RBG has died.  Our worst case scenario is now reality.  Cue the GOP crying for an IMMEDIATE appointment to replace her, disregarding the “Biden Rule” repeated 1,000 times in 2016.

The Texas Association of Realtors is having their annual conference at the beginning of September.  Surprisingly, they’re using some common sense by making the conference virtual; good for them.  But their common sense, apparently, stops there.  They’ve invited a national political figure for their keynote speech on the subject of “Unity and Leadership”.  Take a wild guess who the speaker will be…give up?  You should because on a list of 1,000 people to discuss unity, you’d never think of this guy.  Said speaker is Trey Gowdy.  Yes, THAT Trey Gowdy, he of goofy hairstyles and baggy suits, is going to speak to Texas realtors about his groundbreaking work on unity and leadership.

Recall that Trey Gowdy led the House investigation of the tragic killings of US ambassador to Libya and 3 other Americans during a terrorist attack on the American Consulate at Benghazi.  Gowdy led that mudslinging, falsehood hurling witch hunt for two and a half years, including an 11 hour marathon grilling of Hillary Clinton, publishing an 800 page report that basically said the attack was tragic and no fault of anyone in the US government except for maybe the Republicans in Congress who had slashed the security budget for the State department during the Obama administration.

Gowdy probably ranks in the top ten of divisive, cynical Republicans from the Obama era who took a leading role in the Benghazi investigations.  He was also a proponent of the culture wars brought on by the Teabagger wave that he rode into office in 2010 after defeating mainstream Republican Bob Inglis in the South Carolina primary that year.  He also rode the Trump wave in 2016, even being floated as AG early on, but ended up on the trash heap of disappeared Republicans after he criticized Trump for falsely accusing Obama of “spying” on his campaign.  That ended his career in Congress and he now is apparently trying to stay relevant by trying out the minor speaking circuit.

That brings us back to the Texas Realtors’ #ShapingTexas conference.  As I heard earlier today, “Asking Gowdy to speak about unity is like inviting Putin to speak about American democracy”.  This is what happens when right wing politics are mainstream as it is in Texas.  Organizers will probably be shocked that most people would be offended hearing from Gowdy about “unity”.

Today:

Mike Pompeo was in on the mob boss call with Zelensky and Trump.  Also, McConnell said if the House impeaches, there will be a trial.

Rudy Giuliani has been subpoenaed to disgorge all of his documents pertaining to his involvement with Ukraine.f

Another Republican, Chris Collins, has resigned from Congress, this time just before pleading guilty to insider trading.

Trump asked Australian prime minister to help determine origins of Mueller investigation.

Trump suggests civil war if he’s impeached.  Harvard law professors says that by itself is impeachable.

Whistle blower’s attorney says Trump is endangering his client’s life.

RNC sent fake census forms to solicit money for Trump reelection campaign.

BREAKING: Bill Barr solicited foreign governments in an effort to discredit US intelligence agencies’ findings that the Russians interfered with the 2016 election.

Whew…

NBC News was invited in for an exclusive look at a western themed party at Mara Lago this weekend.  The party cost from $500 per ticket to $20,000 for a big girl table.  The charity for which they were raising money?  Themselves, silly.  This was about the Trumpettes worshipping the Demigod Donnie at his Church of Perpetual Narcissism.  The whole sordid event was one of those that you can’t unsee.

After acting Secretary of State David Whitley’s disastrous publishing of THE LIST, there are two questions that must be asked:

1. Is David Whitley a lying, radical partisan doing Greg Abbott’s bidding to suppress minority voters?
2. Or is he just simply incompetent?

The answer to both of these questions is the same – Whitley must go.  He should not be confirmed as the Secretary of State of Texas since one of that role’s prime jobs is to ensure full and fair elections.  His first major act utterly failed to do that.  Whitley is an Abbott acolyte who’s only actual government experience is deputy chief of staff and appointments maker.  He rocketed into the Secretary of State role in December when Abbott put him in the job.

Let’s not beat around the bush – Whitley published this list with great fanfare for one reason and one reason only – to create the false impression that undocumented people are voting in Texas.  That, of course, is a blatant lie.  The only evidence you need of that conclusion is the coordinated media responses to the shocking announcement by Ken Paxton and even His Orangeness himself.  The announcements didn’t say that the Secretary of State was asking counties to “study” the list, they declared that 95,000 non-citizens were registered to vote and that 58,000 did indeed vote in the 2018 election.  They did that to de-legitimize Beto O’Rourke’s very strong showing against Worst Senator in the History of Texas, Ted Cruz and to set the table for this election cycle of legislating more voter suppression to stem the tide of changing demographics in Texas. And it was a gigantic lie, as is becoming more and more obvious.

David Whitley needs to be shown the door with the toe of the Senate’s boot.  Even Republicans, the beneficiaries of the lies and voter suppression efforts in Texas, need to recognize that at some point cheating and lying won’t work effectively enough for them to maintain power and that they should rethink their radical partisan agenda.

Whitley must be rejected.

Some genius at US Strategic Command thought it would be funny to tweet a New Year’s greeting yesterday featuring the B-2 bomber that joked about dropping something “much much bigger” than the New Year’s Eve crystal ball in Times Square.  That went over like a fart in a chapel, and the post was taken down, but not before it was snatched by some astute watchers.  Here it is: