Ted Cruz Really Likes this Guy

Leave a reply

Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) was recently quoted on his admiration for Donald Trump. “I like Donald Trump. I think he’s terrific, I think he’s brash, I think he speaks the truth,” Cruz said Tuesday morning on Fox News.

Now the New York Times has reported that Trump bashed John McCain’s war record and questioned his heroism.

Asked about Mr. McCain during an event on Saturday sponsored by an Iowa Christian conservative group, Mr. Trump said of Mr. McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam: “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.

Of course, Trump couldn’t be bothered to serve in Vietnam allegedly because of a bone spur in his foot. Funny thing – Trump can’t even remember which foot it was that kept him from serving his country.

If you like Trump and think he speaks the truth, then you are a scuzball – just like Trump, Sen. Cruz.

Texas Secessionists on 21 City Tour

Leave a reply

The Texas Nationalist Movement has launched a 21 city tour in an attempt to convince Texans to put a secessionist question on the ballot.  KXAN reports on the meeting held in Austin.  TNM seeks to have a non-binding referendum put on the 2016 ballot.

Texans are tired of answering to bureaucrats in D.C. they didn’t elect and having to deal with policies they don’t want,” said TNM President Dan Miller.

Miller spoke to a room full of enthusiasts. Longtime Texans like Joe Glass. “We live with a lawless government,” he said. “The constitution was written to provide freedom to people and constrain government and now we live in a country where the government does whatever it wants to.”

Recent transplants to the Texas way also attended. Carmen Rao moved here from New Jersey. “I like the right to self determine, I think that’s important, free spirit and independence. That’s why I moved here.”

“Now there’s a state killed by regulation and bad decisions by politicians,” said Paul Jones, who moved here from Michigan. “I don’t dislike Michigan but I have to feed my family and I think a lot of people around the United States feel the same way.”

Somewhere, Vladimir Putin is smiling.

Today in Texas History – July 17

Leave a reply

From the Annals of the Civil War –   In 1864,  CSA President Jefferson Davis appointed Gen. John Bell Hood as commander of the Army of Tennessee.  Hood, a West Point graduate, had been stationed in Texas before the war and offered his services to his adopted state.

Davis was frustrated by Gen. Joseph Johnston who employed a defensive strategy in the Atlanta campaign waged by Union Gen. William T. Sherman.  Johnston and Sherman had maneuvered and skirmished throughout the rugged landscape between Chattanooga and Atlanta but had not met in a full-fledged battle.  Sherman’s efforts to outflank Johnston were blocked, but even though Johnson minimized his losses his army was pushed inexorably back towards Atlanta. By July 17, 1864, Johnston’s army was in the outskirts of Atlanta. As a result, Davis removed Johnston and replaced him with the 33 year-old Hood. Hood had a reputation as a fighting general and he quickly took the offensive by attacking at Peachtree Creek on July 20.  His army was routed.  Undeterred, Hood attacked Sherman two more times with equally disastrous results.  The Army of Tennessee was effectively through as an offensive unit and Hood was forced to evacuate Atlanta.

Jade Helm 15 Update, Cont.

Leave a reply

The second day of Jade Helm 15 has ended and alas, the jack-booted, goose-stepping thugs employed by Obama (Kenyan, Muslim, Commie blah, blah, blah) have yet to begin the inevitable round up of our wives, children and most importantly guns.  This sneaky and underhanded diversionary tactic of making JH15 look like a real military exercise cannot fool the public for much longer.  The black helicopters are arriving any minute now and if they don’t its only because the brave and loyal citizens of Texas (most of whom want to secede from the Union) have exposed JH15 for the ruse that it is.  Red for one will be very disappointed if Mrs. Red isn’t taken away soon since she wasn’t too happy about Red wandering in after 2 am the other night smelling of golf and tequila shots.  And if J. Edgar (Red’s Belgian Shepherd) doesn’t stop digging holes in the backyard, it won’t be too hard for Obama’s goons to figure out where Red buried his cache of vintage WWII hand grenades.

Vigilantly yours,

Red

Representative Democracy Under Fire

Leave a reply

The Texas Election Law Blog  examines the possible destructive effect on American democracy should the Supreme Court rule in favor of the petitioners in Evenwel v. Abbott.

The plaintiff argues that Texas should not base state redistricting on the distribution of its population, but rather on the distribution of its voters. The motivation for the case is to strip power from urban areas in favor of the rural conservatives.

Central to the conservative argument is that apportionment of representation by population size “dilutes” the power afforded to voters by distributing representation based on both the voting population and all the other people (kids, foreigners, prisoners, non-voters) who happen to live in a state House or Senate district.

In other words, the plaintiff believes that government representatives do not serve all the people in their district. The plaintiff believes that government representatives serve only the people who vote, and everyone else can suck eggs.

The potential impact of this case dwarfs the recent decisions upholding the Affordable Care Act and legalizing same-sex marriage.  While those cases have sex-appeal to the general public, a case about apportionment of legislative seats must seem dull in contrast.  But, if the Supreme Court bites on the argument that only voters should count for apportionment purposes, there will be a fundamental shift in political power that will make the Republicans current gerrymandering of their way into entrenched legislative power seem like weak tea indeed.  There would be a massive shift of representation away from urban populations to rural areas and older white voters would exert an even more outsized influence on the body politic.  This could cement extreme right-wing control of state and federal legislative bodies for another 40 or 50 years.

