Here’s the deal. Trump is playing all coy and fey over whether or not he’s going to pardon Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who is charged with all manner of cold-blooded war crimes including murdering a prisoner under his charge.

Along comes Duncan Hunter, a Republican congressman from California, with a full belly from being charged with using $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for family vacations and other personal expenses.

Hunter, a veteran, is trying to make Gallagher more normal.

“Eddie did one bad thing that I’m guilty of, too — taking a picture of the body and saying something stupid,” Hunter said at the meeting about border issues in the Southern California town of Ramona, according to the Times of San Diego.

Hunter, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan when he was on active duty (he later was deployed to Afghanistan as a reservist, as well), said he had taken pictures “just like that when I was overseas,” according to the Times. Hunter said he did not text or post the images.

That right there violates the Defense Department Law of War.  But hell, at least he didn’t spend $250,000 in campaign donations for a family vacation in Hawaii, tequila shots, rounds of golf, and I don’t even want to know what else.

Gallagher might want to find somebody of better moral character to vouch for him.

Gallagher: Thieving Sleezeballs Did The Same Damn Thing ain’t much of a defense.

The Harriet Tubman twenty dollar bill rubber stamp is here.  Make your own $20 bills.

Click right here to get your stamp the minute they restock.

Thanks to Helen for the heads up.

I told you about about the enormous screw-up over so-called and nonexistent voter fraud found by the Texas Secretary of State, David Whitley.  He claimed there were 95,000 non-citizens registered to vote in Texas.  And then Attorney General Ken Paxton hollered that he was going to prosecute every damn one of them who tried to vote. Come to find out, Whitley, who spared no expense, was already having local elections offices take these 95,000 people off their voter rolls when it was discovered that his numbers were wildly and insanely incorrect.

Once it was uncovered that most of these people had become citizens during the time period in question and that duplicate names were rampant, all of a sudden it was oopsy time and they just wanted us to forget what they’d done.

Whitley was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott.  He’d been Abbott’s Chief of Staff.  So after all this expensive screw-up, including lawyers to defend against all the groups filing suit, Abbott up and gave Whitley a 49% pay raise so that the new Secretary of State was making almost $200,000 a year.

The Texas Senate has just enough votes to keep the Whitley from getting approval.  They hung tough and did it.  Slimy little Whitley, the boy who cannot count, resigned minutes before the Texas Senate adjourned.

A personal thank you to Texas Senator Kirk Watson and all the Texas Senators for a job well done.

Texas Republican Congressvarmint Chip Roy is the former Chief of Staff to Ted Cruz. He’s also a rabid climate change denier. And a sumbitch. He’s a sumbitch.

He rejected a $4.4 billion disaster relief bill because it did not have any money in it for Trump’s border wall.  Which, while I agree is a damn disaster, does not need any money. His single vote defeated the bill because it had already been hammered out and was on the consent agenda. He was just being a giant sumbitch.

It’s not like a Texas congressman is refusing to help the military and people in foreign states.  Oh hell, no. Chip Roy vote also prohibited releasing funds to Texas for hurricane Harvey.

They’ll vote again on it next week when Chip Roy’s vote is just one vote instead of a headline grabbing total wipeout of a bill that everyone agreed on. But that’s another couple of weeks where people will suffer so Trumpians can shake their glitter bootie over the damn wall.

Thanks to everyone for the heads up.

Cameron Jeffrey Wilson, who is 27 years old and lives in Washington State, had himself one of those days.

It all started when he had a pistol in his pocket that accidentally went off and he shot himself in the genitals.  Now, you’d think that would be the worst thing that could happen to you in one day.  But, it wasn’t.

Instead of heading directly to a hospital, Wilson instructed his girlfriend to first drive to Lincoln Park in Wenatchee, where he gave the pistol to a friend, the affidavit said. A 13-time convicted felon, it is illegal for Wilson to possess a firearm.

But oh hell, it’s still not over.

As he was having surgery, a balloon filled with marijuana fell out of his anus.

‘Bout the same time that was happening, Chelan County sheriff’s detectives arrived at the scene and discovered a pair of bloody jeans in his car.  The jeans had methamphetamines in the pocket.

Instead of arresting him at the hospital, detectives decided that he, and no doubt they, would be better off letting him go home and charging him later.  He healed up a little and turned himself in two days after he was officially charged.

This should have been the end.  It wasn’t.

As they were searching him another bag of marijuana was found in his … oh hell, you know where.

They finally get him booked and into a cell.

From the jail, Wilson made multiple calls to his girlfriend asking her not to cooperate with investigators, according to a probable cause affidavit filed April 26 in superior court. Authorities listened to the calls and subsequently charged him with four counts of tampering with a witness.

Now see, the cops have a gunshot, bloody jeans, drugs, and an anus.  Do they really need her testimony?

He’s being charged with witness tampering, second-degree felon in possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of meth, as well as possession of a controlled substance in a correctional facility.  And all he did was shoot himself in the winkie and things went downhill from there.

He’s being held on $110,000 bond.

Thanks to Fenway Fran for the heads up.

Remember earlier this month we were talking about John Bolton banging on the war drum and Trump moving military forces into the Persian Gulf?  There were ominous warnings about Iran’s aggression and our bases being put on high alert in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Remember, too, how no other country saw the threat and dared to say so? Well, just as quickly as the threat appeared, it also disappeared, ending when Trump, standing in the West Wing door, said, “I hope not,” when a reporter shouted the question about going to war with Iran.

Now we know what all that was about – arms sales to Saudi Arabia.  Trump has made some backroom deal with MBS and the House of Saud to sell weapons to them, along with the UAE and Jordan.  The trick?  By declaring a another fake emergency, Trump can bypass Congress, which approves arms sales to other countries.  Since MBS had journalist Jamal Kashoggi brutally murdered (and Trump didn’t do anything about it) Congress has refused to support the Saudi attacks on Yemen or to approve arms sales to them.  So, Trump just ignored Congress, again.

This is how Trump operates.  When the invertebrates in Congress occasionally stand up, or when the courts step in, Trump just disregards the law and acts unilaterally to do what he wants.  The strength of our system of government is also its greatest weakness.  The Founders designed a system of checks and balances to keep power in check.  The problem with that system is that they never dreamed that each of the branches of government would be simultaneously corrupt; they anticipated a Trump-like president, so gave the Congress co-equal power to control or remove him/her if necessary.  If the Congress is also corrupt, the system collapses, and this is exactly what’s happening.  Trump does what he wants, lines his own pockets, destabilizes entire regions of the world, and is making the US an unstable oligarchy with widening social injustice and gaping income inequality.  When Congress does makes some lame effort to slow his corruption, His Orangeness just doubles down and does what he wants.  McConnell and company just shrug, since they’re busily packing the courts with radicals and weirdos while Trump infests the WH.

At least we now know why the fake concern over a fake threat from Iran so Trump can declare a fake emergency to funnel weapons to his fellow oligarchs who are differentiated from him only by their garb, language, and hair style.