The American Horror Show Visits Bend, Oregon

 Yesterday out in Bend, Oregon somewhere between 400 and 450 students showed up for classes at Silver Rail Elementary School. A little after one pm so did a 16-year-old kid armed with what is currently being described as a long gun. The type of long gun hasn't been specified yet, although one outlet described it as being a shotgun. Whatever the case, the intruder, faced with locked doors, used his weapon to shoot his way inside. he killed three students, aged 5, 8, and 11 and a teacher. In addition, he shot another student and teacher who are both listed as critically wounded. The gunman was then killed by a man variously being called a bystander and Good Samaritan. 

Does any of that horror show sound familiar? It should. According to Education Week as of Oct. 5th there had been 24 school shootings in the United States. CNN, on the other hand claims that through Sept. 23rd there had been 42. (It keeps changing slightly, depending on the talking head.) The reason for the difference is gruesomely simple. Education Week's stat includes shootings in K-12 schools and only those in which children were either killed or wounded. CNN counts not just Ki-12, but also college campuses and shooting incidents that didn't actually kill or wound anybody. 

So, pick the size of your nightmare, America--it is, all yours no matter which you choose. 

As always, in the immediate aftermath the details are few and far between. (There is a news conference scheduled for this afternoon which will provide a few more, but probably not any definitive answers on why--well, other than the shooter was nuts.) The only things we know right now about the killer are his age and that he lived in Bend. Neither of those two things are surprising. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were seniors at Columbine High School when they opened fire. Nikolas Cruz was 19 when he began pulling the trigger at Marjory Stone Douglas in Parkland, FL. Salvador Ramos was 18 in Uvalde, TX.  Adam Lanza, the oldest of the gruesome bunch, was 20 when he showed up at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT. All of them were locals. 

All we know about the, "Good Samaritan," at the moment, other than he might be a student's dad, is he followed the shooter into the school and killed him. with a handgun. Although, on second thought, one supposes that does prove he is a lot braver than all those fat bellied Texas cops who stood around outside Robb Elementary in Uvalde while young Mr. Ramos continued his murder spree. 

Since it is illegal for a 16-year-old to buy a long gun in Oregon it is safe to assume the killer either stole the murder weapon or one his parents owned it. And since it is the 21st century we can also assume he left some sort of digital record of his grievances either real or imagined and possibly his plans. Unless, like Adam Lanza, he anticipated an electronic search and destroyed the hard drives on his devices. In any event the media has said a search of his home began last night. 

What comes next will be a continuation of post tragedy behavior that's predictable, politically driven, and amazingly short lived. In America our outrage and horror are real but never lasts long. We generally have the attention span and patience of gnats. Some on the left will scream about all the guns. Many on the right will point to the thread bare NRA adage, "Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun," and say it was proven at Silver Rail Elementary. Even though in this case the good guy didn't immediately stop the bad guy. That's right, while many may celebrate the abbreviated body count, others are burying their dead babies and beloved family member.  The heroism displayed doesn't ease their pain. Nothing anyone says, has done or will do can.

The truth is that the guns aren't going away. There are simply too many of them and the pro-gun lobby is too strong. The trouble is crazy people aren't going away either. The big question is, how do we keep the two apart. If someone has a suggestion, please put it on the table immediately. And while you do I have second question. Would all the gun aficionados out there who like to cite the second amendment as they oppose any sort of gun ownership restrictions please tell me--exactly which, "well regulated militia," do you serve with? 

10-16-26

Kimberly Guilfoyle's Lesson on the Calvera Principle

 Here are some things we know about Kimberly Guilfoyle. First, the suddenly former U.S. Ambassador to Greece prefers her men to be both rich and famous. She was married to Gavin Newsom for five years, the last two while he was Mayor of San Francisco. She then married the CEO of what has been described as am interior and production design company named, Eric Villency. (Not a name readily recognized which probably explains why it only lasted three years.) Later, she was Donald Trump Jr's main squeeze and fiancée for six. 

Second, she likes to spend money. Anyone who can rack up a $100,000 debt on an American Express Card, apparently without a clue how she is going to pay for it, must. 

