Sunday, June 19, 2022

Sunday Right-Wing Freakout Funnies

Sorry the goons ruined your day, Dad.
Cornyn walks away from gun negotiations, into boos at Texas Republican convention
ICYMI: Conservative extremists posting video of TXGOP delegates arguing in Houston bars, instigating conflicts with "globalists" Ted Cruz and Eyepatch McCain
What's on teevee?
What's playing at the movies?

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

"Let's Make a Gun Deal" Wrangle


Moving at the speed of Monty Hall Wayne Brady over the weekend, John Cornyn pushed all of the Republican senators who are retiring or not up for re-election in '24 into a caucus of gun grabbers to join the Democrats in a coalition of the Mostly Unwilling to Do Anything about the nation's 2nd Amendment carnage in our schools, churches, malls, summer camps, suburban neighborhoods, on our highways and byways ...


There was lots of congratulations to the brave conservatives from centrist Donks.  Stace weighed in heavily against yesterday, uncharacteristically forceful.  Kuffner cast a jaundiced eye at the MFOL rallies over the weekend, then adjusted to his typical "it's a start" posture at the end.  (News like this consistently leaves him in 'shit or go blind' mode.  He'll have another thought about it after he reads his morning paper.  He does better covering the bike trails anyway.)

However this goes in the coming days -- I'll bet on some changes to the bill that cause one or two nervous Republican senators to drop out -- count on the usual hyperbolic screeching from all involved, all the way up to the rafters of the peanut gallery.

I'll watch the sideshows.  This was one.


National media jumped on the Alright Cubed train, thinking they were clever.  That ship sailed back in 2021 as far as I care.  Let's not encourage the presidential prospects of yet another actor.  Recall that McConaghey doesn't like the "bag of snakes" that politics is.  Let's encourage that for him.

And let's not overlook the SML in waiting, our glorious Cornfed Corndog senior senator from the Great State, who prays every night, just like all of us, that Mitch McConnell passes peacefully in his sleep.  And that John Thune retires.

Moving on to a few other items on Flag Day and Taco Tuesday.


You're better off if you're in an equity-indexed fixed annuity, or maybe you're liquid enough to consider a Treasury note.  (This is not investment advice.)  Not so much if you want to buy a house.  A lot of Americans just want to be able to afford their rent, though, and Jerome Powell thinks all of this suddenly upward mobility in better-paying jobs is inflationary.  That, as you know, has been a convenient excuse for companies to raise their prices and reap windfall profits.  The invisible hand of the free market is picking your pocket again.

*Bell rings* Economics class is over.


Also more inflamed than Braddock usually is.  Maybe he's seen something that reveals intractability in the TXGOP primary voter hive mind.  I know I have.


There's an export market to other states for this brand of crazy, and some migrants got busted in a UHaul in Couer d'ALene, Idaho on Saturday.


Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club broke it first.


It could be that.  It could be Mugshot Photoshop, where someone's eyes or mouth got switched into someone else's face.  My theory is that the aliens have arrived and they're breeding with the crackers.  So I'm no longer counting on a last-minute rescue from outer space.

Okay then.  Moving on quickly.


Last: this got a lot of action for the Signal but I just didn't see much beyond Texas Paul and Meidas amplifying it.


What more is it gonna take?

I'll have some environmental news, including the TCEQ's sunset hearing next week, later.  A few more social justice pieces ...



... and the calm-me-downs.

Saturday, June 11, 2022

The Weekend Wrangle from Far Left Texas


Going light on the unpleasant news to end the week.  If you need to get your sweat on and expend some outrage at our Guns Over People politicians, there are outlets to do that across the state today.


Meanwhile Pussy Riot at the Capitol.


I'm not watching the January 6th hearings.  I saw that movie the day it came out.  I'm waiting for the awards shows criminal prosecutions of the people at the top who conspired to motivate the useful idiots, the ones currently being held to justice.  I'm more concerned about things like this.


I presume there's polling happening right now that will update us on any changing of hearts and/or minds.  Same with assault weapons, Greg Abbott's re-election chances, etc. and all that, you know.  So we're waiting.

Meanwhile we're burning up about a few other things.


I guess that's the segue to cops doing their usual thing.


Yes, we all remember the good old days when prisoner transfers went right by the book.

I did say 'burning up'.


More left for Monday on Texas conservatives' latest response to protecting children: poutrage at drag shows.  Right now I need some calm-me-downs.

First: so long to these two Texans.


Monday, June 06, 2022

The "Bad News for Baptists and Greg Abbott" Wrangle


Scattershooting (*groan*) while the Texas Progressive Alliance stands around and watches the neo-Nazis in Ukraine rebrand themselves ...
Don't believe I've ever seen Governor Fish Lips' lips so tight.  He must be under duress.


Perhaps that additional $50 million that Dave Carney was bragging about last month is out of reach now.  Speaking of $50 million:


More committees, fewer school doors, bulletproof shields for cowardly cops; anything they can think of to avoid the actual problem.  Speaking of shitty law enforcement officers:


On and on it goes, with no end in sight.  Same old shit, same old nothing.


Vote harder.  "Vote Blue".


I just don't think that's going to work out any better than it has for the past twenty-something years.


Consider the definition of insanity.  Then consider doing something besides what you've been doing over and over again.


Just a suggestion.

When I read this my first thought was, "Hey! Maybe Shelley Kuffner has finally seen the light!"  Then I read 'her', and realized, 'nope, not yet'.


Here's a few more environmental notes.


Once again: thank you, Joe Biden.

A few social justice tweets; bad news first.


Some good news and some activist items.


Segue-ing into the soothers.

Saturday, June 04, 2022

A Really Lousy Week Wrangle


It's too late for me to catch up on all the atrocities that went down since the last non-toon post, but like our pathetic Democrats in Washington and Austin trying to pass some gun safety legislation -- or anything approaching that -- I'll give it a go anyway.


As you know, Beto did his best to capitalize on all of these blunders.  The blue partisans and the media got honked up about it, but some of us saw it for what it was.


Then there was the NRA convention here in H-Town, which was filled with its own theatrics.  Inside and out.


If I blog any more about this topic at this length it'll be about the cops and their failures, coverups, lies, and whatever other corruption gets uncovered in the days to come.


Be reminded that absofuckinglutely nothing will be done to stop the next tragedy.




There were some other bad things that happened while I was away.  You probably noticed.


I would like to think that after he leaves Congress early next year, we will have heard the last of Louie.  But I doubt it.


Cuellar has survived because of the assistance provided by Republicans Nancy Pelosi, James Cyburn, Steny Hoyer, and Joe Biden.


But there were also some good things.  And some of those involved Texas Democrats.


This is an embarrassing defeat for Matt Angle, who had taken to calling Jasmine "Crypto Crockett" in his slimeball attempts to wedge his chosen Blue Dog into this seat.  Crockett isn't even all that progressive; nobody's talking about welcoming her to The Squad's cast of pretenders.  She may not be as shitlibby as Colin Allred or Lizzie Fletcher; we'll have to wait and see.


A tough road still ahead for Zapata against Chip Roy.  She's made all the right moves and the winds seem to be prevailing.  She's one of the very few I would say: help if you can.


That's enough for now.  More on Monday.  A couple of soothers: