-glass vapor path supports a cleaner and more pleasant vaping experience. This pocket-size vape safeguards it makes the most out of each session, prioritizing pure flavor.

In addition to pure flavor, the ArGo doesn’t compromise its technological competence. This pocket-size vaporizer comes with convection heating technology for an efficient and even vaping experience. Our pocket vaporizer product provides methodically engineered hybrid heating for the best performance levels. This product has an explicit digital temperature control with a 50–220°C (122–428°F) range of temperature.

The most substantial advantage of convection heating in our pocket vaporizer product is the higher levels of vaping productivity and effectiveness. This kind of pocket vaporizer draws more active materials from the dry herbs.

Handpicked Related Content ArGo vs. Solo II: Why ArGo Reigns Supreme Among Pocket Vaporizers

Significant Features in a Pocket Vaporizer

Modern vaporizers must integrate innovative technology features to enhance their vaping performance. We must look at revolutionary features and explore how Arizer is transforming its pocket vaporizer product.

The pocket-friendly design, advanced functionalities, and modernized features of the Arizer ArGo are quite remarkable. The product’s pioneering design finishes are highly functional, seamless, and smooth. All the product elements are made of high-quality, precisely sourced materials and are heat resistant.

The isolated airpath of our pocket vaporizer delivers purer, smoother, and flavourful vapor. A highly unique feature of our product is the effortlessly removable 18650 battery. The easily rechargeable and interchangeable batteries offer 90 minutes of continuous usage per charge, which is incredible for users.

With the ArGo pocket vaporizer, you can simply swap out your battery with a new, fully charged one. Interchangeable batteries help in increasing vaping session length. This pocket vaporizer can be charged by a USB cable and enables pass-through charging, which means the product can be used even during the charging process.

By offering its users a high level of stealth on the go, our pocket vaporizer is exceptionally lightweight. Our vaporizer is the best for those who prioritize compactness, user-friendliness, and flavor in a pocket-size vape.

Our product offers everything a beginner or practiced vaper could need and provides the best pocket vape experience. You must make an informed decision based on your personal preferences and usage requirements while choosing the best pocket vaporizer.

Why Arizer ArGo is the Top Choice Amongst the Other Pocket Vaporizers

Cleaning, Maintenance & Draw Resistance

As with other vaporizers by Arizer, the ArGo requires extremely low maintenance. Our pocket vaporizer needs minimal cleaning if you precisely pack the chamber on the glass stem with some space between herbs and the oven.

To clean the oven, you can use a Q-Tip dipped in ISO (isopropyl alcohol), which works impeccably. Isopropyl alcohol is even useful for cleaning the glass stems.

When you regularly clean the bowl between sessions, you can ensure you’re not re-vaping any burnt particles. With a clean bowl, you don’t limit the airflow on the ArGo.

With a clean stem, the airflow is pleasant and allows getting a deep draw swiftly. If you avoid cleaning the stems, the draw resistance gets tighter and more restricted, and you’ll take extended draws for a similar effect.

The other way to clean the aroma tubes is to utilize it until it becomes too dirty for you. This is a personal choice. Then, once you’ve collected a few dirty stems you can put them in a ISO bath for 2 – 4 hours and rinse them off with water.

Bowl Capacity

At utmost capacity, the bowl on the ArGo grips 0.30 grams. The explicit quantity of herbs for the ArGo should be around 0.10 to 0.15 grams.

This quantity doesn’t restrict the airflow and enables the dry herb in the glass chamber to appropriately heat and vaporize.

Product Warranty

The ArGo has a lifetime warranty on its heating elements and a two-year warranty that covers defects in materials or workmanship, which excludes the battery. You can retain dated proof of product purchase to get the warranty service.

Why Arizer ArGo is the Top Choice: Summarizing the Benefits

The flavor is extremely tasty

Vapor is dense and contented

Takes minimal herbs to have the looked-for effect

Excellent design and build quality

Easy to clean and maintain

User-friendly and simple to operate

So, the ArGo, our pocket vaporizer product, offers exclusive portability and discreet usage for its user base. Unleash the ultimate power of ArGo, the top choice amongst pocket vaporizers for dry herbs.

This article was originally published on Arizer's blog.

[wilwheaton]

According to reporting from Rolling Stone, multiple members of Congress were involved in Trump’s effort to end American democracy and turn our nation into an authoritarian strongman state like Russia. They include: Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).

The simple reality is that if Republicans in Congress who were willing to go along with Trump’s coup attempt had been investigated, outed, and prosecuted it’s very unlikely that today’s chaos in the House would be anything like it is because many of the troublemakers would no longer be there.

