The MLK Day Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance joins in the celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today ...

... and ruefully observes that resistance for its own sake over the next four years may be futile.

Off the Kuff thinks that the fight over Dan Patrick's bathroom bill could cause a real and lasting schism between Texas businesses and the Texas GOP.

Dan Patrick and Donald Trump both managed to make news from a certain urological perspective, blogged PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees the Texas Republican lawmakers on Trump's front lines in the war against our constitution and freedom of the press, while Socratic Gadfly takes note of the opening bell of the Texas Legislature and gets snarky about the first day's events.

Grits for Breakfast has another hideous criminal justice statistic: most TDCJ sexual assault victims are housed in a small number of units, and most are re-victimized by staff there.

Camp Toyahvale at Balmorhea is the scene of a new effort to stop fracking in Texas, and the resisters there have rejuvenated Txsharon at Bluedaze's activist heart.

Ted at jobsanger graphs a poll that shows the public approves of insurance subsidies (like the ones in the ACA) and also a public option (which was not).

The Lewisville Texan Journal's Christina Ulsh reviewed PROOF, a fascinating yet macabre tale of one Texas family by its last surviving member.

Dos Centavos previews two bands performing on Go Tejano Day at Rodeo Houston.

Neil at All People Have Value said that the work of opposing Trump is up to each of us. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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More news from around Texas!

Politifact Texas found President-elect Trump's Tweets about Rep. John Lewis' Congressional district "mostly false".

Popehat points out that Texas cops -- specifically a former Harris County Sheriff's deputy -- put the "best" in bestiality. (NSFW)

The Dallas Observer highlights the legal strategy behind the latest anti-abortion bill filed in the Lege, and the Midland Reporter-Telegram (no bastion of liberalism) sees Texas with a big black eye over the so-called 'bathroom bill'.

Better Texas Blog reminds us that the ACA repeal would mean a lot less mental health coverage for Texans.

The Election Law Blog links to Texas AP bureau chief Manny Fernandez in the NYT about the VRA's perhaps-final effort (given AG-designate Jeff Sessions' views) to fix voting rights in Pasadena.

Truthout was on the scene in Big Bend country, more precisely Presidio County, where indigenous American water protectors have halted work on another Energy Transfer Partners (of DAPL repute) fracked-gas pipeline.

In Port Aransas, Naveena Sadasivam of the Texas Observer wrote about a former felon who convinced a federal agency -- and the Texas General Land Office -- to fast-track a barge mooring facility in an ecologically sensitive area.

Kevin Nix argues that the place to look for child predators is online.

Therese Odell recoils in horror from Trump's press conference.

The Lunch Tray shows how the restaurant industry failed to keep its promise to clean up kids' menus.

Juanita Jean "celebrates" the return of Yachting Randy Neugebauer.

Jonathan Coopersmith evaluates President Obama's legacy in science, technology and innovation.

Jerry Seinfeld opened the glittering new Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land to rave reviews of both his clean-cut comedy and the brand new facility, writes CultureMap Houston.

And Pages of Victory surveys the state of his back yard, post-freeze.

Sunday Funnies

Cory Booker, the epitome

... of the most recent display of the absolute worst of Democratic hypocrisy.  It's been an overwhelming week; maybe he thought nobody would notice.

There is so much going on right now, such an absolute shitpile deluge of absurdities rolling in from Washington, that it’s almost possible to overlook the fact that 13 Democratic senators either misread or completely disregarded overwhelming national sentiment and voted against an amendment that would have lowered drug prices. It’s worth paying attention to, however, as it doesn’t really bode well for anyone ...

Incredible: Cory Booker & several other Dems join GOP maj in voting down Bernie amendment on importing cheaper drugs https://t.co/yb8N1PRYjp

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 12, 2017

(Wednesday) night, Senate Republicans took their first leap towards repealing Obamacare by approving a budget procedure that would allow them to avoid a Democratic filibuster. The 13 Democrats who subsequently voted against making drugs cheaper for people deeply undercut the ability of that party to speak with credibility on behalf of the working class.

The amendment, which was proposed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders, would have allowed the importation of drugs from Canada. Trump has taken a more Democrat-friendly tone on drug prices -- at one point during (Wednesday’s) maniacal press conference he accused pharma companies of “getting away with murder,” which sent stocks tumbling -- and 12 Republican senators, including John McCain, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, ended up voting in favor of the bill.

Most notable among the Democratic “nays” is New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who made waves yesterday by testifying against Jeff Sessions, a colleague who very much deserved the breach in Senate custom. Booker is assumed to be eyeing a 2020 bid, and Republican Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) accused him of using the Sessions hearing “as a platform for his presidential aspirations.”

I previously mentioned keeping an eye on the Democrats who are up for re-election in 2018 who sit in red states -- Bob Casey, Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp, Jon Tester.  Tom Carper is a Blue Dog of long repute.  That gang is all here in the noes.  But look who joined them besides Booker: Patty Murray, one of the Senate's D leadership.  Maria Cantwell.  Chris Coons, falling in behind his senior, Carper, from Delaware.

(Sidebar: Coons replaced Vice President Joe Biden in the Senate when Uncle Joe moved up with Obama.  The bromance between the outgoing prez and vice was consummated yesterday as Biden was shocked with a Presidential Medal, and bawled his eyes out over it.  From the wayback machine: Biden was known as Senator MBNA, helping re-write tough bankruptcy laws in 2005.  Socratic Gadfly re-covered it all just last night.  Cuddling up with the big corporations is a Delaware thing.)

Michael Bennett, who was just re-elected, so he can't use that excuse.  Martin Heinrich, representing among the poorest Americans in the nation.  Bob Menendez, Senator Corruption himself.  This is an amendment that Joe Manchin (Senator of Epi-pen) could vote for.  That Ted Cruz and his butt buddy Mike Lee said yes to.  John McCain.  John Thune.  Rand Paul.

More here, here, here, here, and here.  Not mainstream sources, mind you.  The heavy contributions from Big Pharma were again more important than the voice -- and fate -- of the American people.  As one of them so eloquently put it: "Guess these senators are only progressive when it doesn’t hurt their bottom line."

"Progressives" who voted for these Democrats are just being trolled now.

Update: Here's a list of all the House Democrats who voted against the bill that would stop the ACA repeal.  The Texan among them is Henry Cuellar.

Urine big trouble now, Donald, and more scatter-shots

-- Yes, Bill Palmer used it first, AFAIK.  We may have just learned why his hair is that color.  Russian prostitutes, via Russian hackers, allege that more than just Trump's throne is golden.

#GoldenShowergate and #GoldenShowers are both trending this morning, so I'll just respond as the former Donkey that I am now:

Aren't the Democrats supposed to be the party that doesn't care what consenting adults do in their bedrooms and bathrooms?  Didn't we already try to impeach a president over sexual allegations?  How'd that work out?  I forget.

No sooner did they wipe the tears from their eyes after watching Obama's farewell than they jumped back on the Russian obsession with both feet.  I suppose that I would hope that all this caterwauling will eventually -- sooner or later -- chase the Barking Yam out of the White House, but it isn't going to win his detractors any votes back.  Opposing a cabinet nominee by dressing up as a Klansman is one thing; screaming "fetishist" is another.  As a reminder, "grab 'em by the pussy" did not stop Trump from being elected.  Update: Juan Cole, helpfully pointing out that it's not the sex, it's the money.

The people who elected (Trump) knew that he had appeared in pornographic videos, liked to tour the dressing rooms of the Miss Teen contests when the contestants were naked, and groped random women in public places. That he paid for a golden shower or two isn’t even the most disgusting thing in his closet (at least if it was paid for, it was consensual). So I think if Russia threatened him with being outed, he could just brush them off. The evangelical ministers who encourage their flocks to vote Republican have decided that they are all about forgiveness when it comes to Trump. I wouldn’t have said this last year this time, but the guy is Teflon on the right.

If Trump has a vulnerability with regard to Russia, it is far more likely to be financial. He kept going bankrupt (six times!) as a strategy to avoid paying creditors, and understandably real banks stopped wanting to lend to him. The Financial Times alleges that Trump then got in bed with very wealthy figures from, e.g., Kazakhstan, who loaned him money or licensed his name for, e.g., the Trump Soho, in which he was a partner with a shadowy Kazakh figure. But FT suggests that the quid pro quo was that he got them into the New York real estate market, which they then used for money laundering. Money earned from embezzling (say, from the Kazakh ministry of petroleum) or criminal activity needs to be laundered before it can be openly invested. The criminal claims that the ill-gotten funds are profits from an investment, e.g. the FT thinks Trump may have, knowingly or naively, facilitated this kind of activity. If it was knowingly, of course, that was a heavy duty crime. 

Focus on the big picture, Democrats.

If you take a long view of presidential history, you can see that Eisenhower was a backlash of sorts to Truman, that Kennedy/LBJ certainly was as well, and Nixon to them, Carter to Nixon, Reagan to Carter, Clinton 1.0 a JFK-like backlash to twelve years of Reagan/Bush, and W the same also to Bubba, and Obama to Bush the Younger.  And, more obviously, Trump to Obama.  So there's a backlash coming in 2020 no matter what else happens.  As long as we're still around to see it, that is.

