Labor Day Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you that Labor Day is more than college football, binge drinking, and sleeping late, and offers the resources of the Zinn Education Project to use and peruse as you wish.

Off the Kuff looks at the state's voter ID outreach efforts, which began last week.

Libby Shaw at Daily Kos is hardly surprised to learn about the veil of secrecy that shrouds the $2.5 million Texas Voter ID education effort.

Socratic Gadfly hears about a new idea in the newspaper biz, charging people to have candidate endorsement letters to the editor published, and rips it to shreds.

After listening to Donald Trump's white nationalist speech, CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme woke up very angry at the Republican party.  Remember the ugly, angry GOP debate audiences in 2012?  These were the special people invited to attend.  Think about Senate Republicans blocking a Supreme Court nominee, threatening the full faith and credit of the US and so very much more.

It's Labor Day, and according to (faulty) conventional wisdom, we can all begin to pay attention to the coming election, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at All People Have Value says his friend Libby gets enthused by ideas. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Texas Vox posts the details of the Texas Railroad Commission candidates' forum, in Austin on September 10.

The city of Lewisville reported its 16th case of West Nile virus in mosquitoes tested there, reports the Texan-Journal.

Txsharon at Bluedaze details her white privilege at age four.

And Texas Leftist got hungry and went out for lunch after blogging about the Trump surrogate's fear of 'taco trucks on every corner'.

=======================

The Texas Observer's Patrick Michels writes about how a campaign to keep a Jesus sign brought discord to a God-fearing East Texas town, while John Wright reports on El Paso's challenge to the anti-trans rhetoric of the GOP.

Grits for Breakfast exposes the Democratic Party's hypocrisy on criminal justice reform.

PoliTex asks whether Ted Cruz still has the golden touch.

Steve Snyder takes a deep dive into the voter ID litigation agreement.

Megan Woolard Arredondo explores the challenge of climate change for San Antonio, and Space City Weather explains why hurricanes are strongest on the right side.

Swamplot maps where Houston's pot smokers live.

Cherise Rohr-Allegrini critiques the anti-vaccinations film Vaxxed.

Eileen Smith calls on her fellow Texans to keep Rick Perry on "Dancing With The Stars" for as long as possible.

Houstonia raises a glass to the mannequins of summer.

And Pages of Victory finally cops to his age.

Sunday Funnies

Conservative media take over Trump's campaign, look to post-election battle for soul of GOP

A lot of people don’t want to vote for a third-party candidate like Jill Stein or Gary Johnson because they believe their vote will be “wasted.” But they don’t apply the same logic to most other things in life, many of which involve setting yourself apart from the herd.

It's Labor Day weekend; time to start paying attention to the election

As some sayer of sooths will point out.  At some point.

-- A couple of fresh contenders for the crown of Daily Jackass (honestly, these two seem like the third-string players scrambling for a roster spot) include Tessa Stuart at Rolling Stone with the compilation of greatest hits, and Brent Budowsky at The Hill, calling for a debate between Gary Johnson and ... Bernie Sanders.

 Two of the most genuinely pathetic pieces I have read this cycle. 

-- If you don't understand why Trump has managed to erase Clinton's large and long lead (there's a Mel Brooks/Blazing Saddles joke there) in the national two-horse race polls, just look at one thing: the incessant media coverage of his ridiculous and pathetic immigration "plan".  It's not just because Hillary's Foundation is crumbling or that her e-mail Scandal O'Day resembles a a case of herpes, it's because Trump and his minions dominate the discussion everywhere you look.  I try my hardest to ignore the daily spew but it's become impossible.  What's truly remarkable is how his surrogates manage to catapult the propaganda in the least effective way: #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner, as if that were a bad thing.  Yes, it's hate speech and bigotry and we'll all be the worse for the experience even after he's finally gone away.  Unless he doesn't go away; consider the horror that the media asks him to comment on every single policy initiative of President Clinton's during the next four years, as they did with McCain following 2008 and Romney after 2012.

Turn him off.  Maybe our corporate teevee media will get the message if the ratings start going down, but I doubt it.

-- Vladimir Putin says he doesn't know who hacked the DNC.  And at this point, what difference does it make?

In an interview two days before a G20 meeting in China with U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders, Putin said it might be impossible to establish who engineered the release of sensitive Democratic Party emails but it was not done by the Russian government.

"Does it even matter who hacked this data?" Putin said. "The important thing is the content that was given to the public." 

"There’s no need to distract the public’s attention from the essence of the problem by raising some minor issues connected with the search for who did it," he added. "But I want to tell you again, I don’t know anything about it, and on a state level Russia has never done this."

I believe him.  Which is more than one could say about most of what both Clinton or Trump have had to say about the matter.

I sit with Colin Kaepernick

The advancement of civil rights in this nation requires protests of this very nature -- with something personal at risk of loss to the protester, like Ali, and MLK, and Malcolm X -- and compels by force of conscience people who look like me to stand, or sit, with them.

It's called the First Amendment.  There's a reason the Founders put it ahead of the Second one, after all, and if you're a Second Amendment person but not a First one, then you're an asshole.  But just so we're clear, let's be certain that we all understand that your right to complain about Kaepernick is included within his right to sit during the anthem.

Because we also know this has nothing to do with the First Amendment.

And now... let's all STFU about this trivial matter.  But before we do, let's give the #VeteransforKaepernick the last word.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance urges support for Louisiana flooding victims -- after all, it could be us next -- as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff points out that at current levels of polling, Democratic statewide candidates in Texas have a legitimate shot at getting elected.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme knows Texas Republican racism, meanness and greed is behind the withholding of birth certificates to Hispanic children born in Texas.

Hearst's acquisition of nearly two dozen small newspapers circling the city of Houston points out one of the few bright spots in the industry, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs; the rise of community-based papers.

Socratic Gadfly, noting when all parties have "issues," defends Green Veep Ajamu Baraka from Swiftboating, while noting he opened himself to it by being a conspiracy theorist.

John at Bay Area Houston considers Texas House District 144 incumbent Gilbert Peña to be more stump than furniture.

Neil at All People Have Value, on walkabout in Cincinnati, posted a photo of a cicada on the door of the bar he was closing down.

And Stace at Dos Centavos eulogizes Latino music legend Juan Gabriel.

======================

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

The Schulenburg Forty-Eighter has some resources and events listed for those who wish to be active in opposing the fossil fuel industry's latest work-around for the stalled KXL pipeline.

Politifact Texas rates Sean Hannity's claim that "all of Texas is conservative, except for a little bit of Austin" as False.

The Urban Edge takes note of Houston's growing Muslim Latino community.

"Give and you shall receive", Texas politicians tell contributors, in a aggre-post at the revitalized PoliTex blog (at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

The Austin Chronicle posits nine reasons why Donald Trump came to Austin, and the Texas Observer's 19th "Texas Miracle" podcast talks cocks, Glocks, and Trump.

The Bloggess celebrates technology in parenting and friendship.

Grits for Breakfast calls for decarceration and closing prisons to reduce TDCJ's budget.

TFN Insider's guest post is from a Tyler rabbi, who writes about his -- and other non-Christian -- children's experience in the public schools, and the TSTA Blog reminds us that campus miracle workers can only do so much with limited resources.

And Better Texas Blog eulogizes Nelda Laney, wife of former statehouse Speaker Pete Laney.