Monday, December 06, 2021

The Monday Morning Wrangle from Far Left Texas


Opening with the latest in state political news as the filing deadline for the March primaries and the November general election approaches.


O'Rourke is also in Beaumont this Thursday.


Hinojosa appears to be in a spirited tussle for his job with Col. Kim Olson.  She has released a long list of endorsements (that are not slouches).  As an ex-Democrat, I don't care which of these two wins, but the dynamics -- Olson's white women and rural and conservaDems versus Hinojosa's incumbent, establishment, South Texas and Latin@ bloc -- will be interesting to observe.  And the race could be further scrambled from an identity politics POV if Carroll Robinson throws his hat in.

The Texas Signal talked to state Rep. Michelle Beckley about her candidacy for lieutenant governor, and to Jay Kleberg on his bid for land commissioner.  Kuff did a couple more filing updates.


Bears watching, especially if Abbott calls the TXGOP's heavily-requested fourth special session.  And Comptroller (pronounced 'controller') Glenn Hegar finally managed to get some bad publicity.


The Texas Observer also reported on this story earlier in the fall.  Last: a very good thread here about the influence of Steven Hotze on Houston elections, especially if you're voting in the school board runoffs taking place right now.


While we wait for the Supreme Court to strike down a woman's right to choose, here's some reading on that topic.


COVID next.


Your Local Epidemiologist is on top of the omicron situation.  Socratic Gadfly dove back into COVID with his post on the gain of function issues, along with Fauci and NIAID's apparent failure to monitor Peter Daszag.  And with medical news apart from the novel coronavirus, Texas 2036 warned that the shortage of doctors in the state is getting worse.  (Hey, remember when tort "reform" was supposed to fix that?)  Writing in the San Antonio Report, Doctors Junda Woo and Barbara Taylor urge Alamo City leaders to use the tools at its disposal to end HIV there.  And condolences poured in for Danny Jensen of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, who passed away over the weekend.

Criminal and social justice news:


How about some redistricting updates?


And the latest from your local library and schoolhouse.


For Texas Monthly, Ashley Hope PΓ©rez tells what happened when a school district banned her book.


A few items about climate and the environment.


Stephen Eisenman at Counterpunch profiled the history and the dilemma of Port Arthur, and spoke to local activist Hilton Kelley there.


I'll take that as my segue to the soothers.

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