What I came to tell you about kinda slipped in under the rug because Alex Jones and Joe Budden are having a Twitter / podcast fight.  Yeah, if you’re like me – and Lord I hope so – you have to go look up who Joe Budden is. It’s a generational thing.

But, here’s my story:  Guess who the Alex Jones lawyer for the Connecticut Sandy Hook lawsuit has ask to depose?  Never in a million years would you guess it.

Hillary Clinton.

Yeah, Hillary Clinton is at fault for Alex Jones sending unbelievably horrible people to the homes and places of work of Sandy Hook parents to threaten them.

“The defendants in this case believe that this suit was filed six years after the shootings at Sandy Hook as part of a vendetta inspired, orchestrated and directed in whole or in part by Hillary Clinton as part of a vendetta to silence Alex Jones after Ms. Clinton lost the presidential race to Donald J. Trump,” the court filing reads. “The litigation is brought and pursued in bad faith as part of a partisan effort to silence Mr. Jones for reasons wholly independent of the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims.”

The last part of the article quotes my son, who filed suit in Texas on behalf of some of the parents.

The state of Texas (and many others) want to bar me and other teachers from teaching critical race theory in the classroom. We’ve never really called it that, but it is hard to talk about justice without bringing up race. At least, we should bring up the disparity between rich and poor. Considering our long and rich history it would be difficult to separate race from that.

A perfect illustration is the law enforcement philosophy of “broken windows.” Essentially, as I understand it, the idea is that if you arrest and prosecute small time criminals then you have more success preventing the big ones. It’s a philosophy that makes a great deal of sense. After all, most parents view parenting the same way.

If you get on your kids for the small stuff then they know there’s a line they can’t cross. All kids love to push boundaries. The ones that have those boundaries are usually better off. So, why shouldn’t policing and prosecutions work the same way?

In order for “broken windows” to work equitably you would have to harshly punish all crimes. Imagine a parent wailing on their kid for pushing the neighbor kid, but giving them a high five when they swindle them out of five bucks. No good parent would operate like that and most people naturally assume the justice system doesn’t either.

Except that’s not how it works and we all know it’s not. Justice never seems to work that way. The indictments of the Trump organization this week illustrate this point perfectly. According to the reporting, this pattern of alleged fraud had been going on for 15 years at least. The fact that Trump was crooked was the worst kept secret in New York. Wouldn’t his smaller financial crimes qualify under the broken windows theory?

Obviously not. So, instead we waited until everything became too hard to contain. The horse has left the barn. The toothpaste is out of the tube. The train has left the station. Feel free to insert your own euphemism here. This is usually the course of white collar crimes. They are just as illegal and while they may not physically harm anyone, they can cause just as much damage in other ways.

The drug war is yet another example. Let’s ignore for the time being whether throwing the book at an addict is a good idea or not. It is hard to ignore that not all drug offenders are treated equally. Those busted for cocaine have not gotten nearly as much punishment as those busted for crack. We shouldn’t even get started on the marijuana debate. There is considerable evidence that the disparity was purposeful. Yet, even if it wasn’t we can’t ignore the effects.

That’s where something like critical race theory comes in. Whether society’s inconsistencies and inequities are purposeful or an unhappy byproduct of good intentioned law is an open debate. History doesn’t care about feelings. We report the facts of what happened and their results. Others can debate motives and the like.

Naturally, others will point to the treatment of Bill Cosby and videos of successful African Americans as proof that this disparity doesn’t exist. Yet, Cosby is a perfect example of how it does. What kind of justice did his victims get? Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves why. What’s the common denominator here?

Unfortunately, one cannot distinguish between the impact of race and the impact of socioeconomic status. They are often one in the same. My daughter asked me if a billionaire could ever really be brought to justice. I hemmed and hawed, but couldn’t give her a satisfactory answer. It’s hard to talk dispassionately about justice without being able to give a clear answer to a child’s question. They have a way of cutting through the malarkey.

George HW Bush; George W Bush; Dan Patrick; Ted Cruz; Allen West; Dan Rodimer; Chad Prather.  What do these individuals have in common?  First, they either held, hold, or are running for political office in Texas.  Second, NONE of them are actually from Texas.  HW and W were well known Connecticut blue bloods who wrapped themselves in the Texas flag to run for federal office.  Ted Cruz is from Calgary, Canada. Allen West, who was born in Georgia and went to Congress from Florida, was oddly elected chair of the Texas Republican party and recently resigned to run against Abbott for Texas governor.  That leaves Dan Rodimer, from New Jersey, and Chad Prather, also from New Jersey.  What a coinkydink.

