The Weekly Wrangle

With this week's lefty blog post roundup, the Texas Progressive Alliance thinks lacking human decency should be considered a pre-existing condition.

Off the Kuff took a look at the already-crowded field vying to knock off Rep. John Culberson.

Easter Lemming recapped the disappointing Pasadena election, and the the Lewisville Texan Journal also has posted results for elections held there over the weekend.

SocraticGadfly snuck into FBI Director James Comey's Senate testimony hearing and found out the 10 real takeaways.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme noted that Texas Republicans are just as greedy and mean spirited as ever. Insurance industry over consumers and papers please for profiled people.

Dos Centavos saw Greg Abbott's signing of the anti-sanctuary legislation as an outlawing of brown skin.  And on Cinco de Mayo, John Coby at Bay Area Houston issued a call to arms (to the polls).

Texas Leftist decried the passage of Trumpcare by the US House, and Ted at jobsanger sees racism as the cause for the GOP abandoning their own plan.

Texas Vox advanced the state's solar energy conference to be held in Austin in June, as energy entrepreneurs throughout the state will convene and network.

On Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) the Empire struck back, observed PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at All People Have Value attended May Day protests in Houston that called for fair wages for all. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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The Rivard Report takes a look at the San Antonio mayor's election, where a runoff between incumbent Ivy Taylor and city council member Ron Nirenberg will determine the winner.

From KERA, allegations of voter fraud have delayed the election results of a city council seat in west Dallas, with a runoff likely.  And All Ablog Austin has the final poll numbers from the Central Texas counties of Travis, Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop.

Equality Texas has the call to action on some of the more hateful legislation on tap this week from the Lege, including HB 3859, a bill that would allow child welfare organizations, agencies, employees, and foster parents that contract with the state to discriminate against LGBTQ families and others when making foster care and adoption decisions.

Texas Watch marks the passage of the House version of the Blue Tarp Bill, with the Senate still to vote on its own, and Grits for Breakfast rounds up a few of the police accountability bills that are bottled up in the Lege.

Via the Texas Tribune and the Austin American Statesman, the Texas House passed two other noteworthy bills: eliminating the governor's right to appoint his donors to state posts, and doing away with the straight-party ticket voting button.

RG Ratcliffe at Burkablog documents the trend toward partisan local elections (which used to be much more non-partisan).

Texas has experienced an alarming spike in pedestrian deaths throughout the state, with drunk or distracted walking blamed as the cause, reports CultureMap Houston.

Somervell County Salon ruminates for the easily amused about the demise of net neutrality, and Pages of Victory excerpts from a recent article wondering why, in the face of such repeated and terrible Republican action, the Democrats keep losing to them.

Sunday Mildly Nauseous Funnies

On Star Wars Day, The Empire struck back

May the Fourth was with somebody but not those of us with pre-existing conditions.

After US House Republicans finally -- barely -- repealed Obamacare, they celebrated with a beer bust.  Hope they got a cut rate on their Bud Lite.  Maybe Keystone Light would have been cheaper, added a little more to the symbolism?

It's not over; the Senate (to hear them tell it) is basically planning on ripping the House bill up and starting over.  That might be good news, it might be bullshit.  Don't mistake Lindsey Graham for the last of the Jedi, despite his skepticism.

“Any bill that has been posted less than 24 hours, going to be debated three or four hours, not scored? Needs to be viewed with suspicion.”

Bernie Sanders thanked Trump for supporting Medicare for All -- something Texas Congressman and still lone 2018 US Senate candidate Beto O'Rouke has yet to express publicly, despite his recent fundraising emails declaring healthcare is a human right -- and promised to quote President Cheetolini on the floor of the upper chamber as the AHCA gets its sausage repacked into something perhaps more edible.

In Austin, The Empire struck back a day early, passing Arizona-style "papers please" legislation (SB4, the anti-sanctuary bill) despite the copious tears of internet sensation Gene Wu and others.  The most cogent analysis came from RG Ratcliffe at Burkablog, who stated simply that the Lone Star business lobby, unable to focus on more than one battle at a time, caved on immigrants rights in exchange for fighting what we still hope will be a winning one on the bathroom bill.

I don't agree, by the way, that the Texas House did the same.  Joe Straus telegraphed anti-sanctuary legislation early in this session,  and the electoral facts are that no Republican who voted against SB4 could be reasonably expected to withstand a primary challenge from his or her right in 2018, and that would produce a Balkanized lower chamber in 2019 looking much like a Senate led by Lav Lord Patrick, which is to say some more conservative Speaker than Straus.  This acknowledges another political reality: Texas Democrats will continue to lose just as hard as always.

There's a long court battle ahead (and it will begin right away) on immigrants rights, and Texas may come out less favorably at the end of it than did Arizona given the Fifth Circuit and Justice Gorsuch and all, but at least there's some precedent that gives hope.   Don't count on any help from Sith Apprentice Sessions at the DOJ.

The good news out of the Lege this week is limited: you probably won't have to get your car inspected any longer, and you might get to smoke a little weed if the doctor says you're sick enough.

So the Resistance/Rebellion needs more heroes, maybe younglings stepping up next year.  Enjoy your Cinco de Mayo anyway, parade or happy hour or no.