Tag: Crazy Republicans

Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Election deniers, Elections, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Tina Peters, Trump Insanity

Tina Peters’ unhinged talk in Las Vegas

by Anne Landman • July 14, 2022 • 18 Comments

By now everyone has probably heard that Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters had her bond revoked today for leaving the state without first getting permission from the court, which violated the terms of her release in her criminal case. Peters traveled to Las Vegas for a July 12 conference of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group of anti-government sheriffs who are also election deniers.

While there, Peters gave an unhinged 9 minute talk that appeared to even confuse her audience. In her talk, she made a slew of bizarre statements, like:

“Our crooked DA arrested [my election manager] knowing today is her birthday.”
“They arrested three grandmothers for defending your elections.”
“They’re stealing our elections.”
DA Dan Rubinstein “is the guy who let 26 pounds of fentanyl go.”
“Our candidates were offered to step aside and they would be propelled over the finish line if they did not talk about election security.”
“They took away my husband, too. 36 years we would’ve been married. The DA went in there and had him sign divorce papers in a nursing home. He has advanced dementia. These people are criminals.”
“They’re coming after you.”

The Mesa County GOP needs to apologize for creating, aiding and abetting the Tina Peters debacle

by Anne Landman • June 30, 2022 • 34 Comments

Mesa County GOP Chair Kevin McCarney defends Tina Peters at a “Stand for the Constitution” meeting at Appleton Christian Church in Grand Junction in September, 2021. Tina Peters’ wild, egregious election-lie fiasco has embarrassed Mesa County on a national scale.

It was clear back in 2018 when she was elected that Tina Peters was unqualified to be Mesa County Clerk and Recorder. She had had zero experience in government or in the Clerk’s office, had never worked in public administration or worked on an election in any capacity.

At the time, the qualifications between the two candidates for County Clerk couldn’t have been more stark:

Trump’s AG Barr on Trump’s claim the election was “stolen”: “The idea was bullshit” and “I didn’t want to be a part of it.”

by Anne Landman • June 25, 2022 • 28 Comments

In this testimony before the January 6 Committee released on June 14, former U.S. Attorney General under Trump, William Barr, says he disagreed with Trump telling the public the election was stolen and he told the president the idea was “bullshit”:

“I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff which I told the President was bullshit, and you know, I didn’t want to be a part of it.

And that’s one of the reasons that went into me deciding to leave. When I did, I observed, I think it was on December 1st, you know, how can … we can’t live in a world where where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that … there was fraud in the election.”

Conspiracy theories, Crazy Republicans, Ethics, Tina Peters

New ethics complaint against Tina Peters will be heard by CO Independent Ethics Commission tomorrow

by Anne Landman • May 16, 2022 • 0 Comments

A third ethics complaint (pdf) was filed against Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on May 9, 2022.

This one is about her failure to report contributions to her legal defense fund, in particular the $800,000 donation that My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell said he made to Peters’ fund. Lindell disclosed the donation at an election denier event at the state Capitol April 5. 9News in Denver described it as the single biggest contribution ever made to any elected official in Colorado history. The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) designated the latest complaint as Complaint No. 22-22. It is the third ethics complaint filed against Peters since she became a high-profile election denier.

Just how much are taxpayers paying Tina Peters and Belinda Knisely not to do their jobs?

by Anne Landman • April 27, 2022 • 23 Comments

Tina Peters

Everyone wants to know just how much Mesa County taxpayers are shelling out in salary and benefits to indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisely for not doing their jobs while they obey conditions of their bond to stay away from their workplace and co-workers. During all this time of not going to work, they have continued to collect paychecks.

Thanks to the County, we’ve got the figures.

Between August 10, 2021 and April 22, 2022, Knisely collected a total of $71,524.14 in salary and benefits including health and disability insurance, and Tina collected a total of $83,958.88 for a grand total paid to the pair since August 10, 2021 of $155,483.02.

Belinda Knisely

The two are indicted on multiple felony charges related to election tampering.

Conspiracy theories, Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Generic idiocy, politics, Republicans violating laws, Stupid Republicans, Trump Insanity

Lindell steps in it, seals the case for the ethics complaint against Tina Peters; makes a statement that could leave her liable for a $1.6 million fine

by Anne Landman • April 5, 2022 • 16 Comments

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell just sealed the case for Complaint #22-07 (pdf) to the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission against Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters for her skirting Colorado’s anti-corruption law by raising unlimited amounts of money through her legal defense fund.

In an apparent effort to try to get out of the ethics complaint, Peters recently shut down her Colorado-based legal defense fund website and moved her legal fundraising to a Minnesota-based “legal offense fund” operated by her fellow election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.

At an election denier rally today at the state Capitol in Denver, a 9News reporter asked Lindell how much he has raised for Peters’ legal defense fund. Lindell said, “I just put in all the money myself.” When the reporter asked Lindell how much that was, he answered, “I don’t know, I put in 3,4,5, maybe $800,000 of my own money.”

$800,000 would be the largest amount ever given to a Colorado politician or elected official.

Mesa County Republican Party resolutions seek to “register and regulate” journalists, put voting machines in Faraday cages

by Anne Landman • March 29, 2022 • 33 Comments

AR-15 Assault Weapon, the “weapon of choice for mass shooters”

Updated 3/30/22 @ 10:10 a.m.

The Mesa County Republican Party has reached a whole new level of crazy in 2022, as indicated by a handout at their assembly at the DoubleTree hotel last Saturday, March 26, that lists the party’s recommendations for the statewide GOP platform. The local party will vote on which of these resolutions to forward to the state party for inclusion in the statewide platform.

According to the handout, some Mesa County Republicans now want to register and regulate journalists “to protect against the Marxist agenda.” They support “private ownership of AR-15s, 30-round magazines and semi-automatic weapons,” firearms described by CNN Money as “the mass shooters’ go-to weapon.” Local Republicans also support “making Ivermectin an over-the-counter (OTC) drug.” Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug commonly used as a horse-dewormer and in dogs to prevent heartworm.

Grand Jury indicts Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on felony charges; warrants issued for arrest of both Peters and Belinda Knisely without bond

by Anne Landman • March 9, 2022 • 8 Comments

WANTED: An arrest warrant has been issued for Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters after a grand jury indicted her this morning on a mix of 13 felonies and misdemeanors.

The grand jury indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters this morning (pdf) on 13 counts related to her official misconduct and tampering with election equipment. The charges include a mix of felonies and misdemeanors.

Peters is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant (a Class 4 felony), one count of attempting to influence a public servant (a Class 5 felony), one count of criminal impersonation (a Class 6 felony), one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation (a Class 6 felony); one count of identify theft (a Class 4 felony) and one count of first-degree official misconduct, a Class 2 misdemeanor. Peters is also charged with one count each of violation of duty and failure to comply with the Secretary of State, both unclassified misdemeanor offenses.

The grand jury also indicted Deputy Mesa County Clerk Belinda Knisely on violation of duty, failure to comply with the Secretary of State, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and multiple counts of attempting to influence a public servant.

Tina Peters claims she was “framed” with the ballots left in the ballot box from the 2019 election

by Anne Landman • March 4, 2022 • 1 Comment

Speaking to members of the Jefferson County Republican Men’s Club on February 21, 2022 (video), Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters claimed that she was “framed” when election workers found “429 ballots” uncollected in a ballot box from the 2019 election.

The ballots were discovered when election workers went to empty the box for the 2020 election, but Peters refused to petition a judge to open and count them and include them in the final vote tally from the 2019 election. In her talk, Peters also got the number of uncounted ballots wrong. 574 ballots were discovered left in the ballot box, not 429.

Peters claimed without evidence that “they stuffed the ballot box with 479 ballots” in order to “take over my office” and said it was part of an effort to “take over the western slope.”

