When the Texas Governor has a significant challenger from the right, you quickly discover what the hell is to the right of Greg Abbott.

Don Huffines, Texas GOP candidate for governor, says he won't fire his campaign staffer with white nationalist ties bc he doesn't engage in "cancel culture."

via @emilylhernandez https://t.co/W7SmTGxq50

— Rebekah Allen (@rebekahallen) January 20, 2022

Huffines is a former State Senator and is a grossly wealthy developer in Fort Worth.  He’s not an outlier  Republican.  He’s mainstream and Greg Abbott is far too liberal for him.

Huffines probably won’t win the primary but he’ll push Abbott to the bigot right. I don’t think Huffines’ ties to the white nationalists was exposed by accident. It’ll force Abbott into doing something brutally racist before the March primary.

Occasionally, politicians (particularly conservative politicians) get caught saying the quiet part out loud. That’s an expression we like to use when someone says what everyone is thinking, but sounds absolutely horrific when it is said out loud in mixed company. Mitch McConnell was just the latest in a long line of horrible moments.

Of course, McConnell’s legacy in Washington will largely depend on which side of the fence you sit. If you are conservative then he will go down as one of the greatest legislators in the history of mankind. No one has been more effective in getting the conservative agenda through and no one has been more effective at blocking the progressive agenda. He’s done more to tip the balance of power in the judicial branch than any three other legislators combined.

If you are a liberal, progressive, or even just a moderate you obviously can’t see Mitch McConnell as anything but cravenly evil. As much as people will blame Joe Mancin and Kyrsten Sinema for the failure of voting rights legislation, Mitch McConnell is the architect of everything the conservative caucus is able to accomplish.

They don’t accomplish much these days. In fact, the only thing they’ve really accomplished in the last five years is a major tax cut for the rich. That’s the extent of their legislative agenda. That’s the extent of their intellectual pursuit. Otherwise, they are the adult embodiment of a two-year old. The only word they know is no.

Whether McConnell’s utterance is a mere gaffe or a Freudian slip is in the eye of the beholder I guess. Someone so jaded and manipulative can’t be given the benefit of the doubt. McConnell’s legislative tactics are the perfect reflection of what conservative state legislatures have been doing across the country. The two in concert have managed to take common sense planks and make them disappear.

For McConnell and other conservatives, African Americans really aren’t Americans. Latino Americans really aren’t Americans. LGTBQ+ Americans really aren’t Americans. Poor Americans really aren’t Americans. Anyone that might cast a vote for Democrats really aren’t Americans. They’ll concede a few of us that might look conservative on the outside, but it would never be enough to win an election. So, then it is okay.

Power is theirs from birth. Power is theirs to do with what they want. Sadly, they’ve had it for over a generation and we’re living in the aftermath. Wealth disparity is higher than its ever been. There are more billionaires than ever before. This has all happened when the GOP has won exactly four presidential elections according to the popular vote since 1980. That’s four out of ten elections.

Ultimately, that’s the legacy of Mitch McConnell. He has been in national politics for nearly that entire period. Somehow he has taken a world where Democrats won majorities more often than not and created a powerful conservative coalition. They have the courts. They have a majority of states. Their will is done in Washington even without majorities. Only Americans that vote with them count in his eyes.

The bottomless pit that is Matt Gaetz managed to reach another low this week when he brought his performance art to another sad level. For those that really don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, Gaetz cancelled his membership to conservative hot spot “The Capital Hill Club.” Seems they got under the Congressman’s skin when they started requiring patrons to be vaccinated.

Like just about anyone else, I was enjoying Twitter just for the comments. Dozens retorted back with some making mention of the fact that Gaetz could be enjoying three meals a day at Club Fed in the near future. That of course was a veiled reference to his possible sex trafficking charges that could come some time this year. This story isn’t really about Gaetz. We could go off the deep end as it pertains to leadership. We can talk about moving cheese, personality profiling, communication models and other such nonsense and really talk about nothing.

True leadership is nearly as much about sacrifice and service as it is about any of those other buzz words or phrases. Gaetz happens to be hitting upon pandemic issues and like any crisis, the pandemic has revealed who the leaders are and who the pretenders are. From the get go there have been two effective strategies that have helped deal with the pandemic: vaccines and masks. While not perfect, they have allowed business to continue. If the vast majority would do both we wouldn’t see our hospitals clogged with idiots.

Our beloved governor in Texas has barred us from requiring masks. He’s barred public places and private places from such a requirement. A political philosophy that prides itself in allowing businesses and private entities to run themselves as they see fit is not allowing them to do it. They’ve essentially reduced themselves to governing by temper tantrum.

So, in our schools we are left to simply highly encourage that administrators, teachers, and students wear masks. In a world where you cannot require compliance, you are left to hope that adults will act like leaders and students will be inclined to follow their example. On my campus the administrators can’t be bothered to wear masks. Some of the teachers can’t either. You can’t make them do it and suggesting it would trample on their precious rights.

It’s all a failure of leadership. Really it’s a foundational failure of adulting. Most parents understand that they have to do things they don’t want to do. Most adults understand that we have to do things we don’t want to do. We may think it’s stupid or that it doesn’t really apply to us. We may think it’s a waste of time. Somewhere deep in the recesses of our psyche we know it really isn’t meant for us. Leaders understand this. Those who like to play leader do not.

Those who like to play leader will go to any lengths to avoid the simplest of things. They avoid the simplest of things because they are afraid it will make them look weak. So, they’ll drink their own urine. They’ll take medicine meant for barnyard animals. They may even resort to bleach or shooting sunlight up their butt. They’ll try all of these mind-numbingly stupid remedies and more just to avoid a simple shot and a simple mask. Good leaders lead by example. Good leaders subjugate their wants and needs for the good of the group. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough good leaders.

Late this afternoon, SCOTUS surprisingly ruled that the National Archives can release TFG’s  January 6th records to Congress.  TFG lawyers have been throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, in an effort to stop the disclosure.  Characteristically, Clarence Thomas dissented.  Jesus.

TFG at Mara Lago is probably a real shitshow right now.

All Texas agencies are run by morons.  In drought conditions, some genius at Texas Parks and Wildlife thought it was a really good idea to light a fire in Bastrop State Park.  The fire rapidly burned out of control, and now homes in the Bastrop area are being evacuated.  Greg Abbott is in Houston lying about the 2020 election and the COVID pandemic, unavailable to do his fucking job.

Welcome to Texas.  Bring your own generator, water supply, and fire extinguishers.

Deep Fryer Sid Miller, famous for using taxpayer dollars traveling to roping events and to get his “Jesus shots”, took a political hit today as his top consultant, Todd Smith, was indicted for theft and commercial bribery in connection with his apparent selling of state hemp distribution licenses.  The licenses normally $100 each, were allegedly sold by Smith as “exclusive” for $150,000.  Miller’s Ag department is charged with managing these licenses.  Oops.

Miller, a braggadocios redneck shitbag and Trump Humper who loves to post radically partisan manure on his social media accounts, is a national embarrassment for Texas, well known for spending thousands of donor dollars for decorating his state office and for traveling on the taxpayer dime for personal trips.  He was shamed into reimbursing the state for the trips, likely motivated by a Texas Rangers criminal investigation of his spending.  You’ll recall that Miller used $55,000 of donor funds to outfit his state office with lots of dead animals and hairy furniture.

Worse, now his political cronies have apparently been profiting from Miller’s political office.  No one should be surprised.