Monday, July 12, 2021

Waiting-to-Testify (*updated with Walkout) Wrangle

The lines were long, the wait lasted the entirety of Saturday and proceeded well into daylight Sunday morning ... and it was all for naught.  As expected.


Bus loads secured by Sen. Borris Miles.

A Texas House committee voted early Sunday morning to advance to the floor a GOP-backed voting bill in the Texas Legislature that includes extensive new voting restrictions, the Texas Tribune reports.

Right along party lines.



That's Sen. Bryan Hughes, far right, looking at the ceiling.  He of the egregious exaggerations.



In defending his controversial voting bill on CNN on Sunday, Texas state Sen. Bryan Hughes claimed half a dozen times that the attorney general's office had 400 open voter fraud cases.

“That's the fact,” Hughes, R-Mineola, said in an interview with CNN host Pamela Brown. “It's documented. There's no question about that.”

Yet that number is almost 10 times larger than the number of people with pending voter fraud charges in Texas, which is 43, according to data from the attorney general’s office. Only one of those pending cases stems from the 2020 election, in which more than 11 million Texans cast ballots.

Sorry, Sen. Hughes; that's not the fact.  There are more than questions about that, especially regarding your -- and Ken Paxton's -- continued insistence that this falsehood is true.


Sen. Royce West took his (graceful) shot.


You'll see and hear (I have to read with closed captions) Sen. West say '43 cases'.  The 44th occurred at the end of last week.


Greg Abbott went on Chris Wallace's Sunday morning program and chose to get, shall we say, exotic with his rationalizations.


Abbott, Paxton, Hughes, et.al. are obviously gaslighting, but Texas Democrats are trying to teach these pigs to sing by offering actual facts, truth and logic to them.  They are not going to be persuaded.  Because if it ain't in the Bible, they don't need to know it.  Exhibit A:


Back to Reality: do you think Abbott and Luis Saenz and the rest of the governor's brain trust sit around and spitball these, or does he just make them up off the French cuff?  Because I'm beginning to wonder who he/they think they're fooling.

On the other hand, I -- and everybody else -- know exactly who he's fooling.


In a survey of 446 Republican primary voters conducted between June 14-17 by Public Opinion Strategies, 77 percent of primary voters said they would vote for the Governor, while 15 percent said they would select another Republican candidate.

[...]

The poll found in a hypothetical primary race, Abbott won 69 percent of the vote, while (former RPT chair Allen) West received 13 percent and (former state Sen. Don) Huffines had 3 percent. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller also received 3 percent, but since the poll was conducted, he has decided against running for governor and will instead run for re-election.

Abbott fares better among those who consider themselves “strong” Republicans, who represent 61 percent of primary voters. He received 75 percent of the vote, while West won 11 percent, and Huffines had 3 percent. Eight percent were undecided.

All of this business, or con job if you prefer (I do) regarding the voter suppression bill is leading in one direction; a path we've been down before.


I don't think they're bluffing, Governor.

Update: And sure enough, they weren't.


Since I've run long here, I'll put the bail bill (hearings and passage out of committee also done over the weekend), summaries of the laundry list of other neo-fascist legislation, a few more election items, the spike in COVID's Delta variant cases, criminal and social justice news -- including the surge of gun-related deaths -- and whatever else I have left in posts later this week.  Also Part 2 of the environmental collation.  Soothers to close.

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Sunday, July 11, 2021

Sunday "Delta is Ready" Funnies

Which brings us to this piece of gaping idiocy, and I’m not in the habit of expressing my disapproval in quite such stark terms, but we are, after all, talking about Ben Garrison, who delights in over-the-top attacks and who has not only failed to read Don Quixote but hasn’t even grasped the concept of “tilting at windmills.”

Which failure, Derf Backderf points out and documents, he has demonstrated over and over, because, if you’re going to act the fool in public, why not repeat your folly?

And Garrison hilariously follows up: "When a Quixotic Analogy is Wrong but Still Right".

Please support the work of (lefty, intelligent) cartoonists here.
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Friday, July 09, 2021

The Environmental Round-Up, Part 1

Long promised, finally delivered.  It's not all about Texas, as most of my blogging this year has been; the state of the planet -- as much as our Great State's contribution to the climate crisis -- is what's been on my mind.

And the news is bad for any of you who may not have been paying attention.  I decided I'd just embed a few Tweets from the past few weeks to convey that, and keep them in some kind of loose chronological order, unless there was a point to be made by skipping a few days forward or back.

If you're like me, you won't be able to read to the end.  That's okay.  It's a lot to absorb.  Come back later when you feel stronger, or bookmark for weekend reading.  Just don't bury your head in the sand, or in your hands.

We're past the point of mourning.


Where should we start playing the blame game?  Sixty-four years ago, as referenced above?  Fifty?


More recently?


We already know ExxonMobil bought these guys off.  Let's maybe fault the actual source of the greed and corruption.