[cctinsleybaxter]

anyway if you live in the US go vote 'uncommitted' in the primaries on tuesday 3/5 (in these states); i know a lot of people aren't going to bother because it's not going to get biden removed from the ballot, but it shows dems that they're in danger of losing the election if they don't start actively courting their voter base; that fear is more likely to push us toward a ceasefire than any other within-the-system political gesture. From the Times:

...two of the Michigan cities with the highest concentrations of Arab Americans. With nearly all ballots counted, Dearborn gave 56 percent of its Democratic primary vote to “uncommitted.” In Hamtramck, “uncommitted” drew 61 percent of the city’s Democratic vote.

Perhaps more worrisome for Mr. Biden was his performance in Ann Arbor, a college town 30 miles to the west. There, where most students and faculty members at the University of Michigan live, “uncommitted” earned 19 percent of the vote. In East Lansing, home to Michigan State University, “uncommitted” got 15 percent of the vote.

While no other battleground states have Arab American communities the size of Michigan’s, they all have college towns where young, progressive voters are angry about American support for Israel. It is in those places — Madison, Wis.; Athens, Ga.; Chapel Hill and Durham, N.C.; Tucson, Ariz.; and State College, Pa., among others — where Mr. Biden faces a general-election threat if he does not attract overwhelming support and turnout among students in November.

[mariacallous]

LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday formally apologized to Native Americans for the “sin” of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a “blot on American history” in his first presidential visit to Indian Country.

“It’s a sin on our soul,” said Biden, his voice full of anger and emotion. “Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.”

It was a moment of both contrition and frustration as the president sought to recognize one of the “most horrific chapters” in the national story. Biden spoke of the abuses and deaths of Native children that resulted from the federal government’s policies, noting that “while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing” and that great nations “must know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are.”

“I formally apologize as president of United States of America for what we did,” Biden said. “The Federal Indian boarding school policy — the pain is has caused will only be a significant mark of shame, a blot on our record history. For too long, this all happened with virtually no public attention, not written about in our history books, not taught in our schools.”

Democrats hope Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community’s land on the outskirts of Phoenix’s metro area will also provide a boost to Vice President Kamala Harris’ turnout effort in a key battleground state. The moment gave Biden a fuller chance to spotlight his and Harris’ support for tribal nations, a group that historically has favored Democrats, in a state he won just by 10,000 votes in 2020.

The race between Harris and former President Donald Trump is expected to be similarly close, and both campaigns are doing whatever they can to improve turnout among bedrock supporters.

“The race is now a turnout grab,” said Mike O’Neil, a non-partisan pollster based in Arizona. “The trendlines throughout have been remarkably steady. The question is which candidate is going to be able to turn out their voters in a race that seems to be destined to be decided by narrow margins.”

Biden has been used sparingly on the campaign trail by Harris and other Democrats since he ended his reelection campaign in July.

But analysts say Biden could help Harris in her appeal with Native American voters — a group that has trailed others in turnout rates.

In 2020, there was a surge in voter turnout on some tribal land in Arizona as Biden beat Trump and became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1996.

Biden, whose presidency is winding down, had promised tribal leaders nearly two years ago that he would visit Indian Country.

For decades, federal boarding schools were used to assimilate children into white society, according to the White House. Not everyone saw the apology as sufficient.

“An apology is a nice start, but it is not a true reckoning, nor is it a sufficient remedy for the long history of colonial violence,” said Chase Iron Eyes, director of the Lakota People’s Law Project and Sacred Defense Fund.

At least 973 Native American children died in the U.S. government’s abusive boarding school system over a 150-year period that ended in 1969, according to an Interior Department investigation that called for a U.S. government apology.

At least 18,000 children, some as young as 4, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools that sought to assimilate them.

“President Biden deserves credit for finally putting attention on the issue and other issues impacting the community,” said Ramona Charette Klein, 77, a boarding school survivor and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “I do think that will reflect well on Vice President Harris, and I hope this momentum will continue.”

Democrats have stepped up outreach to Native American communities.

Both Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, met with tribal leaders in Arizona and Nevada this month. And Clinton, who has been serving as a surrogate for Harris, last week met in North Carolina with the chairman of the Lumbee Tribe.

The Democratic National Committee recently launched a six-figure ad campaign targeting Native American voters in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana and Alaska through digital, print and radio ads.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is locked in a competitive race with Republican Kari Lake for Arizona’s open Senate seat, has visited all 22 of Arizona’s federally recognized tribes.

