Rick Perry — former governor of Texas, former Trump admin energy secretary and current Exhibit A submitted by the House January 6th committee as evidence of Republican willingness to shitcan American democracy to appease the orange fart cloud — done peed in his chili. CNN:
Members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol believe…Perry was the author of a text message sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows the day after the 2020 election pushing an “AGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY” for three state legislatures to ignore the will of their voters and deliver their states’ electors to Donald Trump, three sources familiar with the House Committee investigation tell CNN.
Was it the AGRESSIVE TYPO that tipped them off? Nah, MAGAland is riddled with bad grammar and worse spelling. It was phone records. A spokesman told CNN that Perry denied sending the text, but oop:
The cell phone number the text was sent from, obtained from a source knowledgeable about the investigation, appears in databases as being registered to a James Richard Perry of Texas, the former governor’s full name.
The number is also associated in a second database as registered to a Department of Energy email address associated with Perry when he was secretary. When told of these facts, the spokesman had no explanation.
God, what a bunch of clowns. Open thread.
Baud
He actually would not have been my first guess for chief administration seditionist.
Tenzil Kem
@Baud: Yeah, he was by and large one of Trump’s less embarrassing/disastrous Cabinet members.
Chetan Murthy
No way that was Rick Perry:
two state leges, sure, but three ? C’mon ….
Cameron
All of my family in Texas agree that Perry is dumb as a stump, so this kind of screw-up isn’t surprising.
Kristine
Poor Rudolph:
Villago Delenda Est
Totally off topic, but my BJ calendar arrived today! Woo hoo! Steve remains a very handsome beast!
Villago Delenda Est
On topic: Perry couldn’t organize a one-car funeral.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Chetan Murthy: Yeah he’s the POTUS candidate that can’t remember 3 things at once right?
jackmac
Never imagined I’d ever hear Rick Perry’s name again.
germy
He was right!
Cameron
“A fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing. And Rick Perry doesn’t know shit about anything.” – Archilochus
NeenerNeener
@Villago Delenda Est: Mine showed up today too! Woo hoo!
Omnes Omnibus
@Kristine: All bullying is unacceptable.
germy
Whew.
Elections would be easier for the GOP if not for all those pesky [checks notes] voters.
WaterGirl
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: And not just three random things! The 3 big things he wanted to do in the position!
germy
I bet Rick fired that particular speechwriter.
piratedan
at the rate that we’re going, it looks like all of us are going to have to move to the Seditionist cover-all game because a simple Bingo isn’t going to be challenging enough.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: Reminds me of UNIX sysadmins lamenting that the system would work just fine if it wasn’t for all those damn lusers.
japa21
@Chetan Murthy:
No three would be right, but he only remembered the names of two of them.
germy
@Villago Delenda Est:
Damned inconvenient critters.
germy
Here’s Rick showing up at the Jan. 6 hearings:
Anonymous At Work
Governor of Texas dumber than a sack of hammers? Say it ain’t so!
BlueGuitarist
@Chetan Murthy:
haha (omitting third ha)
Ken
@Anonymous At Work: Remember, all the real power lies with the Lieutenant Governor, the Texas Railroad Commission, and an elderly couple who for some reason have absolute veto power over the state’s textbooks.
BlueGuitarist
@WaterGirl:
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Perry couldn’t remember the third of three departments he wanted to eliminate — Energy. Guess of which department he was later secretary?
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
@NeenerNeener:
My calendars arrived a few days ago. One of each for me, and an extra which has photos of my friend’s five cats that I sent in. It will be a surprise for her, and I can’t wait to see her face when she opens the package!
topclimber
@Baud: Ok guys, when we attack the capitol, there are three things we need to do:
First we take out the cops.
Then we break into the building.
Then…oops, forgot what the third thing is.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Reindeer lives matter!
Gloomyjim
Yeah, there’s Georgia, Florida and um, er, um….
