Wednesday, October 07, 2020

1600 PA Update: "It's Biden's to Lose."


So sayeth Beto O'Rourke, a week ago (specifically, about Texas).  Three weeks ago, in this Sunday Funnies collection ...


And two weeks ago, me.

As surely as the seasons change from summer to fall and the Gulf clears itself of tropical disturbances; as certainly as 2020's hurricanes went from boys and girls to non-binary; and as absolutely as there will be a new Justice seated before November 3rd, will President Donald Trump be "re-elected", in the most marginal definition of the word.

So while summer is still changing to fall and Judge Barrett is going to be Justice Barrett in due course -- more on that in a minute -- I am here to tell ya that I think I'm going to get the other two calls wrong (damn you, Hurricane Delta).  Beto's right about one thing; Texas stays red in the Electoral College, also the Senate, but it looks very good for blue Congress critters and a statehouse flip.

I went on there to challenge Ds to "prove me wrong", because "I really (didn't) want to be right".  And while Democratic voters still need to finish, everything -- and I mean everything -- is breaking their way to blow Trump out of the White House in 27 days.  Shockingly but unsurprisingly, Biden is intent on choking it away.

Let us count the ways:



Recent national polls showing Sleepy Joe with a 16-point lead are to be discounted.  We don't elect presidents via popular vote (see: Clinton, Hillary).  Also, Nate Silver's outfit referenced above is hedging because of his last presidential polling nightmare in 2016, as we all should recall.  But the fact is that Biden has never trailed in EC projections since the conventions; last week's debate debacle helped him a lot, and so has Trump's dueling Mussolini/Evita impressions upon talking his way out of Walter Reed less than a week after catching COVID.

None of these things swayed my personal flip-flop, though.  This did.


So he's given up.  Quit.  Cut and run.  He's decided -- or been convinced by the collapsing polls -- that his legacy will be three SCOTUS Justices and shifting the Court to the right for a generation, maybe two, instead of a second term.

He can't be perceived to be conceding the election, of course, and if it's closer than the polling says then he's got enough Justices to push him back into the White House, a la Bush v. Gore.

So I don't consider this a fatal error so much as a desperation play -- not a 3-D chess move -- on the part of his campaign advisors.  A Hail Mary to Amy Barrett (and Kavanaugh and Gorsuch and Alito and Thomas).  Once in a while those work, you know.  Anyway ...


I suppose some of you Bidenites need a receipt or two.


And Bernie Sanders is out on the hustings campaigning for this guy.


Those texts asking me to vote for Joe?  Keep 'em comin'.

Biden doesn't even want to debate Covita next week.  What a spectacular display of weakness.


So if you want options ... you have them.


With respect to those who read this blog who are voting outside of Texas:


Update: No veep preview.  Not watching but will be Tweeting, and some thoughts about it tomorrow, along with a preview of this:

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, October 05, 2020

More Wrangling from Far Left Texas


Socratic Gadfly has semi-regularly split off coronavirus news from other items in his version of the weekly Texas Progressives Roundup.  So with a very long first edition posted earlier today, I did the same with my collation of COVID stories, as well as police abuse/reform and other social justice Tweets and news.

Before we get to those ... today is #WorldTeachersDay, and they deserve our everlasting gratitude for all that they do and all that they endure.


And that's my segue.

Gadfly tackled COVID political tribalism coming from multiple sides and called ALL of it out.


Before moving to Black Lives Matter and other racial justice items, here's a few Indigenous stories that made news last week.


And unfortunately I have saved the worst for next-to-last.


Grits for Breakfast is up to part three in his review of Sylvester Turner's policing task force proposals, reminding us that meaningful police reform is far too long a haul.  Alice Embree at The Rag Blog writes about the racist and sexist roots of the Electoral College.  And with respect to "unrest", there's plenty of it making the rounds already.


So as I like to do, here's some Tweets that gave me a little happiness this past week and I pass them on to you in hopes that they bring you the same.

Posted by at No comments:

The Far Left Texas Wrangle



There's a lot corraled here.   In a developing item from the weekend:


Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick have responded with the predictable "raises concerns; wait for the investigation to play out" pablum.  State Rep. Sarah Davis is the first Texas Republican so far to call for Paxton's resignation.

Abbott's troubles, mostly of his own doing, also got a little worse over the weekend.


The protest dubbed “Free Texas — A Protest at the Governor’s Mansion,” is sponsored by a group calling itself “The Still-Somewhat Free Citizens of Texas.” “Tired of King Abbott’s lock down? Tired of masks and HIS control? THIS TYRANNY MUST END NOW,” reads the event flyer shared on the Texas Scorecard website.

The show is scheduled for Saturday, October 10, at 11 a.m.

Attendees will include Texas Republican Party Chair Allen West, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, Empower Texans CEO and Texas Scorecard publisher Michael Quinn Sullivan, several state representatives and state senators and others.

Might be a fun day trip.  Speaking of Sid, he makes a cameo appearance in Sacha Baron Cohen's new 'Borat' movie.


Maybe "Jesus Shot" has designs on higher office in 2022, if Paxton or Abbott are perceived as sufficiently wounded politically to catch a challenge from the Operation Jade Helm Caucus of the TXGOP.  Wouldn't that be fun to watch.

Anyway ... Abbott.


More last-minute late night hours billed for the lawyers.  Christmas in October.


Kuff has also covered the two lawsuits filed (so far).

There's a great deal more election news to report. First, in the SD30 special election, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther finished first, barely, in the jungle primary and advanced to a runoff against Gainesville state Rep. Drew Springer, in a photo finish reminiscent of the Preakness Stakes.   (Expect Luther to show up at the Abbott protest rally mentioned above.)

With this week's installment of "Republicans Behaving Badly":


Grist thinks there are six close Congressional contestss across the nation that might turn on climate change, and they believe TX-24 (Beth Van Duyne versus Candace Valenzuela) is one of them.

And that's my segue to this week's aggregation of environmental topics.


Evan Mintz is amused by a local referendum that will require public approval and flood impact studies for the construction of... sidewalks.  Save Buffalo Bayou profiles an Eagle Scout whose project two years ago to reseed a popular canoe launching spot has flourished.  A public works employee in Lake Jackson -- working on the remediation of the city's public water supply because of the presence of a brain-eating amoeba -- has tested positive for COVID.

And Ed Darrell at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub underscores the importance of voting climate, which is exactly what this blogger recommends as well.


The rest of the coronavirus-related and police reform and other social justice headlines I've collected will appear in a follow-up Wrangle later today.  I'll end this one with a fond remembrance of Lubbock's own Mac Davis.


Davis was born on Jan. 21, 1942, in Lubbock, Texas. After graduating from high school, he moved to Atlanta, where he began his music career as a member of a rock ’n’ roll band called the Zots. He later worked as a regional manager for both Vee-Jay Records and Liberty Records before getting a job at Nancy Sinatra’s company, Boots Enterprises, Inc., where he played on many of Sinatra’s recordings and got his start as a professional songwriter. His compositions were eventually recorded by Presley, Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Lou Rawls, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, B.J. Thomas and many others. What became his signature song, 1970’s “I Believe in Music,” was also recorded as the first Capitol Records single for Helen Reddy, who died the same day as Davis, Sept. 29, also at age 78.


As he sang in (I Believe in Music), "I thank God each and every day for giving me the music and the words to say." In a statement, his family confirmed that he will, per the song's closing lines, be buried in Lubbock, Texas, in blue jeans.
Posted by at 1 comment:

Saturday, October 03, 2020

Sunday "Karma Runs Over Dogma" Funnies



Mike Peterson at The Daily Cartoonist has a list of cartoonists’ Patreon and other support sites. As newspapers and media companies continue to shed staff positions, direct support from readers becomes ever more important. Please check it out and consider giving support where you can.
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, October 02, 2020

1600 Pennsavainyah Update



The cartoon at the top of yesterday's post takes on additional meaning in light of the president's overnight diagnosis.  I'm not one to dance on peoples' graves -- that's for Mitch McConnell and his slimy ilk -- but Trump is certainly going to find a way to politically capitalize on his health development.  Should he survive it.

If he does not, then it's Pence who wins, by default and perhaps by ballot too.

And what if Biden should turn up infected, incapacitated, or something worse?  Obviously IMO the DNC will roll with the zero-delegate-earning veep selection made by Old Joe -- again, it's her name on the ticket -- and not the man who received the second-most delegates in their primaries.  In the fine Democrat tradition first established (as best I know) in 1944.

Good times.

I hope everyone understands why I and so many others no longer want to be associated with this two-headed monster.  There's a lot of Constitutional wrestling for Ds and Rs to do in order to save themselves from extinction.  Climate chaos is more likely to get us all anyway, if COVID-19 -- or the next novel coronavirus after this one -- doesn't.

In the meanwhile, we'll rearrange the Titanic's deck chairs.  (Hey, if you're not feeling pessimistically existential or nihilistic, or both, this morning ... WTF is wrong with you?)

-- How about a real civilized debate next week, since those others may be canceled now?



Regrettably, Mark Charles was not invited.


It appears he was unable to qualify for write-in status in Texas.


Mark Jones Tweeted a list of all Texas write-ins, from the top of your ballot down, that I posted in Monday's Wrangle.  Remember: only "qualified" write-in votes count, so don't bother writing in Bernie, or Mickey Mouse, or Hypnotoad, or anybody else not on the TXSoS' list.

I had a lot more for this post, but circumstances nuked much of the relevance.  So like you -- and everyone else -- I'll wait and watch and see what happens next.
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, October 01, 2020

Sleepy Joe versus The Volcano


I put off this post-mortem as long as possible, because honestly, who looks forward to cleaning up projectile vomit?  But the toonmeisters have come to my rescue once again.