Harris started a recent campaign rally in Chandler, near where the Gila River reservation is located, with a shoutout to the tribe’s leader. Walz is scheduled to go to the Navajo Nation in Arizona tomorrow on Saturday.

The White House says Biden and Harris have built a substantial track record with Native Americans over the last four years.

The president designated the sacred Avi Kwa Ame, a desert mountain in Nevada and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon in Arizona as national monuments and restored the boundaries for Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

In addition, the administration has directed nearly $46 billion in federal spending to tribal nations. The money has helped bring electricity to a reservation that never had electricity, expand access to high-speed internet, improve water sanitation, build roadways and more.

Biden picked former New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to serve as his Interior secretary, the first Native American to be appointed to a Cabinet position. Haaland is a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.

She, in turn, ordered the comprehensive review in June 2021 of the troubled legacy of the federal government’s boarding school policies that led Biden to deliver the formal apology.

Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, said both Harris’ and Trump’s campaigns — and their allies — have put a remarkable amount of effort into micro-targeting in Arizona.

“They are pulling out every stop just to see if they could wrangle a few more votes here and there,” Reilly said. “The Indian community is one of those groups that Harris is hoping will overperform and help make the difference.”

[transit-fag]

Pheonix Light Rail's North West extension phase 2 is going to be completed and opened in January

[shipcestuous]

First poll!

I had a few of you suggest that a poll might be fun, and I agree! I want to be careful about what kinds of questions I ask. I don't want to pit ships or types of ships against each other - I think that can be poll-arizing (heh heh). Also, as incest shippers, we're in the minority all the time, so I don't want to compound that feeling. I also don't want to espouse the idea that something is better because it's more popular. So hopefully I'll be able to walk that line and find some poll questions that are fun for all of us. Future polls, like this one, may be more related to experiences than taste, so more of a survey than a poll, technically.

Of course there are more I could list but I'm going to cut it off there. Am I missing any big ones?

For me, I never had one.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Igor Bobic and Dave Jamieson at HuffPost:

Sen. Mark Kelly (Ariz.), a contender to become Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket, told HuffPost on Wednesday that he would vote in favor of the pro-union legislation known as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Kelly’s lack of full commitment to the PRO Act, as it’s known, has stood as a possible barrier to him becoming Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee, since labor unions are a crucial part of the Democratic coalition. Harris has become the presumptive nominee since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday.

“Why would the Democrats even consider a senator for the vice presidency if the senator doesn’t support the PRO Act?” John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, told ABC News. But Kelly on Wednesday made clear in an interview with HuffPost that he would support the bill if it came to the Senate floor, affirming enthusiastic support for labor unions. He is not listed as a co-sponsor on the Senate’s most recent version. “Unions loom large in our life, and I’m supportive of the PRO Act,” Kelly said, recounting how when his mother, a police officer, was injured, her union helped her recover. “I would have voted for it on Day 1,” he added of the bill. “I would vote for it today. I am, like a lot of legislation, working to make it better. But if it came to the floor today or any day going back to the day I was sworn in, I would vote for it.”

The PRO Act amounts to a sweeping overhaul of labor law that Democrats believe would make it easier for workers to form unions and bargain with their employers. Among other measures, the legislation would create stiff financial penalties for illegal union-busting; ban anti-union “captive audience” meetings at work; make it easier for newly unionized workers to secure their first contracts; nullify state right-to-work laws; and bar employers from permanently replacing strikers. But the bill has not drawn unanimous support within the Democratic caucus.

Arizona Senator and potential Harris VP pick Mark Kelly changed his position on the PRO Act, coming out in support of the PRO Act.

[zvaigzdelasas]

The junta have explicitly justified their coup as a response to the “continuous deterioration of the security situation” plaguing Niger and complained that it and other countries in the Sahel “have been dealing for over 10 years with the negative socioeconomic, security, political and humanitarian consequences of NATO’s hazardous adventure in Libya.” Even ordinary Nigeriens backing the junta have done the same.[...]

Only years [after enacting regime change] would a UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee report publicly determine, echoing the conclusions of other post-mortems, that charges of an impending civilian massacre were “not supported by the available evidence” and that “the threat to civilians was overstated and that the rebels included a significant Islamist element” that carried out numerous atrocities of its own.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and John Kerry (D-Mass.) all called for a no-fly zone. “I love the military ... but they always seem to find reasons why you can’t do something rather than why you can,” complained McCain. The American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka said it would be “an important humanitarian step.” The now-defunct Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) think tank gathered a who’s who of neoconservatives to repeatedly urge the same. In a letter to then-President Barack Obama, they quoted back Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech in which he argued that “inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later.”

