The Daily Texas Far Left Wrangle

Unless you like these loooong (and not posted until late).

I'll start with the pandemic blowing up again.  The second wave is here; global, national, state, and local.  El Paso is already getting hit bad.

COVID-19 is spiking in El Paso.

The city has a 96% chance of exceeding its ICU capacity, and an 85% chance of exceeding overall hospital capacity. https://t.co/IyccEXZm8y

— Texas Standard (@TexasStandard) October 24, 2020

Federal disaster team sent, overflow hospital set up as COVID surges in El Paso https://t.co/Kq94WBalyI

— Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) October 25, 2020

My wife’s sister, her husband & kids all have Covid-19. Her aunt Estelle, whose 93, also has the virus. They live in El Paso #TX21 All are under-insured or have no insurance ⁦@SA_Indivisible⁩. We need #MedicareForAll ⁦but @wendydavis⁩ says NO! https://t.co/QRnktQoPwO

— Rev. Thomas Wakely / TX21 Congressional Candidate (@Wakely2020) October 25, 2020

“We have a moment of opportunity right now to take some forceful steps to try to abate the spread that’s underway. But if we don’t do that, if we miss this window, it’s going to be more difficult to get … under control.”https://t.co/1eI9faJWZ1 #txlege #txed

— Dick Lavine (@dlavine) October 26, 2020

Twelve days ago, epidemiologists noticed the uptick and called it a 'warning signal'.  Some experts attributed it to "fatigue", a psychological reaction to six-plus months of quarantine, masking up, and otherwise having our 'freedumb' curtailed, for those Darwin Award winners on the right.

The sticks, the boondocks, and the outback are catching it now.

Waco has joined a number of small communities across Texas in reporting a surge in COVID-related hospitalizations in the last few weeks. https://t.co/hBBXZPUkND

— Texas Standard (@TexasStandard) October 24, 2020

I got nuttin' but love for all y'all out in the country, but ya need to stop voting red.  They're gonna kill a lot of you this winter.

DosCentavos is worried about the 'rona, so he posted a good Q&A with the COVID hunter, Dr. Varon from UMMC.  And the details released last week surrounding the Garland woman who died from the coronavirus last July -- on a Spirit Airlines flight from Las Vegas to DFW, diverted to Albuquerque -- remain unclear.

Most of my election-related posts will be in a subsequent Wrangle later today tomorrow, as there is some fresh polling due later today.  Here's some items that make the segue for me.

⁦Important comments from respected former Rep. Todd Smith. ⁩ #txlege

“This is no longer my Republican Party,” Mr. Smith said last week while sitting outside his house, which has a “Republicans For Biden 2020” sign on the front lawn.” #txlege https://t.co/DSAdwVqBq8

— Chris Turner (@ChrisGTurner) October 25, 2020

Retiring Sen. @JoseforTexas confirms current Texas Senate discussions with @DanPatrick about next #txlege include an option to have no members of the public in the Capitol and all public testimony by Zoom. Major concern of advocacy community. #txhsc #txlege @quorumreport

— Kimberly Reeves (@edwonkkimmy) October 24, 2020

Stopping here with some musical comedy.

Joshua Brown at The Rag Blog has a cartoon animation starring Trump as Covid Man, to the tune of The Beatles' "Nowhere Man".

Doing his Weird Al Yankovic schtick, Socratic Gadfly taps his inner Blue Öyster Cult and offers the lyrics for “Don’t Fear the Virus.”  After all, “Donaldine and Melania ARE together in COVIDity.”

In the 1980s, photojournalism student Pat Blashill captured a burgeoning punk music scene in Austin at odds with mainstream Texas culture.

His new book, “Texas Is the Reason: The Mavericks of Lone Star Punk,” is filled with his photos from that era. https://t.co/FsLxt9oQnQ

— Texas Standard (@TexasStandard) October 22, 2020