Out d’Coup | Election Audit Sham; Voter Suppression; Against Civility; Mastriano in AZ; Metcalfe Gun Party; Ryan Costello Meltdown; NASA to Venus; Nichelle Nichols Doc; Book Recs; Sean’s Vacation

The Arizona Republican election audit sham led by the QAnon owner of “Cyber Ninjas,” is quickly becoming the launching pad for a national, right-wing organizing strategy to delegitimize democracy and fan the flames of extremism. 

CNN reports that QAnon inspired right-wing radicals are taking to Telegram - a social messaging platform that is far more welcoming of extremists - to deepen their conspiracies and plan. Congressional sources told CNN that they are especially concerned about plans to support Trump’s re-installation as president in August. 

This past weekend, former national security adviser Michael Flynn seemed to endorse a coup at the “For God & Country Patriot Roundup,” a QAnon conference in Dallas, TX. When Flynn was asked why can’t a military coup like the one happening in Myanmar happen in the United States, Flynn replied: “No Reason. I mean, it should happen here. No reason.” You’ll recall that it was also Flynn who called on Trump to invoke martial law to force new elections in key states. 

Meanwhile, the anti-democracy movement has been hard at work on their inside game as Republican lawmakers have continued to pass voting restrictions around the country. The Washington Post reports that this year has seen the introduction of 253 bills designed to restrict voting across 43 states, according to a new report from the Brennan Center. As of mid-May, 22 voting restrictions laws have been passed in 14 states.  

Media Matters for America released a list of all the QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2022. 

Miami is considering a proposal to build a 20 foot sea wall to save the city from the impacts of climate change. As reported in New York Times, “Six miles of it, in fact, mostly inland, running parallel to the coast through neighborhoods — except for a one-mile stretch right on Biscayne Bay, past the gleaming sky-rises of Brickell, the city’s financial district.”

The FBI is investigating Trump appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for illegal political fundraising for Trump. 

Trump’s blog is shut down for good only a month after its launch.
Daryl Metcalfe’s annual Right to Bear Arms Rally is this Monday. 

The Arizona election audit sham attracted PA State Senator Doug Mastriano, State Senator Chris Dush, and State Representative Rob Kauffman to travel to the state like moths to the flame. 

Mastriano finally makes it to prime time. On Wednesday night, on Chris Hayes’s All In, Mastriano features prominently in the opening segment about the rise of dangerous, anti-democracy movement. The report points to Mastriano’s visit to Arizona as case in point in how it all works. 

State Senator Scott Perry ran into the woods to avoid taking questions from local media, according to Raw Story. 

Former State Rep. Ryan Costello is not OK. At least that’s how things seemed last night on Twitter. Apparently, PA Spotlight is squatting in his head after they published info showing that Costello donates to a school board PAC that recruits QAnon conspiracy nuts to run for office. 

State Sen. Lindsey Williams is preparing to introduce a bill in the PA Senate requiring lawmakers to publicly post how they are spending millions of dollars in tax-payer funded expenses. 

The New Jersey GOP primary for this year’s race for Governor has turned into a Trump bootlicker competition. 

Allegheny County DA Stephen Zappala found himself in a scandal this week.  He sent an email to prosecutors telling them to stop accepting plea deals from a black lawyer who called his office “systemically racist.”  Way to pull a racism, DA Zappala.

On Wednesday, NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced that the space agency is planning two missions to Venus in the late 2020s. The two missions, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS will gather evidence about possible microbial live in Venus’s atmosphere and more thoroughly map the planet’s surface. It's been over three decades since NASA launched missions to Venus. 

A new documentary, Woman in Motion, tells the story of how Nichelle Nichols, famous for her ground-breaking role as Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek, pioneered the NASA recruiting program to higher people of color and the first women astronauts in the 1970s and 1980s. The documentary is streaming on Paramount+.

Grist releases a list of new environmental films that you should add to your watch list.  

Books to read: 

• How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism, Cory Doctorow.
• Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, by Talia Lavin.
• Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility, by Alex Zamalin

Will Sean be live-blogging his vacation?