Monday, January 24, 2022

The Monday Morning Wrangle from Far Left Texas


COVID first.


Stace at Dos Centavos rounds up another week in coronavirus news.  The Dallas Observer points out that medical labs are also facing staff shortages. And Your Local Epidemiologist explains what antigen tests are all about.


That will be my segue to the latest Texas education developments.


There are far too many Texas Republicans -- and one Democrat -- behaving badly for one Wrangle.


SocraticGadfly looked at the on-the-ground activities of the even bigger right wingnuts challenging Greg Abbott.  John Coby at Bay Area Houston highlighted the rich businessmen financing Eva Guzman's campaign for attorney general.


Kuff wasn't impressed by the TXSoS' claim that supply chain issues were the reason they couldn't provide enough voter registration forms.

And more promising developments as the primary season intensifies.


Shifting to climate news:


Carbon capture is a distraction, albeit a convenient one for oil companies who wish to appear as if they are doing something about the climate emergency.


The criminal and social justice headlines.


And the calm-me-downs to wrap today.

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Sunday, January 23, 2022

Sunday Funnies

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Friday, January 21, 2022

The Weekend Wrangle from Far Left Texas


I've been focusing on Democrats and Republicans as the March primary elections draw closer, so this Wrangle will go as easy as I can on the duopoly.  A few unfortunate souls made news.


I shouldn't leave Governor Helen Wheels out.


His signature issue -- the one featured in all those teevee ads -- is going to damage him.  That's why he is suddenly shifting gears to education.


So much incompetence, outdone only by the corruption.


That was as gentle as I could be.  Hey, they bring it on themselves.  I'll take that last as my segue to the climate news.


Yes, it's too late for the Ike Dike.


A few social justice posts.


And the calm-me-downs.

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A new media shooter coming out


Unlike Chuckles, I don't necessarily see this as good news.


Let's see the scorecard for the players:

A search committee will look for an editor-in-chief and CEO. That committee will include the following people: Ann Stern, president and CEO, Houston Endowment; Dr. Anne Chao, manager of the Houston Asian American Archive; Rice University's Armando Perez, executive vice president H-E-N Houston, chairman, United Way Greater Houston; Jeff Cohen, executive vice president, Arnold Ventures; Reginald DesRosches, Howard R. Hughes provost and president-elect, Rice University; and Rich Kinder, chairman, Kinder Foundation and executive chairman, Kinder Morgan Inc.

John Arnold (together with his wife Linda) is the local billionaire who made his first fortune with Enron, getting out early before the implosion.  He's a Libertarian.  Houston Endowment sold the Chronicle to Hearst in 1986; they were started by Jesse Jones.  The Knight Foundation was born out of a once-formidable newspaper outfit, and the American Journalism Project has its own list of benefactors, with quite a bit of overlap with the above.  Two names stood out to me: John Thornton, the venture capitalist who birthed the Texas Tribune with Evan Smith; and Cohen, the former editor of the Chronicle.  I'll let Amal Ahmed finish.


And my favorite journalist at the Chron weighed in.


I subscribe to the Axios newsletter for Dallas; it's barely tolerable.  I had to stop the Austin newsletter, as it was not.  The TexTrib has a few problems, but paying their staff and reporting on the Texas political duopoly isn't among them.  The Chronic catches a lot of flak from the conservatives in town for 'librul bias', so I would guess those folks are applauding this announcement.

AJP has already funded many similar efforts, including El Paso Matters.  Poynter spoke to Thornton and co-founder Elizabeth Green two years ago about their mission.

Several observations:

-- This really is an exciting time in online media in Texas.  Reform Austin is doing a bang-up job with Nick Anderson at the helm.  The Texas Signal has vastly improved with Fernando Ramirez's reporting, and for blue partisans Michelle Davis' Living Blue in Texas is a great resource.

-- Kuffner likes it because he thinks there'll be more local politics covered  ... that he can then cut and paste into his blog posts.  Amusing, because without a Chronicle subscription, about 75% of his blog doesn't exist.  Hell, I just hope they offer him a job that pays well enough that he can quit the oil company.  He can keep ignoring the corruption of local Democrats as long as they balance him by hiring some Republican who isn't a right wing freak.  Probably rules out Big Jolly, but the Houston Watch person might have a shot if he/she can diversify his/her anti-Kim Ogg content a bit.  (Not that Madam District Attorney hasn't earned it.)