Ken
Install Baud.
lowtechcyclist
@BlueGuitarist: For some reason, I suddenly have Alanis Morrisette going through my head.
moops
was watching old Stargate SG1 episodes on Netlfix and they needed the Secretary of Energy to negotiate with an alien delegation. It was fun thinking about Rick Perry being there and dooming our planet to alien slavery and genocide.
Ken
Mr. Perry’s enthusiasm for subverting democracy does make me think a thorough audit of the Energy Department’s activities during his tenure is in order.
debbie
@Chetan Murthy:
Imagine a governor saying that about a state legislature!
germy
@moops:
Didn’t Perry want to share U.S. nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia? Or did I dream that?
lowtechcyclist
War On Christmas – Update
In the wake of Christmas’ having committed an overwhelming number of troops to its invasion of pre-Thanksgiving November, Valentine’s Day, in a bold move, has sent a strike force to launch an invasion of mid-December.
IOW, when my wife was at Safeway today, she saw a ton of Valentine’s Day candy in the candy aisle. Take that, Christmas!
debbie
@Kristine:
The previous owners of a friend’s house left a sculpture of a deer that was near the adjacent nature preserve. Every year, without fail, she’d look out and see some stupid buck humping it.
raven
@topclimber: Take pictures and post them on the internet!
JoyceH
@BlueGuitarist:
He ALSO didn’t even realize until he’d taken the job that the Sec of Energy is the person in possession of and responsible for the security of our nuclear arsenal. He thought he was going to be a spokesmodel for the fossil fuel industry. Uh-huh – that’s why so many previous Secs of Energy were nuclear physicists, because they were just so darn cute.
Anonymous At Work
@Ken: <—Texan and avid reader of Molly Ivins. Boy, don’t I know…
mrmoshpotato
@Chetan Murthy:
Certainly the third legislature was in the often-overlooked state of Oops!
Also, Rick Perry is a traitorous shitstain.
trollhattan
@BlueGuitarist: IIUC he accepted the job not knowing he’d be overseeing the nuke arsenal. I bet he thought it was just coal and url and pumpjacks 24/7. Yeehaw!
CaseyL
Another (sub-)mediocre white man who’s never suffered a consequence in his life…
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
To be fair, it’s just one kind of voter who the Republicans are worried about. If they could just limit the vote to the kind of people who were allowed to vote back in 1788, everything would be fine.
Feathers
@JoyceH: Although, TBH he reportedly sobered up fast on that, kept his head low and listened to the experts. Not everyone TFG would have nominated would have done the same.
bluegirlfromwyo
@germy:
The speechwriter only would have been fired if he actually thought there was a set of principles. Otherwise, he was Rick’s kind of bullshit artist.
Roger Moore
@JoyceH:
Energy is kind of a weird department, since it combines energy production and lots of stuff related to nuclear weapons. That said, Perry did know enough to keep out of the way of the professionals who were running things like the nuclear stockpile.
That was more or less what I expected. Unlike some of Trump’s appointees, he wasn’t supposed to undermine his agency. He had enough smarts to figure out that he would do best by serving as agency spokesmodel and bureaucratic defender, and he was actually qualified to do those things. He didn’t do anything much to advance his department, but just letting the career government service people do their jobs put him way ahead of most of Trump’s cabinet.
Brachiator
@Anonymous At Work:
And curiously enough, the Texas lieutenant governor has considerable powers:
cain
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, it’s true! :-)
Steeplejack (phone)
Detailed thread by Lewis Goodall on that British by-election yesterday.
NotMax
FYI.
Also came across this (as if we didn’t already know, but good to have it spelled out in black and white).
Link to a .pdf of the report.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
Since it’s an open thread, what resources can y’all recommend donating to for the relief of folks in Kentucky? We’d like to donate cash and don’t trust the Salvation Army.
Mike in NC
That guy was like a stopped clock!
debbie
@NotMax:
I think Mr. Floriduh was the one who told the judge he was very ashamed and would never, ever go to a political rally again. Someone will need to check that in about another five years.
sab
Hopefully (cynical snickering) therse successful politicians will learn to follow their instincts.
Okay, that ship has sailed. Common sense possibly? What you learned in high school civics? Those laws we learned about weren’t fiction. They are still on the books, and many of you broke them.