You can correctly characterize all of these men as carpetbaggers; most were/are shitheads.  What separates Rodimer and Prather from the others, though, is that not only are they shitheads, they’re also posers, dressing up in cowboy costumes and talking with that fake gnarly drawl that those who are not from Texas believe is how native Texans talk.  While it’s true that many Texans do talk with that drawl, we also recognize a poser pretending to be from Texas.  And, it mightily pisses us off.  These two clowns really piss me off.

Rodimer is just your everyday weirdo who decided he wanted to be in Congress after he failed at being a professional wrestler, so he moved to Nevada where he ran and was beaten badly after allegations of domestic violence surfaced.  So, he had the great idea of moving to Texas, changing his voice, donning a cowboy hat and renaming himself “Big Dan” Rodimer to run again for Congress.  His chances faded pretty quickly when the Washington Post picked up his story and showed the ad he made pretending to ride a bull using a stunt double.  The ad was simply awful, even cringeworthy.

But compared to Prather, Rodimer is a minor leaguer of fakes.  Prather is the world champion of loudmouthed, boastful, smartass 5-inch-brim-hat-wearing fakes.  He styles himself as a comedian and a “fast-talking, observational humorist”, but has scrubbed his New Jersey roots from his online persona.  In fact, he’s damn near scrubbed all of his past from his online persona. Besides having an online gig on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze website, he’s a YouTuber, usually done from the front seat of his big I-Have-a-Tiny-Penis pick’em-up truck, and he’s a dynamic self-promotion machine.  His videos are a fast talking stream of bile delivered with a smile, whining about “libruls”, Biden, Pelosi, and everyone not Trump.  The most irritating thing about him is his boasting about being “Unapologetically Southern”, not understanding that those of us actually from Texas don’t consider ourselves southern, but Texan.  The South is NOT Texas.  He’s also more than happy to let you mistake him for a native Texan, which he most certainly isn’t.  He got my attention when he announced he was running for governor against Abbott because he got pissed off when Abbott mandated masks for 5 minutes last year before caving to Trump and dropping the mandate WAY too early, contributing to the 53,000 deaths in Texas from the virus.  Prather’s entire platform is made up of two planks: “I’m pissed off about masks”, and “I need to sell some T-Shirts”.  That’s it.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Texas is a most welcoming state and we love for people to move here.  But we need REAL people to move here who are respectful, hardworking, and sincerely wanting to put down roots.  Clowns like Rodimer and Prather are NOT who we’re looking for, and we goddam sure don’t want them trying to represent us in Austin or Washington.  Add Allen West and Dan Patrick to this toxic waste, and Texas looks worse if that’s even possible after the damage done by Abbott, Cruz, and Cornyn.  Here’s how bad it is in Texas Republican politics right now…the primary race is made up of a Trump Mini Me (complete with a failed Wall policy), and two carpetbaggers, West and Prather.  Jesus.

My message to these posers?  Leave us alone and go back to wear you came from.  We have enough problems and we have to get Abbott out of office, but we most certainly don’t need any help from these fakes.  So, #NoPosersinTexas

Written by Elizabeth Moon

According to the Washington Post, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and a couple from Tennessee have colluded to privately fund the South Dakota National Guard’s expedition to the Texas border.  The foundation of Willis and Reba Johnson has pledged and followed through with payment of $1 million in support for the mission to the U.S.-Mexico border. The South Dakota National Guard, according to another source on Twitter, considers itself “self-deputized” to perform Border guard duties.  

South Dakota is a heavily racist state, a state that disenfranchised its Native Americans living on reservations because they don’t have street addresses for mail delivery (never mind there are white people in this state who don’t get home mail delivery, including the town) and thus can’t get the right kind of voter ID.  

Chances that South Dakota National Guardsmen will recognize *our* brown people as native Americans, be fluent in Spanish, and understand any of the local customs?  NIL.  We had both North and South Dakotans as tourists in the Valley when I was a kid and that whole northern tier of winter Texans were….annoying.  Chances of South Dakota National Guard troops killing American citizens in this venture: high and the chances of them causing an international incident with Mexico are even higher.