-- Poor old Gadfly, the expert on everything, needs a better job than that POS newspaper in Sulphur Springs, but he hates Houston and all people and his life in general.

-- Cohen will probably find a place for some of the furloughed Chron folks like Evan Mintz and Laura Goldberg (the once-business editor and wife to my old former friend Neil Aquino).  In fact there are lots of good well-paying jobs suddenly available in Texas journalism.  That's a very good thing.

-- I have no interest.  None.  I'm retired.

-- Expect oil and gas money to flow like polluted fracking water into this venture.

It'll be a year before it gets off the ground, but today it smells like Michael Bloomberg's attempt to buy the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2020 by hiring every single Texas political rube off the street.  Here's a few of my suggestions for names:

-- The Big Greasy Times
-- The Bayou City Bugle
-- The Space City Star

What's your take?

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Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Hump Day Wrangle


Texas Republicans' bad week is stretching into a month.


Buc-ee Aplin is a big buddy of Dan Patrick.  The $65 million question is: does any of this matter to the TXGQP primary voter?  I am inclined to say 'no'.


After all, there are things happening that this subset of humanity is very likely applauding.


The largest corporations in Texas and the nation are complicit.

A pair of watchdog groups called out companies and trade groups that continued to financially support the 147 congressional Republicans who voted last year to overturn the 2020 presidential election results even after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. [...] General Dynamics ($233,500), and Valero Energy ($207,500) are (among) the top corporate donors to those who objected to the election and their party committees,” the report says.

More:

Irving-based ExxonMobil and San Antonio-based Valero Energy joined other Fortune 500 corporations and trade groups in 2021 in spending $8.1 million to financially back these members. [...] The recipients include House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and nine Texas lawmakers: Reps. Brian Babin, Jodey Arrington, Randy Weber, John Carter, August Pfluger, Beth Van Duyne, Troy Nehls, Ronny Jackson, and Michael Cloud.

More:

Pharmaceutical company Merck signed a pro-voting rights statement that was published as an advertisement in the New York Times on April 14. [...] After signing the ad, Merck donated $1,000 in October to Texas Republican state Senator Lois Kolkhorst, the primary sponsor of one of the state’s two new voter suppression laws and a cosponsor of the other one. [...] JPMorgan Chase also donated to a cosponsor of SB 1, giving $1,000 from its PAC to Sen. Dawn Buckingham in September.

Then there's the rich country folk who aren't all that fascist-freaky but still send Greg Abbott millions of dollars like it was loose change in their pocket.


Unlike Michelle, I see no path to anything for Texas Democrats but "a few small wins in targeted races", which I've been hearing since Boyd Richie was chairman.

Still, the young and the brave soldier on.


Best of luck to those good guys and gals.  I won't be holding my breath that the TexTrib is suddenly going to realize there's more than two political parties, however.


Here's a few more Tweets that point to the challenges we're all facing.


Need to jump that Bloomberg paywall?  Here you go.

In climate developments: what's good for Texas is often bad for the planet.


A few criminal and social justice updates which add to the litany of grim news in this post.


So we should find a laugh where we can.




At Wednesday’s meeting of the Dallas City Council, the people of Dallas were greeted with perhaps the most perplexing public comment yet: a man dressed in blue surgical scrubs, shouting a pro-vaccination song.

Alex Stein, a YouTube comedian, hit the podium and performed a rap to the tune of Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady,” with lyrics including “vaccinate me in my thong” and “Dr. Fauci, give me that ouchie.” His audience: some two dozen council members in a largely empty and silent conference room.

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Monday, January 17, 2022

MLK Day Wrangle

A few things to celebrate today:


Not so much for Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton.


Or some of the GQP supporting cast.


Their pain is not necessarily our collective gain.


Emily Eby also shows how the new voter suppression law will affect your voting experience.

The omicron variant is wreaking havoc with public school teachers and students.


But not just them.


And not just omicron affecting the supply chain, either.


Here's a few climate headlines.


SocraticGadfly blogged about getting to an all-electric-car future in light of discussing, or not discussing, the environmental N-word.


And some Texas music news to close today.

