The Trump Factor: Republicans who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election won their party’s primary in four states for positions that would oversee or influence how elections are conducted.

  Jim Marchant, the nominee for secretary of state in Nevada, has said he would not have certified the 2020 election for Joe Biden and wants more sheriffs at the polls. Doug Mastriano, the nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, led the push to overturn the state’s 2020 results. If he wins, Mr. Mastriano would appoint Pennsylvania’s top elections official.

  In Michigan, election-denier Tudor Dixon won the party’s nomination for governor.

  In Arizona, Mark Finchem, who marched in the January 6^th protest, won the Republican nomination for secretary of state, the top election official.

  Also in Arizona, Kari Lake left her 30-year career as a news anchor to embrace Donald Trump’s big election lie and promise if elected governor that she would decertify the 2020 election in her state. She has a narrow lead.

  Not that it’s likely to happen, but EJ Montini, a columnist for The Arizona Republic, says that if enough states decertify the 2020 election and declare Trump the winner, he can’t run for office in 2024.  “It’s all right there in  black and white,” he says, pointing out that the  22nd Amendment says,  “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice … .”

  He goes on, “It does not say anything about having been denied the ability to serve that second term. It does not say anything about a ‘stolen election.’” 

  Montini concludes, “So, if Donald Trump is correct, and he was elected to a second term, and Kari Lake, as governor, can decertify an election and a few other conspiracy-prone states go along, declaring Trump the 2020 winner, Trump would be ineligible to run again for the office of Commander in Chief in 2024.”

China Syndrome: Following Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s departure from Taiwan, China announced that it is holding live-fire Navy exercises in six zones surrounding the island country, three of them crossing over into Taiwan’s territorial waters.

  The drills are a challenge to Taiwan’s sovereignty and possibly a preview of China’s ultimate intentions to take the country for its own. China’s military called for all boats and airplanes to avoid the exercise zones for three days, posing the question for Taiwan and the US to obey or test whether China would shoot at real targets. 

Truth: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was confronted with his own lies yesterday in a Texas court. Jones had testified that he had no messages on his cellphone regarding the Sandy Hook school shooting, but his own lawyer had accidentally given the contents of Jones’s phone to the plaintiff’s lawyer in the defamation suit. The lawyer for two Sandy Hook parents said, “You know what perjury is, right?” 

  Jones ultimately admitted yesterday that the Sandy Hook school massacre, which he has previously claimed was a hoax staged by actors, actually happened. “Especially since I’ve met the parents. It’s 100% real,” Jones said at his trial to determine how much he and his media company, Free Speech Systems, must pay for defaming Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis. Their son Jesse was among the 20 children and six educators killed in the deadliest school shooting in American history.

  The couple is suing for $150 million, but Jones told the jury that anything above $2 million “will sink us.” His company has already filed for bankruptcy to be able to keep operating during appeals, and protect what money he has. But he also told the jury, “Ï think it’s appropriate for whatever you decide what you want to do.”

  Jones has remained in character on his Infowars radio show throughout the trial. On one occasion he said that the jury was full of people who “don’t know what planet they’re on.” And only two days ago, Jones said about the court that, “They all act demonically possessed: The judge, the lawyers,” describing them as  “people … committed to a cult ideology of the new world order.”

Family Values: After months of fighting in court, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump have sat for depositions in the New York general’s investigation of the Trump business finances. Ivanka was interviewed yesterday and Don Jr. last week. Former President Trump is expected to testify later this month.

  Investigators for Attorney General Letitia James say they have found “significant” evidence indicating the Trump Organization used false or misleading asset valuations to obtain loans, insurance, and tax benefits.

  Eric Trump and former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg both asserted their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when deposed in 2020.

Electric Shock: With the quick proliferation of electric bicycles and scooters, a fatal incident in Harlem serves as a warning. Early yesterday in a Harlem apartment a fire sparked by the lithium-ion battery on an electric scooter killed a 5-year-old girl and a 36-year-old woman, also leaving the child’s father in critical condition. The burning scooter was blocking the door.

The Spin Rack: Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski and two young staffers were killed yesterday in a wrong-way car crash in her home state of Indiana. The other driver travelling in Walorski’s lane also was killed. — The doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim filed notice of intention to sue Indiana’s attorney general for defamation. Attorney General Todd Rokita called Dr. Caitlin Bernard an “abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report.” — Warner Brothers announced that after spending $90 million producing the Batgirl movie, they are not going to release it to theaters. Evidently it tested dismally with audiences. —AF turn 71 today.

Pumped Up: The national average for regular gasoline has dropped to $4.16 a gallon according to AAA. Please call if you find it at that price.

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