Showing posts sorted by date for query voting machines. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query voting machines. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Sunday, October 13, 2024

A Mockery of Democracy Funnies

"It would be a pity to believe that defeating Donald Trump goes far enough to defend democracy."
-- Ted Rall
The toon below neatly summarizes the anxious dilemma some "progressives" are going through now that the DNC and assorted henchpeople (beginning with AOC, continuing with Angela Rye, and this past week Mehdi Hassan, Thom Hartmann, and culminating with Jaime Harrison himself) are elevating in order to NOT have to declare Israel an apartheid state or to cease funding the genocide of Palestinians and now Lebanese.
This is different than trotting out the Drone Assassin in Chief Barack Obama to scold Black men and mock their masculinity about their lack of enthusiasm for voting for Kamala. That 'Joy' vibe appears to have completely run its course and I suppose they realize all they have is Fear.


I would have liked this next toon better had the artist, Emad Hajjaj, included a seventh candle holder in the fish's tail to symbolize a menorah and the appalling chutzpah of the Israeli government's relentless Holocaust recreation during the High Holy Days. Grace to him for not inciting the psychopathic Zionists any further.
Yes, Trump is a fascist but nobody voting for him seems to be bothered about it. The billionaires propping him up certainly don't.

So yes, our duopoly has reduced us to this. But it doesn't have to be that way. If you're not ready to give up on change at the ballot box, you have some options.


But time is running out.


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Monday, March 07, 2022

'Help Wanted with Harris County elections' Wrangle


Top position soon available.  Inquiries to County Judge Lina Hidalgo.


In the Democratic race for the seat to represent parts of downtown and northeast Houston in the statehouse, incumbent state Rep. Harold V. Dutton Jr. leads challenger Candis Houston by 136 votes, 50.8% to 49.2%.

And the race to determine the Democratic candidate for attorney general of Texas could also be impacted. Rochelle Garza, a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer from Brownsville, led a crowded primary field and is already locked into the runoff election, but her Democratic opponent could hinge on the Harris County tally.

Former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski leads civil rights attorney Lee Merritt by 1,418 votes overall.

Isabel Longoria's fate is sealed, but the forensic autopsy of all of the Election Night snafus could reveal that the county's $54 million investment in new black box vote machines from Hart InterCivic has been an unforced error.  And though commissioners court approved the purchase, it will be Hidalgo that faces the music in November.

There's mistakes, there's incompetence, and then there's fraud, and when it comes to Ken Paxton, that means it's just another Monday.


The only thing I could possibly say to the evangelical Christians who keep voting for him is that even their God's patience has limits.  How many times would you expect Paxton to be forgiven for his sins?  Every time?

Wise up, conservatives.  You're not owning anybody but yourselves with this charlatan.

Michelle Davis has a comprehensive listing of every Democrat and Republican in a statewide or statehouse runoff.  Gus Bova at the Texas Observer writes about the shifting political sands in the RGV, where Latinas both blue and red aim to replace the old guard of conservative Latinos (generally Democrats).  And KXAN summarizes the attorney general's races and previews the runoffs.



Still to come: environmental news, cops behaving badly, criminal and social justice updates, and a heaping helping of calm-me-downs.
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Friday, March 04, 2022

The Weekend Runoff Wrangle


Everybody else has posted their takes and takeaways, so if you're not tired of that yet, I'll get started with the not-trending-but-ought-to-be hashtag.


Judge Hidalgo, fresh off a convincing primary win, is going to wait for the investigation to determine precisely what the issues were and what action she should take to fix them.  The haste with which she decides will probably be determined by the amount of screeching from her runoff-bound Republican challengers.  So thirty days, maybe 60 or 75 (when her fall opponent is chosen) or soon thereafter, because the caterwauling will certainly increase in volume then.  Longoria is heavy baggage and getting heavier every day, and the judge doesn't need that.

Besides her more obvious problems, the elections admin has a tin ear for PR.


Anyone working in the central counting station who is urinating blood has a greater health concern than the stress caused by 'voter errors with new machines', and needs to be at the doctor's office stat.

