George HW Bush; George W Bush; Dan Patrick; Ted Cruz; Allen West; Dan Rodimer; Chad Prather.  What do these individuals have in common?  First, they either held, hold, or are running for political office in Texas.  Second, NONE of them are actually from Texas.  HW and W were well known Connecticut blue bloods who wrapped themselves in the Texas flag to run for federal office.  Ted Cruz is from Calgary, Canada. Allen West, who was born in Georgia and went to Congress from Florida, was oddly elected chair of the Texas Republican party and recently resigned to run against Abbott for Texas governor.  That leaves Dan Rodimer, from New Jersey, and Chad Prather, also from New Jersey.  What a coinkydink.

You can correctly characterize all of these men as carpetbaggers; most were/are shitheads.  What separates Rodimer and Prather from the others, though, is that not only are they shitheads, they’re also posers, dressing up in cowboy costumes and talking with that fake gnarly drawl that those who are not from Texas believe is how native Texans talk.  While it’s true that many Texans do talk with that drawl, we also recognize a poser pretending to be from Texas.  And, it mightily pisses us off.  These two clowns really piss me off.

Rodimer is just your everyday weirdo who decided he wanted to be in Congress after he failed at being a professional wrestler, so he moved to Nevada where he ran and was beaten badly after allegations of domestic violence surfaced.  So, he had the great idea of moving to Texas, changing his voice, donning a cowboy hat and renaming himself “Big Dan” Rodimer to run again for Congress.  His chances faded pretty quickly when the Washington Post picked up his story and showed the ad he made pretending to ride a bull using a stunt double.  The ad was simply awful, even cringeworthy.

But compared to Prather, Rodimer is a minor leaguer of fakes.  Prather is the world champion of loudmouthed, boastful, smartass 5-inch-brim-hat-wearing fakes.  He styles himself as a comedian and a “fast-talking, observational humorist”, but has scrubbed his New Jersey roots from his online persona.  In fact, he’s damn near scrubbed all of his past from his online persona. Besides having an online gig on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze website, he’s a YouTuber, usually done from the front seat of his big I-Have-a-Tiny-Penis pick’em-up truck, and he’s a dynamic self-promotion machine.  His videos are a fast talking stream of bile delivered with a smile, whining about “libruls”, Biden, Pelosi, and everyone not Trump.  The most irritating thing about him is his boasting about being “Unapologetically Southern”, not understanding that those of us actually from Texas don’t consider ourselves southern, but Texan.  The South is NOT Texas.  He’s also more than happy to let you mistake him for a native Texan, which he most certainly isn’t.  He got my attention when he announced he was running for governor against Abbott because he got pissed off when Abbott mandated masks for 5 minutes last year before caving to Trump and dropping the mandate WAY too early, contributing to the 53,000 deaths in Texas from the virus.  Prather’s entire platform is made up of two planks: “I’m pissed off about masks”, and “I need to sell some T-Shirts”.  That’s it.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Texas is a most welcoming state and we love for people to move here.  But we need REAL people to move here who are respectful, hardworking, and sincerely wanting to put down roots.  Clowns like Rodimer and Prather are NOT who we’re looking for, and we goddam sure don’t want them trying to represent us in Austin or Washington.  Add Allen West and Dan Patrick to this toxic waste, and Texas looks worse if that’s even possible after the damage done by Abbott, Cruz, and Cornyn.  Here’s how bad it is in Texas Republican politics right now…the primary race is made up of a Trump Mini Me (complete with a failed Wall policy), and two carpetbaggers, West and Prather.  Jesus.

My message to these posers?  Leave us alone and go back to wear you came from.  We have enough problems and we have to get Abbott out of office, but we most certainly don’t need any help from these fakes.  So, #NoPosersinTexas

Written by Elizabeth Moon

According to the Washington Post, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and a couple from Tennessee have colluded to privately fund the South Dakota National Guard’s expedition to the Texas border.  The foundation of Willis and Reba Johnson has pledged and followed through with payment of $1 million in support for the mission to the U.S.-Mexico border. The South Dakota National Guard, according to another source on Twitter, considers itself “self-deputized” to perform Border guard duties.  

South Dakota is a heavily racist state, a state that disenfranchised its Native Americans living on reservations because they don’t have street addresses for mail delivery (never mind there are white people in this state who don’t get home mail delivery, including the town) and thus can’t get the right kind of voter ID.  

