Sunday Funnies

Corker: GOP becoming "cult-like" in support of Trump; cites unwillingness to challenge trade tariffs

Updating from last week:

I Was Fired for Making Fun of Trump https://t.co/aauivB2OEl

— Rob Rogers (@Rob_Rogers) June 16, 2018

The Weekly Wrangle

With its regularly-scheduled blog post and lefty news roundup, the Texas Progressive Alliance is going to give peace a chance.

The San Antonio Current takes note of the workers at a Baytown steel plant who sent 4.500 postcards to Trump asking him to remove the tariffs.

Texas Leftist praises Beto O'Rourke for visiting all of Texas' 254 counties.

Down With Tyranny writes that Dayna Steele just might be able to pull off the upset in TX-36 if the DCCC will stay out of the race.

Somervell County Salon covered the controversy that erupted after Trump disinvited the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles from a White House visit.

Texas Freedom Network reports that the state's board of education is holding a public hearing tomorrow in Austin on textbook curricula, and encourages you to demand that the SBOE #TeachTheTruth.

What do the current standards teach Texas students? Moses was a major influence on the Constitution. The roots of our nation’s legal and political systems are found in the Bible. Slavery wasn’t the primary cause of the Civil War. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is a role model for students. McCarthyism was justified. International treaties are an anti-American conspiracy. And plenty of other misleading standards push right-wing political arguments. In fact, even reviewers for the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute have called the current standards a “politicized distortion of history” filled with “misrepresentations at every turn.”

Houston Justice blogs about two Houston schools, Worthington HS and Woodson K-8, set for closure or state takeover.

Texas Vox has news about the Climate Action San Antonio Coalition calling on the city-owned public utility company, CPS Energy, to phase out its use of fossil fuels.

Better Texas Blog reminds us why an accurate census is important.

Equality Texas wants you to know three things about the Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court decision.

In the criminal justice collation of news at Grits for Breakfast, there's an explanation of the misunderstanding that the public has with respect to probable cause (and how attorneys and the courts interpret it).  There's also this.

A fired Waco cop who choked a handcuffed defendant and claimed he acted in self-defense is on trial for two misdemeanor counts -- assault and official oppression -- reported the Tribune-Herald. A police trainer told jurors the officer had been specifically trained not to grab a defendant by the throat in that manner. Further, "trial testimony showed that while the other officers there that night said they were shocked by Neville’s actions, they did not report it to their supervisors or note the incident in their reports."

Socratic Gadfly sees major businesses remaining silent on single-payer, even though it would surely save them money.  He suspects it's because they like keeping employees in serfdom as even more valuable.

Andrea Grimes at the Texas Observer wants men to read a reissued book about why women's literary voices are so often silenced.

Harry Hamid breaks it off with the Green Party (and throws dog poop on their shoe).

Lawflog wonders why the brother of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich won't authorize Wikileaks to tell what it knows.

The Houston Press features a review of artwork stolen by the Third Reich -- and reappearing on naked human canvasses -- at the G Spot Contemporary Art Space.

Gregg Barrios at the Rivard Report reflects on Andy Warhol and the myth of the American West.

David Collins advanced the H-Town version of the World Naked Bike Ride (it happened last Saturday night; sorry if you missed it).

And JC Reid chronicles the origins of Southeast Texas barbecue.