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, reportedly instrumental in persuading Obama to act, was herself swayed by similar arguments. Friend and unofficial adviser Sidney Blumenthal assured her that, once Gaddafi fell, “limited but targeted military support from the West combined with an identifiable rebellion” could become a new model for toppling Middle Eastern dictators. Pointing to the similar, deteriorating situation in Syria, Blumenthal claimed that “the most important event that could alter the Syrian equation would be the fall of Gaddafi, providing an example of a successful rebellion.”[...]

Despite grave and often-stated reservations, Obama and NATO got UN authorization for a no-fly zone. Clinton was privately showered with email congratulations, not just from Blumenthal and Slaughter (“bravo!”; “No-fly! Brava! You did it!”), but even from then-Bloomberg View Executive Editor James Rubin (“your efforts ... will be long remembered”). Pro-war voices like Pletka and Iraq War architect Paul Wolfowitz immediately began moving the goalposts by discussing Gaddafi’s ouster, suggesting escalation to prevent a U.S. “defeat,” and criticizing those saying Libya wasn’t a vital U.S. interest. NATO’s undefined war aims quickly shifted, and officials spoke out of both sides of their mouths. Some insisted the goal wasn’t regime change, while others said Gaddafi “needs to go.” It took less than three weeks for FPI Executive Director Jamie Fly, the organizer of the neocons’ letter to Obama, to go from insisting it would be a “limited intervention” that wouldn’t involve regime change, to professing “I don’t see how we can get ourselves out of this without Gaddafi going.”

After only a month, Obama and NATO allies publicly pronounced they would stay the course until Gaddafi was gone, rejecting the negotiated exit put forward by the African Union. “There is no mission creep,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted two months later. Four months after that, Gaddafi was dead — captured, tortured and killed thanks in large part to a NATO airstrike on the convoy he was traveling in.

The episode was considered a triumph. “We came, we saw, he died,” Clinton joked to a reporter upon hearing the news. Analysts talked about the credit owed to Obama for the “success.” [...] [In October 2011], Clinton traveled to Tripoli and declared “Libya’s victory” as she flashed a peace sign.

“It was the right thing to do,” Obama told the UN, presenting the operation as a model that the United States was “proud to play a decisive role” in. Soon discussion moved to exporting this model elsewhere, like Syria. Hailing the UN for having “at last lived up to its duty to prevent mass atrocities,” then-Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth called to “extend the human rights principles embraced for Libya to other people in need,” citing other parts of the Middle East, the Ivory Coast, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.[...]

Gaddafi’s toppling not only led hundreds of Tuareg mercenaries under his employ to return to nearby Mali but also caused an exodus of weapons from the country, leading Tuareg separatists to team up with jihadist groups and launch an armed rebellion in the country. Soon, that violence triggered its own coup and a separate French military intervention in Mali, which quickly became a sprawling Sahel-wide mission that only ended nine years later with the situation, by some accounts, worse than it started. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the majority of the more than 400,000 refugees in the Central Sahel were there because of the violence in Mali.

Mali was far from alone. Thanks to its plentiful and unsecured weapons depots, Libya became what UK intelligence labeled the “Tesco” of illegal arms trafficking, referring to the British supermarket chain. Gaddafi’s ouster “opened the floodgates for widespread extremist mayhem” across the Sahel region, retired Senior Foreign Service officer Mark Wentling wrote in 2020, with Libyan arms traced to criminals and terrorists in Niger, Tunisia, Syria, Algeria and Gaza, including not just firearms but also heavy weaponry like antiaircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. By last year, extremism and violence was rife throughout the region, thousands of civilians had been killed and 2.5 million people had been displaced.

Things are scarcely better in “liberated” Libya today. The resulting power vacuum produced exactly what Iraq War critics predicted: a protracted (and forever close-to-reigniting) civil war involving rival governments, neighboring states using them as proxies, hundreds of militias and violent jihadists. Those included the Islamic State, one of several extremist groups that made real Clinton’s pre-intervention fear of Libya “becoming a giant Somalia.” By the 2020 ceasefire, hundreds of civilians had been killed in Libya, nearly 900,000 needed humanitarian assistance, half of them women and children, and the country had become a lucrative hotspot for slave trading. Today, Libyans are unambiguously worse off than before NATO intervention. Ranked 53rd in the world and first in Africa by the 2010 UN Human Development Index, the country had dropped fifty places by 2019. Everything from GDP per capita and the number of fully functioning health care facilities to access to clean water and electricity sharply declined. Far from improving U.S. standing in the Middle East, most of the Arab world opposed the NATO operation by early 2012.

