Two Florida Republicans Vote Against Hurricane Relief for Texas

Expect Them to Come Crawling fto Washington for Florida Benefits

As Florida takes a huge hit from the weather once again the Federal government will dip into its pockets and send billions to a state devastated by a massive storm. They did this for Texas despite the hatred of Texans for the Feds, and they will do this for Florida despite the hatred of Floridians for the Feds.

So it should have been headline news when two Florida Congressmen voted against hurricane aid for Texas.

Yoho, who represents areas of northern Florida, said the disaster-relief bill should have been stand-alone legislation.

“Snaking in a debt-ceiling increase with funding for victims and communities affected is immoral and reflective of broken leadership in Washington,” Yoho said in a statement after the vote Friday. “I do not think it wise to extend our borrowing limit without mandatory spending reforms . . . If this was a clean measure that focused on those affected by Hurricane Harvey, I would have proudly voted for it.”

A weasel statement from a pure bred weasel. And his colleague joined up.

Gaetz, whose district includes coastal areas along the Gulf of Mexico, called the spending package “generational theft.”

“I have a pretty strident view that I will only vote to raise the debt limit if that vote is accompanied with reductions in entitlement spending,” Gaetz said, according to the Miami Herald. “If conservatives don’t start voting no against debt-limit increases, all the FEMA in the world won’t save us from our must unfortunate destiny.”

Of course these two will be front and center begging for money for Irma. And next year they will be begging for votes but hopefully the people of Florida will now see them for what they are. Probably not though and one thing about conservatives is that after they use government to take care of themselves they rarely want it to take care of others.

Exclusive: Excerpts From the Keynote Speech of National Association of Scumbags

Scam Artists and Crooked Contractors

Editor's Note: The following is part of the speech the head of the trade group of Scammers, Scumbags and Cheating Contractors can only be found here, cause we made it up.

Death Valley, Ca (UPS) Sept. 1. In a fantastic speech President Suckerson of the NASSCC told his followers and members that they had a historic opportunity to rip off Texans, Floridians and the Feds in the aftermath of Harvey. Here are the highlights (lowlights)

“Folks, the opportunities to cheat the American public have never been greater. In Texas and Florida we have a great national disaster in two of the states that hate regulation. I have talked with the Governors, the Lt. Governors and other state officials and they are welcoming us with open arms. They want us to take the federal money, no questions asked. . . .

Texas and Florida are renown for lack of oversight.   Hell, they can locate a dangerous chemical plant near a big city, never tell anyone about the risks and then wash their hands in the flood waters when it blows up. Other than a few of you out there, we have never killed anybody, just robbed them blind and one thing those conservative Republicans want us to do is to rob them blind. Heck a few campaign contributions here and there and they may replace those racist statues with statues of us. . . .

I know a lot of you are worried about taking deposits and not doing work. Don't worry! In Texas and Florida you can just file under a new name and go on doing business. By the time they catch up with you most of you will have moved on. And remember, just by doing a little bit of work and then leaving will buy you months of time. . . . .

For the few of you out there that actually worry about codes and enforcement, have I go news for you. Conservatives believe the market regulates and those codes, most of which don't exist, are secondary to market controls. We are going to overwhelm the BBB. Some of you have ever worked in a state with no building code, no electrical code, no plumbing code, believe me, you're gonna love it.. . . . .

Remember, we have Trump University as our model. Get people to max out their credit cards. Tell them they will be reimbursed by the Feds as soon as they present a receipt. Talk about how they can borrow against their retirement accounts. All of you are professionals, you don't want to leave anyone with any money leftover.”

Novartis to Charge $475,000 for a Cancer Drug

Compassion Runs Shallow at That Company

It is not an easy answer to the question of how much a pharmaceutical company should charge for life savings drugs. On one hand is the life saving drug; it save lives. On the other hand is the company and its shareholders who put up the money to develop the drug. But surely this goes too far.

Swiss pharmaceuticals group Novartis has said it will charge $475,000 a patient for its new cancer therapy, putting it among the most expensive drugs of all time. Bruno Strigini, chief executive of oncology at Novartis, said: “We carefully considered the appropriate price and looked at many factors, including the medical and clinical value.”

Notice he did not say that patient affordability was an issue. Probably never entered his mind.

Even those who hate government are going to have to admit that government has a role to play here. Government should fund the development, take the risk and then make the resultant product available and affordable.   