Let me post this in Longoria's defense.


Absolutely correct.  The days of election returns being mostly in for reporting on the 10 p.m. local news are long gone.  Accuracy over speed is the better choice.  If we wanted the most secure elections possible, then hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots would be what we ought to do.  And everyone sitting around eating cold, shitty, unhealthy food and hitting 'refresh' on the SoS website, and the counties', could find something better to do with their life.

Mrs. Diddie and I had a wonderful, fun, Mardi Gras dinner with lots of booze.  We wore masks and toasted our table guests, thanking them for not being those people who kept checking their phones for election results, or the State of the Union, or whether World War Three was about to be launched. (Everywhere else, as they say, it was just another Tuesday; in New Orleans, it was Phat.  And unlike the Catholics I didn't have to bother getting up early to get ashes on Wednesday, and I'm not giving up anything for Lent.  Religion can be such a downer.)

Conflicting takes on turnout, but the almost-final analysis says it was ahead of 2018 -- the proper comparison -- with the GOP up and the Dems down.  Yes, the SB1 suppression effects were felt everywhere but nowhere greater than the mail ballots.


Captain Obvious with two weak takes.  On to a few results:


Harris County DA Kim Ogg -- and her minions down the Democratic judicial ballot -- are Republicans in camo.  Undervote accordingly in the fall.  Houston DSA struck out twice, and I'm truly sorry about that.  I don't know if they're falling in the Donkey line for the runoffs or in the fall, but the Texas Greens could sure use their help if they don't (or don't want to).  Sure, there's Greg Casar and Jessica Cisneros and Claudia Zapata and a few others, but the path to social progress in the Texas Democratic Party leads to the cemetery, and the sooner the younger generation understands that, the better off we all will be.

A personal appeal:  Please.  For the love of whatever higher power you do or do not believe in, don't waste 45 years of your life trying to change the Dems from within like I did.  There just isn't that much time left for starters, and the fact is they don't want to change, and they certainly don't want you trying to change them.  Let them fail.

The most competitive US House race in Texas this year could come in the 15th, a South Texas district that stretches from towns east of San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley. Republican Monica De La Cruz, who came within 3 percentage points of defeating Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in 2020, (won) the Republican nomination ... Democrats will choose her opponent on May 24 in a runoff between Ruben Ramirez, an attorney and Afghanistan war veteran, and Michelle Vallejo, a progressive favorite.

More of a Warren progressive than a Bernie one.  The 15th is probably flipping blue to red in November no matter who, which is why incumbent Vicente Gonzales is running in the 34th.


I'm with her.  I'll have more on the Dems later, but probably next week, and also some Tweets about the Republican clowns, the cops behaving badly as usual, the environment, and some social justice updates, one of those possible before the Funnies on Sunday.
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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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Thursday, September 16, 2021

The Calm After (Nicholas) and Before (87-3) the Storm Wrangle From Far Left Texas


Past storms first.


“10-20 inches of rainfall came offshore”.  “A track even 40 or 50 miles inland would have set up those heaviest rains directly across the Houston metro area”.  *shudder*

An Ike Dike isn't going to stop the wind, which causes the power outages.  Louisiana is still suffering from those two weeks after Ida.

Imagine it’s 90 degrees outside, your wall-to-wall carpet is fully soaked in flood water and it’s starting to mold. Your power is out so you have no air conditioning, not even a fan, and your phone has been dead for days. Everything in your fridge is rotten, but the grocery store doesn’t have power so they’re cash only, but you don’t have any cash. You don’t have a car, so your options are to keep your family inside the house, breathing in spores, or stay outside in flooded streets and unlivable heat.

This is the basic state of existence for millions of people in Louisiana after Hurricane Ida tore through the Gulf Coast. Sadly, the misery and desperation was not contained. 1,300 miles away, 44 people died from the very same storm as it pummeled New York and New Jersey.

Of the 14 deaths attributable to Ida, nine are estimated to have been caused by electricity outage-related heat exhaustion.  Yeah, we got lucky here in Texas, if you want to call it that.