It's a new world and the Democrats are still living in the old one.  Maybe the Berners will join forces with a progressive party and they'll run a candidate everybody likes in four years, we can have an unspoiled election.  Too much hope?

-- Today is supposed to be Hair Furor's first presser in six months.  What do you suppose they'll ask him about?  Your young child -- the one without a smartphone, or a laptop, or any friends that do  -- is going to be asking, "Mom, what is a golden shower?" sometime today.  Thanks Obama!

-- Dawnna Dukes, who hears her Austin constituents telling her that she is the most qualified person to remain in her seat in the Texas House, had to sneak around the media to get sworn in, and before the day was out, promptly indicted by the Travis County DA.  I blogged everything that needed it about this topic yesterday.  Dukes is a hazard (hardy har har) and can't go away fast enough.

-- RFK Jr., a noted anti-vaxxer (unlike Jill Stein, despite the Hillbots' strongest effort), said Trump wanted him to head up a commission  (I believe that would make him a czar) to Find the Truth.  Trump's transitioners say they didn't.  We now have more facts -- science arrived at by logic, you know -- to argue over, partisan-style.  Like evolution versus intelligent design, climate change, etc.

Update: Focus, Democrats.

It's a different world and you better figure out your place in it.

Dan Patrick, Potentate of Piss, and other 85th Session previews

(Mad props to Cort McMurray, who gets all the credit for most of the following scatologically inspired titles for the right honorable gentleman presiding over the Texas Senate.  I was motivated to add a few.)

The 85th Texas Legislature officially gavels in at noon on Tuesday, kicking off nearly five months of nonstop banter, brawls and bills under the pink dome. When lawmakers gather for the first time since 2015, they'll have a lot on their plate: the state's ongoing foster-care crisis, property tax reform, a "bathroom bill," and public school funding, to name a few.

Our self-appointed Umpire of Urinating, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, has moved forward his bill abolishing the right of transgendered people to pee in the water closet of their choosing as our part-time working,  full time-damaging Texas Lege reconvenes.  The Kaiser of the Crapper has more serious matters of statewide business to deal with, but fear of the 'other' has consumed him, and he intends to make his mark by standing up -- not sitting down -- for the rights of scared old men across the land to avoid having to do their business in public with people they loathe.

They claim -- as they always do -- that it's being done to protect the children.  It's hard to envision how crushing the Texas economy in similar fashion to North Carolina's helps anyone, especially the kids, but logic has never been the GOP's strong suit.  Speaker Joe Straus and even Governor Greg Abbott don't share Patrick's high toilet priorities, and neither do the state's business interests, so perhaps the bill will be allowed to die quietly in the corner of some House committee room.

-- The state's revenue for the next two years is estimated by Comptroller Glenn Hegar to be $104.87 billion.  One hundred nine billion is needed just so state services can be maintained at current levels (adjusting for inflation).  That means massive cuts to critical programs, or 'belt-tightening' in Republican euphemism.  The TexTrib carefully breaks it all down, but it's bad news no matter who's spinning it.  Better Texas Blog is going to be your go-to all session long, and they've already done some heavy lifting.

(I)t’s worth remembering that the Legislature’s short-sighted tax breaks and diversions have done much more to limit future General Revenue collections than the oil/gas downturn did. CPPP will be ready with analysis after the Biennial Revenue Estimate is released to discuss the implications for critical state investments in education, health, highways, and public safety.

Their first post out of the box yesterday afternoon dealt with the ACA's pending repeal in Congress and the harsh effect it will have on mental health funding in Texas.

The just-released Texas House Select Committee on Mental Health report recommends enhancing enforcement of mental health parity protections.

A full repeal of the ACA would move in the opposite direction.  Full repeal would substantially reduce the reach of mental health parity protections, reducing access to mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) care for 2.5 million Texans.[i]  One of the less-publicized benefits of the ACA is that it extended the reach of mental health parity to types of insurance plans that had been previously excluded.  An ACA repeal would mean millions of Texans would lose equal access to mental health benefits in insurance.

-- Dawnna Dukes isn't going to give up her seat after all, despite ongoing ethical investigations and a previously-disclosed inability to serve after suffering injuries in a 2013 auto accident.  While she had indicated she would resign last year, and her stalling through the holidays prompted questions from others (coveting her post, oddly enough) concerned that her waffling would delay a special election, she effectively further handicaps an already-crippled House Democratic caucus in its super-minority status.  Dukes is just one more brick in the wall Texas Democrats continue to build to keep themselves inside a prison of irrelevance.  Dukes was about to be indicted before she said she was quitting, so we'll see what happens with that now.

Update: That didn't take long.

-- As mentioned in yesterday's Wrangle, Grits points out the blinding hypocrisy of SD-17 flack Joan Huffman and her union-busting bill.

SB 13 by state Sen. Joan Huffman -- which is one of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick's stated priorities -- would eliminate payment of union dues directly from public employees' paychecks except for police, fire and EMS unions.

Include police unions in the ban and Grits might go for that idea. They're the main source of public-employee-union generated economic headaches at the local level, from excessive salaries bloating the budget in Austin to vitriolic attacks on the city manager in San Antonio to massive unfunded pension liabilities threatening to bankrupt the city of Dallas. They're also the unions most frequently throwing their weight around in local elections, to the detriment of both officer accountability and city budgets.

If the goal is to reduce organized labor's stranglehold on local budgets and politics in Texas, police unions are the place to start.

Nobody -- no legislator, no mayor, no city council -- wants to take on the guardians of the elite keepers of (alleged) law and order in any manner such as this.  They are all much too frightened of the possible repercussions.  In this strict cost-analysis of every line item in the state budget, nobody ought to be getting a free lunch.  Cops included.

-- Governor Abbott, like President-elect Trump, seems capable of exacerbating tensions with China in ways both predictable and accidental.

On Saturday, Gov. Greg Abbott met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in Houston to discuss energy and trade relations, according to a news release from Abbott's office.

"Thanks to our favorable regulatory and legal climate, Texas remains and will continue to be a premier destination for Taiwanese businesses to expand and thrive," Abbott said in a statement. "I look forward to strengthening Texas' bond with Taiwan and continuing my dialogue with President Tsai to create even more opportunity and a better future for our citizens."

Lots more cheap crap to buy at Walmart.  Yay!

Abbott may have "committed a cultural faux pas" when he gave Tsai a clock as a gift during their meeting, according to Taiwan News. In Chinese, "giving a clock" means "attending a funeral," symbolizing an early death for someone who receives a clock as a gift.

Oops.  Didn't someone say that Abbott was more intelligent than Rick Perry?  In what way?

-- Stand by for more from the scene of the crimes in Austin; follow my Twitter feed as we cover today's Opening Day (traditionally filled with more pomp than circumstance).

Trump's cabinet picks, Senate Repubs go into hurry-up offense

This week's confirmation hearings on Trump's cabinet nominees are crowded all together, ethically non-compliant, and will be bulldozed quickly through.

The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate plans to rush forward this week with confirmation hearings for many of Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet and other key executive positions. Though many of the picks have not yet completed the customarily required ethics clearances and background checks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has shown no willingness to delay.

“They’ve made pretty clear they intend to slow down and resist and that doesn’t provide a lot of incentive or demonstrate good faith to negotiate changes. So I think we’re going to just be plowing ahead,” his deputy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) told Politico.

Sometimes the hubris can still amaze.

Senate Republicans have heard the Democrats’ demands for a deliberate confirmation process for Donald Trump’s nominees. But they don’t care.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s conference has scheduled six Cabinet-level confirmations hearings for next Wednesday, Jan. 11, the same day the chamber will likely slog through an all-night vote-a-rama on a budget and the president-elect will give his first press conference in six months.

One hearing -- Homeland Security-designate John Kelly's -- has been moved, and Trump has already postponed his long-awaited first presser as president-elect.  Here's the updated schedule, and more of the "everything you want to know" variety.  There's simply no precedent for this kind of cram-through -- not even Obama's own, eight years ago, compares -- and for them to shoot the finger at proper financial disclosures... well, that's a thousand miles away from 'draining the swamp'.

In fact, it reminds me of how pipelines get laid in North Dakota.  Like Mexico building the wall, another campaign promise bites the dust.  Does any Republican want to give a damn?

The Trump team’s failures could be the result of disorganization — or a lack of familiarity with the rules. Trump himself has not set an inspiring example. The ethics office is reportedly working with his lawyers to encourage him to do what the law demands of his cabinet: divest and enter office free of conflicts. He is the only incoming president in modern history who has refused to do so.

For his nominees to do the same would be a serious violation of the public trust, and would potentially violate the law.

Over/under on Trump Tweeting something akin to "I am the law" is one week from today.

Senators on multiple committees running between Capitol conference rooms to make a portion of a hearing, the hamstrung, intimidated corporate media stretched too thin to cover the developments, conservative dogs and liberal cats living in sin together ... it's our colicky-baby-government in action.  Create as much chaos as possible in order to get your way, no matter what laws or ethical standards or protocol it violates.  "Shake up Washington", even if that means a war with China or a North Korean nuclear missile attack.

Disruption is a family affair.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is firmly bracing itself for the mostly white, male, and middle-aged Texas legislators to work their will on the rest of us in the biennial 85th session, which begins tomorrow in Austin.

Off the Kuff looked ahead to the upcoming Houston elections for 2017.

Libby Shaw at Daily Kos understands that if pain and suffering have to be inflicted on the American people, the cruelest party for the job is the Texas Republican Party. Yes, they are coming after Social Security. Worse: the hatchet man is a Texas Republican.

With January 20 just two weeks away, Socratic Gadfly takes an initial snapshot look at President Obama's legacy from the left. Updated Presidential rankings to follow.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme remembers the greedy corporate interests fighting the white nationalists in the 2000s. The white nationalists won that one. We're at it again with today's Texas Legislature.

Texas Leftist piles on the Lord of the Lavatory, Lite Guv Dan Patrick, and his petty, potty politics.

The top environmental stories affecting Lewisville were summarized by the Texan Journal.

Dos Centavos has a few thoughts on the HISD board vacancy.

The latest -- and hopefully the last -- on "русские сделали это" was posted by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Txsharon at Bluedaze is not as Trump as you drink she is.

After many years toiling away for the liberal cause in Amarillo, Ted at jobsanger announces his relocation to Austin.

DemBlogNews surveys the playing field in the contest to be the next DNC chair.

Neil at All People Have Value was out on the streets of Houston calling for kindness, respect, and not giving up. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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More stories from around Texas!

Peggy Fikac at the SAEN sees us all on tenterhooks waiting for the state's revenue estimate from Comptroller Jethro Bodine Glenn Hegar. Update: And the bad news breaks: almost $105 billion, or about $4 billion less than necessary to meet continuing obligations.  Yuuge cuts in state services are in store.  Follow Better Texas Blog for the deep dive.

The Houston Communist Party respectfully requests that the real hackers please stand up.

Grits for Breakfast suggests that if SD-17 Sen. Joan Huffman is serious about busting unions with her recently-filed legislation, she shouldn't leave out the police labor organizations.

John Wright makes five queer predictions for LGBT Texans in 2017, and Ashton Woods at Strength in Numbers says, simply: when people's lives are under assault, the proper response is to fight back.

Paradise in Hell wants the holes in the Texas Freedom of Information Act to be patched.

The TSTA Blog explains how the state abuses school property taxpayers, and the Rivard Report sends home the report card from the state's public school districts on the state education agency's A-F  accountability score.  Their grade?  Incomplete.

The Bloggess submits an application to become a vampire, and It's Not Hou It's Me
gives a hand with your New Year's resolutions with a guide to working out in Houston.

And Pages of Victory had some truck trouble in the cold over the weekend.

Sunday Funnies

Last on the Russians

Hopefully the last, anyway.

If the report had explained how the Russians convinced Hillary Clinton not to campaign in Wisconsin (yes, that's Speaker Ryan with the sickest of burns), that they brainwashed her staff to order those buses of SEIU ground troops headed for Michigan to turn around and go back to Iowa, or show proof that Fancy Bear or Cozy Bear put DNC emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop (which prompted James Comey's letter), then I can be convinced.

But I couldn't find that in the report.  Did I just miss it?

As I blogged on December 13, the Russians did something.  But whatever they did had an indeterminable effect on the 2016 election, because the US intelligence officers who compiled the report did not go there.  The report does say that.

“We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election,” the report stated.

If you don't want to accept that Clinton did it to herself, if you can't blame the polling that missed the mark, and if you think Comey was not at fault with his reopening and reclosing le' affaire email, then maybe you should just fall back to that old reliable, time-tested yet threadbare excuse: blaming the Green Party and Jill Stein.

House Democrats are calling for an independent investigation into the matter.  I support that.  "The Russians did it" is trying on the wardrobe of the JFK assassination conspiracy, so why not?

Latest on the Russians

-- Obama got his classified report on Russian interference in the 2016 election yesterday; the outgoing president said he needed "no additional evidence" to eject the Russian diplomats from the country last month.  Trump is getting his briefing this morning.

Note the first source I linked to above.  It's the most thorough and comprehensive report I have found, and it's also the same source James Clapper denigrated in his testimony before Congress yesterday.  Read RT's account of Clapper's opinion of RT here, after you read the link in the previous sentence.

-- This is compelling:

US intelligence has identified the go-betweens the Russians used to provide stolen emails to WikiLeaks, according to US officials familiar with the classified intelligence report that was presented to President Barack Obama on Thursday.

And so is this.

Via NBC's William Arkin, Ken Dilanian and Hallie Jackson: "A senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge confirmed to NBC News that the report on Russian hacking delivered to President Obama Thursday says that U.S. intelligence picked up senior Russian officials celebrating Donald Trump's win. The source described the intelligence about the celebration, first reported by the Washington Post, as a minor part of the overall intelligence report, which makes the case that Russia intervened in the election."

