Jon Stewart was right a few years ago when he described Trump’s behavior as, “Gleeful Cruelty and Dickishness”.  At the time, Stewart was talking about Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” immigration plan that separated thousands of children from their parents at the border, and then purposely lost track of them, but his characterization most certainly applied to his intentional slow walking of funding relief to Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017.  There was absolutely no reason to do so except to make American citizens’ lives more miserable as if that was even possible.  As evidence that his cruelty was intentional.  He then obstructed investigations into his cruelty just because.  Trump is an asshole, just to be an asshole.  He relished wielding the power of the presidency to not serve Americans, but too harass those he didn’t like, and I don’t have to describe who it is who he didn’t like.

Disappointingly, but not surprising, the obstruction of oversight was led by Ben Carson, the comatose Secretary of Housing and Urban development.  His staff aided in the corruption, even as Carson feigned concern about delays in approvals by OMB of funding while refusing to cooperate with the IG trying to get to the bottom of the delays.  It was classic Trump…assuaging his own need for adoration while urinating on people who desperately needed help.

It boggles the mind that a human being can be such a shitbag, but we are talking about Trump, so that’s no surprise.

Sorry for being a little quiet, lately, y’all. I’m trying to help Ms. JJ while she’s out but I have been in one of those short-lived (I hope) periods of emotional overwhelm. Call it what you like, depression, grief – it’s that rock on my chest that refuses to move when I try to get out of bed. I walk around with a smile on my face, doing my daily business with a smile, all the while with knees shaking and my head repeating “just go back to bed. just go lay down. Just go close your eyes.”

My photos will show me smiling and at that moment, I’m genuine! But the happiness flitters away, the smile recedes, and the boulder settles itself back on my chest.

It’s been a tough year. So many of the comforts of a passing year that give us hope for renewal were just missing for a year. For me, baseball season is and has always been the ultimate symbol of everything being right in the world. My daddy always said there are three things you can always look forward to: Death, Taxes, and Opening Day. I used to get a phone call the first day pitchers and catchers reported to spring training. “Pitchers and Catchers Report!” he’d yell. I’d make an inane comment about how fast time flies and we’d trade texts and calls for the next few months about all things baseball. This has left a huge hole in my life every baseball season and each year it becomes harder to fill. Then came the pandemic.

My heart was almost mended enough from the sign-stealing scandal to give my Astros a new shot last year, but of course, Opening Day never came. The one person I wanted to share that with, my daddy, was no longer with me. He’d have thought the people cutouts were stupid but he would have probably bought one for me.

Opening Day came and went in 2021. Things are starting to get back to normal. My husband and I are fully vaccinated and can venture, masked, out into the world. But my husband’s mama and my daddy aren’t here, and I miss them. It’s funny how grief seems to sit dormant until all of a sudden it rears its head again. Because I believe in the baseball Gods, I’ve purchased some cheap seats to visit my team this weekend. I’ll be in the nosebleeds – with the real fans – and I hope my dad will be sitting in one of the seats that have been kept open to social distance, telling me which calls were shit and which rookies to watch out for. Hopefully the Astros get the COVID outbreak under control, soon.

I’ll feed my soul with some peanuts and popcorn, a hot dog, a giant ice-cold Dr. Pepper and a big foam sombrero. Maybe next week, the sun will shine a little brighter for me.

If you’re feeling depressed and would like someone to talk to, people are waiting at (877) 870-4673. Or just get going in the comments below, we’re good people here and would love to chat. If you are having thoughts of suicide, Please call 1-800-273-8255.

Oh, and one more thing. Just since it’s a politics blog I need to keep the theme. Ted Cruz Sucks.

The verdict of the jury in the Derek Chauvin murder trial has just been published, and it’s guilty on all three counts.  I believe this verdict is appropriate especially since Chauvin showed reckless disregard of George Floyd’s life as it drained away under his knee.  This trial is not just one trial of one murder.  It was hopefully a turning point in policing and our own culture that has accepted for far too many years inequality according to skin color and economic status.  This sordid story should change the conversation in America about race and the police.  How we respond to it will determine the direction of that change.

Growing up in Texas with two native Texans as parents has given me a wealth of old home sayings to fall back on in times like this. I find myself using them in class all the time and the students always snicker. I’m usually not sure if it is an age thing or a regional dialect thing. However, the phrase, “the pot calling the kettle black” just seems to be ringing in my ear.

