The Weekly Wrangle

With this week's lefty blog and news roundup, the Texas Progressive Alliance would like to know if Energy Secretary Rick Perry pronounces the word "nuk-ya-ler" or "new-clee-ur".

Off the Kuff looks at precinct data in Senate districts, which present some interesting opportunities next year.

Libby Shaw at Daily Kos is not surprised that a political party -- aka Trump's Republican Russian Party -- that relies upon gerrymandering, voter suppression efforts, dirty dark money, and Russian hackers (ed. note: sic) to win elections is hard-wired for right wing authoritarianism and corporate fascism.

Socratic Gadfly heard about President Obama's new book coming out, got a secret advance copy through The Dark Side and wrote up a quick review.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees the Trump angry white man as a domestic abuser. Texas Republicans vote to increase maternal deaths spawning trickle down violence against women.

While most DC Democrats were focused on Trump's latest Russian affair, Bernie Sanders went to Mississippi to rally with Nissan autoworkers who've been abused by the automaker's plant managers there.   PDiddie at Brains and Eggs wonders when the Democrats who want labor's help in 2018 will start showing up to support the working class.

jobsanger uses the Texas Tribune's data to bar-graph the cost per vote to elect Texas Congressional representatives in the 2016 election.

The Lewisville Texan Journal published an LTTE reminding Cong. Michael Burgess that citizen activists at town hall meetings are not paid protestors.

In the run-up to yesterday's Harris County Democratic chair election (won by Lillie Schechter), John Coby at Bay Area Houston posted twice, about the candidates and about their campaign treasurers (or lack thereof).

And Neil at All People Have Value was once again out on the streets of Houston asking for kindness and respect for all.  APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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The CERAWeek conference opens in Houston today.  It's a gathering of oil company executives as well as government officials of oil-producing nations, and there's more at stake than usual, as OPEC and some non-OPEC countries such as Russia agreed to production cuts at the end of last November in order to stabilize global oil prices.  That worked, but now that oil has risen back into the mid-50s, US companies are ramping up domestic fracking operations, and that threatens the game of Jenga they all began three months ago.

Exxon Mobil in particular has a lot at stake with shale plays, especially in the Permian Basin.  So there may be repercussions to the new petroleum world order, or there may be just some threats and bluster coming out of CERAWeek.  It's news worth looking out for, as speakers include author Daniel Yergin, EPA chief Scott Pruitt, and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (keynoting on March 9).

The Midland Reporter-Telegram sees that US oil exports have already exceeded one million barrels per day, adding to the business opportunities for West Texas producers.

The San Antonio Express News (via Sayfie Review Texas) writes about two bills in the Texas Lege that aim to protect kids from the anti-vaxx crowd, and the Texas Election Law Blog analyzes two more bills that would limit voting.

Grits for Breakfast still opposes a law against texting while driving.

Texas Freedom Network notes that the public hearing for Senate Bill 6, aka the bathroom bill, is scheduled on the same day that a parade of prominent anti-LGBT speakers will join Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Ken Paxton at a so-called “Pastors’ Briefing” at the state capital.

Somervell County Salon wants to know why Trump's babysitters are taking weekends off.

Pages of Victory also noticed Bernie Sanders' helping hand to organized labor by rallying with Nissan workers in Canton, MS.

The Lunch Tray assures us that Betsy DeVos doesn't have the power to change the National School Lunch Program, but Congressional Republicans and other federal officials do.

Lone Star Ma focuses on the 15th of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals: forestry management, desertification, land degradation, and biodiversity loss.

The TSTA Blog reminds us that vouchers never truly go away.

Better Texas Blog finds the Republicans' Obamacare replacement plans to be wanting.

And Houstonia has photos and a story about the history of the trail riders, who arrived in Houston for the Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Sunday "What? Where?" Funnies

Bernie Sanders goes to the mat for Nissan autoworkers

He's doing the jobs the Democratic Party won't do.

Senator Bernie Sanders is leading a protest Saturday against what activists are calling civil rights violations by Nissan.

Sanders will join actor Danny Glover, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, politicians and activists at a Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi.

The activists cite "a pattern of civil rights abuses by Nissan against its predominantly African-American workforce in Mississippi," according to a statement from the march's organizers.

The automaker's efforts to stifle its workers range from the typical to the outrageous.

One of Nissan's first Canton employees, Chip Wells, told Sanders the harassment he received in response to taking his pro-union views public was so extreme — he described being targeted for unreasonable discipline — the stress caused him to take medical leave. When his physician cleared him, though, Nissan wouldn't let him return, he said. Wells' story is just one of many that some employees say illustrates a culture of distrust at Nissan, where supporters of unionizing efforts say workers have little voice and little of their superiors' respect.

Wells ultimately filed an unfair labor complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, and Nissan settled in 2014.

More on today's protest rally.  The grievances have gone across the pond.

Earlier last year, members of the French Parliament questioned Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of Japan-based Nissan and CEO of France-based Renault, which partners with Nissan, about the conditions at the Canton plant. The French government owns 19.7 percent of stockholder voting shares in Renault, which controls more than 40 percent of Nissan's voting shares.

In an effort to take its concerns international, UAW filed a complaint in December with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in three overseas countries.

"Everything has been done to prevent the formation of a union. Even efforts by the OECD and all other undertakings have not made a difference," said French politician Jean-Luc Laurent, according to a translated video of the February 2016 hearing. "So you may say that this may not be of concern because it is Nissan, not Renault, and it's not in France. However, France is attached to a social model, to workers rights because it is a component to industrial success."

Be sure and read this article about the Kelly Service temps hired by Nissan at lower-than-Nissan wages, who were promised full-time jobs after six months, some of whom have been there three years without having been converted.  It's Mississippi, after all, where 80% of the workers are African American and are easily intimidated by that "be thankful you have a job " crap.

This effort checks a lot of boxes for Bernie's Revolutionary mission: coming to the aid of black working class Americans getting beaten up by a foul multi-national corporation.

While Alex Acosta is no Andy Puzder, and with Trump and the GOP Congress' efforts to stamp out unions via a national "right to work" (sic) law the goal, let's see how long it takes for a few weak-kneed Democrats who want labor's support in 2018 to get on this bandwagon.