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Monday, November 22, 2021

Remembering JFK Wrangle


On the 58th year marking the loss of the nation's 35th president, let's tip our hats in the general direction of conspiracy theorists everywhere for altering the minds of Americans for the worse.


Follow both threads for historical -- and entertaining -- reading.  Oliver Stone wants the assassination history's archives opened (they were supposed to be last year).


Okay then; on to the present.  A new goobernatorial poll dropped yesterday.


I don't think Wooderson is going to make a go of it, but I said the same about Beto, so there you go.  Speaking of repeating myself, it's 2006 all over again if he does.  You decide if McConaghey will be playing Kinky or Grandma.  This post will be long enough without opining more about this race today, so I'll save most of the rest for later.


Same old same old.  Another point, via Hector Mendez:

“There is no real long-term investment in cultivating generations of voters because it takes time and money,” Navarro said. “It isn’t enough to just simply register voters and expect them to vote Democrat.”

This is the reason why polling separates registered voters from likely voters.  All of this makes Kuffner's parlor musing a running joke.  It's also why one of the country's A+ pollsters wants to (listen) get out (read) of the game/charade.

Of course that would make people like political consultants mostly obsolete, and if we could do that, Gawd forbid, we might even be able to ban corporate money in elections.  Perish the thought.  Maybe we could start by outlawing Congress critters from trading in the stock market.  Is that too much also?

Alas, we won't have EBJ to kick around any more.  Her announcement on Saturday, with "Re-Elect" in the graphic, was a head fake.


Read down Svitek's other thread for a few of the would-be replacements.  He fails to mention the progressive Democrat who's been in the race for several months, Jessica Mason.  Typical.

The criminal and social justice headlines, after a weekend of national news that was as tragic as one could imagine.


Invoking budget authority when the Lege is not in session, Greg Abbott et. al. took $4 million allocated to the state's prisons and gave it to the Texas secretary of state for county "election integrity" audits, as mandated by state law (SB1).  Trump has been whining about an audit of 2020, and belittled the 4-county audit which the SoS announced on September 23 as 'weak.'


Still with me?  Thank you.  Let's do some environmental news.


I've seen that look on Mayor Sylvester Turner's face before.  It's his "Gosh that's terrible, I wish there was something I could do" face.


It's a good thing that Beto and others plan on running next year on keeping the lights on.  That's an issue they can win on, especially if there's another hard freeze.


More politics in the next Wrangle, before Turkey Day.  The soothers:

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Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The #TakeAHikeDay Wrangle from Far Left Texas


While Beto's every twitch and utterance continues to be scrutinized and fawned over by the corporate media gaggle following him everywhere, I'll wait until the kerfuffle subsides before addressing the marquee matchup next year.  I would like to give one of the consistently under-reported candidates some attention.


Aside to Governor Fish Lips: Get your socialists straight, dumbass.


And she's right; the Texas Greens do have a tall task ahead.


So pitch in, and help out Delilah if you can.

On to a few more noteworthy filings of late:


The news here is that a woman and an actual Democrat entered the race for lieutenant governor, but the TexTrib settled on describing Beckley as "one of the most liberal members" of the statehouse.  Many Texas Democrats seem to dislike her, if Twitter comments are any barometer.  This may say something about Beckley but probably says more about rando TexDonks who Tweet, as well as the TexTrib, who in announcing GOP bids for office do not lead off with "one of the most conservative members" ... Mark Jones' reviews notwithstanding.  Even poor Beckley called herself a 'moderate' in her announcement.  Meanwhile the titular head of the Texas Not-So-Progressive Caucus shrugged and semi-endorsed Mike Collier, the other former Republican already running.  I'd laugh if any of this marginalization, unconscious or otherwise, was funny any longer.  It isn't.


Minjarez joins former state district judge Peter Sakai in the race.  In reporting that news, TXElects listed all of the state representatives and senators who are retiring or running for another slot.  The list was the best I had seen but is already out of date with Beckley's announcement, the departure of southeast Texas Rep. Joe Deshotel, and this:


You can see why following this just on Twitter is a job for someone who gets paid a lot to do so.  I'm a pensioner, so I'm moving on ... to lesser but still notable developments.


Aren't we all.


A couple of labor items:


With Thanksgiving a week away, Kroger shouldn't be fucking around with the help, because they are very likely to find out what happens when they do.  (And the truth is they have been, for a very long time.)  If you needed a reason to start shopping at HEB, please take this one.


And don't buy any gas from ExxonMobil, either.

Here's the criminal and social justice news.


