Stupid Republicans, Vol. 47

It's only Tuesday but several inmates have escaped the asylum and I need to start getting 'em rounded up.  Let's begin here in H-Town, with a little problem that actually originated in Austin.

The official who oversees more vehicle registrations than anyone else in the state gave the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles a failing grade Monday after another error surfaced in its new inspection and registration system.

"It is having an adverse effect on my ability to do the work of the taxpayers," Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan said of the state's administration of the new single-sticker system, which took effect March 1.

The latest error, discovered Friday, involved incorrect bills sent to 321,927 motorists with April registrations coming due. Of those, 83,541 were in the eight-county Houston area, including 56,965 in Harris County.

The confusion led to long lines at local tax offices, frustrated motorists and haggard county staffers.

"I've got people demanding to see me and calling my office," Sullivan said. "This is a state issue, but the county tax assessors are the face of this... (Motorists) are angry and frustrated, saying they'll never vote for Mike Sullivan again. I'm a big boy, I can take it, but I feel bad for the people coming in."

This is not the Republican county tax-assessor's fault, but the people complaining about "never voting for Mike Sullivan again" are the same people who think they can solve the problem by voting for another Republican.  In other words, the definition of insanity.

There are some who want to blame Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) for introducing the legislation that made this happen.  That's well and good, but unless Republicans in the legislature all abstained from voting for the bill, then they stamped it with their bicameral majority approval.  This is called, in Republican phraseology, 'taking personal responsibility', which Republicans instruct others to do but avoid doing themselves.

While the DMV screws everybody up and over, the DPS is warning state senators about glitterbombs.

The first rule about glitter bombs, if you work in the Texas Department of Public Safety, is you do not talk about glitter bombs. "DPS does not discuss security-related matters or investigations," the agency vaguely told us in an email statement. (Subject line:"Inquiry about Glitter Bombs.")

But there appears to have been a minor, glitter-sized leak in the department. On Friday, The Texas Tribune said it obtained an email that a Department of Public Safety official sent to state senators. The email contained an unsigned attachment warning of a glitter-bombing threat among our society's most dangerous groups: the gays and women. "Glitter Bombing: Weapon of Choice for Gay Rights, Pro Choice Advocates," the Tribune said the unsigned attachment was titled. 

Couldn't the legislators just use their newly-installed panic buttons in case they get assaulted with arts and crafts by women and gay people?  And whatever happened to the terrorist threats of jars of poop and pee?

Now I know what you're thinking: the DMV and DPS bureaucrats personnel behind these clusterfucks and conspiracies are not ALL Republicans.  I'm certain that's just as correct as saying that Republicans are not all racists, either.

Let's move on to DC, where 47 Republican senators -- where have we heard that 47% number before? -- have decided that they will not be bound by any nuclear agreement Obama negotiates with Iran, and sent Iran's leaders a letter to that effect.  That's called 'trolling the Logan Act'.

It wasn't enough for a Republican Congress to invite a foreign leader to speak to them -- an appalling violation of diplomatic protocol at best -- over the objections of the executive branch just a week ago.  They had to go a little bit further this week to disrespect and de-legitimize the office of the executive.  They may think they're just dissing Obama, but if a Republican ever manages to get elected president again, there's going to be some payback.  There's going to be payback in some form or fashion no matter what.

When Republicans are saying publicly you have lost, you have probably disgraced yourself.

There has never been an instance in which an organized partisan bloc in the legislative branch disregarded the separation of powers in order to publicly and intentionally undermine US foreign policy. Disagreements over foreign policy have often been bitter, but they have been tempered by an understanding that they can be resolved by elections. I may not like a president, but undermining the office itself will haunt me when my party finally wins.

It seems clear that many Republicans have lost their belief that the party can compete for the Presidency. No other logic explains their willingness to burn down the office itself. The demographic realities are brutal and the Blue Wall looms large. This kind of behavior will only get worse, and more dangerous, in 2017.

The best response, however, came from the Iranian foreign minster, who sees right through the GOP's game.  He was, after all, educated in the United States, and appears to understand US constitutional and international law better than most of these Republican senators.  And just think: Republicans might nominate someone for president in 2016 who does not have a college degree.

Finally, and speaking of Republicans who really don't understand anything at all, why is someone who has never sent an e-mail in his entire life sitting on the Senate technology subcommittee?

You already know the answer: because he's a dumb fucking Republican who got elected by some of the dumbest fucking Republican voters in the nation, that's why.