Thursday, June 27, 2019

Voy a patear te el culo

"I'm going to kick your ass".


The former San Antonio mayor had been running below the radar -- WAY below the radar -- until Wednesday night. That is likely to change after his performance, in which he was able to carve out a remarkable amount of speaking time for a candidate polling somewhere between 0% and 1%. (An hour into the debate, Castro had spoken as much as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who is in the midteens in national polling, according to a count kept by the Washington Post. Hugely helpful!) Castro's battering of Beto O'Rourke on immigration was hard to watch (especially if you were related to O'Rourke), but a clear win for Castro.

Even the TexTrib poll, reported in the Wrangle ten days ago, showed Castro tied with Tulsi Gabbard here in Deep-In-The-Hearta, with 3% apiece.  This is -- should be -- the moment we mark as Beto's final mistake.  He was never tough enough to take on Ted Cruz, and when JuliĆ”n punched him in the nose last night, he reeled around the ring and toppled over.  Good night, Bob.

Tulsi also whipped some white man culo.

Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran and frequent critic of U.S. foreign policy, shot back at (Ohio Cong. Tim) Ryan after he said the United States needs to stay "engaged" in hotspots like Afghanistan.

"As a soldier, I will tell you that answer is unacceptable," Gabbard said, urging the U.S. to pull back and focus on America.

"When we weren’t there, they started flying planes into our buildings," Ryan replied. "If we go in there and say we want to withdraw from the world -- that’s what President Trump is saying."

Gabbard noted it was Al Qaeda, not the Taliban, that attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, and said, "The Taliban was there long before we got in and will be there long after we leave."


(What is the 'Rachel Madcow smear'?  Glad you asked.)

So while Trump, Joe Biden, and Liz Warren -- the elephants in the room -- escaped unscathed, some people won by not losing.  Not Chuck Todd, however. 

Some of these ten will now fade away (we all hope).


Look for a preview of Fight Night 2 later this afternoon.
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Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Fight Night (hopefully not Fright Night)


Arranged from left (with the best-polling candidates in the middle), the lineup for Wednesday night’s first debate is:

  1. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
  2. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan
  3. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary JuliƔn Castro
  4. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
  5. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
  6. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke
  7. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
  8. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
  9. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee
  10. Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney

Recent polling suggests that a shitload of Democrats don't know who these candidates are, much less what they stand for.

Only 22% of Democrats registered to vote say they know a lot about the candidates’ positions, while 62% say they know a little. And only 35% say they’re paying close attention to the campaign, with almost two-thirds saying they’re paying some or no attention.

“It’s kind of a blur,” said Maggie Banks, 32, of suburban Denver, who has two young children and only has a chance to glean a few details about the race while listening to National Public Radio during her commute.

Banks said she has only a “vague” idea of who’s running and didn’t realize her state’s senior senator, Michael Bennet, or former governor John Hickenlooper were in the race.

Odds are we'll get to late October 2020, and the media will find a few 'Muricans in a Walmart parking lot who, when asked, scratch themselves and look confused and say, "I'm undecided" about whether to vote for Trump or whichever Democrat gets nominated.  And the rest of us will scream, or roll our eyes, or grit our teeth, or react in some way that communicates our full disgust.

Ultra-low information voters might be the bane of democracy's existence.

But here, among the allegedly well-informed in early primary season -- the 'changing room' segment of the cycle -- everyone who cares about what the Donks are doing could at least be open-minded enough to try on different candidates for a good fit.  Yes or no?

I mean, if you're "vote blue no matter who", then why do you care who wins the primary?


-- Do policies matter ... or just 'defeat Trump'?  Of those ten facing off tonight, Warren is most certainly demonstrating the former premise is the right path.  Even if her policies originated as *ahem* someone else's.

-- Is So-and-So just too grouchy, or out of touch, or inexperienced, or old, or young, or too conservative or moderate or liberal or progressive for me?  What's my 'Goldilocks zone'?

