Saturday, June 13, 2020

Sunday "So Much Losing" Funnies













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Friday, June 12, 2020

Race for the White House Update: Biden's to lose


  Doncha wish he wasn't trying so hard to lose it?


We should have seen it coming.  He did tell his biggest funders 'nothing would fundamentally change', after all, and he doesn't lie to them as much as he lies to the rest of us.


Some of the things Old Joe says still have the capacity to shock.


His weekly brain fart is not one of them.



Five more months of this.  Can he last?  Perhaps if Trump continues in Christofascist fashion (see what I alliterated there?).  Dallas yesterday, where he met with "faith leaders" (sic) prior to a high-dollar fundraiser.


-- #UglyPresident trends after Trump describes teargassing protesters in Minneapolis 'beautiful'


The president's latest temper tantrum had him moving the RNC convention out of Charlotte, North Carolina -- mostly -- and into Jacksonville, FL because of COVID19 restrictions imposed by the Tarheels' Democratic governor, Roy Cooper. 

A week from today, Trump restarts his campaign rally tour in Tulsa, OK on Juneteenth.


For those of you who may be planning on going, you'll need to sign a waiver promising not to sue if you contract the 'rona. 

And the Republican National Committee hasn't been vaccinated against laughable gaffes, either.


They're real busy over there.  Too busy to write or even read their own platform, and it's certainly true that not much has changed in four years, at least from their point of view.


Pick your shitshow; left door or right door.  Actually the left door is on the right, and the right door is so far to the right it's outside the teevee studio.


Meanwhile Bernie is still hosting video conferences, most recently with ... Cory Booker.


That wasn't Sanders' biggest letdown of the week, personally.


Candidly, it's not Joe Biden who seals my divorce from the Donks.  It's Bernie Sanders.  And his campaign manager two cycles running: Jeff Weaver.


So I'm glad the truth is being spoken somewhere.



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Wednesday, June 10, 2020

TexProgBlog Wrangle, midweek edition

With a few updates and some new developments since Monday, here's the second post of the best blogs, tweets, and lefty news from around and about our Great State.


As the TPA feared, COVID 19 is making a comeback.



And while Greg Abbott would rather ignore the contagion's spread, others aren't.


Update: The city of Dallas' last council meeting broke down in a wave of insults and recriminations over recent allegations of police abuse of force, but CMs there voted today to put off a decision regarding a police department budget increase.  Houston's leaders, meanwhile, passed a raise despite serious disagreements.





Updates:



The TexTrib also updated on the latest from Dallas, Austin, and Houston, which Grits for Breakfast had posted about earlier today.  San Antonio is still talking about what they might do.

The July runoff elections are moving into tighter focus.





Last night in Arlington, environmentalists scored a win.


The TPA's Sharon Wilson had the live-Tweeting.

Some good legal news on the protest front:


But some bad also; another officer-involved choke-out came to light, and the reality show "Live PD" may suffer the same fate as "Cops".



And PRIDE Month converges with coronavirus, with adversities for the trans community.


The Screwston Anti-Fascist Committee has some really cool T-shirts for sale.


And to fade out this Wrangle ... Traces of Texas.

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Monday, June 08, 2020

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance mourns with George Floyd's family as they prepare to lay him to rest, and joins the millions of Americans who cry out for justice for his murder, and for too many others at the hands of those who swore 'to protect and serve'.


The justice system is overdue for an overhaul, or a dismantling.

Here's this week’s roundup of the best of the left of the Lone Star State from last week.


As the week went on, the marches seemed to get a bit more relaxed, even as they rippled out from the urban areas to the more suburban and exurban ones.


Egberto Willies was in very red Kingwood and shot some video of that city's silent protest.


Several bloggers issued support: Texas Freedom Network stands with the protesters and calls for an end to police brutality and racism.  DosCentavos wrote about where the conversation on police reform needs to begin, based on the #8CantWait campaign.  Angie Bado, the Democratic candidate in HD-70, declares, "Let Justice Begin With Me", at Living Blue in TX. 


