The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is saying sine die in the mirror as it brings you this week's lefty blog post and news round-up.

Now I'm a political/editorial cartoon? That would be a first.... @HoustonChron https://t.co/Pu2VRCJ7zv pic.twitter.com/XhxXwYiLsm

— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) May 12, 2019

(news item: Rep. Jonathan Stickland calls vaccines 'sorcery')

Stephen Young, Dallas Observer:

There's a little more than two weeks left in Texas' regular legislative session. Dozens of bills will pass the Texas House and Senate and make their way to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk between now and May 27. But thanks to an annual Texas House deadline, hundreds more died as Thursday night faded into Friday morning. No bills that haven't received an initial sign-off will move any further in the House, but the Legislature's business is far from wrapped up.

Here's what you should be watching as the Legislature hits the homestretch:

Young lists his priorities as marijuana reform, abortion rights, school financing, a state income tax, and a drivers responsibility program along with red light cameras.  Go read his deep dive into the bills that your representatives and senators will be approving or denying in the coming days.

In related Lege reporting, the Dallas News indicates that the state's Senate and House leaders are essentially starting over from zero on the teachers' pay raise and other tax bill details.  The Fort Worth Star-Telegram covered the DFW area's annual Marijuana March, while Jonathan Tilove at the Statesman says that the Texas House hates those red light cameras even more than they hate Stickland.  And the Texas Freedom Network calls out the state's Health and Human Services Commission for the hypocrisy of tomorrow's "Pink Day" while systematically destroying women's health services in tandem with the extremist right wing.

Now HHS wants everyone to wear pink to show their support for women’s health. Well, yes, let’s all wear pink. But we would prefer having state HHS officials (and the elected officials who appoint them) who actually seem to care more about promoting women’s health than anti-abortion politics.

Progress Texas has a special report on the continuing battle over voting rights.  It centers on #SB9, which as Andrew Turner at the Quorum Report previews, is set for Wednesday.

Just as Texas retreats from a voting rights fight in federal court in San Antonio over the way embattled Secretary of State David Whitley handled the rollout of a botched voter purge, Senate Bill 9 by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R- Mineola, has the potential to inflame the situation if it gains any traction in the House during the closing weeks of the session.

The bill would increase the criminal penalty of forging a ballot from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony, something that voting rights groups say would have a negative impact on turnout.

Sanford Nowlin at the Current has more.

"This legislation magnifies the voter suppression tactics that (Texas politicians) have been pursuing for the last couple of years," said Zenén Jaimes Pérez, advocacy director for the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Somewhat related: Charlie Kuffner warns that the end of the TXSOS voter purge lawsuit is not the end of that business.

The Texas Observer and ProgTex have also been on the story about local control at the Lege.  For the Observer, Justin Miller:

More than 30 Confederate monuments were taken down in Texas between 2015 and 2018, according to a Southern Poverty Law Center report. This has sparked an intense backlash from Anglo conservatives who see the removal of these monuments as an erasure of their Antebellum heritage. Activist groups pumped out robocalls and radio ads calling on Texas Republicans to keep the monuments in place.

State lawmakers responded this session by proposing controversial legislation -- Senate Bill 1663 and House Bill 3948 -- to strip local governments of their authority to take down historical monuments, statues or portraits, or even rename schools, parks, streets and other public property.

And for Progress Texas, Glenn Smith.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler was right when he observed recently that the Republican-led state government “has declared war against” Texas cities.

The state is trying to take self-government away from cities, counties and school districts. It is a war on local government. It is also a war on democracy.

From limiting local government’s ability to meet its financial needs, to pre-empting local worker protections and public health and safety ordinances, the state is saying local voices don’t matter.

Why, you ask? Consider this: Eighty-five percent of Texas residents and 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas. A glance at any state or national map of election results shows disproportionate Republican support in rural areas.

Cities in Texas and elsewhere are increasingly diverse, tolerant, progressive, and focused on actually addressing issues that matter. That’s probably why, in Texas and elsewhere, they are increasingly under Democratic control.

Environment Texas provides us with another ecological legislative update.  Arya Sundarum at the Texas Tribune reports on the House bill that could have prevented future arrests like Sandra Bland's but multiple attempts to pass it failed.  Eric Trayson at the Houston Chronicle explains why one statehouse bill (stopped by a Democratic point of order last week) was a mortal threat to trans people like himself.  Better Texas Blog is concerned about Medicaid managed care protections.  And Scott Braddock sees a crackup coming in Texas Republican tax orthodoxy.

To wrap up the Wrangle's aggregation of Lege developments this week, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs blogged about the Greens' new hope of achieving ballot access in 2020 via a bill passed late Friday night.  David Collins followed up with more details, and Alyson Goldenstein at the Houston Chronicle also has an account.

Wesson Gaige, co-chair of the Green Party of Texas, was cautiously optimistic about the bill’s passage on Friday knowing that it still needs Senate approval.

If it does pass, Gaige said “we will be running Green candidates who uphold planet over profit, people over profit and peace over profit.”

[...]

“It’s a mixed bill from a third-party standpoint,” said Wes Benedict, former executive director for the Libertarian Party of Texas.

While the lower threshold would help Libertarian and Green Party candidates stay on the ballot, Benedict said the fee requirement will hurt the parties. He said the filing fee helps pay for primary elections, in which third party candidates generally don’t participate because of the high barrier to entry.

The Libertarian Party would likely challenge that fee in court should the bill pass, he added.

As Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez prepare to join the Sunrise Movement in Washington to rally for the Green New Deal ...

The final installment of our #Road2GND tour is happening tonight in DC.

