Here in The Other Washington’s 3rd CD, the race gets curiouser and curiouser. The local newpaper is on the story. MAGA Candidate Joe Kent, who ousted incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler because she had the decency to vote to impeach TFG, has run into a wee bit of trouble. It certainly won’t stop his big backers from spending ridiculous amounts of money to elect him, but people are taking note. It seems the tech company he claims to work for, American Enterprise Solutions, couldn’t be verified. Now, Joe is a former Green Beret and CIA employee, so maybe it’s a top secret operation.

The Daily Beast put its staffers on the trail after an anti-Kent website posed the questions. They couldn’t find American Enterprise Solutions in filings for patents, trademarks, licenses, websites or online presence or any government or private wireless contracts. Of course, Joe first blamed the messenger when confronted, claiming the story was “fraudulent” but later reversed course. The tech company changed its name to Advanced Enterprise Solutions. Just a typo. A little mistake. His W-2s for 2020 and 2021, shown as proof, didn’t clear things up as well as he thought they would. Two different names, Advanced Enterprise Solutions of Milford, DE and Advanced Enterprise Solutions LLC of Herndon, VA. Just a little discrepancy in names. But wait, there’s more: The company Federal Employee ID was on one form, but redacted on the second, so who can compare? And neither name matches a registration document filed with the VA State Corporation Commission. That one is Advanced Enterprise Solutions Group LLC, a Delaware Company operating in Virginia.

Oh yeah, in true Trumpian style, that company’s annual registration fee was past due and listed as “pending inactive”…until today, when it was changed to “active”. Just a coincidence, I’m sure. And for a last bit of curious, a DC law firm stated that Kent is “employed by a US company that wishes not to be identified”. Maybe because they don’t know what the heck to call themselves?

Texas has been in the iron grip of Republicans since 1995.  The results are obvious – total corruption of state leadership including a talk radio host and bar owner on the verge of winning yet another election for lt. governor, the top law enforcement officer who’s been under felony indictments for over 5 years headed for re-election, and hyper gerrymandered state house and senate districts that are non-competitive.  In the 27 years of GOP leadership in the state we have slid from US leadership in personal rights, education, science, healthcare, and livability to 49th, according to CNBC’s latest livability study.  Not surprisingly, Texas was ranked as 5th for business.

And, if people don’t turn out to vote, it’s going to get worse.  Texas Republicans, like those in over 30 GOP controlled states, have passed dozens of laws to suppress the right to vote and even take away the votes of millions if the party doesn’t like the result.  Using The Big Lie as an excuse, they’ve enacted crushing laws that make it harder to register, harder to vote, both in person and by mail.  In Arizona right now, armed thugs are “guarding” ballot drop boxes intimidating voters and following them home.

Texas won’t be saved from actual fascism if they don’t start voting.  I really don’t give a damn if they vote Dem or Repub, but they need to vote.  Single party control has never worked, and never will.  Texas and the US will never survive without a vigorous democracy that includes lively debate based on facts.  You can’t reason with radicals.  You have to just beat them at the polls.

Abbott and DeSantis are cynically doing election year stunts to keep their base whipped up to drive them to the polls in November.  Abbott bussing families to DC and New York, and DeSantis flying them to Martha’s Vineyard violate more than a few state and federal laws against human trafficking, crossing state lines with undocumented immigrants, misappropriation of taxpayer funds, and  others.  Clearly, both governor’s believe they are above the law (like TFG) and are thumbing their noses at immigration and law enforcement agencies.

I say, fine.  Don’t go after the governors’ lawbreaking (yet), but cut off access to the services they’re using to illegally dump immigrants around the country.  Let’s use the same tactics that anti-choice politicians use…get some our own pawns to use.  Go after those who are enabling this unprecedented cruelty, the drivers and owners of the buses and the pilots and owners of the aircraft being used.  They KNOW they’re transporting undocumented immigrants (or should know), so federal authorities should go after them and indict them for trafficking.  Pilots convicted of crimes lose their licenses.  Drivers may not lose their license but will certainly lose their jobs.  Both will certainly face jail time.  If we do that, no bus company or air charter company will touch this business.  Problem solved, at least until the governors get prosecuted.