Metro police chiefs Art Acevedo in Houston, Reneé Hall in Dallas, William McManus in San Antonio, and Brian Manley in Austin have all come under withering criticism for their handling of the protests in their cities over the past few weeks, as well as long records of police abuse of minorities.


Increased accountability, transparency, and other systemic changes will happen.

Now for some election news.

Joe Biden spoke at the Texas Democratic Party's virtual convention, by pre-recorded video, the day after he secured the necessary delegates to become the party's presidential nominee in November.


The convention wrapped with a debate between the two finalists for the right to challenge John Cornyn in the fall.  You can still watch it at the link below.


Recent polling in the Great State reveals a presidential race too close to call.

A new survey from Public Policy Polling, a firm mostly aligned with Democrats, found President Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden tied, 48%-48%, with just 4% unsure five months before the general election. Independents favored Trump, 52%-42%. Interestingly, Biden was stronger among Democrats (88%-8%) than Trump was among Republicans (83%-14%).

An April poll from the firm had Biden leading Trump, 47%-46%. In that survey, independents favored Biden, 50%-34%, and only 6% of Republicans indicated they would vote for Biden.

Trump’s job performance approval rating was 46/50. Anglos were more than twice as likely to approve than disapprove (67/32) but Hispanic/Latino (18/73) and African-American (2/97) voters were decidedly disapproving. His approval rating among voters aged 18 to 45 was 38/56. He was less underwater among voters aged 46 to 65, and his rating among voters over 65 was 58/39. The poll did not include a question about Biden’s favorability.


Kuff analyzed two more polls showing the tight prez tilt in Texas.  In his regular White House update, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs focused on Biden clinching and the latest shuffle in the veepstakes.

The Texas Signal reported on the Travis County DA primary runoff and how it relates to the wider criminal justice reform debate.

Several of the state's Republicans let their racist slips show on social media last week, and that was another hot topic among Texas bloggers.  Progrexas, John Coby at Bay Area Houston, and Ross Ramsey at the Texas Tribune all had a take.

Via Out in SA, Equality Texas vows to do better at every level of their organization to help dismantle systems of oppression against Black Americans.

Christoph Spieler tweets two lessons for transit agencies during times of crisis.

And let's close out this Wrangle for now -- there will be updates here or a fresh post later -- with another blast from the past via Traces of Texas.

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Sunday, June 07, 2020

Sunday "Lawn Odor" Funnies


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Saturday, June 06, 2020

Race for the White House Update: Joe clinches


Nation grimaces.


You ought to be able to win in November too, Joe.  Just stop talking.

Former vice president Joe Biden on Thursday said that 10 to 15 percent of "people out there" are just "not very good people.”

Speaking during a virtual town hall with young Americans, Biden discussed the importance of a president setting an example for the country on issues of race during a conversation moderated by actor Don Cheadle.


Stop posing for pictures like this.


Let Trump do the pandering, make the gaffes, look like the bigger fool, and you've got this.  Don't screw it up by speaking or showing your face, mask or no, for a few months.


*facepalm*

Oh well, it ought to be pre-recorded for TDP delegates this evening, so there shouldn't be any unintended insults or televised flatulence.

Meanwhile, current events have pushed Kamala Harris back into the pole position for the veep.  I'm not the only one who thinks so (again), Cillizza at CNN sees it too.  Amy Klobuchar is over.

It will be tough on Kamala -- and the other two African American women Cillizza favors; Keisha Lance Bottoms, mayor of Atlanta, and US Rep. Val Demings of FL -- because all three women have prosecutorial careers.  (That's another strike against Amy, by the way.)  But the others don't have the KHive, and Harris has been vetted on the issue during primary season.  Berners did that, and she was forced out of the race without winning a single delegate.  Fortunes change quickly, though, and the progressive left appears to this blogger to have stronger options outside the duopoly than ever, which translates into Ds shoring up the base, not just the black vote but the CA electorate as well.  Bernie Sanders won big there, you will recall.