Majorie Taylor Greene wants Maxine Waters expelled from Congress. God bless her heart. There are just some people that have been blessed without self-awareness. Greene is lucky to be in Congress and hopefully the good people of her state will get rid of her at the first opportunity. The House certainly could have expelled her and if they weren’t so divided between Q and progressive they probably would have.

At the heart of it all are supposed comments that Waters has made and a mistaken belief by many in this country. Greene cited that Waters is “inciting riots and Black Lives Matters terrorism.” Except, Black Lives Matter aren’t terrorists. Certainly, you don’t have to like them or their methods, but anyone calling them terrorists is obviously off their rocker. Of course, that’s no surprise when it comes to Greene.

As I write this, there has been no verdict in the Chauvin murder case. Yet, one cannot deny that this is one of those moments where we get to define our soul as a nation. Either we are for equal justice under the law or we aren’t. We are either for holding everyone accountable for their actions or we aren’t. While the verdict may or may not reflect our personal values, it is a moment that will take the temperature of the country at large.

The Rodney King event and subsequent trial happened when I was a teenager. I remember those same excuses then as we hear now. He was high. He was a criminal. He was dangerous. Heck, he didn’t die. Bones mend and bruises heal. He should consider himself lucky. One can only imagine the rage of hearing many of those same things 30 years later. One can only imagine the rage of seeing a country make almost no meaningful improvements in race relations with the police. Maybe those of us that want to judge that rage (MTG) can take a step back and try to understand where it is coming from. At least then we can save our own souls even if the collective one might be too far gone.

Today, Dan Patrick (who I regard as a lunatic) announced that he didn’t have enough votes to pass the Unqualified Carry Law that allows any idiot to openly (or concealed) carry a handgun in public without ANY licensing requirement.  He did say that if he got enough votes, he would advance the bill, and was looking for advice from the NRA and other gun advocacy organizations. Swell.  Thankfully, law enforcement is opposed to this bill for obvious reasons.

Gun nuts in Texas have been pushing the notion of Unqualified Carry for about 7 or 8 years now, even coining the term “Constitutional Carry” which doesn’t exist.  What it really is is Unqualified Carry, that is, the ability of anyone to carry a handgun openly without a permit and with no mechanism for law enforcement to examine a carrier’s qualifications.  The one successful thing the gun lobby, lead by the NRA, has done is to rewrite the Second Amendment over the last 5 decades pushing the notion that the Founders envisioned a society where guns are omnipresent; nothing could be farther from the truth, but it took decades of junk law based on manipulated and faked data to finally get this rewriting incorporated into caselaw. This rewrite culminated in the Heller decision, written by Antonin Scalia, who overturned two centuries of caselaw declaring the the Second Amendment was all about guns for everyone which it wasn’t. The Second Amendment was established to enable the new government to defend itself from 1) foreign enemies, and 2) insurrection.  All this bullshit being peddled about an armed citizenry being able to overthrow the US government for “tyranny” is just that: bullshit.  We saw the logical result of such bullshit on January 6th when brainwashed morons stormed the US Capitol to stop democracy from functioning and to force their own will on 300 million Americans.

Back to the present effort to undo remaining gun laws in Texas, and let’s be blunt; there is one reason, and one reason only for gun nuts and their various organizations to push Unqualified Carry, and that is to allow criminals and other unqualified individuals easy access to firearms so manufacturers can sell more firearms.  That’s it, period, end of sentence.  Gun nuts, lead by really crazy gun nuts, have been brainwashed by decades of bullshit published by the gun lobby that society must be the omnipresence of deadly firearms because society is evil and everyone must protect themselves and their families from scary dark people, socialist politicians, and government tyranny that they can’t define.

To make matters worse, Texas allows unregulated private sales and internet sales of ammunition and gun parts including 80% receivers which allow criminals who can’t put their hands on a firearm to just build one.  To take away the permitting requirement for handgun carry opens the floodgates for criminals, many of whom who have pushed for Unqualified Carry because they can’t get a license due to their past criminal records.

When a law is being considered, the question needs to be asked: Will this law make citizens lives better or safer?  Because this law puts more guns in unqualified hands, the answer is a resounding no.  The Unqualified Carry law won’t improve any lives (except criminals).  Because it will put more guns on the street, it will make law enforcement more difficult, risk law abiding citizens’ lives, AND enable criminals to carry guns without being challenged.  It will greatly complicate police officers’ jobs while a crime is being committed, and will slow their response.  In short, there is no good reason, no great need, and no problem that will be solved by allowing Unqualified Carry.   It’s already proven that the presence of guns increases violence, increases crime, and increases deaths.  This law will do no good, and cause a lot of grief for Texans, as if we needed that.