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.

This week Texas Monthly announced its 2022 Bum Steer Awards and the ones you expected were winners.  The only question was who was going to be the Top Bum Steer.  You won’t be surprised that it is none other the National Embarrassment of Texas, Greg Abbott.  The magazine ripped him a new one with these choice quotes:

“From the beginning, Abbott was attuned to the 4 percent of Texans who decide Republican primary elections and that group’s many peculiar priorities.”

“This has been a hard year for everyone, and no governor in the U.S. has had it easy. (“At least we don’t have Andrew Cuomo,” Texans could say.) But every step of the way, Abbott has made it harder for nearly everyone, rendering life more difficult, the death tolls higher, and the experience of being a Texan more demoralizing.”

About the blackout: “Who was the responsible party? Two days into the crisis, Abbott took the time to appear on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and blame renewable energy—a field in which Texas has been a leader, thanks in large part to his Republican predecessors—even though the blackout was caused mostly by problems with the distribution of natural gas.”

About COVID-19: “And Abbott’s handling of the situation was comically erratic. He ordered a lockdown and then, under pressure from his right, crusaded to free Texans imprisoned by his lockdown.”

“But Abbott had other priorities. With his approval, the Legislature passed voter suppression legislation that rivaled the worst in the country as well as a law placing bounties on the heads of those who help others get abortions.”

And finally, “Over the course of 2021, Texans learned that Greg Abbott was not so colorless after all—somewhere along the line, he learned to be ruthless. ”

The article is a must read.  Close runners up were Ted Cruz for obvious reasons, and 25 Texans who participated in Trump’s effort to overthrow the US government and steal the presidency from Joe Biden.

After 26 years of single party rule where the GOP has controlled the governor’s mansion, both state houses, and virtually all the courts including the Texas Supreme Court, our state has become a cesspool of corruption, weirdos, felons, and fascists.  I have little hope that much will change as long as the federal government and courts are tolerant and complicit with Texas’ post-democracy fascist regime.

“Moms for Liberty”.  It’s the latest result of the poisoning of millions of American minds through continuous dosing of toxic disinformation and outright lying.  Founded by a Florida women, co-founder Tina Descovich is calling on its 56,000 members to disrupt school board meetings all over the country to protest not only mask mandates and disease mitigation, but also curriculum content including which words to learn how to spell and pictures in science books.  She also calls on children to rip the masks off of other children.

Tactics used by this group include not only shouting and jeering during school board meetings but also harassing school board members in their homes, filing false police reports, and doxxing, the same tactics used by gun nuts all over the country against those who call for common sense gun laws.

As long as law enforcement and the courts look the other way on right wing terrorists, these tactics will continue.  These terrorists, inspired by the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th won’t stop until they see a large group of these domestic terrorists go to jail for years, not months.   Local police must also stop their nonsense at meetings and prosecute menacing and personal threats.  If we are to have any chance of saving our democracy, groups like Moms for Liberty must be met with strong opposition and prosecution for their tactics.

Right-wingers and Trump’s media loudmouths are howling after the Biden administration ousted 18 Trump appointees from service academy boards, calling the ouster a “power grab” and “politicizing the service academies”.  Well, it’s just the opposite.  What most media is not reporting is that Biden’s move is part of his effort to clean up the open sewer Trump left behind when he finally vacated office on January 20th.

The rest of this story is this – after Trump lost the election, his acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller (you know, the guy who refused to send the national guard to the Capitol on January 6th), ousted dozens of academy and other board members and replaced them with Trump loyalists.  He packed the boards of at least 3 service academies as well as the Defense Business Board and added HUNDREDS of Trump appointees to boards within the DOD on 42 boards in all.  To contain the damage, new defense secretary Lloyd Austin suspended all board activities to do a “zero based review” of all the boards that Trump polluted with partisan, cronies, and loyalists. Biden’s move to oust 18 Trump appointees is just a part of the massive cleanup underway at DOD and other departments Trump infested.

Now you know the rest of the story.

Hospitalizations and deaths are rising at an alarming rate in Texas, but not fast enough for Abbott and Paxton, who have been losing in lower state courts to school districts and counties desperately trying to protect their citizens and students from Abbott’s death plan.  In true Trumpian fashion, Abbott has been sowing chaos all over the state by banning all safety protocols that only morons and religious nuts oppose.  The chaos has overrun the hospitals, and now threatens to overrun the courts.  Yesterday, Abbott was handed two losses in quick succession, one in Dallas and the other in San Antonio, and concerned that the courts might be daring to protect Texans, Abbott instructed indicted felon Ken Paxton to run to the 100% GOP controlled Supreme Court to stop local governments from doing the right thing.  Said court generally follows the party line, backing business and corrupt politicians rather than protecting Texans, but this one really counts.  This is the test – will the judicial system of Texas once again rule against common sense and the common good, or will they surprise us?  I’m not holding my breath.

Today the DOJ ordered the IRS to release Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways & Means Committee, reversing one more Trump corruption of the department.  I’m not celebrating, but grateful we’re gradually taking back our government from the Orange Fascist.  I won’t be happy, though, until a jury reads a verdict of “guilty”.