Even Republicans Agree That Ken Paxton is a Power-Mad Crook

A Republican-led investigation on Wednesday accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of committing multiple crimes in office — including felonies — during an extraordinary public airing of scandal and alleged lawbreaking that plunged one of the GOP’s conservative stars into new political and legal risk.

For more than three hours, investigators presented findings alleging Paxton sought to hide an affair, misused his office to help a donor, skirted protocols “grossly outside” norms and built a culture of fear and retaliation in his office. Investigators told the GOP-led House General Investigating Committee that there was evidence that Paxton repeatedly broke the law over the years, including by misusing official information, abusing his official capacity and retaliation.

Just another right-wing thug, like his Orange God.

Speaking of the Indicted Jefe of Mar-a-Lago, he and his cronies had the FBI and the DoJ investigating the Clinton Foundation for four years and found...(wait for it)...nothing. No convictions, no charges, just a four-year fruitless jerking off of Federal investigators, a thorough abuse of power by the TOFF, the Evil Keebler Elf and Butt-Monkey Barr.

(Yeah I know. Cue the QAnon conspiracy loons in 3....2...1.....)

Commence the Frothing on the Right in 3....2.....1.....

A Justice Department inquiry launched more than two years ago to mollify conservatives clamoring for more investigations of Hillary Clinton has effectively ended with no tangible results, and current and former law enforcement officials said they never expected the effort to produce much of anything.

John Huber, the U.S. attorney in Utah, was tapped in November 2017 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to look into concerns raised by President Trump and his allies in Congress that the FBI had not fully pursued cases of possible corruption at the Clinton Foundation and during Clinton’s time as secretary of state, when the U.S. government decided not to block the sale of a company called Uranium One.

There is no there, there, but don't expect the conspiracy whackaloons on the Right to shut their yaps. They'll be blubbering about the Clintons well into the next century.

Speaking of Right wing nutjobs:

A California man has pleaded guilty to setting fire to the same D.C. pizza place targeted by a man investigating a conspiracy theory that falsely connected 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to an alleged child sex trafficking ring under the restaurant.

Black & CCW

The NY Times ran a story about the experiences of Black gun owners who carry concealed.

I expect that those on the Right, who would expect the story to contain blanket condemnations about civilians carrying guns, will be sorely disappointed.

On another note, if you visit Phoenix, be aware that the Phoenix cops tend to be brutal and trigger-happy. Pre Trump & Sessions, they might have been investigated. But now, the DoJ is turning a blind eye towards such things.

Shorter Trump: "Nice Government You Have Here. Too Bad if Something Were to Happen it It."

[Oval Office Occupant] Donald Trump, emboldened by Republican election wins in the Senate and scornful of GOP candidates he felt didn’t sufficiently embrace his support, delivered a stark warning to the new Democratic House majority on Wednesday: Investigate me, and I’ll investigate you — and the government will grind to a halt.

Noting that his Republican Party retained control of the Senate on Tuesday, he said that if Democrats in the House come after him, “we’ve got” a thing called the U.S. Senate.

I respectfully suggest that the response should be a reasonably polite variant of "game on, motherfucker".

Meanwhile, Commandante Bone Spurs lost no time throwing out Jeff Sessions and replacing him with a Grade-B Lacky, who apparently is more in tune with "whatever Trump wants and fuck the rule of law."

Donnie, DoJ and FBI Are Not Your Personal Goon Squads

Though he really wants them to be.

President* Donald Trump declared Friday the U.S. Justice Department should investigate and unmask the author of a bitingly critical New York Times opinion piece purportedly written by a member of an administration “resistance” movement straining to thwart his most dangerous impulses.

Trump cited “national security” as the reason for such an extraordinary probe, and he called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to get it going. He also said he was exploring bringing legal action against the newspaper over publication of the essay two days earlier.

Just because Trump bleats "national security" doesn't make it so. Fifty years from Nixon, by now, we all should know to be extremely skeptical when a president claims that national security for any sort of fuckery.

Trump is also whining about suing The NY Times. I'd be curious to know what sort of legal grounds he and Rudy the Blowhard can gin up.

Trump thinks it could be treason. It's not treason by any stretch of the imagination. Asking for and taking help from a hostile foreign power to win an election, that's a hell of a lot closer to treason. Only to a tinpot dictator would that be treason.

