The Boston Globe carried a story that gave me indigestion.

President Trump would be able to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places nationwide during a federal election, a vast expansion of executive authority, if a provision in a Homeland Security reauthorization bill remains intact.

You know how Republicans always want to turn over the duties of the federal government to the states? Well, that’s only if the states are allowing women to control their own bodies or the states are doing a poop-poor job of intimidating voters. I mean, like California or Massachusetts. Texas is handing voter intimidation and suppression quite well because they are very good at it.

What the damn hell does the Secret Service have to do with an election in my hometown?  Hell, why don’t they just pull an ICE and a White Citizen’s Council for Heavy Artillery Van up to the front of every polling place?

Look, Trump is convinced that illegal voting cost him the popular vote in 2016.  I would not put it passed this idiot to hold a nationwide parade of armed federal agents under his command to every polling location in America.

Damn terrorist.  He’s just a damn terrorist.

Thanks to Deb T for the heads up.

The Democratic National Committee is meeting this weekend.  Members of the DNC are elected from each state and are tasked with setting policy and direction for the Democratic Party. I have friends on the DNC so I will probably be a lot nicer than I normally would be when talking about this.

The DNC is total caca del toro when it comes to Super Delegates.  That’s the nicest I can be.

Super Delegates are those party insiders who get a free ride to the Democratic National Convention as voting delegates because they are members of the DNC, elected officials, past party officers, former elected officials, friends of friends of past party officers, and God only knows how many are blood related or the product of political incest.  They comprise about 15% of the delegates and can sway a party presidential nomination.

It’s just not fair and it’s just not how democracy is supposed to work.

Every delegate to the national convention should be elected by their presidential preference.  The DNC said this weekend that they would “limit super delegates” but they won’t say how.  They formed another damn committee to look into it.  They kicked the can down the road – again.

I’m just about sick of them. Please let your DNC members know that you are made about this.  Also find out who the super delegates are in your state and ask them what makes them so damn special.

Thank you for some good old fashioned hell raising.

(I’m off the LaGrange, Texas, today to attend a planning session for my friend Cecil Webster who is running in a special election. I’ll be back tonight.)

They are having a lottery.

I hope none of them get attacked by a guy with an AR-15. I really do.

It was posted on Facebook two weeks after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Katy Police Officer’s Association main goal is to make the officers tasks easier and safer by purchasing those items that are not normally budgeted, fund crime prevention events, and youth sponsorships for the Katy area.

Maybe the best way to keep cops and kids safe is to ban assault rifles.  Just maybe.

Thanks to Sue for the heads up.

Yesterday, under extreme pressure from the public led by students from Marjory Stoneman High School, Florida governor Rick Scott signed a hastily drafted gun safety law that nibbled around the edges of our gigantic problem of gun violence.  Not completely lame, the new law does raise the minimum age for any gun purchase to 21, imposes a 3 day waiting period for gun purchases by unlicensed individuals, increases the budget for police in schools, raises the budget for mental health treatment for students, and bans bump stocks which should have never been legal to begin with.

What does the bill get wrong?  The bill stupidly legalizes arming school employees which actually INCREASES the risk of gun violence in the schools.  It doesn’t ban assault weapons.  It doesn’t even pause the sales of assault weapons while the state studies gun violence.  It doesn’t limit magazine size or limit ammunition sales.  It doesn’t strengthen the background check system.  In fact, a provision that closed the “lie and try” loophole was left out.  The “lie and try” provision would provide a mechanism to the state to charge people who lie on their background check form with a crime.  Right now, there is a federal criminal penalty for lying on the form, but in 37 states, including Florida, there is no mechanism for the FBI to notify the state that an applicant lied on the form.  Stupid, right? Easy to fix, right?  Well, they didn’t.

Sixty seven “A” rated Republicans voted for this bill, and, of course, the NRA immediately responded by suing the state in an effort to stop it, and its lobbyists have certainly already started threatening those politicians for daring to not do its bidding.

Nibbling around the edges of gun violence will do little to curb it, and will just add fuel to the gun nut argument that “laws don’t work”.  They’ll be correct, of course, since the poorly crafted gun safety bill will do little to actually increase gun safety.

Y’all, I wanna do this.  Admit it, you do, too.

I’m sure it doesn’t bother Manafort – after all, he knows for a dead solid guaranteed freeze-dried natural fact that he’s a damn traitor, but it would make me feel better.

It’s that time again.

Enjoy!