But if Old Uncle Joe just can't get comfortable with a black woman, there's always Elizabeth Warren, who met some favor in the Af-Am community in the South during her campaign.  Unfortunately for her, she's considered a progressive (sic) by the neoliberals, and that might be worse than being black from Biden's -- and those doing the real vetting inside the camp's -- POV.

Some unnamed Dem insider is already on record/off the record as saying Demings doesn't have a chance because Florida isn't really in play, despite what the polls say.  I believe that, and I also believe the same regarding Texas.

Even in the middle of PRIDE month, I just cannot see a "Biden-Bottoms" ticket.

It was hard enough composing this while studiously ignoring Trump's daily atrocities this past week, and with Bernie back in his own basement, and the minor parties' standard-bearers -- the Greens' Howie Hawkins, presumptively, and newly-crowned Jo Jorgensen of the Libertarians -- also reaching the historical summer lull in the four-year cycle ... well, just no urgency or much breaking news beyond the Donks' developments.

The country has bigger problems than choosing between Trump or Biden for the next four years. There's a sentence I never thought I would write.  Two addled geriatrics completely out of touch with the wants and needs of a nation in crisis, with voting suppressed from various sources like never before, and the electorate terrified of a host of ills, to be left unresolved in the near term.

Fun.

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Monday, June 01, 2020

The Weekly TexProgBlog Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is Zooming the TDP convention.


In creating an event for nearly 12,000 delegates that heads into full public swing from Monday to Saturday of next week, Texas Democrats believe they have created a template for a national party that might have to make some or all of its August nominating convention, now scheduled for Milwaukee, virtual. 
“We really believe that we are designing something that is going to make our party stronger, make our party more accessible, allowing more people to participate in the convention and learn about who Texas Democrats are, what we’re fighting for and using the technology that we have to pave that way for the future,” said Brittany Switzer, the party’s senior brand director who led the effort with Hannah Roe Beck, the party’s convention director.


This link should let you jump the Statesman's paywall.  Lone Star Republicans will be convening in Houston in person next month.

“We have been developing plans to safely move forward with a spaced-out convention,” Texas Republican Party Chairman James Dickey told the American-Statesman on Tuesday, referring to a gathering of about 7,500 now planned for July 13-18 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. 
He said the event will observe appropriate social distancing and respect for face masks even though they won’t be mandated, something anathema to party activists. 
“We are confident we will continue to lead the way in showing how we can safely reopen Texas,” said Dickey, also expressing confidence that Gov. Greg Abbott will give the OK for a convention that may serve as trial run for the GOP National Convention Aug. 24-27 in Charlotte, N.C.

More from the TexTrib via Progrexas.

The timing of the convention also comes as the country continues to be gripped by protests over the death of George Floyd, the black Minnesota man who died after he was pinned to the ground by a white police officer using his knee. The party made a number of last-minute changes to its convention as a result, scheduling a moment of silence for Floyd during the Monday kickoff, giving more prominent speaking time to those who can speak to racial justice and adding a panel discussion Monday that features several black leaders. Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, is set to participate in a separate panel two days later.


With just a bit more on the NeoAmerican Revolution manifesting here in Deep-In-The-Hearta ...


Milton "Big Pokey" Powell, a friend of George Floyd's, called for police to be held truly accountable when they commit violence against civilians.  DosCentavos implored local leaders to change law enforcement culture after the murder of Floyd, and others killed in recent weeks.  Grits for Breakfast despaired at the lack of progress in police reform.  And blogging in the abstract, Socratic Gadfly explained how issues of the duopoly and lesser evilism extend to the Supreme Court, when one looks outside the lens of reproductive choice and sexual choice rights, and especially when one looks through the lens of criminal justice issues and minorities.

Kuff unpacked the convoluted Supreme Court ruling in the state's vote-by-mail lawsuit.  Michael Li at the Brennan Center offered a similar analysis in a 9-count Tweet thread.