I sure wish former cops wouldn't cover for cops.


Ed Gonzalez can Tweet all the daily platitudes and inspirational quotations he likes.  When he becomes Sheriff Joe's top border cop, nothing is going to fundamentally change.  And everybody knows it.

How about some good news?


And a few more soothers.

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Wednesday, June 02, 2021

The king is dead. Long live the king

Mood.


Indeed, Alexa Ura tweets for all of us, and about the entire legislative session now finally over.  It was not a slog or a grind, it was a death march.  And like all Trails of Tears, the trauma continues long after they end.


Biden's passed the buck to VP Harris, who's already trying to escape the last quagmire he dumped in her lap (the border crisis).  And as long as Joe Manchin is king of the Senate, how much do you think is going to happen?  Really, we can have voting rights or the filibuster, and the status quo means 59-41 is still a losing score for Senate Democrats.

Good times.

Meanwhile Supreme Commander Abbott will strike out the pay of those who labored through this 140-day nightmare ...


... and if you thought he had finished off all his Haterade, you had better think again.


After securing Trump's endorsement in his 2022 re-election bid -- neutering Sid Miller and the rest of the Super Goon Squad -- Governor Helen Wheels is going on offense again, changing the subject from his fails at the Lege.


His chances of sweeping back into the Governor's Mansion for another four years just increased dramatically.  More politics in the next post.


Progress Texas posted their ten best and worst moments, but stuck to their usual "Democrats good, Republicans bad" script.  A fresh exception was the dishonorable mentions of Sen. Ed Lucio and Rep. Harold Dutton.  But there were plenty more bad Donkeys in this session, and some of them were your favorites.


(In a Svitek update, Minarez and Bernal apparently intended to vote against, and had that corrected.)


Accurate.  They killed some decent bills along with the bad, and SB7 will be brought back from the dead in a special.


Robert Rivard at the San Antonio Report had his fill of the 87th and the bizarre priorities of the state's leaders.  Reform Austin condemned the lack of action on fixing the power grid.  Jessica Montoya Coggins, blogging for the Texas Signal, offered some advice about accessing an abortion now that SB8 passed.  And Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast abandoned bipartisanship and called it what it is: fascism.

Harvey Kronberg also came up from the bipartisan ether.


So with a lot more to blog, let me post some of the other items, good and sad.


On a much-needed lighter note, The Great God Pan Is Dead introduces you to Houston's notorious "Darth Vader House", which is now on sale for the low, low price of $4.3 million.

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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.

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Thursday, September 12, 2019

The Weekly Twenty Twenty Update: H-Town Fight Night


There will be no cursing, Beto.



I won't be on the scene this evening (despite receiving a very special invitation, details of which I shouldn't disclose) due to lingering balance and audio difficulties.  I also turned down multiple watch party invitations.  So I'm viewing at home, just like you.  And live-Tweeting, to your right; with a morning-after synopsis tomorrow.


Everybody read last week?  I'm trying not to laugh any more at this kind of thing.  Here's an update to what I posted there:


The Dementia Train is finally showing signs of slowing down.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead in the Democratic primary has been cut in half, according to a new poll out Wednesday, and while Biden still maintains his grip on front-runner status, the CNN poll shows Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders incrementally creeping up on him.

The CNN poll shows a drop of 5 percentage points in support for Biden in the past three weeks, to 24 percent from 29 percent. The national survey of Democratic primary voters also saw Warren jump Sanders for second place, though the two are still within the margin of sampling error at 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Texas Democrats are, as usual, a little slow on the uptake.


And this one's for that jackass at the beauty shop.


There are lots of reasons for not voting for WAR-ren piling up; it's just that EJ Bob doesn't have the right idea about what they are.



So with Biden and Warren onstage together for the first time, there ought to be some friction.

Over this past weekend in New Hampshire, all of the major candidates -- including Biden and Warren -- were in the state for its Democratic Party's annual convention. Which is where, from the stage and with thousands of loyal Democrats cheering her every word, Warren said this:

"There is a lot at stake, and people are scared. But we can't choose a candidate we don't believe in because we're scared."

If you think a) that line was accidental or b) it wasn't aimed directly at Biden's electability argument, there's a very hot video company named Blockbuster I'd like to sell you.

[...]

But Biden has prepared a counterargument.

"I expect you'll see Biden echo an important point he made during last week's climate forum: We need more than plans, we need a president who can deliver progress on the most pressing issues facing Americans -- which Joe Biden has proven he can throughout his career," a Biden adviser told CNN earlier this week.

