In October of 2021 top US intelligence officials sent a Top Secret cable to all CIA stations around the world warning that an alarming number of agents (informants) were being killed, captured, or compromised.  This unusual warning was sent after the loss of dozens of agents around the world that sharply increased over the last several years, and correspond to the time TFG infested the Oval Office and since. What we didn’t know then, but do now is that he stole thousands of government documents, including Top Secret, Classified, Secret, and Confidential documents.  Some of these documents were marked “HCS”, meaning Human Intelligence Control System, which identifies that this particular intelligence was gathered from clandestine agents in foreign countries.  Worse, over 40 EMPTY classified intelligence folders were found in Trump’s personal office.

It gives me cold chills to think about where those documents ended up, especially in light of last October’s CIA cable and the thousands of documents that had been completely unsecured for over a year and a half.  It’s very likely these documents ended up in enemy hands; it’s not a long leap to imagine that these documents were then used to find and kill or capture clandestine agents working for the US, and that’s the scary part of this whole sordid chapter.  TFG, through his corruption, malignant narcissism, and his negligent disregard for the rule of law is the greatest threat to the US since the Civil War.

True story. On Friday, August 9th 2008, myownself, Juanita and her Bubba went to lunch. The headquarters was opened and manned so we took a lunch break. It was my first time at this Chinese buffet in Rosenberg. But it wasn’t the first time I went to a Chinese buffet that had TVs mounted around the room tuned to the news.

That afternoon, sitting with platesful of buffet dishes, we viewed a news report that John McCain had selected Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

I looked slack-jawed at Juanita then at equally shocked Bubba. And almost simultaneously we all stated the obvious: “Obama’s just won the election.”

And like it was 14 years ago, Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps on giving. Who on Earth could run for the one Congress seat allotted to Alaska, out spend her two opponents by a lot, and get creamed by a considerably less well-known Native American Democrat? Answer: Sarah Palin.

Congressman-elect Mary Peltola, is the first Democrat to win that seat in 50 years. Granted it’s only to complete Don Young’s last term, but the same three candidates will face-off in November for a full term. Only the former half governor could have achieved this feat.

Or am I being too pessimistic? Is this a continuation of the “Sarah Phenomenon” where she stinks up any given room by her mere presence? Or is this a continuation of the trend of the special election results we’ve all witnessed this year, where expectations of being handed a mid-term shellacking by the party not in power, is simply not happening? Is it that simple?

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know about my friends in Fayette County, Texas.  Fayette County is just east of Austin and was home to the original Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, locally known as The Chicken Ranch. They have all the best news in Fayette County because they seem to attract the most fun-loving people on the planet.

This story comes from the front page.

Okay, so first of all, your name is Julie May Mack, which is the best name ever.  I mean, you could be voted Watermelon Queen at the county fair on that name alone. You wanna be District Clerk? Honey, nobody could vote against that name on a ballot.  Texas Senator Julie May Mack. Damn.

I looked it up and the official temperature for Fayette County on August 25th was 104 degrees with a heat index of 471 and that’s not a typo.  Also, all of south east Texas was in a serious drought. I feel sure Ms. Mack was hunting for a stock tank to dive in and a hot tub was as close as she could come.  Some day remind me to tell you the story about the time my cousin Dirt Janochek got drunk and made a jacuzzi with his stock tank and his Evinrude outboard motor.

Okay, so the police report says that Ms. Mack got out of the hot tub and went and hid in a car in the neighborhood. I’m gonna suspect it wasn’t her car because she didn’t try to drive it away. But, she could have left her purse at the hot tub so she didn’t have keys. The police ordered her out of the car and she complied but then ran away.

Okay, stop here and see if this doesn’t sound fishy to you. She outran two police officers while she was wearing wet clothes. Wet clothes are heavy. It’s unlikely she was wearing shoes because you can’t run at all in wet shoes. But, now stay with me here, the cars would be parked on cement or tar, either of which one would most likely cause severe burns to foot bottoms in August in Texas.

Then she found a recreational vehicle with the door open and ran in there. They found her but she still outran them. Okay, I’m gonna ask, Are these guys on crutches? I know she was wearing clothes because if she wasn’t, there would have been a parade of tractors following her on this home tour and lively shouts of “Buster! She’s nakkid!”

So, though the miracle of modern journalism, we discover she ran into a house and resisted arrest, no shoot sherlock, and this slow poke deputy had to wrestle her to the ground.

But, this story – long and colorful as it is – does not end well. It isn’t until we get to the breathless end that we discover that all this mayhem happened on the day before Ms. Mack’s 30th birthday.

What the hell kind of world do we live in where a woman cannot borrow a handy hot tub on the day before her decade shifting birthdays?

Bad cop. No donut.

I wrote two books which essentially broke down players’ qualifications for the baseball Hall of Fame. I went through a number of different tests and statistical gymnastics to determine whether particular players were a good fit. One of those tests is what has often been called the Player A and B test. I certainly didn’t invent it. I couldn’t tell you who did, but it has come in handy more than a few times. Essentially, you simply look at two players’ numbers and remove their name. From there, it becomes pretty easy to figure out which player was the better player.

Baseball is a peculiar sport where numbers become sacrosanct. Spit out enough numbers and most of us could identify the player anyway. However, the methodology is important. We develop emotional attachment to guys in a positive or negative way. If we can remove that emotion we can make better decisions with the ballot and we can make better arguments in the sports bar.

WWHG stands for What would Hillary Get. Hillary is no longer relevant in our politics. At least she shouldn’t be. She will never run for public office again and so she should not be particularly relevant. Of course, certain people will try to keep her relevant for their own purposes. For our own sanity, you can replace her with whoever you want. Essentially, we can turn our politics into a Player A and B test.

So, when we consider what to do with ex-presidents we can ask the simple question: what would Hillary get? If she (or Bill) had brought home boxes of confidential documents and stored it in their attic what would happen to them? Even more important than what would happen to them is the question of what should happen to them? What would you argue for?

Obviously, this is where the concept of “but the emails…” will come up. Let’s keep in mind, the FBI not only investigated that multiple times but announced less than a week before the election that they were still investigating. Nothing came of it because it was determined that she did not have any secret or sensitive information that she shouldn’t have had on the private server. Was that the right ruling? I’m not an expert on email servers or confidential documents. However, we can easily apply the same test in reverse.

Our politics has become so tribal that we reflexively defend or accuse based on which team we play for. Criminalizing politics has always been distasteful for that reason. However, sometimes you have to do it in order to protect the sanctity of our nation. WWHG needs to plastered on every billboard. We need those rubber wristbands. Some people need it tattooed on their chest. If you are willing to excuse a guy taking home boxes full of sensitive documents that he had no legal right to then you better be ready to excuse the same for those on the other side.