If you are in desperate need of a tent or  a water bottle or a gadget chair or a trendy fashion accessory or whatnot, please go to Dick’s Sorting Goods or order online to thank them for getting some damn good sense.

As of yesterday, they will no longer sell assault weapons and today they issued this.  (Click here to see the big one.)

Maybe, just maybe, the tide is turning.

Business Insider had the best news of the year today.

Oh, I’d pay money to see that in person.

The only downside is that in a death match one side has to win.

Kushner had a very bad day yesterday.  Kelly is teetering on the edge over the Porter scandal and rumor has it that he’s not impressed with Ivanka’s intelligence.

And to add the spice to the chili, Trump isn’t happy with Jeff Sessions.  From this morning’s Twitter rampage —

Yeah, Sessions, how many times does Trump has to say that you’re not holding up your end of the cover-up?

Golly, the White House must be a great place to work!

I think trying to figure out what Mueller is doing requires tea leaves, a Magic 8 Ball, and Ouija board.

That said, there’s this.

The office of special counsel Robert Mueller has now proposed dropping charges against former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, in what might be the strongest sign yet that Gates has given the investigation significant information related to its probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Gates, who served as Trump’s deputy campaign chairman during the 2016 presidential election, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy against the United States and lying to federal investigators last week.

The only questions I have are (1) how long and how many indictments will it take to get Manafort to come apart like a $3 suitcase in a train station, or (2) Has Devin Nunes been sneaking over to Manafort’s house to deliver pinkie promises from Trump that he will grant Manafort a pardon?

Oh, well, it’s all just a WAG (Wild Butt Guess), but it’s fun to play WTF with the Trump inquiry.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

Okay, so the man who delivered word of Hillary’s stolen emails to the Trump campaign has gone missing.  His name is Joseph Mifsud and since last November even his fiancé can’t find him.

Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russians had thousands of emails from Democrats in April 2016, two months before the Democrats themselves were aware that their computer system had been hacked. Mifsud told Papadopoulos he’d learned of the emails during a trip to Russia, but who told him is unknown.

Nobody is gonna find that guy.  Either he’s buried under the Kremlin or Trump Tower.

However, this is not the weirdest disappearance.  If you’re not following the Timothy Cunningham disappearance, you’re missing a Stephen King novel.  Cunningham left work sick two weeks ago from his job at the Center for Disease Control.  He had access to all manner of biological germs and he went gone, leaving some strange messages behind.

That’s creepy.

Okay, so this is a little complicated but it certainly will spark your prurient interests.

There’s a Republican congressional seat in Arizona that is consistently red.  Personally, I think it’s red because they are embarrassed.  The former congressvarmint in the seat was Trent Franks, who had to resign because he’s kinky as a 100 foot garden hose.

So, they have to hold a special election skidding on the mess Franks left behind.

There’s two top people vying for the GOP nomination and the one who’s leading (and got endorsed by Ted Cruz!) with just a week to go before election day has a small problem.  Steamy and topless text messages with his legislative aide. And then he’s dumb enough to say he “did not have any inappropriate relationships with this woman.”  Holy Bill Clinton Cow.  All he changed was “that woman” to “this woman.” That phrase has not generally been associated with truth.

So, this guy is leading in the polling and about 75% of voters have already voted by mail. He’s hoping to lay low until election night and still be the GOP nominee.  So, on election night, check out Steve Montenegro in Arizona and see if he’s doing the dirty with Ted Cruz.

Now here’s the other fun part.  The candidate who is second in the polling is Debbie Lesko.  Trump’s campaign manager in Arizona has just accused her of a money laundering scheme with her campaign funds.

Yes, there is a Democratic nominee.  The district voted for Trump with a 21 point margin.  But hell, Trump won Alabama by 27 points and that didn’t help Roy Moore one little bit.

You know, this morning Thelma said that the Republicans may have the Russians working for them, but we have the Sex and Money Devil working for us.

That’s something to think about.