But worse than that: National Guard troops are not supposed to be for hire to any political activist who wants to show off how rich they are.  They are part of our national military force, not the Governor’s private militia she can hand off to someone for a payback to the state.  Their deployment outside South Dakota is supposed to be approved by the Pentagon.  Remember that the governor of Maryland could not send the Maryland National Guard to Washington D.C. on January 6, for a genuine emergency, until they were released for interstate duty through channels–the Acting Secretary of Defense and the Army’s Chief of Staff. 

Was this out-of-state deployment approved by the Pentagon?  If so, by whom at the Pentagon?  Under what existing rules that govern National Guard deployments?  The South Dakota National Guard, like all National Guards, is supported and provided with supplies, including vehicles, weapons, uniforms, etc., by the Department of the Army.  The equipment belongs to the military–ultimately to the Army, and is not to be used for purposes not approved by the military.  

Having a rich person from Tennessee hire a National Guard unit from South Dakota to traverse multiple other states to get to the Texas/Mexico border and involve itself in an international situation is frankly horrifying.  It’s against normal procedure.  The Guard is being treated like a mercenary company, available for hire by anyone–any private person with enough money–rather than as part of the United States military. Its equipment is being treated as it belonged to South Dakota, rather than the U.S. military, which amounts to theft from the federal government.  

As a matter of national security, our military units, including National Guard units, have not been, and should not be, for hire like mercenaries.  It’s unethical and I believe illegal under the laws that govern our military. Whatever unholy clandestine agreements that resulted in this mess, we need a swift and thorough investigation of exactly who said what to whom and when.  What rules were ignored, which weren’t followed because someone in the central chain of command was willing to break them.  Were more Texas politicians than Greg Abbott involved? Do we still have an insurrectionist of rank in the Pentagon?  Colluding with civilians to suborn a National Guard? This naked power-grab by a right-wing civilian to “buy” a military unit must not stand.

Last week I came up with an idea, and it seemed like a damn good idea at the time but it was early evening, hot as hell, and I was drinking either my second or third glass of homemade Limoncello (thanks Barbara in DeeCee) with Topo Chico poured on top. I generally lose count after one, but more than three and I find myself laying on the lawn holding onto the grass to keep from falling off. So, I was somewhere between 2 or 3.

Anyway, it was during this time that I came up with this idea. Texas Democrats should run Matthew McConaughey for governor and Beto O’Rourke for Lt. Governor.  In Texas, all the power is in the Lt. Gov position, but more people go vote for the Governor. So, I call Glen Maxey and tell him that I have it figured out.  He heard my plan and then asked, “But Darlin’, what if McConaughey says something stoopid?” I told him to sober up and I’d call him tomorrow.

Think about it: Under the current governor, Texans froze in the dark and a mess of them died. We’re the oil generating machine for the entire country and this governor let us freeze and then had a legislative session – we only have them every two years – and didn’t do anything about it.  He still doesn’t recognize it as a problem that needs fixing.  He wants to spend my Don’t Freeze money on a wall with Mexico.  Hellfire, McConaughey could play the bongo drums naked and high in his front window again and it wouldn’t come near as stupid as letting all of Texas lose electricity during the worst cold in three decades.

Beto can craft and pass all the legislation.  And he can explain it in a way that even a bongo player will  like it.

So, just as I was going to patent this idea, AARP says I needn’t bother.

I have been a member of AARP for over a decade and every face on the cover of their magazine has been someone over the age of 65. Not this month. They’ve got a 51 year old kid on the front.

You can see the big picture right here.

The cutline under his name says, “What he loves about his family, his life, and his country.”  And, in case you missed it, this is the 4th of July issue.

To say that it’s a patriotic puff piece is to say that puppies are cuddly.  I don’t have a problem with it being a patriotic puff piece, but damn – even I wouldn’t have thought about the AARP magazine. Somebody is way ahead of me on this.

Now if we could just elect Willie agriculture commissioner.

Yesterday the NYTimes published an annotated video documenting in extreme detail the events of January 6, 2021, where thousands of insurrectionists attempted to stop the Electoral College certification in an effort to overthrow the US government and install FG as dictator.  It failed spectacularly, but, since one of our major political parties is trying to sweep this effort under the rug and continuing to pay homage to the criminal who incited the entire attack.  This is a must watch for the entire 40 minutes.  Send this link to everyone, especially those peddling the lie that this was “nothing”, because it most certainly not nothing.