Last week I wrote about the guy who threw his sandwich at some of the various people President BFF With A Pedophile called up to defend Washington DC from the crimes that were turning the city into a hellhole. Think I’m kidding about the crimes? Well FBI Director Kash Patel has been proudly updating everyone on the incredible work the surge of “police officers” is doing:

Don’t you feel safer already?

Well, the sandwich guy turns out to have been Sean Charles Dunn, a DOJ employee (since fired), and a Marine veteran. He wanted to turn himself in, but the PBWAP administration is all about reality TV, so instead they sent a mini-army of “police officers”—and a camera crew—to arrest him. On felony charges. It’s all so ridiculous, and especially as the judge is likely to throw the felony charges out. And he’s a hero, with the Banksy-like poster in the cover image being seen around town.

We’re facing an onslaught from just the worst people; people without any redeeming values, people without any critical thinking ability, people who get so excited about being cruel that they forget that they themselves look ridiculous in the middle of their big showpieces.

Which brings us to Texas. The state house Democrats thwarted the Texas GOP’s rush to do what PBWAP wanted done with congressional redistricting maps until a similar threat was feasible in California to do the same for the Democrats. Once the Democratic lawmakers returned to the state house, they were informed they’d need to live the next bit of their lives in the company of Department of Public Safety officers, and they’d have to sign permission slips to allow this to happen. And all of them—except one person—signed the stupid fucking forms.

The one person was Nicole Collier, a Black woman representing a majority minority district, who spoke truth to the idiocy in power in Austin and refused to sign the stupid permission slip. And instead, she is now taking legal action:

Meanwhile, in a habeas corpus application filed in Austin state court on Monday, lawyers for Collier alleged “illegal confinement.”

The petition says state Rep. Charlie Geren, a Republican who chairs the House Administration Committee, told Collier: “If you leave the Capitol you are subject to arrest.” Collier’s petition does not mention the state police escorts.

Collier’s attorneys argue that’s illegal. They acknowledged that Texas law allows lawmakers who are absent from the Capitol to face civil arrest, but they say state officials have no legal right to detain legislators who are already present at the Capitol to ensure they don’t leave.

“The plain language is clear: a member may be compelled by the Sergeant-at-Arms to attend a legislative session if he or she is physically absent, but no such power is conferred on the Legislature to arrest or otherwise compel a member who is currently present (and not absent) to stay,” the Democrat’s court petition read.

Collier, a seven-term lawmaker and former chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, is asking a judge to order the House Sergeant-at-Arms to “immediately release” her, and to bar the Sergeant-at-Arms from “restraining Representative Collier in any respect.”

The whole idea of making adults sign permission slips to have their privacy invaded makes me furious.

After her solo night in the chamber, other Texas Democratic legislators have torn up their permission slips and will join her in the chamber but come on, people! This was a no-brainer. Why? Because of the sheer nonsense some of the legislators had to deal with as part of their DPS escort:

 

Cole, and others, have since joined Collier on the chamber’s floor.  Good—Republicans are ridiculous and anti-democratic, and their outrageous behavior should be met with determined refusal.

Republicans are fools and fools deserve only mockery. I’ll leave you with this musing on foolishness.