Third, when it comes to corruption, she is about as subtle as one of those, Nigerian dudes on the prowl for your bank account number. 

According to various reports, prior to her confirmation hearing in the Senate last year, Guilfoyle contacted Kentucky attorney, Eric Deters pleading with him to cover the 100 grand tab. The Wall Street Journal reports one message read in part, "Honey please I need you to get this done for me today." Deters' initial response was, "I can't do this without getting a divorce." Proving she probably really did owe the money Guilfoyle told him, "You could send it there. It won't show up anywhere if you wire the money to American Express that's all that will show. Please." 

The Washington Times writes Ms. Guilfoyle promised Deters, among other things, to use her connection in the Trump administration to help with the issues he was having with the IRS and the Department of Justice. In addition, she was willing to make sure Deters had access to senior Trump officials on other matters. Other reports say Deters not only wanted help with the tax problems but also wanted her to score him a spot on Tucker Carlson's podcast and to send a song he had written to Kid Rock. Kimberly Guilfoyle's lawyer vehemently denied practically everything Deters has said.  However, there is no denying the message she sent to Deters which in part read, "...one of my guys, Julio is meeting with Billy and or Faulkner for IRS. I can get you in for a meeting on the matter we discussed please get back to me ASAP." 

Once in Greece, the new American Ambassador is reported to have hooked up one way, or another with a Greek lobbyist, Christos Marafatsos. He was at so many high-level meetings with her some foreign officials thought he was her chief of staff.  

All this broke because of Eric Deters. After a series of messages to Guilfoyle wanting to know why she hadn't come through for him--on anything--she responded that he needed to stop writing about their deal, or it would get her fired. Deters then went what is commonly referred to as ape shit. He ran straight to the national media, raging publicly about Guilfoyle's personal treachery. 

The end of the sordid little saga didn't take long. The story broke last week and earlier today it was reported the White House had made Kimberly Guilfoyle the offer she couldn't refuse. Seemingly within minutes she had resigned.

In the original version of the film, The Magnificent Seven, the Mexican bandit, Calvera tells a story about how he once robbed a bank in Texas. "The American government sent, a whole army to get me. A whole army. One little bank. In Texas only Texans can rob banks." The same principle is applicable here. In Trumpistan only Trumps can brazenly sell access to Trump stuff. 

Well, hey, we don't want to sink into anarchy, do we?

10-13-26

Yvonne St. Cyr Wants Her Money Back

Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.

A tweet by President Donald J. Trump, December 19th, 2020.

Yes, by the 19th of December in 2020 the ceiling was crashing down all around Donald Trump. He had lost the Presidential election a little over a month before and he simply couldn't accept it. He and some of his state level stooges were shopping for a judge who would overturn the election or at least gum up the works so badly there would be utter chaos. Advisors from outside the administration were urging him to seize voting machines and ballots, but his Justice Department would have none of it. Plots to send, "alternate electors," from states he lost were feeble and awash in confusion. His proposal for a second election, a Presidential mulligan as it were, was met with widespread derision. Plus, the Vice President, Mike Pence was balking at tanking the electoral college final tabulation.   

Increasingly, it appeared the only course of action available to Trump was to have his supporters take to the streets on the day of the certification to strong arm both Congress and Pence to overturn the results. 

On the 6th, prior to the violence, Trump told a rowdy crowd of supporters, "...you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong." One of his attorneys, former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, went further. He told the crowd, "Let's have trial by combat."  

Somewhere in the crowd listening to all this was a woman from Idaho named, Yvonne St. Cyr. The tweets and speeches inspired her so much, that she, along with assorted Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, the QAnon Shaman, and other like-minded fans of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building. It has been reported she entered the building through a broken window. While it is unclear if she was the one who actually broke it out, there is a clear photo of her attempting to help a fellow insurrectionist get in through the empty window frame.   

Thanks to her own phone photos and those of others she was later arrested. She was found guilty of two felony counts of civil disorder and according to NBC News, "several misdemeanors." However, before her sentencing she took to her Facebook live stream and predicted it would never get that far, because "The truth will come out." She also told her audience, "This shit's going to blow up. So just keep watching Tucker (Carlson), keep speaking the truth, keep talking about the corruption, keep sharing, and we will bring the system down." Then, presumably much to her dismay and surprise, the judge gave her 30 months in the slammer, 36 months of supervised probation, and ordered her to pay $2,000 in restitution. 

