Illegal Alien Crime Tracker 2024 – Utah

First, no this will absolutely NOT be a comprehensive tracker. It will just be a list of some I stumble on that are logged for possible future reference and to get an idea of how many the media seemingly intentionally omits the illegal immigrant status of the offender. One other limiting factor is that some correctional facilities don’t provide enough information (such as country of birth and/or ICE detainer status).

Additionally, this won’t be 100% accurate as ICE holds could also be applied to a green card holder (legal immigrant). ICE holds and the inclusion of fraudulent identity documents (which illegal immigrants use to get work etc., frequently leaving child victims in their wake). This also assumes the media will report on crimes committed by illegal immigrants since they already seem loath to mention the status in their current reports (they could opt to go a step further and entirely not report crime if the perp is suspected to be in the country illegally).

April 11 ‘Erratic’ man accused of using fire extinguisher on FrontRunner passengers (note drugs including fentanyl) – This was initially reported by KUTV on their news cast but it is not available on their site (KSL did put a report on their website). The Utah County Jail booking indicates he is from Mexico. He is listed as “CONTRERAS GOMEZ, LUIS E” with booking # 441444. He was released (booked out) on a $1,000 bond. Utah county’s system isn’t very good (vague – no citizenship field in booking, just place of birth) so it’s hard to know if he is here legally or not. One other note that is confusing is the news indicates he was arrested Wednesday (April 10) but the booking is from April 2 (release April 3). So is this a new arrest for similar charges that isn’t in the system yet or is the news a week off?
Update: Mystery solved. There is now a second booking for him (April 11, #441785). After his release, he reoffended. New charges include drug stuff (intent to distribute as well) and aggravated assault.

April 9 Three arrested after officials seize 30lbs of suspected meth in routine traffic stop – From the article: “The deputy said Alcantar told them that Patzan-Patzan is in the country illegally.” Credit to KUTV or their reporter for asking and reporting this.

March 19 Salt Lake man charged with intentionally hitting pedestrian during fight 3 years ago – Article states: “…Officers located Perez’s Utah driving privilege card and a California identification and confirmed that both were suspended…” It’s my understanding only illegal immigrants get the driver privilege card in Utah (legal immigrants get a regular driver license). Note the history of charges Perez has (“…previously been convicted of DUI, negligent collision and is an alcohol restricted driver…”) and apparently been released on. That screams sanctuary policies to me.

March 19 Heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and 7K fentanyl pills seized in drug bust – Salt Lake Co Jail Records. Citizen of Mexico and has two Federal detainee listings (I think SL County uses this designation rather than ICE hold).

March 12 Police: Man arrested, caught on camera exposing himself to girls at Provo D.I. – Utah Co Jail Records. Birth Nicaragua and has an ICE hold.

March 9 West Valley police arrest man they say attempted to kidnap girl at school – From Peru and had fake documents including fake SSN, booking lists that he’s under a Federal Interstate agreement.

March 7 Teen shot in Utah fast-food parking lot dies; suspected gunman was ‘play fighting’ – From the article (last paragraph): Police indicated they believe Paredes is “an undocumented illegal immigrant.” Note: Previous article on him did not note his status until KSL was called out for it on X.

March 4 (for consideration): West Jordan woman finds pages of social security number misuse – Article indicates her number is being used for employment purposes (“The third page in tells me that I am going to get in trouble if I misrepresent my employers. And I look at the list, there are my two employers that are actually the same place and then there are three extra ones that I’ve never heard of, nor are they where I live,” Atkinson explained.). As noted at the top of this post SSN theft for employment is often perpetuated by illegal aliens. Will be worth checking if Fox13 ever does a follow-up report on who was using her numbers etc.

March 1 26-year-old arrested out of Provo on allegations of raping 11-year-old child – Utah Co. Jail lists him as having an ICE hold. From article: “…police said they found what appeared to be an inauthentic social security card…”

Get Ready To Pay For Bountiful City Fiber Even If You Don’t Use It

Bountiful City is going to run their own fiber internet company (yet again, government going where it doesn’t belong). I understand that the people collecting signatures to put that on the ballot didn’t get enough signatures or didn’t get them in all the needed city divisions (it’s very convoluted and a high bar to protect city councils and government from being overridden by voters).

