Prior to July 13th, we had a Republican Party in love with guns. They couldn’t get enough of them. They bragged about shooting their errant dogs. They shot up cases and cases of Bud Light to make a point. They fried strips of bacon on their rifle barrels made hot by expanding gases exploding within them. They…well, you get the idea, right?

Then some 20-year-old confused kid shot up a Republican rally for their presidential nominee with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, killing an innocent bystander, wounding another, nicking the former guy’s ear, before he himself was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

And now we’re being told to dial it down. Things have become too coarse. The language has become too vitriolic. Too violent. Too divisive. We must unite!

Nobody told Dan Crenshaw.

Right now you can click right here, and you can see a short movie on a T-shirt selling website about how Dan Crenshaw (R TX-02)  will personally shoot a T-shirt full of holes and sell it to you for the low, low price of $50.00.
And they’re not just any old shirt, either. They proudly bear the message Survived the American Revolution.

But wait, there’s more! I have it on good authority that Crenshaw and his team have recently purchased a few truckloads of trousers from Huntington Beach’s “United States of Apparel”. Or at least $5281.30 worth, however many that is.

Whatcha gonna do with the pants, Danny boy?

Sometimes, you just don’t notice how hard it is for those few who choose to put themselves in front of cameras… like all the time.

Someone once said not to get between Ted Cruz and a TV camera, or your life could be forfeit. Or if not, they should have. Ted likes him some free TV coverage.

But to do that, you have to look your best, which is why, as we all now know, Ted gets his brows done.

It’s here.

Or if that list is too long, we have it here as well.

Who is Lucky Layne Consulting LLC? It’s Aubrie Layne’s company name. She’s a licensed realtor and eyebrow shaper.

But $310? How much does it actually cost for a good eyebrow job? Friends here at the Salon tell me it depends on the kind of job. One kind lasts longer than another, and yes, you can tell the difference between a treated vs. an untreated brow.

It is important to look your best when addressing the RNC Convention. So you tell me.

Which is the “Before” photo?

(Note: Alfredo at the Dairy Queen may have had a hand in this revelatory news)

Watching the formation of a new “America First” movement has become a hobby of mine that admittedly hooked me when I first listened to the Maddow podcast “Ultra,” now in its second season. I recently posted a small sample of the Dr. Seuss campaign against the pro-NAZI America First movement a while back, and I will post more today and maybe more in the future.

In the 1930’s and 1940s, the America First Movement was an isolationist campaign that was aided and abetted by pro-fascist influencers who saw the US entry into WW2 as a threat to their cause. They were, fortunately, very bad at painting NAZIism in a benign light.

More recently, TFG himself adopted the “America First” position in the run-up to the 2016 election:

America first will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.

And now, with his nomination to be TFG’s Veep, “America First” has a new spokesmodel in JD Vance. Speaking to current Danbury Federal Prison resident Steve Bannon on his podcast in April 2022, we have this quote from ol’ JD:

I gotta to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.

Stirring words that should tug at the heartstrings of pro-Putin neofascists everywhere.

Similar words were uttered by another famous American of note: The Lone Eagle, Lucky Lindy, Slim… you know Charles Lindbergh. He said this:

I have been forced to the conclusion that we cannot win this war for England regardless of how much assistance we send. That is why the America First Committee has been formed.

And the rest is history.

I’m depressed. I suppose there are many kinds of depression. There is the padded room with heavy medication kind. There is the soul crippling can’t move a muscle kind. On the other end of the spectrum there is the “I heard some bad news and I have the blues” kind.

For those of you that aren’t mental health professionals (I’m really not either although I have a masters in Counseling) dysthymia is more of a minor depression. Think of it as seeing the world with a pair of gray colored glasses on. Nothing is black per se. The colors just dim and the beauty gets muted. Suddenly, enjoyable activities aren’t so enjoyable anymore.

This is what brings me to today’s topic. Writing brings me joy. If I have learned anything since my diagnosis it is that we all have to find joy in our life. However, over the past couple of weeks writing has not been giving me joy. They are painful topics and the current landscape of the world seems to be a constellation of bad news that form a very bleak picture.

