Monday, October 05, 2020

The Far Left Texas Wrangle



There's a lot corraled here.   In a developing item from the weekend:


Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick have responded with the predictable "raises concerns; wait for the investigation to play out" pablum.  State Rep. Sarah Davis is the first Texas Republican so far to call for Paxton's resignation.

Abbott's troubles, mostly of his own doing, also got a little worse over the weekend.


The protest dubbed “Free Texas — A Protest at the Governor’s Mansion,” is sponsored by a group calling itself “The Still-Somewhat Free Citizens of Texas.” “Tired of King Abbott’s lock down? Tired of masks and HIS control? THIS TYRANNY MUST END NOW,” reads the event flyer shared on the Texas Scorecard website.

The show is scheduled for Saturday, October 10, at 11 a.m.

Attendees will include Texas Republican Party Chair Allen West, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, Empower Texans CEO and Texas Scorecard publisher Michael Quinn Sullivan, several state representatives and state senators and others.

Might be a fun day trip.  Speaking of Sid, he makes a cameo appearance in Sacha Baron Cohen's new 'Borat' movie.


Maybe "Jesus Shot" has designs on higher office in 2022, if Paxton or Abbott are perceived as sufficiently wounded politically to catch a challenge from the Operation Jade Helm Caucus of the TXGOP.  Wouldn't that be fun to watch.

Anyway ... Abbott.


More last-minute late night hours billed for the lawyers.  Christmas in October.


Kuff has also covered the two lawsuits filed (so far).

There's a great deal more election news to report. First, in the SD30 special election, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther finished first, barely, in the jungle primary and advanced to a runoff against Gainesville state Rep. Drew Springer, in a photo finish reminiscent of the Preakness Stakes.   (Expect Luther to show up at the Abbott protest rally mentioned above.)

With this week's installment of "Republicans Behaving Badly":


Grist thinks there are six close Congressional contestss across the nation that might turn on climate change, and they believe TX-24 (Beth Van Duyne versus Candace Valenzuela) is one of them.

And that's my segue to this week's aggregation of environmental topics.


Evan Mintz is amused by a local referendum that will require public approval and flood impact studies for the construction of... sidewalks.  Save Buffalo Bayou profiles an Eagle Scout whose project two years ago to reseed a popular canoe launching spot has flourished.  A public works employee in Lake Jackson -- working on the remediation of the city's public water supply because of the presence of a brain-eating amoeba -- has tested positive for COVID.

And Ed Darrell at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub underscores the importance of voting climate, which is exactly what this blogger recommends as well.


The rest of the coronavirus-related and police reform and other social justice headlines I've collected will appear in a follow-up Wrangle later today.  I'll end this one with a fond remembrance of Lubbock's own Mac Davis.


Davis was born on Jan. 21, 1942, in Lubbock, Texas. After graduating from high school, he moved to Atlanta, where he began his music career as a member of a rock ’n’ roll band called the Zots. He later worked as a regional manager for both Vee-Jay Records and Liberty Records before getting a job at Nancy Sinatra’s company, Boots Enterprises, Inc., where he played on many of Sinatra’s recordings and got his start as a professional songwriter. His compositions were eventually recorded by Presley, Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Lou Rawls, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, B.J. Thomas and many others. What became his signature song, 1970’s “I Believe in Music,” was also recorded as the first Capitol Records single for Helen Reddy, who died the same day as Davis, Sept. 29, also at age 78.


As he sang in (I Believe in Music), "I thank God each and every day for giving me the music and the words to say." In a statement, his family confirmed that he will, per the song's closing lines, be buried in Lubbock, Texas, in blue jeans.
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