Monday, October 28, 2019

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance encourages you to enjoy Halloween -- and to be sure you vote -- as it brings you this week's roundup of the best lefty blogs, Tweets, and news from around and about the Lone Star State from the past week.


Despite the toppling of the Republican leader of the Texas House, the work of the Texas Legislature (unfortunately) goes on.  Kuff bid adieu to soon-to-be-former Speaker Dennis Bonnen, brought low by his dumb decision to trust Michael Quinn Sullivan and his own trash mouth.

(Bonnen) will be the first Speaker to serve only a single term since Price Daniel (D) in 1973-75. Ironically, Daniel also lost the support of his political base during the interim following what was widely viewed as a successful legislative session. In Daniel’s case, it was a right-to-work compromise with conservatives during a failed constitutional convention and a falling out with organized labor, which Daniel blamed for the convention’s failure. However, Daniel had pledged to serve only one term as Speaker, so his political miscalculation did not cost him the gavel.




TXElects has more election news.

HD36: Mission insurance agent Abraham Padron re-established his campaign committee for a potential Democratic primary rematch against Rep. Sergio Muñoz Jr. (D-Mission). Padron spent nearly $400K on an unsuccessful 2016 primary challenge, losing to Muñoz, 60%-40%.

HD76 open: El Paso council member Claudia Ordaz Perez announced she would seek the seat being vacated by Rep. Cesar Blanco (D-El Paso), who is running to succeed the retiring Sen. Jose Rodriguez (D-El Paso). By announcing, Ordaz Perez has resigned her council seat, though she will continue to serve until a successor is chosen in a special election.

Ordaz Perez won a four-way 2014 special election outright (65%) before being elected to a full term in 2015 (73%). She was re-elected in 2018 (72%). Just eight of the 45 precincts comprising HD76 are located within Ordaz Perez’s council district, representing about 18% of votes cast in HD76 in the 2018 general election. She faces Elisa Tamayo, a former aide to Blanco who has been endorsed by most of the El Paso legislative delegation.

HD126: Houston petroleum field service technician Pete Salas established a campaign committee for a potential challenge of Rep. Sam Harless (R-Spring) as a Libertarian.

HD25 open: Angleton attorney and council member Cody Vasut announced he would seek the seat being vacated by Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton). Lake Jackson nurse Rhonda Seth is already in the race.

HD138: Harris Co. Dept. of Education board member and former State Republican Executive Committee member Josh Flynn, son of Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van), re-established a campaign committee for a potential run for the seat being vacated by Rep. Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston). Flynn was elected to the county school board in 2018 (50.3%). We previously reported that Josh Flynn was “very interested” in the race.

As Houston's municipal elections head for the finish line, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs posted P-Slates 1 (mayor and at-large), 2 (district city council), and 3 (state constitutional amendments).




There was yet another shooting in Texas over the weekend, at a Halloween/homecoming party attended by college-aged students in the northeastern region of the state.

Two people were killed and 12 others injured when a gunman opened fire at an off-campus college party in Texas.

Authorities are searching for the gunman in the shooting that happened around midnight Saturday. They believe he may have been targeting just one person at the party of about 750 people outside Greenville, some 15 miles from Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Authorities had originally said two people were killed and 14 others were injured, but later revised that figure.

A spokesman for the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office says the injured included six people who were trampled or hurt by glass in the melee.

More shooting broke out at a memorial for one of those who died.

The vigil took place Sunday night at a park in Dallas. Local media outlets say attendees and reporters on hand for the event took cover. Multiple gunshots can be heard in video posted by one reporter. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but the vehicle for one station was struck by bullets.

It’s unclear how many people were shooting.

Family members told local media that the vigil was being held for 23-year-old Kevin Berry Jr. of Dallas.

As the Democratic presidential primary seems to be in a state of flux, G. Elliott Morris examines the value of 2020 general election polls at this point in the cycle.  PDiddie wasn't the only one that noticed the Clinton wing of shitty liberals completely lost their minds.


In the race to replace John Cornyn in the US Senate, the Texas Signal hosted a forum with six of the candidates.  Here's their Q&A with Sema Hernandez.


Sanford Nowlin at the San Antonio Current noted Cornyn's latest deep dive up Trump's ass.