Chances that South Dakota National Guardsmen will recognize *our* brown people as native Americans, be fluent in Spanish, and understand any of the local customs?  NIL.  We had both North and South Dakotans as tourists in the Valley when I was a kid and that whole northern tier of winter Texans were….annoying.  Chances of South Dakota National Guard troops killing American citizens in this venture: high and the chances of them causing an international incident with Mexico are even higher.

But worse than that: National Guard troops are not supposed to be for hire to any political activist who wants to show off how rich they are.  They are part of our national military force, not the Governor’s private militia she can hand off to someone for a payback to the state.  Their deployment outside South Dakota is supposed to be approved by the Pentagon.  Remember that the governor of Maryland could not send the Maryland National Guard to Washington D.C. on January 6, for a genuine emergency, until they were released for interstate duty through channels–the Acting Secretary of Defense and the Army’s Chief of Staff. 

Was this out-of-state deployment approved by the Pentagon?  If so, by whom at the Pentagon?  Under what existing rules that govern National Guard deployments?  The South Dakota National Guard, like all National Guards, is supported and provided with supplies, including vehicles, weapons, uniforms, etc., by the Department of the Army.  The equipment belongs to the military–ultimately to the Army, and is not to be used for purposes not approved by the military.  

Having a rich person from Tennessee hire a National Guard unit from South Dakota to traverse multiple other states to get to the Texas/Mexico border and involve itself in an international situation is frankly horrifying.  It’s against normal procedure.  The Guard is being treated like a mercenary company, available for hire by anyone–any private person with enough money–rather than as part of the United States military. Its equipment is being treated as it belonged to South Dakota, rather than the U.S. military, which amounts to theft from the federal government.  

As a matter of national security, our military units, including National Guard units, have not been, and should not be, for hire like mercenaries.  It’s unethical and I believe illegal under the laws that govern our military. Whatever unholy clandestine agreements that resulted in this mess, we need a swift and thorough investigation of exactly who said what to whom and when.  What rules were ignored, which weren’t followed because someone in the central chain of command was willing to break them.  Were more Texas politicians than Greg Abbott involved? Do we still have an insurrectionist of rank in the Pentagon?  Colluding with civilians to suborn a National Guard? This naked power-grab by a right-wing civilian to “buy” a military unit must not stand.

Last week I came up with an idea, and it seemed like a damn good idea at the time but it was early evening, hot as hell, and I was drinking either my second or third glass of homemade Limoncello (thanks Barbara in DeeCee) with Topo Chico poured on top. I generally lose count after one, but more than three and I find myself laying on the lawn holding onto the grass to keep from falling off. So, I was somewhere between 2 or 3.

Anyway, it was during this time that I came up with this idea. Texas Democrats should run Matthew McConaughey for governor and Beto O’Rourke for Lt. Governor.  In Texas, all the power is in the Lt. Gov position, but more people go vote for the Governor. So, I call Glen Maxey and tell him that I have it figured out.  He heard my plan and then asked, “But Darlin’, what if McConaughey says something stoopid?” I told him to sober up and I’d call him tomorrow.

Think about it: Under the current governor, Texans froze in the dark and a mess of them died. We’re the oil generating machine for the entire country and this governor let us freeze and then had a legislative session – we only have them every two years – and didn’t do anything about it.  He still doesn’t recognize it as a problem that needs fixing.  He wants to spend my Don’t Freeze money on a wall with Mexico.  Hellfire, McConaughey could play the bongo drums naked and high in his front window again and it wouldn’t come near as stupid as letting all of Texas lose electricity during the worst cold in three decades.

Beto can craft and pass all the legislation.  And he can explain it in a way that even a bongo player will  like it.

So, just as I was going to patent this idea, AARP says I needn’t bother.

I have been a member of AARP for over a decade and every face on the cover of their magazine has been someone over the age of 65. Not this month. They’ve got a 51 year old kid on the front.

You can see the big picture right here.

The cutline under his name says, “What he loves about his family, his life, and his country.”  And, in case you missed it, this is the 4th of July issue.

To say that it’s a patriotic puff piece is to say that puppies are cuddly.  I don’t have a problem with it being a patriotic puff piece, but damn – even I wouldn’t have thought about the AARP magazine. Somebody is way ahead of me on this.

Now if we could just elect Willie agriculture commissioner.

Yesterday the NYTimes published an annotated video documenting in extreme detail the events of January 6, 2021, where thousands of insurrectionists attempted to stop the Electoral College certification in an effort to overthrow the US government and install FG as dictator.  It failed spectacularly, but, since one of our major political parties is trying to sweep this effort under the rug and continuing to pay homage to the criminal who incited the entire attack.  This is a must watch for the entire 40 minutes.  Send this link to everyone, especially those peddling the lie that this was “nothing”, because it most certainly not nothing.

