Texas AG Ken Paxton must be a special kind of stupid. Not only does he do whatever stupid thing he wants in his own state, he thinks he can do stupid in states not his own. Because he suspects some Texas families have taken their children for gender affirming treatment, he feels he’s got to crack down on that caca de pollo. So he sued Seattle Children’s Hospital to get them to hand over information. Never mind that  Seattle Children’s has no ties to Texas, is not incorporated in Texas, does no banking or advertising in Texas, and has no staff that provides care in Texas. Oh, and HIPAA anyone? Such a stunt worked for the Tennessee AG with Vanderbuilt, which is now being sued for releasing patient records. But Paxton sees no downside to his stupidity. Fortunately, we have the best AG in the country in Bob Ferguson (now running for Governor). And WA was a step ahead of these bozos, passing the Shield Law in response to the Dobbs ruling. “Under the law, Washington courts and law enforcement may not aid, enforce subpoenas and investigations by or make arrests at the request of outside states seeking to prosecute treatment that they ban but that is legal in Washington.” I love living in WA State. I really do.

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The title says it all.

Remember Kevin McCarthy? The guy who took 15 votes to become House Speaker, and one vote to “unbecome” one? Well, here on the Left Coast, where Kevin is from, we still have a problem – of sorts.

Seems that Kevin chose to quit his job as Congressman for California’s 20th district so close to the California primary filing date – which has just passed – that he has caused a major conundrum here.

McCarthy’s protégé, one Vince Fong, his former district director, was urged by McCarthy to run for his vacated spot. Fong, testing the winds, declined the offer because the better known California State Senator, Shannon Grove, whose district overlaps Kev’s former one, was the preferred candidate. So he qualified and filed for re-election to his current posting as a California Assemblyman. Then, the world shook as Senator Grove also declined the golden opportunity to serve in the cesspool that the US House of Representatives has become.

So quicker than you can say, “Lauren Bobert’s hand job,” ol’ Vince filed to finish McCarthy’s unelapsed term.

That makes a total of two offices that Vince Fong was running for – one more than allowed by state law.

Or so said Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

This led to a trade-off of threats to file suit between Fong and Congressman-Wanna-Be David Giglio, who had already decided to primary Kevin. I’ve visited Giglio’s website (and you can, too, just not with Juanita’s and my help). He is not just MAGA, Giglio is, shall we say, MEGAMAGA. TFG would be bonkers not to endorse him.

So, according to the article linked above, if Vince Fong has no path to the CD-20 ballot, and that seems likely, California Republicans will have a choice between Giglio, the Tulare County Sheriff, or the owner of a Native American casino to replace their favorite former congressman.

Oh, they could vote for one of the Democrats on the ballot, but in this Cook Partisan Voting Index R +16 district, that seems doubtful.

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The House of Representatives has opened up an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. I am suddenly reminded of an old episode of the “Dukes of Hazzard” where Boss Hogg quipped that they would throw the Duke boys in jail. When asked the charge he just said they would come up with something later. Jurisprudence was set back a few centuries that day. Thank God it was just poorly written fiction.

Fiction has become reality as the Republicans in the House have no idea what crimes Biden committed. They just assume he has done something. His brother repaid a loan. His son repaid a loan. He was on the speaker phone once with someone his son worked with to say hello. These are all horrible crimes and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The trouble is that there isn’t a law against any of those things. I suppose the House could pass such a law on the fly to make it illegal, but they couldn’t pass gas at a family function. They’ve been the second least productive Congress in the nation’s history. They passed 22 bills in the last calendar year. The Congress between 1931 and 1932 passed the least with 21. Congratulations Kevin, er Mike er who is in charge now?

This is how things are going in Washington. Donald Trump was impeached twice and had a majority vote for conviction both times. Only two other presidents had been impeached previously. None have been convicted. The general idea is that Trump can then go on the campaign trail and argue that Biden was also impeached, so they really are just the same at the end of the day. Nihilism is defined as “the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.” In other words, there are no rules and there is no discernable moral code. It is an old Soviet mind trick. Essentially, if everyone is evil then my evil really doesn’t matter. Sure, there are degrees of evil, but that is just a thought experiment. We then can compare Edwin Edwards to Ted Bundy and put them on the same pedestal of evil.

The folks in the House GOP are hoping that you don’t notice the difference. You won’t notice the difference between a man charged 91 different times in four different jurisdictions and a guy where criminal plots are being thrown out like a pitch meeting at the WB Network. The ever-relevant Hunter Biden offered to testify at a public hearing and James Comer made it sound like Biden had kicked his dog. How dare you expose our bullshit in front of God and everyone?

The sad thing is that this actually works on some people. Thankfully, it won’t work on enough to make a big difference. Most of his voters know Biden isn’t really a crook. They know their guy is. They just don’t care. He is a crook fighting for them. At least he’s fighting the same people they fight with on a regular basis. Well, maybe he’s just using a bunch of fighting words.

It’s going to be entertaining though. Forget about anything getting done. We have another budget crunch coming in February and this particular Congress seems incapable of focusing on two things at once. Do we focus on the fake impeachment and manufacturing evidence of a crime that isn’t really a crime? Do we focus on actually funding the government and making sure essential services are met? Damn this is hard.