Trump Speaks Like a Mob Boss

Trump, like any other mob boss, thinks that using informers and turning underlings should be outlawed.

"It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal," Trump said in the interview, adding he's witnessed similar scenarios over his decades in public life. "I know all about flipping, 30, 40 years I have been watching flippers. Everything is wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is or as high as you can go."

Meanwhile, David Pecker, the chairman of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, flipped on Trump. The Enquirer engaged in at least one payoff to a Trump mistress to keep the story secret.

I'm sure that John Gotti and other mobsters have had the same opinion about flipping minions as does Trump. And for the same reasons.

Trump has been essentially complaining for over a year that he can't use the Justice Department and the FBI as his personal goon squad. Sessions finally pushed back.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired back Thursday at President* Trump for saying he “never took control of the Justice Department,” putting out a sharp statement vowing the agency won’t be “improperly influenced” by politics.

Dr. J. Beauregard Sessions's Prescription: "So Suffer."

Sessions said that too many opioids are prescribed in the United States.

"People need to take some aspirin sometimes and tough it out... you can get through these things," he said.

Says the politician who has evidently never experienced pain from cancer, multiple fractures, or recovering from major surgery. Or even, for that matter, a root canal.

I hope his doctors place a note in his chart to never give him anything stronger than aspirin or acetaminophen.

Poor Little Jeffrey's Memory

Lord only knows how Jeff Sessions remembers how to feed himself, given that his memory is so awful.

Trump Warned that Senate Will Shit All Over Him

Trump is reportedly considering trying to replace Sessions using a recess appointment, according to The Washington Post.

Democrats have pledged to block any move by requiring the Senate to have pro-forma sessions through out the August recess.
...
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, warned on Wednesday night that his panel would not take up an attorney general nomination this year--a move that could effectively stonewall Trump if he fires Sessions.

Now, to switch over to FLAILEX-17, which is the GOP's efforts to do something, anything, about the ACA. Trump is making it harder and harder.

President* Trump’s management style isn’t making him many friends in Congress.

Trump’s habit of bullying his allies has sown seeds of doubt about whether any political sacrifice by a GOP lawmaker will be rewarded — or even remembered — by the president.

What Trump doesn't seem to get is that Congress is, by the Constitution, an equal branch of the government. He cannot order them to do anything. They are warning Trump that the GOP caucus will shift into Seagull Mode if he keeps this up.

What Trump also doesn't get is that Sessions is one of the Senate's peeps. They know that he gave up a safe seat, where he could have stayed until he croaked, in order to serve as Trump's AG. They're not going to be very understanding if Trump fires Sessions because Sessions followed the law on conflicts.

My bet is that if Trump does fire Sessions, the needle on impeachment will move a bit.

Trump Eyes Another Purge, Wants a Bigger Toady at DoJ

President* Donald Trump has spoken with advisers about firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, officials say, and launched a fresh Twitter tirade Tuesday against the man who was the first U.S. senator to endorse his candidacy.

The thing that has to be understood is that Trump views the DoJ as his private goons-- go after anyone that he wants and leaves alone anyone that he wants to be protected. The rule of law matters nothing to Trump and he has been grievously wounded because Sessions followed the law instead of protecting Trump.

I have little regard for Sessions. But firing Sessions because Sessions followed the law is nothing more than a slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre.

So what Republican politician and attorney is sufficiently venal and soulless to take the job and do Trump's bidding?

Ted Cruz.

During the campaign, Trump called Cruz "Lyin' Ted", insulted Cruz's wife and said that Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. It would take a certain level of self-hatred and lack of self-regard to even be in the same room with a person who said that about oneself and one's family, let alone go to work for such a bozo.

But that's Cruz. Besides, he's up for re-election next year and maybe he plans to get out while the getting is good.

Nazi-Grade Bullshit is Going On in Tennessee

Inmates in White County, Tennessee have been given credit for their jail time if they voluntarily agree to have a vasectomy or birth control implant, a popular new program that is being called “unconstitutional” by the ACLU.

On May 15, 2017 General Sessions Judge Sam Benningfield signed a standing order that allows inmates to receive 30 days credit toward jail time if they undergo a birth control procedure.