Paper Tigers or Cowardly Lions – Republicans in Congress Search for an Identity

Could be Both

The spectacle of Speaker Paul Ryan having to cave on the debt ceiling bill after calling attaching it to hurricane relief was both entertaining and confirming. It was entertaining in that watching a craven political fraud get caught being a craven political fraud is always entertaining. It was confirming in that if anyone still doubted that the GOP have no spine now there is no questions left.

Mitch McConnell at least was not on record as strong as Ryan, but his fishy face was on full display in the great GOP Cave In. Of course both of these men would do a Faust to get tax cuts for the rich.

Finally there is the genial and personable Mark Meadows, a conservatives whose policies would devastate the economy and cause millions of people terrible hardships.  Before Trump caved to the Dems Mark was adamant that he and his fellow right wingers would stop any effort to tie debt ceiling relief to hurricane relief.  When the Pres surrendered to Chuck and Nancy though, good ole Mark just went along.  Mark Meadows, all style, no substance.

Rush Limbaugh Slinks Out of Florida

Hurricane Denier Runs For Them Thar Hills

No one paid much attention to Rush Limbaugh's rant that the hurricane scare was just hype to sell bottled water because no one pays much attention to what the Rushball says anyway. Rush moved his show to Florida a while back, probably because it is an income tax free state that has easy access to the illegal drug market.

Anyway not that Rush realized his butt could drown he hightailed it out of Florida to parts unknown.

“May as well… announce this. I’m not going to get into details because of the security nature of things, but it turns out that we will not be able to do the program here tomorrow,” Limbaugh said Thursday. “We’ll be on the air next week, folks, from parts unknown.”

Limbaugh said the show will be back on the air Monday, but to be on the air Friday would be “legally impossible” for them do to the show out of South Florida.

Notice the lame excuse, it would be 'legally' impossible to do the show out of Florida. And notice he won't tell anyone where he is going we just hope it's not a strip mall near you.

Treasury Sec Steve Mnuchin Embarrasses Himself in Defending Trump on Racism and Anti-Semiticism

Are Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Really That Important to Him? 

The Treasury Secretary, who is very wealthy found himself amazed that he had to defend both Donald Trump the bigot and his decision to stay in the administration that openly encourages and supports those groups who hate Mnuchin because of his religion.

“While I find it hard to believe I should have to defend myself on this, or the president, I feel compelled to let you know that the president in no way, shape or form believes that neo-Nazi and other hate groups who endorse violence are equivalent to groups that demonstrate in peaceful and lawful ways,” Mnuchin, who is Jewish, said in a statement released by the Treasury Department.

Mnuchin was reacting to an open letter from his Yale classmates urging him to leave the administration, urging him to recognize that there are more important things than increasing his own massive wealth by securing tax cuts for himself and others like him.

A letter signed by about 300 members of the Yale class of 1985 argued that it was Mnuchin's “moral obligation” to resign because Trump had “declared himself a sympathizer with groups whose values are antithetical to those values we consider fundamental to our sacred honor as Americans.”

For people like Mnuchin this is a time of testing.  By failing the test, by giving credibility to a President who views vicious neo-Nazis as peaceful citizens protesting the removal of a statue, who sees no problem with those same marchers yelling anti-Jewish slogans and filling the world with hate, by dong this Mnuchin fails the test.  He will have to live with that for the rest of his life, and he will soon fine that his hundreds of millions will not soothe the wounded psyche.

Donald Trump Makes a Fool Out of House Speaker Paul Ryan

Ok, Not the Most Difficult Accomplishment Was It?

The current issue before the Congress is not passing financial relief for Texas, that is a given. The question is what to attach to a 'must pass' bill. Speaker Paul Ryan made a strong stand against adding an increase in the debt ceiling or extension of government funding past the end of the fiscal year that happens on September 30.

“Let’s just think about this: We’ve got all this devastation in Texas. We’ve got another unprecedented hurricane about to hit Florida, and they want to play politics with the debt ceiling? … I think that’s ridiculous and disgraceful that they want to play politics with the debt ceiling at this moment when we have fellow citizens in need, to respond to these hurricanes so we do not strand them,” Ryan told a news conference on Wednesday.

Wow, we all now know where he and the Republicans stand, don't we. Well, maybe not.

Trump made his position clear at a White House meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday, overruling top Republicans.

