Asset forfeiture is a damn mess in Texas.  Law enforcement can seize the property of those arrested for a crime and have not been found guilty.  That means that they can take your stuff without due process.

Law enforcement says it really, really helps them with convicting drug dealers and terrorists.

Yeah, but … it would also help them convict me if I was arrested with trumped up (see what I did there?) charges. If they took all my assets, I couldn’t hire a lawyer or an investigator, eat actual food before trial, or pay the electricity bill.

The sheriff of Rockwall County, Texas (think suburb of Dallas) went to the White House and met with Trump.  Trump loves asset forfeiture and, coincidently, so does the sheriff.

Trump announced to the public at this meeting that he would like to know the name of the state senator supporting reforming asset forfeiture …

 “President Donald Trump invited the sheriff of a small Texas County to ‘destroy’ the career of a state senator who sought to ban a controversial law enforcement practice by naming the lawmaker during a White House meeting.”

The issue is being debated in the Texas State Senate. Republican State Senator Konni Burton and Democratic State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa are the two people leading this fight in the Texas Senate.

Being that Konni represents a district near the sheriff’s county, and she is the Republican fighting for due process, it’s most likely that Konni is the one who Trump wants to destroy. Of course, Konni is a woman so destroying her puts another notch in Trump’s belt.

Sumbitch.

Look, I am no Konni Burton cheerleader. She’s anti-choice and kisses up to Greg Abbott, but for Trump to use the White House to “destroy” a damn state senator he doesn’t even know, is … yeah, crazy. It’s crazy.

I don’t think Trump meant Democratic State Senator Chuy Hinojosa.  Chu is a damn American hero and Trump couldn’t touch him with a fifty foot pole. In fact, Chuy might use “Trump wants to destroy me” on his campaign literature.

Thanks to Kyle for the heads up.

Look, all I can figure is that he grabbed Bannon by the pussy and is now being extorted.

The New York Times, tucked neatly in a long story so that most people will overlook it.

Mr. Priebus bristles at the perception that he occupies a diminished perch in the West Wing pecking order compared with previous chiefs. But for the moment, Mr. Bannon remains the president’s dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trump’s anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council, a greater source of frustration to the president than the fallout from the travel ban.

(Italics are mine because I can’t stop reading that sentence over and over and over.)

Wait a minute. Are they saying that Bannon put himself on the National Security Council?  Without Trump’s permission? And that Trump has no idea what he’s signing? Hellfire, even Radar O’Reilly didn’t have the gall to do that.

On another topic: I know you’re not supposed to make fun of the way people look.  But, Bannon looks like he smells bad.  And you get the idea that he’s not just a slob himself but that he’s a slob at home, too.  I will bet you my best pair of pink boots that the worst job in America is the cleaning crew at Bannon’s home. I shiver just thinking about it.

Somebody needs to send this guy back to Breitbart and the subhuman culture over there where people don’t pick their noses and wipe it on their dinner napkin.

Thanks to Deb for the heads up.

In the most recent issue, Judith Thurman of The New Yorker interviewed by email retired novelist Philip Roth about his 2004 book The Plot Against America. Given the “absolute disaster” (Cheeto Jesus’ words, not mine) that has been unfolding before us on national television, Roth’s work is especially prescient.  The setting of the novel is 1940 through 1942 where American icon Charles Lindbergh, with the aid of Nazi meddling in the election, defeats FDR who was running for a third term.  Because of the meddling in the election, it is feared that Lindbergh was susceptible to blackmail by the Nazis.

The historic Lindbergh was a strong isolationist, was the first to coin the “America First” motto that CJ borrowed, and publicly admired Hitler.  His (more…)

Our friend AlanInAustin reacted with some spit and vinegar to Donald Trump’s edict that females on his staff “dress like women.”

Here’s a picture of my mother in her welding outfit. During WWII she got dressed up in canvass overalls, gloves, and helmet, then crawled all over Liberty ships. When news came that her brother was MIA (ship sunk in the Pacific), she still went to work. When she found guys below decks playing cards, she tack welded the hatch shut to seal them in. She then went to her boss and said that maybe if they couldn’t do their jobs that maybe they could be somewhere on the front with a rifle.

So SCREW YOU, Trump.
AlanInAustin

Well, at least he’s quit pretending to be a Christian.

Y’all, the usually solemn National Prayer Breakfast is now all about Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump veered off script at the start of the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday when he asked a room full of lawmakers, foreign dignitaries and religious leaders to pray for Arnold Schwarzenegger so that ratings of his show — NBC’s “The Apprentice” — would go up.

Then he started drooling ….

The keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast was Barry Black, the chaplain of the United States Senate.

Moved by Black’s remarks, Trump lauded him.

“Thank you as well to senator chaplain Barry Black for his moving words,” he said.

Trump added: “I don’t know, chaplain, whether that’s an appointed position? Is that an appointed position? I don’t know if you’re Democrat or Republican, but I’m appointing you for another year. The hell with it.”

To many, especially the religious leaders in the room, “hell” is a swear word.

Y’all, even Arnold Schwarzenegger was stunned by it, which is kinda crazy considering that Arnold ain’t exactly anybody’s ideal of manners and propriety.

To make matters worse …

Lawmakers and religious leaders from about 70 countries gather at the Washington event, first organized in 1953.

 

Well, lookie at this:  The little snowflakes have covered Harley-Davidson.

A presidential visit to a Harley Davidson factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has been canceled because the company was worried about the fallout from protesters for hosting the toxic Trump.

CNN reported, “President Donald Trump will not head to Milwaukee for a previously scheduled visit of a Harley Davidson factory after the company decided it wasn’t comfortable hosting him amid planned protests, an administration official said Tuesday…It was the threat of protests, and not Trump’s planned signing of executive orders, that made Harley Davidson uncomfortable, the official said.”

The protests are working because Harley-Davidson went out of their way to say they didn’t disagree with Trump’s policy. So, if we can’t make them smart, at least we can make them scared of their bottom line.

And this morning I got some restored faith in my fellow Americans.  Reuters just released a poll —

Imposing a temporary travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim countries, President Donald Trump said the move would help protect the United States from terrorism. But less than one-third of Americans believe the move makes them “more safe,” according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.

So, Trump has a whole 30% of Americans behind him. I can live with that.

Oh yeah, there’s one other poll this morning I kinda like. Chris Christie approval rating dropped to 17%.