The Arizona Secretary of State sent the organization running an audit of Maricopa County ballots a six-page letter outlining serious lapses of security and violations of the law that compromises the security of the ballots they’re counting, the Washington Post reports.

Katie Hobbs, the Democratic Secretary of State, noted that the volunteers who are counting the ballots have little training and seem to be using various criteria to review the ballots, lacking any consistency in technique or cause.  She also notes that the group is using uncertified machines that are not independently tested.

The letter also notes that the ballots seem to have been left unsecured, with no established chain of custody, and computers used to tally the audit have been left open, unlocked and unattended.

The group running the audit responded to Hobbs’ accusations with a tweet, complete with misspellings, because when you’re running an election audit, who needs to do things carefully, right?

Axios: “The Trump’s presidency was a ‘difficult time’ for Ukraine, during which the country tried to maintain ‘bipartisan support’ from Republicans and Democrats, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday. Ukraine found itself uncomfortably involved in U.S. domestic politics on account of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s dealings in the country. Regarding the recent FBI search of Giuliani’s apartment, Kuleba said he wasn’t aware of any official request for assistance with the investigation, but noted that Ukraine would be ‘open to helping.'”

“He would not say whether he believed Giuliani acted criminally, but noted that Trump’s former attorney ‘was definitely playing politics and he put the situation at risk for Ukraine, and for the country’s relationship with Washington.’ The interview aired just ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Ukraine this week. Kuleba noted that Ukraine hopes to buy military equipment from the U.S. to aid its simmering conflict with Russia.”

Rumors started circulating on the Birdy app and in comments sections earlier today that the former guy had created a new Twitter account with the handle @DJTDesk.  As of 8:28pm on Wednesday May 5th, less than one day after the account was created, it’s already been suspended.  This will no doubt lead to more bullshit from Republicans insisting that Twitter is “violating Firsts Amendment Rights”, but Twitter really doesn’t have anything to worry about.  Donald Trump can’t sue Twitter or Facebook for violating his First Amendment Rights because Twitter and Facebook do not represent the United States government, and they haven’t tried to throw him in prison, or levy some huge financial fine on him because of his behavior.  Trump can’t report the banning of his social media accounts via a criminal complaint because there is nowhere in the criminal code that makes it a crime for a social media company to bar people from their platforms for spreading disinformation or making threats. Trump also can’t file a torts claim because there’s no actual injury, and no judge, even the most loyal Trump appointee is going to be dumb enough to try to rule that the entire history of US Contract law is invalid, that firms don’t have any legal right to dictate terms of service agreements, or that individuals who agree to said service agreements are under no obligation to abide by the terms of the contract.

An official with the auditors counting ballots in Maricopa County are analyzing the paper ballots cast for Joe Biden are printed on for bamboo fibers, claiming they’re looking for 40,000 ballots that were allegedly printed in China and shipped to Arizona to skew the election.

According to Slate, an official with the group overseeing the audit told the local CBS affiliate that they’re looking at various perfections and imperfections in the paper, such as fold or no folds.

“There’s accusations that 40,000 ballots were flown in and stuffed into the box and it came from the Southeast part of the world, Asia. And what they’re doing is to find out if there’s bamboo in the paper,” audit liaison John Brakey told a local reporter, adding that  “this is part of the mystery that we want to un-gaslight people about.”

Noting that he got things done when he was vice president, President Joe Biden dismissed a vow by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that he is “100 percent” committed to blocking any of Biden’s programs, the Washington Post reports.

“He said that about the last administration — about Barack, that he was going to stop everything — and I was able to get a lot done with him,” Biden said.

McConnell said during an event in Georgetown, Kentucky that he would do anything to prevent Biden’s agenda from succeeding.  “One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration,” McConnell said.  “I think the best way to look at what this new administration is: The president may have won the nomination, but Bernie Sanders won the argument.”

Josh Duggar, a one-time conservative icon of family values and religious persecution because he starred on the reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” had more than 200 lewd photos of children on his computer, TMZ reports the Department of Homeland Security stated in a preliminary hearing on his child pornography charges.

A DHS agent said some of the images were of children as young as five years old.  They included images of naked children and child sexual abuse.  According to the agent, various friends and family interviewed in the investigation noted Duggar appeared to be addicted to pornography.  In 2015, reports emerged that he had been molested young girls, including some of his younger sisters, when he was in his teens.

Duggar’s attorney countered the statement from the DHS agent by claiming the DHS couldn’t prove that Duggar actually viewed the images, apparently setting up a claim that the images were planted on his computer to set him up.

A former FBI agent, fired from the Bureau amid a string of sexual assault and harassment charges but who later used forged documents to become a trooper with the Alabama State Police, is now charged with raping an 11-year-old girl in Alabama.

According to the Associated Press, 41-year-old Christopher Bauer was investigated by the FBI for multiple complaints of sexual harassment and assault, including one allegation that he raped a female coworker at knifepoint.  In 2018, he was stripped of his security clearance by the FBI’s New Orleans field office, effectively firing him.

Bauer then allegedly forged a letter from FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, citing his “credible service” and deemed him “eligible for rehire,” a term of art meaning that the individual was not dismissed due to any disciplinary issues.  Bauer also attested that he had not left the FBI–either fired or forced to leave–for disciplinary reasons.  The FBI told AP the letter is “not legitimate.”

A woman from Mali gave birth to nine babies via cesarean section Tuesday in what is thought to be the largest number of surviving infants to be birthed in a single pregnancy, the Associated Press reports.

The mother, 25-year-old Halima Cisse, gave birth in Morocco after going there to seek specialized care during her pregnancy.  Cisse, as well as her five new daughters and four new sons who were born premature at 30 weeks, are reported to be doing well.  Doctors originally thought that she was pregnant with seven children, but discovered it was actually nine when they started the cesarean.  Cisse and her doctors said she was not on fertility treatments when she became pregnant.

The previous record for live births in a single pregnancy was eight, by American Nadya Suleman, who had taken fertility treatments.

There is no word if TLC has contacted Cisse to star in a reality series.

The American Bar Association is considering changes to its rules that would require accredited law schools to train their students in areas such as recognizing bias, racism and cross cultural competency as a way of ensuring defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges and other legal professionals more fully grasp the backgrounds of people involved in the judicial system.

The changes also include a provision to recognize the unique experiences of military members and veterans, formally making military status a “non-discriminatory” status among the law schools.  While most law schools already have explicit language barring discrimination based on military status, the rule change would require it for all ABA-accredited law schools.

While bias and racism are well understood concepts, cross cultural competency promotes understanding the backgrounds, perspectives and opinions of people of other races and cultures when applying legal standards to cases. 

Politico: “Florida Republicans are now 0-2 in substantiating widespread election fraud claims that the state’s top law enforcement agency investigated. On Wednesday, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told Politico that it had found nothing illegal in an effort pushed by New York City billionaire Mike Bloomberg and others to help pay off the fines and fees of convicted felons seeking to become eligible to vote. This latest determination by Florida’s main law enforcement agency comes almost one year after investigators determined in an unrelated, earlier probe that there were no widespread voter fraud in the 2018 midterms when now-Gov. Ron DeSantis and now-Sen. Rick Scott narrowly won election.”

“Top Florida GOP politicians suggested Bloomberg was offering money to people to vote a certain way in the 2020 presidential election, an allegation that put a cloud over the work of the statewide group that was behind a push to restore voting rights to convicted felons. Bloomberg pledged up to $100 million in Florida alone to defeat President Donald Trump. Attorney General Ashley Moody, after being prodded by both DeSantis and Rep. Matt Gaetz, asked both FDLE and the FBI to probe the effort. The investigation – or ‘preliminary inquiry’ as FDLE termed it – that looked at whether Bloomberg was targeting minority voters for assistance was launched just two weeks before Florida’s voter registration deadline. But after more than seven months, FDLE found zero proof that anyone was promising votes in exchange for getting their court fines and fees paid off. Florida’s statewide prosecutor – who works for Moody – had no objections to closing the probe.”

https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1390016838801690628

Despite the lack of a blue check, evidently this is indeed legitimately the English-language account of Iran’s supreme leader and not some parody troll like the DPRK News Service, so unless this is a mistranslation – which it could be – it sure sounds like Ass-a-holla is in bad shape.

A statement from the US trade representative Katherine Tai announced that the Biden Administration would support a temporary waiver of patent protections for coronavirus vaccines to help speed the distribution of the medications during the pandemic.

As released on Twitter, Tai said that the pandemic calls for extraordinary measures, and the ambassador noted that the Administration will negotiate with the World Health Organization to temporarily halt the intellectual property protections claimed by the companies that created the vaccines.

“The Administration’s aim is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as possible,” Tai wrote.

https://youtu.be/xZzZxR0l7hs

Taking questions Wednesday afternoon after a statement on his restaurant rescue plan, President Joe Biden was asked his impression of the Republican Party on the precipice of ousting Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney from a House leadership position for telling the truth about the outcome of the November 2020 election.

“It seems the Republican Party is trying to identify what it stands for,” Biden commented thoughtfully, noting that the GOP seems to be in the “midst of a significant…internal mini-revolution.”  Biden noted that the nation needs a strong two-party system to function properly, but he thought the GOP was “further away from trying to figure out who they are and what they stand for than I thought they would be at this point.”

