Hi Donald! It’s Me, Ken. I Need a Pardon. UPDATED
Oh, this is a cute one.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just filed all the proper papers with the United States Supreme Court to overturn the 2020 election.
Paxton, an outspoken advocate of President Donald Trump, claims the states “flooded their people with unlawful ballot applications and ballots” and ignored rules for how such ballots need to be counted, according to a press release announcing the litigation.
“Trust in the integrity of our election processes is sacrosanct and binds our citizenry and the States in this Union together,” Paxton said in the statement. “Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin destroyed that trust and compromised the security and integrity of the 2020 election.”
Now what Texas has to do with this, I dunno. But, I known for a damn guaranteed fact what Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, has to do with it. He needs a pardon, in fact a couple of them and a blank form he can use in the future, and what better way to get Trump’s attention.
Paxton is currently under indictment for stock fraud and is currently being investigated by the FBI for bribery and abuse of office.
The bureau is probing allegations that Paxton broke the law by using the attorney general’s office to serve the interests of a political donor, two unnamed sources told the Associated Press.
All the top staff of his office has resigned, not because they were guilty but because he is.
It’s a cheap trick and it will probably work. Paxton is so slick he can’t keep his socks up.
UPDATED!
Trump took note by retweeting it.
FOR COURAGE & BRILLIANCE! https://t.co/mPM5ejy2lU
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2020
And here’s the video of him stealing another lawyer’s fountain pen that was an anniversary gift from his wife.
He returned it after the video showed up several months later and said he must have “accidentally” picked it up.
I imagine Paxton is a little late to the party. A few weeks ago, when Trump still thought he stood a bat’s chance in hell, it might have worked. But, today, if you’re first name isn’t Donald and your last name isn’t Trump he’s paying no attention to you.
1Pardons R Us
2Going out of business sale.
I was just listening to a UT law prof discussing this. He said it was strictly political theater and probably SCOTUS would reply, simply, no. Of course this is the era of no shame. Now we just need to watch for bribes to faithless electors.
3This is just… embarrassing.
4I’m sure it’s embarrassing to Texans to have the likes of Paxton, Patrick, Cruz, Goober G, Cornyn, Abbot (who am I forgetting) to be national repugnantican celebrities.
5I was just watching msnbc and Rachel Maddie was discussing her book about Spiro Agnew. Paxton is very much in the mold of Spiro. A crook in office (oh I guess the mold would include Trumpf).
If the supremes even entertain Paxton’s lawsuit or hearing Cruz represent a Trumpf lawsuit will be disgusting and a dangerous precedent.
That fucking nimrod must’ve been asleep or sick the day they covered “standing“ in law school.
6Obviously the law skool he attended taught the “finders keepers” rule of property law. He merely applied what he had learned. The first, pen owning lawyer, is probably lucky he didn’t leave his wife at the security checkpoint while he rushed in to file something. The AG might have tried to appropriate her, too.
7OT, but some good interesting news from Deep South Texas:
In just over an hour from now, SpaceX is fixing to do another test launch of the Starship series of BFRs from the Boca Chica Spaceport, the highest yet. Iirc, it will fire 9 Falcon 9 engines.
This one is SN8, going ~50K’ high and back.
Check out a livestream video.
I find it awesome that I used to fish and sail Boca Chica Beach, just a mile east of the Spaceport; there were never any crowds, seldom any people or vehicles way out at the end of TX Hwy 4.
Links, video, etc. :
https://www.bing.com/search?q=spacex+sn8
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/8/2000635/-Today-could-be-the-first-day-of-a-spectacular-new-space-age-or-not
8Today is called “safe harbor day” when by law, congress must approve all state electors for states that have certified their state election results, and all legal challenges must be resolved. Not sure how this impacts lawsuits that have been requested to go before the supremes. I think that’s why the Paxton and Cruz lawsuits have been filed to the Supreme Court. Today should be an interesting day in congress. Need to stay tuned.
9Best SpaceX SN8 links, imo:
https://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html
Live local video :
10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbKEWlhWN5c&feature=youtu.be
The body of the complaint is just the phrase “pardon me” repeated over and over … like in another horror movie: The Shining.
11I’m not a lawyer or even close but I was wondering the same as Larry. How would he have standing to bring this suit to the SC. Per my very brief google search: A plaintiff cannot sue as a taxpayer who shares a grievance in common with all other taxpayers. Have no idea if that’s even relevant beyond the 3 rules that are mentioned for a petitioner to be considered to have standing. Hope someone can explain this to me as this is scaring the bejeebers out of me. I can imagine the trump appointees plus Thomas and Alito agreeing to hear this, rules be damned.
12It’s hard to imagine someone could be this craven and hypocritical until I remember Paxton is the Darling among Southern Baptist circles.
13Dang. The SpaceX SN8 launch aborted at T+1.3sec [~1641hr, 4:41.3pm cst], a Raptor engine abort.
14The PA gop lawsuit to overturn the results in that state was just tossed out by the supremes. Believe this was the suit teddy Cruz was going to present to the court. The PA Supreme Court already tossed it out.
15This just leaves the Paxton suit which all experts say has even less chance of being heard.m (like no chance). Wonder if the effort will be good enough to buy a pardon.
The fat lady sang a few times already but once the supremes toss this lawsuit, she can sing it for the last time.
It’s going to take a ton of Rid-X to clean the septic tanks when these guys are finally all flushed.
16Abuse of his office? I’ve tried really hard, but I can’t think of a worse abuse of his office than to try to overturn an election, especially one in some other state. Then again, he’s NSGOP, so I guess this kind of ‘abuse’ should surprise no one.
17OT again:
I can’t resist, two musical cuts about Boca Chica and Port Isabel, TX, that are about as far apart musically as you can get:
The BongoDogs, Puro Caliche, “Boca Boca Chica”:
https://youtu.be/FOLvhfORAVU
.
18Marshall Styler, Red River Crossing, “Summer Night, Port Isabel Light”:
https://youtu.be/Z1roqp-g5aY
I shouldn’t be a fan of George Conway but he is once again spot on, “this is the most insane thing yet” re: Texas lawsuit:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/12/08/george-conway-texas-lawsuit-voter-fraud-lead-vpx.cnn
19Just how bad an effort does it have to be that the Texas Solicitor General, who works for Paxton and is charged to handle appellate efforts, did not sign on to this case?
20Sound like to me Paxton is setting up a run for Texas Governor. I think he fits the mold. After all he will follow Bush, Perry, Abbott – he’ll bring all of the idiots that live around me……sadly.
21Unfortunately, from the comments I’ve seen at other blogs, Paxton’s suit is making our state a laughing stock.
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