Thursday, January 21, 2021

Lone Star Leftist Round-up *updated

A big week -- a historic week -- tends to overshadow the Great State's highlights and lowlifes since Monday.  I will forge ahead anyway, no mittens required.


(Like me, David Collins is hopeful but not optimistic about the next four years.  Pages of Victory seems to feel the same -- perhaps somewhat less so -- as well.)

Ken Paxton failed to secure a pardon and John Cornyn is tweeting in a subdued manner.   Both were far outdone by Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz, each of whom eyes future election prospects.  Update: Johnny felt left out; tried to make up lost ground.


It's clear neither Abbott nor Cruz is going to let an opportunity to disgrace himself get past him.


If we can't force him out, then we can at least cut off his money supply.


The same does not hold true for Govnuh Helen Wheels.  He's a multi-millionaire and an adroit fundraiser.  We'll need to be more creative.


"The most offensive thing he's ever heard" happened this week.


Abbott may or may not be smarter about pandering to the Trumpist base than Cruz, but he's certainly no less obvious about it.


There are more "Texans Behaving Badly" downpost; we'll pause from that to consider the Texas Lege, which doesn't reconvene until next week ... but their bad behavior from last week is still reverberating around the state.


Shaefer Edwards at the Houston Press takes note that the statehouse and Senate disagree on COVID testing -- and media access to legislators in their respective chambers -- as the session gets under way.  In spite of the initial difficulties, Texas Democrats resolutely soldier on.


Once more: shame will not force the seditionists out, so some good old-fashioned effort to sweep them out in 2022 is required.


The early line is prohibitively against that.  And not only because Gilberto Hinojosa is making others take the fall for him.


A smattering of mostly unrelated bad news and good news:


The Root quotes NBCDFW 5 about the story of a Denton County woman, faced with racial harrassment from a neighbor, who called law enforcement about the threats and was told to "stay away from (your) house until this blows over".  The Appeal writes about Austin's dysfunctional crime lab and how it may lead to another wrongful execution.

Closing out this week with the softer side news items.

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Monday, January 18, 2021

The Sedition Edition of the Far Left Texas Wrangle


And at the end of the first week, they adjourned until January 26.


At least one member caught COVID.


Before moving on, let's note for the occasion of MLK Day that while casino gambling and relaxed cannabis legislation may be on life support, hopes for passing a symbolic bill striking a blow for social justice remain high.


The state Capitol was locked down through the Inauguration on Wednesday in order to limit the opportunities for mischief and misadventure. Some Fa protestors showed up anyway.


Those who chose to mark their disapproval with the Pro-Fas in our federal government also rallied.


And some action items for those who didn't want to leave the house, too.


The NRA wants to come to Texas to escape some of their many problems.


Maybe they could stop buying so much avocado toast ...?

COVID remains the state's worst problem despite all the others.


Jacob Vaughn at the Dallas Observer documents the communication breakdowns at all levels of government for the vaccine chaos. Socratic Gadfly, in his weekly roundup of coronavirus news, led off with COVIDIOTS in a Love Field baggage carousel and went on to note the airport's and Southwest Airlines' lack of responsiveness.


Criminal and social justice headlines:


And some climate updates.


Obstacles? What obstacles?


And wrapping today's Wrangle, a tip of the Stetson to Willie Lusk, Jr.

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Sunday, January 17, 2021

Sunday 'Capitol Punishment' Funnies

Please read this essay by Jack Reilly about the slow demise of political cartooning. And support the craft if you can.
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Thursday, January 14, 2021

Thursday Lone Star Leftist Round-Up




Not as small a Round-up as I wished, given that the topic of shithole state insurrectionists is ... worn thin with me.


Ted Coupz, briefly.


Trump in South Texas. As updated in the Monday Wrangle ...


Meanwhile back in DC:


And at the Lege ...


Outside the Texas Capitol, members of a group called the Southern Patriot Council said they believe Joe Biden's election as president was illegal. One member, who would only identify himself to Texas Public Radio as "General E" predicted states would pass laws to stop protests like theirs.

"You won't be able to assemble anymore," he said. "So the bottom line is, assemble now while you can, because they are attempting to make it illegal for us to do that."


Houstonians didn't want to be left out.


I'm throwing James Harden under this bus also. So is Judge Hidalgo and his former Rockets teammates. That's no way to open a restaurant, Mr. Beard.


Criminal and social justice news, first from (the real) Alamo City.


The San Antonio Current finds numerous "alternative facts" on the Texas police union's anti-reform website. KXAN reports on a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the City of Austin regarding a teenager’s suicide in the back of an APD patrol car. Grits for Breakfast rounds up more like these stories from a week ago and today. It's almost like a virus that's out of control.

A couple of environmental updates.

Four of the state's environmental groups -- the Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club, Environment Texas, and the Port Arthur Community Action Network -- sued the EPA last week, alleging that the agency stood by while Texas failed to enforce the nation’s federal environmental laws and adequately control air pollution in the state. DeSmogBlog reports, with the assistance of some of Texas' foremost environmental activists: Sharon Wilson, Bryan Parras, and Hilton Kelley.

