The Frightful Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is scouting out pumpkin patches as it brings you this week's roundup.  Here's 14 Halloween costumes you really shouldn't wear this year (or any year).  The Great Trumpkin is fair game, but may be too popular and thus prevalent.  I'd go as Bernie Sanders if I were doing any cosplay myself (just shave the top of of your head, spray paint the rest white, and put on a suit).

Off the Kuff looked at early voting trends for 2015.

Socratic Gadfly told people who had not yet been to the polls to vote No to 6 of 7 on the constitutional amendments propositions.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos and contributing to Daily Kos explores the devastation to women's health care options in Texas, compliments of the state's far right Republican policies: The Texas GOP and its unforgiving War on Women.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is horrified at the Republicans use of state power to abuse Planned Parenthood, their patients, their employees, their associates and the people of Texas.

All of the political mail, door hangers, and assorted communication from the upcoming election for 2015 was photographed, discussed, and then recycled by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Texas Leftist makes his endorsements in the 2015 Houston elections.

Egberto Willies branded the corporate media "failed" as their sluggish response to the Big Pharma Bro's immoral price hike of an HIV medication revealed them as complicit in the scamming of Americans by the drug companies.

The Lewisville Texan Journal had more information on the road rage shooting incident in that city.

Realizing the value of everyday life, which when asserted against the elite and insider absence of values of the establishments of both major parties is a possible starting point for an uprising or people's movement, Neil at All People Have Value took two pictures of traffic in Houston. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Better Texas Blog analyzes State Propositions 1 and 7, and Streetsblog advocates against Prop 7.

The San Antonio Current reports on the 30.06 signs that Rep. Diego Bernal is providing local businesses who do not want to allow open carry on their premises.

Fascist Dyke Motors voted and feels good about it.

Texas Watch provides five things to know when filing a wildfire insurance claim.

Millard Fillmore's Bathtub watched with mouth agape as Greg Abbott took the side of cancer against Texans, and then bragged about it.

Bekah McNeel vents her shame and outrage at being fooled by Volkswagon.

The Texas Election Law Blog answers your questions about homeless voting.

Prairie Weather once again observes that Congressional and state Republicans are coordinating their attacks on healthcare, specifically Obamacare and Planned Parenthood.

Yellow Doggerel Democrat noted the pro-immigration protestor at a Trump rally who was kicked and dragged from the room as the audience chanted "USA, USA".

Somervell County Salon remembers why she dislikes Hillary Clinton so much.

And Kate Braun at the Rag Blog wants to be certain we all celebrate Samhain -- err, Halloween, in the proper pagan way.

Sunday Funnies

Makes as much sense as spending the past 14 years blaming Ralph Nader.

"Why the Corporate Media won't tell you that Hillary Clinton is a Lying Fascist"

All the political literature I received this cycle

I think that's all of it, anyway.  In the bottom right corner you see the three door hangers I got during the summer.  As best I can tell my door hasn't been knocked upon since Labor Day.

It should be noted that I am a "Triple-D" household according to the public voting records.  That means I have voted in the three most recent Democratic primaries -- 2014, 2012, 2010.  To the best of my knowledge, I have not received a telephone call from any campaign.  At least if they called me, they didn't leave a message.

I'm not sure why the Christie and Hall campaigns would drop literature at a DDD home, but there you have it.  My precinct is purple; blue in presidential years and red in midterms.  Can you imagine the volume of mail those dumbass Democrats who vote in GOP primaries have gotten?

I finally managed to vote on Wednesday, so if any of these campaigns are still mailing me after that, then they're more stupid than I can comprehend.  The SOS can merge/purge voters from the non's overnight, at least as I understand it, so that campaigns aren't still trying to persuade people who have already cast a ballot.  And to be fair, direct mail consultants still have to deal with the lag of a few days between printing and dropping (into your mailbox).

Tom McCasland wins largest mail piece; two 8 1/2 x 11s.  They stick up the highest out of my green recycle bin.  Amanda Edwards wins for frequency: three.  Statewide Prop 1 backers spent the most out of the subset of non-candidate-related mailings.  Chris Brown should look at the camera more often (all those shots of him looking down or away project weakness, IMHO).