Though this report seems hyperbolic after reading Centerpoint Energy's account on power restoration from last night.


We can all remember things being worse.


We'd just rather not relive them for a barely-Cat 1 storm.

Let me catch up on the latest regarding the court battles getting under way on the womens' rights law and the voting rights law.


Democrats are encouraged by the most recent development in Washington; the Freedom to Vote Act revises the For The People Act just enough to get President Manchin on board.


And that's my segue to the redistricting battle gearing up for the start of next week's special session of the Texas Lege.


This piece from Slate provides a good summary of the strategy of the TXGOP regarding voting rights, womens' rights, and redistricting.


Here's a bit of the latest in election news.


Until the Donks get a gubernatorial candidate that suits the establishment, this is the most important race on the ballot.  And with the latest entry in the GOP primary, the Repubes are publicly acknowledging it; getting rid of Ken Paxton themselves makes all of the reasons for replacing him go away for the Blues.  And they have the usual headwinds, plus a few new ones.  For one example:


Dems still see hopeful signs that they can turn back the red tide.


A local update: Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has had a bumpy ride of late.  She was forced to cave on that contract to Felicity Pereyra, the Democratic consultant I used to know well who almost hit the big time before the commissioners made a stink about it.  The Chron's op-ed board piled on.  (Another story I don't recall reading on Off the Kuff.  Maybe I just missed it.)  Now this.


Hidalgo has a Green challenger named Joe McElligott, who's run for various offices a few times before.  Flies mostly under the radar.


I don't really want to register a protest vote against Hidalgo next year, but I'm still bothered by her -- and her team's -- ignoring my repeated questions about the county's new voting machines back in March.  So I'd like to see more and better out of both Hidalgo and McElligott before choosing between them.  Moving on to criminal and social justice headlines ...


They were met by armed counter-protesters, a new wrinkle of the state's relaxed gun laws.


It seems like good news that Miami has sniffed out Art Acevedo early.


And to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month, LareDOS reports that Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) has a full offering of engaging lectures, presentations, and activities.
The month-long celebration will launch with a traditional El Grito, Thursday, Sept. 16, from 7-9 p.m. in the Student Center Green at an event organized by the student organization Campus Activities Board.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

'Election Integrity' extends to Judge Hidalgo, too

Not just the Republicans at the Lege, mind you.



We're not speaking of voter suppression today, but actual election integrity, a problem that many people think the new voting machines purchased by the Harris County commissioners have solved.  I don't think so, Judge Lina Hidalgo.


What were those concerns again?


That's a thirteen-count thread -- here's the unroll -- and it's pretty alarming.  Note in the replies there the experts who express misgivings, and the local activist who lobbied Commissioners Court in vain prior to the county's $54 million buy.  I asked Brad Friedman of BradBlog to weigh in; he is, to my experience, one of the nation's pre-eminent experts in the field of what we used to call black box voting, a topic he's covered -- and one detailed by many others -- for 20 years.


Uh oh. What about local authority Dan Wallach, of Rice University?  He's expressed no concerns that I can find about the Hart InterCivic Verity Duo, this new tech from the same vendor which supplied our old e-Slates with the scrolling wheel.  Wallach testified last week (.pdf) before the Texas Senate's State Affairs committee about election security; he writes at Medium, his Twitter page contains more geeks talking voting tech, and he's been published frequently, including by Zach Despart of the Houston Chronicle in October of last year about this topic.

My interpretation of his recent remarks is: "these latest machines are better than what Harris County had before, but that's not saying much". (Professor Wallach, if you read this and I have you mistaken, please feel free to correct me.)

Of course if Judge Hidalgo, or Elections Aministrator Isabel Longoria, or whoever monitors the Twitter accounts of Harris Votes or Hart InterCivic had wanted to respond to my concerns, they could have done so already.  Maybe they're all too busy to do so.  Maybe they have their Twitter notifications turned off.  Maybe I'm just a lowly blogger who isn't worthy of a response.  Maybe they didn't know about these issues (that doesn't fly for Hart); maybe they just don't give a shit.  We don't know, because nobody has said anything.

