Thursday, April 01, 2021

Thursday Lone Star Lege (and more) Revoltin' Roundup


Your Texas Legislature, hard at work into the wee hours this morning.


Unlike Georgia, where there is a backlash against the corporations headquartered in that state for supporting their voter suppression laws ... here, not so much yet.


Gonna be more than a little difficult to fight this now.  And previously under the Pink Dome ... Texas women aren't winning, either.


But hey!  Soon, at least, you can sue Facebook if one your posts gets taken down!


That was an injustice just whining for relief.

Before they take a break for Easter, they'll solve our power generation problems.


"Experts" should not be conflated with "lawmakers".

Had enough yet?  Too bad; there's more.


Those last three might be the most atrocious of all.  All of this -- and I am certain, a lot more -- led to the resignations of two of the Texas Tribune's top staffers this week after a year on the job.  Neither woman was from Texas; one was working remotely from New York.  I don't blame them, frankly.


Looks like Scott has the same lofty opinion of Evan Smith as me.

The victories for the good guys are few and small, but we should mark them anyway.


The rest of the climate and criminal justice news, alas, is not so positive.


Grits had this as well.


The most distasteful story about police abuse I read this week (and that's quite an accomplishment).  See also Tribune of the People.


More pollution is headed for Midlothian, the 'Cement Capital of Texas'.  And Downwinders at Risk wants you to know that there are members of Dallas City Council up for re-election this year who do not deserve your support.

Which reminds me to remind you ...


And no Roundup would be complete without a few Rethugs acting badly.

Living Blue in Texas reports on the Texas Young Republicans' first annual Legislative Dinner spotlighting the War on Women.  LareDOS verified that a domestic terrorist was a featured speaker at a TXGOP event in Laredo last week.


Elon Musk wants to be the next saviour of the Great State.


And as promised, a few pieces of art.


And some of the rest that soothes.  Except for the snakes.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

'Election Integrity' extends to Judge Hidalgo, too

Not just the Republicans at the Lege, mind you.



We're not speaking of voter suppression today, but actual election integrity, a problem that many people think the new voting machines purchased by the Harris County commissioners have solved.  I don't think so, Judge Lina Hidalgo.


What were those concerns again?


That's a thirteen-count thread -- here's the unroll -- and it's pretty alarming.  Note in the replies there the experts who express misgivings, and the local activist who lobbied Commissioners Court in vain prior to the county's $54 million buy.  I asked Brad Friedman of BradBlog to weigh in; he is, to my experience, one of the nation's pre-eminent experts in the field of what we used to call black box voting, a topic he's covered -- and one detailed by many others -- for 20 years.


Uh oh. What about local authority Dan Wallach, of Rice University?  He's expressed no concerns that I can find about the Hart InterCivic Verity Duo, this new tech from the same vendor which supplied our old e-Slates with the scrolling wheel.  Wallach testified last week (.pdf) before the Texas Senate's State Affairs committee about election security; he writes at Medium, his Twitter page contains more geeks talking voting tech, and he's been published frequently, including by Zach Despart of the Houston Chronicle in October of last year about this topic.

My interpretation of his recent remarks is: "these latest machines are better than what Harris County had before, but that's not saying much". (Professor Wallach, if you read this and I have you mistaken, please feel free to correct me.)

Of course if Judge Hidalgo, or Elections Aministrator Isabel Longoria, or whoever monitors the Twitter accounts of Harris Votes or Hart InterCivic had wanted to respond to my concerns, they could have done so already.  Maybe they're all too busy to do so.  Maybe they have their Twitter notifications turned off.  Maybe I'm just a lowly blogger who isn't worthy of a response.  Maybe they didn't know about these issues (that doesn't fly for Hart); maybe they just don't give a shit.  We don't know, because nobody has said anything.

Somehow I expected more from a public servant whom I have voted for, donated to, and praised on these pages as a "rising star in the Democratic Party".

At any rate, if you want to take a look at how the new voting machines work, Judge Hidalgo and John Coby have a preview.


As for me, I'm voting by mail.  With an actual hand-marked paper ballot.
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