Sunday, June 06, 2021

Sunday "Still Has Dem in It" Funnies



Federal judge overturns California's 32-year-old ban on assault weapons

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Wednesday, June 02, 2021

The king is dead. Long live the king

Mood.


Indeed, Alexa Ura tweets for all of us, and about the entire legislative session now finally over.  It was not a slog or a grind, it was a death march.  And like all Trails of Tears, the trauma continues long after they end.


Biden's passed the buck to VP Harris, who's already trying to escape the last quagmire he dumped in her lap (the border crisis).  And as long as Joe Manchin is king of the Senate, how much do you think is going to happen?  Really, we can have voting rights or the filibuster, and the status quo means 59-41 is still a losing score for Senate Democrats.

Good times.

Meanwhile Supreme Commander Abbott will strike out the pay of those who labored through this 140-day nightmare ...


... and if you thought he had finished off all his Haterade, you had better think again.


After securing Trump's endorsement in his 2022 re-election bid -- neutering Sid Miller and the rest of the Super Goon Squad -- Governor Helen Wheels is going on offense again, changing the subject from his fails at the Lege.


His chances of sweeping back into the Governor's Mansion for another four years just increased dramatically.  More politics in the next post.


Progress Texas posted their ten best and worst moments, but stuck to their usual "Democrats good, Republicans bad" script.  A fresh exception was the dishonorable mentions of Sen. Ed Lucio and Rep. Harold Dutton.  But there were plenty more bad Donkeys in this session, and some of them were your favorites.


(In a Svitek update, Minarez and Bernal apparently intended to vote against, and had that corrected.)


Accurate.  They killed some decent bills along with the bad, and SB7 will be brought back from the dead in a special.


Robert Rivard at the San Antonio Report had his fill of the 87th and the bizarre priorities of the state's leaders.  Reform Austin condemned the lack of action on fixing the power grid.  Jessica Montoya Coggins, blogging for the Texas Signal, offered some advice about accessing an abortion now that SB8 passed.  And Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast abandoned bipartisanship and called it what it is: fascism.

Harvey Kronberg also came up from the bipartisan ether.


So with a lot more to blog, let me post some of the other items, good and sad.


On a much-needed lighter note, The Great God Pan Is Dead introduces you to Houston's notorious "Darth Vader House", which is now on sale for the low, low price of $4.3 million.

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Monday, May 31, 2021

Well, isn't that ... special



A lot more -- including all I need to catch up on from last week -- still coming.
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Sunday, May 30, 2021

Memorial Day Weekend "Back to Work" Funnies



If you’re anywhere near Stockbridge, Massachusetts (western MA, near the New York border), the Norman Rockwell Museum’s exhibit Pat Oliphant: Editorial Cartoons from the Nixon and Clinton Eras lasts until Monday, so if you can get there, go see it.  If you can't, read Mike Peterson's review.

And support today's political cartoonists here.
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Thursday, May 27, 2021

Petty, Party of Two



Late hours, extreme fatigue, frayed nerves, the old push me/pull you between the far right and the freak right is worth a laugh.


Not as funny as eating flies crawling into your mouth, though.


We understood a long while ago that Kremlin Toad Cruz was not human; there's just no need for him to keep proving it.  He can't help himself.


Every single time he tweets, he is savaged.  But it's interpreted by him, and his lickspittles, as "triggering/owning the libs".  It IS a game, we're all playing it, he thinks he's winning.

Apropos of nothing except more of our TXGOP leadership behaving badly ... are Angela and Ken Paxton in an open marriage?


She's working long, late hours under Dan Patrick's tutelege while he's ... doing whatever this is.  The AGTX was previously reported as flinging with a woman whom he referred to one of his rich contributors for a job, which became more grist for his corruption mill.  "Recommitted to his marriage", as the link from six months ago says, does not seem reflected in these photos.

That's enough mockery at these clowns' expense.

I now return you to your regular "Republicans Behaving Badly" programming.  Back under the Pink Dome, as Sine Die bears down ...


"You'll be invoiced for our expenses from our negligence that resulted in your neighbors freezing to death.  Sorry, that's capitalism; some win, others lose."