Women who volunteer to participate in the program are given a free Nexplanon implant in their arm, the implant helps prevent pregnancies for up to four years. Men who volunteer to participate are given a vasectomy, free of charge, by the Tennessee Department of Health.
...
District Attorney Bryant Dunaway, who oversees prosecution of cases in White County is worried the program may be unethical and possibly illegal.

“It’s concerning to me, my office doesn’t support this order,” Dunaway said.

“It’s comprehensible that an 18-year-old gets this done, it can’t get reversed and then that impacts the rest of their life,” he added.

"Concerning," "unethical," and "unconstitutional" are not the words that come to my mind. The word that comes to my mind is "evil". This is no different from having a program where thieves would have their sentences reduced if they agreed to having their dominant hand amputated.

This judicial order is nothing other than eugenics, the now-discredited idea that humanity can be improved by sterilizing marginal people. Eugenics was a central tenet of what passed for Nazi ideology. Eugenics was the intellectual basis for their reign of mass murder and genocide.

There are folks who keep coming back to the idea that they can make humanity "better" by selective breeding or some other similar bullshit. I do not hold with that.

And, unless I've misjudged the readership of this blog, neither do you.

Badged-Up Robbers Are Getting a Boost

Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is ramping up the practice of police stealing people's shit.

Let's be clear about this: Asset forfeiture, when there has been no criminal conviction, is nothing other than legalized theft. The cops get to grab your shit and, if you want it back, you have to sue them. The only criteria for the cops stealing your shit is that they have to not like you for some obscure reason.

Smoke `Em If You Got `Em; Nevada Ed.

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III seems to be hell-bent on revitalizing the failed War on Drugs, but out in the "laboratory of the states", people have other ideas:

Fireworks, long lines and even a wedding marked the start of recreational marijuana sales in Nevada.

At midnight Saturday, legal pot went on sale -- making Nevada the eighth state to allow the purchase of marijuana in dispensaries.

Nevada's law lets adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. The law was approved by voters in November 2016.

It is far past the time when this country should concede that its 46-year long war on drugs, a "fight" that was born out of Nixon's innate racism and desire to seek a political edge at any cost, has been a massive failure. Nixon's failed war has resulted in the militarization of the police and the diminution of civil liberties at almost any time the matter comes up before the Supremes.

End it.

Did the Department of Justice Throw Trump Under the Bus?

A battalion of White House aides entered the Oval Office together to present a unified front after the bombshell.

The Justice Department had appointed a special prosecutor to oversee the probe into Russia's alleged involvement in the 2016 presidential election, White House counsel Don McGahn had just told President* Donald Trump. Many of Trump’s top aides gathered with the president Wednesday evening just after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein signed the order and called McGahn — and just before the news exploded publicly in Washington.

So the DoJ appointed a special prosecutor without Jeff Sessions notifying the President beforehand?

Interesting.

One way to look at it is that Rosenstein just paid Trump back for Trump's attempt to place the responsibility for firing Comey on Rosenstein.

Or the Pros From Dover want to settle this question the right way, instead of allowing Trump to try and tweet-storm his way out of it.

Either way, smart members of the White House staff who may have been even tangentially involved with any of this would be wise to have legal counsel on tap before the subpoenas start flying.

Sessions Confounds

A Mississippi man received a 49-year prison sentence Monday for the first-ever conviction on federal hate crime charges arising from the killing of a transgender woman. ... The case, watched nationally amid concerns transgender women are particularly vulnerable to violence, drew comment from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"Today's sentencing reflects the importance of holding individuals accountable when they commit violent acts against transgender individuals," Sessions said in a statement. "The Justice Department will continue its efforts to vindicate the rights of those individuals who are affected by bias motivated crimes."

That's not what I would have expected from Sessions, not by a long shot.

I'll be more impressed when the DoJ, under Sessions, brings a similar case. But this is, at least, something.

It is Illegal to Laugh at Jefferson Beauregard Sessions the Third When It is Claimed That He Has Been a Defender of Civil Rights

Katherine Coronado of the U.S. Capitol Police was in her second week on the job when she was assigned to keep watch over Sessions’ confirmation hearing on Jan. 10. Coronado was involved in the arrest of Desiree Fairooz, an activist affiliated with the group Code Pink, after Fairooz laughed when Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said that Sessions’ record of “treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented.” (Sessions had been rejected as a federal judge in the 1980s because of concerns about his views on race, and back when he was still a Democrat, Shelby himself actually ran an ad suggesting Sessions had called the Ku Klux Klan “good ole boys.”)

