Here’s the story.  Joe Trillo, who used to be a Republican but is now an Independent, likes to give campaign parties on his 65-foot yacht, the Lady M.  I think the M stands for Mendacious.

Joe is running for the Governor of Rhode Island.  Yesterday, he was running his yacht along the coastline with large campaign banners, blasting loud Sousa music.

His strategy was to approach a beach and announce that if elected, one of the many things he would do is put garbage cans on beaches so beachgoers wouldn’t have to carry their trash out in plastic bags. He’d play a John Philip Sousa march on what he describes as “very, very big sound equipment” before leaving for the next beach.

“You can hit 200,000 to 250,000 people in a day,” he said. “How else can you do that without spending a lot of money?”

I want you to listen to the news for five minutes and then tell me that the biggest problem facing the world today is beach goers having to carry out their own trash.

So he’s rocking along the coast in the full glory aboard the Lady M when he hits what was described as a “rock” and started taking on water. The Coast Guard had to come rescue him.  Do you know who pays the Coast Guard?

I am comfortable in my belief that he didn’t hit a rock; he hit a wall of stupidity.

Joe says that President Donald Trump inspired his gubernatorial run.

Really.  He said that. Like we couldn’t figure that out on our own.

Thanks to Claudia for the heads up.

I’m not sure what civility is anymore.  I’m also not sure why Republicans didn’t know that word when Barack Obama was president.

When you choose to have a public life, you gotta take the scorn if you take the praise. Back when I was newspapering, I had people anonymously pay for my lunch. The waiter would say something like, “Your meal has been taken care of by someone who enjoys your writing but wishes to remain anonymous.”  I got flowers from people who wished to remain nameless. I got sweet notes.

I also got hate mail, some of it frightening. I got spit on in the grocery store. No kidding, it was on the canned goods aisle by a woman who told me that I was a horrible person for saying that Tom DeLay was a liar and a fraud.  When I responded with only a smile, she hauled off and spit on me.

It’s life. I chose to be a liberal columnist in a very red county. You take the good with the bad. It’s the cost doing business.

I did most all of my confronting of public offices on the grounds of the public buildings where they worked. I once followed three county commissioners into the men’s room where they were meeting during a recess to get their stories straight.  I became a minor courthouse legend when I caused a crooked district court judge to wet his pants in the courthouse hallway when I confronted him with documentation that could put him in jail.

Congressman John Lewis commanded us all to make good trouble. I try to follow that every day.

I do not believe that violence is ever called for, nor are threats. The people who chose to work for the Trump administration are not immune to criticism.  They should be willing to feel a little emotional discomfort to understand how it feels.

They lock children in cages but feel the right to have lunch in peace at a fancy restaurant.  I, who have dealt with this myself, say make good trouble.

Ted Cruz has been chastised by the FEC three times this election cycle for exceeding donation limits.  Three. That’s not a common thing. Only three other senate candidates have received an excessive contribution notice and those three only received one notice. Reminder: Ted Cruz has three.

Local Texas newspapers have taken note of this – but what with all this fake news and stuff, there’s no telling if any Republicans even read the newspaper.

My guess is that this has something to do with it. The Houston Chronicle did not mince words.

Campaigns have become aggressive in signing up monthly donors to create a steadier stream of funding. On President Donald Trump’s campaign website, donors are given the option of checking a box to make their one-time donation or a monthly contribution.

Cruz has a similar feature on his website, but with a key difference. Instead of giving people the chance to opt-in to a monthly donation by checking a box, supporters are automatically enrolled in monthly donations unless they un-check a box.

Ted Cruz is slicker than an eel dipped in axel grease, Honey.

By the way, his opponent, who has out-raised him $13 million to $9 million hasn’t exceeded limits even once.

(The Houston Chronicle has the best story on this.)

Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.  

The Trump Administration has decided that breast feeding is not a good idea.

At the World Health Assembly, the United States upended a resolution simply stating that breastfeeding is best for both mom and baby.

I understand that Senator Doug Jones of Alabama is in a very red state.  I also understand for Democrats in a red state doing what it takes to get reelected far surpasses doing what is right, but Ho Boy!, this one takes the cake.

“I’m open to voting yes. I’m open to voting no. We don’t know who the nominee is going to be yet,” Jones told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union. “I don’t think my role is to rubber stamp for the President, but it’s also not an automatic knee-jerk no, either.”

Okay, wouldn’t it be easier to say, “whoever writes me the biggest campaign donation gets my vote, Skippy.”

I flat know that having Jones beat Roy Moore was a wonderful thing, but Jones left the victory stand and took an immediate right turn. He also started to take himself far too seriously.

If Jones didn’t understand on election night that (1) Black women are who put him in office, and (2) he’s only going to have one term to put himself in the history book, then he’s a damn fool and the GOP can have him.

Thanks to Brian for the heads up.

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Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

However, I don’t think his folders are that thick.  I bet they just gave him pictures of them and some darts.