It’s time to admit something’s wrong with Tina

by Anne Landman • February 22, 2022 • 18 Comments

Embattled election conspiracy theorist Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters grins proudly for her mug shot taken upon her arrest on 2/10/2022

Lots of people have been saying it under their breath, but no one has come out and said it publicly. Mostly people have just gotten angry at Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters for her increasingly strange behavior, but maybe it’s time to start pitying Tina.

We can all agree that Tina’s behavior has been very far outside what is considered normal for an elected county clerk:

Normal clerks don’t compromise their own election equipment. They don’t flee the state on private jets, spend weeks hiding in safe houses in secret locations around the country or accept largesse from multi-millionaires to promote wacky election conspiracy theories. Normal clerks don’t blow off their obligation as clerks (pdf) to get certified to run elections as the state requires. Normal clerks don’t proclaim that the candidates who won an election shouldn’t have won because they were the wrong people to win. Normal county clerks don’t get their homes raided by the FBI.

Tina Peters now says she is running for Secretary of State, but there’s no evidence of it so far

by Anne Landman • February 14, 2022 • 6 Comments

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters grins for her mug shot at the time of her arrest in Grand Junction on 2/10/2022

Update: Tina Peters finally filed a candidate affidavit saying she is running for Secretary of State on 2/23/22.

Adding a whole new level of crazy to her repertoire, after getting arrested last week on charges of obstruction, and then telling an adoring election conspiracy-theory endorsing crowd in Castle Rock immediately afterward that no one can stop her, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters announced this morning that she is running for Secretary of State (SOS), and will challenge incumbent SOS Jena Griswold for the seat.

No proof of candidacy for SOS so far

The only problem is Peters declared on the steps of the Mesa County Justice Center on January 13 that she was running for re-election as Mesa County Clerk. She can’t run for both offices at once, and so far the only candidate affidavit on file with the Secretary of State’s office is the one that says she is running for County Clerk. There is no affidavit on Tracer showing she is actually running for Secretary of State. A call to the Secretary of State’s Campaign Finance Office (CFO), where candidates must submit their affidavits to officially be considered running for any office, revealed that so far no affidavit for Peters’ run for SOS exists either on their website or in the pending queue of the CFO, and Peters hasn’t taken any action to nullify her affidavit to run for clerk.

Response from a local citizen to Republican CO House 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin’s spreading anti-semitic tropes and misinformation on social media

by Anne Landman • November 29, 2021 • 7 Comments

Cindy Ficklin (Photo Credit: video by Stand for the Constitution)

On November 21, 2021, the Daily Sentinel published an article titled “Ficklin denies anti-Semitic leanings,” that examined statements and outrageous, unfounded claims made by Republican Colorado House Representative District 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin in her social media posts.

Ficklin’s writings included anti-semitic tropes about prominent Jews being “monsters in the shadows” who “control all the banks in the world.”

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters takes charges of election fraud conspiracy further in new video

by Anne Landman • November 21, 2021 • 3 Comments

Embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters doubled down on her wild, unfounded claims of election fraud in a “Thursday Night Patriot” Zoom call held November 18 that featured both her and Sherronna Bishop, just days after law enforcement executed legal searches on both their homes pursuant to ongoing criminal investigations into Mesa County’s compromised election equipment.

Bishop posted a recording of the hour-plus long Zoom call on her Facebook page. Over 100 attendees joined the call, and the video has had over 5,800 views. The video excerpt above is the roughly four minutes in which Tina Peters spoke.

Tina Peters scandal gets 9 minute segment on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show

by Anne Landman • November 18, 2021 • 0 Comments

The antics of crazy Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and her loony-tune election conspiracy scandal earned a 9 minute-long segment on MSNBC’s nationally-broadcast cable TV program The Rachel Maddow Show yesterday, November 17, 2021.

The Rachel Maddow Show is the most-watched cable news show in the country.

Maddow discusses Peters’ relationship with Mike Lindell, the “My Pillow Guy,” House Rep. Lauren Boebert’s former campaign manager, the FBI raid of her and others’ homes on 11/16, and more.