More, from the Washington Post's original story: "The ebullient reaction among high-ranking Russian officials — including some who U.S. officials believe had knowledge of the country's cyber campaign to interfere in the U.S. election — contributed to the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Moscow's efforts were aimed at least in part at helping Trump win the White House. Other key pieces of information gathered by U.S. spy agencies include the identification of "actors" involved in delivering stolen Democratic emails to the WikiLeaks website, and disparities in the levels of effort Russian intelligence entities devoted to penetrating and exploiting sensitive information stored on Democratic and Republican campaign networks."

-- Clapper testified that Julian Assange and Wikileaks put American lives at risk, reported by the AP and widely distributed from news gatherers across the nation and the world.  That assertion was disproved three and one-half years ago.

The US counter-intelligence official who led the Pentagon's review into the fallout from the WikiLeaks disclosures of state secrets told the Bradley Manning sentencing hearing on Wednesday (July 13, 2013) that no instances were ever found of any individual killed by enemy forces as a result of having been named in the releases.

Brigadier general Robert Carr, a senior counter-intelligence officer who headed the Information Review Task Force that investigated the impact of WikiLeaks disclosures on behalf of the Defense Department, told a court at Fort Meade, Maryland, that they had uncovered no specific examples of anyone who had lost his or her life in reprisals that followed the publication of the disclosures on the internet. "I don't have a specific example," he said.

So maybe Clapper was talking about Edward Snowden.  The report on that from two years ago has a whole lot of redactions; too many, in fact, to be inferred by the reader that Snowden's disclosures threatened anyone's life, and too many even to be implied by the writers of the report.

The DIA, which provides military intelligence to the DOD, summarized the task force's work in a 39-page report dated December 18, 2013 and titled "DoD Information Review Task Force-2: Initial Assessment, Impacts Resulting from the Compromise of Classified Material by a Former NSA Contractor." (Jason Leopold) obtained a copy of the heavily redacted report last year, which concluded that "the scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering."

But explicit details about the alleged damage Snowden caused, identified in the 39-page report as "grave," were omitted from that document as well. In fact, the existence of the DIA's report had been unknown until the White House secretly authorized the declassification of select portions of it so two Republican lawmakers could undercut the media narrative painting Snowden as a heroic whistleblower.

-- The report that Obama received and Trump is getting is to be made public very shortly, maybe even this afternoon, with as much classified information Clapper says can be declassified as possible.

I'll wait for that news before I change my mind about this all being an obsession.  Note that two long-term and highly tenured former employees of the NSA and the CIA asserted yesterday that the DNC emails were leaked and not hacked, and carefully explains the difference.

Hack: When someone in a remote location electronically penetrates operating systems, firewalls or other cyber-protection systems and then extracts data. Our own considerable experience, plus the rich detail revealed by Edward Snowden, persuades us that, with NSA's formidable trace capability, it can identify both sender and recipient of any and all data crossing the network.

Leak: When someone physically takes data out of an organization — on a thumb drive, for example — and gives it to someone else, as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning did. Leaking is the only way such data can be copied and removed with no electronic trace.

Because NSA can trace exactly where and how any "hacked" emails from the Democratic National Committee or other servers were routed through the network, it is puzzling why NSA cannot produce hard evidence implicating the Russian government and WikiLeaks. Unless we are dealing with a leak from an insider, not a hack, as other reporting suggests. From a technical perspective alone, we are convinced that this is what happened.

Lastly, the CIA is almost totally dependent on NSA for ground truth in this electronic arena. Given Mr. Clapper's checkered record for accuracy in describing NSA activities, it is to be hoped that the director of NSA will join him for the briefing with Mr. Trump.

Former NSA director Mike Rogers is indeed among the four heads of national security briefing Trump this morning.  Look out for a Tweet from Trump today about it.

-- Assuming the Russian/Wikileaks dots are eventually connected, Trump has problems that go beyond being proved mistaken, and having to repair relations with the DHS, NSA, CIA, etc.  Congress is establishing a formal objection to his Twitter criticism of America's spooks and spies, forcing the prez-elect to backtrack slightly.

Within the transitioning administration to come, there are serious differences of opinion about the roles of the various agencies.  Remember: NSA-designate Michael Flynn, like Trump, admires the Russkies.  CIA chief-to-be Mike Pompeo is the farthest thing from a friend of the Kremlin, however.  Clinton's CIA director, James Woolsey, abruptly left his role as adviser to the transition team earlier this week, possibly because of this opinion of whatever game it is Trump is playing.  But the new DNI guy overseeing the whole lot is former Indiana Senator Dan Coats, whose own views of Russia have been so critical that Moscow has banned him from traveling there.

So that's all I got for now.  More as it develops.