Not to spoil anything, but we'll be rubbing elbows with lots of main characters, including @SenSanders, @AOC, and GND architect @rgunns.

Stream our biggest event yet at 7pm ET:https://t.co/HYreUCkyqZ pic.twitter.com/6X5NODBC3x

— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) May 13, 2019

... SocraticGadfly continues his Greens vs. Democrats on the Green New Deal series with Part 4 about ag tech and its role in addressing climate change.

The Texas Living Waters Project uses the Austin Central Library to showcase the value of rainwater capture, condensate reuse and reclaimed water.

In the wake of severe flooding throughout southeast Texas last week, both Save Buffalo Bayou and Nick Powell at the Chronicle wrote about the Houston area's potential third reservoir likely having little effect in the northwest part of Harris County.

After tens of thousands of homes flooded in the watersheds of Cypress Creek and the Addicks and Barker reservoirs during Harvey in 2017, regional planners revived an idea originally conceived nearly 80 years ago by the Army Corps of Engineers: a third reservoir to supplement the capacity of Addicks and Barker in the event of a major flood.

But the study by Rice University’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education, and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center revealed the difficulties in attempting to eliminate flooding in the Cypress Creek watershed, which covers over 300 square miles in northwest Harris County and features over 250 miles of open streams.

[...]

The study also concluded that the remaining undeveloped land in the Cypress Creek area should be protected against development, specifically the Katy Prairie west of Houston, where vegetation and wetlands provide flood protection.

Last, a downtown Austin barbecue joint that only does pig caught the attention of Texas Monthly's Daniel Vaughn.

Sunday Funnies

Texas Greens get a shot at 2020 ballot access

A most surprising and welcome development.  Via Ballot Access News:

On May 10, the Texas House passed HB 2504.  It requires candidates nominated in convention to pay filing fees.  Currently only primary candidates pay filing fees, because Texas filing fees were always intended to help pay for the election administration costs of primaries.  The Libertarian Party is the only party on the ballot now that nominates by convention.  In the recent past, the Green Party did also.  The bill passed 77-57, with all Republicans who voted voting 'yes', and all Democrats who voted, voting 'no'.

The bill also says (see amendment) that if a party polled at least 2% for any statewide race in any of the last five elections, it is ballot-qualified.  If this provision becomes law, the Green Party will be on the ballot in 2020, because in 2016 it polled over 2% for Railroad Commissioner and two statewide judicial races.

Two aspects here as I see them:

-- The TXGOP wants to reduce its competition with the Texas Libertarian Party by squeezing some money out of their candidates, who fill the state's ballots top to bottom every two years.  (There remains the petition/signature gathering option, of course.)

Update: David Collins expands, linking to the schedule of filing fees associated with various state offices, and recalling the history of past Green petition drives that received RPT assistance.

-- Texas Republicans also want Texas Democrats to get some competition back, thus the party line vote you see in the excerpt.  With a similar majority in the state Senate, this bill would seemingly have a good chance of becoming law.  We'll be watching.

Should Democrats nominate another appalling conservative for president next year, las fortunas de Partido Verde get strengthened in the Lone Star State.  (Recall in a previous 2020 Update that US Greens appear to be coming together around Howie Hawkins.)  If Bernie Sanders -- or another D progressive -- gets tapped, the dynamic changes; Los Burros de la Izquierda get to quarrel with the GPTX while the jackass centrists sulk -- or more likely, piss and bitch louder than ever about "spoiler".  This fight could get hostile if, for example, "capitalist to her bones"/"Israel has a right to defend itself" practice genocide on the Palestinians' Elizabeth Warren winds up as the nominee.

Good times!

The Weekly Twenty Twenty Update

"Electability" is an establishment construct.

The concept of electability was on some candidates’ minds this week as they considered the potential of the eventual Democratic presidential nominee to win the general election, especially in Midwestern states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ...

But in an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted at the end of April, the preference for a candidate who matched the respondent’s views was nearly equal to preference for a nominee who could beat Trump.

Several hopefuls also spoke out this week to argue that it should not be assumed that moderate blue-collar Midwestern voters prefer a white, male candidate or even that they’re all moderate and blue collar themselves.

The establishment is Biden.

Anyone the Democrats nominate ought to be able to defeat Trump.  Hillary Clinton should have defeated Trump in a rout.  On the one hand, it's patently ridiculous for me to imagine that the Democrats could nominate someone with the most remote chance of losing to President Shitler.

On the other ...

There is is a third way: convincing Dems that "electability" is a loser's metric. Perhaps reflecting on portraits of these past presidents will set them on the path to truth. pic.twitter.com/yaqYPAAeA3

— Moondog (@mattaknox) May 9, 2019

Salon: Are centrist candidates really the most electable? It may be the opposite

Let's roll.

Michael Bennet

Bennet hit the ground running in the first week after his May 2 announcement of his 2020 presidential bid. Bennet, the 21st Democratic candidate to join the race, was in Iowa talking about the cost of education.

“Getting to free college for everybody is not a very progressive way to approach this because a lot of wealthy kids will benefit from that, but let’s see if we can get you out debt free,” Bennet told a voter, without offering any specifics.

Bennet also appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday to respond to criticism of his voting record. The senator from Colorado had previously been given an 'F' rating from progressive super PAC Demand Justice for helping to advance Trump’s judicial nominees and specifically for voting against filibustering the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch.

What, really, is the point of this man's campaign?  He's entering too late to gain a podium for the first debate (IMO).  His well-right-of-center positioning is a crowded lane.  He's not the biggest joke in the running but he's tied for second with about ten others.


Joe Biden

The former vice president received pushback from Sen. Bernie Sanders in response to a claim Biden made in March that he has “the most progressive record of anyone running.”

“I think if you look at Joe’s record and you look at my record, I don’t think there’s much question about who’s more progressive,” Sanders told ABC's Jonathan Karl in an interview from Des Moines, Iowa, that aired on This Week last Sunday. Sanders’ refutation was part of a trend of 2020 candidates defining themselves in relation to Biden.

Biden also stopped in Columbia, South Carolina Saturday to speak with African American voters and attended a private fundraiser on Saturday evening at the home of his longtime adviser Dick Harpootlian, an attorney and former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman. On Wednesday, a health care union in California held a protest at a fundraiser for Biden at the home of a board member for Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles.

A small group of members from the National Union of Healthcare Workers -- which represents 3,500 mental health clinicians who work for Kaiser Permanente in California -- stood outside the home of Cynthia Telles, a member of the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan boards of directors, to protest long wait times for patients to receive follow-up care and fight inequities between mental health care and medical health care with Kaiser Permanente.

Union president Sal Rosselli (said) that his members hope Biden, who has been an advocate for mental health care, would support the union’s position. Biden did not address the protests during his remarks at the fundraiser and the Biden campaign declined to comment to ABC News for a story.

Biden's raising money the old-fashioned way, relying on Hillary's money train, which belonged to Obama.  No mention of the words "swamp" or "drain" yet.  And again, this doesn't appear to be impacting Uncle Joe's polling yet.  Although methodology is an important consideration (pgs. 21, 22 at bottom) when assessing these polls and their relative value.

The poll spotlighted a generational divide, with Sanders leading among those 49 and younger, and Biden on top with voters 50 and older. The survey also pointed to a partisan split, with Democrats giving Biden a six point advantage, and Sanders holding a nearly two-to-one margin among independents likely to vote in the Democratic primary. New Hampshire is one of two dozen states across the county where independent voters can cast a ballot in either the Democratic or Republican primaries.

Vox's Ella Nilsen is of the opinion that New Hampshire will make or break Bernie (and Elizabeth Warren, and maybe even Biden).

Political Wire: be skeptical of Biden's surge


Cory Booker

Booker introduced what his campaign team called “the most sweeping gun violence prevention proposal ever advanced by a presidential candidate.” Booker supporters were notified Monday in an email titled: “I’m sick and tired of thoughts and prayers.”

His plan focuses on pressuring gun manufacturers to comply with new regulations and imposing rigorous oversight over their products. The senator has previously vowed to “bring a fight to the NRA like they have never ever seen before.”

In an interview with ABC’s Nightline, Booker reflected on the violence in Newark, a city he led for over seven years as mayor.

Booker told co-anchor Byron Pitts. “I’m tired of walking around cities like mine that have shrines of teddy bears and dead kids. Teddy bears and candles and places where the murders happen.”

Pete Buttigieg

On Sunday, Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, joined former President Jimmy Carter’s Sunday school class in rural south Georgia, according to the Associated Press. Carter said he knew Buttigieg from working on a Habitat for Humanity project in Indiana where the mayor volunteered.

On Friday night Buttigieg was heckled by protesters at (the Dallas County Democratic Party's Johnson-Jordan fundraising dinner).  Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was interrupted on several occasions by anti-gay remarks. Protesters yelled, “Marriage is between a man and a woman,” and “Repent,” according to a CNN reporter in the audience.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is also running for president, came to Buttigieg’s defense on Twitter. O’Rourke wrote: “Texans don’t stand for this kind of homophobia and hatred. Mayor Pete, we are grateful you came to Texas and hope to see you and Chasten back again soon.”

Julián Castro

Last Friday, Castro’s campaign announced it met the 65,000 donor threshold to earn the former Housing and Urban Development secretary a spot in the first presidential debate.

In an interview with PBS Newshour, Castro expressed confidence that his campaign “will steadily but surely get stronger and stronger,” despite polling that currently shows him in the back of the field.

He further proclaimed that he would remain in the race, at least until the Iowa caucuses next February, pushing back against the idea of stepping out of the race should his support remain stagnant.

John Delaney

Delaney was sharply critical of some of the major proposals being debated on the campaign trail, including the Green New Deal and Medicare for all, in a radio interview earlier this week, labeling them “half-baked socialist policies.”

“I’m just going to point outL their policies are bad policies,” the former Maryland congressman said in the interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.  [Emphasis mine.-PD]  “Medicare for all, in terms of the bill that’s been introduced in the Senate, is fundamentally bad health care policy. Putting aside we have no way of paying for it, even if we were able to pay for it, it still would be bad policy.”

Delaney laid out his alternative, a public health care option, in a PBS Newshour interview, arguing that Americans want to be given choices rather than be limited to one plan.

Thank you.  Next.


Tulsi Gabbard

In a fundraising email to supporters, Gabbard attacked the media, claiming that reporters were ignoring her campaign because she is “taking on … the corporate media and the military industrial complex who drive us into war for their own power and profit.”

The congresswoman from Hawaii outlined her platform in a nearly 30-minute-long interview with The Intercept on Thursday. She also talked about her decision to run for president after endorsing Sanders in 2016, her isolationist foreign policy views and her opinion that it’s time for the Democratic Party to move on from the Mueller report and focus on issues.

Some candidates get more than a fair shake in the corporate media, and some don't.


Kirsten Gillibrand

The senator from New York pledged Tuesday that, as president, she would only nominate judges who would uphold Roe v. Wade. Gillibrand acknowledged that it was unusual for presidential candidates to set such a litmus test, but argued that such a stance was necessary after “Mitch McConnell obstructed the nomination process and stole a Supreme Court seat.”

“I believe that reproductive rights are human rights, and they are nonnegotiable,” Gillibrand wrote in a Medium post. “Women in America must be trusted to make their own medical decisions and have access to the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion.”

This weekend, Gillibrand travels to New Hampshire for six stops from Friday through Saturday, including at New England College, where she will deliver a commencement address.

Gillibrand spoke in Houston last weekend (as advanced in last Friday's Update).

“What rules in Washington is power and greed...my plan is to get money out of politics and give power back to the people” @SenGillibrand HCDP Presidential Candidate Series #ProgressStartsHere pic.twitter.com/RsJJI3lq69

— Harris Democrats (@harrisdemocrats) May 4, 2019

Kamala Harris

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Harris is reworking her campaign strategy to focus more on Trump, particularly after her aggressive questioning of Attorney General William Barr during last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earned her praise.

And during a trip to Michigan last weekend, the senator from California took on the idea of “electability” -- a concept other female candidates have had to navigate as they seek higher office.

She took a direct jab at the idea of her chances to move into the White House at the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit on Sunday, the largest NAACP chapter in the country.

“There has been a lot of conversation by pundits, about electability. And who can speak to the Midwest? But when they say that, they usually put the Midwest in a simplistic box and a narrow narrative. And too often their definition of the Midwest leaves people out. It leaves out people in this room who helped build cities like Detroit,” Harris said.

I strongly encourage you to read the various takes Twitter has for you on this topic.


John Hickenlooper

Hickenlooper authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed Sunday titled “I’m running to save capitalism,” in which he explains his belief that while income inequality has led many Democrats to support socialist ideas, “capitalism is the only economic system that can support a strong middle class, a growing economy, and innovative entrepreneurs leading global technological advancements.”

The former Colorado governor concedes however that “the government has to adjust (capitalism),” making it easier for Americans to access higher education, raise wages and strengthen anti-trust laws.

I can't say this loud enough: Fuck this guy and the horse named Howard Schultz he rode in on.


Jay Inslee

The Washington governor unveiled what he called the”100% Clean Energy for America Plan,” which calls for clean energy standards with regard to electricity, new vehicles and building construction.

In conjunction with the plan -- which would begin on the first day of his presidency and attempt to achieve renewable, zero-emission energy by 2035 -- Inslee told ABC News that he is interested in retraining workers, such as coal miners, who currently labor in positions that would be affected by the plan, to work in new, clean-energy jobs.

Amy Klobuchar

Klobuchar rolled out a $100 billion proposal last Friday to fight drug and alcohol addiction and improve mental health care. In a statement announcing the initiative, the Minnesota senator tied it to her father’s alcoholism and subsequent treatment, saying that she feels “everyone should have the same opportunity my dad had … (to get the) help they need.”

The plan’s foundation includes prevention, early intervention and treatment initiatives, as well as justice reforms that would de-prioritize jail sentences for non-violent drug crimes and economic and housing opportunities to support recovery.

Completely unnoticed by most media was Klobuchar's Fox News town hall this past Wednesday.

It's worth noting that Pete Buttigieg is scheduled to appear at his own Fox town hall on May 19, and Kirsten Gillibrand on June 2.


Beto O’Rourke

On Monday, the former Texas congressman spoke at the United Steel Workers Local 310 as part of a five-day trip across Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. A union pipefitter asked O’Rourke if he would commit to a federal law that would give unions the power to collect money from non-union members for collective bargaining.

“Everyone needs to pay into the benefits that they gain as a result of those who are willing to organize and fight,” O’Rourke responded.

On Wednesday, Sasha Watson, a writer who dated O’Rourke when she was in college, penned a story for the Washington Post Magazine about watching his rise to fame.

Watching him run for Senate, she wrote, “I was no longer one of a small group of friends who watched him at a distance, but a member of the public, and I followed his campaign along with tens of thousands of people.”

Tim Ryan

In an interview with CNN last weekend, Ryan criticized Biden for saying China was “not competition,” calling the statement “stunningly out-of-touch.” The Ohio congressman elaborated by noting that China was “putting billions of dollars” behind construction in the South China Sea and investment in the solar industry.

Bernie Sanders

The senator from Vermont debuted an agriculture and rural investment plan in Iowa on Sunday which includes sweeping reforms to break up agribusiness conglomerates, establish a 'right to repair' law for farm equipment and redirect subsidies to prevent their disproportionate distribution to large producers as opposed to small farmers, among other proposals.

Sanders campaign staffers ratified a union contract with leadership this week, the first of its kind in presidential campaign history. Included in the contract are provisions that require the campaign to pay health insurance premiums for low-salaried employees and a pay ceiling for senior officials.

On Thursday, together with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Sanders proposed legislation to cap credit card interest rates at 15% and establish basic banking services at post offices.

Another very strong week for Bernie.


Eric Swalwell

Swalwell would not commit to supporting Trump’s impeachment during an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, but said the president should face “consequences,” comparing the situation to one with his children.

“We have to start taking this president seriously and speaking the only language they know, which is force and consequence,” Swalwell said on the show Sunday. “I’m a father of a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old. We’re going through the terrible twos. When my son misbehaves, we take a toy away.”

Too mealy-mouthed for the Democratic "BeatTrump" caucus.  Booker is beginning to steal Swalwell's gun-sense thunder also.


Elizabeth Warren

Warren appears on the cover of TIME this week and the accompanying profile directs a spotlight on her policy-heavy campaign.

On Wednesday, Warren released a $100 billion plan to combat opioid addiction over 10 years. Friday, Warren is scheduled to visit West Virginia, the state with the highest level of opioid-related deaths in the nation, and a state that voted for Trump in 2016. The senator will visit the town of Kermit, where in 2016 the Charleston Gazette-Mail revealed the trail of nearly 9 million opioid pills shipped to a single pharmacy in the town.

On the Senate floor Wednesday, the senator from Massachusetts read portions of the Mueller report and continued to call for Trump’s impeachment, explaining to Politico that, in the wake of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s 'case closed' pronouncement, she “felt a responsibility to go to the floor to say: 'Case not closed, buddy.'”

Warren is also continuing to build on her solid momentum.


Andrew Yang

The Des Moines Register reported Tuesday that Yang did not disclose on his campaign finance reports his monthly gifts of $1,000 to a New Hampshire family to demonstrate his proposed universal basic income plan. A spokesperson for Yang’s campaign said that their first quarter report would be updated.

Next week, Yang will hold a rally in New York City’s Washington Square Park, for which his campaign claims over 5,000 people have already RSVP’d.

Marianne Williamson

Good! She has some wonderful policies & deserves to be heard.

"Marianne Williamson reaches donor threshold for Democratic debates in June" https://t.co/8aNuqM2GOE

— Leftward Swing 🌹🌻 (@LeftwardSwing) May 10, 2019

The Week: There are officially too many Democrats for the debate stage

Politico: Desperate drive to make the debate stage shakes Dem campaigns

Think Progress: The big-name Democrats in danger of being left off the 2020 debate stage

Political Wire: DNC sets tiebreakers for debates

The Weekly Wrangle

Answering the call to action ...

Extremists at the #TXLege continue to turn lies about abortion access into laws. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Join us this Monday at our Abortion Speak Out where storytellers will speak TRUTH.

Wear ORANGE in solidarity. 🧡

More info here: https://t.co/TGMIL2vvJr pic.twitter.com/nz3U6xcbgD

— Planned Parenthood Texas Votes (@PPTXVotes) May 4, 2019

... members of the Texas Progressive Alliance joined women's rights activists at the state Capitol for a lunch time demonstration today.

Thank you @VikkiGoodwinTX for standing with us and understanding that Texas women deserve #TrustRespectAccess #TxLege pic.twitter.com/eT2mNstW9q

— Planned Parenthood Texas Votes (@PPTXVotes) May 6, 2019

A great deal more Lege coverage here in your round-up of Lone Star lefty blogs and news sources as bills reach the life-or-death stage.  The most significant bill of the entire session is HJR3 (funding public education by swapping a sales tax increase for a property tax reduction) and debate in the Senate began this morning.  Justin Miller at the Texas Observer has your primer.

Dan Patrick’s face said it all. At a Friday afternoon press conference in the Texas Capitol, the lieutenant governor looked downright sullen as Governor Greg Abbott finally admitted what everyone in the Legislature had known for months: Republicans’ high-profile plan to cap the growth of local property tax revenue at punishingly low annual rates would merely slow the increase of homeowners’ tax bills. A tax cut it was not.

As the session has advanced, the Empower Texans wing of the GOP has grown increasingly livid that party leadership, Patrick in particular, seemed to be sacrificing major property tax overhaul in favor of pumping billions of state dollars into public schools.

In a desperate attempt to assuage their critics, the Big Three are doubling down on their plan -- formally known as HJR 3 -- to secure a tax cut with a tax hike. Abbott, Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen are proposing to raise the state sales tax by 16 percent (a one cent increase to the rate) as a way to finance a big buydown of local school property taxes. This would put the Lone Star State in a tie with California for the nation’s highest sales tax rate. ...

The so-called tax swap has prompted more backlash than GOP leadership may have anticipated, forcing rank-and-file Republicans to grapple with the short-term political realities created by their party’s long-term ideological project. A generation’s worth of GOP-led tax and spending cuts have fueled an internecine crisis of underfunded schools and soaring property taxes. It’s called the Texas Miracle.

In an effort to slap a Band Aid on that festering wound, The Big Three is testing the political limits of trickle-down economics: How long will their party march in lockstep with a plan that raises taxes on the vast majority of Texans while benefiting only the upper echelon? The proposed sales tax swap would only deliver a net tax cut to households making more than $150,000, about 10 percent of Texans, the Legislative Budget Board found in a new report.

Follow the play-by-play at #HB3 or #TXLege to watch the sausage being made.

Equality Texas posts developments on pending civil rights legislation:

(On Thursday, May 2), the House State Affairs committee passed (9-2) SB 2486 (Creighton), which pre-empts local ordinances regarding private businesses with restored language protecting local mon-discrimination ordinances (NDOs). This is a huge victory for the LGBTQ community, although the work is far from over. The language is unlikely to survive Dan Patrick’s Senate, which early in the session stripped the NDO carve-out from the original bill. ...

We are also closely watching two threats that have been sent to the House Calendars Committee: HB 3899 (Springer) and HB 3172 (Krause). Both bills are vehicles for anti-LGBTQ amendments on the House floor and have the potential to deeply undercut the LGBTQ community if altered in the Senate.

As the first statistics about the number of arrests from traffic stops become known -- one of the results of the Sandra Bland Act -- Grits for Breakfast blogs that the Texas House will consider a bill (HB 2754) that limits arrests from fine-only traffic offenses.

If it's true that more than 76,000 people were arrested for Class C (misdemeanors) annually, that makes it one of the largest arrest categories. Texas DPS estimated that roughly 75,000 people per year are arrested in Texas for user-level marijuana possession, as a point of comparison. So it turns out, these arrests take up a significant chunk of police officers' time.

