And while we’re watching the shiny impeachment announcement, Trump’s minions are rushing to finalize a change to Department of Agriculture rules that will kick 500,000 poor kids off of school lunch programs.  That’s right, Trump says the half a million poor kids are apparently no longer poor enough.

I certainly wish the Congress would hurry up.

UPDATED: Mark Tice, Chambers County commissioner, insulted Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo for speaking Spanish at a press conference about the aftermath of the ITC terminal fire that blackened our skies for several days last week.  On the live feed comment thread of a press conference, Tice blurted out, “She’s a joke; English this is not Mexico.”  When asked later by the Houston Chronicle about the comment, he confirmed saying it and added, “It’s real simple. This is the United States. Speak English.”

While shocking to normal people, this kind of language is common among Texas Teapublicans, who wear their xenophobia as a badge of honor.  Most of these guys, though, keep their ranting to Facebook and in private circles.  Some are blatantly offensive, like Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller who regularly spews bile on his social media pages.  Welp, here’s another one from Chambers County.  He’s a racist pig, and doesn’t care who knows it; he apparently thinks it’s fine to insult a colleague from a neighboring county government.  It will be interesting what Ms Hidalgo’s response will be the next time Chambers County asks for emergency assistance after a storm and/or flood.

Maybe “Habla Español” would be a good answer.

UPDATE: Mark Tice apologized publicly to Hidalgo for showing her and the public that he’s a racist prick.  When he spouted off to her on a public comment board to “speak English”, he was probably a little surprised that being a flaming asshole in public is generally not a good thing to do.  He issued a full apology sometime late yesterday:

“In regards to the comments I issued on Judge Hidalgo’s press conference: From my understanding, there were reporters asking questions in Spanish and Judge Hildalgo responded to those questions in Spanish, with no translation given. If that is not the case, then I sincerely apologize. Like many citizens concerned about the ITC fires, I was very emotional about the effect it was having on everyone. I apologize to Judge Hidalgo, the citizens of my County, and most importantly the entire Hispanic community for hastily acting out with transgression on social media. I recognize how my response could have been interpreted in a derogatory manner and for that I am sorry. I immediately regretted my choice of words. I’m not proud of my behavior, that is not the example I wish to lead by. I can only hope, in time, that my actions can be forgiven. Having grown up in Galena Park, Texas— a place that is and has always been a very diverse community—I was raised with the ideology that you do not judge anyone by their ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Those values mean everything to me. It breaks my heart that I may have said anything that would lead anyone to believe otherwise. Those who know me well, know how deeply rooted I am within the Hispanic community. My sentiments on this issue were grounded in the passion and love that I have for the City of Houston and the surrounding areas. Again, I am truly sorry for for creating this unnecessary situation.”

When asked about his comments to the Chronicle, Tice wrote:

“My comments towards Judge Hidalgo today in the Chronicle were inappropriate. I apologize for that. I was very emotional, and said things that I regret. Again, I am truly sorry.”

“My response could have been interpreted in a derogatory manner.”  Ya’ think? In what other way could that insult be taken other than derogatory?  In what world does a guy like Tice live where being a caustic racist in public is OK? Chambers County, apparently. The good thing, though, is that occasionally, even mouthbreathers like this clown can be shamed into not acting like a complete prick to others 24/7.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s in-house Nazi who is orchestrating the gleeful cruelty and dickishness of this president’s immigration policy idiocy, was on Face the Nation yesterday.  I responded to his appearance by using my normal coping mechanism of turning off the sound when one of Trump’s toads is spewing BS on national television; but, in the silence I noticed  that this guy looks different than usual – he had hair on his normally Gollum-bald pate.  Sure enough, looking closer, it appeared that Miller had suddenly grown a hair line; the problem with that hair line is that it was…wait for it…sprayed on.  I went to my usual source for research (Twitter) and it had already lit up with the same observation that indeed Miller had sprayed on a new hairline.  Here’s a before and after pic:

Best line in many tweets following Miller’s appearance was “I did Nazi that coming!”  Which was entertaining and almost worth the price of witnessing this creature polluting the national airwaves with his hate.

Trump tweeted this morning that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is out.  This is the…I’ve lost count now…umpteenth  one of Trump’s cronies out on the street and under DOJ investigation.  Zinke has been rushing to burn down the Interior Department ever since he infested the office in early 2017.  Recall that Zinke is the one who approved a tiny two man electrical contractor from Montana to rebuild the entire Puerto Rican electrical grid that was destroyed during Hurricane Maria.  The company, Whitefish Energy, once employed Zinke’s son.  That contract, of course, ended in incompetence and scandal.  Since that disaster, Zinke has been running roughshod over the country’s federal lands, slashing budgets at the US Forest Service, BLM, and other critical agencies under the authority of the department.  He has attempted to undo decades of environmental protections and putt our nation’s resources up for sale.

Zinke is now the subject of at least six federal investigations for ethical misconduct and policy violations.  One, thought to be related to a shady land deal Zinke did with Halliburton’s CEO, has been referred to the Justice Department as a criminal case.  What a nice guy.

Zinke is now going the way of the many before him, his reputation destroyed by being touched by Donald Trump.

And, in the words of Sonny and Cher, “The beat goes on.”

While the nation was reeling under the tsunami of convictions, plea deals, and indictments yesterday, John Cornyn was blithely unconcerned.  In a media scrum late yesterday he dismissed courtroom events, saying,

“People who do bad things, who break the law, need to be held accountable, but this doesn’t add anything to the allegations of misconduct relative to the Russia investigation.  How does this implicate the president? I don’t think it implicates him at all, especially on the Russia investigation.”

