Monday, October 11, 2021

The Stormy Wrangle from Far Left Texas

The rough weather blew through leaving North Texas a little windblown and the Gulf Coast a bit wet after a week of nearly ideal fall days.  The forecast for the remaining days of the Texas Legislature's third special session could go either way, and not necessarily depending on your POV.


The freak right wants outlawing vaccine mandates added to the call.  The beleaguered Democrats just want to get out of town and lick their several wounds.  And as the redistricting hearings and votes come to a boil ...


... the litigation on the voting and abortion rights laws kick into high gear.


So a lot of "wait and see" to start the week.

Fortunately (or un-) I have many other links, starting with politics.


I'd like to feel sorry for West, but I can't.  I will miss those push-up challenges, though.


This after Dowd deleted tens of thousands of Tweets in an effort to whitewash his history.  Oh, for the love of long-lost Fleets.

Obviously "stormy" didn't only mean the weather.

Moving on to another Texas corporation (possibly) behaving badly: Southwest Airlines is encountering some turbulence.  Somewhere.


Strange.  So is this.


So I suppose we'll have to wait until things *ahem* clear up a bit to find out what's going on.  Moving right along to a couple of environmental items.


Pots and kettles in Austin introducing themselves.

Here's the criminal and social justice round-up.


Some good news from down at the border: LareDOS reports that the feds have canceled all border wall construction contracts in that city.


With a pair of labor updates:

Amber Briggle makes the economic case for LGBTQ inclusion in the Texas workforce.  And the lockout of USW workers at ExxonMobil's Beaumont refinery -- where my father worked for nearly 40 years as a union member, where my brother and I worked during the summer to put ourselves through college -- appears to be succeeding in busting that union out.

While I highly doubt some fast-tracked SCOTUS case that threatens to strike down Roe v Wade will finally be enough impetus to scare women to the polls -- Wendy Davis drew massive crowds to the state capital in 2014 but ultimately failed to defeat Greg Abbott and even lost the women's vote to him -- it's one of the few things that's getting people into the streets.  In that vein, the Texas Politics Project takes a long view at our state's attitudes towards abortion and anti-abortion laws.  And L'il Kalish speaks to a volunteer driver at the Bridge Collective -- which provides transportation and accommodations to people in central Texas seeking abortions -- about their work.


Just don't, you know, do it with a Republican.  Please.


I should have posted these items marking Indigenous Peoples Day a little higher but that shouldn't detract from the importance of the newly-renamed holiday.

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