Some people in the gulf south still have no power after a hurricane hit eight days ago. The workers are working hard, but the company seems to be fumbling about and those in power at the state level could honestly give a shit. If they did they would have fixed the grid three years ago when it spectacularly failed. Moreover, the depressing part is that a majority of Texans continue to vote for these ass clowns even in the face of their failure.

Then we get the other news from the weekend and early part of the week. Combine that with a complicit Supreme Court and we have a man that literally will not be held accountable for dozens of felonies. Then, a whack job tries to kill him and ends up causing more damage to the cause. Even if he had succeeded in his quest it would have caused more damage. Political violence and violence of all kinds brings damage.

The reaction of the ex-president and some of his followers was more disheartening. He paused for a damn photo op. Who does that? Then, you get the sheep that post this on their social media like some kind of battle cry. One guy even got it tattooed to his back. The attempt is horrible enough and I’m thankful the ex-president is okay but I just wish there were a genuine human response there. I no longer believe it was a false flag but this is why so many of my friends think so. That is also disheartening.

I have to admit my mind went there initially. Obviously, there is proof out there in blogosphere of my initial thoughts. I say all this to say my joy is nearly gone. It is quickly being replaced with despair. Hanging on in quiet desperation is no way to live. I suppose this is a fight or flight moment and my instincts usually point towards flight.

I am not leaving forever. In fact, I can’t even tell you how long I will be leaving. When the joy begins to come back it will come back. I’ll linger about and make comments every now and then and I have other sources of writing that don’t involve politics. I’ll still do those and maybe they will bring me enough joy to come back soon. Hopefully I will see everyone again really soon.

We’ve all been watching the Florida documents case as Judge Aileen Cannon has handily delayed and pushed the case back and back in time. No way could it ever be tried before the Republican Convention.

And now, on Day One of the Republican Convention, Cannon dropped the ruling that Jack Smith was improperly appointed as Special Counsel, and therefore the documents case he brought against TFG was dismissed.

Mission accomplished. Judge Cannon did exactly as she must and no more. The appeal to the 11th Circuit Court practically writes itself, and that, doubtless, is exactly what is happening right now.

All moot if the Orange Julius Caesar wannabe is elected in November.

But that was the whole idea.

There are dramas that are playing out in the backwaters of MAGAdom whose effects are still being felt by people no one has ever heard of. Big names in the MAGA Empire are scooping up all the cash resources, and that leaves little lucre for the locals.

Think of it. There is a finite amount of donor cash out there, and Republican donation recipients (aka donees) who are not first or second in line at the buffet table are going to have to squabble with each other for the table scraps.

Take, for example, the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers PAC. I know. They are not on anyone’s campaign cash watch list, and that is doubly so now.

They are broke.

They are more than broke. Last week, Alfredo at the Dairy Queen hipped me to the news that the Federal Election Commission, sent the PAC a letter asking about their nonzero ending balance on their most recent filing:

Your report discloses a negative ending cash balance of  $3,791.44. This suggests that you have overdrawn your account, made a mathematical error, or incurred a debt. If your committee has incurred a debt or obligation, please itemize this debt on Schedule D, show a zero balance on Line 8 of the Summary Page and include the amount on Line 10. Please file an amendment to your report to accurately disclose your financial activities. (52 U.S.C. §30104(b)(8) and 11 CFR § 104.3(d)).

That’s right. Broke. Busted. Insolvent. Wiped out. Poor as church mice.

In 2022, the last year they had money to give, the PAC donated $6,000 to federal campaigns: $1,000 to Texas Rep Henry Cuellar (D TX-28) and $5,000 to four Republicans. Of these four, half, or $2,500, went to August Pfluger (R TX-11). And yes, Pfluger is a lineal descendent of the founder of Pflugerville, Texas.

These people, and more, will not be receiving any campaign cash from the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers PAC this year. I guess they are going to have to look to some other goat rodeo to get their lucre.
When the MAGA Money Machine starts making sucking sounds, you know your peanuts PAC is in trouble.