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Sunday, January 16, 2022

Sunday Funnies

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Thursday, January 13, 2022

Thursday Wrangle from Far Left Texas, Part 2: Evan Smith cashes out


My one and only conversation with the demigod came shortly after his baby's birth in 2008, or maybe '09.  I don't remember the details, but his call to me was regarding my criticism here of the TexTrib's polling at the time (they then, and still do, use YouGov, but I can't recall if the wizards at UT were partnering with him at that early stage or not.  I could go digging in my archives for the post, or I could start tagging posts so I don't have this problem, but ... you know.)

The only thing I clearly recollect was his terse responses that sounded like they were coming through gritted teeth, and an odd banging of pots and pans in the background.  It sounded, literally, as if someone was throwing them around.

The Trib used to run a blog ticker on the front page in those days, and this one was part of it.  That eventually disappeared, along with whatever clout political blogs ever had.  That wasn't Smith's fault. Shit happens.

As my tweets infer, I won't miss the guy.  He's not just the Texas version of Roger Ailes (minus 250 lbs. or so and the freak right bit) but also a confirmed duopolist.  The establishment POV comes no more based.  He's taken a lot of oil and gas money to raise his child, as everybody in Deep-in-the-Hearta thinks you must to get anywhere.  Like so many other New Democrats, he'd probably be more comfortable voting Republican if they just hadn't lost their cotton-picking minds.  It's been a tough year -- a rough couple of years -- for everybody, even the wealthy and well-connected apparently, and a two-year retirement plan is ... well, what you get to do when you own the shop.  He's not fading away.  He's got too many sycophants to just let go.


Let me move on and blog about more significant news; some of the developments regarding state policy that are affecting our lives.


More on that legal case, Miles v. Texas Central, here.

Here's a few jobs and workforce updates.


And some media notes collected over the past few days.


And the calm-me-downs to close.

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Thursday Morning Wrangle from Far Left Texas, Part 1: COVID, primary skirmishes


Opening today with the latest on the pandemic.


If you want to backtrack to about a week ago ...


Very bad and getting worse.  I hope you're not one of those "putting it in Gawd's hands", but if you are, have the ambulance take you to church instead of the hospital, because there are no beds in ICUs.


As the DMN's Bob Garrett noted, Canon had been instrumental in getting state Rep. Tony Tinderholt elected, and was a background player in former Cong. Joe Barton's sexting scandal.

That might be my segue to the politics news.


The tweet's teaser is lazy and lame, but the story is lively.  Here:

"Beto O'Rourke is dangerous to the communities and to the safety of the public and the people of this state and he is not fitting to serve as governor," Abbott said.

The governor accused O'Rourke of supporting defund the police movements and attacking him for his position on bail reform.

"This is Governor Abbott lying about me," O'Rourke said. "I do not want to defund the police. I want to make sure law enforcement have the resources they need to solve and investigate violent crimes."

[...]

"As long as there's not a freeze between now until the end of March, Abbott should be in good shape," (Rice political scientist Dr. Mark) Jones said.

Dr. Jones can be really good at political analysis when he wants to be.


That's a Republican news source for those of you unfamiliar, so if you click on the link for the schadenfreude, be sure and scrape the cookies off your browser immediately after.


Drag a dollar bill past the Governor's Mansion and count on a whore in a wheelchair coming after you.


It's not politics.


That's enough Hell on Wheels for one post.


Senator Cornhole wants to be the next Majority Leader, if indeed Trump's play to blow out Moscow Mitch succeeds.  He'll have to contend with South Dakota's John Thune for the title, who looked as if he was ready to leave the Senate for a minute there.


I'll take that as my segue to post a few updates about Texas Democrats.


This is both awkward and unfortunate for Beckley.  Wu in particular is a committed shitlib -- he's still tweeting Hillary Clinton -- but Howard and Martinez are a letdown personally.

I'm also disillusioned by Jessica Cisneros.


I don't know whether Benavides is as, or less or more progressive than Cisneros.  This establishment centrist tweeted a smear against Jessica for the move, so there's that.


I'm Green, but Suh, Zapata, Reynosa, and Israel are Democrats I could vote for if I lived in their jurisdictions (and if I were voting in March).  I'm not so antagonistic as some #DemExiteers to those who seek to reform the Donkey Party from within.  I'm over that; maybe they will get there too.

More in the next.
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