Thursday, July 01, 2021

"Another Prick at the Wall" Round-Up


Four, actually.


WESLACO, Texas (CN) -- As Texas Governor Greg Abbott floats plans to finish building a border wall, former President Donald Trump visited the Lone Star State on Wednesday to, as he put, “admire the wall and how it works.” But the real show came earlier, at a so-called border security briefing in the South Texas city of Weslaco.

There, at a Texas Department of Public Safety building, the purpose of Trump’s border visit came into focus. State Republican leaders like Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton displayed their pro-Trump bona fides, beaming as Trump noted that he had given Abbott his “highest and best endorsement” and hinted he would be making an endorsement in the 2022 Texas attorney general race “in the very near future.”

Meanwhile, the former president -- who has been banned from virtually every social-media platform as a result of his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol -- got a platform to speak to journalists who have largely ignored him since he left office. Much of what he said had nothing to do with the border at all.

Instead, Trump discussed the years-old investigation into his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, his cognitive abilities and his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen ...

“Everyone said, ‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’” Trump said at the border security briefing. “Well, that’s been proven false. Not only false, it was them that were associated with Russia. It was them, the Democrats and Hillary [Clinton].”


Snark aside, the "boarder", as so many MAGAts spell it, will be the rally cry for 2022, and I would guess two years after as well.  The governors of Florida and some other Republican states have answered Abbott's call, sending their National Guards to South Texas.  Noteworthy for trying to avoid the "taxpayer dollars' waste" problem is South Dakota's Kristi Noem, who got crony-creative.


And there won't be one single red county judge that gets left out.


All for a stunt.


A stunt, to be clear, that is widely supported by those who vote in the TXGOP primary (who are the only people who matter in this state).


It takes a special kind of stupid to keep falling -- and paying -- for this shit.  Then again, these are the folks who mustered forces to keep Ted Cruz in the Senate.


They're also the people, by and large, being arrested for insurrection in D.C. on January 6th.


And, paraphrasing Jon Lovett as Michael Dukakis, Texas Democrats are still losing to these guys.

More on COVID, social justice, and that long-delayed enviro-post coming.  Here's my soothers.


Correction: White women.
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Monday, June 28, 2021

The Tardy, Brief, Ketchup Wrangle from Far Left Texas

Not as long as you or I feared.  First, let's load the chuck wagons and pluck the cockleburrs out of our saddle blankets and rest up this long weekend ahead before the Legislature's new/old business comes due.


Some lawmakers -- particularly Democrats -- seem less than thrilled about it.


Governor Fish Lips (what? you hadn't noticed?) thinks he's being tricky.


Texas Dems have asked the SCOTX to decide whether his veto of Article X -- which funds the Lege's staff -- is constitutional.


In other dictatorial developments:


Wrong disaster.


The worm may have finally turned against Abbott and Ken Paxton last week; some things that happened were suggestive.


Indiana won their lawsuit just last week.  Kuff also weighed in on a couple of polls that show no great love for what the Repubs have been doing lately, and Grits for Breakfast called Abbott's vetoes "a final punch in the nose for the bipartisan criminal justice reform movement".

Honestly though, in a state unplagued with Trump Syndrome, a Democratic Party with some cojones and a plan might stand a chance of flipping something in 2022.


The vice president didn't help the cause in her visit last week.


When all else fails, send in the doctor.


The local Donks have a new chair.  According to former precinct chair J.R. Behrman, he's Nigerian.  They also censured a state representative for his conduct.


I'll wrap this Wrangle with a few things worth celebrating.


And also, as mentioned, my mother Jean, marking her 95th year (and amazing us all)!
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Sunday, June 27, 2021

Sunday "The Party of Lincoln" Funnies

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Saturday, June 26, 2021

Not quite back to normal

Here.

Celebrating Mom's 95th in Beaumont with her today.  Brother went to the hospital yesterday.  Have spent all week laid low by a vicious summer cold.  So there's my excuses for not posting since Monday.

Still have all those I promised in draft, with a lot of work needed, but they won't see the light of day until next week soonest.  Funnies tomorrow, a Monday Wrangle to play catch-up, then we'll see.

Thanks for checking in.

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Monday, June 21, 2021

The Monday Wrangle from Far Left Texas


We're still reading cabrito entrails from the session just past.


And reacting to Governor Wheels' latest temper tantrum/diversion.


As well as the rest of the nutty Tejas fringe.


Here's a few posts from yesterday's rally at the Capitol.


Greg Abbott is never going to be above petty maneuvering.


The Texas Signal sums up the next moves.


I do not favor passage of the For The People Act because of its onerous penalties to minor parties.

HR 1, also known as the “For The People Act,” is sold as a way to get money out of politics and to protect voters, but it contains several poison pills for democracy and opposition parties like the Green Party. Most alarmingly, HR1 quintuples the amount of money Green presidential campaigns will be required to raise to qualify for federal matching funds: from $5,000 in each of 20 states to $25,000 per state. Other poison pills in HR1 would:

1. Abolish the general election campaign block grants that parties can access by winning at least 5% of the vote in the previous presidential election. HR1 would eliminate this provision that was created to give a fair shot to alternative parties that demonstrate significant public support.

2. Replace the general election block grants (where each qualified candidate receives a set, lump sum of public funding for campaign expenses) with matching funds through Election Day -- a huge step backwards for public campaign finance reform -- using the above-mentioned criteria designed to squeeze out alternative parties and independent candidates.

3. Eliminate the limits on donations and expenditures candidates can receive and make. What kind of campaign finance reform is that?

4. Inflate the amount of money national party committees can give to candidates from $5000 to $100 million, an astonishing increase of 1999900% that would give party bosses virtually unlimited power to flood elections with big money.

And Joe Manchin's efforts to sell it -- and anything else -- to his good friends in the Senate Republican Caucus got caught in Mitch McConnell's wedge politics.


And we already know that Texas Democrats can't play any fairer when it comes to the Texas Green Party than the TXGOP plays with them.


So as I mentioned, it's best for TexDems and best for democracy if they have DOJ sue, get the courts to suspend the laws the TXGOP passes until the SCOTUS rules (which will be a year from now at the earliest), and hope for the best.  In the meantime, do what they should have been doing all along: blockwalking, voter registration, GOTV.  The Pukes did that during the pandemic, after all.

And think about replacing that tired old Padron chairman with a Black woman.

Here's a few scenes from Juneteenth.


This program was expertly done, with both Houston and Galveston's history, conversations with activists, and a lot more you did not know.  Highly recommended viewing.  And here's a blast from Dallas' past celebrations.


And an online event today.


Finally, let's not forget that Juneteenth did not celebrate the end of slavery.  It marked the day when the US Army sailed into Galveston harbor and told Texans that slavery had ended two years before, and to cut it out.  And Texas -- and a lot of other states -- didn't.  And still don't.


Bud Kennedy at the Star-Telegram wrote about how a 1939 Fort Worth race riot sparked Opal Lee’s long effort for a Juneteenth federal holiday.  And Kimiya Factory for the San Antonio Report tells why she celebrates.

I think that catches me up to current.  I'll go back and pick up my environmental and social and criminal justice news in posts I said I would get to earlier in short order.  Here's today's soothers.

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