Of course this happened in Texas.  Of damn course.

Last Saturday night, there was a carjacking at a gas station in north Houston.  Two bad guys took another guy’s Chevrolet pickup truck.  There were no guns involved until …

Police say a witness then pulled out a gun and began shooting at the suspects, accidentally hitting the carjacking victim in the head.

The damfool shot the victim.  In the head.

Police say the witness who shot at the suspects picked up shell casings and left the scene. Police found the stolen pickup truck about a mile down the road but are still searching for the suspects.

Not only is the shooter dumb as bean dip, he’s also a real pathetic human being.  He did not call for help for the victim he just shot.  In the damn head.

The victim was transported to a nearby hospital where he remains in stable condition.

Thank God he’s also a real bad shot.

Please, please, if you harbor any thoughts of coming to my aid if someone is wrestling me, I would consider it a personal favor if you do not shoot me.

It’s been a pretty good week for Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, although you might not know it by the coverage, because stories that have been dogging her this whole election have lost their ability to fatally damage her campaign.

The Benghazi story died a long-overdue death. The Congressional Republicans kept it on life support just long enough for it to infect the careers of folks like Trey Gowdy, another GOP up-and-comer whose hopes of future glory have been dashed by being, well, a Congressional Republican.

This did not stop the NRA from running a Benghazi-themed commercial where a mercenary involved in the firefight stands – illegally – in front of the graves of actual soldiers not actually from Benghazi, and hints darkly that Hillary killed them all.

Now the email story is reaching its creaking, wheezing end, with no criminal charges recommended by the FBI. Although much of the coming days, weeks and months will be filled with bleats from the sheeple choir on the right about “rigged” processes and Special Prosecutors (Ken Starr is available, we hear) it will, as always, be a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing is beneath those “Make America Something-or-Other” hair-holders except bald spots and other empty spaces.

So, the fact-challenged on the Right will pour another fifth of Trump Super Premium Mouth Gas into their cognitive dissonance engines and fart out 160-character jeremiads  averring that nothing being found proves that there’s something to find, because the First Amendment guarantees them Freedom from Information in the topsy-turvy world of confirmation-bias grifting that is GOP fund-raising politics today.

Meanwhile, back in Realityville:

Like everything else in the Imaginarium of Donald the Crassest, Benghazi and the emails have become just two more nothing-burgers. And the last desperate hope for some sort of game-changer in the Trump campaign (as well in the last dark corners of the “Bernie hasn’t suspended his campaign because emails” die-hards)  has come to nothing.

In this, the long-awaited “end” to these never-ending tales, all sides politically will claim victory in the “Nontroversies” and the outcome will serve as “vindication” of narratives that are already hardened and in place, some for years.   Vast fields of minds will not be changed. Scads of undecided voters will not now flock to one or the other. Nothing major will come of these, and for Hillary, that in and of itself is a victory.

Deus has left the Machina.

Y’all, is extremely careless a better word than criminal?  At least you can prove you’re not a criminal.

Federal investigators did not find evidence of intentional wrongdoing, he said — but there is evidence the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and her staff were “extremely careless” during her tenure as secretary of state.

Maybe it’s just too hot here and I’m a little sweaty, but this does not seem like good news to me.

Talk me down.  Or not.

There’s rumors that Donald Trump is going to turn the GOP convention into shark week on basic cable.  Yeah, it’s gonna scare the crap out of you.

The former reality television star plans to feature his high-profile children at the summer gathering in Cleveland, with the hope they’ll be joined by a number of celebrity supporters. Prospects include former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and longtime boxing promoter Don King.

I suspect that Bobby Knight has been invited because he could throw Clint Eastwood’s chair across the convention hall in a fit of pique.  Tom Brady will attempt to deflate Trump’s ego and anything else that he can get his hands on.  And, Don King will continue to take the Fifth Amendment when asked about organized crime.

Honey, I’ve seen more “celebrities” on Dancing with the Stars.

Plus, does Trump known any women?  Or people outside of sports?

But, I gotta hand the delegates this: they ain’t trusting Trump or the Republicans with their security.

As the Republican convention in Cleveland approaches, several delegates from Pennsylvania who support Donald Trump say they are planning on bringing their guns with them to the GOP gathering. Why? They say they are worried about possible violent protest and even an attack from ISIS.

Here’s my personal favorite delegate.  He’s from Pennsylvania and he’s packing in more ways than one.

“There are a whole bunch of things happening: You go to various events, receptions, whatever, outside the convention hall,” says Ash Khare, a delegate from the northwest corner of the state who applied for a concealed carry permit in preparation for Cleveland.

Oh great. He’s getting his permit to carry two weeks before the convention. He does promise that he’s going to take some “lessons” from the sheriffs department before he leaves. What could go wrong with that?

I think that reporters covering this convention should get hazardous duty pay.  Better yet, they should all just stay at home and make up crap.  It would be more informative than anything happening in the convention hall.

Thanks to Anne for the heads up.

I have no reason to doubt our customer Richard when he tells me, “This was taken about 10 miles west of Golden, British Columbia on the Trans-Canada Highway (TC1).”

Up Close —

Truly The Donald’s Highway to Hell.

Thanks to Richard for the heads up.