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.

Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.  That old adage was never more true than when it comes to TFG in ANY endeavor.  Let’s take the cases of Andy Litinsky and Will Wilkerson, co-founders of TFG Media & Technology, the owner of Truth Social, the Twitter of racists, insurrectionists, and weirdos.  When the company was founded, Trump demanded 90% of the stock for the use of his name and his occasional involvement.  Classic TFG, taking almost all the money for doing nothing.

But it gets worse.  According to Wilkerson’s SEC whistleblower report, last year, after the company launched, TFG called Litinsky and demanded he gift some of his company stock to Melania.  That’s right, he actually demanded that the president of the company give up his stock to TFG’s wife.  This is also classic TFG – 90% of OPM (Other People’s Money) is not enough.  He wants it all.  Litinsky refused, pointing out not only how absurd the idea was but that it would trigger a large tax bill.  Nonetheless, TFG persisted in his demand, ultimately removing him from the board 5 months later.  Litinsky has hired lawyers to sue the company.

Wilkerson, who was a senior vice president at the time, filed a whistleblower complaint against TFG with the SEC and then gave an interview to the Washington Post.  The company fired him the next day in retaliation, which is also illegal.  It goes without saying that the SEC is investigating.

I know of no one who’s worked for, or done business with TFG who has benefitted from the relationship.  Trump cheats, steals, and intimidates everyone around him.  Talk about fleas; if a person stays with him, the results are generally not good, and can ultimately lead to fleas like jail time and financial ruin.  And yet people follow him and do his bidding.

It is truly bewildering.

Earlier this week the NYTimes published an investigative story that had several revelations including an account of TFG demanding that yet another lawyer lie for him early last year that he had returned all the documents and that lawyer refusing.  More important, it’s damned likely he still has government documents somewhere else like his NY apartment, in Bedminster, or even Mar a Lago.

But the story also recounted TFG’s desire to used the stolen documents as trade bait.  The key quote:

“Mr. [TFG], still determined to show he had been wronged by the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the National Archives and Records Administration for its unwillingness to hand over a batch of sensitive documents that he thought proved his claims.

In exchange for those documents, Mr. [TFG] told advisers, he would return to the National Archives the boxes of material he had taken to Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla.”

So there it is.  Not only did TFG recklessly steal top secret and other government documents, he then concocted a plan to use his unlawful possession of stolen documents as a hostage to get evidence to support his contention that the FBI was out to get him.  It’s classic mobster behavior; worse, it’s stupid, careless, and another example of the danger this man poses to not only the country but to himself.

I’ve had several theories about why TFG stole these documents and then toyed with the DOJ for over a year and a half; first, obviously TFG is a dumbass with shit for brains; second, I figured he saw value in them to sell to the highest bidder; third, he loves all the trappings of being president and continued playing Oval Office and pretending he’s still there; lastly I figured he just likes pissing off the “deep state”.  All of these theories are plausible and damned likely; what I hadn’t thought about that he believed he could use the stolen documents to steal more documents.  That act is just a glimpse into how evil TFG truly is.

Those of us who are paying attention to the January 6th Committee woke up yesterday to the strategy of these public hearings; well, at least I did.  The committee is clearly taking direct aim at TFG, heaping loads of evidence on the facts that he KNEW that he didn’t win; he KNEW there was no fraud that would change the outcome of any state result; HE whipped up The Big Lie and repeats it continuously, even today.  We all pretty much knew or suspected that all this lay at TFG’s feet.

However, all this evidence is hard to use to get TFG convicted, much less even charged, so the committee is giving prosecutors a roadmap to get this sumbitch.  This roadmap is not going down the insurrection road; it shows the way down the wire fraud road.  Testimony revealed yesterday that using The Big Lie TFG raised a QUARTER OF A BILLION DOLLARS for the “Election Defense Fund”, which, wait for it…doesn’t and has never existed.  The Election Defense Fund was supposedly to be used to fight election fraud lawsuits, but the money didn’t go to that activity.  It went, instead, to TFG’s Super PAC, doled out to his hotels, family, and even Jr.’s girlfriend.  That’s wire fraud.  So now we have not only The Big Lie, we have The Big Grift.

There is clear and ample evidence that TFG and his cronies defrauded millions of supporters, and the good thing about this crime is that the attorneys general in the states where the donors live can also prosecute TFG.  On top of all the possible federal cases you can name, this wire fraud charge is serious with heavy penalties and up to 30 years in the slammer.  The states have similar penalties.

The committee is drawing the roadmap with turn-by-turn directions, making it easy for the feds to go after TFG and Corruption Inc..  If Garland lacks the will to prosecute, I know a bunch of states with aggressive AGs who would likely be happy to perp walk TFG live on television.

It’s now been a week since the communications office of the Supreme Court announced that Clarence Thomas had been hospitalized “for an infection” and that he would go home in a few days.  That few days has now expanded to a full week, and repeated attempts by the press to get more information on him have been met with silence.  This is one of the most odd set of circumstances about the health of a SCOTUS justice that I can recall, especially after the detailed blow by blow reporting from the court about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health in the few years before she passed away in 2020.

Coincidently, news is breaking daily about the deep involvement of Thomas’ wife, Ginni, in the effort to overturn the US presidential election in order to illegally keep Trump in office after he lost.  It turns out that not only did she attend the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6th, she communicated extensively with Mark Meadows and others in the conspiracy to overturn the election by amplifying lies about non-existent voter fraud.  Apparently there were 29 texts between them from the election to January 10, 2021.  She also communicated with other like minded folks in Trumpland including Jared Kushner.

Not coincidently, Justice Thomas voted against the other 8 justices when the court refused to intervene in the order to release Trump’s WH records.  He also wrote a dissent when the Court declined to hear the Pennsylvania case that was seeking to disqualify mail-in ballots in that state.  Ginni Thomas also publicly supported expelling Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the RNC when they voted to impeach Trump in the second impeachment and then joined the January 6th Committee.  In her texts to others in Trumpland, she also repeated QAnon bullshit conspiracy theories, loudly proclaiming the election was stolen and supporting the lawyers spreading the lies.  Worse, she has Justice Thomas’ ear 24/7/365 and even mentioned to Meadows in one text that she was talking to her “best friend” about how the election was stolen.  Not coincidently, her “best friend” has ruled 100% in Trump’s favor in cases brought before him.

The stink of the Thomases’ corruption just adds to the existing stench of the cheating and partisanship that has finally overtaken the Court since McConnell successfully stole Merrick Garland’s seat and then rammed through the nominations of Kavanaugh and Barrett, clearly unqualified nominees.  The Court has been rapidly undoing decades of precedent in many areas with particular focus on taking away a woman’s right to seek her own healthcare and making it harder for non-Republicans to vote.  John Roberts has been concerned about the eroding public confidence in the Court, and with good reason.  In a recent Gallup survey, confidence in the Court has declined to a low point of 40%.  Twenty years ago, confidence was as high as 62%.

Is it merely coincidence that Justice Thomas has suddenly dropped off the face of the earth as the scandal of his wife’s deep involvement in the insurrection comes to light?  I think not.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a sudden retirement from the bench to avoid what looks to be the first impeachment case built against a SCOTUS justice.  Nothing else explains the deafening silence about Thomas’s supposed health problem and hospitalization.  We’ll be watching this one closely.

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.