"Oh by the way, we have openings for unpaid internships for the special session.  Please have your young, attractive daughters and nieces apply now."


Be sure and read Phillip Martin's tweet attached to that thread.


I suppose I'll stop there, though I could post some more.  Maybe later; it's early and our representatives and senators are still asleep.  Mostly.

Oh hell, here's a few more petty pairings.


Still more to come.  My ever-lengthening environmental post, a collation of "cruelty is the point" of this legislative session and a few others.  Just feel the need for some cleansers right now.

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Wednesday, May 26, 2021

A skirmish won


Update: Big battles yet to come, even as Little Guv Dan Patrick throws a temper tantrum and demands a recount of the ones he was beaten on yesterday.


The war, alas, mostly lost already.

Lay it at the feet of the scowly-faced man with the gavel in the video above, along with statehouse Democrats who slid fearfully to the right, and all who trusted Speaker Forehead to be a fair arbiter this session.  Dade Phelan is no Joe Straus.  Back another horse in 2023, Donks.

Between now and then you need to fight like hell for a few more days, then again in a special session on redistricting, and whatever else Gov. Helen Wheels adds to the call -- undoubtedly some of the trash y'all defeated this time -- and then win some goddamned elections.  And don't blame or throttle the Green Party in your efforts to do so, or by Dishrag I'll stop voting for your judicial candidates down the ballot in reprisal, and encourage as many as possible to do the same.

Here's your platform.


(ICYMI: Patrick's 1991 vasectomy, broadcast live on his Houston radio station)

Moving on to other topics ...

Greg Abbott has had a winner of a session by anybody's scorecard, and he's setting up the special to capture a few more flags.


Yeah, just trust him.


If a meteor struck the Capitol today and ended the session early, Abbott would at the very least be able to claim Trump-ish bonafides like outlawing abortion, freeing guns from the tyranny of licensing and training, and some extra helpings of steak tartare to his donors like Kelcy Warren.

It won't be enough for Allen West and Sid Miller and MQS and the rest of the Lafitte privateers in the GQP (don't forget about their big shindig in Dallas this weekend) but that's a fight we can wait to watch next year.  Today the chattering class is excited about who former Prezdint Agolf Shitler might endorse between Ken Paxtoon and George Pee Bush.

"I like them both very much," Trump said in a statement Tuesday. "I'll be making my endorsement and recommendation to the great people of Texas in the not-so-distant future."

Bush has said he is "seriously considering" a primary challenge to Paxton and has scheduled a campaign kickoff for an unspecified office on June 2 in Austin. Bush spoke with Trump about the race Monday.

I really don't care.  Do you?  In more immediate Texas election news, voting has begun in the municipal runoffs across the state, and the most prized for Democrats is the Fort Worth mayoral.


And CD-10 progressive Dem Mike Siegel calls your attention to a like-minded candidate in the runoff with a conservative incumbent in Grand Prairie.

I have a backlog of criminal and social justice news.  First: more photos and video from marches and rallies in the Lone Star State in support of the cause of Gaza and Palestinians living there under the boot heel of Israeli ethnocide.


And Sam Russek's thread with video of the Houston rally that turned into a march is remarkable.  Read the whole thing; here's where the crowd quite gently took down the police barricades and filled Post Oak in front of the Galleria.


HPD's response was incredibly muted compared to past actions I've attended and witnessed.  I believe that's unlikely to be the case in the future, given the recent bill passed in Austin.


Also: laws decriminalizing the driving into and running down of protestors in other states are bound to head our way too soon.  Then there's the bills that penalize cities for defunding their police departments; these didn't need any Democratic votes, but they got them anyway.


Grits for Breakfast hypothesized that "anti-defund" legislation could have the effect of redefining what it means to be a "police officer".

With respect to the statewide camping ban law -- an action taken in response to Austin's efforts -- we know now that cruelty is the point.


And the same with cash bail.


Having run long again here, I'll post environmental updates -- the spat between George Pee's GLO and Harris County's non-existent portion of Harvey funding, Coastal Bend Queen Diane Wilson's ongoing struggle against the Big Chem polluters, and some other items -- tomorrow.  Here's my collection from the softer side.

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