Sunday, July 19, 2020

Sunday "Feeling Safe" Funnies

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Friday, July 17, 2020

Week-ending Lone Star Round-up


Let's begin with a bit of schadenfreude at the expense of the Republican Party of Texas.  After they were compelled by the SCOTX to refrain from holding their convention in person, they hurriedly made arrangements for a virtual one.  It's not going swimmingly.


Better luck tomorrow, patriots.  Especially with that rule change to bar censured candidates from running in your primary (Governor Abbott).

Update:


The COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the state.


The crisis of uninsured Texans as a result of the plague's effect on the economy is about to reach critical mass as well.


It makes it all the more stunning that Joe Biden -- and the establishment Democrats who sabotaged Bernie Sanders, enabling his nomination -- cannot see a way to pass Medicare for All.  As a result, I will employ a voting tactic in November of simply not casting my ballot for any Democrat who cannot support M4A or the Green New Deal.


Here's a few more political headlines post-runoff election day.


Here's a noteworthy BLM development from East Texas.


And finally, a few of the pieces I love to close on.

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Thursday, July 16, 2020

White House Update: Parscale dumped, Biden hacked, Greens wrap up convention, Kanye's in/out/in

President Donald Trump shook up his campaign leadership on Wednesday, announcing he was promoting Bill Stepien to be his campaign manager and demoting Brad Parscale, who had been serving in that role.

The announcement comes on the same day that two national polls showed the president trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by double digits.

Parscale will be demoted to senior adviser, and Bill Stepien, the deputy campaign manager, will take over the top position. Trump made the announcement on Facebook on Wednesday evening, with Twitter temporarily unavailable due to a hacking.

Parscale will stay on in his role leading the campaign's digital strategy and will serve as a senior adviser, Trump said. Parscale was the digital guru of the president's insurgent 2016 White House bid but had not worked as a campaign manager prior to taking that role ahead of the 2020 race.

Stepien was recently promoted to deputy campaign manager. He previously served as the White House political director during Trump’s first two years in office. Before that, he was the campaign manager for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s two successful statewide campaigns in the Garden State.

 
Changing cooks in the middle of dinner isn't going to improve the quality of the ingredients or the taste of the food; it's the recipe'.  Still a disaster.

Parscale was hand-picked by Jared Kushner, the president's adviser and son-in-law. He had been in the role longer than any of Trump's previous campaign managers. ... This has been foreshadowed for weeks, and moves like elevating Stepien and bringing back Jason Miller, a top campaign spokesman and 2016 adviser, kicked off the transition. It’s an important reflection of Trump acknowledging how vulnerable his re-election bid looks -- and his desire to find someone other than himself at fault.

Axios goes on to note that it is Kushner who is obviously running Trump's re-election campaign from the White House.  And it's worth being reminded that Trump blew up his 2016 staff org late in that cycle, firing manager Corey Lewandowski and chairman Paul Manafort, overcoming "grab 'em by the pussy" and defying the polling to win.

-- Let's play devil's advocate a little more.

Less than four months out from the November election, the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has been consistently polling ahead of Donald Trump.

The president’s approval numbers remain underwater, and Democrats believe they can seriously compete in traditionally red states including Texas, as Trump faces sustained criticism for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis linked to it, as well as the ongoing anti-racism protests against police brutality.

[...]

Some top party officials are feeling ambitious, and want to ride another potential 'blue wave' to try to win races that are usually out of reach in states like Georgia and Ohio. But there’s a strain of caution running through the Democratic party as well. Things looked great for them for a while in 2016, too, but Republicans ended up with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, and the memory of that cataclysmic loss is still fresh.

“I mean, we are emotionally and mentally scarred in such a way that we are not going to feel comfortable until a week after Biden is sworn in,” said the Democratic strategist Tom Bowen.

In any election cycle, campaign officials use cautious phrases like “we’re not leaving anything to chance” or “campaigning like we’re 10 points down until election day” -- and the 2020 presidential race is no different.

[...]