So the city is going to issue an up to $47 million bond backed with your tax money if they don’t get any subscribers. They city continually says that taxpayers will pay nothing (“Subscriber revenue will cover the cost of the service.”) but that isn’t true. If they don’t get the subscribers, then you’re on the hook whether you use the service or not.

It is also my understanding that people will have to pay for fiber and then get an ISP on top of that so the cost is probably going to be higher than expected. Further, a lot of the push for crazy fast speeds is a marketing ploy to dupe people into getting way more bandwidth than is needed (they’re upselling). This isn’t limited to Bountiful City, pretty much all ISPs do this gimmick of convincing you that you need the internet equivalent of a Rolls-Royce Cullinan for your trips to the grocery store. Don’t fall for it – always start with a lower speed plan and shift higher if needed; whatever they recommend for you, go at least one or two plans lower and test it out.

I have a suspicion this will be like the recycling fiasco where an optional program suddenly becomes mandatory, subsequently needs bailouts from other funds (landfill fund) and is now taken over by the city along with a monthly fee increase. This also presumes that fiber isn’t quickly rendered obsolete by other technologies. This also presumes that fiber isn’t quickly rendered obsolete by other technologies. The linked letter again insists subscribers will pay and “Participation in Bountiful Fiber is voluntary.” Based on their track record, I doubt it.

Exit notes:

I’m keeping a copy of the city’s FAQs on fiber which states: “Will my taxes be used to pay for the fiber project? – No. 100% of the costs will be paid with subscriber fees, in the same way that water fees pay for water infrastructure, or sanitation fees pay for garbage collection.”

If/when they fail and charge everyone, I don’t want that FAQ to suddenly disappear.

Hint on speeds: toms guide shows that 250 Mbps (the city base plan) is waaaay more than needed for an average family of 5 using bandwidth hungry devices at the same time (remember that’s if they’re all sucking serious bandwidth at the same time).

2023 Bountiful Power Rate Hidden Tax Update

Another year, another letter from the city trying to gaslight residents that overcharging them for power to avoid truth in taxation and to hide the true cost of city government is a “dividend”. I never realized that being intentionally overcharged on a product (particularly a basic necessity) makes me an “investor-owner”. I’m doubtful even the slickest used car dealer would be able to keep a straight face if they said that.

The city does mention that the overcharges are “used to offset what otherwise would be a significant increase in property tax rates.” If you read between the lines, that clearly means they’re manipulating power rates to hide the actual tax burden. It also lets them raise power rates rather than transparently notifying residents of tax increases and holding truth-in-taxation hearings. Keep this in mind when the city glibly touts that we’re in one of the lowest taxed cities of its size in Utah (they, of course, omit the power transfer in their ‘analysis’). In years past, I and others have run our own tax rate comparison that included the power fund transfer. Yes, it does significantly change the city’s position when compared to other cities; Bountiful consistently ended up average or slightly above average for property tax burden in similar sized cities.

I’m done taking the time for that analysis, I’m not going to do the city’s job for them. If they want to argue that things have changed, they’re more than welcome to run the analysis and send it on. It is also noteworthy that they have quit saying that residents pay less for power than other areas. Again, last time I ran the numbers, residents paid similar or higher rates than Rocky Mountain Power customers. I’m also done taking time for that analysis.

Meanwhile, the power transfer continues to grow after the city raised the customer charge 3% last year. The city collected an additional $218K in 2023 for a total of $2.8 million in excess power revenues that went into the general fund via the power rate overcharge.

For 2024, the city is raising power rates 15% which will result in the city overcharging to the tune of a bit over $3.0 million which will be transferred into the general fund – $200,000 more than the $2.8 million in 2023.

So why does the city claim it needs to raise fees and rates if they’re transferring a good part of the additional money to the general fund? Why wasn’t the excess used to help cover the power costs rather than raising residents’ rates? Could it be so city politicians can avoid divulging the true tax burden and be able to raise additional revenue (up $218K to $2.8M in 2023 and a projected $3.0M in 2024) without truth-in-taxation? What pet projects will those funds be used to cover or subsidize rather than being properly evaluated for effectiveness and as an appropriate role of government? And what inefficiencies or cost overruns in current government operations will these funds be used to cover up?