Chris Chu de Leon writes for the Texas Signal about how Bernie Sanders changed Texas.


Dan Solomon at Texas Monthly illustrated how the Electoral College diminishes the Lone Star State's political power.  (There's actually an easy fix.)


And for some election-related developments ...



Living Blue in Texas blogged about the most important November elections that nobody is talking about: the four Texas Supreme Court races.

The Center for Public Policy Priorities, Austin's liberal think tank, has repurposed.



The Southeast Texas Record provides us two legal updates.

After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) Food Management Partners -- based in San Antonio, Texas – has paid $1.3 million to 3,000 employees for violations of the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). WHD found the restaurant management company -- which does business as Hometown Buffet, Old Country Buffet, Ryan’s, and other brands in the U.S. -- missed payroll in March 2020, and by doing so, failed to pay required minimum wage and overtime wages to 3,000 employees at more than 75 locations.

 
Last week, the Harris County Commissioners Court appointed attorney Christopher Hollins as interim county clerk -- a move that seemingly created a conflict of interest for both the county and its new employee.
In July, the commissioners court voted to hire the Hollins Law Group, as well as three other firms, on a contingent-fee basis to represent the county in a lawsuit alleging it overpaid for insulin due to a price-fixing scheme. 
And while municipalities hiring outside counsel is nothing new, the Texas Local Government Code, however, does prohibit counties from paying salaried officers fees for work performed outside of their regular duties. 
Houston attorney Mark McCaig unearthed the contract Hollins signed with Harris County, posting the details on a blog at Big Jolly Times.

This Wrangle, indeed this blog, relies heavily on Tweets, as regular readers know.  So while there are plenty of complaints being lodged against social media these days, the junior senator from our Great State does not have a valid one.


But Stephen Young at the Dallas Observer does.


One environmental news update.


And one notable passing.


Lost in the avalanche of police brutality against police brutality protests, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic meltdown is the occasional bright spot: bipartisan cooperation to celebrate the beginning of PRIDE Month.


Let's wrap this Wrangle with another happy thing you and your family can do: Have a fun day of picking fruits, vegetables and flowers at this Houston-area farm

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'Comes The Revolution' Wrangle

Don't you know
They're talkin' about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion


You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world


Don't you know
They're talkin' 'bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take what's theirs


But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be
All right, all right, all right


2 am, bars were closing
Heard the news on channel 4
and The TV anchor tried to say
What she thought really happened today

But words are dangerous like the gun
Takes away a mother's son
A lot of people have had enough
Just waiting for this time to come

Ohhh, gonna be a riot
Ohhh, gonna be a riot in the streets tonight
Gonna be a riot in the streets tonight
Gonna be a riot in the streets tonight
Gonna be a riot tonight

More Wrangling on the way.
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Saturday, May 30, 2020

Sunday "Respiratory Issues" Funnies

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Friday, May 29, 2020

Race for the White House Update: The revolution gets televised

-- And the teevee reporters get arrested.


-- And quickly released after a phone call from CNN's Jeff Zucker to MN Gov. Tim Walz.

-- Meanwhile, Trump is losing what little remains of his sanity over Twitter tagging his lies and celebrating threats of violence.  Someone surely told him that his executive order does not trump (pun intended) the First Amendment, but when did he ever care about the Constitution?

Jeez, it's too bad the Democrats can't impeach him.

-- That brings us to Joe (and Bernie, briefly).


Yes, this a difficult moment for the nation, in a variety of the most understated ways.


Did you miss the farting episode?


I should probably put my resources into more important stories.


-- Enough of those pesky questions for now.  What's happening in the veepstakes?


Uh oh. That's not good.


Probably means about as much as a 75-1 longshot dropping out before Derby Day.


Tough week for everybody.  It may get a little better next week, as Texas Democrats host Biden and nearly all of his former contending rivals at their virtual convention.  I'll have a post on that shortly.
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