One other thing: my next door neighbor -- not a Democratic primary voter for at least the past six years; remember I've been a precinct captain and worked the walk lists -- received an Adrian Garcia mailing (letter, probably donation solicitation) so either the former sheriff is wasting his considerable sum of money to a far greater extent than everyone else, or is soliciting Republican voters.  I'm guessing it's the latter.

I can count on one hand the teevee commercials I have seen; two for Steve Costello and one for Garcia.  But I don't watch much teevee either, certainly not local, news or otherwise, so I'm not a good barometer of that medium's reach.

Is anybody besides me embarrassed about this?  That this is what our local demonstration of democracy plutocracy/oligarchy looks like?  Frankly I would rather be bum-rushed by ten people with pushcards at the polling place.  At least I can say 'no thank you'.  I can't do anything with all of this crap except recycle it.

What would seven million bucks -- and that's just the mayorals, mind you -- have been better spent on?  How many potholes would that have filled if you stuffed them with cash and just topped them off with asphalt?

We need a better democracy than "who has/raises the most money".  Keep in mind that Costello, Bill King, and Ben Hall -- all losers, hopefully -- self-funded their campaigns.  If they're so rich, why ain't they smart?  But is it better to be held captive by the wealthiest, like Garcia and Sylvester Turner could be?

A better political system is needed, please.  One without so much money.

"What Time is the Coronation" scattershooting

-- Make way for the Queen.  I wonder who the Republicans will run in 2020?

#FreeHillary became a trend after eleven hours of Q&A.  This one, though, is best.

Well this is just a tremendous GIF. #BenghaziCommittee pic.twitter.com/Bnpi6rcQ43

— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) October 22, 2015

Benghazzzzzz...

-- Trump lost his lead in Iowa, and promptly blamed Monsanto.

Later, he deleted it and blamed a "young intern".  Oh, those millennials.

-- The real black brain surgeon takes over front-runner status in the Hawkeye State, and naturally gives all the glory to God.

You know, the draft movement built and I finally said, "Lord, I don't particularly want to do this, it's not on my bucket list, but if you want me to do it, you open the doors and I'll walk through them and if you close the doors, I'll sit down."

And the doors began flying open, much to the consternation of all the professional class and all the pundits who said, "It's impossible, you can't possibly put together a national organization as a political neophyte, you don't know any of the people, there's no money. You can't do it, it's impossible, forget about it."

And yet, you see, it’s happening. And they don’t understand the power of God.

Who does God pick in the World Series, Doctor?

God is also telling Carson that Medicare should be abolished and that the Queen is going to jail.  (That's probably Sean Hannity doing the talking there, to be fair.)

-- Turnout for Houston's elections looks a little stronger than years past, but not all that much.  Some of the EV boxes in Republican parts of town are heavy, and in predominantly African American precincts as well, which might be good for those candidates (black and/or conservative) in close races.  With the understanding that Latino voters don't live in clustered neighborhoods so much as they live all over the city, I don't see anything suggesting a "historic turnout" for "the community" that might be helping Adrian Garcia.  And it's still far too early to divine any significant trend.

When Campos says "don't focus on the votes, focus on the percentages", remember that percentages don't count in the tabulation of election winners.  I wish I didn't have to keep pointing out what a moron this guy is, but he just makes it necessary.  He was a joke ten years ago, and it's still not funny after a decade.  One of his clients may be replacing Ed Gonzales on council; she has no primary voting history going back three cycles (scroll halfway down to District H).  The Chronicle endorsed her, but they also endorsed Mitt Romney for president and Ted Cruz for the US Senate.  She might be a nice lady and even a qualified candidate, but why would you vote for someone who has held office as a school trustee and now wants a promotion to city council who can't be bothered to vote in primary elections?  Her questionnaire says she is not educating voters on photo ID.  That's real helpful for a Latina candidate in a predominantly Latino/a district.

Update: Please note Edward Ybarra's remarks in the comments section.

Seems to me there are better options for District H representative (except for one, that is).