Monday, July 06, 2020

The Weekly "Trouble in Bayou City" Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is masked up and staying at home again, but still delivers the best of the left from around and about our Great State free of charge, every Monday.

Time to make this 'flatten the curve' thing real again.


Yesterday the elected officials of two of the state's largest metro areas appeared on the Sunday talk shows and appealed for help.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler told CNN’s "State of the Union" Sunday that he wants Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, to return control of his city to the local government as its hospitals face a potential crisis. “If we don’t change the trajectory, then I am within two weeks of having our hospitals overrun,” Adler, a Democrat, said. “And in our ICUs, I could be 10 days away from that.”

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo:

"(A)s long as we’re doing as little as possible and hoping for the best, we’re always going to be chasing this thing. We’re always going to be behind and the virus will always outrun us." "And so, what we need right now is to do what works, which is a stay home order. We don’t have room to experiment. We don’t have room for incrementalism, we’re seeing these kinds of numbers, nor should we wait for all the hospital beds to fill and all these people to die, before we take drastic action."

The governor has -- from his point of view -- bigger problems than Texans dying by the hundreds because of his rush to save the economy.  Bud Kennedy at the Startlegram saw it coming.

With Texas trending purple under an unsteady White House, Abbott can shelter downballot Republicans in November and keep his state from swinging the election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Yet a Texas Republican faction has been unmasked as the Hate Abbott Club.

“(Abbott) has shown us exactly who he is, a traitor to liberty and our constitution,” state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, wrote on Twitter Friday.

Just because barroom mingling and margaritas aren’t a safe combo right now?

And because Texans need to wear face coverings?

In a June 19 letter, Stickland and state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, called mask mandates “tyranny.”

(I wonder what they think about businesses requiring shoes or shirts.)

Even the Fort Worth Republican Women, once a moderate club but now using social media to promote an outlandish fringe conspiracy, seemed outraged that Republican county commissioners would require scarves, bandannas or masks.

“You need to call (Judge Glen Whitley),” the club posted on Facebook and Twitter, launching a phone and email campaign against Republican commissioners the name of “limited government, life and liberty.”

The club also published a tweet Friday tagging its support for the QAnon online conspiracy fantasy.

[...]

“We don’t like government overreach,” said the Tarrant County Republican Party chairman, Rick Barnes of Keller.

University of North Texas political science professor Kimi King predicted more pressure on Abbott as the coronavirus pandemic continues leading up to Trump’s Aug. 27 acceptance speech in Jacksonville, Fla.

She wrote by email that “there will be more heat, not less,” on Abbott.

“The governor at this point is in a no-win situation; he only supported local enforcement of masks because of the growing crisis in several counties.”


Let's roll with some more of this, via Business Insider.

Denton County, Texas, Sheriff Tracy Murphree said he would not enforce Abbott's mandate, calling it an "executive order not a law," ABC 13 reported.

"A week ago they were carrying signs that said F*** the police, and demanding police be defunded," Murphree wrote on Facebook. "They were ignoring the Denton curfew order and blocked city streets. Now those same people are mad at me for refusing to enforce the mask mandate issued by the governor. Their hypocrisy is mind blowing."

Gene DeForest, a constable in Montgomery County, Texas, wrote that the language of Abbott's order "strips law enforcement of the necessary tools to enforce compliance with the law."

"This order includes specific language prohibiting law enforcement from detaining, arresting, or confining to jail as a means to enforce the order," he wrote in a post to Facebook.

As ABC 13 first noted, the Montgomery County sheriff's office said it would not be writing tickets to people in violation of the governor's order. According to a statement released by county sheriff Rand Henderson, calls about violations will only be dispatched if a person is not wearing a face mask inside of a business and they create a "disturbance" by refusing to leave the business.

A lawsuit filed Friday by several members of the Houston GOP and two business owners sought a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction against Abbott's order, calling it an "invasion of liberty" and arguing its existence was unconstitutional, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Nacogdoches County Sheriff Jason Bridges said it was impossible to track repeat offenders because his officers wouldn't "keeping a database of people who are wearing a mask and who are not" because it did not have the "time or energy" to do so, according to ABC 13.

In a tweet, Joe Gamaldi, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, called the order a "draconian mask law."


The Ector County GOP voted to censure Abbott (!) and state Sen. Charles Perry joined a group of House Republicans in calling for a special session.

The party executive committee in Ector County, home to Odessa, passed the censure resolution 10-1, with one abstention and three voting members who were not present, according to the chairperson, Tisha Crow. She said she was among those who supported the resolution, which accuses Abbott of violating five party principles related to his exercise of executive power during the pandemic.

While the resolution asks that delegates to the state convention later this month consider — and affirm — Ector County’s action, Crow said consideration is “not guaranteed,” and one precinct chair, Aubrey Mayberry, said the resolution “doesn’t have any teeth” for now — but that it was important to send a message about what they consider Abbott’s overreach.

Mayberry, who voted for the resolution, said he was working with precinct chairs in other Texas counties to get similar resolutions passed ahead of the convention.

Perry wrote Saturday on Facebook that he is “deeply concerned about the unilateral power being used with no end in sight.”

“This is why I urge Governor Abbott to convene a special session to allow the legislature to pass legislation and hold hearings regarding the COVID-19 response,” Perry said. “It should not be the sole responsibility of one person to manage all of the issues related to a disaster that has no end in sight.”


There's gonna be trouble in Bayou City ("that's 'Trouble with a capital T") in two weeks.  Even Dan Patrick thinks it's a bad idea, but he's coming to town anyway.  And exactly how sick do you think COVID will make the RPT by November?


That's my segue into this week's collection of "Texas Conservatives Behaving Badly".  "Grandmas for Biden" can get it right sometimes!


Okay then. This IS a political blog; should drop in some political posts.


Here's the link to that Capitol Inside piece mentioned above.  DosCentavos' early voting experience was quick, yet harrowing. The moral of the story...don't leave until you click "CAST BALLOT."


An under-the radar development:


John Cornyn sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee (an oxymoron no matter which way you turn it to look at it).


Kuff has two more polls to analyze.  Bonddad cautiously forecasts the favorable Biden polling pointing to a Democratic flip for the Senate.  SocraticGadfly had two third-party items of note: first, he said RIP to Mimi Soltysik, 2016 SPUSA presidential nominee.  Second, he called out losing Green Party candidate Dario Hunter for "going there" with identity politics and other things.  David Collins is a delegate to the Greens' national convention this weekend, and is both excited and trepidatious about it.  PDiddie at Brains and Eggs also blogged about the Thirds -- as in Howie Hawkins and Mark Charles -- but not Kanye West or Brock Pierce.

There will be more later in the week -- there always is -- but for now I'll close on these.

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