Archive for July, 2020
Texas Bar Association
The Texas Bar Association president said something racist online last week and everybody is having a fit.
ON EDIT: I forgot to tell you. He has been president of the Texas Bar for three weeks. Quick work!
He lives in my town. Oh yeah, he’s a former cop and a criminal defense lawyer, but mostly a former cop. He’s as rightwing as you can be without falling off the coast of South Carolina no matter where you live.
His name is Larry McDougal and he advertises his face on billboards and in the local newspaper.
Now I have a question. You have a guy who votes Republican, used to be a cop, and then goes out of his way to look like Boss Hogg, I mean, gets the same hat and obnoxious tie and then you act like he’s some kind of dude all behind criminal justice reform. No. You should have seen that coming a mile off.
Now, here’s what he did last week. He went on a local rightwing (and generally mean and incorrect blog) to offer his unrequested opinion on whether or not the woman in the picture was violating election law with that teeshirt.
Well, he’s damn wrong. Here’s the pertinent question: If one party is associated with black lives matter, which party is the one who believes black lives don’t matter?
Instead of telling you the names of lawyers and law associations who condemned his statement, it would be easier to tell you who supported him: no one.
Some enterprising lawyers started looking through his Facebook page and found, among other things, this.
McDougal issued a statement saying he meant no harm and that he’d changed his mind about Black Lives Matter since 2015. However, after searching Facebook, there was no evidence of when or where that had happened. And, to show how sincere he is about it, he’s gonna form a task force to look into ways to be the State Bar could be more inclusive to minority lawyers – not just African American lawyers, but all minority lawyers. If you break the code, I think he just said All Lives Matter.
A damn Task Force. Honey, we are about a decade beyond a damn task force.
And finally, another of his Facebook posts. See what I mean about him being more cop than lawyer?
He needs to resign.
Other Than That, How Did You Like The Play, Mrs. Lincoln?
Thom Tillis, Republican senator from the state of North Carolina, spoke to the state’s virtual convention and predicted that Republicans will win in November because …
Excuse me, Thom, are you speaking to the ones who are still alive?
Yeah, and the voyage of the Titanic was oh so pleasant before the mild happenstance.
Tell us, Thom, what horror lies around the corner that you know about but we don’t and you’re gonna screw that up, too.
Yeah, back in February when we were just locking kids in cages and separating them from their parents. Boy howdy, those were the good old days!
Thom, Honey, I remember back in Obama when things were really better.
Neo Scaramucci
It turns out that Anthony Scaramucci still holds the world record for the shortest tenure of a Trump major chief of anything, but not by much. He lasted 10 days as Chief of Communications.
Mark Meadows, Trump’s current chief of staff, is already talking about leaving and it’s only been four months.
But, not what you’d call a good four months.
“Look at what has happened on Meadows’ watch: the walk to Lafayette Square, the complete mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis, the defense of the Confederate flag and the botched handling of the intelligence on the Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers.
Yep, that’s pretty much a shopping list of failure.
For everybody watching, the problem appears to be the same problem every other chief of staff has had – Jared Kushner. Jared does not appear to be good at anything except screwing things up, which is also Donald Trump’s speciality.
Big Bad John
Texas Senator John Cornyn is trying real damn hard to curry favor with Donald Trump because … hell, your guess is as good as mine. Trump is running 5 points behind Biden in Texas.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said during a TV interview Thursday that it’s unclear whether children can get and transmit COVID-19. That same day, Texas reported more than 550 COVID infections in children 9 and younger.
And now, Cornyn is backing off, saying he knew for a damn certain fact that children can get the virus but his earlier statement was about transmitting the virus.
So, let’s do an experiment. Let’s bring all Texas schoolchildren back to school and find out. That seems like the simplest way to find out, doesn’t it?
Texas Democrats will pick Cornyn’s opponent tomorrow in a special election runoff. It’s between State Senator Royce West and former Air Force pilot M J Hegar.
Criminal in Chief Commutes Felony Sentence of Closest Associate
Roger Stone, Trump’s self described chief dirty trickster, has just had his sentence commuted by The President of the United States Don Donaldo Trumps, freeing him from paying the price for colluding with Russians, slandering political opponents and violating virtually every modicum of common decency and then lying to the DOJ about it. Let’s be clear here: Roger Stone colluded with Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange to disclose thousands of emails stolen from DNC and staff emails to damage Hillary Clinton in 2016. He also participated in operations to slander Clinton and others. THEN, he lied to the DOJ about his activities. In an act of abject corruption (once again) Trump commuted Stone’s sentence to protect him from justice.
This corruption must not stand. Come January 20, 2021, the jails must be opened for those who have violated the public trust and made millions on the backs of honest Americans.