You Simply Can Not MAKE THIS STUFF UP About The Trump Administration

Every single day since the election there are two or three times when James will say the following words as I make breakfast, or brush my teeth before bed, or pour afternoon coffee.  “‘You have to hear this.”

Then he reads a report that stops me from whatever I was doing to either utter a disdainful response or smirk and laugh at the simple minded.  If you ever wonder why so many Americans laugh at conservatives well read on.  And if laughing at these folks makes us elitist…..well, hell yes, then call us elitist as we sure do not want to be like them.

The absolute stupidity of the incoming Trump Administration has no basement.  It just keeps getting worse and worse.  What does this story say about the IQ of Rick Perry–a conservative Republican who wanted to get rid of this federal agency?  He did not even know what the agency did!   And he still did not know when accepting to be the secretary!  

When President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home state.

In the days after, Mr. Perry, the former Texas governor, discovered that he would be no such thing — that in fact, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the steward of a vast national security complex he knew almost nothing about, caring for the most fearsome weapons on the planet, the United States’ nuclear arsenal.

Two-thirds of the agency’s annual $30 billion budget is devoted to maintaining, refurbishing and keeping safe the nation’s nuclear stockpile; thwarting nuclear proliferation; cleaning up and rebuilding an aging constellation of nuclear production facilities; and overseeing national laboratories that are considered the crown jewels of government science.

“If you asked him on that first day he said yes, he would have said, ‘I want to be an advocate for energy,’” said Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who advised Mr. Perry’s 2016 presidential campaign and worked on the Trump transition’s Energy Department team in its early days. “If you asked him now, he’d say, ‘I’m serious about the challenges facing the nuclear complex.’ It’s been a learning curve.”

Rick Perry And Rick Santorum–Once You Know Them You Never Go Back

Some campaign facts are just too amusing not to share.  That is the case this morning with news about Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.

A majority of the 2012 donors to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum who’ve given this time have defected to other candidates, according to an analysis by Crowdpac.com, a nonpartisan political research company.

The donor disloyalty is contributing to financial woes in both of their campaigns. Perry stopped paying most of his staffers, and much of Santorum’s top staff left to start a super PAC, which is free of contribution limits.

As the only two members of a 17-person presidential field who competed in 2012, Perry and Santorum should have among the strongest, most up-to-date fundraising bases. Santorum won 11 primary states, lasting until April 2012 when Mitt Romney secured the nomination. Perry bowed out in January but was a strong early fundraiser.

But four years later, many of their donors have eyes for others: Perry counted 470 return supporters, while 557 went with other candidates. For Santorum, 257 of his past presidential contributors gave to him again, while 414 put their money elsewhere, the data show.

Rick Perry Proves He Still Is Not Ready For Prime Time After Shooting Remark

There is no room for error or more to the point stupidity when it comes to Rick Perry and his quest for the White House.   But lack of brain power is exactly what took place when the former Texas Governor made a comment about the dreadful shooting in Charleston, South Carolina where nine people were killed with a handgun.

Addressing Wednesday’s massacre at a South Carolina church Perry referred to it as an “accident.”  He then went on to wash away the sins of the NRA.

“This is the M.O. of this administration anytime there is a accident like this,” Perry told a conservative news operation.  “You know, the president’s clear. He doesn’t like for Americans to have guns, and so he uses every opportunity, this being another one, to basically go parrot that message.”

I could add more about the incestuous relationship with the NRA and some politicians.  But that is not my purpose in this post.  Instead I want to point out that Perry has no wiggle room when it comes to saying stupid things during this campaign.

The whole reason that Perry undertook his time to retool and transform himself was due to his jug-headed remark from 2012 when he was unable to remember the third federal agency he would eliminate if elected president.  There is no way for him to have any traction if he can not be brighter than his last stab for higher office.

No one should feel Perry is more capable this time after his blowing of the remarks about the nine people in a church who were gunned down.

BREAKING NEWS—Grand Jury Indicts Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Rick Perry’s glasses did not make him smart, after all.

