Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Taco Tuesday Wrangle from Far Left Texas

Here in H-Town, we'll also be celebrating World Taco Day tomorrow.


Efforting today to get everything I can into two posts; this early edition and another later today tomorrow morning.  *heavy sigh*  Opening with some of the less-than-usual subjects to clear out my Texas Republicans Behaving Badly file.



This toon commemorates the bastardizing of Toby Keith's "Beer for my Horses" by Rep. Chip Roy, who tried to normalize lynching as an excuse for the way AAPI Americans have been treated since the pandemic began ... a story about two weeks old.  Roy has had almost as much trouble with 'old sayings in Texas' as did GW Bush.  Stupid is as stupid does.


If you haven't read this yet, please do so.

About a week after the March 10th order went into effect, I was working a closing shift with two other young women. A man came in with a mask on but pulled it down to order. My 18-year-old coworker asked him nicely to keep his mask up. He pulled the mask down farther, and she asked him again. He went off the rails: "I am a 40-year-old man, I can scratch my nose if I want to. Give me your manager's phone number. I don't think he's going to be impressed with your attitude. I was going to give a tip to you and your friends, but your attitude just lost it." And on and on until he finally left.

My co-workers and I were shaken. If we had asked him to leave, he might have gotten more agitated. If my other co-worker or I had stepped in, he might have seen it as a threat and the situation might have escalated. We had heard about violent, even fatal attacks on customer service workers who were trying to enforce mask policies. Despite all the signage on our doors and our manager's policy to not serve those without masks, we still had to sweetly listen while this man berated a young woman less than half his age who is working to pay her way through college. We felt completely helpless.

While leaving the decision up to businesses and "individuals" sounds like a very Texan way to handle a global health crisis, it's not protecting Texans.

Thanks again, Greg Abbott.

Here's a few legislative updates to yesterday posted in non-chronological order.


HB17 is a bad bill, according to Luke Metzger at Environment Texas, who says it makes the state less secure from electrical blackouts, like what happened with Winter Storm Uri.  Metzger also has a list of the best and worst bills his organization is supporting. (More eco-news in the next Wrangle.)


There's my segue to the aggregation of BLM, social justice, and 'cops behaving badly' stories.  This rally, below, was yesterday.


Darius Tarver.  Israel Iglesias.  Botham Jean.  Javier Ambler.  And Mike Ramos.  Say their names.  As you watch the trial of Derek Chauvin this week, keep in mind that these are not isolated cases.  Police killing POC for minor offenses, or no offense at all -- and not killing extremist white men who've slain multiple people, often POC, with guns -- is an American epidemic.  It will require the full urgency of white men and women to make it stop.

Environmental news and a few of the more uplifting stories, including what I intend to be a regular feature, art and the arts, will be in this afternoon/evening tomorrow's Wrangle.  Closing here with some Texans we say goodbye to.


And the passing of Don Bankston, husband of "Juanita Jean", also an associate judge and the former Fort Bend County Democratic party chairman, is a loss that reverberates throughout southeast Texas politics.  My most sincere condolences to Susan, their sons, and her extended family.
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