During her sentencing hearing Ms. St Cyr reminded everyone she had taken an oath to defend the Constitution as a member of the military. In addition, she used her difficult upbringing, and radio frequencies to explain her state of mind and one supposes politics. Then she cited her spiritual journey while insisting the election had been stolen. You know, the normal MAGA stuff. She also accused the judge of hating Donald Trump because, "he wasn't part of the system." She ran on so long--NBC reported her rambling statement lasted 45 minutes--the judge finally told her to, "wrap it up." 

Like everyone else involved in what can accurately called a violent attempt to overthrow a Presidential election and therefore the government of the United States, St. Cyr was pardoned by Donald Trump. One report said that by then she had spent a month in federal prison. 

Well, it turns out a pardon isn't good enough for Yvonne St. Cyr. She also wants her fucking two grand back. This past Tuesday she appeared in a taped interview with the Daily Show's Jordan Klepper.  After admitting she had taken an active part in the attack Klepper looked at her, then said, "And you want your money back? First insurrection's free right? I think that's in the Constitution." 

Undeterred by Klepper's sarcasm St. Cyr claimed the rioters were the real victims on January 6th, saying the aftereffects of the insurrection have been, "devastating."  to her and others. It turns out she isn't the only one who wants a payday. Klepper's report says an unspecified number of insurrectionists are suing the feds, accusing the government of excessive police force. Their claims add up to over $18 million in taxpayer money. 

Despite St. Cyr live streaming from inside the Capitol, at one point she claimed the only reason the government knew she was in the building was because of the, "deep state." She complained that the phone service outside the Capitol was sketchy and also blamed the lack of coverage on the, you guessed it, "deep state."  She said no when Klepper asked her if she wanted to storm the Capitol once more, "for old time's sake," adding that she had changed. Although apparently not that much. When he asked her if she would do it all over again, despite all the alleged pain and suffering, she replied, "Absolutely." 

She also had a warning for Jordan Klepper, who has made a career of, let's say sardonically, interviewing MAGA types. "We will be compensated," she told him. "We will be vindicated. And you will feel like an ass for this interview someday." 

Maybe or maybe not. However, at the moment, that sounds like pretty bold talk from a woman, who once told her internet audience she would never do jail time because, "The spirit has assured me that isn't going to happen." 

10-8-26     

J.D. Vance Rehabs Tricky Dick

 For those of you, like Vice President J.D. Vance, who weren't alive during the Presidency of Richard Nixon, let's have a very brief history lesson. He initially won the White House in 1968. By 1972, when he was running for re-election, his man, Henry Kissinger, was negotiating an end to the war in Vietnam and he had visited the Chinese mainland, ending over two decades of icy silence between the two nations. On the other hand, he was also dressing the ceremonial White House guards in uniforms straight out of the movie, "Prisoner of Zenda," and adding names to, "an enemies list." In addition, he had become obsessed with rooting out people who leaked information to the media and democrats. When the New York Times and later the Washington Post published what was known as the, "Pentagon Papers," Mr. Nixon went wild with rage, even though most of what was exposed happened before he assumed office.

In June of 1972 a group of people who were quickly tied to his re-election campaign were busted in the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. They were attempting to install illegal wiretaps and steal documents at the offices of the Democratic National Committee. It turned out Nixon had previously ordered the FBI to bug other organizations and individuals, but the Bureau had refused because the courts wouldn't allow it. Despite denying any connection to break in, evidence continued to mount that not only was his campaign involved, but so were senior White House staffers and the President himself. 

By August of 1974 the walls were closing in. The list of wrongdoing, bribes, payoffs, and outright criminal behavior was overwhelming. Richard M. Nixon was going to be impeached, convicted, and removed from office. He met with a group of republican Senators, among them the uber right wing, Barry Goldwater. They told him in no uncertain terms he was fucked. On August 9, 1974, Richard M. Nixon became the only President of the United States to resign from office. He was later pardoned of any and all crimes by his successor Gerald Ford and never appeared in court or spent a day in jail. 