“In the meeting, the President and Congressional leadership agreed to pass aid for Harvey, an extension of the debt limit, and a continuing resolution both to December 15, all together,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement. “Both sides have every intention of avoiding default in December and look forward to working together on the many issues before us.”

Congressional action will be slightly delayed while Ryan has the knife removed from his back.

A Republican Comes Clean on Race – Vote for Me Because I am White

Finally, a Truthful Candidate, Nasty but Truthful

To listen to conservatives try to explain how they are not really racists is to enter a world of disbelief. Fortunately every now and then one of them discards the pretense and comes right out with it. Such is the case with a mayoral candidate in Charlotte.

A candidate for mayor in Charlotte, North Carolina has deactivated her Facebook account after listing being “white” as one of her qualifications to run the city.

Kimberley Paige Barnette, the 53-year-old running for mayor, was quickly rebuked by the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, and was forced to apologise for the remarks.

“VOTE FOR ME!” Ms Barnette wrote on her Facebook page, according to the Charlotte Observer. “REPUBLICAN & SMART, WHITE, TRADITIONAL.”

Well White and Republican, can't disagree there. As for Smart, well nothing there to support that and as for Traditional, that's true if one is talking about 1950 North Carolina, or maybe 1850 North Carolina.

To its credit the state Republican party condemned the candidate,

“Any suggestion that a candidate is more or less qualified for political office based on their skin color alone is offensive to North Carolina Republicans, and we condemn it,” Robin Hayes, the state Republican chair, said in a statement. “This type of suggestion has no place in our public discourse.”

Wink, wink, nod, nod.

No Wiretaps in Trump Tower – More Trump BS Bites the Dust

Obama Waiting on Apology

Lost in the many, many lies told by Donnie is his claim that Obama wiretapped him. Now it turns out there is evidence that didn't happen, although to be fair no one believed it did anyway.

(CNN)The Justice Department said in a court filing Friday evening that it has no evidence to support President Donald Trump's assertion in March that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped the phones in Trump Tower before last year's election.

"Both FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets," the department's motion reads. NSD refers to the department's national security division.

The motion came in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by a group pushing for government transparency, American Oversight.

On March 4, Trump tweeted: "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!"

Yeah, we know, just another proven lie from the Liar in Chief.

Fantasy Overtakes Reality for WSJ Editors on North Korea

They Need to Return to the Real World

The editorials of the WSJ have always been divorced from reality, but now on North Korea they have taken leave of the universe in which we all live and gone where no fantasy writer has gone before. Here are their suggestions and comments on North Korea.

• Diplomatic. The U.S. can put far more pressure on countries to cut or restrict ties with North Korea

This means China. But the U. S. has already tried that, been there, done that. No real impact.

• Information. Defectors are already sending information into the North about the outside world. The U.S. and its allies can expand that effort and encourage elites to defect or stage an internal coup.

An internal coup is a suicide mission, a real suicide not the kind like people see in movies where the good guys survive. And one of the major things that would drive North Korea to attack is fear of a coup. Self defeating advice.

• Military. Building up missile defenses and conventional forces will diminish the North’s ability to use nuclear blackmail. Deploying tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea would make the threat to retaliate against a nuclear strike more credible.

Yeah, more self defeating advice. All this would do is increase the North's reasons to strike the South

The regime uses networks of Chinese traders to evade sanctions and also to conduct more legitimate business. Applying sanctions to these networks could curtail the North’s trade.

Like it would take China like 2 minutes to get around this.

• Financial. The U.S. can cut off North Korea’s access to financial intermediaries that conduct transactions in U.S. dollars. In June the U.S. applied secondary sanctions to the Bank of Dandong, a Chinese bank. Larger Chinese banks should suffer a similar fate if they continue to facilitate trade with North Korea.

Tried and failed as the WSJ itself notes.

• Intelligence. The Proliferation Security Initiative begun under the George W. Bush Administration tracked and intercepted the North’s weapons exports. The program could be enlarged to block other exports forbidden under United Nations sanctions.

North Korea is mostly an arms importer, not an exporter. This is useless.

• Legal. A U.N. Commission of Inquiry in 2014 reported evidence of human-rights abuses in the North’s huge network of prison camps. China and Russia have shielded the Kim regime from prosecution at the International Criminal Court for these crimes against humanity. Pressure for accountability will further isolate the North and encourage elites to defect.

What major crisis has ever been solved by a legal solution? And those elites defecting, they would if they could, no incentives need.

