All of our glorified politicians and Chamber of Commerce representatives continually crow about Texas being a “free market” state with a “light touch” when it comes to regulations.  But is that really true?  Actually, no.  It’s only free market for those who pay for it.  To wit:

• You can’t buy a Tesla directly from the company in Texas.  You have to buy it online and have it delivered from California.  Bills to allow direct sales have died 3 times since 2013, killed by big money from the powerful auto dealers lobby to protect their own dealer franchises.
• Under the same Byzantine laws promoted by Texas auto dealers, Warren Buffett was prevented from keeping his chain of auto dealers in Texas because his company happens to also own an RV manufacturing company in Indiana. Buffett tried to fix the problem, but Teabaggers shut him down and the bill never made it to the floor.  In Texas, manufacturers cannot sell cars.  I know, weird, right?
• You can’t buy wine online in Texas like you can in most other states.  The powerful liquor lobby controls the governor’s mansion and both houses in the legislature, and has had enacted more Byzantine laws that are inconsistently applied.  These laws treat beer, distilled spirits, and wine differently, with complicated permitting requirements.  A national online distributor, Wines Til Sold Out, recently received a cease and desist letter from the State of Texas and has shut down sales to the state.  Texas consumers lose again.
• This year, the powerful beer distributor lobby, which has doled out over $11 million to Texas elected officials (Greg Abbott got $1.4 million, and Dan Patrick got $688,000), got a roll back of the beer law passed in 2013 which encouraged small craft brewers to invest in Texas by lifting insanely low limits on how much beer can be made by small brewers and allowing in-brewery sales directly to customers.  That law was so successful that small brewers increased by 3 fold since 2011 drawing the ire of the beer distributors who don’t like competition.  They hate it so much that they got a new law passed this year that limits the size of brewers who can sell directly in their own taprooms.  The limit is a production size of 225,000 barrels in all of their facilities regardless of whether those facilities are actually in Texas.  This shuts down craft beer company Oskar Blues of Colorado, who just spent millions opening a new brewery and tap room in Austin, and also affects Deep Ellum Brewing which is near the 225,000 barrel limit and has already announced that, because of this law, it will now seek to invest in other more friendly states.  Oh, and BTW, mega brewers like Anheuser Busch, Heineken, and Miller-Coors were all given carve outs to the size requirement.  I’m shocked, just shocked, I tell you.  Well, not really.  Oh, and for reference, Anheuser Busch produces about 125 million barrels a year.
• But it gets worse…In this same law, small craft brewers must pay a per barrel fee to local beer distributors for beer they sell in their own facilities and that is never actually touched by the distributor.  That’s right, folks, the Great State of Texas is so “free market” that it has made a law that allows huge multi-billion dollar distributing companies to freely extort money from small brewers for the privilege for selling their own beer in their own taprooms.  You’re welcome.  This bill is on Abbott’s desk, and if he doesn’t veto it, will become law on June 18th.  With $1.4 million of beer lobby money in his pocket, what do you predict he’ll do?

By now, most of those paying attention know that Texas is not a “free market” state, not in the slightest.  It has been turned into a corrupt banana republic that benefits the wealthy and powerful while trampling on the small businesses all over the state it claims to promote.  But the really weird thing?  Those same business people and consumers who are hurt by this corruption are the very people who support and vote for those who participate in it on a daily basis.

You can only draw one conclusion from these clear facts – voters in Texas are stupid.

You remember that idiot doctor in New York, right?  You know, Dr. Harold Bornstein, the one who published the letter about Trump’s health that said,

“If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

Everyone, even conservatives, laughed at that one.  Well, it happened again today, sort of, when Trump’s lawyer issued a two-page statement of lies saying Trump has been “completely vindicated” by James Comey’s testimony today.  It’s exactly the kind of manure that regularly issues forth from Trump’s team, but THAT is not the real entertainment value here.  The actual entertainment value is that this lawyer, personal counsel to the President of the United States, misspelled the word president.  No, really, he misspelled the word president.  Here it is, for all to see.

Trump can sure pick ’em.  LOL.

He also doesn’t know what a Qatar is, but he’s pretty sure that George Harrison played one on Rubber Soul.

We’re going to go to Douglas County, Oregon, first.  That place is a mess.  They voted 65% for Donald Trump.   When Barack Obama came to the town after the shooting of nine people at the local community college, “he was greeted by hundreds of angry protestors, who lined the streets waving signs saying “Obama-Free Zone,” “NOBAMA,” and even “Go Back To Kenya.”

This week, the county closed their last public library, because … freedom.

David Jacques, publisher of the Roseburg Beacon, a conservative weekly newspaper, told Vocativ that residents weren’t against public libraries, but a tax increase of any kind. “We’re an independent bunch,” he said. “We don’t have a high expectation of government services. Many of us would like to see them significantly scaled back.”

Tax cuts have resulted in emergency services no longer operating 24 hours a day.  I suppose this is because they are an independent bunch.

But, here’s the most important result: They may not have enough money to hold future elections.

They, like many other tax haters, did not learn diddle squat from Kansas.

Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback preened all over the damn country promising that tax cuts would lead to grand prosperity and wonderment to blow your socks off.  Instead, they were down to cutting massive amounts of K-12 public education.

The legislature passed a tax increase.  Brownback vetoed it. The legislature overrode it.

State Rep. Barbara Ballard, a Lawrence Democrat, described feeling tremendous relief, and said she believes many Kansans will share that sensation.

“Now we have a source of money. Then we can work our way out of the hole that we’re in,” she said. “It’s almost like you can breathe.”

There is no trickle down. There is only violation of the social contract. And greed. Greed is a booger.

Thanks to Rick and Sandy for the heads up. 

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Right after Cheeto Jesus’ inauguration, half of the country’s US attorneys resigned.  For a reason known only to him, Trump then fired all the others.  Monday, during his almost daily Twitter rage, he bitterly complained that Democrats were holding up his nominations.  The problem?  There aren’t any nominations for Dems to block.  That’s right, folks, Trump has not nominated ONE new US attorney, and there are no US attorneys on duty in any city of the United States.  The speculation is that no competent attorney is willing to subject him or herself to such a career-ending decision.

Mr. Law & Order is actually Mr. Head Up His Ass (sorry, Momma), but it didn’t take a Phd in politics to figure that one out.