To say this, Cornyn would have to be simply bald-faced lying or be the victim of a very effective lobotomy.  The point: Cohen pleaded guilty to illegally paying off a Playboy model and porn star to keep them silent and influence an election for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.  He said UNDER OATH in a federal court that he did it at the direction of his former boss, Trump.  It doesn’t get much more illegal (or obvious) than that.  For Cornyn to stupidly proclaim that it doesn’t implicate Trump in that crime lays bare his own corruption and unsuitability for high office (or any office for that matter).

The Trump clown car, now with two flat tires and a leaking head gasket, is still running enough to keep only the sell outs aboard.  Everybody else has fallen off (or are on their way to jail).

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

Roland Laurenzo, son of famed restauranteur Mama Ninfa Laurenzo and owner of Houston’s popular El Tiempo cantinas, really stepped in his refried beans yesterday.  His Navigation Blvd. Facebook page posted this photo of Jeff Sessions with Domenic Laurenzo (Roland’s son) taken while Sessions was having dinner there:

To make matters worse, they cross posted the photo on their other locations’ social media pages.  Predictably, the social media world erupted in protest.  Apparently unprepared for the firestorm, Laurenzo (or his employees) first tried to quell it by deleting negative comments, but finally gave up and simply deleted the original posts.  By the time they did that, though, the post had gone viral, but not in a good way.  Still trying to make this all go away, Laurenzo posted this statement last night:

It didn’t work.  At the time of this post, there have been 509 comments, virtually all pretty ugly.  Many have been deleted.

So, the question is this: How could Laurenzo be so stupid?  I’m not talking about serving Sessions his dinner, I’m talking about Laurenzo bragging about it on Facebook where he knows that thousands of customers and social media users would see it.  The decision to serve a shitbag like Sessions is his decision.  Personally, I couldn’t do it, but a business owner runs his own business, right?  The fact that Jeff Sessions stands against common decency, common sense, humanity, diversity, justice, equality, and honesty is well documented.  Since El Tiempo is a Mexican restaurant whose staff is 100% Latino and whose customers are as diverse as Houston itself, you would think that Laurenzo would never dream of saying to the world that he was “honored” to serve him even adding a little little American flag emoji as the crowning blow.

In his flurry of excuses/explanations, Laurenzo says he was only told by the Secret Service that a “government official” was coming to dinner, and didn’t know it was Sessions until he walked through the door.  He’s also said that the braggadocios Facebook post was made by an employee and had not been approved. Those explanations don’t pass the straight-face test.  First, just how many people NOT a Trump official/family have Secret Service protection? Answer: none, except past presidents.  Second, it appears that Laurenzo himself is a Trumpist.  How do we suspect that?  In October of 2016, Laurenzo approved a pro-Trump rally at the Navigation El Tiempo location.  A pro-Trump music video was produced at the same location on the same day.  Third, I’ve eaten at El Tiempo restaurants all over Houston for years.  I’ve NEVER seen either Roland Laurenzo or his son Domenic at any location where I’ve eaten.  That’s not to say that they don’t ever visit his restaurants, but what are the chances that he or Domenic just happened to be at the precise location in a personalized chef jacket at the precise time Sessions showed up for a photo op?  Answer: not likely.  Let’s face it…Sessions was doing some reputation polishing (See: Trump’s taco bowl moment) and arranged a few show ups in Houston after his speech announcing a crackdown on violent crime, which happens to be at a 40 year low.  Laurenzo gave an assist.  As a side note, Sessions had breakfast at La Mexicana yesterday morning, but, unlike Laurenzo, the Treviño family wisely kept their mouths shut about it, especially on Facebook.

What’s happening to Laurenzo is what often happens to people who are tone deaf (like Trumpists) and who live in an echo chamber.  When people live in that echo chamber, they are often caught flat footed when normal people are violently repulsed by something they do or say.  I’m sure that Laurenzo was all starry-eyed that Sessions came to dinner and then had to brag about it on social media.  The easily predicted backlash was 100% self inflicted, and will likely have long lasting effects on Laurenzo and his business.  It’s a shame, but he should have seen that coming.

As for me, I’m certainly going to miss the Dos Lunch special along with my Tecate.  Dammit.

UPDATE: Laurenzo threw in the towel yesterday and shut down all of El Tiempo’s social media accounts.  Was he humble and apologetic?  Of course not.  He’s a Trumpist. In several interviews, Laurenzo has called the brouhaha “a big misunderstanding” and that “we never intended to offend anyone.”  He also again threw a nameless employee under the bus for the original post.  Yesterday, explaining why he shut down El Tiempo’s social media pages, he said, “People are insulting us in such a dramatic fashion, and we feel like we don’t deserve it.  At least temporarily I had it taken down because I don’t want to be insulted, my children to be insulted, my family to be insulted.” Well, I’m pretty insulted that the owner of my formerly favorite TexMex restaurant openly supports easily the worst president in US history and his merry band of criminals tearing my country apart as fast as they can. If he’s so worried about being insulted, I’m wondering if he’s as insulted by the fact that 360 children remain locked up in detention centers after their parents were deported without them.  I think not.  He’s worried about his own family and his own business.  Besides – these newly orphaned kids will probably make good dishwashers and waiters for him, right?

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.