Maddow said the story of the Mesa County Clerk, which began as a very small and awkward story, has “metastasized and become very serious” and even “riveting” in how it has unfolded.

Jimmy Kimmel convinces people videos posted by CO House Rep. Lauren Boebert are Saturday Night Live skits

by Anne Landman • November 15, 2021 • 10 Comments

On his late night TV show November 12, Jimmy Kimmel showed passers-by clips of actual videos posted by Colorado Republican House Representative Lauren Boebert, like Boebert’s “Fauci eats puppies alive” video, told them the videos were shown on Saturday Night Live last weekend and asked people if they thought SNL had too mean in lampooning her.

All said they thought SNL had gone too far.

Then Kimmel revealed the truth, that all the videos were actual videos of Boebert.

New voter guide from the Best Slope Leadership Project explains the issues and candidates in the Nov. 2, 2021 election

by Anne Landman • October 22, 2021 • 4 Comments

The home page of the Best Slope Leadership Project’s 2021 Voter Guide

A new local organization called Best Slope Leadership Project has a plain language voter guide to help Mesa County citizens decide how to vote in the upcoming November 2, 2021 election. The guide explains the state-wide ballot measures, local propositions and District 51 School Board races, and gives easy-to-understand rationales for recommended votes.

On its website, BestSlopeLeadership.org, the Project describes the local group “Stand for the Constitution,” which is backing a bloc of three candidates for school board. this way:

Rabid right wing extremist Cindy Ficklin announces she is running for State Representative for HD-55

by Anne Landman • October 19, 2021 • 29 Comments

Update Monday, 10/25/21: “Stand for the Constitution” has pulled the video of Cindy Ficklin declaring her run for the Colorado HD-55 Rep. seat. But and article in the Daily Sentinel also transcribed what Ms. Ficklin said in the video, including her statement that she decided to run for the seat because the school board didn’t pick her to replace Paul Pitton on school board. The Sentinel article is here.

Starting at minute 8:00 in a “Facebook Live” video posted yesterday by “Stand for the Constitution,” local rabid far right wing extremist and realtor Cindy Ficklin announced she is running for State Representative from House District 55, the seat currently held by Janice Rich, who plans on running for state Senate.

Ficklin tells viewers she filed for the seat because the District 51 School Board did not accept her as a finalist to be appointed to the Board.

My Pillow Guy appears with Sherronna Bishop at Garfield County School District RE-2 Board Meeting

by Anne Landman • October 17, 2021 • 2 Comments

Mike Lindell appears alongside election conspiracy theorist/anti-mask activist/Tina Peters defender Sherronna Bishop at a Wednesday, Oct. 13 Garfield County RE-2 School Board meeting held via Zoom

In a bizarre scene, “My Pillow guy” Mike Lindell made a cameo appearance alongside Rifle election conspiracist and Tina Peters defender Sherronna Bishop at a Zoomed Garfield County School District RE-2 Board Meeting on October 13.

Bishop appears about three minutes into the meeting, speaking during the public comment period and accusing School Board members of abusing children by “forcing medical devices on them.” She condemns the Board for how her “kid had to wear a mask to his homecoming dance” and how the students were “interrupted” by an adult at the dance who reminded students how to correctly wear their masks. Bishop accused the school board of “assaulting and abusing” children by having them wear masks for protection at school amid the pandemic.

After a member of the school board warns Bishop she has 30 seconds left to speak, a man wearing a shirt and tie moves into the frame with Bishop. He then bends down to where viewers can see his face, and it was the clear the man is Mike Lindell. One of the school board members can be heard in the background saying “Jesse, turn it off!”

As Bishop ends her comments, Lindell starts weighing in with the District RE-2 School Board, saying “There’s more science than you guys even know of” about masking, and “[inaudible] suicide and addiction…”

The school board then cuts the couple off, and lets a student present know that it is her turn to speak.
Video of the meeting is below:

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