8 Sep 23

[zzzzzluv]

Also,add to enemies to lovers projek high council au(if you want more,please tell me okay): If kahar is not within naim and fakhris sight,they would go insane and try to kill each other. They will only add normal when kahar is around which relieves some of the students of kudrat. So,imagine after the mad honey incident,naim went rogue and went to release his craziness in ariz because of that. Fakhri is still hanging on his sanity and also wants to finally finally have kahar all yo himself(he have to share kahar with naim sadly). So,amirr,ayam azam,the whole batch form 4 and high council gang takes turns on protecting kahar and act as his bodyguard. Whenever fakhri and naim visited kahar,kahar needs to make sure he have his abang beja or one of his friends as his bodyguard in case the ismet brothers try to ounce him by surprise.

Fuck I forgot about Ariz LMAOOO

But oh god, this is so funny

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

By Rachel Maddow

On Dec. 1, 1960, the far-right preacher and racist demagogue Gerald L.K. Smith sent out a fund-raising appeal, headlined with a shocking claim in red type across the top: “HOLD YOUR BREATH: KENNEDY MAY HAVE LOST.”

The 1960 election had indeed been close, but the Democrat, John F. Kennedy, had prevailed, and his Republican opponent, Richard M. Nixon, had congratulated Kennedy on election night, over shouted protests from his supporters.

Three weeks later, Smith, the leader of what he called the Christian Nationalist Crusade, was telling his followers it was possible to reverse that result.

If Smith’s followers would only send him money, he would continue what he called his “subtle campaign of pressure” to persuade governors in states won by Kennedy that they should refuse to send Kennedy electors to Washington for the Electoral College count.

“This,” Smith promised, “could turn out to be the most shocking and sensational Electoral College vote in history.”

It was not. There were no shenanigans in the Electoral College count. Kennedy received 303 votes to Nixon’s 219, and the transition of power proceeded peacefully.

Today, it may be worth remembering Smith’s nut-ball campaign to overturn the 1960 election if only to see how far we’ve sunk. You used to have to get out into the far-flung wilds of American political life before you’d find people trying to persuade state or local officials to monkey-wrench the Electoral College by refusing to send their states’ real results to Washington for the Electoral College count. Not anymore.

Since Donald Trump and Ronna McDaniel, the then-chair of the Republican National Committee, phoned local officials in Michigan in November 2020 to encourage them not to certify vote totals, Republicans have quietly seeded county and state election boards with eager allies. Election boards across the country now include Republican officials who have not only propounded Mr. Trump’s lies about the last presidential election being “stolen,” they have tested how far they can go in denying the certification of the vote.

Republicans tried this ploy more than two dozen times in at least eight states since 2020. Two refusenik Republican election board members were indicted in Cochise County, Ariz. That case is pending. Two others were removed from their positions in Surry County, N.C. In New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Nevada, Republican officials who delayed or refused to certify the votes ultimately relented under legal pressure.

But in Georgia, the State Election Board approved a rule this month that gives election officials in each of the state’s 159 counties the option to delay or refuse certification in order to make a “reasonable inquiry” into the results. What counts as a “reasonable inquiry?” The new rule does not say.

Because Georgia law holds that election boards “shall” certify results within a week of the election, this rule almost certainly will face legal challenges. But in a state where Republicans have delayed or refused certification at least seven times since 2020 — more than in any other state — the rule injects a new layer of murk into the legal waters less than 100 days before the election.

On Monday, the board is expected to consider yet another revision to the rules that would afford members of county election boards an additional option for delaying or refusing certification. The rule would allow local board members to demand “all election-related documentation” before certifying the results.

Imagine an election night this November in which the two parties are trading swing-state victories. The Democrats capture Nevada, while the Republicans take Arizona. The Republicans win the big prize of Pennsylvania, while the Democrats top them in Wisconsin and Michigan. The nation is waiting on Georgia. If Georgia goes red, it’s President Trump; if Georgia goes blue, it’s President Harris.

Then, local news headlines start to circulate. There are reports of unspecified “problems” in the vote in Fulton County. And in Gwinnett County. And in DeKalb, Coffee and Spalding Counties. Republican officials are refusing to certify the results in their counties. They say they are making “reasonable inquiries.”

