Oh y’all, this is more fun than recess in heaven.  There’s a Republican fight in Texas.

Governor Greg Abbott is no liberal by any standards.  He is not, however, totally insane and a follower of QAnon.  Okay, let me back off the totally insane part because sometimes he is. But he is not suicidal.

You can’t say that much for other Republicans in Texas and that’s what makes this so damn much fun.

Back in July, Gov. Abbott extended early voting in the November election by one week. Early voting will begin October 13th instead of Oct. 19.

Well, here it is late September and The Quorum Report – behind paywall – is reporting this morning under breaking news that Texas Republican Party State Chairman Allen West (yes, that Allen West), “Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, conservative activist Dr. Steve Hotze, Sen. Charles Perry, Sen. Donna Campbell, and others have signed onto a lawsuit against GOP Gov. Greg Abbott focused on his decision to extend early voting in Texas.”

No shoot, Sherlock, they are going to the Texas Supreme Court, who took “Equal Justice Under the Law” off the court building and replaced it with “Attilas the Huns” once they seated nine far right conservatives on the bench.

They waited until campaign materials were printed, people to work the polls were hired, locations were reserved, and things would get real crazy if you change things that are written in print and hanging on peoples’ refrigerators doors.  And then, and only then, did they want to shorten early voting time.

And then, to add a third ring to this circus, they went to the Texas Supreme Court, which I may have mentioned is total Republican. Four of the nine of them are up for reelection and face a strong challenge by four Democratic women with sparkling credentials and a boatload of money. So, no matter which way the four of them rule, they are going to piss off this group of Republicans or that group of Republicans.  If nothing else, Democrats will know their names when they go vote and what they do for a living, which is something judges like to hide now that Texas doesn’t have straight ticket voting.

Oh Lordy, this is going to be fun. You know, in fights like these, I always say it’s sad that one side has to be the winner.  But no, Texas Republicans have been kind enough to give us a case when both Republican sides lose no matter what happens.

Just a heads up from Politico – Chris Wallace will moderate the first presidential debate next Tuesday night.

According to a person familiar with the planning, the 90-minute debate will be divided into six 15-minute discussion areas. They include: Trump’s and Biden’s records, the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic, race and violence in cities, election integrity, and the economy.

Hummmm … nothing on the environment or Trump’s health care plan?  I guess there’s so many deadly problems in Trump’s America that you can’t possibly cover it all.

Mike Bloomberg just raised $16 million to erase the fines of former felons who are already registered to vote and the fines are the only thing holding them back.  That’s smart money because this effort targeted Hispanic and Black voters with fines under $1,500 – a group most likely votes and votes heavily Democratic.

In real numbers that’s about 32,000 Black and Hispanic votes that are now taken off the table.

The Bloomberg memo pointed out that the 31,790 targeted voters, including 25,548 who are Black, are nearly equivalent to the margin by which Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) won election in 2018, and about three times as big as the margin that elected Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) that same year.

Thanks, Mike.

There’s a special election for a Texas Senate seat in the legislature going on in north Texas.

A current Republican state legislator, Drew Springer, is running for the seat.  He lists his career as joining his father in the “financial services industry.”  Yeah, we know code words for loan shark.

So early voting has already started for this election and election day is September 29th.

Here are some other dates you might be interest in.

September 14th – Drew and his wife went to a campaign event and later that same night his wife was taken to the hospital with “unrelated symptoms and was eventually tested and diagnosed with COVID-19.”

On that same night, they notified people she had been around that she has Covid19, but …

He [Springer] did not get tested, per his doctor’s suggestion.

Dr. Pepper, maybe?  Springer adds that both he and his went into a 14 day quarantine.

Then comes September 17th –

Springer said he did go to an event on a Grayson County farm Thursday, Sept. 17, where Springer said he kept 10 to 20 feet from others during the entire event and did not shake hands or take pictures with supporters.

Hummm … but he doesn’t tell them he’s supposed to be quarantining? And I’ll bet you my best pair of pink boots that he didn’t wear a mask.  Do you wanna know why I think that’s safe bet?

Shelley Luther is also running for that seat.  Surely you remember Shelley Luther.  You can’t be wimpy around Shelley Luther.

Killing off Republicans.  Damn, y’all.

Last night Trump announced that Corona Virus ”affects virtually nobody” except “elderly people.”

200,000 people are dead, not all of them elderly and therefore expendable, and 1,000 more a day are dying.  On the upside, Trump is already elderly so when he dies we can says that nobody died.

And can we please make the good guys at the CDC wear white hats and the political guys wear red hats?  When stuff is put online in the morning and then deleted in the evening, we need to know which side did which.

Maybe we could have something like a designated truth teller. Just one damn person in the Trump administration who tells the truth every damn time.

Senator Mitt Romney says he won't block vote on Trump's SCOTUS nominee https://t.co/cKobY4GJs6

— Morgan Fairchild (@morgfair) September 22, 2020

I used to think that all these Republicans just followed the vile and immoral Donald Trump because they were afraid of him.  They were scared of being the butt of a mean Tweet.  I used to think they were just cowards.

I had a talk last night with a really intuitive and smart person I know and I have decided I was wrong about that.

They are Trump.  Trump has given them permission to be who they are and then to hide behind their fear of him. They prefer to be seen as cowards than who they really are.

They truly like what they are doing.  They are enjoying themselves.

It is better to be seen as a coward than the rotting carcasses of men they are.

And now I’m going to get another cup of coffee.