As for residents, enjoy your “dividend” you “investor-owners”. Don’t spend it all in one place.

Addendum: This year, there is no mention of the amount the city spent to bail out the recycling fund. This is likely because the city took over the entire floundering curbside recycling program. For the past several years, the city was taking $75,000 – $95,000 from the landfill (a pretty critical service) to bail out recycling.

Utah’s Poll Tax Legislation: Your Right To Vote Is Denied Unless You Give Personal Data To Political Operatives And Parties

Utah Representative Norman K Thurston (R – Utah County) demands you pay a poll tax by requiring that you give your sensitive personal information to politicians, their parties and to virtually anyone associated with them in order to be able to vote. His bill is HB303 – Election Records Amendments.

As things now stand, if you do not agree to give your personal information to political parties, candidates, ​campaign volunteers, pollsters, direct mail houses, e-mail and texting firms, and ​a wide range of political consultants you can still vote in elections. In the last few years, the big political parties have demanded that your right to vote be subservient to their data demands. The party-first Utah legislature has complied and chipped away to provide more voter data to ​themselves and their friends. And it doesn’t matter if you’re unaffiliated and have no party, your information will be given to all parties (and not just the GOP or Dems, but all parties) and all of their ​candidates, volunteers, pollsters, signature gatherers, consultants and contractors without any vetting requirement whatsoever.

So you will be sharing your sensitive personal information (name, address, year of birth, phone number, and so forth) with candidates and their political consultants, volunteers, contractors, signature gatherers, etc. And it is just possible that some of those getting your information have less than stellar backgrounds, including criminal records, because no one runs any background checks on them before giving them your personal information. Concrete examples of this can be found both in Utah and in other states:

If Thurston’s bill passes, there will be virtually nothing left to chip away at. You will be faced with the choice to give your information to all ​unvetted political candidates, operatives and parties and be allowed to vote or you can be disenfranchised and not register to vote in order to protect your information, thus losing your right to vote.

I recommend contacting your state representative and tell them this is entirely unacceptable and, if anything, the process to make voter records private should be made easier. Tell them there should be no personal information poll tax in Utah.

One final thought: The past has shown that both the Democrat and Republican parties pushing this junk. I think the Republican Party is the most hypocritical of the two here. Thurston is a Republican and I’m sure that he spouts the Republican party line that he’s for small government and individual rights. Talk is cheap and it shows here. Rather than gathering voluntary lists of contacts, he and the two major political parties rely on big government to collect your information and then give it to them and if you don’t, they will take away your right to vote.

Behold your swamp, Utah.

Rep Teuscher Prioritizes In-State Tuition For Illegal Aliens, Neglects US Poor, Legal Immigrants (HB102)

State Rep Jordan Teuscher (R – Salt Lake) is running HB 102 – Higher Education Residency Amendments. If passed, it appears to grant taxpayer funded in-state tuition for non-US citizens who need only apply for some form of residency in the US. Yes, that would include the illegal aliens flowing through our open border. And, yes, they just need to apply for a residency permit, that’s all.

Meanwhile, US citizen kids from Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New York, Texas and so forth get the privilege of paying expensive, non-resident tuition, regardless of their income level. This would also apply to legal immigrants and those on student visas.

If Teuscher was so worried about someone affording higher education, he should run legislation to rescind non-resident tuition for everyone or use his own funds for a scholarship. Teuscher and his fellow travelers aren’t honest enough to do that. You can forget equal protection under the law for citizens. No, he prefers to virtue signal with your money without thinking about his fellow citizens and legal immigrants*.

Utah (with Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce backing, of course) already gives so-called DACA recipients in-state tuition as it is (again while neglecting innocent, low income US citizens and legal immigrants). Teuscher and other legislators are just doubling down on that and further grinding the faces of the poor and Utah taxpayers with their blind, one-sided “caring”.

Contact your state representative and ask them to oppose this bill or have the guts to fund a scholarship themselves, give everyone in-state tuition, or revoke the special interest group carve outs once and for all.

*Side note: He may not be thinking that much of the aliens who apply for residency either – if their claim is denied, they’re out of the country with uncompleted degree costs incurred (plus, Utah taxpayers are also stiffed for the tuition subsidy for that time).

Municipal Recycling Update: Looking At Plastic

Forced recycling programs (also know as city recycling programs) are a waste. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have it in for recycling. Recycling is great if it’s feasible. Some recycling has proven itself sustainable and market-ready – metals are super, paper is ok and I believe glass has been good too. Food can be composted (however, that’s better done in your yard rather than costly and polluting curbside programs).

I wish I could say the same about other products – particularly plastic. In time, new technology or methods will hopefully change that but as I started to look into plastic recycling some years ago, it is not there yet. It’s still “wish-cycling”.

I wanted to know what percent of recycled plastic is actually recycled (what percent of plastic in a recycling bin is actually recycled). Most articles talk about percent of overall plastic that is taken to recycling (i.e. ‘put in the bin’) rather than what percent from the bin is recycled. It was pretty nice that John Stossel just wrote an article on recycling which links to a Greenpeace report on plastic recycling titled “Plastic recycling is a dead-end street…” I also found a BBC video report from July 2022 that asks “How much of our plastic ‘recycling’ is actually recycled?“. Finally, in March 2021, Green Matters published “What Percentage of Recycling Actually Gets Recycled?“

It’s not pretty. Greenpeace found that the most recyclable plastic grades (#1 and #2) that go in your bin have a 20.9% and 10.3% actual recycle rate, respectively. Essentially, at best, 79% of the most recyclable grade is still going from the recycling center to the dump. The rate for #3 – 7 plastics is “less than 5%.”

If you watch the BBC report, Germany has the most aggressive program in the world and they can only hit 39% of recycled plastics being actually recycled*. Green Matters found only 9% of ‘recycled plastic’ is actually recycled (they don’t break it down by plastic grade, just overall). That 9% figure seems likely to be in line with what Greenpeace found if they would’ve aggregated all plastic grades into an overall percentage recycled figure.

Recently, Bountiful City decided to entirely take over the floundering recycling program using city equipment instead of a contractor. So residents will continue to be forced to pay for (and use landfill funds to bailout) the pet project that amounts to paying a premium for a waste transfer station program. Keep in mind that this 15 year-long gambit was started as a bait-and-switch where the city council promised an opt-in program, reneged and made it mandatory for everybody.

As I’ve said in the past, reusing and real recycling is great – do take a look at the stats in the first linked article on metals and paper. Recycling was effective when we had central collection points (which didn’t cost everyone money). I still recommend taking your paper products to the school or charity collection boxes. As for metals, I think the metal recycler who used to pay you for it doesn’t come to the city anymore due to the city program basically pushing them out so you may need to stick the metals in your bin. Don’t forget to reuse/repurpose or avoid buying junk you don’t need. One more tip: Desert Industries doesn’t just take decent used clothes to sell, they take your beat up clothes and recycle them (“to stuff blankets and pillows at the LDS church’s humanitarian center”).

This would also be a good time to contact your city and ask them to end these wasteful, expensive programs that only add burdens to the community.

*Note: The BBC report notes that much of that percentage is downcycled into polyester which cannot be recycled. I think Greenpeace also addressed this in their report but still counted a downcycled/repurposed product as recycled. I believe the other figures I cited do so as well so they should all be fairly comparable.

**Note 2: Plastic store bags should not go into the recycling bin but I know many stores collect them for recycling. I’ve heard that those are recycled but I have never verified how effective it is. Hopefully it isn’t just some feel-good ineffective program like the rest of plastics we currently see. I guess that’s a topic to check out another day…

UPDATE: It’s “another day”. I looked some stuff up on plastic bag recycling or, more accurately, “plastic film” recycling (not to be confused with plastic wrap or ‘saran wrap’ – that isn’t recyclable). It’s pretty hit or miss and it is likely considered “downcycling” but why not reuse the stuff (not to be confused with plastic wrap or ‘saran wrap’ – that isn’t recyclable). It seems like it really depends on who you’re taking the bags/film to. As far as what qualifies as plastic film that is accepted by the grocery store bag collection bins, this site has a list (more qualifies that I expected): All you need to know about plastic bag recycling. From what I gathered your most likely recycling will occur if the store sends their plastic film to Trex plants. A list of those stores can be found here (pdf): PlasticsMarkets.org – Trex participating film and bag recycling partners.

