Melania: Shut mouth. You look like idiot.
Easter Rabbit: Blow it out your ears Melania!
Melania: I wasn’t talking to you, rabbit.

Municipal waste water facility named after long term Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas

March 23, 2018 Pilo, Texas. The new waste water facility of Pilo, Texas will celebrate it’s long awaited re-opening along with renaming the facility after Congressman Louie Gohmert. The facility has completed a massive refurbishment but has continued to serve the community in a limited, but effective, capacity.

“I’m am thrilled that the refurbishment has been successfuly completed and the facility will be at 100% capacity.” said the facility manager, Cecile Budai. “I am also very proud to announce that after long deliberations we have decided to bestow the honor of renaming the Pilo Sewer Treatment Plant after our own Congressman, Louie Gohmert.”

“Congressman Gohmert, over his long tenure in Congress, has demonstrated his ability to represent this facility in a manner that would make any Pilo resident proud to wake up to. We searched far and wide looking for an individual who was capable of representing the essence of this facility. Gohmert has the necessary skills to sit down and make shit up. His has what it takes for many of his constituents to refer to him as simply as an asshole. He is known to search deep into the bowels of government to crap on the less fortunate and to take a dump on those he disagrees with. Gohmert, like the treatment plant is just full of shit.”

These are the traits the Pilo facility managers were looking for when renaming the sewer plant after Gohmert. Congressman Gohmert was asked to respond but was backed up at the moment. His chief of staff released a short statement “Ain’t that some shit”.

The grand opening will be held at approximately 8:15 am in the bathroom. Please bring your own paper or iPhone if you intend to tweet about the event.

Maybe it was Kathaleen Wall’s mousy voice. Or her constant ads coming across your TV. Or her poorly timed gun nut ad right after the Florida shooting with an AR-15. Whatever it was for Wall to come in third place and miss the runoff for the republican nomination for Congress it cost her a boatload of money. About $6 Million to be exact.

$6 Million she isn’t going to get back. Wall is probably the only Congressional candidate in history to self finance a campaign like she did. She only raised about $10,000 from other individuals so she was basically buying a Congressional seat. Unfortunately the voting republicans weren’t buying her. Her opponents used the line “Buying a seat” many times and it probably resonated with the low information voters.

Buying a seat in Congress probably did her in but maybe she didn’t lie enough for the republicans. Or wasn’t perceived to be a racist. Or wasn’t an assh*le enough like Trump. Maybe that would have changed their minds but in the end she is out. After all, they do have their limits.

Wall was Greg Abbott’s endorsed candidate. The $6 million woman. She deserved the loss. So did he.

Don’t expect the republicans in Congress to tackle the gun violence issue anytime before the mid term elections. It’s not going to happen. Their reluctance to have a discussion on possible ways to avoid another Columbine, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Orlando, Sutherland, Killeen, Fort Hood, or Parkland shows how strong the vice grip of the nra is on their balls. They can’t breath, much less govern.

With the latest shooting the nra congress have given up their right to propose a solution. They need to simply be quiet just like they have since the first mass shooting and let others decide how the 70% of Americans, who do not own a firearm, want to live. As an idea, one the nra congress will never consider, let Americans buy assault weapons and high capacity clips with just a few restrictions.

Owning an assault weapon should be a felony unless that weapon is securely stored at a gun range. If you want to buy an assault weapon, have it shipped to a secure gun range. If you want to shoot, go to the range. If you want to show it off, go to the range. If you want to fondle it, go to the range. If you want to move, have it transferred to a new secure gun range.

An assault weapon should ever be stored at home or be available on the street. A violation should be a felony with a mandatory minimun sentence of 2 years in jail.

The nra congress will not like this idea but they don’t like any idea like keeping weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill or background checks or any common sense legislation. There is only one way for common sense reforms or any reforms to be proposed, debated, and voted on. The nra has to be voted out of congress.

November 6, 2018

There ought to be a law….

Kathaleen Wall is one of the republicans running to replace Ted Poe in Texas Congressional District 2. A quick look at her fundraising numbers might make one say something like “Needless to say the republican candidate has millions.” but looking beneath the surface tells a different story.