We have a foreign correspondent in Missouri who might at this very moment have the most entertaining Republicans anywhere.  Or, as I say, Missouri: Too small to be a country, too big to be an insane asylum.

Deb T. takes it from there —

Missouri’s Governor, Eric Greitens is charged  with (not convicted of), a Class D Felony (Missouri law prohibits anyone convicted of a felony from holding office.)

Golden Boy Greitens, the darling of the GOP, recipient of tons of money from the Koch Brothers and multi-millionaire Rex Sinquefield, is a guy whose entire campaign was predicated on “family values” is being indicted a little over a year after he took office because of an extra-marital affair that involved blackmail and bondage.

This probably leaves Missourians and quite possibly Governor Golden Boy himself wondering what happens next. As with many things, impeachment in Missouri is structured unlike almost every other state, we’re weird that way.

Like the federal government and most states, the process starts in the House of Representatives, specifically in the House Judiciary Committee where they decide if articles of impeachment are warranted given the offenses that the governor allegedly committed.

According to Article 7 (Section 1), of the Missouri Constitution, executive officials in Missouri are “liable to impeachment for crimes, misconduct, & habitual drunkenness, willful neglect of duty, and corruption in office, incompetency, or any offense involving moral turpitude or oppression in office.”

If the Legislature pursues Impeachment against Greitens it would likely come via Missouri State Statute 565.252.

Today the Republican controlled House formed a committee to investigate the charges against Greitens and 12 Republican House members signed a formal petition calling for him to resign.

If the House Judiciary Committee determines that Greitens committed a serious offense, which met that criteria then it can send the Articles of Impeachment to the House for a vote.

FWIW, the House leadership in Missouri appears to be signaling that they are leaning in that direction. Let’s put it this way, Golden Boy hasn’t won any friends during his first year in office.

Just how do Missouri’s Legislators regard Greitens?  Here’s a sampling.

Perhaps Greitens would have benefited from reading, “How to win friends and influence people”? On second thought there probably isn’t a chapter on duct taping women to rings in your basement while blindfolded, nor do I suspect that Emily Post ever discussed taking pictures, consensual or otherwise, during said activities.

If the Missouri House passes these Articles of Impeachment, the matter goes to  trial and that’s where Missouri’s contrariness asserts itself. Unlike the federal government and 47 other states, rather than send this to the Missouri Senate for the trial, Section 2 of Article 7 of the Missouri Constitution, requires, “All impeachments shall be tried before the Supreme Court, except that the governor or a member of the Supreme Court.”

Therefore, the governor will face a “special commission of seven eminent jurists to be elected by the senate” holding his trial, 5 of the 7 of whom must vote for impeachment in order to remove the Governor. It would only be at that time that the Governor could be removed from office

If that happens Lt. Governor Mike Parson, of Bolivar, Mo., would then assume the role of Missouri Governor.

There have been 10 impeachment cases in Missouri since 1825. Former Secretary of State Judith Moriarty is the only Missouri official who has ever been successfully impeached and removed from office. She was impeached back in 1994 following accusations that she had backdated election forms filed by her son to make it appear that he didn’t miss the filing deadline.

Update: he is doubling down and blaming Soros.

My favorite Greitens story so far (NOT THE ONION, this is for reals!) —

Former stripper convicted of filming sex partners seeks pardon from Gov. Greitens

A former law student and male stripper convicted nearly 20 years ago of invasion of privacy for secretly filming sex partners is asking Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens for a pardon.

Greitens was indicted last week under the same criminal statute for allegedly taking a compromising photograph of a woman with whom he was having an affair.

Greitens lawyers’ motion to have the charge dismissed uses the same legal rationale as the request for the pardon, according to attorney Albert Watkins, who sent the pardon request on behalf of his client to one of Greitens’ lawyers.

It would be “mighty hypocritical” of the governor not to grant the pardon given the basis for the request appears identical to the motion to dismiss Greitens’ pending felony charge, Watkins said in a press release Sunday.

A Republican? Hypocritical? About sex?  Nooooooo ….