Tuesday, September 08, 2020

The Weekly TexProgBlog Wrangle


With the best blog posts, Tweets, and leftist news from around the Great State, the Texas Progressive Alliance is really hoping that cool front makes it all the way down here.

The biggest political fight at the moment isn't Trump versus Biden or Cornyn versus Hegar ...


... it's whether Texans will be able to cast their November ballots in a manner of their choosing, and not Ken Paxton's.


Kuff is trying to follow the back and forth of the Republican attempts to prevent Harris County from sending vote by mail applications to all its voters.

Voting isn't the only thing Texas Republicans are suppressing.


With so much demonstrable incompetence you would think that prominent Republicans funding the campaigns of Republican elected officials might be complaining. And you would be right. Just not in the way you think.


“Furthermore, as we learn more about COVID-19, we now know that elementary and middle school-aged children are practically impervious to it; even high schoolers, who bear a slightly higher risk than younger students, are relatively safe when compared to adult cohorts,” the letter states. “The scores of daycares and summer camps that have been operating in Texas are further evidence of this fact.

“We will harm children far worse, therefore, by keeping schools closed than by reopening.”

Although the tone throughout the letter remains respectful, the names listed at the bottom may be sending a louder message.

In all, more than 100 Texans are named, a list that includes a wide-range of influential individuals, such as mega donor Farris Wilks to iconic ballplayer Lance Berkman.

[...]

A name that really stands out, however, is Ray Washburne, a member of President Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

To curb the spread of COVID-19, Abbott shutdown bars and cut restaurant occupancy -- a decision that has drastically impacted thousands of Texas business owners, including Washburne.

Washburne, a restaurant owner in Dallas, recently appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

“Running a restaurant at 50 percent is absolutely ridiculous,” Washburne said during the show. “If you go to a restaurant and every other table is seated and you need to go to the bathroom, you’re walking by every table in the restaurant. It makes zero sense.”

Washburne adamantly stated that: “We have to open up the economy.”

When Carlson asked Washburne what message he would give his governor, Washburne said: “Open up.”

“People need jobs,” he said. “They need to support their families.”

Carlson went on to say Republicans are intimidated, “maybe even your governor,” to which Washburne replied: “They are very intimidated, and they need to understand that they don’t need to cower to the liberal left.”

And the Texas Signal reported on state Republicans putting a quiet end to public redistricting hearings.

So apparently there were more important things for the TXGOP to be doing, such as rallying the base with bus tours and boat parades.


Therese Odell, daughter of a military family, cannot hold back her fury at Donald Trump's words about people who serve in the armed forces.

Not to be outdone by Trump in the "Republicans Behaving Badly" category ...


Meanwhile John Coby at Bay Area Houston was glad to see a racist assistant Attorney General get fired for his bigotry.

That's just a small sample of the Pachys' woes from the past week or two. Like the Donks, their younger voters are trying to tell their older voters something, but the senior set isn't listening.


No place is this generational dynamic better illustrated than the (mostly unspoken, certainly under-reported) tension between Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.


Hidalgo is collecting huzzahs as the D's rising star.


No error, Judge.

The latest COVID numbers in the state:


Dr. Peter Hotez gives a dozen reasons why he's worried about releasing a COVID-19 vaccine through an emergency use authorization (EUA).

Here's the latest environmental updates:


And the recent developments in police reform and criminal justice.


Grits for Breakfast gives the backstory on how Austin's budget cuts for police came about. Dallas Mayor Erik Johnson is resisting his police department's overtime hours reductions but presses ahead with reducing the bureaucracy at City Hall.

In noteworthy requiems:

D Magazine eulogizes its founder, Wick Allison.

Socratic Gadfly had three "critical" RIPs of people in political, cultural and social news recently, most recently with Green Party activist Kevin Zeese, then before that with heterodox anthropologist and economics critic David Graeber and first with secular humanist leader Ed Brayton.

And let's close out with some human interest stories.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)