How much savings are we talking about? Austin PD recently changed its local policies to restrict Class C arrests in a way that conforms with the requirements of HB 2754. They saw an immediate 57% decrease in Class C arrests after the new policy was implemented, with no associated harms to public safety.

In a year when the Legislature wants to cap growth in property tax revenues, it would behoove them to also reduce local expenses. Eliminating tens out thousands of jail stays for Class C misdemeanors would be a boon to local budgets that helps counter growing caseloads and costs. (Ditto for reducing marijuana penalties, btw.)

Jeremy Wallace at the Houston Chronicle writes that the Texas Senate has voted to authorize the use of herbicides at the Rio Grande border ... to control illegal immigration.  And Luke Metzger at Environment Texas testified in support of HB 3035, a bill ending the rights of Texas companies who violate state environmental laws to profit from doing so.

There were municipal elections across the state on Saturday, and the Texas Tribune's coverage was comprehensive.  Stephen Young at the Dallas Observer recapped Big D's vote.  Sanford Nowlin at the San Antonio Current covered the Alamo City's closer-than-expected mayoral contest.  And KERA reported that despite several helping hands from Democratic presidential candidates, Deborah Peoples came up short in her bid to unseat Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, who was re-elected to an unprecedented fifth term.  And Stace at Dos Centavos congratulated one of his amigos on his election to the Santa Fe (TX) city council.

In Houston, following city council's 10-6 vote to begin terminating the employment of more than two hundred fire fighters as a result of the Proposition B ordinance, court-ordered mediation to resolve the implementation has also officially failed.

Off the Kuff goes down the redistricting rabbit hole one more time.  Michael Li Tweets from the Texas Voting Rights Act bail-in hearing.  And Texas Standard's podcast quotes Li and has more background, including the three federal judges' differing perspectives, what the plaintiffs are asking for, and what happens if the judges rule against them.

Vince Leibowitz writes at the Colorado County Citizen that the Lower Colorado River Authority has filed to intervene in the state’s lawsuit against Inland Environmental & Recycling, alleging violations of the Texas Water Code in connection with conditions at its site and contamination of the region's Skull Creek.  Mark Dent at Texas Monthly chronicles the battle between Hill Country landowners and a new pipeline cutting through.

In October, (Randy Zgabay) received a notice from Kinder Morgan, the Houston-based pipeline giant, that a portion of a 430-mile natural gas pipeline from the Permian Basin to the Houston area was slated for his 28-acre ranchette in Fredericksburg. Called the Permian Highway Pipeline, the $2 billion project threatened to gobble up 360 pecan trees that Zgabay had planted over the past fourteen years as a source of retirement income. Best he could tell, the 42-inch pipeline would also cross under the home plate of the baseball field he built for his son. But then in April, Kinder Morgan representatives told him they were shifting the pipeline route across the road onto his neighbor’s place. Zgabay is far from relieved. He estimates the Permian Highway will still be 1,200 feet from his house and 400 feet from the baseball diamond. 

[...]

(Landowners) who do not reach an agreement with Kinder Morgan -- or, like Zgabay, are among the landowners who have benefited from about 150 minor route adjustments -- could be forced to cede property through eminent domain. Their circumstances illustrate an increasingly tense tug-of-war between two of Texas’s most cherished resources: land and oil. No longer are the effects of the fracking boom confined to the drilled-to-hell oil patches of West Texas. Record amounts of fossil fuels -- about 4 million barrels of oil and 13 million cubic feet of gas per day in 2019 -- need to get from the Permian Basin to Gulf Coast refineries and the global market.

Downwinders at Risk won a $20,000 grant from Ben and Jerry's Foundation to help build a new high-tech air quality monitoring network in the DFW area.

Christof Spieler at Trains, Buses, People analyzes the forthcoming Houston Metro referendum.

SocraticGadfly asks in the wake of his recent arrest: is Julian Assange a journalist?

Latino Rebels sees JOLT using quinceañeras to increase Latino turnout in Texas.

Harry Hamid has been blogging about his experiences as a cancer patient.

The Rivard Report has a story about the just-concluded oyster season in Rockport.

And after seeing Bob Seger for the final time live in concert, Bob Ruggerio of the Houston Press noted that while "Sweet 16 turned 73", rock n' roll never, ever forgets.

Sunday Funnies

North Korea billed Trump $2 million for Otto Warmbier's hospital bills

'Recipe for Disaster': Trump guts offshore drilling rules put in place after Deepwater Horizon spill

The Weekly Twenty Twenty Update

Let's open the Update with some Texas events happening this weekend.  First:

HCDP is excited to have @SenGillibrand kicking off our Presidential Candidate Speaker Series on Saturday, May 4th at @StJohnsDowntown. We hope you plan to join to us. Admission is ONLY $5 and EVERYONE is welcome. Get your tickets today! #2020election https://t.co/E2XVM1z6sj https://t.co/GHtDtPjTtv

— Harris Democrats (@harrisdemocrats) April 26, 2019

Mayor Pete is also holding a Houston fundraiser Saturday night (the cheap seats are all sold).

Update: The TexTrib, via Progrexas, covered Buttigieg's address to Dallas County Democrats at their Johnson-Jordan dinner as well as Beto's Friday night rally in Cowtown.  Excerpts:

Before launching into his 2020 stump speech, O’Rourke addressed a more urgent matter: the mayoral election Saturday in Fort Worth. Deborah Peoples, the chairwoman of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, is challenging incumbent Betsy Price, one of the few remaining GOP big-city mayors. She is vying for an unprecedented fifth term.

Bernie Sanders has also endorsed Peoples.  And Julián Castro will appear at a GOTV rally alongside the challenger Saturday morning.

From the start of his speech, Buttigieg emphasized the need for Democrats to be able to express their values in a way that wins over Republicans. Democrats in red states have an advantage, he explained, saying they often have developed “a better vocabulary for making those values better understood and making those values understood by more people, and I believe that is especially needed in (this) moment.”

===============

With Sen. Mike Bennet's declaration -- he is the second Coloradoan conservaDem, tailing former Gov. John Frackenlooper -- the field is up to ...

There are now 21 Democrats running for president. https://t.co/c8NQ0puztV pic.twitter.com/krUB8przkn

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) May 3, 2019

Squishy centrist/solid establishmentarian Jonathan Capehart of the WaPo polled his Twitizens and found they prefer two of the front-running women.

Opinion: What happened when I asked Twitter to choose among the 21 Democrats https://t.co/8MYMPHIjrK

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 3, 2019

On we go to FiveThirtyEight.com's wrangle, augmented by yours truly.


Stacey Abrams

Abrams announced Tuesday that she would not seek the Democratic nomination in Georgia’s 2020 Senate election, prompting increased speculation that she could mount a presidential bid, particularly after she said in a radio interview that day that she “keeps giving thoughts to other opportunities.”

Abrams spoke in Houston on Friday, at a luncheon sponsored by Annie's List.

“I’m here to tell you a secret that makes Breitbart and Tucker Carlson go crazy: We won,” Abrams said to loud applause before teasing a potential second bid for governor. “I am not delusional. I know I am not the governor of Georgia -- possibly yet.”

Abrams is one of several high-profile Democrats (as we finally learned here in Deep-In-The-Hearta, Joaquin Castro is another) taking a pass on '20 US Senate bids.  This still-unfolding development bodes poorly for retaking the upper Congressional chamber next year.  By extension, items of Democratic criticality such as impeachment, blocking undesirable SCOTUS and other federal judicial appointments, honoring international treaties, and so forth would be nullified -- as they are presently -- should Democrats fail to nominate a candidate who can defeat Trump.


Joe Biden

After entering the presidential race last week, Biden appeared on ABC’s “The View,” was interviewed with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, by Robin Roberts of “Good Morning America,” and then held his first campaign event Monday in Pittsburgh before continuing on to Iowa for a two-day tour of the Hawkeye State.

 In Pittsburgh, Biden courted union voters and earned the endorsement of the International Association of Fire Fighters, a decision met with derision by President Donald Trump, who launched a tweetstorm Wednesday in the wake of the announcement.

During the interview that aired on “Good Morning America” Tuesday, the Bidens addressed issues from the former vice president’s past that have drawn criticism, including the treatment of Anita Hill during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ 1991 confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in which Biden said she wasn’t “treated well.”

“I apologize again because, look, here’s the deal. She just did not get treated fair across the board. The system did not work,” he added.

That's an understatement.  Biden's entry has been greeted with a host of prior questionable remarks, videotaped for posterity.  Here's one.

Joe Biden: "I actually like Dick Cheney... I get on with him. I think he's a decent man."

He adds that Cheney was "extremely helpful" about the "legal parameters" of the VP office. Without irony.

Mondale then says his view of Cheney is "a little bit different." The crowd laughs pic.twitter.com/udjSlSCrZV

— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) May 2, 2019

Anita Hill isn't accepting Joe Biden's apology

Joe Biden's promise to Make America Great Again

Biden launches bid with fundraiser filled with corporate lobbyists and GOP donors

All this doesn't seem to be affecting his popularity much in the early going.


Cory Booker

The New Jersey senator wrapped up his 'Justice for All' tour last weekend before heading back to Washington to take part in the Senate Judiciary Committee questioning of Attorney General William Barr.

During the hearing, Booker took issue with the language Barr used in his press conference the morning of the release of the Mueller report, saying his remarks were “alarming” and called “into question (his) objectivity when you look at the actual context of the report.”

He later called for Barr’s resignation, tweeting that “it’s become clear that (Barr) lied to us and mishandled the Mueller report.”

Booker's moment seemed a bit more glorious than suggested here.  Look here:

When Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., brought up how then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort shared polling data in August 2016 with his former business associate, Konstantin Kilimnik -- identified by prosecutors as having ties to Russian intelligence -- Barr struggled.

"What information was shared?" Barr asked, prompting Booker to reply, "Polling data was shared, sir. It's in the report."

"With who?" Barr followed up.

Pete Buttigieg

The South Bend, Indiana mayor and his husband Chasten are featured on the cover of Time Magazine this week, and the pair’s relationship and Buttigieg’s recent rise in the presidential field are featured in a profile.

Buttigieg calls himself a “policy guy” in the story, elaborating, “Every good policy that I’ve developed in my administration happened not because I cooked it up on the campaign, kept the promise intact and then delivered it, but because I stated a priority in one of my campaigns, ­interacted with my legislative body and my community, and developed something that really served people well.”

Chasten Buttigieg was the focus of his own Washington Post profile, in which his coming-out story, bout with homelessness and popularity on Twitter were detailed.

The corporate media is still fawning, but the bloom is coming of the rose elsewhere.

I like the man, but hot take: Mayor Pete Buttigieg is gonna milk his slightly above average looks to appeal to moderate women who feel comfortable sexualizing him because they don't feel threatened by his sexuality. https://t.co/virmu6sxfo

— 🇲🇽🇱🇧 grandiloquent 🎭grandma (@nuggetnatz) May 3, 2019

'Zero policies'?  What 'zero policies'?

How hard is it for women like Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris to breakthrough?

Pete Buttigieg won’t commit to universal healthcare or a living wage. He has ZERO plans for college tuition help or early childhood education.