Texas Standard brings the news that an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that a gas leak from a pipeline damaged during replacement work performed over 20 years ago likely caused an explosion that killed a 12 year-old girl in Northwest Dallas in 2018.

Finally, we'll roll into the weekend with Comrade Fidel's Bayou City barbecue tasting event, over 60 years ago.

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Monday, January 11, 2021

The Far Left Texas Wrangle *updates




I am going to make an effort to keep the focus forward, as the Lege gavels in tomorrow and the Traitor-in-Chief visits South Texas to celebrate something.


Something tells me our junior senator will be greeting him.  Update:


(Original:)


More about last week's sedition in an extended version of "Texans Behaving Badly", downpost.  Returning to the Lege, one seat needs to be filled in the first election of 2021; TXElects.

HD68 special: Early voting begins (Monday) for the January 23 special election to fill the unexpired House term of Sen. Drew Springer (R-Muenster). Five candidates are on the ballot:
  • John Berry (R), Jacksboro financial planner and former Jack County Commissioner
  • Jason Brinkley (R), Gainesville attorney and Cooke County Judge
  • Craig Carter (R), Nocona boot manufacturer who has twice unsuccessfully run for SD30
  • Charles Gregory (D), Childress retired postal employee; and
  • David Spiller (R), Jacksboro attorney and Jacksboro ISD board member.


Later this morning, Comptroller Glenn Hegar will release his estimate of the state's revenue for the next two years.  Raise Your Hand Texas, advocates for public education, runs it down from their "Across the Lawn" newsletter.

The state’s current budget is already facing a $4.6 billion shortfall due to the recession caused by the pandemic and downturn in oil prices. Legislators will likely use a mix of the Rainy Day Fund, which has $8.8 billion on hand, and federal stimulus dollars to fill that hole ... What worries most budget writers, legislative members, and advocates is the estimate may be similar to 2011, when the state faced a $27 billion shortfall and cut $5.4 billion from public education.

Read on at that link about the $900 billion stimulus Congress just passed, the $5.2 billion it contains for Texas schools, and the chances that the state's teachers and children won't see any of that money invested in education because of the games the Lege is likely to play.

Update:


Speaker-to-be Phelan is already pouring cold water on the possibility of casino gambling becoming a tax revenue stream for the state.


Update: The death of GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson -- announced Tuesday morning; he was investing heavily in a lobbying effort for casinos in the Lone Star State -- further clouds the possibility of that legislation being approved.  Let's look at the state's worsening COVID crisis next.


Joe Deshotel for The Texas Signal does not want COVID-19 to be used as an excuse to shut the public out of the legislative process.  And RG Ratcliffe, writing at Texas Monthly, puts the blame for the state's vaccine rollout chaos on Greg Abbott.

So will things get better or worse before they improve?  Magic 8 Ball says, "Ask again later/Better not tell you now/Don't count on it/Outlook not so good".

As much of a selection of "Texans Behaving Badly" as I could tolerate.


Kuff demands swift prosecution and punishment of everyone involved in the violent assault on the Capitol, and points to Cruz and Paxton as the top two priorities for those who value democracy.


Larry R. Brock is from Grapevine, actually.  His 'uniform' had a vinyl sticker of the Texas flag overlaid on the skull of The Punisher, the Marvel comic book character.  His ex-wife recognized him from the photos and turned him in.


Cudd ran for mayor of Midland last year.



Steve Jackson, a Wichita Falls city councilman who attended the January 6 rally at the state Capitol, displays a Trump campaign poster ... with Mike Pence's name cut out.

That's all I can manage.

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Sunday, January 10, 2021

"Death to America" Toons



Please read this essay by Jack Reilly about the slow demise of political cartooning. And support the craft if you can.
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Thursday, January 07, 2021

RU!N

...I couldn’t help but see it as something more ominous -- a blunt declaration about the state of the country or perhaps a warning or, even worse, a prediction of what’s barreling down on us like a runaway train: RU!N.


I know a bit about ruin. Like most people my age, images of national ruin are burned into my memory: the Challenger rising into a blue sky and then breaking up in an orange ball of fire; Los Angeles burning after the Rodney King verdict; the Twin Towers collapsing and sending a shockwave of smoke, debris and sorrow through Manhattan’s canyons and across the country; and puddles of blood on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel in LA, on a balcony in Memphis, on Jackie Kennedy’s dress, on a classroom floor in Newtown, CT, on the sidewalk outside a Manhattan apartment building forty years ago last month. There’s no end, it seems, to the ruin people inflict on people, only brief reprieves between catastrophes. Of course, it can be tough to recall those reprieves when we’re in the midst of a pandemic with no clear end in sight and we’re bombarded with news of the endless litigation that encourages a large part of the population to deny the clear and inevitable result of the election.