So once again we are fooled. It would be nice if someone came up with alternatives for North Korea, but the if it could have been done it would have been done. The 'we are smarter than anyone' editors at the WSJ need to learn this. And they need to stop saying things like this.

The Trump Administration rightly refuses to accept North Korea as a nuclear power,

Well this made us laugh, a lot. I guess if the Trumpies close their eyes and pout and whine like a child they can convince themselves and the WSJ that they refuse to accept what is right in front of them.

There Will Not Be Tax Reform; There Will Never Be Tax Reform

But There Will be Tax Cuts for the Wealthy and the Corporations

On tax policy, the conservatives and their enablers in the media are sitting pretty. They have convinced everyone that they are pursuing tax reform. Why? Because everyone loves reform. Who is against reform? No one.

So the tax cuts that are coming  will first of all cut the bejeesus out of the corporate tax rate. Corporations are already drowning in cash. They don't spend it, they don't invest it because they want to reward shareholders who drive up share prices and that rewards corporation execs. Workers, well they are on their own.

Then there will be a big cut in top rates for the wealthy, an elimination of the estate tax which allows greater concentration of wealth and a cut in deductions for middle class Americans. Taxes will be more difficult, but that's okay because the tax prep companies will be protected by limiting IRS support.

So look forward to a great time for the rich, the working Americans, not so much.

Today in Vomit: Head of Company that Provides Mercenaries Wants Trumpie to Use Them in Afghanistan

Turning the Back on American Heritage and Tradition

One of the things every school child learns in history is the great victory George Washington won in Trenton over the British. But it wasn't over the real British, it was over Hessian mercenaries hired by the British. From that one victory the tradition in America is that Americans fight for America. We don't use hired troops because our wars, even the ones we should not be fighting, are fought out of patriotism.

We did use mercenaries in Iraq, and there was some huge problems. Now the head of one of the for profit companies that provided mercenaries wants to argue that we use them in Afghanistan.

Here is the proposal.

My proposal is for a sustainable footprint of 2,000 American Special Operations and support personnel, as well as a contractor force of less than 6,000 (far less than the 26,000 in country now). This team would provide a support structure for the Afghans, allowing the United States’ conventional forces to return home.

This is a horrible insult to the many brave Americans serving in the Armed Forces. What Erik Prince is saying is that they are not effective but his merry band of mercenaries can do the job.

If the president pursues this third path, I, too, would vigorously compete to implement a plan that saves American lives, costs less than 20 percent of current spending and saves American taxpayers more than $40 billion a year. Just as no one criticizes Elon Musk because his company SpaceX helps supply American astronauts, no one should criticize a private company — mine or anyone else’s — for helping us end this ugly multigenerational war.

Try not to upchuck while you read this and remember that the author would make millions, probably billions and that his conclusion above is pure fantasy.  But tell you what Erik, we have a volunteer army and since you love your country so much and want to fix Afghanistan we are sure there is a place for you at the head of a combat unit risking its life to help America and the world.  Go right ahead and join them, we won't stop you.

Another Day, Another Lie in the Tax ‘Reform?’ Debate

If the Proposals are so Good, Why Can’t Their Supporters be Honest

The Republicans are preparing to assault the nation with a huge tax cut for wealthy individuals and wealthy corporations.  To do this they have to call it ‘reform’ because who would be opposed to reform.  And they have to do misleading ads and surveys.  One such survey is reported by the WaPo.

In the first spots, paid for by the American Action Network, a laid-off steelworker worries that without “lower taxes for working families,” more jobs will be “lost to China.” At rallies and forums in several states, Americans for Prosperity has pitched tax reform as a way to “unrig the economy.” And in a polling memo made public this week, the AAN found that 65 to 73 percent of voters responded favorably to reform if it was pitched as a way to “restore the earning power” of the middle class and “save billions of dollars” each year “on tax preparation services.”

The mystery here is why there was not 100% favorable responds to a poll that said tax cuts would restore earning power and save billions.  But of course maybe there were people who recognized the big lie when they saw it.  The middle class ain’t getting big tax relief, most of it will go to the upper classes.  And nobody should think things will be simpler, they will be more complex and the tax prep software people will make more money not less.  

On North Korea – Trump Could Not Be Handling It Any Worse

It's Like He's Trying to Be the Most Incompetent President Ever After Already Being the Most Ignorant, Arrogant and Uninformed One Ever

Exactly what North Korea is up to is impossible to discern. There is no strategic or tactical benefit for them to attack the United States. Such a move would be irrational to the nth degree. The proper response of the United States should be to privately, and we mean very privately convey to the North Koreans that we will leave them alone, we will talk with them at any time and if they make any physical attack on the United States or its allies we will obliterate their leaders.

