God works in mysterious ways, and I can prove it.

The Texas Supreme Court is about to hear a fight between people who have brains on one side and the Texas Governor and Attorney General on the other.  It’s a real clear cut line.

The right to vote by mail if you are afraid of catching a deadly disease while voting in person is being challenged. It’s been upheld by district courts and one federal court but Republicans took it to the Texas Supreme Court because every damn justice on the Texas Supreme Court is a snake oil Republican.  Every. Damn. One.

In Texas you can vote by mail if you are over 65, will be out of the county during early voting and election day, are residing in a county jail awaiting trail, or are disabled.  Texas does not define disabled.  In Texas, you are disabled if you say you are disabled.

The run-off election is July 14 and early voting will begin July 6.

Everybody knows the Republican Coven of a Supreme Court we have in Texas will rule for extremely long lines to vote on new machines that no one has used before.  Yesterday, they stayed the decision of a lower court.

And then … then …

The little print says, “We began to exhibit symptoms last week, despite diligently complying with stay-at-home rules,” the justice wrote.

Justice Debra Lehrmann and her husband both got the virus.

Now it gets interesting.

Lehrmann’s doctor has told her that it takes at least 10 days to recover from the coronavirus but that she must track how she feels and be symptom-free for three days before being sure that the virus is gone. She is now on her 10th day of having the virus, and her husband is on his 11th day, she said. But they’ve both measured a fever this week, which means the infection is still there.

Millions of Americans have known for decades that our government was broken, but I don’t think any of us realized just how badly is was broken.  The Trump infestation of the WH has exposed the manifest weaknesses in our system of government which cynical career politicians have exploited for personal and ideological gain.  When the Framers established our Constitution and supporting laws, the assumption was that that those who governed would uphold the public trust; if an elected official betrayed that trust, they provided a provision for impeachment and removal from office.  They didn’t envision a time that the majority of representatives would be abjectly corrupt.  We’re there.

The most shocking feature of the Trump regime is the amount of damage one president can inflict with virtually zero accountability.  In three short years, Trump took over the Republican party, the Congress, the courts, and even the Justice Department.  He has pardoned criminals, unilaterally withdrawn from longstanding treaties, started trade wars, attacked countries, disbanded entire agencies that blinded us to massive threats like the Coronavirus pandemic, has undone decades of environmental, education, employment, and safety regulations, wrecked dozens of alliances, sidled up to murderous dictators, and ceased funding global efforts that support healthcare, security, and human rights.  He illegally extorted a foreign leader for to damage a political opponent.  He is actively trying to whip up a scandal in the Obama administration which is invented from whole cloth with zero basis in fact.  He personally profits from his presidency on a daily basis, and makes public policy to advantage himself and his family.

Worse, anyone who gets in his way is either fired, slandered, or both.  He’s now fired an FBI director, two Attorneys General, and five Inspectors General.  He continues attempts to illegally out the whistleblower in the Ukrainian extortion effort.  His current AG is violating the public trust and the law by covering up major crimes and participating in smearing Trump’s political opponents by initiating “investigations” of non-existent crime. As he does this, he willfully ignores the tsunami of actual crimes being committed by Trump and his cronies.

How did we get here?  In a word, corruption.  The US is no longer a functioning democracy and the majority of our elected representatives no longer actually represent Americans.  Over the last 4 decades the money has gotten so big for congressmen and senators that making money has taken over from representation.  To avoid responsibility, congress has steadily ceded authority to the president.  For example, Article 1 of the Constitution specifically authorizes the CONGRESS to determine international trade policy, but for years that authority has been delegated to the president under “expedited” rules.   Trump has run wild with that authority, starting and inflaming global trade wars while the Congress (especially the Senate) just sits there doing nothing.  The Constitution also assigns authority to declare wars on other nations, but through legislation has also delegated that to the president, leading to never ending war and deadly attacks on other countries without so much as a “Go to hell” to the Congress.  It goes on and on, from selling off federal land to private interests to unwinding decades of environmental protections to shutting down agencies and engaging in abject corruption which lines the president’s and his children’s pockets with zero oversight.  Add all that to a now hands-off anything political judiciary and we don’t even remotely resemble the federal structure envisioned by the Framers.

The Framers designed a system of checks and balances to prevent rule by one branch and corruption.  Over the years all three branches have altered that design and what we now have is a zombie version of the federal system.  Add a profoundly corrupt president with evil enablers and you get what we see today, a president unilaterally wrecking the US government, the economy, the healthcare system, the federal safety net, anti-corruption legislation, international treaties, global alliances, and even the rule of law.

The system is broken.  Even when we rid ourselves of the Trump infestation, massive damage will have been done chances are remote that anyone left in authority will have incentive to fix it.  Yeah, it ain’t pretty.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

About 15 years ago, when I was still working at the newspaper, we had a state representative named Charlie Howard.  Charlie has gone on to the great Republican Shock in the sky, but he was a doozy while he was here.

Charlie was a Tom DeLay Christian, you know the kind, the kind that came to Christianity later in life to try to cover up some truly evil things they’d done.  He and Tom, neighbors, were zealots at the Holy House of Rich Zealots – Sugar Creek Baptist Church.

Charlie was giving a speech to the Belles of Heaven Republican Women’s Club one night and one of the women was spying. She had a tape recorder in her purse.

Charlie was asked a question about the role of women in politics. He said they had a role and were doing a fine job of it, without ever defining what it was. But, he wanted to make it clear that men were still head of the household and should making all the big decisions.  “I’m not saying that. God is saying that.” You gotta admire a man who gives God his due.

One woman asked, “My husband died and I still have children at home. Who should be making the decisions?” Charlie, a man with answers, suggested that there would surely be a man in her neighborhood or in her church who could help her with decisions and prayer.

No, really, it was on tape. He said that.

So, I took it to the newspaper and ran a column directly quoting Charlie. I said I seriously doubted there were any women in Sugar Creek willing to loan their husbands out the the newly life-insurance rich lady, so since this was all Charlie’s idea, I’m sure he’d be glad to help.

I said, “So if you need a man to sit in his ratty shorts making a damn mess with peanuts during the football game, call Charlie. If you need a man to go to your office party with you and make a fool of himself, Charlie is your guy!  If you need a man to move a snake off your patio or somebody to belch and scratch at the dinner table, Charlie can help you with that. If you need someone to have a stoopid opinion, call Charlie. Charlie will be your man.” And I published his phone number.

He called me the day after publication and was miffed, informing me that his “private” phone number had been ringing off the wall. “Susan, it clearly says on the tape that this is not my decision, it’s God’s decision.”  I replied that I quoted him about that but, apparently, nobody believed him.  “And that private phone number, you better get a different name for it, Charlie.  Hey, God told me me to say that.”

Well, I think Charlie has been reincarnated.

A Wylie, Texas, Church of Christ minister is also the mayor. Eric Hogue has announced to city council that only men can lead the prayer at city council meetings.

“I am a Church of Christ preacher and I am a member of the Church of Christ and we take the new testament literally,” Mayor Hogue said.

In the email, Mayor Hogue quotes a bible verse that says: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”

Now the mayor claims this is just political thing because the election got moved until November for Coronavirus.  Nope, I’m pretty sure I thought women could lead prayers before Coronavirus.  And I also though government prescribed prayer has been un-American for a long damn time.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.