(Apropos of barely anything: some of you may remember this, but Beaumont was one of Gallagher's favorite stops when he was still touring.)

There were plenty of shitshow moments, but "Shut Up Man" and "Stand Down and Stand By" will be the ones remembered the longest.




There's always a backlash, as they say.


Turning point?  Pivotal moment?  I suppose we'll see polling reflecting something soon.  In the meantime, I want to blog twice more; a Far Left Texas Roundup (update, 10/3: this will wait for its usual Monday publication) and a White House Race posting that doesn't mention these two.

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

An actual pissing match



Trump and Biden meet tonight in Cleveland for their first of three debates -- a socially distanced affair in which the candidates won't shake hands. Fox News host Chris Wallace is the moderator.

The audience, at about 70, will be limited compared with previous debates, and everyone attending the event at Case Western Reserve University will undergo testing for Covid-19 and follow other health safety protocols.

The debate is set for 9 p.m. Eastern time, and will last 90 minutes without any commercial breaks. The topics for the debate are "The Trump and Biden Records," "The Supreme Court," "Covid-19," "The Economy," "Race and Violence in our Cities" and "The Integrity of the Election," according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.


That Trump is not rehearsing is a strong hint about his strategy.

Efforts to focus the preparation-averse Trump on the upcoming debate have occurred in sporadic bursts, including one 30-minute session last weekend. This past Sunday they resumed with a short question-and-answer period utilizing the flashcards campaign advisers prepared to try and hone what have so far been unwieldy attempts to define Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump did less than two hours of prep total, a person familiar told CNN.


(Trump) has expressed a desire to get under Biden's skin by waging brutal personal attacks against members of his family, including his son Hunter and brandishing questions about Biden's past -- from old plagiarism incidents to more recent allegations of sexual misconduct -- that he hopes will rattle the former vice president. He has already baselessly accused Biden of taking performance-enhancing drugs ahead of the debate and some aides expect him to raise it during the event itself.



This might work, since Biden has demonstrated a severe irritation to these questions.


So there's one thing we can count on ...


“I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also,” Trump wrote. “His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???”

[...]

“Vice President Biden intends to deliver his debate answers in words. If the president thinks his best case is made in urine he can have at it,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager. “We’d expect nothing less from Donald Trump, who pissed away the chance to protect the lives of 200K Americans when he didn't make a plan to stop COVID-19.”


Sounds a little golden shower-y.  I'll be watching baseball (and following the debate on Twitter).
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, September 28, 2020

The Weekly TexLeftBlog Wrangle


Texas lefty bloggers and Tweeters are gearing up for the first Biden-Trump debate after steeling themselves from being triggered by the first half of "The Comey Rule", which aired last night on Showtime.  Brendan Gleeson -- starring as The President -- makes his grand entrance tonight on the last episode of the two-part docu-drama.  To say that there's been some PTSD suffered across the nation is understating the situation.


Anyway, we have lots of Lone Star Tweets and news to read and talk about (mostly election- and COVID-related today; other topics at the end of the week).  First and again from the courtroom:


Kuff stayed on top of the voting litigation news with updates about the wingnut assault on early voting, and the probably short-lived reinstatement of straight-ticket voting.  Corona Connor drew some interesting maps of CD10, one of the three Congressional districts that Beto carried in 2018 but the Republican incumbent won.  In your best-read of the week, Ben Wofford at Wired (republished at Portside so you don't have any paywall issues) details the decades-long give-and take between Travis County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir and Rice University professor Dan Wallach -- and many others -- over secure voting machines.



A few SD30 special election updates.


Ross Ramsey at the TexTrib via Progrexas says "keep calm and vote on".


The Texas Politics Project has the executive summary of several of the above news items for those of you with limited reading time.


And looking past November ...


Following up on the growing divide between Texas Republicans, this next story was first referenced in the Friday 9/18 Round-up (scroll down to "Speaking of stupid").


As James Barragan Tweeted in last Friday's Round-up, the Lege must deal with the most ominous revenue shortfall (related to COVID and the crashing of oil, of course) in almost a century.  All tax streams must be on the table.  A full legalization of casino gambling and cannabis, with an appropriate taxing mechanism, should be under careful consideration.  The TXGOP cannot continue to allow the Evangelical Caucus to hinder progress for the sick (Medicaid expansion) the young (our public school system) and the old (our seniors' assisted living challenges during these crises).

In one of the more ridiculous election-related developments last week, Texas Monthly has a few questions about that Dan Crenshaw ad.


And the TexTrib provides the segue between politics and pandemic.


Erin Garcia de Jesus at the San Antonio Current worries about the "twindemic" of COVID plus influenza.


And we all hope we don't have a new environmental problem to be concerned about, after the weekend brought this tragic news.


More economic, ecological, and social justice headlines later.  Ending here today on as upbeat a message as possible.

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Sunday "Trump 200,000" Funnies

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)