A week ago, the Texas Secretary of State, who is appointed by the Governor, announced that 95,000 Texans who are registered to vote are not citizens.  There were cannons, waving flags, confetti, and all manner of hub bub accompanying this startling announcement.  Donald Trump even tweeted it.

They then turned these names over to the Texas Attorney General and sent the names to Texas counties so the counties could mail these people letters telling them that they had 30 days to come in and present proof they are citizens.

Now the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Governor’s office are quietly picking up the pieces of a press release shattered by buckshot.

The list was made by first obtaining a list of people who have applied for driver’s license and said they were non-citizens.  They took 22 years of those records and cross referenced them with people who are currently registered to vote.  Wow, 95,000!  Ain’t that somethin’?

Oh dear. They completely forgot that some of those people may have since become citizens but not told the Texas Department of Public Safety. They aren’t required to do so.

Texas naturalizes about 50,000 people a year.

And, they didn’t see if the names matched the right person. Nor did they prove these people had even voted.

The whole damn thing proved Republican leadership in this state is about as helpful as a dumpster possum.

Soon after, the citizenship review effort would buckle, revealing itself as a ham-handed exercise that threatened to jeopardize the votes of thousands of legitimate voters across the state. The secretary of state’s office would eventually walk back its initial findings after embarrassing errors in the data revealed that tens of thousands of the voters the state flagged were actually citizens. At least one lawsuit would be filed to halt the review, and others were likely in the pipeline. And a week into the review, no evidence of large-scale voter fraud would emerge.

Cameron County’s list went from 1,600 to 30, then it went back to about 1,200, and now it’s being looked at again. Sixty percent of Harris County’s was dropped within days. McLennan County was told never mind and their whole list was withdrawn.

In my county, 2 of the first 10 files reviewed by the county were people who filled out a voter registration form, clearly marked non-citizen, and had never voted. They never should have been on the voter roll in the first place but that’s the county’s fault, not the person who filled out the form.

How much egg do Republicans have to get on their faces to serve breakfast and shut the hell up?  Apparently, quite a lot.

New CNN polling shows that almost 7 in 10 say the federal government is doing a bad job of governing, including 43% who say it’s the worst job of governing in their lifetimes.

“That’s about double the share who said the same in early 1996 (21%) following a government shutdown that was the longest on record until last month. Just 19% say the federal government is doing a good job.”

Wait, wait.  “Just” 19% say the federal government is doing a good job.  Find those people and wake them the hell up.

Thelma thinks all 19% of the live in East Texas and are wearing MAGA hats to church.

You probably remember Ronny Jackson, the naval White House doctor who said that Trump was the healthiest president ever, with the most mental health ever, and the lowest cholesterol ever recorded in a human being. Immediately thereafter, Trump nominated Jackson to be a cabinet member as Veterans Affairs Secretary.

And immediately after that, it was revealed that Jackson did in fact know a whole lot about affairs, but not in the good way. Jackson faced a series of allegations including drinking on the job, overprescribing medications and creating a hostile work environment. Those allegations are still being investigated.

And now …

President Trump has re-nominated White House doctor Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson to be promoted to two-star admiral amid the Pentagon’s ongoing investigation into Jackson regarding alleged misconduct.

And yesterday Trump “named Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson as chief medical adviser and assistant to the president.”

Guess who has his next medical exam this Friday?  Guess who wants to be a known as a man who keeps his word if you’ll lie for him?

Thanks to Carl for the heads up.

Dan Chiasson lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and the city council is after him.  It seems that Dan put a sign on his house.

And the city is going to fine him $300 a day until he takes it down.  They say it’s in violation of city codes.  They say the sign hung at Dan Chiasson’s house “is too big and hung too high.”  Well, damn, that’s kinda how I like my men – too big and hung high.

The problem, as I see it, is not that we have an Impeach Trump sign on a house.  The problem is that we should have at least a couple million more.

Thanks to Rip for the heads up.

There’s definitely some negatives about living dangerously close to Houston. Traffic, OMG traffic. Humidity, OMG humidity. Did I mention traffic and humidity?

But there are some sterling things, too. It’s a liberal city and always has been in my lifetime. We elected a lesbian mayor when it was a thing. We are diverse. We are generally friendly unless you whine. We have gorgeous parks scattered everywhere. We have a world class medical center and Rice University. We have a gorgeous skyline and a world champion baseball team. Our food draws on all cultures but you can generally get better Mexican food here than in Mexico City.  There’s a lot to love about Houston.

Especially, this:  there is a Saturday afternoon activity for Houston children at one of the neighborhood libraries.  It’s called the Drag Queen Storytime and it’s delicious!  It is so popular that they keep having to move it to larger locations and you have to get there long before it starts to get in line for a ticket.

So, of course, somebody wants to ruin the fun.  James “Doc” Green is a host for a radio show called “Raging Elephants.”  He has already been warned to stay away from the library where Drag Queen Storytime puts on a show. He’s even been banned by the library from even being on the premises, but he just can’t help himself.

So, he “was detained, disarmed, and escorted out by police on Saturday, Jan. 26, for entering the building and refusing to leave.” It took seven police officers to remove him.  He yelled at the librarian,“We have a bunch of homosexuals that are molesting children. They are doing it with your help.”

I don’t think he understands the whole drag queen thing.  My 5 year old grandson has been to Drag Queen Storytime and he told me it was “cool, because they wear costumes.” I’m proud to tell you that he “gets it.” Maybe he could explain that to Doc.

Thanks to Kary for the heads up.

Y’all, he wants that damn wall.

The White House is finalizing details of a potential national emergency declaration to secure President Donald Trump’s border wall, even as lawmakers are trying to broker an immigration deal that could avert another shutdown in just over two weeks.

He truly doesn’t understand that the biggest hurdle is gonna be Texas ranchers and farmers in the Rio Grande valley who do not want to have their property or their access to the river confiscated by the goldarn guvmint.  There’s gonna be shooting – and worse yet, lawyers – involved.

I have a vision of Speaker Pelosi standing in the desert with a bunch of ranchers behind her facing off against Donald Trump and Matthew Whitaker, the guy who sweats so much they ought to keep him down there to water the crops.

Trump is backed against the wall.  McConnell isn’t going to let him shut down the government again and Democrats are not going to let him have a wall.

I gotta be honest, I am looking forward to the SOTU to hear him threaten the entire freekin’ country.