Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Filling the Filings Wrangle (with updates)


I'm so old I remember when Warren G. Harding (not the former president) got elected state treasurer, and Gene Kelly (not the deceased dancer, as Barbara Radnofsky will attest) almost -- well, not quite -- got elected US Senator.


Anything that pisses Dave Carney off is worth a few laughs.  Update: Such as the Bum Steer of the Year award.


The downside is that serious candidates will again be forced to beg for attention from the state's political reporters while they chase the 'not that Rick Perry' story.  As long as you can accept that we live in an oligarchy on the days when it isn't a plutocracy, you won't be too disillusioned.  More blunt: Just stop with the 'democracy' shit already.


Not fond of but not surprised by Collier's overuse of the royal 'we' in his statement here.  He really ought to be called a 'perennial' -- or 'frequent' -- candidate in that dismissive tone that some use.


We'll wait and see re: "progressive".  Far too much co-opting of the word by Democrats, certainly Texas Democrats.  I question whether Latinas in South Texas not named Jessica Cisneros are breaking the mold, but I'll keep an open mind.


An update to TX-07:


On Tuesday, Javed acknowledged he was being asked to get out of the race but said he was determined to stay in it. Several hours later, Javed declared he had pulled out, too, with no further explanation.

And one additional morning-after reaction.


Really hoping the Democrats in John Whitmire's Senate district see fit to send him off to his previously-announced '23 H-Town mayoral campaign.


The Dean is going to have to put a lot of lipstick on his pig if he loses his last run for re-election to Austin.  And I will be here for it.

Truth to tell, however, there are bigger wads holding office that need to be ejected next year.  Let's consider the professional evaluations of Beto's latest tactic.


Seems like it might be effective.


Someone might fact-check Ms. Gilberg's claim, but regardless, enough evidence stands up to point out the governor's hypocrisy on defunding the police, especially in Austin.  Watch to see if this gains traction among LEOs.


I teased Michelle good-naturedly about her header and she took it in stride.  Her blog is outstanding from a civil rights perspective.  A little too heavy on the blue shilling for me, but that's because I'm Green now.  Delilah Barrios gets my support, money and vote for Texas governor.


One last filing update, intersecting with the criminal and social justice news (which follows).


... Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced grand jury indictments of three local Democrats -- Richard Bonton, Natasha Demming and Damien Jones -- connected to two election fraud schemes tied to local Texas House of Representatives races in House Districts 142 and 132.

You can read on at the link.


Nothing particularly new here; an aggregate of stories that have been ignored by the Blue crew for reasons that are patently obvious.

Updates from Texas Monthly's Mike Snyder and the Chron's Matt Schwartz.


Just plain weird.  Update:


The San Antonio Current is on top of one Alamo City school district's willingness to pull library books off the shelf.


The latest in climate.


Bloomberg Quint reported on two mysterious plumes of methane appearing on satellite above some East Texas oil and gas fields.  Update: ExxonMobil says it will use satellites to monitor the Permian Basin for methane leaks.  On the bright side, Environment Texas has a list of the top ten wins for the state's ecology this year, and the AP recounts the many coal-fired plants closing after the implementation of new federal wastewater guidelines.

Power producers that say they will shutter coal-fired units as a result of the new rule include Atlanta-based Southern Co. and Houston-based NRG. Southern, which operates electric utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, said it will shutter two-thirds of its coal fleet, including units at the nation’s two largest coal-fired power plants, Scherer and Bowen, both in Georgia. NRG said it plans to stop burning coal at its domestic plants outside Texas, and install new pollution controls at its two Texas plants.


That's enough for today.  Closing with one soother.

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)