Sunday, June 20, 2021

Sunday "Now Do Election Day" Funnies



The Pulitzer Board really did choose not to award a Prize for the Editorial Cartooning category in 2021.   Please support the work of political cartoonists here.
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Saturday, June 19, 2021

Texas Republicans Behaving Badly Round-Up *Updated


Far too long a post, y'all.  Starting with yesterday's news and the latest from the worst governor in the long history of the Great State.


Update:


Abbott was determined to make this past week all about him and his Trump-ish agenda, and he didn't necessarily fail at that.


It's particularly insulting that this occurred as Juneteenth, a state holiday since 1979, finally became a national holiday.


He also managed -- along with several of his friends -- to show his ass at the gun bill signing at the Alamo, just prior to the start of Fiesta in San Antonio.


During a question-and-answer session, one reporter asked the governor about the timing of signing these bills after a recent shooting in downtown Austin that killed one and hurt 14 others. The crowd behind Abbott booed, and he remarked, “you must be from out of state,” at which the crowd cheered.


Then there's his wall.


He also made sure critics of the electricity grid's second potential failure this year clearly got his message: contempt.


For the record, I don't think Abbott is a Neanderthal.  I DO think he is a menace to society, a devoted plutocrat, and a self-loathing sociopath.


But Abbott wasn't alone in his atrocious conduct.


Updates:


Sanford Nowlin at the San Antonio Current had the "Louie Gohmert, Space Cadet" news.  And the Lege never fails to get in on the act, even out of session.


Reform Austin also shined a light on the Legislature's lack of transparency.  I would still like to do a separate post on Texas Monthly's Best and Worst listings, since they're always so good, and include some thoughts about Mark Jones' far right-to-far left rankings of the statehouse and Senate, but I still have an environmental and a criminal justice post to get to, so I'm not sure if anything I have to say about those will be timely.  We'll see.  You can enjoy them without my commentary.

As teased, lots more on the way.
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Friday, June 18, 2021

Happy Juneteenth, Pride, Fiesta Wrangle

It's been a reasonably good week for progressive and liberal causes.


The newest federal holiday commemorates June 19, 1865 -- the day Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas with word that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed by President Abraham Lincoln more than two years before.

For years, Juneteenth has been celebrated in Houston and Galveston to commemorate General Order No. 3, issued a month after the formal end of the Civil War. Galveston was one of the last places in the U.S. where enslaved people learned of their emancipation. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who sponsored the national holiday bill in the House, told Axios Juneteenth becoming a national holiday affirms the experiences of people of Houston and Galveston -- the descendants of those who celebrated the first Juneteenth.



(As a leftist, maintaining this health insurance company long-term stimulation plan is less than half a loaf.  Americans are still dying for profit margins and CEO bonuses, and that must end.  Hopefully before the planet cooks us all.  Which is to say that my environmental post is on the way.)


DOJ preclearance for Texas voting laws, redistricting, and all the bad GOP bills in the pipeline is the game, set, and match for Team Donkey.  No amount of rallies, protests, marches, quorum breaks, petitions, or other performative actions matter.  Tie it all up in court and let the SCOTUS ultimately decide.  So far the track record with the Nine is encouraging, and Ken Paxton is as incompetent there as he is at everything else.  More on all the TXGOP fails in the next.


So celebrate these wins in the way that you choose this weekend: with your Black, Brown, and LGBTQ friends, and with Dad if you can.  If for whatever reason you can't, then please find something else to be happy about and celebrate that.


Here's another Fiesta guide from San Antonio Magazine.


As many more topics as I can get to still on the way.

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