New Braunfels is a small town stuck between Austin and San Antonio. It is famous for the rivers running through it, providing great fun for tubers in the hot Texas sun.

And a butt crazy judicial system.

State District Judge Jack Robison interrupted jury deliberation to “sway jurors to return a not guilty verdict in the trial of a Buda woman accused of trafficking a teen girl for sex.”

He said he was powerful sorry to interrupt them but, “when God tells me I gotta do something, I gotta do it,” according to the Herald-Zeitung in New Braunfels.

I suspect the jury figured that if God wanted them to know something, he would have told them, not the judge.

Here’s something you might want to bookmark in case you ever need to know where last year went or you want to play Trump Trivia at a cocktail party.

Day By Day With the Trump Presidency

No kidding.  They do all 365 days. Remember when had a real president and on some days, literally nothing crazy happened?

I do not know about your neck of the woods, but we’re in for a dreary weekend in mine.  I can handle cold.  I can handle wet. But if you put them both together, I stay in my housecoat and fuzzy slippers all day drinking hot tea with whiskey in it.

So grab a blanket and read through the dreary.  Here’s Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson’s testimony to the House Committee.  Skip over the parts at the beginning where lawyers are rattling papers at each other.  Lawyers throw paper at each other much the same way that cavemen threw rocks at each other.

As Rachel Maddow said last night, “It reads like a spy novel.”

Thanks to Scott for the reminder!

Okay, here’s how you know that the Republican congressional candidate in Pennsylvania is gonna lose to the Democrat.

“The White House says that, despite the president’s tweet, he is not going to Pennsylvania Thursday to campaign for a congressional candidate there,” the AP reports.

“Now press secretary Sarah Sanders says the purpose of the visit is actually to promote Trump’s agenda, especially the Republican tax overhaul.”

This is also how you know that somebody leaked Trump the answers to the cognitive test at his physical.

This is the seat where pro-life congressman Tim Murphy urged his mistress to have an abortion.  He stepped down and now there’s a special election.  The Republicans are going all-out to win the seat and the Democrat in the race is only getting marginal support from outside groups like Daily Kos and End Citizens United.

I wonder when Trump is going to get tired of being corrected.

Okay, word has leaked, oozed, or crawled out that the FBI is now investigating whether Russia funneled cash money to the NRA to help Trump.

It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections.

That’s almost too good to be true, y’all.  The NRA palling around with commies, and breaking the law.

… the NRA reported spending a record $55 million on the 2016 elections, including $30 million to support Trump – triple what the group devoted to backing Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. Most of that was money was spent by an arm of the NRA that is not required to disclose its donors.

And some folks say it’s actually closer to $70 million.

Personally, I think by the time this is over, we’re gonna have to build a new jail for all these guys.  Hell, I’ll do a fundraiser for it!

In what seems like a daily occurrence, there is a new Super PAC in Texas.

This one is called Our Conservative Texas Future.  It’s treasurer is guy named Cabell Hobbs, who lists an Austin PO Box as his address.  But, Cabell doesn’t live in Austin.  I’m not sure where he does live but it ain’t Austin.

Here’s the fun part.  This ain’t Ole Cabell’s first rodeo.

He’s tight with Ted Cruz.

“Effective, May 4, 2016, Senator Ted Cruz is no longer a candidate for President of the United States,” Cabell Hobbs, assistant treasurer of Cruz’s Senate campaign, wrote. “As of that date, his 2018 campaign for the United States Senate and his campaign committee Ted Cruz for Senate have been reactivated.”

He was involved with some sketchy political tactics in Alaska but claimed ignorance.

The group’s treasurer, Cabell Hobbs, declined to discuss the organization. “I just do the accounting and the FEC (Federal Election Commission) reports,” he told USA TODAY. “It’s just a policy of mine that I don’t speak to the press.”

He’s an officer of two corporations in Louisiana – “Fight for Louisiana” and “Clean Government for Louisiana.”

I quit looking after I found these but I’m pretty sure there’s more.  It sounds to me like if you have some money, Ole Cabell will take the bad press and the fall for you, and he doesn’t talk to newspapers, so you’re home free to wreck democracy any damn way you see fit.

These guys give me the creeps.

Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.