North Carolina Republican Congressvarmint and renown gunslinger Madison Cawthorn attempted to bring a handgun through security at the Asheville airport in February, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

Ya gotta remember that Cawthorn is the dude that said —

Rep. Madison Cawthorn said President Joe Biden’s call to offer COVID-19 vaccines door-to-door could lead to the government taking people’s guns and bibles.

He promised to “prosecute Dr. Fauci” because, according to Cawthorn, Fauci was a pain of the Chinese Communist Party.

Come to find out, he comes by his constant lying pretty naturally. And, also coming naturally to Republicans, he’s pervert, too.

The gun on the airplane?

“Five months ago, while boarding a flight, Rep. Cawthorn erroneously stowed a firearm in his carry-on (that often doubles as a range bag) instead of his checked bag,” Micah Bock, a spokesman for the congressman, said in a statement to both The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer. “The firearm was secured, and unchambered. Rep. Cawthorn endeavors to always follow TSA guidelines, and quickly rectified this situation before boarding his flight.”

And then get this:

Cawthorn was told he could pick up the gun after he returned to the state. He was not charged with a crime or issued a fine and retrieved the weapon on Feb. 22.

Now, if it had been you or me? Oh, there’s a fine between $3,000 and $10,000, plus a criminal referral.

Cawthorn gets his glock back.  Other people who accidentally put a firearm in their luggage aren’t so lucky.

Today the DOJ ordered the IRS to release Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways & Means Committee, reversing one more Trump corruption of the department.  I’m not celebrating, but grateful we’re gradually taking back our government from the Orange Fascist.  I won’t be happy, though, until a jury reads a verdict of “guilty”.

I have a good weekend story for you.

There’s a guy named John Pierre Dupont a/k/a “John Gary Rinaldo.”  The story on his name is this: John Gary Rinaldo legally changed his name to Pierre Dupont in California in 2012.

He was indicted in 2019 for stealing more than $250,000 through multiple scam political PACs.

Yesterday he entered a guilty plea. He had several political contribution scams going and here’s just one of them:

Another website operated by DUPONT purported to be raising money “to unite immigrant families,” falsely claiming that donations to the Foundation for Sanity in Politics PAC would “go to help pay our volunteer attorneys’, doctors’, nurses’ and social workers’ costs and pay for transportation to unite immigrant families.”  In fact, that PAC had no volunteers or staff, and dedicated no funds to paying for any action or advocacy.

He also had a PAC “raising money” for Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, and other Democrats.  He used his previous name – John Gary Rinaldo – on the scam paperwork.

And wanna talk about cheeky? He even had a plan to keep from reporting the donations at all, making his scam undetectable.  On the Bernie Sander’s site, he pleaded …

“EVERY TIME WE PROCESS YOUR CREDIT CARD DONATION, THE BIG BANKS TAKE UP TO 40% OF THE DONATIONS JUST FOR PROCESSING YOUR CREDIT CARD DONATION…THAT IS WHY WE ARE GIVING YOU THE OPTION…TO MAKE YOUR DONATIONS IN CASH OR CHECK.”

Once caught, he skipped out on a $100,000 bail bond after he was indicted. He became a fugitive at the age of 80.

The U.S. Marshals found him hiding out in Oklahoma when he ran a stop sign close to his house and they ran his name.  Elsewise he’d have just continued his life of crime.

This is how a life of crime ends.  The 82-year-old PAC scammer wound up handcuffed to a hospital bed 24 hours a day under constant watch by 1-2 U.S. Marshals.

A funny thing happened last night. We were watching the Olympics and minding our own business when we perused CNN online and saw the headline and picture. It was someone my wife had gone to school with. She was right there plastered on the headline. Seems she had not taken the vaccine and was now in the hospital.

She was quoted as saying that she wasn’t anti-vax, but just hadn’t gotten around to taking it. Sure. Makes perfect sense. There are tons of things I don’t seem to get around to doing. I haven’t finished cleaning the garage. I haven’t gone to the dentist in years. There are still a stack of papers on the kitchen table that need to be sorted. I’m sure many of you have a similar list of chores that keep piling up.

A part of this is simple priorities. We do the things that are important to us and put off the things that aren’t. So, for this person it seems getting the jab just wasn’t a priority. She admitting being mad at herself and my wife confirmed she has been like this for the past 30 years.

Some people are selfish. Some people are lazy. Okay, let’s get real here. Most people are selfish and most people are lazy. Most people don’t do what’s best for them even when they know what that is. For approximately half of the population, it is also about knowing more than the experts and not wanting to be told what to do.