According to her FEC single fundraising report Wall raised a whopping $2,744,692.79 but that includes $2,733,801.79 from the candidate  herself leaving only $10,891 raised from 14 other donors. So Wall is literally trying to buy an election. Her closest primary opponent Kevin Roberts raised $531,311 including a $270,000 personal loan. Rick Waller raised $367,492 including a $300,000 loan.  David Balat raised $155,000 with an $85,000 loan and Johnathon Havens raised $111,000 with an $80,000 loan. None of the republicans are capable of raising money on their own. 

Here is the FEC report on the candidates:

Kathaleen Wall did not list her $2,733,801 donation as a loan but as a candidate contribution. I know if a donation is listed as a loan then it could be paid back, with interest, from campaign contributions but if it is listed just as a self financed campaign donation then it might not be refundable. Regardless there ought to be law preventing people from buying a race like this.

You can view her entire report here.

As I said yesterday:

Candidates need money to introduce themselves to the community, to buy literature, to pay staff, to buy resources like internet access, signs, media buys, and campaign headquarters. If you can’t get your message out you can’t expect voters to vote for you.

You can review all the fundraising information for all candidates in the Congressional Districts of Texas by visiting this link. So with a bit of commentary, here are the numbers from the FEC.gov website:

Congressional District 2
Needless to say the republican candidate has millions, $2.7 million to be exact, but it is all of her money! See my post here. Democratic candidate, Litton, has raised $367,492 to date. More than any other candidate, republican or Democrat excluding any loans or self financing. Some candidates do not have any data on the FEC site. I do not intend to update later. They are not actively raising money and should regroup and run at a later date.

Congressional District 7
Wow. Lots of money being raised in this period. Alex has raised nearly $1 Million. 4 of the 7 candidates look viable. Moser brought in a considerable amount this period mainly from ActBlue which is how it is reported. I thought that the contributions had to be itemized with who actually contributed the money via ActBlue, but I may be wrong. The bottom 3 Candidates should consider dropping out, endorsing someone, then put their resources into the winner of the primary.

Congressional District 29
Notice that Muhammad Tahir Javed has an incredible amount for a single reporting period of $647,775 but……that includes a $400,000 personal loan from his own pocket.The bottom 4 candidates have about $39,000 combined which includes a $27,683 personal loan by Roel Garcia into his campaign.The bottom 4 might consider dropping out. As I have said “This is not a game”.

Today is the last day for reports to be filed for Federal races. Some reports have been filed already, some have not. Some have an incredible amount of money especially in Congressional District 7, some have an incredible lack of money especially in Congressional District 7. Hopefully by tomorrow numbers will be posted for CD2, CD7, CD29, and CD36 to give primary voters a look at who can be viable in the general election.

Over the past month or two forums across the county have focused on questions about the environment, immigration, health care and taking control of the trump administration, but few questions have been asked about the viability of the multiple campaigns. This is a very serious question. Candidates running for an office should be able to say how many votes they need to win in the primary and the general, how much money they need to win these votes, and how they intend to raise the money necessary to win.

Running for office isn’t a game. Lives are literally at stake. It is serious business and requires pre-filing analysis. Candidates should have either a large amount of money or a very large army of volunteers, based upon the office running for, or a combination of both. A combination of both is most probably the best bet to win. Candidates need money to introduce themselves to the community, to buy literature, to pay staff, to buy resources like internet access, signs, media buys, and campaign headquarters. If you can’t get your message out you can’t expect voters to vote for you.

So. Tomorrow we Count de Monet.

The Houston Chronicle probably said it best:

In fact, I don’t think any city in Texas has a chance at Amazon’s HQ2. Mostly because our regressive, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT state leadership has given the state a horrendous reputation on the coasts that only a political revolution will overcome.

But someone really put it in simple terms to Amazon with a letter from a Texan. In short, we don’t like Muslims, Gays, Mexicans, and Teachers. And we love guns, and machetes, and guns, and more guns. At least the writer was being honest.

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull one over Brian Babin. In a letter to his constituents Babin falls for the FBI Secret Society prank based upon a joke between two FBI agents over text. From his email:

These text messages from high ranking FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page show the depth of anti-Trump bias at the FBI and DOJ, which we now know included the existence of a “secret society” to coordinate their efforts. I urge all my constituents regardless of party affiliation to take precautions to protect themselves from possible violation by the FBI. I highly recommend the Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil for best protection.

Babin has also called for an investigation into the Russian meddling in our election. Actually he hasn’t. In fact Babin wants the investigation investigated. It is clear he will do anything to protect trump, his family, and his connections to the Russian government.

Sad.