They may have a very limited market for this but it seems fairly viable (assuming stores aren’t collecting more than they can process). I would say the jury is still out on this one.

Quick Take: South Davis Turning Blue And Buying MSM Hype?

I pulled some information from the Davis County Elections site and took a look at the Mike Lee – Evan McMullin race. It indicates that most of the county clearly supported Lee and didn’t fall for McMullin’s snake oil. However, it is worth noting that south Davis County cities of North Salt Lake, Bountiful and Woods Cross bought into McMullin. He received the majority vote in all three of those cities.

Within those cities, some precincts did support Lee but not very many. Lee’s most consistent support came from precincts that bordered Bountiful Boulevard in Bountiful and North Salt Lake. That was a bit surprising as I thought that they might be more aligned with McMullin to save ‘social standing’ with the in-crowd. However, after seeing this, it’s more likely that Salt Lake liberals/’refugees’ are buying up the homes in these southern cities and the older, traditional crowd is more established on the eastern side. I don’t know if that’s actually the case but as far as speculation goes, it seems to make sense.

The downside if I’m right about people fleeing the Salt Lake area for a nicer place to live is that they’re bringing the same politics with them that turned Salt Lake into a place worth avoiding. Sort of a local version of Californians getting out and populating other states but bringing the same junk policies with them that gave them the reasons to leave California. It’s like I’ve seen elsewhere: “Fleeing is fine but metastasizing is not”.

The ‘low information voter’ and ‘social standing’ effect should also not be overlooked. Lots of people fell for McMullin (twice now) because he is a democrat-media hyped darling portrayed as ‘nice’ and puts out “nice tweets” with no discussion of the actual outcomes of the policies they support…and anyone supporting another candidate must be some sort of hater that should be spurned. They implicitly trust legacy media and political operatives (who keep failing people but always keep their jobs and the money flowing). They fail to recognize that a jerk or irritating boss who does the right stuff for everyone else is far better than a pretentious nice guy (or even an actual nice but inept guy like Carter) who’s policies are incredibly destructive or disastrous.

I don’t know which is more at play and what additional items influenced the vote. Really, south Davis County was never really conservative to begin with if you ask me so this probably isn’t too big of a shift.

Border Crisis: Biden Admin Helping Cartels With Child, Human Trafficking

Project Veritas has two videos up now documenting the administration helping human and sex traffickers that should be watched.

Being complicit in human and sex trafficking and is bad enough but there are other victims to note as well:

  1. The use of stolen SSNs. Not only is that common among illegal immigrants and a serious felony, it also leave victims in it’s wake. Often victims are children (those are prized SSNs for identity thieves as kids don’t tend to check their credit and employment records). This ID theft has been well documented on this blog for well over 16 years (it’s also something the fakenews-by-omission media and our ‘ruling class’ turns a blind eye to and actively opposes simple, effective solutions like E-Verify).
  2. The cartels and traffickers in the US likely will not only receive money from their victims but also from you – as a tax payer. Bob Segall at WTHR was tipped off by the TIGTA (Inspector General for Tax Administration) and, in 2016, concluded a superb investigative series into social security fraud and tax refund exploitation by illegal aliens employing earned-income tax credit schemes involving children. They raked in thousands of dollars individually and billions overall.
    Supposedly, the IRS was to begin informing tax ID theft victims in 2016 but Segall noted that measure may only be temporary and I don’t think the tax credit “loophole” was ever fixed. I have a suspicion that Bob Segall would find these problems haven’t changed if he revisited the issue. Click here for all posts on Segall’s reports.
    If I’m right, the traffickers (and cartels) who have received multiple kids at these addresses will likely claim them on their returns and reap another windfall courtesy of the US tax payer.

It’s also not just Biden who created this. The politicians, cheap-labor corporatists Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce (and US Chamber), churches (including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), NGOs and so forth who incentivized and facilitated this border and trafficking crisis should have to answer for the misery and exploitation they have facilitated. Many of the aforementioned slandered people questioning the wisdom or pointing out the victims of these policies by calling them “racists” or “hate” purveyors.