Update: Michael Dorf posits the various what-ifs, with a great deal of food for thought.  And Juan Cole has the righteous smackdown of everyone.  The following excerpt does not do justice to a full understanding of the matter; read the whole thing and then read it again.

(Chuck) Schumer seems to have been celebrating that we are no longer a democracy, but that even an elected president has to defer to the intelligence establishment in Washington or else must fear that they will play dirty tricks on him and undermine him.

Shouldn’t the Democratic Party senate minority leader be standing for democratic values, not advising the president to shut up if he knows what’s good for him?

So to conclude, this is a sorry spectacle. Yes, Putin is a thug who should not have unilaterally annexed Crimea, and so created a European crisis that has yet to be resolved. But yes, the US has acted thuggishly -- the unprovoked and monstrous invasion of Iraq is a recent example -- and US aggressiveness toward Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union bears some of the blame for Russia’s bullying insecurity. And yes, Russia likely engaged in hacking during the US election and hoped to tilt the playing field toward Trump; but they likely failed to have any significant effect on the outcome. And yes, Clapper and other US intelligence officials have hacked everybody and his brother both abroad and inside the US, so they are hardly morally superior to Putin.

Now we have a food fight full of ignorance and hypocrisy or both, in which the Washington Establishment professes itself shocked, shocked that any hacking of one country by another could have gone on. Trump has continued his creepy bromance with the Kremlin and wants to get his information from any source that agrees with his prejudices. The Democrats have taken advantage of the story to paint Trump as a Manchurian candidate, and some of them seem to delight in the idea that Trump may provoke the CIA to do to him what Oliver Stone thinks it did to JFK.

Nobody and nothing here to admire.

The Russians come to the Capitol today

Congress opens hearings on the Russian affair today, indeed as I type.  Here's a few things to pay attention to as they go, and John Brennan says us doubters should not rush to judgement.  While we wait for the truth (a word tenuously defined these days) to be revealed, let's laugh at Hair Furor and the nation's clandestine services, who cannot even agree what day of the week they were supposed to meet for his intelligence briefing on the matter.  Remember that the president-elect said last week that he would have a big reveal for us "on Tuesday or Wednesday" of this week; that didn't happen on time, either.

This is a shit-or-go-blind choice for America.  I find myself in the position of agreeing with Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald -- but uncomfortably alongside Trump and Sarah Palin -- and opposed to Paul Ryan, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and 97 other senators by Graham's math.  A very strange place to be.

Don't let it be written that I never offered a self-deprecating cartoon.

There remains, to this moment, no conclusive evidence that the Russians gave Julian "Assuage" (Freud would be so pleased with Trump's unpresidented auto-corrections) the DNC emails that either undermined Hillary Clinton's White House bid in drip-drip-drip Chinese water torture-style, or simply revealed the rigged Democratic primary everyone (save a few Hillbots practicing denial in advance) saw happening without the benefit of purloined electronic correspondence.  And we laypeople may never be allowed to know what really happened with Russia and Wikileaks, and partly because even the definition of 'classified' information is now so nebulous, as we know from James Comey's revelations with regard to her email server.

So if I'm wrong about the nefarious Putin and his Manchurian president-elect, I'll own it just as soon as I know it.  Which may be as soon as this morning.  Watch C-Span for the hearings or check your Twitter for what trends (I'm seeing "DNI Clapper" as I hit publish on this post).

Update: DNI James Clapper's testimony revealed essentially nothing this morning (see also the Tweet feed in the top right column).  Maybe when the unclassified report he has promised to release next week is made public, I can be persuaded.

Scattershooting DC, the EC, and the inauguration

-- Some folks are still in denial.

More than 50 Electoral College members who voted for Donald Trump were ineligible to serve as presidential electors because they did not live in the congressional districts they represented or held elective office in states legally barring dual officeholders.

That stunning finding is among the conclusions of an extensive 1,000-plus page legal briefing prepared by a bipartisan nationwide legal team for members of Congress who are being urged to object to certifying the 2016 Electoral College results on Friday.

“Trump’s ascension to the presidency is completely illegitimate,” said Ryan Clayton of Americans Take Action, who is promoting the effort. “It’s not just Russians hacking our democracy. It’s not just voter suppression at unprecedented levels. It is also [that] there are Republicans illegally casting ballots in the Electoral College, and in a sufficient number that the results of the Electoral College proceedings are illegitimate as well.”

With the College's vote set to be affirmed by Congress tomorrow -- Wisconsin still hasn't finished -- I don't see this changing the result any more than I did the recount (speaking of that, read this).

Update: Still one more last-gasp attempt to stop Trump.

Protests in the nation's capital can be a high good time, but if you're planning on going this year, you'll have to face off with the very worst of the MAGAmericans, like these dudes, who are warming up by fighting among themselves.