Ever since, Dick Nixon has been considered the most corrupt President in American history. 

Last Thursday, J.D. Vance, the current Vice President of the United States, told us we had it all wrong. Speaking at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA, Vance said Nixon's Presidency might be, "Enjoying a renaissance and deservedly so." He also claimed that if the Watergate scandal occurred today, "It would be like a 12-hour news story and the idea it took down a Presidency is crazy." 

Then Vance said, "If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it's not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration." 

There it is. It wasn't Nixon's crimes that got him, it was the deep state before it was known as the deep state. It was a conspiracy before conspiracies became more common than snowflakes in Nome. (In 1972--1974 the only widespread conspiracy was who killed John Kennedy.) It was, in fact--despite all those republicans at that meeting--a cabal of radical liberals who caused the downfall. 

Then, J.D. Vance took it one step beyond. " A young Senator, Vice President writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media. It kind of sounds like J.D. Vance. I've always liked Richard Nixon." 

Wait. What? Did a sitting Vice President, a man on the national political stage, who has his eyes on the White House in a scant two years, just compare himself favorably to Richard Nixon, then say he always liked him? Why yes, he had. 

Add them all together and Vance's remarks become the most audacious re-write of recent history since Tucker Carlson claimed the January 6th capitol rioters were nothing more than a bunch of peaceful tourists. Well, either that, or all the acid we dropped in the 60's and 70's finally caught up to us. 

The proverbial weird part is that J. D. Vance may be right about some of it. Trump's in-your-face felonies and authoritarian ambitions makes Nixon's enemies list feel almost naive. Indeed, compared to Donald Trump's proudly overt corruption, Dick Nixon looks like a two-bit teen-aged punk armed with nothing more than can of spray paint. And given the scope of the high crimes and misdemeanors being committed these days, the Watergate break in might well last only a single 12-hour news cycle in 2026.

That doesn't make Richard Nixon innocent, or a victim of some deep state conspiracy. It was a different era. Nixon had followers, Trump has a cult. Nixon was dealing with GOP Senators and House members, who might have been willing to stand behind him to a point, but they weren't a bunch of rank cowards who were terrified of him. Most importantly, republican politicians back in those days ultimately believed in the Constitution and laws of the United States. They actually took their oaths seriously. The grab bag of assholes in congress now, consider the Constitution and law to be whatever Donald Trump says it is--no questions asked. 

J.D. Vance was wrong. Richard Nixon was a crook. It's just that Donald Trump is so spectacularly evil, nowadays ol' Tricky Dick seems downright quaint. 

10-5-26

Eric Schmitt and El Gaffe Grande

 Eric Schmitt was born in suburban St. Louis. After high school he attended Truman State University (Home of the Bulldogs). He then got his law degree from St. Louis University (Go Billikens). And yes, team nicknames are important here, trust me. 

 In 2005 Eric Schmiitt began his political career as a city alderman in Glendale, Missouri. Schmitt rose quickly through the GOP ranks, entering the Missouri state senate in 2009. By 2017 he was the state Treasurer, then in 2019 he became the Missouri state Attorney General. That's when he started to make a name for himself in MAGA world. 

As Attorney General he filed a lawsuit attempting to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. According to Wikipedia, after voters approved an amendment to the state constitution expanding Medicaid coverage, Schmitt argued in front of the Missouri Supreme Court that the republican controlled legislature and GOP Governor could legally refuse go along with expansion. You can't get any more Trumpian than that. In fact, it might have been the exact moment that Eric Schmitt became a genuine made MAGA guy.

To cement his image, during the Covid-19 pandemic Schmitt filed lawsuits against St. Louis County who was trying to implement restrictions on indoor dining and crowd sizes. One of the suits challenged a county wide mask mandate. When the pandemic really began to spin out of control Schmit's office filed a suit against the Chinese government and the Chinese communist party for, among other things, lying about how deadly the disease actually was. After using up $12,000 of the state's money to translate the paperwork into Chinese the federal court dismissed the case. Around the same time, he was going after the reds in Beijing, his office was also suing local school districts and Jefferson County, MO over mask requirements. 