As legal challenges wend through the courts, a wave of disinformation, confusion and propaganda swells, fueled by unproven claims that something is amiss in these Georgia counties, and also by similar noise — and possibly also certification refusals — in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada. (All have seen local Republicans try the certification refusal ruse since 2020.)

Under recently revised federal law, each state has until Dec. 11 to send official, certified state results to Washington for the Electoral College count. But if a state doesn’t meet that deadline, then what?

The point of these certification refusals may not be to falsify or flip a result, but simply to prevent the emergence of one. If one or more states fail to produce official results, blocking any candidate from reaching 270 electoral votes, the 12th Amendment prescribes Gerald L.K. Smith’s dream scenario: a vote in the newly elected House of Representatives to determine the presidency. Each state delegation would get one vote; today, Republicans control 26 state delegations; Democrats control 22; and two are evenly divided.

Our democratic system is not invincible, but it is strong. Certification of election results is a ministerial responsibility that is not discretionary. Legitimate election challenges are handled with recounts and litigation, not by individual election board members. There is no loophole that allows bad-faith officials to so flummox the electoral system that they take the choice of the next president away from the American people.

But in the past three and a half years, the ad hoc certification ploys that failed to flip the last presidential election to Mr. Trump have been professionalized and systematized by Republican officials and their allies. A recent report in The Times quoted an official with the conservative Heritage Foundation saying that “the conditions” in the country are now such that “most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election.” Michael Whatley, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, has declined to answer when asked if the party intends to try to block vote certifications.

A contrivance like this is as nutty today as it was when Gerald L.K. Smith tried to make a version of it seem plausible in 1960. But this year, the firepower being brought to bear on the issue by the Republican Party is much more than a “subtle campaign of pressure” from a direct-mail grifter.

Opponents no doubt will fight any certification denials in the courts. Those efforts are important, and every state should be shoring up its own legal and electoral system now to prepare for, deter and defend against any effort to sabotage certification. But stopping such subterfuge also depends on an informed public that refuses to let false narratives take hold.

A cleareyed look at Republicans’ handling of the administration of elections since Mr. Trump’s effort to overthrow the last election should prepare us: Refusals to certify results should not necessarily be seen as indicating real electoral problems; they are more likely part of a bad-faith strategy to mess with the democratic process.

Now is the time to get to know your local election board, especially if you live in a place where election denialism has taken hold, and where certification refusals may be coming. Public awareness and vigilance can make a difference. No one should be surprised when certification refusals happen or when they are then exploited to try to maximize chaos and upset.

After all, the Republican nominee this year is no Richard Nixon.

[jtl-fics]

As always I'm dying for some more New Kings!

WIP Wednesday - Open (9-13-23) | New Kings AU

Wymack climbed into the front seat of the cab with Aaron, Andrew, and Kevin.

"Just let me go to Arizona." Andrew hisses from the spot wedged between Kevin and Aaron.

"Andrew I am not letting you run blind to Ariz-"

"If we're in the-"

Wymack turned around in his seat and pointed a finger at Andrew, "I will explain. Be patient. Nothing bad will happen to Neil if you wait for an explanation." Wymack says and the strain on his face was visible.

[coldgoldlazarus]

Honestly like

I've been in a zen state of "whatever happens with RWBY happens, it's out of my hands either way" basically ever since the last big RT controversy and Volume 9. I wasn't going to push for a Volume 10 greenlight like some of the fandom were, but I would still watch and enjoy it if it happened. Companies all suck and almost all of the media I love was built on miserable worker treatment; I can name the Metroid Prime trilogy off the top of my head as a known example, the first two games were made under extreme crunch and the third was only marginally better. Metroid Dread seems to have been similarly rough behind the scenes. Across The Spiderverse, too, for a different example. RT wasn't special or unique in this, and I never bought into the parasocial aspect of that enough to feel betrayed by them like many apparently did. It sucks that it is this way, but like, if you tried to weed out every problematic thing from your life you'd be left with nothing; you gotta pick your battles.

I digress. Point is, RWBY's future has been up in the air for A While now, so this doesn't feel all that different for me. And maybe in the long term this could turn out to be a good thing, if someone else does pick it up and can get most of original CRWBY rehired to keep working on it. It is a long shot, but if anything slightly less of a long shot than when the idea was originally brought up during that whole controversy drama. Though I do want to caution people, hope for the best, brace for the worst. This could just as easily turn into another Gen:Lock Season 2 situation.

