Monday, September 04, 2017

The Labor Day Wrangle

Many Texans aren't taking today off from hard work, as they have homes to muck and gut and lives to rebuild.  The Texas Progressive Alliance has a soft spot in its heart for everyone up and down the coast who can't afford to sleep late this morning, enjoy a barbecue this afternoon, and certainly won't have time to relax at the beach this Labor Day.


Here's the lefty blog post and news roundup.

As Trump prepares to end DACA (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act), Dos Centavos believes that DREAM (the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) will continue to be a political football in the 2018 -- and possibly 2020 -- elections.


As reported in the Houston Chronicle, 31-year-old DACA recipient Alonso Guillen of Lufkin drowned while rescuing others in Cypress Creek near Spring, Texas.  Guillen's death brings the toll from Harvey to nearly 60.

The Space City's homeless population just shrugged off Harvey, noted Houston Matters.

After getting his 91-year-old mother out of the calamity that Harvey left behind in Beaumont, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs collected some observations about the looming environmental catastrophes threatening the Texas Gulf coast.

SocraticGadfly, from up in North Texas, offers his take on both the politics behind Harvey and pseudoskeptics, including an alleged actual skeptic in Houston, and everything else behind the Arkema chemical plant explosions.

Southeast Texas soil, air, and water are awash in toxic chemicals thanks to deregulation by Trump and Abbott.  Trump's gutting of the EPA ensures that the destruction and suffering will have the maximum effect. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wishes each of them could experience all of the suffering they are causing themselves.

'Harvey' translates easily in any language -- Farsi, Arabic, Vietnamese.  The Houston Press heard translators who arrived at Houston shelters to help the city's diverse population of evacuees cope with the flood.

The Lewisville Texan Journal saw the gas panic that hit the DFW area, and the Texas Standard observed that the rush to the pumps only exacerbated fuel shortages.

DBC Green Blog enjoyed clear skies at the end of last week, as well as the veritable deluge of Harvey think pieces.

Neil at All People Have Value said you don't have to be "Houston Strong" regarding Hurricane Harvey if you don't want to be.  Do what you need to do to move forward.  APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Be it climate change or nuclear annihilation or a rogue asteroid, Steve Rossignol at The Rag Blog would really like to know how close we are to doomsday.

Harry Hamid posted a (grateful for having been uneventful) Hurricane Harvey story.

Off the Kuff celebrated the federal court ruling that halted enforcement of the "sanctuary cities" ban before it went into effect.

Millard Fillmore's Bathtub reminds us to fly the US flag today to honor those who lost their lives so that we could enjoy Labor Day.

Small U.S. flag flies at the grave of John Morris, the first worker killed in the battle 
outside of the Homestead Works Steel Mill in 1892. Photo by Alex Popichak / 90.5 WESA

And jobsanger says that all workers should be thankful for the contributions of labor unions.