In November 2022, the people of Missouri elected Eric Schmitt to the U.S. Senate by a little over 13 points. To paraphrase a lyric, his future was so bright he had to were shades. (Reports say the optimism in his camp was so prevalent he had even begun jockeying for the second spot on a J.D. Vance Presidential ticket) 

Then, early this week, things went, let's say, a tad awry. 

During the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting the Senator from Missouri appeared to be attempting to establish some sort of conspiracy between Special Persecutor, Jack Smith and Fulton County DA Fani Willis. Smith had been investigating Donald Trump and the entire January 6th coup attempt while at the same time Willis was investigating Trump's not so subtle effort to alter the 2020 election outcome in Georgia. No one is sure how serious Schmitt was about some nefarious collusion between the two--although we know MAGA loves conspiracies, well, except when they implicate Trump. The real reason for the line of questioning seemed to be to catch Jack Smith in a lie. In some quarters this is known as suborning perjury, a felony that will get you five years in the joint. 

Schmitt asked Smith if he had been in Atlanta during the investigations. Smith told the Committee he might have gone through Atlanta's airport while flying back and forth from Wahington to Florida. Schmitt, who had already called the Special Prosecutor a dirtbag, smiled slightly. Then he asked something along the lines of, "Would it surprise you, if we have proof, you were in Atlanta at an Atlanta Hawks game? " Smith was bewildered. One of Schmitt's aides rose with a large poster board showing Smith's texts about having tickets to a Hawks game. There was a problem though. Schmitt and his band of merry pranksters either didn't notice, or didn't care that while the texts mentioned Hawks, none specifically said the Atlanta Hawks, or referred to the city of Atlanta.   

During the ensuing uproar Smith said he did remember going to an Iowa-Maryland woman's basketball game, "around that time." That game was played in College Park, MD and featured then collegiate women's basketball superstar, Catlin Clark. Minnesota democratic Senator Amy Klobachar immediately jumped in to remind everyone Clark's Iowa team was known as the Hawkeyes. What she didn't mention, probably because she didn't have to, is that many times people shorten Hawkeyes into just Hawks. A little later observers noted the seat and row numbers Smith talked about don't exist in Atlanta's State Farm Arena, home of the NBA Hawks. In addition, Smith was accompanied by a couple of U.S. marshals to the game, and the Marshal service had a record of their whereabouts.   

It was a fuck up worthy of a Saturday Night Live bit. Everybody scrambled to cover their asses. When initially confronted about the mistake, Schmitt told TMZ only, "It's my job to ask the question." The implication being it was his staff who screwed the pooch and his only mistake was to believe them. Later he tried to laugh it off by saying, "Who knew Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan?" He also tried to excuse the mistake by insisting the Hawks-Warriors game was the only NBA game being played that night. Actually, there were six NBA games played on the date in question, but by then a lie that lame was minor enough to be shrugged off. Judiciary Committee staffers began claiming they had warned Schmitt's staff the texts were, "unvetted." Others said the White House had provided the flawed information to Schmitt's people. 

Despite the epic goof the right-wing media and online hacks proclaimed the day was a resounding indictment of Jack Smith. Sean Hannity congratulated Schmitt on social media, but then quickly deleted it. Later on his FOX show he praised republican committee members by name, without mentioning Schmitt, for exposing Smith's abuse of power. Others in the online MAGA media simply ignored El Gaffe Grande and told their followers, numbering far too many, Jack Smith had perjured himself. 

Not everyone was trying to sweep the disaster under the rug though. An editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch read in part, "Wrong teams, wrong league, wrong state." It went on to say the whole episode   was, "a loony right-wing conspiracy based on some misunderstood text messages. Falsely accuse a prosecutor of perjury; call him a villain and total dirtbag--and then stand by that playground pejorative even after the whole thing turned out to be a lazy mistake made by Schmitt and his staff..." 

 All that, of course, is the nature of the MAGA beast. Never say you're sorry or admit a mistake. Plow on to the next set of outrageous lies as fast as you can with the firm belief the truth can't catch up and, most importantly, the rubes will buy it all.

