Rot In Hell Mrs. Bush

Donald Trump skipped her funeral, and I approve! She was a rotten, terrible human being. She was the mother of a war criminal and the wife of a former CIA head and insecure, war-mongering Vice President and President. I acknowledge quite a lot of things about her. I acknowledge that she had a hard life as a young woman. I acknowledge that she had a traumatic miscarriage. And I appreciate that she consistently supported reproductive rights (mostly privately, but sometimes publicly).

However, even after acknowledging all that, I refuse to forget all the terrible things about Barbara Bush. Somehow, we're supposed to forget that Bush was a racist, and had zero empathy or sympathy for the poor. She also had no desire to acknowledge the cost of our wars. At least Nancy Reagan was evil and had some polish (albeit creepy). Barbara was evil and gave zero fucks. She was a most inelegant person, like her husband. And no amount of being good early in life makes up for her being evil in the second half of her life. Some people need to be forgotten from history. Barbara Bush is one of them.

And I won't criticize her or George Sr. on their move from Connecticut to Texas. We Americans have the right to move to any state we want. But to anyone who made the argument that Barbara Bush was great Texan woman, I just have two words: Ann Fucking Richards. 

Red States Turned On Their Blue Cities In 2017

But the tide might be turning back to the cities' favor.

After the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, there was a wave of bad behavior by his supporters. Hate crimes spiked. The Federal government threatened states. And some states punished their cities, the largest of which voted for Hillary Clinton.

This conflict is about raw political power, and I'm afraid that cities are at a huge disadvantage in any conflict with the state. Legal precedents all give enormous deference to the state, holding that cities, towns, counties and all other local jurisdictions are under sovereign state authority. If Texas wanted to abolish the charters of local government and designate them differently, increase or decrease their powers, they can, and there's little the local areas can do about it. When a cult like the Texas Republican Party gains unchecked power, it will use it to crush local opposition. The same pattern is being replicated almost everywhere in states with Republican governors and legislatures. Elections, as they say, have consequences.

Interestingly, the onslaught against the cities might have been slowed down thanks in part to Trump not being able to get his administration to focus on any one issue for long. And the Trump backlash has been in-gear since Roy Moore was upset in Alabama in December 2017. The aforementioned Texas Republican Party's unshakable hold on power is suddenly under threat. 

Texas Secession Rally: That Went Well

n Saturday, August 29th, wingnut Texans held a 'Soverignty or Secession' Rally in Austin while Governor Perry stayed home and left them to twist in the wind.

The Red State Diraries, Continued

Texas Police Say 12-year-old Girl Drove Mom To Bar
You call them children. We call them designated drivers.

Texas school district to let teachers carry guns
'Cause if we outlaw guns, only prepubescent schoolkids will have guns.

Not Reported: Real Bomb Found Outside Austin Womens Clinic

Paul Ross Evans. Single male prone to violence and under 30 years of age. Fits the terrorist profile very well.

The first report was Wednesday April 25th. And the TV station even had a disclaimer that they normally don't report a suspicious package. Fair enough.

It is not KXAN's general policy to cover this kind of threat, however, given the magnitude of last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision on late-term abortions and the fact that authorities continue to divert traffic, we wanted to update the situation.

Nice of them. And I agree, a suspicious package should not make it to CNN. But then authorities found that the bomb was real. It was not a benign package. It was a homemade, high-pressure pipe bomb inside of a duffel bag. The would-be bomber was foolish enough to buy the bomb making materials and the bag at the local Lowe's and Wal Mart with his debit card in his name. I'll try to forgive the second story linked here for calling NAF (the national Abortion Federation) the AAF (American Abortion Federation).

Another day passed and there were subsequent stories about this, and it finally hit the national news wires when Mr. Evans was arrested on Friday.

The device, found in a duffel bag Wednesday, "was configured in such a way to cause serious bodily injury or death," said David Carter, assistant chief of the Austin Police Department.

The bomb, which was found in the parking lot of the Austin Women's Health Center, comes after last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned a controversial type of abortion and was viewed as an anti-abortion victory.

...

The last reported abortion-related incident in Texas was a 2002 arson in Dallas.

Wednesday's incident is being investigated by the regional Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is led by the FBI and includes Austin police.

Okay, a confirmed bomb, an arrest, and an investigation by the Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force. Now can this make national news? Nope.

And when a senior official in the Southern Baptist Convention wrote a declaration, supporting the murderer of Dr. Slepian and advocating that others follow his example, did that make the news? Nope.