A typically boring administrative session of the Colorado state house erupted into a shoutfest after a Republican member of the body making a comment on an amendment referred to another member as “Buckwheat”.

A live video stream and a string of tweets from Colorado Sun reporter Thy Anh Vo detail Republican legislator Richard Holtof of Akron taking the podium to debate the “safety clause” of the committee procedure.  During the session, Holtof commented on a number of issues, from state funding for the arts and television production to complaining about the condition of state roads.  In this case, he started talking about “rules of engagement” and “laws of proportional response;” the safety clause in the Colorado legislation, however, has nothing to do with firearms but is a parliamentary procedure to speed legislation through.

Another member of the assembly commented off camera what Holtof’s comments had to do with the safety clause, to which Holtof responded, “I’m getting there, don’t worry, Buckwheat, I’m getting there.”

Not going to link this. There’s no need to read it. Everyone knows he sucks. I just can’t fathom what makes a man stop letting most of life’s little insults roll of his chest and start writing 3,000 words you need tiny violin music on in the background while reading to get the full effect. Seriously, what happened to him? There had to be one point in his life where as a younger man he got stiffed out of tip while waiting tables at TGI Friday’s but then forgot about it 20 minutes later – or something similar. Why’s everything so much more unfair to him now? What is Concha’s malfunction?

The Atlanta police officer who shot Black man Rayshard Brooks in the back as Brooks ran away after a drunk driving stop in a Wendy’s drive through has been reinstated to the city’s police department by a review board, NBC News reports.

Garrett Rolfe will remain on administrative leave and still faces charges of felony murder, five counts of aggravated assault and other charges for killing Brooks after Brooks wrestled Rolfe’s partner’s taser away and wildly fired the taser toward Brooks.  Rolfe fired three shots, two which hit Brooks in the back and one hit a parked car.

The Atlanta Civil Service Board reinstated Rolfe to the Atlanta Police Department after determining Rolfe was fired without adequate due process. 

“Among concerns surrounding transparency in an effort to recount ballots cast in the 2020 election in Maricopa County, ABC15 has learned the company leading the effort is now requiring legal documents be signed by volunteers who want to participate. Tuesday, an anonymous observer who volunteered to take part in watching the hand recount of ballots, sent ABC15 a copy of an agreement they say Cyber Ninjas is now requiring all observers to sign. The NDA explains observers must agree to keep information detailing what they saw and experienced while present to themselves, unless given permission by the company” ABC15 reports.

““The very heart of being an observer is to be able to watch, to observe, to take that information and to share it with others,’ said Tammy Patrick with the Democracy Fund. Patrick previously worked at the Maricopa County Elections Department from 2003 to 2014. ‘To have a non-disclosure agreement is the exact opposite of what the heart of an observation program is supposed to be remedying,’ she added. The agreement reads in part: ‘I agree that unless I am authorized in writing by Cyber Ninjas, Inc. and the Arizona State Senate, I will not disclose any Confidential Information to any person who is not conducting the Audit… Furthermore, I agree that during the course of the audit to refrain from making any public statements, social media posts, or similar public disclosures about the audit or its findings until such a time as the results from the audit are made public…'”

"On Cinco de Mayo we commemorate the Mexican victory at the Battle of Puebla and celebrate the proud Mexican heritage of so many of our fellow Americans."—@GOPChairwoman pic.twitter.com/kA03GGZy84

— GOP (@GOP) May 5, 2021

Texas Tribune: “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a New York Times story published Tuesday that he does not support Gov. Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican, as Abbott runs for reelection, the latest – and most revealing – sign that some state GOP leaders are on a collision course ahead of the 2022 election. ‘The way this typically works in a primary, is it’s kind of everybody running their own race,’ Paxton told the Times.”

“‘I don’t think he supports me; I don’t support him.’ Within hours of the story’s publication, Paxton bashed it as ‘fake news’ and insisted he supports Abbott. ‘He’s a great Governor and a Great Texan,’ Paxton tweeted. Abbott is up for a third term in 2022, and for months he has faced heat from some on his right, most notably over his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Paxton told the Times that he wished Abbott had reopened the state ‘a little bit earlier.'”

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to successfully form a coalition government, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin has turned the opportunity to create a ruling administration from the various political parties in the country, signalling a possible end to Netanyahu’s 12-year reign, the Associated Press reports.

In a televised address, Rivlin said that Netanyahu failed to create a viable coalition by the midnight deadline, so he was handing the task to Yair Lapid, the leader of the Yesh Atid, a center/moderate party Lapid formed in 2012.

Rivlin said he consulted with the various parties in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and determined that Lapid had the best chance of forming a governing coalition.  “[I]t is clear that Knesset member Yair Lapid has a chance to form a government that will earn the confidence of the Knesset, even if the difficulties are many,” Rivlin commented.