Tuesday, January 11, 2022

A Voting Wrangle for Taco Tuesday


First political things first: Houston and Austin have city council seats to fill, and those special elections are on tap.


Lots of Democratic supporters are throwing in to help Team Blue for the spring.


"Historic"?  Okay, whatever.  Kuff posted the D primary campaign interviews conducted so far.


With some thoughts on the ancillary issues affecting Democrats' prospects, Michael Li explains why the discourse about how the Donks have "won" redistricting misses a lot of the picture.  Rick Casey predicts the future following the ongoing 2020 election fraudit.  And Steve Vladeck observes that the vaccine mandate cases before SCOTUS are really about the future power of federal administrative agencies to regulate... anything.

Here's something I didn't see coming: the Texas Tribune finds a "bothsides-ism" in that TXGOP tweet about standing in line.


Is "owning the libs" really the same as obstructing democracy oligarchy/plutocracy?  Apparently that's the case on social media, according to the state's most prominent political outlet.  I'm sure Evan Smith and Ross Ramsey have been taking a lot of incoming fire from the Republicans in charge lately, being accused of librul bias and all, so it's important for them to find an angle that lets them mollify the freak right whenever they can.

 That's my segue to 'Republicans behaving badly'.


Luther does not understand the difference between Chinese students and the Chinese government.  I'm being charitable; she is obviously a bigot.  She's been thoroughly denounced -- if only by one brave Republican -- and she should lose and go back to styling hair after March 1.


Texas teachers could easily swing the November elections to the Dems, but they've been unable to coalesce their caucus, just like every other left-leaning outfit in Texas.  I doubt whether a midterm election with a deeply unpopular Democratic president is going to change history.


We've reached the Governor Fish Lips portion of this segment.


Can't leave the Texas Democrats' bad behavior out.


Ogg is bad news; has been since the start.  (You may be unable to view this due to privacy settings; here's what it refers to.)

I have too many COVID posts -- everyone who isn't dead knows that's the top story -- so I'll save them for later.  Here's the latest cannabis news.


The climate headlines:


And a few social justice items.


Forrest Whitaker begs you to please not mess with Texas rock art.

Some good people died; some bad people also.

Glasstire eulogized Ann Harithas, artist, curator, and co-founder of the Houston Art Car Museum.


One soother.

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, January 09, 2022

Sunday Anniversary Funnies


Interactive version at full size and identifying the perps can be seen here. (may be paywalled)

Posted by at No comments:

Friday, January 07, 2022

The Weekend Wrangle


It's been a very bad start to the new year for Texas Republicans.  Update:


To say they stepped in their own understates it.  Just follow the mockery.  Before I get to the rest of that, there's a few things that are more important to the rest of us.


But it might not matter, at least for Greg Abbott's political future.


Hope all those statewide Dems running on keeping the power on have a backup campaign plan.  Looks like they're gonna need it.

That's my segue.


So Ted Cruz had a worse week than this.  First, the Dallas Observer introduced us to his very online daughter, and then his treasonous actions from January 6, 2021 caught up with him, and his feeble explanations only dug his hole deeper.


But he was by no means alone.


Both Cruz and Crenshaw have been branded RINOs by the QAnon Caucus as fallout for these transgressions, i.e. telling the truth.  And I can't stop laughing.


Just cannot wait for the next poll in the TXGOP AG race.



So to summarize:


Unfortunately, Texas Democrats' top two prospects took serious hits themselves from what might usually be considered friendly sources.


Beto O'Rourke going rote was no surprise.  Lina Hidalgo discovered as a puppet of the oligarchy -- for this observer -- was.


 This probably won't register on the shitlibs' meters.

Here are the criminal and social justice updates; the first intersects with the environment.  (More climate news next week.)


Background on ShotSpotter.


Going long on soothers today.

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, January 05, 2022

A Sedition Eve Wrangle


Perhaps I should begin with another threat.


Or maybe this one.


Given the possibilities of dying or becoming disabled from COVID, or freezing to death because we can't keep the power on, it might be permissible to excuse people from worrying too much about the climate.  Or whether their votes are going to count.


Or whether an insurrection might take place again.


Texas is full of these right-wing extremist militias.  They're not just the national security threat we've been warned about but a danger to all Texans.  And they are emboldened by the tacit approval, the wink-and-nod from police.


Greg Abbott and company aren't too worried about them, either.


So while we mark an anniversary tomorrow, no one feels like celebrating.  Not even those responsible, from what I can tell.


I'll try to be a little more cheery in the next Wrangle, the one I promised yesterday for today but will appear tomorrow or Friday.
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, January 04, 2022

Kicking Off The #TX2022 Season



This you?


In keeping with one of my resolutions, this post is an effort to be kinder to others, specifically here to some of the better Democrats running on the March ballot.  I won't be voting for them because I'm attending the Texas Green Party's conventions, but there's some of you who will, and if you're like me you have no interest in VBNMW.  So at this inception, you have several options -- perhaps more than your time allows -- to consider and research.  This is my effort to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.  I won't be doing as much of that as I have in the past.  As with COVID vaccines and masks, everybody has their own safe choices to make, and Texas Democrats should choose wisely.  Picking the same old Blue Dogs as in the past will result in the same mangey fall election results.  Be smarter; make them earn your vote with clear policy enunciations.

For example:

Beto lost my vote long ago in his Senate race against Ted Cruz when he took oil and gas money and abandoned Medicare for All, then became irredeemable in his lackluster White House bid two years ago, sealing the bad deal we're currently suffering under by jumping on the Biden bandwagon with the others at Obama's urging.  Delilah Barrios is the only person I can comfortably cast a ballot for in the governor's contest.  Best of luck to all you calf-crampers out there, but it's not happening again for him unless Governor Fish Lips gets upset in the Pachy primary.  And I don't see that either.

Same with the Lite Gov race and Mike Collier and Carla Braley.  As badly as Omicron Patrick needs to go, I have no votes left for perennial ex-GOP losers or Donkey party operatives.  Michelle Beckley seems okay, but tread carefully.  W/r/t Land Commissioner, Jay Kleberg is rich and and also a former Republican.  Jinny Suh is the best alternative.  And for Comptroller, Janet Dudding, Tim Mahoney, and Angel Vega all pass muster but I'd recommend Vega first.

My favorite statewide Dems are Joe Jaworski and Susan Hays.


Leftist-ish Dems running for Congress have been selected by American Youth for Climate Action, and for the most part I agree with their choices.


There are 5 more posts in that thread, and they include Claudia Zapata and D.L. Anderson in TX-21 (Chip Roy, seditionist), Jessica Cisneros in TX-28 (Henry Cuellar, oily Blue Dog), Jessica Mason in TX-30 (open, Eddie Bernice Johnson retiring), Beatriz Reynosa in TX-34 (Vicente Gonzalez, Blue Dog), Greg Casar and Eddie Rodriguez in TX-35 (open), Donna Imam in TX-37 (Lloyd Doggett, carpetbagger), and Diana Alexander, TX-38 (open).


For Texas Senate:


For the state's school board:


All these folks are big improvements on the Democrats and Republicans they're challenging.  Give them a close look and see if you agree.

A regular Wrangle coming later today tomorrow.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)