Honestly, the show I'm much more concerned about at this point is Recorded By Arizal. Those pilot shorts were really promising, but then it's been radio silence since, last I heard, and now whether or not that will get to have anything done with it is unlikely at best. RWBY at least has the benefit of momentum and attention behind it; RbA didn't get a chance to get off the ground, and I'm not sure whether RT or WB or both were to blame. But as unlikely as it is, I do hope that that Yssa can find some way to make it a reality.

But at the end of the day, they're just shows. RT was just a company, and while not uniquely awful like some insist, still a pretty bad one. I'm not really that broken up about it, neither do I see it as cause for celebration. What happens, happens.

The important thing here is the people left behind. Casey Lee Williams having to find out from twitter bothers me a whole of a hell lot more than everything else I previously mentioned about this situation; I really hope everyone left in the drift from this can recover quickly, and I wish them better going forward.

[ausetkmt]

National Review: Absurd Government Regulations Are Keeping People Out of Their Own Beds

sight. So policy-makers passed an ordinance that criminalizes camping on public land. People guilty of unauthorized sleeping sued, and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 22, 2024. The case, Grants Pass v. Johnson, tests how far cities can go to regulate what happens on public property. But cities would not have so much homelessness in the first place if they did not actively stop affordable housing on private property.

This is what happened to Chasidy Decker, who lives 500 miles east of Grants Pass in Meridian, Idaho. Her problem is not that she lacks a bed. She already has one inside her tiny home on wheels, a 252-square-foot vehicle that she parks on private property. Her landlord leases space to her behind a fence in his side yard, which has hookups for water, sewer, and electricity. Yet Meridian will not let Decker sleep under her own roof. They warned her about expensive fines the day after she moved in. So, she has been homeless since August 2022.

Her trailer sits empty, while she scrambles for other accommodations.

Decker and her landlord sued to be left alone on private property. Our public-interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents them. A district-court trial ended in April, and they expect a decision by late summer.

Meanwhile, similar zoning disputes are unfolding nationwide. Many cities and counties oppose private housing solutions, which has contributed to a crisis affecting nearly every part of the economy. One charity, Tiny House Hand Up, tried to build affordable housing on its own land in Calhoun, Ga. But zoning officials stopped the project because of square-footage minimums. Calhoun residents must pay for bigger homes, even if they want smaller homes.

Anita Adams encountered a different roadblock when she tried to build a house in Seattle for her family. Zoning laws allowed construction, but the permit price included a $39-per-square-foot “housing affordability” fee—which added $80,000 to the project. Seattle demanded this payment to its public-housing fund before Adams could break ground. She and her family cannot afford the expense, meaning the city is effectively preventing them from building on their own property.

Amanda Root, a disabled, older resident living on a fixed income in Sierra Vista, Ariz., just wants to stay put on the same lot she has owned and occupied for more than 20 years. But code enforcers want her gone, citing a technicality: Her trailer has axles, and her street is zoned for mobile homes without axles. “I have looked at different options,” Root says. “There is nothing out there that I can afford. A tent? Where am I going to go? Behind Food City?”

Tiny House Hand Up, Adams, and Root all sued with representation from our firm. Lower-income families suffer the most from misguided policies such as these. Common tactics include occupancy caps, prohibitions on multifamily housing, and overregulation of accessory dwelling units, or “granny flats.” Shawnee, Kan., even criminalizes roommates. A 2022 ordinance makes it illegal for friends to split rent in single-family homes.

Multiple studies show what must be done: Let people build and operate housing on their own property. Yet real reform remains elusive — hindered on one side by not-in-my-backyard activists who think they should have control over how their neighbors live, and on the other side by people who believe it is immoral for developers to earn a profit — as if there were some other reason they would be willing to build.

Meanwhile, millions of ordinary families are getting pushed past their limits as the cost of living rises. People with mortgages are downsizing or consolidating. People who lease are falling behind. And those on the fringes are becoming homeless. Already, half of U.S. homeowners and renters are struggling to keep up.

The Grants Pass case deals with the fallout. Zoning reform could address homelessness before it happens. The Constitution provides the necessary firepower through the due-process clause of the 14thAmendment. State constitutions use similar language. Put in simple terms, these provisions mean the government cannot restrict activity on private land without good reason.

Decker does not want to sleep in a park. She has a bed. She just needs permission to use it.

[magnetothemagnificent]

Hey so question: was looking at mezuzah cases and the one seller offered scrolls to go with, but they mentioned that the scrolls might not be considered kosher for Chabad or Lubavitch. Any idea why this might be?

So, first off, Chabad and Lubavitch are essentially the same thing.