But Trumpie seems incapable of common sense. Instead he is saying things that nobody takes seriously, and completely undermining any credibility he has on the subject. To wit:

1. Donnie continually threatens North Korea with a pre-emptive military strike. Bad idea. First of all no one believes him and second of all, if North Korea believes him that would give them the only reason to strike first. Lose – Lose.

2. Trumpster is threatening to cut off trade to any country that trades with North Korea. This means China, but such a move is impossible.

3. Trump is insulting our ally, South Korea and threatening to end a trade agreement with them. How exactly does that help?

For the next several decades the Trump Korean policy will be classic textbook material on what not to do in a situation like this.   

DACA Beneficiary Died Trying to Rescue People in Houston; Mother Denied Entry to U. S. to Grieve

Trump and Kellyanne Must be Dancing

It is not impossible to put a face on young men and women who were being protected by DACA, the program President Obama initiated to protect children who came to the United States as unintentional illegal immigrants. Here is the story of a hero, a hero who will escape the  notice of Cruel Trumpie and his Witch-in-Residence, Kellyanne.

Nearly four days after Harvey's record flooding slammed a rescue boat into an Interstate 45 frontage road bridge, family members of the final, missing volunteer pulled his body from Cypress Creek in Spring.

Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey from Lufkin, disappeared on Wednesday around midnight along with two friends after their boat hit the bridge over the creek and capsized. One of them was rescued after clinging to a tree in the rushing water, but days later, after the rains let up and the creek level receded, Guillen and Tomas Carreon Jr. were still missing.

Why was he out? Oh.

Guillen's father, Jesus Guillen, said he'd asked his son not to try and rescue people in the storm, but he insisted, saying he wanted to help people. He cried and prayed on Sunday afternoon as they pulled his son's body from the water.

"Thank you, God," he said, "for the time I had with him."

Why was this man, a criminal in the eyes of Trump and Sessions and others of their ilk even in the United States?

Alonso Guillen was a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily lifted the threat of deportation for immigrants brought to the U.S. before they were 16, family members said.

His father is a lawful permanent, but his mother is still in the application process for legal status.

Reached at her home in Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, 62, said she is heartbroken.

And here is how the Trump folks, aided by Kellyanne who says his mean policy to revoke DACA is good treatment for  the heroe's family.

She said she hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would take pity and grant her a humanitarian visa so that she could come to Houston and bury her son, but she was turned back at the border.

Eventually history will reckon with Trump and his enablers like Kellyanne. Until then we have the memory of a hero to feel good about.

20 Times the Man Trump Is

The Massive Ignorance of Kellyanne on Display Again With DACA

And Joined By Suck Up Star Mnuchin

The issue of how to treat children who were brought to this country illegally by their parents is a simple one. They get to stay. If they grew up here they get to stay. They did not come here willingly, they were brought here without any say in the matter. Almost all of them are the same as native; smart, educated, real Americans.

But that's not good enough for Trumpie. Even worse here is what a blithering idiot like Kellyanne had to say on the matter.

Trump “wants to do what’s fair to the American worker, what’s fair to people in this country who are competing for jobs and other benefits,” counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Sunday on “Fox & Friends.” She said that the president’s decision should be seen as part of an “entire economic and domestic agenda” that includes an end to sanctuary cities, increased border security and constructing a wall along the southern border.

“He says we have to keep people and poison out of our communities. People who are coming here illegally and competing for those jobs,” Conway said.

Yes that's right, Kellyanne is comparing children who grew up here to poison. And this idea that they came here to compete for jobs. Yeah, when that 3 year old girl was put in the car to come here so here parents could escape poverty or avoid being killed by drug dealers she was thinking about taking a job away from a native American.

Then there is this.

In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he was “less concerned about the economic impact” of ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, because “we’ll make sure that we have plenty of workers in this economy. We want to put more people back to work.”

Mnuchin is supposed to be the economic brains of the outfit, okay, not a high standard given the crowd he runs with. Apparently it has escaped his narrow mind that unemployment is at a multi-year low and jobs are plentiful. Of course, he was probably too busy taking his fashion show off wife on a government plane to view the eclipse to read the economic news.