I’ll conclude with reiterating a movie recommendation (maybe the only one made on this blog): Movie Recommendation: The Girl (2013). As stated in the post, watch it keeping in mind that “Ashley” represents the United States – it’s a wonderful parable of what we are doing to these people.

Religious Individuals Left Holding The Bag By Their Own Church

Worse than being AWOL, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints came out in support of the deceptively named “Respect for Marriage” act or as Fox13 puts it the “same-sex marriage law”. The church declared “We believe this approach is the way forward…” as the legislation purportedly protects organizational rights. So, yet again individuals are left out in the cold fully exposed to lawfare gleefully waged by groups who have plenty of alternative vendors/choices/options be it floral arrangements or cakes and so forth.

As Mark Tapscott notes, Sen. James Lankford explains in detail why Respect for Marriage Act threatens religious liberty:

Senator Mike Lee has also noted that “…the current RMA and the proposed amendment offer up ‘anemic and largely illusory’ protections for religious institutions.” If he’s right, the churches who virtue signaled at their individual members’ expense, may find this come back to bite them in the same manner it will harm their members.

Unfortunately, it looks like this is a well established pattern based on what I’ve tracked the last several years (these are just a couple of posts, there are more):

Utah’s Toxic Mix: Individual Rights Take Back Seat To Politically Connected Organizations

The Equality Act: How The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints Stepped On A Rake

Organizational Vs Individual Freedom: Elder M. Russell Ballard And Utah’s LGBT Law

What is of greater concern is that churches are accepting the legislation as the only option and “the way forward” in their survival. If so, it would be an acknowledgement that woke cancel culture has the upper hand and they are ceding ground and cutting losses (individual rights) in their effort to fight another day. It would be a general retreat. I sure hope that this is not the case, and, more likely in my opinion, they’ve just been duped by woke-media complex propaganda. Otherwise, we face a very bleak future run by tyrannical nihilists.

Finally a side-note for future reference. Senator Mitt Romney voted to move the bill to a vote effectively voting in favor for it as he knows it will pass the final vote. Don’t let him play the politician game of claiming he voted against it in the end.

UPDATE: Senator Lee is pressing to incorporate individual rights in the legislation. I’m pretty certain his letter will fall on deaf ears but it’s worth a try, I suppose.

UPDATE 2: Yeah, it fell on deaf ears. If you’re religious, expect to be persecuted for owning a business: Senate Rejects Lee Religious Liberty Amendment, Passes So-Called ‘Respect for Marriage Act’

UPDATE (12/13): This comes as no surprise. LDS leaders at Biden signing event for Respect for Marriage Act:

The LDS Church was represented at Tuesday’s celebratory signing ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn by Jack Gerard, a general authority Seventy who oversees the faith’s Public Affairs Department, and Republican Gordon Smith, former area Seventy and former U.S. senator from Oregon.

The church’s Public Affairs group has a history of acceding to woke, social justice warrior demands and virtue signaling at the expense of individuals. They have consistently done so by carving out an exemption for the organization while leaving their individual members to face the full force of the new laws.

Crushing The Kabuki: Thank Mitt Romney For Refusing To Endorse Mike Lee

One of the biggest takeaways from this election was the full exposure of the ruling class GOP (GOP Establishment, Country Club Republicans, or RINOs). The mask has completely dropped and their hypocrisy and entitlement is on full display.

For decades, we were continually reminded that the expectation is to graciously support the party nominee if your preferred choice didn’t make the cut. That’s fine but, at some point, some party power brokers decided to have a clique and figured they would break the contract while stringing the party constituency along for the ride. For well over a decade, this has been going on nationally and locally (yes, here in Utah too by local party elites and their lobbyist friends).

This is why we should thank Mitt Romney, Evan McMullin and Steve Handy for dropping any pretense that the contract is still in effect. They all purport to be real, solid Republican conservatives (just don’t look at their actual results) but when they lost or fear a candidate doesn’t quite meet the Bushwood Country Club standards, then they’ll actively or passively work to undermine them up to and including throwing the race to the Democrat party. Why should they have to deal with Al Czervik playing through on their course?

