It must be some kind of magic that Mark Meadows could do an actual job of Chief of Staff when he spent all his time text messaging.

No, seriously.

CNN has obtained 2,319 text messages that former President Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent and received between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden’s January 20, 2021 inauguration.

The vast trove of texts, which Meadows selectively provided to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, offers the most revealing picture to date of how Trump’s inner circle, supporters and Republican lawmakers worked behind the scenes to try to overturn the election results and then reacted to the violence that effort unleashed at the Capitol on January 6.

Well, you know where I will be this afternoon.

First thought: The My Pillow guy needs something to occupy his time, you know, like a job or something. I bet that guy has thumbs the size of Dallas.

I look for deviations every day in my business … when I find one I investigate relentlessly until I know why it happened and how it happened… ( this is my gift from God that has made my business so successful)

Apparently, God hands out crazy behavior like it’s beads at Mardi Gras.

There can be no greater separation between whatever we call progressives and whatever we call conservatives than the feelings about billion dollar corporations. Conservatives fought to give those corporations rights to free speech where progressives normally view those corporations with some level of skepticism or scorn. At the very least, there is a constant battle to get those corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.

This is why the battle over Disney is such a unique battle. No single quote has had a greater impact on the past forty years of politics than Ronald Reagan’s quote from his first inaugural address. “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” No other line quite captures the sentiment of conservatism. That quote gets magnified when we deal with corporations the size of Disney.

Disney has been given all kinds of perks and favors over the years. The idea is that Disney creates more for the economy and stimulates more growth than the government ever could. So, the best thing a government can do is take a back seat and let Disney do their thing. Naturally, we will ignore that while Disney is a fine place to visit (our family has been there three times in the past six years) and they have stimulated the economy in general, as an employer their spoils aren’t exactly distributed equitably.

Such is the nature of these things. A good progressive will take the Reagan quote and insert the word corporations for the word government. It’s not that we don’t want them to exist. It’s that we want them to be tempered and regulated so that their excesses can be reined in. We want workers treated fairly. We want consumers to be protected. We want the effects of the greed that happens naturally to be limited.

What gets lost for the current crop of conservatives is that corporations have no moral compass. They can’t. As much as Citizens United wants us to believe that they are people we know they are not. They are about pure profit motive. They want to sell my daughter a “pride donut” while also seemingly catering to “family values.” They want all of our money.

So, I’m not sure what Desantis and the other movement conservatives were thinking when they came out against LGTBQ+ individuals. When they passed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill what exactly did they think would happen? Did they think Disney would purposely cut off a sizable portion of it’s customer base? Disney has made its billions by being all things to all people. It can appear to be wholesome and family friendly and also friendly to people of all lifestyle choices. They’ve made their way through that mine field. They are incredibly successful because they have done this.

So, now conservatives are going against their core beliefs. They are punishing a corporation for taking a stand. It puts progressives into the uncomfortable position of supporting a corporation like Disney. In the end, corporations are the same. They are all things to all people. They are signs of the ultimate greed and avarice driving a wedge through our society and environment. They are welcoming to all people because all currency spends the same no matter who it comes from. Corporations can and will be both. They can because they can’t afford not to be. At least the successful ones like Disney can’t.

In what my friend Vickie describes as “on the edge of Austin and sanity,” I give you this.

That’s a Saturday.  I’m wondering how many electric cars we can get to block all the roadways into Austin. Oh hell, what am I thinking? That’s a normal day in Austin.

It’s hard to believe.

But it’s true.

And there are pictures.

He admits it happened but it was at a party on vacation on a cruise before he was elected to Congress.  I’m certain cruises are Jesus-free zones and since he wasn’t a congressman when it happened, it wasn’t a gender specific event.

The Jones bankruptcy hearing is ongoing.  I just got information that you can overhear everything by dialing 832-917-1510, conference code 590153.

It starts at 9:00 am Texas time.  Put your phone on mute.

Sorry for the late notice.

Okay, if you missed it, bankruptcy lawyers, who get paid by the hour, kicked it down the road.  Next hearing will be next Friday at 3:00.  Same number and code.  It’s a little hard to follow because there’s so many lawyers.  You’ve got Jones’s lawyers, and three sets of lawyers opposing the bankruptcy – the Texas plaintiffs, the Connecticut plaintiffs, and the Department of Justice.

Okay, so here we are.

So, Judge Guerra Gamble was not a happy camper yesterday. She believes the bankruptcy notice was improperly filed, but there is nothing she can do until the bankruptcy court makes a decision.  We are all hoping that will happen within 30 days.

Meanwhile, Jones has decided that he needs himself some immunity from being prosecuted for the crime of sedition.  So, he sent his goofy lawyer Norm Pattis to tell the Justice Department he might be interested in testifying.

As a condition of being interviewed by federal investigators, Mr. Jones, who is known for his rants about the “Deep State” and its supposed control over national affairs, has requested immunity from prosecution.

“He distrusts the government,” Mr. Pattis said.

Well, allow me, please, to assure you that the feeling is mutual.

Okay, let’s assume there’s even one person on the planet who would believe anything Jones says.  The odds of getting that person on the jury panel is pretty slim considering it is probably Majorie Taylor Greene.

So, on we go.

The upside is that the judge is ordering Jones to pay legal fees and the families for all the delays caused by Jones.

Just a note: some of you nice people have asked if you could contribute toward the legal fees.  There are no legal fees. This case was taken on contingency. If the lawyers win, they get paid. If they don’t, they pay all legal expenses out of their pockets. The judge’s order has helped significantly with that.