Fairooz was seated in the back of the room, and her laugh did not interrupt Shelby’s introductory speech. But, according to the government, the laugh amounted to willful “disorderly and disruptive conduct” intended to “impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct” of congressional proceedings. The government also charged her with a separate misdemeanor for allegedly parading, demonstrating or picketing within a Capitol, evidently for her actions after she was being escorted from the room.

This is a pretty good example of why I hold Congress, especially Congressional Republicans, to be among the lowest slime on the continent. Shelby uttered a bald-faced lie and got laughed at. I'm surprised that the entire room didn't break out in laughter.

More troubling, if it's OK to laugh when one of the hearing participants tells a joke, but it's not OK to laugh when they say something that is ludicrous, then we're getting into content-specific charges that relate to the freedom of speech, which is a pretty damn iffy area.

The Classic Political Career Path for Bigots In Alabama

Running for Senate:

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's entry into the U.S. Senate race adds another layer of drama to what's already expected to be a rollicking special election to fill the seat previously held by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The fiery Republican jurist's stands against gay marriage and for a courthouse display of the Ten Commandments have earned him the nickname the "Ayatollah of Alabama" from the Southern Poverty Law Center - and legions of loyal followers across the country. Moore announced his candidacy among the swelling GOP field Wednesday in what is expected to be a cutthroat primary.

Moore has taken the rather strange position that removing racist language for the Alabama Constitution is racist. Which was bullshit. The reason was more likely if the sheet-wearing crowd ever got Federal law changed somehow, than Alabama would be ready to go in reapplying Jim Crow. Which he likely would be all in favor of doing.

Moore's view also is that non-Abrahamic religions aren't "real religions", so they fall outside of the First Amendment.

A Clear Sign That Somebody Knows What They Said Was Hateful and/or Racist

It's when they fall back on the line of: "Awww, can't you take a joke?"

Which is pretty much what Jeff Sessions did.

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III's History Lesson: "On December 7th, 1941, the Japs Bombed Some Damned Island in the Pacific."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke dismissively about the State of Hawaii while criticizing a Federal District Court ruling last month that blocked the Trump administration from carrying out its ban on travel from parts of the Muslim world.

“I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power,” Mr. Sessions said this week in an interview on “The Mark Levin Show,” a conservative talk radio program.

I guess it escaped Sessions's notice that Hawaii is a state, just like Alabama is, except the weather's better than Alabama, the people are more educated in Hawaii (by a long shot), the poverty rate is much lower in Hawaii, the crime rate is higher in Alabama, and white folks in Hawaii are in the minority, unlike in Alabama. All of the foregoing are reasons why ol' Jeff isn't likely happy about Hawaii. And he probably can't get a decent mint julip there, bless his heart.

Oh, and Hawaii has this:

Most of the battlefield memorials in Alabama likely have something to do with their Failed War to Preserve Slavery.

Shorter Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III: "All Y'all Police Can Go Back to Beating the Minorities."

Of course, "minorities" isn't exactly the way it would have been said.

The Justice Department late Monday asked a federal judge for more time to "review and assess" a proposed agreement to overhaul the Baltimore Police Department, saying it needed to determine how it might interfere with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' new focus on fighting violent crime. ... Sessions has not committed to such an agreement and has repeatedly said he believes broad investigations of police departments risk unfairly smearing entire agencies and harming officer morale. He has also suggested that officers' reluctance to aggressively police has contributed to a spike in violence in some cities.

He reiterated that concern in the memo, adding that "local control and local accountability are necessary for effective policing. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies."

Sessions is clearly of the view that as long as the cops confine their brutality to stamping on the faces of "those people", he has no problem with "aggressive policing" by "warrior cops".

Doesn't bother Sessions if you happen to be one of "those people". For you know that calling the kind of cops that Sessions and his boss, the Hair Furor are fond of is just as likely to end up with them putting you in jail (or a bullet in your head) as any other outcome.

That's what the emphasis on getting the cops to follow the law was all about. That's what "to protect and to serve" is about. "Occupy and enforce" turns those who would help the cops into snitches, or, in an earlier parlance, quislings and collaborators.