(In reference to the arrest of Trumpist Tina Peters for election interference.)
The whole thing is both sad and perplexing in so many ways. As an occasional watcher of police bodycam videos, some common objections from arrestees include things like “don’t touch me” (pro tip: never works) or “I don’t want to go to jail” (pro tip: never works). But this is the first time I’ve heard “I want my car keys”.
But the much larger question is how someone so obviously unable to tell fundamental right from wrong, from proper election oversight to blatantly illegal election interference, ever got a job with a county government as an election official. The fact that her well-being is allegedly dependent on a “magnetic mattress” is just the icing on the cake, but though she clearly has mental health problems, she may not be the only one at fault here. Who the hell hired her?
Also, if I were a prison official, I would accommodate her needs by getting her a couple of these, and telling her to use them in her mattress as she sees fit:
One working definition of mental illness is having strong and persistent beliefs completely at odds with well established reality that results in consequentially irrational behaviour. It’s not only about woo science. See, for example, the long thread we have going here about “sovereign citizens”. There are many. Or Google things like “interviews with Trump voters”. There are even more of those.
The Orange Felon seems to be having trouble with endorsements. First Taylor Swift endorsed him, and then apparently for some reason she went with Harris/Walz instead! Go figure!
And now this:
“New: Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has endorsed Trump for President." [Trump’s post on Truth Social] claimed, alongside a red flashing light emoji.
Just 20 minutes later, his claim was smashed.
“Jamie Dimon has not endorsed anyone. He has not endorsed a candidate,” Joe Evangelisti, a spokesman for the CEO told CNBC.
I just discovered the same thing, via the excellent New Yorker article linked below. The fact of Tina Peters being in an elected office despite the relatively mundane low-level position is typical of the schizophrenic American approach to democracy – extremely distrusting of the electorate on one hand (must have an Electoral College of wise men for fear that the unwashed rubes might elect someone unsuitable to be president) yet happy to have the same unwashed rubes make major policy decisions via ballot initiatives/referendums and directly elect everyone from state governor right down to county clerk, minor judges, and maybe even dog-catcher.
In short, Tina Peters was “hired” by voters who knew about as much about her as they knew about just about anything else – in short, morons. To be fair, Peters appeared in at least some ways to be a relatively normal person until after the 2020 election. It appears she was turned by Trump’s persistent election lies into a True Believer willing to commit crimes on his behalf. It is, once again, amazing what an incredible litany of crimes and the people serving prison time for them always comes directly back to Trump.
I’m not sure it beats the first sentence of the Wikipedia article for Phil Spector; “Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer, songwriter, and convicted murderer.”
Another problem is, if more positions are appointed instead of elected, one person can just stuff an office with their loyalists. I don’t know the perfect answer.
In small counties, they often run unopposed because of a term limit on the existing official. I not against term limits, but not a lot you can do except go for the recall.
In the county I work for, we are the second biggest employer. When someone is not doing their job, word spreads very quickly. This person decided to retire instead of going for a second term.
The initial writers tended to be good, intelligent people who had lived through a period of upheaval, lynchings, and violence and sought an end to that. The latter changes, in favor of populism, tended to be by politicians that were mendaciously selling out the powers of their office to the people in exchange for campaign wins - probably expecting that they could huckle the rubes into choosing their own preferred candidates.
Fun picturing her wearing an orange traffic vest and moseying - with a garbage bag and pick stick - up and down some grassy embankment near an overpass.
Getting honked at.
“Hey! Is that you?”
Or then again rotting in jail for nine years isn’t too bad an option too.