In less than two weeks we will be returning to school. The governor (in his infinite wisdom) has lifted the mask mandate. To put it more accurately, he has said that you cannot mandate masks. So, some people will wear them, but most people likely will not. It is the same with the vaccine. Some people got the shot and some people didn’t

As negative as it might sound, this just isn’t good enough. Time and memorial have proven that we can’t successfully do this. You can’t simply allow people to make up their own mind on things like this. They have to be drug, kicking and screaming, into the future. It happened with the polio vaccine. It happened with the small pox vaccine. It’s happened with the measles and the mumps. We had to force people to get the shot.

Small pox is gone. Polio is virtually gone and certainly gone in the United States. We’ve put a serious dent in measles, chicken pox, and the mumps as well. Your feelings and my feelings didn’t matter. We got the shot or we didn’t go to school. We could find an obscure YouTube video or a Google site that spouted some bullshit all we wanted. We still got the shot.

COVID isn’t a dirty garage. COVID isn’t a stack of papers on the kitchen table. COVID isn’t a cavity or potential root canal that is being pushed back. It’s not an uncut lawn or faded siding on the house. Now, that we are going back to school it is high time we start requiring the shot at least of all the adults working in the school. Children over 12 should be getting it too. COVID doesn’t care about your feelings about vaccines and we shouldn’t either. Sit down. Shut up. Get the shot.

I’m babysitting a cute little boy for a couple of days but he’s busy with his Avengers sticker book and Sponge Bob coloring book right now so I have time to tell you a coupe of things.

I plan on doing this more often so just get your butt used to it.

First thing, an Assistant Attorney General in Texas just made an enormous nincompoop of himself.

WASHINGTON — A deputy Texas attorney general called Simone Biles a “selfish, childish national embarrassment” in a tweet as some Texas conservatives have piled on the Olympic gymnast for pulling herself out of events this week.

Okay, take a deep breath.  Here’s a guy working for a man who is an indicted felon who is doing all he can to keep from going to trial because he’s guilty as thunder.  And, his boss spent January 6th with Donald Trump, offering legal advice.  And, earlier this year the entire upper management of the Texas Attorney General’s office walked off the job because Paxton continues to violate the law and the trust of the people of Texas to enrich himself and his friends.

And he’s going to call someone else a national embarrassment? Oh, that’s cute. It’s a game, Butthead. Biles is a young woman playing a game. Ken Paxton is a grownass man destroying people’s lives, and even gleefully watching them die.  Get the hell off my internet, idiot.

Which bring us to … we had a special election in Texas to replace a dead congressman. He was the kind of congressman who most people never even noticed that he died.

Trump took great interest in race.  When it started looking close in the runoff between two Republicans, Trump endorsed the congressman’s wife, Susan Wright. When it started looking like the race was going to be close, Trump dumped $350,000 into the race, most of it in the last week of the campaign, to win it.

Oops.

The unexpected loser in Tuesday’s special Texas congressional election was Susan Wright, the widow of the North Texas district’s previous Republican representative. But the bigger loser may have been former President Donald Trump.

At a time that Trump is pressuring Republicans to follow his leadership, the defeat of the candidate he strongly backed in a friendly Texas district raises questions about his political clout outside the GOP, in the broader electorate.

That was the Dallas Morning News.

I’m sure Trump will say that they stole it from him because that’s just the kind of loser ninnybaby he is.

I’ve  been told I complain a lot. It comes naturally I guess. Teachers as a group complain a lot. It’s our favorite pastime in the teacher’s lounge. It extends to time at home and then our time here. There’s nothing wrong with letting off a little steam and cussing under your breath a little. Yet, at some point we need a dose of positivity.

Everyone has their only personal stuff and I’m no different. My summer has been spent in one doctor’s office after another as I try to manage the effects of diabetes on the body. I look for silver linings anywhere I can get them. Combine that with COVID and it’s enough to make anyone go running to the funny farm.

Ironically enough, that’s where I found a silver lining. Mental health is usually something no one focuses on until there is a mass shooting. Then, it becomes a convenient crutch to lean on until the news cycle moves to the next crisis. While Washington and Austin dither, some localities have been making changes to address it.

My local district now employs two student support counselors in every high school. They made the move following the Santa Fe shooting. Someone apparently decided that simply giving lip service to mental health was not enough. Funny, but it is the go to response for conservatives. Quarantine was bad because it damaged our mental health. Remote learning was bad because it damaged our mental health. While these facts are not deniable, it invites us to step up and actually make lasting change like our local school district.

Similarly, seeing the Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka stories from this summer further highlight mental health and our need to do something different. Their bravery hopefully will lead not only to lasting change within the athletic world, but also lasting change outside of it too. It will also hopefully lead to more of us admitting when we need a little help.

The worst events in our lives can have positive byproducts. It will never erase the negativity, but it can become a positive focus to get us through. That can happen both individually and collectively. I’d never want to live through the last five years again, but maybe something good can come from it. At least I can have the temerity to hope that’s true.