A grand jury indicted Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday for abusing the powers of his office by carrying out a threat to veto funding for state prosecutors investigating public corruption — making the possible 2016 presidential hopeful his state’s first indicted governor in nearly a century.

Let me note that Parry was indicted on felony counts of abuse of official capacity and coercion. Maximum punishment on the first charge is five to 99 years in prison. The second is two to 10 years.

A special prosecutor spent months calling witnesses and presenting evidence that Perry broke the law when he promised publicly to nix $7.5 million over two years for the public integrity unit, which is run by Travis County District Rosemary Lehmberg’s office. Several top aides to the Republican governor appeared before grand jurors in Austin, including his deputy chief of staff, legislative director and general counsel. Perry himself wasn’t called to testify.

He was indicted by an Austin grand jury on felony counts of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. Maximum punishment on the first charge is five to 99 years in prison. The second is two to 10 years.

Perry said Lehmberg, who is based in Austin, should resign after she was arrested and plead guilty to drunken driving in April 2013. A video recording made at the jail showed Lehmberg shouting at staffers to call the sheriff, kicking the door of her cell and sticking her tongue out.

Lehmberg served about half of her 45-day jail sentence but stayed in office, despite Perry’s assertions that her behavior was inappropriate.

Perry eventually carried out his veto threat. No one disputes that he is allowed to veto measures approved by the Legislature, including part or all of the state budget. But the left-leaning Texans for Public Justice government watchdog group filed an ethics complaint accusing the governor of coercion since he threatened to use his veto before actually doing so in an attempt to pressure Lehmberg to quit.

The indictment is the first of its kind since 1917, when James “Pa” Ferguson was indicted on charges stemming from his veto of state funding to the University of Texas in effort to unseat faculty and staff members he objected to. Ferguson was eventually impeached, then resigned before being convicted — allowing his wife Miriam “Ma” Ferguson, to take over the governorship.

 

Will God Even Make An Endorsement For The Fall General Election?

Hmmm….

But Santorum’s withdrawal is also a major milestone for God, the beloved all-powerful deity whose personal endorsement somehow failed to secure the nomination for any of the numerous Republicans — Santorum, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry — whom he reportedly encouraged to run for president. It is unclear at this point whether God will even bother to offer anyone his apparently useless endorsement in the general election.

How Can Newt Gingrich Become Even A Larger Joke?

There are ways…

Sources close to the Gingrich campaign say preliminary “what-if”  conversations are underway that could lead to a Gingrich-Perry ticket being  announced prior to the  Republican National Convention at the end of  August.

Gingrich insiders hope forming a predetermined ticket with Perry will unite  the evangelical, Tea  Party and very conservative voters that make up the core of the GOP.

As discussions got underway, a spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick  Perry released a statement saying, “Gov. Perry thinks Newt  Gingrich is the strongest conservative to debate and defeat President Obama  and truly overhaul Washington. The speculation is humbling but premature.”

Floating Perry as a running mate two days before Alabama  and Mississippi could energize conservatives or turn them off.

Why doesn’t Gingrich also just announce Sarah Palin for Secretary of State?!

Best One-Liner About Rick Perry

There are times when a line jumps off the page and demands an audience.  Such was the case in Ryan Lizza’s article “Life Of The Party” which tries to make some sense of the nominating process now playing out in the Republican Party.

But sometimes activists don’t have a candidate like that, and they’re willing  to risk defeat by backing someone far outside the mainstream. (This strategy can  have its own payoff: in 1964, Barry Goldwater lost in a historic landslide, but  he changed American politics.) “Parties want to be optimally extreme,” Zaller  says. “They are like the frequent air traveller who believes that if he never  misses a flight he is getting to the airport too soon.”

This dynamic may help explain the ups and downs of the Republican primaries.  Backing Mitt Romney is like showing up four hours early and sitting at Cinnabon;  backing Rick Perry would have been like arriving at Newark International in the  early evening for a flight that left LaGuardia at noon. And maybe, just maybe,  backing Rick Santorum is like getting on the plane right before the doors  close.

 

Poor Rick Perry