That's it for now.  More bad news, some good news, some local (i.e. the Permian, coastal Texas and even poor, forsaken Lake Charles, La.) coming in Part 2.
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Tuesday, July 06, 2021

Pre-Special Wrangle

Maneuvering for perceived advantage in the forthcoming 30-day special legislative session is in high gear, and among the developments to watch is, as Harvey Kronberg at Quorum Report has noted, the level of trust shown between Abbott, Patrick, and Phelan.

With his veto, (the governor) has terminated an entire support staff for an independent branch of government by vetoing funding. He has suggested he will not put Article X back on the agenda until he gets legislation he wants. In other words, the governor is offering a financial quid pro quo in exchange for specific legislative performance.

Democrats have filed a case with the Texas Supreme Court. Unlike most of what they do, there is no tort issue involved so we are unlikely to find a wink and a nod from their primary benefactors at TLR. And while some of the justices are serious people fully comprehending the precedent they will be setting, they are still under the thrall of the state’s current financial power structure.

That's all we get from Harvey w/o a subscription.  But it's enough to suggest that there may be some conservatives coming back to Austin with a chip on their shoulder ... just like all the Dems.  It's worth mentioning that two former Speakers and one previous lieutenant governor -- two of them Republicans -- have weighed in via amicus brief at the SCOTX against Abbott's veto.

So I'm anxious to see how, and how quickly, that goes.  In the meantime, if you'd like a briefing on the upcoming special, join Every Texan on Facebook tomorrow.


Lt. Dan and his Schutzstaffel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation stayed busy during the interim practicing their Lone Star-styled fascism.


Scott Braddock examined Patrick's deep and abiding convictions about "freedom of speech".  The Dallas Observer updated us on the latest assault on free speech being committed by Collin College trustees.  And Robert Rivard reviewed our state's long history of suppressing the vote, a topic given yet more urgency with the SCOTUS decision last week.


Among the items I'd like to see the governor add to the special session call are medical cannabis and Medicaid expansion.  Both have widespread public support.


Previewing my environmental post:


I'm amazed that Ted Cruz missed this list.  Not so much that none of our Texas Congresspersons found the courage to mention it; neither did the president.


Here's a look at the latest in social justice news ahead of a longer post.


Stace at Dos Centavos also had some thoughts about DA Ogg and Dr. Gokal.

David Collins highlighted the Texas Green Party's state meeting.  Houston mayoral also-ran Bill King thinks the answer is a new centrist party, aimed at Democrats disaffected with the liberal wing (LOL) and anti-Trump Republicans.

I have a lot more to get to before Lege coverage once again takes center stage.  Until then, here's the lighter-side items.

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Sunday, July 04, 2021

Independence Day Funnies

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Thursday, July 01, 2021

"Another Prick at the Wall" Round-Up


Four, actually.


WESLACO, Texas (CN) -- As Texas Governor Greg Abbott floats plans to finish building a border wall, former President Donald Trump visited the Lone Star State on Wednesday to, as he put, “admire the wall and how it works.” But the real show came earlier, at a so-called border security briefing in the South Texas city of Weslaco.

There, at a Texas Department of Public Safety building, the purpose of Trump’s border visit came into focus. State Republican leaders like Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton displayed their pro-Trump bona fides, beaming as Trump noted that he had given Abbott his “highest and best endorsement” and hinted he would be making an endorsement in the 2022 Texas attorney general race “in the very near future.”

Meanwhile, the former president -- who has been banned from virtually every social-media platform as a result of his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol -- got a platform to speak to journalists who have largely ignored him since he left office. Much of what he said had nothing to do with the border at all.

Instead, Trump discussed the years-old investigation into his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, his cognitive abilities and his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen ...

“Everyone said, ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’” Trump said at the border security briefing. “Well, that’s been proven false. Not only false, it was them that were associated with Russia. It was them, the Democrats and Hillary [Clinton].”


Snark aside, the "boarder", as so many MAGAts spell it, will be the rally cry for 2022, and I would guess two years after as well.  The governors of Florida and some other Republican states have answered Abbott's call, sending their National Guards to South Texas.  Noteworthy for trying to avoid the "taxpayer dollars' waste" problem is South Dakota's Kristi Noem, who got crony-creative.


And there won't be one single red county judge that gets left out.


All for a stunt.


A stunt, to be clear, that is widely supported by those who vote in the TXGOP primary (who are the only people who matter in this state).


It takes a special kind of stupid to keep falling -- and paying -- for this shit.  Then again, these are the folks who mustered forces to keep Ted Cruz in the Senate.


They're also the people, by and large, being arrested for insurrection in D.C. on January 6th.


And, paraphrasing Jon Lovett as Michael Dukakis, Texas Democrats are still losing to these guys.

More on COVID, social justice, and that long-delayed enviro-post coming.  Here's my soothers.


Correction: White women.
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Monday, June 28, 2021

The Tardy, Brief, Ketchup Wrangle from Far Left Texas

Not as long as you or I feared.  First, let's load the chuck wagons and pluck the cockleburrs out of our saddle blankets and rest up this long weekend ahead before the Legislature's new/old business comes due.