The seller was probably referring to the fact that many in the Chabad Lubavitch movement only use mezuzot that use either the Alter Rebbe script or the Arizal script, since those incorporate the Kabbalistic and Chassidic values of the movement. So, if the Mezuzot you're looking aren't written in those fonts, then they likely wouldn't be preferred by Lubavitchers. It's all down to Minhag (custom).

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

IRS to go after executives who use business jets for personal travel in new round of audits

Private jets sit parked at Scottsdale Airport Jan. 27, 2015, in Scottsdale, Ariz. IRS leadership said

FATIMA HUSSEIN Feb 21, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — First, there were trackers on Taylor Swift and other celebrities’ private jet usage. Now, there will be more scrutiny on executives’ personal use of business aircraft who write it off as a tax expense.

IRS leadership said Wednesday that the agency will start conducting dozens of audits on businesses’ private jets and how they are used personally by executives and written off as a tax deduction — as part of the agency’s ongoing mission of going after high-wealth tax cheats who game the tax system at the expense of American taxpayers.

The audits will focus on aircraft used by large corporations and high-income taxpayers and whether the tax purpose of the jet use is being properly allocated, the IRS says.

“At this time of year, when millions of hardworking taxpayers are working on their taxes, we want them to feel confident that everyone is playing by the same rules,” IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said on a call with reporters to preview the announcement. Tax season began Jan. 29.

“These aircraft audits will help ensure high-income groups aren’t flying under the radar with their tax responsibilities,” he said.

There are more than 10,000 corporate jets in the US., according to the IRS, valued at tens of millions of dollars and many can be fully deducted.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed during the Trump administration, allowed for 100% bonus depreciation and expensing of private jets — which allowed taxpayers to write off the cost of aircraft purchased and put into service between September 2017 and January 2023.

Werfel said the federal tax collector will use resources from Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act to more closely examine private jet usage — which has not been closely scrutinized during the past decade as funding fell sharply in the last decade.

“Our audit rates have been anemic,” he said on the call. An April 2023 IRS report on tax audit data states that “continued resource constraints have limited the agency’s ability to address high-end noncompliance” stating that in tax year 2018, audit rates for people making more than $10 million were 9.2%, down from 13.6% in 2012. And in the same time period, overall corporate audit rates fell from 1.3% to .6%.

Mike Kaercher, senior attorney advisor at the Tax Law Center at NYU said in a statement that the IRS should also revisit how it values personal use of corporate aircraft, beyond just how flights are reported.

“The current rules allow these flights to be significantly undervalued, enabling wealthy filers to pay much less in taxes than fair market value would dictate, and it’s within the IRS’ authority to revise these rules,” Kaercher said.

Werfel said audits related to aircraft usage could increase in the future depending on the results of the initial audits and as the IRS continues hiring more examiners.

“To be clear, that doesn’t mean everyone in a high-income category partnership or corporation is evading or avoiding their tax responsibility,” Werfel said. “But it does mean that there’s more work to do for the IRS to make sure people are paying what they owe.”"

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Shuham at HuffPost:

Kari Lake on Tuesday won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Arizona, setting her up to face off in November’s general election against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who ran uncontested for his party’s nomination. The winner will replace outgoing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who said in March she would not seek reelection. Lake, a former local news anchor, has made a name for herself as a hard-right Republican in Donald Trump’s mold ― not only amplifying his lies about the 2020 election being stolen, but saying the same about her own unsuccessful race for governor in 2022. (Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, defeated Lake by 17,000 votes.) Lake played a video of Trump endorsing her when she launched her campaign in October, and Trump again voiced his support for Lake in a call with supporters Monday. Lake is currently still litigating the last election — as the defendant in an ongoing defamation lawsuit from Stephen Richer, a Republican and the elected recorder in Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county. After Lake accused Richer of intentionally sabotaging the 2022 election, Richer sued for defamation. In March, Lake declined to defend herself against Richer’s suit, calling it a “perversion of our legal system.” Discovery is ongoing in the dispute.

Lake was widely expected to beat Republican challenger Mark Lamb, the sheriff of Pinal County, in the Senate primary. The real question in some analysts’ minds was just how much Lake would win by ― and whether it would be enough to make her a compelling general-election candidate.

[...] That’s in part because of Lake’s brand of Trumpism, which includes election denial, border hysteria and attacking the late GOP Sen. John McCain (something she later tried to walk back). This approach is popular with a portion of Arizona’s Republicans, but it’s not necessarily the ticket to statewide office, as Lake found out two years ago when she lost the governorship to Hobbs.

Serial election denier Kari Lake wins the #AZSen GOP Primary, will face off against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) this fall. Go Gallego!