I tell you, Herr Goebbels would be proud.

10-2-26

The List of Donald Trump's Political Contributors Just Got Really Long

 It is being reported that the Donald Trump political campaign war chest started off the year 2026 with $300 million. That's not counting the PAC money his fabulously well-to-do pals have kicked in. It is strictly donations from individuals and various entities. In addition, it is estimated Donald Trump, and his family have pocketed not quite $4 billion since his second inauguration. Now, we all know the dollar isn't worth as much as it used to be, even a year ago, but still, that's a lot of fucking money. 

All of which begs a question. Why are the taxpayers, you and me, paying for the latest round of pro Trump political ads running on television? Has that crazed old coot come up with a scheme to embezzle the campaign funds? Is the family fortune stashed somewhere hard to get offshore?  Are the reports of the profits vastly overstated? Or has he gone all Scrooge McDuck and is just so cheap and greedy he'd rather stick us with the tab than pay for them himself? Let's face it, he does have a history of walking into places like ice cream parlors and promising to pay for everyone's meal, then skipping out on the bill. 

Well, according to a White House spokesperson the ads aren't ads at all. "These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad. The ads are educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country." Later, another White House toady claimed, "The PSAs are clearly not political. The President is not on the ballot, and the ads don't have a call to action." 

What one of them does have is a stern-faced Donald Trump walking down a hall while in the background one of his old speeches is playing. In it he is telling a crowd, "We will cast out the Communists, Marxists, and Fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all." 

For those who might have just experienced a dis-orienting moment of Deja vu, no, you aren't going a little off the mental hygene beaten path.  In January 2024, during his third run at the White House, the same video showed up on Trump's Truth Social account. The last six seconds of the original ad contained Trump's campaign logo and a phone number to text in your contribution info. In the new version that was replaced with a message saying, "Paid for by the U.S. government." 

In another, "PSA," Trump denounces communism and socialism while a rolling texts brags about his administration's accomplishments, including, "reigniting American manufacturing." The music used in the ad is a song by JMSN called, "Love Me."  As always, Trump's people failed to get permission to use the song. JMSN, aka, Christian Berishaj, had his lawyers immediately demand that not only the ad be pulled at once, but that Trump and his people never use the song or any of his, "intellectual property," again. 

Yet another ad shows Trump at Mount Rushmore telling the audience, "Never before has any nation celebrated so magnificent a triumph as this one." Not to be a critic, but to the casual onlooker it isn't clear if he was talking about the sculptures, or himself.      

The ads began running on FOX and Newsmax. By this weekend, USA Today reports they appeared on several college and NFL games, FOX News Sunday, and even Saturday Night Live. All of it happening less than 40 days ahead of a midterm election that is skewing heavily toward the democrats.  

Ah yes, clearly not political. 

Senate majority leader, John Thune is quoted by CNN as saying, "It's a great message. I like the message, but it shouldn't have been paid for with taxpayer dollars." Texas lame duck Senator--thank you Donald Trump--John Cornyn was asked if the ads were political. His response was, "It's not even a close question." Democratic Congressman, Jamie Raskin was a tad blunter. On social media he wrote, in part, "It may be a felony..." CNN also quoted one former Trump, "campaign official," who said airing the ads at taxpayer expense was, "Dumb, dumb, dumb beyond belief. These guys are all gonna get subpoenaed. It's gonna be bad." 

While that remains to be seen (Screw John Gotti, Trump is the real Teflon Don) we do know that as far too many of us struggle to buy groceries and fuel, the President of the United States just made us all contributors to his current political campaign--whether we wanted to or not.

But hey, that's what Klepto-Autocrats do. 

9-29-26

Chock Full O' Nuts and Crooks

 You can say a lot of things about the republican party, but you'll never be able to deny that when it comes to finding corrupt and downright bat shit crazy candidates, they know how to do it. Obviously, American democrats can and have done it too--Graham Platner up in Maine comes to mind--but republicans have it honed into a real science.

We all know about the Texas GOP senatorial nominee, Ken Paxton. He is a man so wildly corrupt that when he was serving as the state's Attorney General his own staff ratted him out to the FBI. When there was a move to impeach him from that office, it didn't come from the democrats, but republicans themselves. 

Now word comes that in a 2022 interview he spoke about the Uvalde, TX mass shooting which killed 19 students and two teachers. Paxton was asked by radio host/pastor, Trey Graham what he would say to the parents of all those murdered children to comfort them. His response was, "I would just have to say, if I had the opportunity to talk to the people I'd have to say, look there's always a plan. I believe God has a plan. Life is short no matter what it is. And certainly, we're not going to make sense of, you know, a young child being shot and killed way before their life expectancy."

Ah yes, comforting indeed Mr. Attorney General. 

Out in Colorado, the republican nominee for governor is, Victor Marx. Raw Story reports Mr. Marx recently called for 21 days of fasting and prayer to, "shift ideologies before election day." Not his ideology mind you, but that of his opponent, Phil Weiser and his supporters. Mr. Marx (Has anyone else noticed the irony here? A MAGA republican named, Marx.) claimed, "The election will be determined by prayer." He also says, "It (the election) is a spiritual battle against the forces of wickedness." Raw Story notes, Marx has previously claimed he was, "forced to commit a murder when he was a child," although he has never said who, when, or where. In addition, the candidate maintains he has literally fought with, "demons and supernatural creatures," while performing missionary work. It remains unclear what mode of mortal combat it was. You know, was it guns, knives, or bare knuckles? Maybe karate, or even bull whips, ala Indiana Jones. 

Whatever the case, Raw Story also reports Marx isn't the first MAGA gubernatorial candidate to try praying his way into office. In 2022, Pennsylvania republican, Doug Mastriano urged his supporters to fast and pray for 40 days prior to the election. Previously he had publicly prayed for MAGA to "seize the power," right before Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6th. That didn't work out, at least the way it was originally planned, and Josh Shapiro became Governor of Pennsylvania. So, make of it what you will. 

However, getting back, if only briefly, to our demon slayer, Victor Marx. It is also being reported that the candidate attempted to get around election finance laws by operating a campaign merchandise store through a shell company. It's an act most Colorado experts say is completely illegal. Raw Story says Marx is considered so far out there, some GOP state party officials have resigned rather than support him. 

Finally, we get to Maine Senator, Susan Collins. She has been in the Senate for three decades. She has gained a reputation for moaning and groaning about Donald Trump's crazed policies, but then, in the end, almost always voting for them. Now we might know why. 

On Tuesday ProPublica reported that early in her 2020 re-election bid she was losing in the fundraising department and behind in the polls. The gist of the story is that in exchange for a bunch hefty donations from the executives of a Hawaii based defense contractor, Navatek, Collins made sure the company was awarded millions in DOD contracts. In some quarters this is known as, "pay for play." in others it's known as bribery.  

Collins vehemently denies the allegations and has called it, "clearly a political hit job." The Senator's chief of staff called the allegations, "categorically false." ProPublica stands by the story and maintains Navatek CEO Martin Kao met with a Collins campaign fundraiser and agreed to write out a check in exchange for multi-million-dollar contracts steered their way.  The outlet has a photo of a sizable check made out to a pro-Collins PAC from a company called, "Society of Young Women Scientists and Engineers LLC." The Society was created in November 2019. The Hawaii Department of Commerce lists the, "registered agent," of the company as, you guessed it, Martin Kao. 

The FBI admits it investigated the allegations when they first surfaced in 2020, but after finding nothing dropped it. What they didn't say is that they didn't decide there was nothing until 2025, when Donald Trump began his second term and ordered the case closed. He then made sure all the agents involved were fired--one supposes just to be on the safe side. 

While no one can be sure if there is a connection between Trump's intervention and Collins' bizarre voting record, we do know that when Donald J. Trump does you a favor, he fully expects it to be repaid, with interest. Hey, he might not be a mobster in the traditional sense, but he certainly likes to act like one.     

And that, ladies and gentlemen, sums up the entire 21st century American republican party. From top to bottom, Chock full O' Nuts and Crooks--and sometimes they're both at the same time.

9-25-26