... Democratic state officials and operatives expect polls to tighten and the summer high to end. In multiple interviews, these officials were hopeful but also realistic that the next few months won’t be easy.

From September, Biden and Trump will face each other in three televised debates, something Republican campaign officials hope the president will be able to dominate. Democrats are also expecting some kind of “October surprise” from the Trump campaign and a barrage of warnings about Democratic control of the White House and Congress.

“That tightening will happen. It’s natural. So what we need to be doing is building up our reserves now,” said the Maryland Democratic party chairwoman, Yvette Lewis. “So we can’t waste time right now worrying about the what-ifs.”


Is Joe Biden capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of landslide victory?  Do fish have lips?  Does the Tin Man have a sheet metal penis?  Is there a God?  (In the immortal words of noted philosopher George Costanza: "It's not a lie if you believe it.")

-- About yesterday's blue-check Twitter hack:


-- That makes for a nice segue to Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker.


-- And Mark Charles.


-- Kanye's in, he's out, he's ... in?

-- It's more than the usual aggravating that the Democrats are shutting off their convention to any semblance of free speech.



-- All that crap you're hearing about the progressive wing coming together behind Biden?  I wouldn't be buying that if I were you.


Liberals are gonna keep running that con, though.  'Prohibit new fracking on public lands' does not equal banning fracking.  And fracking must be banned.  The entire fossil fuel industry needs to go away, and quickly, but since we can't even get Joe to stop fracking, we. are. over.  As a species.  So go ahead and take off your mask and get thee to thy roadhouse and get drunk with your pals like the Republicans are doing.  The apostle Paul got it right.
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Wednesday, July 15, 2020

On to November! Texas Runoff Results Wrangle



Red Donkeys have a few wins to celebrate...


... and so do Blue Dogs.


Still, the West campaign was confident throughout the night that it would come out on top in its race against Hegar. Campaign spokesman Vince Leibowitz predicted that the race would come down to around just 10,000 votes.

Poor Vince.  Once upon a time -- as in 15 or so years ago -- he was co-founder of the Texas Progressive Alliance, a blogger of some esteem, with an uncle in the Lege and a day job as a hard-charging union delegate.  The world was his oyster.  After the factory cut him loose, however, he has gone from political consultant (Farouk Shami for Governor, anyone?) to real estate agent to, apparently, political consultant again.  His political instincts appear to be as sharp as ever.  I'm reminded that even as a newspaper journalist prior to the above, he had trouble spelling the word "loser" correctly.  He always used  two o's.

Supremely sad, ironic digression over.

There may yet be one more election before the fall.  Depending on mail ballots still outstanding, the jungle primary in SD14 could need a runoff.


TXElects posts a follow-up to their statehouse incumbent watch.

Four legislative incumbents out of six fell:

  • Lorraine Birabil (D-Dallas) lost to Jasmine Crockett, 50.5%-49.5%, after the challenger won Election Day voting, 61%-39%.
  • Anna Eastman (D-Houston) lost to Penny Shaw by 200 votes after losing Election Day voting, 54%-46%.
  • Dan Flynn (R-Van) lost to Bryan Slaton, 63%-37%, who was making his third bid for the seat; and
  • J.D. Sheffield (R-Gatesville) lost to Shelby Slawson, 62%-38%.

Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville) and Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) survived their runoff challenges.

Barring a special session, Birabil and Eastman joined former Reps. Dan Barrett (D-Fort Worth), John Lujan (R-San Antonio) and Laura Thompson (I-San Antonio) as special election winners who never cast a vote in the House.

Sheffield’s defeat extended to 11 the losing streak of incumbents who finished second in the primary election dating back to 1992. He faced the largest primary deficit of any of those incumbents.


The TexTrib's Alexa Ura has a good account of the tribulations experienced online and off during Election Day and Night.


And we can't let this round-up pass without saluting a few of the most ridiculous Republicans in the universe: our TXGOP.


Moving on to a diverse collation of BLM, police abuse, and other social justice headlines.


And two noteworthy Texans left us this past week.

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