Some lawmakers -- particularly Democrats -- seem less than thrilled about it.


Governor Fish Lips (what? you hadn't noticed?) thinks he's being tricky.


Texas Dems have asked the SCOTX to decide whether his veto of Article X -- which funds the Lege's staff -- is constitutional.


In other dictatorial developments:


Wrong disaster.


The worm may have finally turned against Abbott and Ken Paxton last week; some things that happened were suggestive.


Indiana won their lawsuit just last week.  Kuff also weighed in on a couple of polls that show no great love for what the Repubs have been doing lately, and Grits for Breakfast called Abbott's vetoes "a final punch in the nose for the bipartisan criminal justice reform movement".

Honestly though, in a state unplagued with Trump Syndrome, a Democratic Party with some cojones and a plan might stand a chance of flipping something in 2022.


The vice president didn't help the cause in her visit last week.


When all else fails, send in the doctor.


The local Donks have a new chair.  According to former precinct chair J.R. Behrman, he's Nigerian.  They also censured a state representative for his conduct.


I'll wrap this Wrangle with a few things worth celebrating.


And also, as mentioned, my mother Jean, marking her 95th year (and amazing us all)!
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Sunday, June 27, 2021

Sunday "The Party of Lincoln" Funnies

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Saturday, June 26, 2021

Not quite back to normal

Here.

Celebrating Mom's 95th in Beaumont with her today.  Brother went to the hospital yesterday.  Have spent all week laid low by a vicious summer cold.  So there's my excuses for not posting since Monday.

Still have all those I promised in draft, with a lot of work needed, but they won't see the light of day until next week soonest.  Funnies tomorrow, a Monday Wrangle to play catch-up, then we'll see.

Thanks for checking in.

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Monday, June 21, 2021

The Monday Wrangle from Far Left Texas


We're still reading cabrito entrails from the session just past.


And reacting to Governor Wheels' latest temper tantrum/diversion.


As well as the rest of the nutty Tejas fringe.


Here's a few posts from yesterday's rally at the Capitol.


Greg Abbott is never going to be above petty maneuvering.


The Texas Signal sums up the next moves.


I do not favor passage of the For The People Act because of its onerous penalties to minor parties.

HR 1, also known as the “For The People Act,” is sold as a way to get money out of politics and to protect voters, but it contains several poison pills for democracy and opposition parties like the Green Party. Most alarmingly, HR1 quintuples the amount of money Green presidential campaigns will be required to raise to qualify for federal matching funds: from $5,000 in each of 20 states to $25,000 per state. Other poison pills in HR1 would:

1. Abolish the general election campaign block grants that parties can access by winning at least 5% of the vote in the previous presidential election. HR1 would eliminate this provision that was created to give a fair shot to alternative parties that demonstrate significant public support.

2. Replace the general election block grants (where each qualified candidate receives a set, lump sum of public funding for campaign expenses) with matching funds through Election Day -- a huge step backwards for public campaign finance reform -- using the above-mentioned criteria designed to squeeze out alternative parties and independent candidates.

3. Eliminate the limits on donations and expenditures candidates can receive and make. What kind of campaign finance reform is that?

4. Inflate the amount of money national party committees can give to candidates from $5000 to $100 million, an astonishing increase of 1999900% that would give party bosses virtually unlimited power to flood elections with big money.

And Joe Manchin's efforts to sell it -- and anything else -- to his good friends in the Senate Republican Caucus got caught in Mitch McConnell's wedge politics.


And we already know that Texas Democrats can't play any fairer when it comes to the Texas Green Party than the TXGOP plays with them.


So as I mentioned, it's best for TexDems and best for democracy if they have DOJ sue, get the courts to suspend the laws the TXGOP passes until the SCOTUS rules (which will be a year from now at the earliest), and hope for the best.  In the meantime, do what they should have been doing all along: blockwalking, voter registration, GOTV.  The Pukes did that during the pandemic, after all.

And think about replacing that tired old Padron chairman with a Black woman.

Here's a few scenes from Juneteenth.


This program was expertly done, with both Houston and Galveston's history, conversations with activists, and a lot more you did not know.  Highly recommended viewing.  And here's a blast from Dallas' past celebrations.


And an online event today.


Finally, let's not forget that Juneteenth did not celebrate the end of slavery.  It marked the day when the US Army sailed into Galveston harbor and told Texans that slavery had ended two years before, and to cut it out.  And Texas -- and a lot of other states -- didn't.  And still don't.


Bud Kennedy at the Star-Telegram wrote about how a 1939 Fort Worth race riot sparked Opal Lee’s long effort for a Juneteenth federal holiday.  And Kimiya Factory for the San Antonio Report tells why she celebrates.

I think that catches me up to current.  I'll go back and pick up my environmental and social and criminal justice news in posts I said I would get to earlier in short order.  Here's today's soothers.

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