But we’re all human, which is what we should remember. Human, first and foremost, and both capable of wondrous kindness and invention and prone to despicable wrongs and violence. We’re also bound to one another by blood and providence as parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, partners and friends. And we devote ourselves daily not just to being but to becoming: teachers and preachers; nurses and artists; plumbers, farmers, fire fighters, and writers. And finally, beyond all that and whether we want to admit it or not, we are Americans. And it’s this part of our identity and the impossibly complicated and contradictory perceptions of what “American” means and includes that has set us against one another, that has put us on the track to this ruin, the scale of which is yet to be determined.


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Monday, January 04, 2021

The Weekly Wrangle from Far Left Texas


You don’t expect the top executives in the state attorney general’s office to turn on their boss, telling the agency and law enforcement that Ken Paxton has been doing favors for a political donor that have crossed the line into bribery and abuse of office.  But it happened in 2020.

You wouldn’t expect the most popular politician in the state’s majority party to get in trouble with members of his own party’s self-styled liberty wing.  But Greg Abbott is in fact out of tune with that bunch, including the Texas GOP’s chairman.  And 2020 brought some non-political news with it too, finally bringing some light to Texans who, for reasons of technology and money, don’t have access to the high-speed internet they need to go to school, to work and even to the doctor during a pandemic.

Read more from the TexTrib's Ross Ramsey at the link above about the things he -- and the rest of us sane Texans -- did not anticipate in 2020, not including the coronavirus (generallly).  Or look forward to the convening of the 87th Legislative Session ... and secession, among the many other lunatic-fringe bills to come.

Texas stayed red in 2020. It didn’t lose any Republican Congress members, in spite of a huge and costly push by Democrats.  And in a critical year, Republicans held on to a majority in their state legislature, ensuring control over redistricting in 2021.

So what the heck has gotten into the Texas GOP?  In the span of one week, the attorney general filed a seditious lawsuit with the Supreme Court and state GOP leaders are announcing they think it’s time Texas secedes from the nation.

[...]

And Paxton isn’t the only Texan willing to sink to new political lows.  Recently, Republican state Rep. Kyle Biedermann announced that he will introduce legislation to allow Texas to secede from the nation.  His reason? “The federal government is out of control and does not represent the values of Texans.”

There is no chance that Texas will secede from the United States.  Just as with Paxton’s Supreme Court ploy, the law is not on Texas’ side.  Secession is simply not legal, and Biedermann should know that.

But also like Paxton, Biedermann’s real goal may be more personal.  Perhaps he is looking to raise his profile with a new speaker of the GOP-controlled Texas House of Representatives.  Moreover, earlier this year he resigned from the Texas Freedom Caucus, citing backroom deals and a lack of transparency surrounding who would become the next speaker of the Texas House.  By introducing legislation with such fanfare, he further shores up his conservative credentials, which could help him secure more influence in the state Capitol.  Then again, he may just be trying to bury all of the Google search results of him dressed as “gay Hitler.”


Reform Austin looks ahead to education-related bills in the Legislature.  The Statesman will run down its ten legislative points of focus with a series starting today on the Confederacy.  And Jasper Scherer at the HouChron writes about the contentious issue of local control that the Lege and muni governments will be grappling with.


Since I mentioned Ted Cruz and Louie Gohmert in the Saturday edition, I'd like to skip them for now and wait for what will surely be the midweek episode of "Lifestyles of the Ignorant and Seditious".

No?  Okay then.


Enough.  Please.  And no Greg Abbott.

*Sweet Baby Jeebus on a Xmas tree crutch*


Captain Obvious Kuffner observes that the COVID vaccine rollout is pretty bumpy so far.  The SAEN op-ed board pointedly advised the governor to slow his roll; the city of Austin isn't a war zone, and Texas is not a police state.

Could we please talk about some of the other TXGOP lowlifes now?


Here comes a bunch of social and criminal justice updates:

The Root has the story of the 30-year-old Black woman, a Fort Sam Houston drill sergeant, found dead of multiple gunshot wounds on New Year's Day.  Grits for Breakfast posts about the stunning allegations of hazing at the Austin police academy.  Liberation News details the state of Texas prisons, where some of the worst negligence associated with COVID-19 is occurring.  Living Blue in Texas wants to know if slaves are still buried under the Parker County courthouse.  And Reese Oxner at NPR wonders why there are so many places in the Lone Star State with the word "Negro" in their names, despite there being a law against that.


And a few environment pieces.

Inside Climate News has a map of the Eagle Ford shale graphing citizens' complaints about their pollution woes.  Oilprice.com posts the industry's POV on why nobody can solve Texas' flaring crisis (it's illuminating, pun intended.)  And James Osborne for the Chron asks if the state could become an electric vehicle hub.


And to end today ... a few of the news items on the lighter side.

The NYT profiles The 830 Times; a 16-page, ad-supported weekly tabloid launched in Del Rio in November by a PR veteran after the city's last paper shut down.  And for you fans of old-school blogging, Vagabond Scholar presents the Jon Swift Roundup for 2020.

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