Nazis are the ultimate 'gag' gift

Also, Gohmert goes groveling for an endorsement

When life behind the Pine Curtain gets a starring role in the Twitterverse it isn’t often for the best reasons and that was certainly the case this weekend — even if the event that instigated it didn’t happen here at all, but in Orlando, Fla.

Orlando Nazis are an active bunch and Saturday they decided to rally. I don’t know what the special occasion might have been but since there are only a couple dozen of them, organizing a get-together is probably a few phone calls away.

Prominent on the Orlando Nazi web site is the picture above showing a group of East Texas Nazis at a Longview meeting in September of last year showing their physiques that indicate that they are members of the “master race.”

(All of which shows me that I need to lose some weight, lest someone confuse my political leanings.)

The caption on the photo says “Sieg Heil from Longview, Tx.”

For whatever reason, people on Twitter picked that photo to illustrate many of their comments. None of those comments, by the way, said anything like, “This doesn’t sound like Longview at all. It’s a progressive city!”

Though just about every Republican politician in Florida condemned the March, Gov. Ron DeSantis was quiet as a “Maus,” probably because he thinks there were some “fine people” among the Orlando Nazis.

Nazis are the gag gift of the party. You just can’t help but get sick to your stomach.

The picture appeared on dozens, if not hundreds of tweets. It was enough to give members of the visitors’ bureau a headache that couldn’t be cured with BC powders.

As reported here before, East Texas Nazis are organized under the collective, Aryan Freedom Network, a group that is headed by “Pastor” George Bois Stout and that includes his son and wife.

Stout lives in DeKalb — which is way, way behind the Pine Curtain — and owns land there on which he hopes to build an Aryan Hall. He’s taking donations — goal $52,000 — if you want to pitch in. That building looks far too large in an artist’s rendering to cost so little. Ordinarily, $50,000 would barely get you a tiny house.

Stout, who has been (and may still be) an arms dealer in DeKalb as well as being a “pastor” of a “Christian Identity” church. The Christian Identity church believes that Jesus wasn’t a Jew and that only white people can go to heaven. Go figure.

Jesus has not been consulted for his opinion of these beliefs, so far as I know.

That there are not many official Nazis in East Texas should not fool anyone. How many weevils must you find in a bag of flour before you decide it’s been ruined? None of these people have been shown to be violent but that doesn’t mean they won’t incite others to violence.

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Donald Trump came to our neck of the woods Saturday and sang his same, sad tune, 233rd verse. Nothing new, very little, if anything, true.

Trump’s words were not nearly the worst of it. Watching Texas politicians grovel at his feet, desperately hoping for a morsel of an endorsing word, was downright dispiriting.

Poor Louie Gohmert still did not get that, however, while Trump continued to throw his weight to help incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton did try to change the outcome of the election by filing a couple of frivolous lawsuits, remarkable only for how quickly they were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump did say a few nice words about Gohmert (“He was with me from Day One.”) but this is all about the magic endorsement that Republicans candidates are absolutely certain will lead to their election.

I wish I could say they were wrong. Abbott is not popular among some Republicans but there is little indication he could lose the Republican primary in March. So far, Abbott is widening the polling gap against presumed Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

That could change in a heartbeat, or rather in a cold front later this week that, at this writing, was predicted to test Texas’ wonky electric grid. That 11 percent margin Abbott has now is not that heavily supported. Dems should not be disheartened.

Both Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have intentionally tied their popularity to Trump. That seems safe at this moment but with new revelations coming out daily, it seems a bit shaky.

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