Somehow I expected more from a public servant whom I have voted for, donated to, and praised on these pages as a "rising star in the Democratic Party".

At any rate, if you want to take a look at how the new voting machines work, Judge Hidalgo and John Coby have a preview.


As for me, I'm voting by mail.  With an actual hand-marked paper ballot.
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Friday, March 26, 2021

Friday Lone Star Leftist Roundup

-- Texas Democrats are playing defense at the Lege on voting rights, abortion rights, and trans rights; Texas Republicans are on offense in the Valley on ... well, pretty much everything.


Cosplay is fun, won't get the job done.


I am shocked, shockedIsayshocked, that the Pachys are outworking the Donkeys.  Twenty twenty-two is going to be a red wave of epic proportions, and Gilberto Hinojosa will never see it coming.  In the meantime, Lillie Schechter -- chair of the Harris County Democrats -- will be hosting a fundraiser spotlighting Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton for the tenth time.  Not even the Mithoffs have enough money to buy her a clue.

If only there were a political party that was actually for the people ...

Sidebar: To be serious, Greg Abbott has a ridiculous amount of stamina for a guy who has been in a wheelchair for nearly 37 years.  He also keeps himself in remarkably good condition; virtually all of the wheelchair users I know IRL carry some extra weight around the midsection; Abbott does not.  We've seen the campaign videos of his night-time workouts rolling up the ramps of parking garages in Austin, but he also must exercise a lot of discipline in his calorie intake to stay as slim as he is.

See?  I'm capable of the occasional compliment.  His commitment to physical health is commendable, but it doesn't change the fact that he is a self-loathing sociopath.  And mark "Hell No, Beto" as next year's campaign slogan.

-- Abbott's trying to boost the state's economy just in time to get re-elected, but ripping everybody's mask off has convention planners around the country saying, "thanks, but no thanks" to Austin.


If the Guvnah loses, it will only be in the GOP primary.  TexDems should focus on lower-hanging fruit, and to my thinking that would be Ken Paxton, who is simply another one of those cops who thinks he's above the law.  Either Joe Jaworski or Lee Merritt are more than capable enough to eject him.

-- Briscoe Cain, "parliamentary guru", had a super bad day at his bill hearing yesterday.  Thanks to RG Ratcliffe for pointing it out.


I thought you had to be at least 15 years old to run for the statehouse.


-- Winter Storm Uri has officially killed more Texans than Hurricane Harvey.  Damn those evil Russians.  Socratic Gadfly also blogged about the Texas Freeze kabuki theater under the Dome.

-- Harris County's new voting machines have a paper trail!  Too bad they're still shit.


I had lots more for this Roundup but my disgust in documenting the atrocities has again overwhelmed my desire to do so.  Breaking it off here to head into what will hopefully be another glorious weekend of college basketball, spring training baseball, all-I-can-eat crawfish and everything else that makes spring in Houston the best time of the year.

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Monday, October 05, 2020

More Wrangling from Far Left Texas


Socratic Gadfly has semi-regularly split off coronavirus news from other items in his version of the weekly Texas Progressives Roundup.  So with a very long first edition posted earlier today, I did the same with my collation of COVID stories, as well as police abuse/reform and other social justice Tweets and news.

Before we get to those ... today is #WorldTeachersDay, and they deserve our everlasting gratitude for all that they do and all that they endure.


And that's my segue.

Gadfly tackled COVID political tribalism coming from multiple sides and called ALL of it out.


Before moving to Black Lives Matter and other racial justice items, here's a few Indigenous stories that made news last week.


And unfortunately I have saved the worst for next-to-last.


Grits for Breakfast is up to part three in his review of Sylvester Turner's policing task force proposals, reminding us that meaningful police reform is far too long a haul.  Alice Embree at The Rag Blog writes about the racist and sexist roots of the Electoral College.  And with respect to "unrest", there's plenty of it making the rounds already.


So as I like to do, here's some Tweets that gave me a little happiness this past week and I pass them on to you in hopes that they bring you the same.

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