Texas Outlaw Writers Newsletter: Georgia, You're Scaring Us Edition

As of this writing, it appears that Warnock pulled out a squeaker. And to be clear, if Walker would have pulled out a few times, he would not have near as many paternity claims against him.  <bah-dum-pum>

The next time someone says that their vote "doesn't count," just say, "Georgia." Retired journalist and friend of the Outlaws RG Ratcliffe wrote on his social media page, "Warnock won, but almost half the vote came from people who would rather vote for a fool than a Democrat. The next two years are going to be a political fuckfest."

ah, yup.

To his credit, Waker did actually concede the race. "One of the things I said when they called the race, I said the numbers doesn't look like it's gonna add up....I don't want any of you to stop believing in America...believe in our elected officials and most of all, continue to pray for them." <sigh>

He then looked at the almost full moon, turned into a werewolf and, last seen, is on a bus bound for Texas.

In other news - Former President Donald Trump's business empire was found guilty on multiple counts of tax fraud and other financial crimes on Tuesday... so said jurors in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

WITCH HUNT!  (evidently, if you go hunting for witches, and  you're really serious about it, sometimes you find a few witches.)

I bought gas for 2.59 a gallon in the hill country this week. The big rail strike was averted in a fairly bipartisan manner, though railroad workers were still left without a decent sick leave policy. (They got a helluva raise, but there are still some pretty severe problems covering their time-off policies. It was bittersweet for dems (and even some repubs) to go against labor, but a rail strike would have been devastating, just as the economy is beginning to stabilize.) Republican leaders were snubbed during a ceremony to award four Congressional Gold Medals to law enforcement officials who were present during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. When they accepted their medals, several refused to shake the hands of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Ouch.

What does this all mean? We're not going to dare predict that the tide has finally turned away from the toxic GOP. But maybe, just maybe, there are a handful of moderates, and even a shy group of republicans that are really, finally done with some of the Trumpian nonsense. But then again, no one thought Trump would ever make it through the primaries.

Stay alert. No time to rest. Remain vigilant.

You don't want something like this to happen"

Greg Abbott plans to dispatch ten M113 armored personnel carrier vehicles to the Rio Grande border. These things resemble tanks, and though they don't have the large canons that characterize a full tank, they can be outfitted with all manner of weaponry and are certainly as menacing. BTW, the U.S. just sent 200 of these Vietnam-era armored carriers to Ukraine... no doubt the Governor loves the analogy. Because, isn't Texas being invaded by a hostile, scary, deadly army, too?

Outlaw James Moore writes that the continued build-up of both arms and rhetoric will lead to more violence and innocents being caught in the crossfire. It's happened before. Only a couple of weeks ago, two raging,  west Texan bigots gunned down two immigrants walking in the desert. (Read the story from Outlaw contributor Rob D'Amico - writing for the Texas Observer.)  Count on it happening again.

There's no way that the recent threat of state legislatures getting to choose their own slate of electors could actually happen, not with any legitimacy, right? Oh, dear reader, you know better than to ask such questions. SCOTUS? You know... the Supremes? They decided that they wanted to think about the feasibility of such a thing... from DeeceX...

If the money's right, plenty of right-wing AM radio talk show hosts (among many, many others) are willing to lie about anything. The insurrection? "A bunch of eager tourists." Covid? "No worse than the flu." Biden is president. "The most fraudulent election in history, DJT won that election fair and square!" And as for climate change - the existential challenge of our generation? "How much money you got?"

This week, Roger found the fly in our climate change solutions ointment. And, surprise! It's right here in the Lone Star State.