And one more thing.  No matter how many millions of immigrants, legal and illegal, come to this country Kellyanne's job is safe.  No one, and we do mean no one, would be willing to do what she does under any circumstances.

Take a Break – A Pun on Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Because We Need This Diversion

In its review of a book on puns the Economist selects may be one of the best puns ever.

"Yet puns demand intelligence, creativity and general knowledge: the best draw on cultural references, allude to several things at the same time and are intricately constructed (such as the one about Mahatma Gandhi, who walked barefoot a lot and often fasted, leading to bad breath, thus making him a “super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis”)."

Enjoy, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Conservatives Who Voted Against Sandy Aid Will Beg For Texas Aid

And Be Offended If Anyone Reminds Them of Their Hypocrisy

One of the hallmarks of the Texas Republican delegation to Congress is that they don't want to do anything for anyone other than people for Texas.  So when Hurricane Sandy hit the hated northeast they were pretty vocal in their condemnation of having the feds pay out money to help that area.

Of course now that Texas is the victim the voices will change.  We have already seen Freedom Caucus member Pete Sessions (R, Tx) go on TV to try and justify what will be tens of billions of dollars of help he and his fellow craven conservatives will beg the from the federal government.  Haven't heard much yet from Sen. Ted Cruz (R, Tx) who will surely sanctimoniously crawl to he government for help.  And no on will suggest that the state of Texas itself pay a large part of the bill.

Dems will probably support aid, because deep down unlike most conservatives they believe government has a role in helping everyone, not just one's constituents.

Trumpie Working Overtime to Discourage People From Getting Health Care

Massive Cut to Funds to Sign Up Citizens for Obamacare

The hostility of Republicans to providing health insurance for people who otherwise would not have health insurance is well known. And now that Obamacare is not failing, not in a death spiral, not collapsing, well Republicans have to come up with something else to kill it. So what they are doing is cutting funds that support programs to get people to get insurance.

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend $10 million during the coming open-enrollment period on advertising, including emails, texts, radio ads and digital promotions, officials said Thursday. That is a 90% drop from about $100 million spent by former President Barack Obama’s administration during the last open-enrollment season.

So when less people sign up, and rates have to grow up, obviously the fault will be with Obamacare.

Texans Want te Rest of Us to Pay for Their Disaster, and Other Snarky News

Not Fake News Here

Fake news would be something like "Donnie Trump today boasted that his administration had the biggest natural disaster every to hit America. "Other Presidents have tried to have bigger natural disasters" he did not say, and went on to not say "history will look back and report that no President was ever as big a natural disaster as Trump was, it is huuggeee".

1. Texas is a very wealthy state, in part because they have low taxes and low services. This means that wealthy folks get a break because they don't typically use government services and low income folks get shafted because many suffer through no fault of their own. Blessed with natural resources (Republicans think Texas has oil because God favors conservatives) the state has prospered.

But now it faces a huge bill to clean up and rebuild from Harvey. They will get help from the feds, because that's what we non-conservatives do, pay taxes to help other people. But you know, rich Texans could be grateful and could shoulder some of the bill themselves instead of electing cretans like Ted Cruz who are twisting themselves into a knot to explain why they voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy victims but want aid for themselves.

2. We'd all feel a lot better about the FEMA head if he would not start every news appearance off with a gushy praising of Trumpie.

3. The CHI program Children Health Insurance Program needs to be renewed. Anyone wanna bet the only votes against doing so will be Republicans?

4. College football starts and the list of people who still believe it is amateur athletics is dwindling to those few who have a quit claim deed for the Brooklyn Bridge.

5. The solution to the mystery of he popularity of Game of Thrones continues to elude. Maybe it's the beautiful designer wardrobe the female leads wear in the middle of a world whose culture and technology has only advanced to medieval status.

6. Trump's strategy of trying to intimidate North Korea is working about as well as his other strategies. Ok, we realize it is not correct to say Trump has strategies, but we're trying to give the guy a break. After he has a wife who thinks its cool to wear high heels to a flood.

7. Can we please get a Democrat to give up whatever it is they are doing and appear on a news or news talk show. Anyone? Even Bernie has gone to ground.

8. The current administration is resuming the practice of sending military gear, and we mean military gear like fighting the rebirth of the German army, to local police. Nothing like a Sherman tank to stop shoplifting.

9. Anyone else notice the KKK and the American Nazi's running and hiding after they realized decent people would march against them.?