Ken
@Steeplejack (phone): And in the related tweets, I see that the man investigating whether there was an illegal party at 10 Downing Street, had his own illegal party about the same time. Oops!
Mike in NC
@NotMax: The Fat Orange clown was convinced COVID-19 was all a hoax dreamed up by the Red Chinese and Dummycrats simply to make him look bad. As if he needed any help.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax:
Trump is a mass murderer and should be convicted of crimes against humanity.
NotMax
@Mike in NC
Have said it many times before – error number one was a decision and concerted effort to treat COVID as a public relations crisis, not a public health crisis.
Another Scott
@Mike in NC: Don’t confuse what TFG said with what he believes. I think that Woodward was right that he knew how bad it was. TFG was hoping to take advantage of it to continue to loot the government and install himself as king. His Reichstag fire.
Yeah, he’s actually worse than stupid. Narcissists are very bad, especially in positions of power.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kristine
@debbie: Wow. They do get tunnel vision, don’t they?
More than one yard around here sports a deer figure in the yard. I wonder if any of them have ever had an issue.
debbie
@Another Scott:
He and Jared did diddly because they thought only blue states were suffering and only libtards were dying. ?
Brachiator
@Mike in NC:
Trump looked at everything during his entire presidency in terms of “does this make me look good?” or “does this make me look bad?”
He back filled whatever rationalizations he needed.
WaterGirl
@debbie: Libtards, black people and poor people.
As they say on the cop shows when a bad guy kills another bad guy, or a prostitute:
NHI – no humans involved
E.
Have we looked at this Post report about using CIA standards to evaluate global democracies’ likelihood of falling into civil war? When applied to the U.S. it’s . . . It’s terrifying.
There are so many people in my community, rural people, dumb people, who think the country has been taken over by communists and the only way to save it is through revolution. These are my neighbors, people I interact with every day. I don’t even recognize this place any more.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
This story only proves: No matter how innocuous, how dimwitted, how benign they appear – THEY ARE ALL TRASH.
Dur hur dur, he’s stupid – and to be clear, he IS – but here he was, not only willing to roll with the coup but “agressively” (sic) encourage the effort.
There’s a lesson in here somewhere…
Kathleen
@The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: Here’s a link with some organizations
https://www.wlwt.com/article/heres-how-you-can-help-kentuckys-tornado-victims/38492258
lowtechcyclist
Couldn’t agree more.
We knew this all along, of course, but it’s important to have it documented.
Which reminds me, has the House ever investigated the child separations at our southern border? That’s several thousand cases of child abuse. Someone – or a bunch of someones – could be tossed in prison for a long, long time for that. Would be good to (a) document that the involvement in this goes at least as high as Stephen Miller (we know that sadistic SOB had to be in on this but it still needs to be proven), and (b) whether Donny Two-Scoops himself was aware.
WaterGirl
@The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion:
I did a post last weekend about the storm and ways to help.
Mai Naem mobile
Ricky Perry was Al Gore’s Texas campaign chair in i believe ’88 while he was still a Dem. And he knew the Bushes well. Not like he doesn’t understand elections. Traitorous scumball.
opiejeanne
I really thought it was PA Rep. Scott Perry, not Rick Perry.
Amir Khalid
@Tenzil Kem:
Only because of his only two actual abilities: keeping his mouth shut and his head down.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Hey Amir. I forget who it was, but someone was hoping you would join the Adam Schiff Midnight in Washington book club.
Not sure if you ever saw the notices, so I thought I would pass that on.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: Speaking of which, did everyone who was getting a gift copy of the book receive theirs? If not, can you send me an email so I can follow up?
q
The only good things about these people are their stupidity and incompetence. Other than that, they’re worthless.
q
@Villago Delenda Est: That’s also true of mainframe operating systems.
q
@debbie: They didn’t realize that the MAGAs would be happy to die for their leader.
TriassicSands
True, but the American people elect clowns all the time. I guess they identify with them.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ken:
No one more qualified to conduct the investigation!