Yes, the media will pick the president if you let them.  The corporate talking heads inform, but also distort with their own bias.  That's why you might be better off with CSPAN whenever they are an option.  (They are not, tonight and tomorrow night.)  Maybe turn off the post-debate spinmeisters, and ignore the Thursday morning quarterbacking ... which, naturally, I'll be doing.  (Calling the game, not passing over it, that is).  With regard to social media, Twitter is a cesspool, and also invaluable for the very latest breaking news and often the most insightful analysis, as well as being wickedly sharp, brevity being the soul and all that.

CNN sucks, except when it doesn't.  MSDNC is a bunch of cheerleaders except when they aren't.  Fox is Fox unless you're watching Sheperd Smith.  Anybody been checking FrontPageLive, former Fox reporter-turned critic Carl Cameron's new venture?

Your personal, customized filters are automatically engaged, but for Doorknob's sake be aware of your biases and try not to get stuck in your silos.
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Monday, June 24, 2019

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance needs this weekend to recover from its Pride partying this past weekend to be ready for the long Independence Day weekend.  Weekend after next.



Here's your round-up of the best of the left of and about Deep-In-The-Hearta from last week!

Wednesday evening's first Democratic debate features the two Texans, Beto O'Rourke and JuliĆ”n Castro.  Both have some work to do to move into the first tier of front-runners.  PDiddie at Brains and Eggs updated his regular weekly post about the primary race on Sunday, after the South Carolina Democratic convention took place.

State Sen. Royce West remains the leader in the hottest rumored 'next contestant' parlor game in the run-up to the "Beat John Cornyn in 2020" sweepstakes.

Asked for comment Friday (June21), West said in a text message, "I'll make a decision whether to run next month."


Texas Monthly's "Best and Worst Legislators" contained few surprises to those of us who followed the past session closely.

News about the wretched conditions that migrants being held by Trump's ICE are forced to endure continues to be a national topic.  A Twitter war broke out over whether 'concentration camps' was the right phrase to describe the facilities, an indication that the moral, Christian, Golden Rule values espoused by the administration are a fraud.  But some organizations are pitching in to help.

The 2020 Census will be the next big test for Texas children, writes Better Texas Blog, and as the Lone Star State continues to be among the ten worst for kids in the nation in overall child well-being, an undercount will leave more children underserved.

Texas Latinos will soon be the state's largest ethnic group, Stephen Young at the Dallas Observer blogs, which helps explain why the TXGOP is working so hard to suppress their vote.

Off the Kuff laments the sweetheart deal Ken Paxton keeps getting from the criminal justice system.

Socratic Gadfly notes that -- as most recently illustrated by the Assange arrest -- the media, the courts and the public all alike are often selective in their support of all five freedoms of the First Amendment.

Jef Rouner stays on top of the Communism situation in The Woodlands.

Bill Dawson at Texas Climate News says these hot summer nights we're experiencing across the state are getting hotter as climate change progresses.  Christopher Collins at the Texas Observer reports that nearly 500,000 Texans live in communities with contaminated water, and our Congress critters aren't doing much about it.

Laredo residents will be able to participate locally in the award-winning film preservation program "Texas Film Round-Up" in July.  LareDOS has more details.

Through a partnership with the Texas Film Commission, the Texas Film Round-Up provides free digitization for films and videotapes, including local commercials, home movies, industrial films, and educational documentaries to preserve Texas media heritage. To qualify for free digitization, the films and videos must be Texas related, and participants must be willing to donate a digital copy of their materials to the project. The materials will be digitized in Austin and returned by mail to the owners, along with a digital copy.

Texas Leftist debuts posting a transcript of his Ingressive Voices podcast.

Zachery Taylor publishes his summer reading list of books from the progressive underground.

Harry Hamid has a tale of being auctioned as a slave by King Cicada.

Mariann G. Wizard at The Rag Blog posts about the memorial service for Austin newspaper publisher Akwasi Evans, who passed in April and whose life was celebrated yesterday.

Akwasi Evans, right, and Mariann Wizard at Marilyn Buck benefit, June 25, 2010, in Austin. 
Photo by Alan Pogue / The Rag Blog


In Texas Standard's news round-up of June 21, authorities in the Dominican Republic say that a Texas man is the accused ringleader of the shooting of baseball star David Ortiz, and that Ortiz was not even the intended victim.

Finally, Susie Tommaney at the Houston Press has a long list of Fourth of July events in the and around the Bayou City.
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