-- Anti-Inauguration Day protests, mostly of the quieter and more passive-aggressive variety and held in or close to your city, are IMO a much more effective way in this post-truth era we've entered to demonstrate non-compliance with the Trump World Order.  Charles Blow helps out with some suggestions.  He smartly advises against mere resistance.

Exclaiming your resistance, while necessary, is insufficient. Resistance is a negative position. While negativity in the face of this menace is justified and admirable, negativity alone is a fractional response. As with most things in a fully articulated life, balance is required. You need to augment your outrage with actions that are affirming, behaviors that reinforce principles and values.

When politics seem out of your control, remember that community and culture are very much in your control. We help shape the world we inhabit every day. A life is a collection of thousands of decisions, large and small, made every day. Make those decisions with purpose and conviction, especially for Jan. 20.

The point is not necessarily to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, but rather to deprive it of oxygen and eyeballs; to plant a flag of resistance firmly at the opening gate. This doesn’t mean that people won’t attend or watch. They will. But every station that carries it, as many will, should feel the impact of your absence.

Start by taking, or arranging to take, the day off and attend something that lets you avoid the broadcast of the inaugural and get creative from there.  As referenced previously, a general strike on January 20th would be an excellent idea.

-- Black Lives Matter has worked.  (Pay attention, but give no credence to, conservative trending topics this morning.  These daily eruptions, stoked by the likes of Breitbart and Daily Caller, are only intended to keep the hate fires burning.)

The number of unarmed black men shot and killed by police in the U.S. last year was less than half the total for 2015, according to one database, suggesting that due to nationwide protests, better training or other factors, what the media has called “a national crisis” could be abating.

Police used fatal force on 16 unarmed black men in 2016, according to a Washington Post database. That is down from the 36 unarmed black men police had killed in 2015. Police used fatal force on one unarmed black woman in 2016 and two in 2015.

Separating the real news from the fake outrage is going to be tougher in 2017; resolve to to make the effort anyway.

Some affirmation of Democrats as 'Brainiacs'

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A 2017 Wrangle of 2016 progressive Texan news

Democrats are going to need a better plan than this toon represents.  The week's blog post roundup gathers the best from last week to start your 2017 off on the right (left) foot.

Off the Kuff pointed to Brazoria County as a potential and necessary opportunity for Greater Houston Democrats going forward.

Socratic Gadfly takes a look at Cozy Bear, Fancy Bear, et al, and while rejecting Trump's flippancy, expresses skepticism toward the mainstream narrative.

Texas Republicans expose themselves by making the lives of women, children, and prisoners as miserable as possible. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees Donald Trump is not the only white nationalist.

The Brainiacs of 2016, formerly the TPA's Texan of the Year and awarded solely by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs, are The Democrats.

The Apache oil company's "generosity" and speaking with forked tongue caught up with them in regard to their fracking plans in Balmorhea, as detailed by Txsharon at Bluedaze.

In a welcome relief from charting polls and stockpiling objections to Trump, jobsanger posts a survey of the most dangerous drivers in the United States, and finds Texas is tied for first -- or worst -- with Louisiana.

Neil at All People Have Value took a picture of train tracks at a Houston light rail station.  APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Dos Centavos listed his top-trafficked posts for the year.

And in Lewisville, vandals shot through a homeowner's windows and knocked the head off of his front-yard Santa Claus, reports the Texan-Journal.

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More of the best of the left of Texas from the end of last year!

Leah Binkovitz at the Urban Edge has a rundown of the bills that have been filed to date for the coming legislative session (opening on January 10).  And Ross Ramsey at the Texas Tribune perceives that Austin and Washington out of sync in the early transitioning.

The Houston Press follows up on the Blue Bell ice cream company's continuing troubles with listeria, speaking with a food safety litigator who suggests the company is foolishly requesting of federal authorities that they be allowed to abandon the stringent -- and expensive -- poisonous bacteria testing imposed after previous tragedies.

Grits for Breakfast says the top criminal justice story in Texas -- and possibly the United States -- from last year is easy to spot, but the rest are more obscure.

The Hearne city attorney abruptly resigned last week, and Lawflog says 'good riddance'.

Members of Austin Jewish Voice for Peace held an ecumenical Chanukah vigil at the Capitol, and the The Rag Blog has the photos and story.

The Bloggess eulogized Carrie Fisher as an inspiration to people who struggle with mental illness.

Lone Star Ma urged people to email the Chemical Safety Board.

The Great God Pan Is Dead highlighted the art that moved him in the past year.

Swamplot presented its annual awards for real estate in Houston.

And 2016 was the year that Pages of Victory decided had weaned him off the Democrats.