God; Guns; Gays; Prayer in Schools; War on Christmas; Politically Correct; Death Tax; Illegals; National Anthem; ACORN; Benghazi; Massive Voter Fraud; Stop the Steal; White Genocide.  These, and dozens of other bumper sticker talking points are all fodder to whip up fake outrage in the base to keep them wound up and angry over non-issues.  The latest is Critical Race Theory.  Virtually unheard of before March of this year, it is now the key topic on Fox Noise, OAN, social media, and Hate Radio all over the country.

What’s going on?  What’s going on is what always goes on…whip up an issue to piss off the base, flog it until it becomes ingrained in conservative DNA, then find another fake issue to piss off the base, flog it until it becomes ingrained in conservative DNA, rinse, repeat.  They use the tactic to drive the base to the polls and for fundraising.

Media Matters has been following these tactics for years and have publish a new review to the Critical Race Theory outrage.  Now, to be clear, Critical Race Theory has been in academia for over 40 years.  It was developed back then, primarily in law schools, including Harvard, to frame the approach to legislation in an effort to understand how racist policies from centuries ago have become ingrained in our laws.  It’s not political and has not been taught in schools to children.  This issue was dredged up as Trump started flogging the fake issue by banning discussions of race in the military and in government agencies call it “sensitivity training” and other pejoratives as part of his campaign in the 2020 election.

To show how these issues are flogged, Media Matters tracks the number of mentions of certain key words.  Here’s their recent tracking of Critical Race Theory on Fox Noise.

Media Matters did a great exposé a couple of years ago about how Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs whipped up the War on Christmas in 2004 which is now resurrected and marched down Bullshit Street every holiday season.  Bullshit is the proper descriptor for all of this, but it’s worse than that.  It’s corrosive and undermines people’s confidence in government, has destroyed all decorum between political ideologies and is a common tactic in totalitarian governments like Russia.  The proliferation of this bullshit makes truth unknowable.  Normally rational people spout said bullshit on social media in a continuous stream, destroying civility between digital and even actual friends.  This is how you get a HUGE proportion of Republicans actually believing Trump is still president and how whites are being systematically eliminated from society.  It’s all bullshit, but it’s also ingrained in the belief systems of millions of Americans.  Even in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary, people still believe this bullshit.

It’s tragic and seriously threatens our democracy.

Donald Rumsfeld is dead. That’s the major news item of the day. That is until the indictments come down on the Trump organization. Oddly enough, those two stories are related. Oddly enough, Rumsfeld’s death is an uneasy reminder that I was wrong. I know. Everyone is shocked.

One of the things I was taught growing up was that almost everyone in our politics was operating from an understanding that everyone in our politics wanted what was best for America. So, even poor decisions were done with the best interest of America in mind. Occasionally, the lines of legality get blurred or outright erased. Even then, it is done with the best interest of America in mind.

When that happens you are given a choice. You can accept that as a part of politics. You can use it to defeat your opponent, defeat them, and then move on. You can also use political capital to punish them for their crimes. However, if you go with the second option you run the very real risk that the court system becomes a weapon in politics. It’s not an easy decision.

I grew up believing that the pardon of Nixon was on balance a good thing. I grew up believing that moving on from Iran-Contra was a good thing. I then came to believe that moving on from the possible crimes of the second Bush administration was a good thing. I’m a big believer in history and I figured history would treat them harshly enough. I figured people would remember. I figured a lot of things.

I was wrong. The Bush administration isn’t remembered as crooks. History has taught us something else entirely. The Nixon administration did what it did because administrations before had literally gotten away with murder. The Reagan administration did more because Nixon went unpunished. The Bush administration did more because the Reagan administration went unpunished.

Now, we get to the point where the people in power were no longer in it for the best interests of the United States. They were in it for themselves. Suddenly, Bush didn’t look so bad. Suddenly, Rumsfeld doesn’t look so bad. You could even catch the occasional progressive longing for the dark days of the Bush administration before Biden took over. At least you had a patriotic American possibly breaking the law to achieve his view of American interests. It sure beat a narcissistic jackass out to line his own pockets.

Now, I understand the lay of the land. There are two distinct historical trends at work here. First, Republicans tend to be corrupt. At least the ones in the White House tend to be that way. Secondly, when you don’t punish bad behavior it gets worse. Basic parenting should have taught me that, but I thought politicizing justice was wrong. It’s still distasteful, but it’s necessary. The humanization of Donald Rumsfeld should teach us that much.