The only way to fight fire is with fire.  The hallmark of TFGist Republicans is cruelty and dickishness.  The only way to stop them is to cut off their resources and make them pay personally.

I’m sure she didn’t see that coming. Poor Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler. After years of voting pretty much the way her party wanted to, she crossed a line. I like to think she found her moral compass, but she probably just wanted to keep the Indy and D supporters happy by voting to impeach 45. After all, the rest of the gang would vote no, and give her cover, right? Hell hath no fury like Trumpers scorned. In a squeaker that dragged out over several days, because we have a most fabulous vote by mail process here in WA, she had to concede last night to Joe Kent, an America First anti-establishment former Green Beret endorsed by none other than TFG. The last few weeks before the primary were just awful for anyone watching regular old TV. The ads were absolutely disgusting. For a moment I thought I was back in Texas. The biggest evil music ads were those trying to prop up JHB by showing everyone in the area how deplorable Mr. Kent is. Even the ones tagged “I’m Jaime Herrera Beutler and I approve this message”. Sadly, we will be seeing a lot more of these between now and November.

The D’s got smart this time around and ran ONE candidate, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, auto shop co-owner with an economics degree and working class advocate. She walked away with the first place trophy in our top two dog fight primary. Now ‘all’ we need to do is raise a ton of $ (Kent has about 10 times as much on hand) and GOTV with all we’ve got. I hesitate to be optimistic. Our most excellent candidate the last 2 times around, who knocked on every damn door in the district, or close to it, and held hundreds of town halls IN PERSON (her opponent only musters phone in town halls and the occasional foray into very friendly territory), couldn’t fight the district demographics. I’ll miss her cheery newsletters highlighting fluff while she voted against just about anything that would really help her constituents (she had the nerve to vote against the infrastructure bill, then bragged about money coming to WA). We’ll see how many Rs hold their noses and vote for Kent, how many skip voting, and how many have any sense of country over party. The choice should be clear, but, you know…MAGA!

Yesterday, during a political stunt being held by Greg Abbott, Beto O’Rourke showed up, interrupted the scripted event and said what the rest of us are thinking, that these recently murdered children’s blood is on his hands.   Before he was politely escorted out, Beto got in a few shots including, “The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing.”

John Lewis would have been proud.  In a lifetime of activism Lewis always spoke of getting into “good trouble” protesting injustice and inequality.  He was arrested and beaten several times during his protests for civil rights in the ’60s, and always coached those coming behind to continue getting into “good trouble” using non-violent presence and words.  Beto did that yesterday, and I have to say it was remarkably effective.  The stage was packed with rightwing blowhards including radio talk show host Dan Patrick, felony indicted for 7 years Ken Paxton, Cancun Ted Cruz and others and they were caught completely flatfooted as O’Rourke gave Abbott a piece of his mind.  The mayor of Uvalde, who was participating in this political stunt, called Beto a “sick son of a bitch” for “politicizing” this political event.  Observers of Abbott have noted that when caught lying, bullshitting, and politicizing, Abbott starts talking really fast and stuttering.  Let’s just say he did both after being called out for his lying, bullshitting, and politicizing.

I’ve never been a big fan of O’Rourke, especially when he blundered by running for president at the precisely wrong time in 2016.  He squandered his political strength with that mistep; however, you can watch him maturing live on television, and he is becoming a forminable figure in Texas politics. If nothing else you can say one thing about him…he’s a hell of a lot better and stronger than the clown sitting in the governor’s mansion today.

Mexico’s economic minister announce last week that a new railway from Mexico to Canada for international trade is no longer going to come through Texas, but will cross into New Mexico, 20 miles west of El Paso.  The reason?  Texas is no longer considered “a reliable trading partner” after Abbott’s idiotic stunt last month that caused weeks of chaos at US/Mexico border crossings, costing Texas about $4 billion in lost trade and spoiled produce.  Now Abbott (Mini Trump) has cost Texas billions more by losing a rail line that’s going to connect the port of Mazatlan in Mexico to Winnipeg in Canada.  Laredo and Dallas were scheduled to be on the route, but no more.

Thanks for nothing, Shithead.