Nonsequiteuse, on Twitter, reviews the Astros' front office debacle.


The Daily Texan decries UT's lack of action against professors who have been accused of sexual misconduct with students.



In Austin, at the Texas Book Festival:


SocraticGadfly did his alt-history schtick again and imagines a world that never had American Indians indigenous Americans.

The TPA congratulates Noah Horwitz -- as Noah congratulated himself -- for passing the bar exam.

And the TPA celebrated the life of Houston activist C. J. Yeoman.


Last, to observe the season of scary things, Asher Elbein of the Texas Observer visited one of the most haunted towns in Texas, Jefferson.  Its nostalgia tourism these days elides the complicated history of East Texas racism.


And Nicholas Frank at the Rivard Report writes about the update given Centro Cultural Aztlan’s Día de los Muertos celebration this coming weekend.

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Sunday Spooky Funnies








Posted by at No comments:

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Weekly 2020 Update: Shitlibs lost their minds

It's truly been a lousy week to be an establishment Democrat.


But as bad as all that was, things got worse.


A few days ago, after Hillary Clinton projectile-vomited at Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein, #TulsiIsARussianAsset was a trend.  This despite the fact that Gabbard holds the rank of major in the Hawaii Army National Guard and serves on both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which means she likely holds one of the highest security clearances available to any American.

It is not only ludicrous but defamatory -- and I would hope libelous -- for anyone to question Gabbard's patriotism in so vile a manner.  This sort of smear has been modus operandi toward Jill Stein for several years, as everyone knows.  And just when we thought the fever had broken ... this morning, after Gabbard announced she would not seek re-election to her Congressional seat, #TulsiStein becomes a trending topic.

I have plenty of issues with Gabbard now after previously being a supporter earlier this year.  But Gabbard has said repeatedly she won't go third party, and many states have 'sore loser' laws preventing that anyway.  Let me suggest that Hillary Clinton allowing her rumor mill to to expel some foul grist that she might run for president next year is a greater threat to Democratic hopes of winning the White House than anything else that could possibly occur.

If Clinton actually does run (and I don't think she is masochistic enough to do so; Hillary is more of a sadist, after all) her votes deny front-runner No Dough Biden and/or No Plan For That Yet Warren the nomination.  This would be a godsend for my candidate.  She does not take one single vote away from Bernie Sanders.  So maybe I ought to be cheering for her to throw her big fat hat in.

Sorry, no can do.  It's just a scam for people to buy her book.  But if you'd like to go see her tonight at U of H and maybe ask her, tickets are $38.  She's over before she gets started anyway.


There were plenty of other items to blog about, namely:

-- Why the polling leader fails to draw any crowds to his (very infrequent) rallies, or raise any money, such that he has to break his promise and start looking at organizing a SuperPAC;

-- Why the other polling leader still cannot answer how she is going fund her healthcare proposal, and that it may be weeks before she can;

-- The guy that the establishment hates drew 30,000 to a rally last weekend, raised $600,000 in the hours before, during, and after (average contribution $15), and released a plan to legalize cannabis and expunge the criminal records of those convicted of possessing it ... at 4:20 p.m. yesterday;

-- Some guy dropped out;

(Before you say, "That's Michael Bennet", click and read the thread.  It's worth it.)

-- And I'm sure something obnoxious was said and done by Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, but I just don't care to link to it.

Not to be outdone in this regard, there's also an escalation of the infighting among Green Party presidential candidates.


And maybe the name 'Don Blankenship' rings a bell for you.  If not, here you go.

The Constitution Party’s national committee held a meeting in Pittsburgh, PA on October 18-19, 2019. One of the speakers was Don Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy Company, the sixth largest coal company in the nation. Blankenship told the group that he will seek the party’s presidential nomination next year. He was the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate in West Virginia in 2018, but he was unable to get on the ballot because of the “sore loser” law.

Blankenship is currently suing Donald Trump, Jr., for libel. Trump Jr. had tweeted that Blankenship is an ex-felon, but Blankenship was never convicted of a felony. He was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2016 involving mine safety rules. The libel case is in U.S. District Court in West Virginia, Blankenship v Trump, Jr., s.d., 2:19cv-549. His lawsuit recently survived a motion to dismiss. A trial is set for October 6, 2020.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)