In case you missed it, Handy’s sour grapes campaign was endorsed and/or financially supported by Gov. Gary Herbert, Mike McKell, Bob Stevenson, Jerry Stevenson, Merrill Nelson, Lowry Snow, Don Ipson, Gail Miller.

There is no contract to feel beholden to. Period. As I recently stated in the Trevor Lee – Steve Handy race post:

Candidates failing to obtain the nomination and their supporters should follow the example and feel uninhibited to continue their campaign by other means and refuse to support or vote for the nominee (attacking the nominee is also on the table)…

We should also pay extra thanks to Evan McMullin for yet another example of ruling class duplicitous behavior: Folks, Get Ready for a Shock: With His Last Action as a Senatorial Candidate, Evan McMullin Lied In a Preening, Narcissistic, Sanctimonious Way

In a subsequent Facebook post and tweet, McMullin claimed he told Sen. Lee, “I truly hope that he upholds his oath to the Constitution during his upcoming term.”

Lee’s son John retorted via Twitter: “That is not at all how the call went. I was there. Both candidates were surprisingly cordial. For once, you didn’t take the typical pedantic tone — I was surprised how kind the exchange was. And then you turned around and tweeted this. You have lied and deceived until the very end.”

Utah’s Republican Party Vice Chairman Jordan Hess would go on to corroborate John’s tweet. “I was also there. What @johndlee says is true. McMullin continues to lie,” he tweeted.

So here is my guess, and I’ll bet six dollars ($6 US) that I’m right: His next grift is a 501(c)(3) about “monitoring and enforcing Muh Constitutional Normz” and this is his opening PR move before he files the paperwork.

Next, I’ve seen numerous reports trying to put the blame on Trump for this election’s red fizzle. Sure Trump may have played a factor but it was small, at best. No, the reason the GOP elites are trying to turn focus onto Trump is because they are trying to hide their culpability in this. Leadership blew it. McConnell needs to go, like yesterday! His track record and recent messes in Alaska and Arizona, among others, show it.

Election shenanigans were not addressed and we see Democrat run elections running the same scheme that stinks to high heavens. It’s in your face. Laxalt, Lake and others will need to fight and pray people come forward. It has been made clear that the ruling class will do whatever is necessary to prevent any ‘unapproved’ person from taking key positions.

It is becoming much clearer that many GOP elites are more comfortable with (increasingly radical) Democrats than party constituents and normal people, in general.

Finally, there’s a food for thought post on Ace of Spades regarding McConnell’s fiasco (see the post for source and full context, ):

The “Plan” that was hatched by the McFailure wing of the GOP was to offer the nomination to DeSantis. The GOP would provide funding, support, and a clear path to the nomination. If DeSantis declined the offer, the second choice is Glenn Youngkin.

By not fighting for seats in the House and Senate, they wanted to reduce the number of MAGA Trump supporters in their chambers, and they assumed that the political environment of the moment would allow them to still gain both chambers, but blame the “disappointing” results on Trump. [emphasis added]

What Trump has been doing with the personal insults to DeSantis and Youngkin, is to let them know that he will go after them personally if they accept the offer from Team McFailure. He wants them to remember what happened to “Low T”, “Lying Ted”, and “Little Marco”.

I don’t want to get into the Trump/DeSantis wars (though I know this is going to spark them). I tend to agree with Ace, I am worn out by Trump the Insult Attack Dog. But I think everyone should be aware of what is really going on, and not think that Trump has lost his mind.

I hope Desantis and others don’t take their poisoned bait. We should thank Romney et. al. for finally dropping the Kabuki mask. To be fair, thanks also go to Trump for exposing the ruling class – this wouldn’t have so explicitly occurred without him.

The establishment is welcome to come back to the bargaining table and create a new contract (with some serious overhead) but they’re clearly in no mood to negotiate as they continue to try to patronize us and attempt to hide their failures and hypocrisy. No, they need to be soundly defeated and forced to the table. So make it fun, call them out, refuse to support or vote for them and spoil their campaigns – just as they’ve ‘shown us the way’. It’s the only way they’ll learn.