Media: OMG but he speaks Norwegian!!!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

— [redacted] (@seankent) April 28, 2019

Vox's guide to where 2020 Democrats stand on policy

Ted Rall: The Democratic candidates on foreign policy


Julián Castro

Castro was one of the first presidential candidates to call for Barr to resign from his position.

 In an interview with CNN, he explained that he believed Barr was “completely compromised,” having “actively tried to mislead the public and Congress.”

The former Housing and Urban Development secretary toured tunnels beneath Las Vegas last weekend that have been used by some of the city’s homeless population as shelter, described later by a spokesperson it as an “eye-opening” experience.

Tulsi Gabbard

Gabbard’s focus on foreign policy continued this week, including in a Fox News interview in which she expressed concern over how the conflict in Venezuela would affect the U.S. and Russia.

“Any time we are in this situation where you have tensions being ratcheted up and this conflict being pushed closer and closer between nuclear-armed countries like the United States and countries like Russia and China, this is something that poses an existential threat to the American people,” the Hawaii congresswoman said.

Kirsten Gillibrand

The New York senator announced a 'clean elections' plan Wednesday, calling for public campaign financing to replace the “corrupting influence of big donors and special interests on politicians,” her campaign said in a press release.

The initiative would provide $200 to every adult U.S. citizen to allocate to the federal candidates of their choosing in order to fund campaigns. In order to be eligible to receive such donations, candidates would not be allowed to take contributions of over $200, according to the plan.

3/ Meanwhile, the liberal group End Citizens United (@StopBigMoney) is praising @SenGillibrand's campaign $$ reform plan, even though it doesn't overtly call for ending 'Citizens United'.

Statement from the group: pic.twitter.com/9dLAVgthSI

— Dave Levinthal (@davelevinthal) May 1, 2019

Kamala Harris

After Harris’ questioning of Barr during Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the California senator was singled out by Trump who said she was “probably very nasty” to the attorney general, during an interview with the Fox Business Network.

Harris joined with several other Democratic candidates in calling for Barr’s resignation, saying in an MSNBC interview that he was aware he was misleading the public and tweeting that his responses to her questions at the hearing -- including his acknowledgement that he did not review all of the special counsel’s underlying evidence prior to writing his summary of the Mueller report -- were “unacceptable.”

Seth Moulton

In an interview with Reuters, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., criticized his fellow 2020 presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for pushing America “too far left,” and for being just as “divisive” as Trump.

“The problem with some of the candidates in our party is that they’re divisive in the same way that Trump has been so divisive,” Moulton said. “They are pitting different parts of America against each other.”

I sincerely hope that the next time I include Moulton in a weekly update, it is to reference his withdrawal from the race.

What does it mean to be a 'Centrist' if you never attack Republicans over botched foreign policy?


Beto O’Rourke

O’Rourke released his first major presidential candidacy policy proposal outlining what he would do as president to combat what his campaign calls the “existential threat of climate change.”

The $5 trillion plan calls for federal investment to “transform” the nation’s infrastructure “and empower our people and communities to lead the climate fight,” according to a campaign memo released Monday.

O’Rourke also signed a “No Fossil Fuel Money pledge” to reject and return donations by oil and gas executives.

Inslee hits O'Rourke: 'He did not lead on climate change in Congress'

"Beto O'Rourke will need to answer why he did not lead on climate change in Congress and why he voted on the side of oil companies to open up offshore drilling,” the Inslee campaign wrote. “We look forward to a climate debate — where voters will have the opportunity to hear about which candidates have a strong, extensive record of fighting climate change and which candidates have a record of siding with fossil fuel companies."

I think Beto will be an afterthought by the fall, and if I'm right, it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see him enter the race against John Cornyn.


Bernie Sanders

In response to Barr’s Senate testimony on the Mueller report, the Vermont senator appeared on Sirius XM radio and called his actions “outrageous,” but did not go as far to call for his resignation as some of his other 2020 presidential competitors have.

Sanders will be in Iowa this weekend and is set to deliver a major agriculture policy address in Osage.

How Bernie Sanders Missed the Mark at She The People

This is the best analysis I have read on this topic.


Eric Swalwell

The California congressman officially qualified for the Democratic presidential primary debates after polling at at least 1 percent in three polls recognized by the Democratic National Committee.

Following the deadly shooting at the Poway, California synagogue, Swalwell was the only presidential candidate to directly mention Trump, saying in a response to Trump’s tweet, “Spare us your thoughts and prayers. It’s an alibi for inaction. You told the NRA yesterday you’d keep dangerous guns in the hands of dangerous people. We will take it from here with action.”

Elizabeth Warren

A Quinnipiac University poll published this week showed the senator from Massachusetts up eight points and ranked second behind Biden.

Warren, in an Essence Magazine op-ed, rolled out her latest policy proposal announcements, on how she intends to improve the structure of the country’s health care system when it comes to the “epidemic” of maternal mortality rates of women of color.

Warren also found herself in a Twitter back-and-forth with Amazon after she described the company as a giant corporation that’s using it’s influence to stomp out the little guys, saying sellers who use their marketplace are seeing “record sales every year.”

Bill Weld (R)

The former Massachusetts governor penned an op-ed weighing in on Barr’s Senate testimony on the Mueller report.

While Weld has stopped short of calling for Barr’s resignation, he did target the attorney general in his New Hampshire Journal op-ed saying, “Barr’s own remarks make clear that his review of the Mueller Report was limited to whether to seek criminal charges against the President or members of his campaign on the issue of collusion.”

Socratic Gadfly reviewed Weld's chances.

Read about the candidates I left off here.