Plans are not enough is, again, a very purposeful shot at Warren -- even though her name wasn't invoked by the adviser -- who has premised her entire candidacy on the idea that she has a detailed plan for anything and everything.

Biden's team sees the contrast between his years of fighting and winning political battles and Warren's years spent in academia and her relative lack of legislative accomplishments during her seven years in the Senate.

One of these two candidates has done things and one has talked about what she would do, goes the Biden argument.

*yawn* Sometimes Cillizza is so dense.

One of these two candidates has his right foot in the grave and his left foot on a banana peel, and the other has stolen all her plans from Bernie and watered them down with capitalism.

The sooner Biden exits, the sooner Democrats can have the real debate.

So here's where I might have posted a bunch of excerpts and Tweet embeds about Bernie being ignored or dissed by corporate media, as per usual.  I'll just do this one.


Okay, one more.


Okay, that's it.  Let's move on.

Now is as good a time as any to reference the Three Stooges.


More on their debate here.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R) are slated to appear in the Sept. 24 debate, while former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) has also been invited.

The debate will be held as part of Business Insider Today, a daily online news show from the publication on Facebook's video on demand service.

"President Trump was invited to participate but has not responded," Business Insider said in a press release Tuesday afternoon announcing the event.

Trump on Monday indicated he would not debate the Republicans who have announced bids to challenge him for the 2020 GOP nomination, pointing to their low polling figures and dismissing their bids as "a publicity stunt."

Business Insider said it would hold its debate at its New York City headquarters. The event from Business Insider, a company that launched in 2007, will be moderated by Insider CEO Henry Blodget, politics editor Anthony Fisher and columnist Linette Lopez.

I'll be more interested in this than whatever Bathroom Book Collector or Boot Edgex2 or Copmala or Last Chance Bob or Yank have to say tonight.

Booker and Castro, on the other hand, are my preferred choices for the Biden vote migration.  And not just here in Deep-In-The-Hearta.

Castro, who held a “Castro Country” rally Monday night in Houston, remains confident he can win his home-state primary once he proves himself in the earlier states.

“My plan is to work hard so that I can do well in Iowa, I can gain momentum and then by the time we get to Texas, it's going to be a different ballgame,” Castro told reporters after the rally. “What we see now in the polling is simple theory, because by the time we get to March 3, there's going to be a lot of changes in this race and I know I need to do well before Texas so I can win in Texas.”

[...]

 ... Cory Booker headlined the Texas Democratic Party’s yearly Johnson-Jordan Dinner a year ago in Austin. That appearance seemed to be on the mind of the Travis County chair, Dyana Limon-Mercado, as she introduced Booker last month at a small-dollar fundraiser for his campaign in Austin.

Booker, she said, had been “paying attention to Texas when a lot of other people weren’t.”

For his part, Booker pledged to be the kind of party standard bearer who works hard for down-ballot candidates, mentioning the U.S. Senate race next year in Texas. “And if I’m your nominee, I’m back down here helping to organize so that I win Texas and you win Texas,” Booker said.

I did finally figure out why Beto is polling so strongly with Latinxs: a handful of small reasons.

1)  Beto speaks Spanish fluently and Castro does not.  (To be clear, this can be a mixed bag, and the difference, as with Biden's support among African Americans, is generational.)
2)  Beto's actions, post-El Paso massacre, have been gratefully acknowledged.
3)  He's the only candidate doing this (so far).

This is a big switch from his 2018 Senate campaign against Ted Cruz, if you recall.

-- We have been reading for some time now that Beto O'Rourke's fate lies in the hands of these intractable non-voting, mostly RGV-dwelling brown voters.  But so does that of Gina Ortiz Jones, a little further up the Rio Grande along the Big Bend, and it appears she will suffer the same fate as Pete Gallegos did in SD-19's special election last month.

Here's the best thing I read about Gabbard this week.


Heading for the finish line with Mike Gravel and Howie Hawkins.

(On September 9) the Mike Gravel campaign urged supporters to back the Howie Hawkins campaign’s efforts to qualify for federal matching funds. Hawkins is running for the Green Party’s nomination for president.

Gravel had previously endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in the Democratic primary. In Gravel’s email today he also urged support for Howie Hawkins in the Green primary.

[...]

Hawkins has admired Mike Gravel since he read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record on June 29, 1971. Gravel read the papers into the record when the New York Times was enjoined from publishing them and the issue was before the US Supreme Court.

More here from David Collins, who was with Hawkins this past Monday evening here in Houston, and photos and a post from the Dallas meetup from Gadfly.  Green presidential candidates will debate later this month.

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