 

Scott Walker Not Connecting in Texas

Leave a reply

Scott Walker has yet to tap into the incredible cache of money held by wealthy conservative Texans desperate to elect another Republican President.  Mother Jones reports that Walker has made no inroads in Texas and conservative power brokers are being snatched up by other better-financed candidates.

The union-busting Wisconsin governor may be a conservative darling, but he’s way behind the curve when it comes to courting Texas’ biggest money men. Bill Miller, a top Texas lobbyist who regularly advises megadonors on their contributions, says he’s heard almost no buzz from the donor class about Walker. In the past, Miller has worked with major political benefactors including the late Bob Perry, a Texas home builder who gave more than $70 million to conservative causes over the years and was the major funder behind the 2004 Swiftboat Veterans for Truth group. This year Miller says he’s talked to clients about many of the Republican candidates, but not Walker.

“No one is asking about him,” Miller says. “None of our clients. We have a huge client base. It’s oddly quiet for a guy that’s supposedly top three among the potential nominees.”

According to Miller, almost all of the top-tier candidates—including Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul—have come knocking on the doors of Texas donors. But Walker has not had much of a presence in the state.

“Among all those guys who are acknowledged at the top, he’s the one guy who is nowhere. Even Chris Christie has had more resonance here,” Miller says.

Jade Helm 15 Update

3 Replies

On the first day of Jade Helm 15 – the not so covert operation where Obama (the Kenyan Muslim Socialist Terrorist Sympathizing duly elected President) is coming to take away our wives, children and most importantly guns – the sneaky jack-booted thugs of the U.S. military confounded the Tea Party whack jobs by failing to round up any wives or children or confiscate any guns.  The Guardian (a notorious leftist rag) played into Obama’s hands by noting that absolutely nothing had happened in Bastrop (the epicenter of the conspiracy) on the first day of the exercise which will ultimately spell doom for our democracy and the American way of life as we know it.

A “Come and Take It” flag, one of Texas’s favourite symbols of defiant independence, flew proudly on a pole outside a ranch near Bastrop on Wednesday.

But on the  first day of Jade Helm 15, no one appeared to be coming, let alone taking anything.

A small town near Austin with a quaint Victorian downtown, Bastrop is supposed to be a hub of the vast US military training exercise that spans seven states and runs until September 15.  But Wednesday seemed to be a day like any other in Bastrop – which is to say not much was happening.

Jade Helm still has more than eight weeks to run. But none of President Obama’s jackbooted minions had mounted an assault on the Simply Sweet cupcake store on Bastrop’s main street, as of Wednesday afternoon. No Humvees were parked outside The Best Lil’ Hairhouse in Texas, which was still styling customers. A poster in the window of the tourist information centre promoted a seniors’ quilt raffle.

It’s the calm before the storm.  Bury your guns now.  Bury your wife and children at your own risk.

Today in Texas History – July 16

Leave a reply

From the Annals of the Border Wars –  In 1931, the “Red River Bridge War” reached a new level of confrontation when Gov. Ross Sterling ordered a detachment of Texas Rangers to prevent use of a newly constructed free bridge over the Red River.  The bridge which had been built by Texas and Oklahoma connected Denison and Durant, Oklahoma.  The problem arose when the Red River Bridge Company, which operating a toll bridge running next to the new bridge, filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking an injunction preventing the Texas Highway Commission from opening the bridge. The RRBC claimed breach of an agreement by the THC to purchase the toll bridge and damages for its unexpired contract as a condition for opening the new bridge.  The court granted a temporary injunction Sterling had barricades erected preventing access to the bridge from the Texas side.  Oklahoma Governor William (Alfalfa Bill) Murray claimed that Oklahoma’s “half” of the bridge ran lengthwise north and south across the Red River, that Oklahoma held title to both sides of the river from the Louisiana Purchase treaty of 1803, and that the state of Oklahoma was not named in the injunction. On July 16, Oklahoma highway crews crossed the bridge and took down the Texas barricades.  Sterling responded by ordering The Texas Rangers to rebuild the barricades and protect Texas Highway Department employees charged with enforcing the injunction.  In response, Murray ordered Oklahoma highway crews to tear up the northern approaches to the still-operating toll bridge closing traffic over the river.   The Texas Legislature resolved the controversy by  passing a bill granting the RRBC permission to sue the state in order to recover its damages.   This allowed the injunction to be dissolved and  the free bridge was opened to traffic, but not before some additional grandstanding by Murray who had declared martial law on both sides of the bridge.  The controversy ended with no shots fired and no injuries.

Photo from heralddemocrat.com

Jade Helm 15 is Here – Run

Leave a reply

Well today is the day that the right-wing conspiracy theory Tea Party whackos have been waiting for.  The Feds are finally here to round up your women, children and most importantly guns.  That is, if they just don’t kill you right off the bat and haul your carcass away in a Blue Bell Ice Cream truck.  Yep, that’s the latest theory.  The Army will be using the obviously underutilized refrigerated trucks to transport bodies of those on the “Red List” to other undisclosed sites for – well it’s not really clear what for.  Or the whole thing is a cover up to put troops in place for the giant asteroid that is going to strike the southwest in September.  Or the gurus of Russian mind control are going to convert everyone into a Democrat.  Or maybe the Army is going to use the Russian troops spotted in Tennessee to do the dirty work of rounding up and killing the real patriots of the Tea Party.  Or after the jack-booted troops establish control, Obama is going to fly into Phoenix, personally pistol whip Jan Brewer and declare himself Emperor for Life.  Or maybe it’s just an Army training exercise.