The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance thinks we need fewer thoughts and prayers and more action to curb gun violence as it brings you this week's roundup.

 Off the Kuff has been following the legal standoff between Greg Abbott and refugee relief organizations with increasing disbelief.

Libby Shaw, contributing to Daily Kos, is not the least bit surprised to learn that the Texas Republican Party dances with the absurdity of secession again. We’re back in the silly season of elections. TX GOP: So it now it wants to secede?

Socratic Gadfly heard about Mark Zuckerberg's alleged shiny new charity, looked at it, and saw it was full of problems. Then, when some "pseudoskeptics" either claimed he was wrong, or else did special pleading for Zuckerberg, he took a closer look and found it was even worse.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks Ted Cruz is a mansplaining *&% for saying condoms are all a woman needs in the way of reproductive health care.

 "Thoughts and prayers" as gun safety policy from too many Republicans who are responsible for crafting laws which protect Americans.... isn't. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs would like to see something more effective to stop the carnage in this country.

Texas Leftist took note of the threats by Lone Star Republicans to state relief agencies and Christian charities choosing to assist and relocate Syrian refugees here, a threat which turned out to be a bluff.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston wants to make sure you know who NOT to vote for in the H-Town municipal runoff election.

Earthquakes in Irving have spawned a new community impact activist group in that city, writes TXsharon at Bluedaze.

The Lewisville Texan Journal has a charming story about the new Cat Corner in a local mall, where shoppers can lounge a bit with a feline friend.

Stace at Dos Centavos has a holiday opportunity for those who want to give something really big back: sponsoring a student of the Las Americas Newcomer School during their first holiday in the United States.

Neil at All People Have Value took a good picture of downtown Houston at night. Our everyday lives have a lot of value. We should assert this value each day. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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

David Ortez gives three reasons why decriminalizing first-time marijuana possession cases will be good for Harris County.

Lone Star Ma highlights the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger.

Robert Rivard examines the science and denial of climate change.

TFN Insider asks why Greg Abbott is bullying faith-based organizations when he claims to support religious freedom.

Lize Burr delves into the Great Disappearing Condom Machine Mystery.

Grits for Breakfast discusses the role of plea bargains in unjust convictions.

The Politics of Courage lists all of the Green, Socialist Workers Party, and Working Families Party candidates who won, or did well in, their elections last week.  Yes, in America.  The list doesn't include Harris County Green Joseph McElligott, who took over 11,000 votes and 6.31% in his Houston AL 5 bid.

Dallas Morning Views opined about Lite Guvnah Dan Patrick's pushback on "thoughts and prayers".

The Texas Observer pointed out another court defeat to Ken Paxton: more than $600,000 in legal fees to the attorneys of plaintiffs in the recent challenge to same sex marriage, which is now the law of the land.

Offcite's Houston mayoral questionnaire was posted, with the candidates responding to issues like parking, parks, pollution, preservation, and more.

In light of the contract overruns associated with the tech overhaul of the state's child support network, Somervell County Salon wants to know why Texas is paying Accenture (aka Arthur Anderson before the Enron debacle) for anything.

Houston Matters emphasizes that for fans of the abstract-expressionist Mark Rothko, there are currently three locations in Houston featuring his work.

Meanwhile back at the state capital, Better Texas Blog details some of the interim charges for the 2017 legislative session.

TXGOP flunks secession gut-check

How many delegates do you think pronounced it suck-cession?  Astoundingly, as Bud Kennedy recounts, they applied some forethought and decided it wasn't a good idea.

With the spirit of Texas President Sam Houston over the room, state party executives voted Saturday in Austin not to poll March primary voters on declaring Texas independence.

Austin Republican Mike Goldman’s voice rose as he quoted Houston’s opposition to Confederate secession and implored the party’s state committee to avert “brother fighting brother on whether they are a Texan first or an American first.”

More immediately, the vote averted a national embarrassment with implications both in March and November.

If the party had a poll on secession, that would have drawn more disenchanted independents who also support Donald Trump. (Even the Houston-area Tea Party activists behind the idea said it’d draw new voters.) That would have hindered U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s shot at claiming more Texas delegates.

So this essentially came down to a resolution failing to get on the ballot -- which supporters believed would attract new voters to their primary -- because it might hurt the prospects of their favorite son, and make the party look like a sea-to-shining sea joke.  (Clue to Texas Republicans: that ship sailed years ago.)

Then, if the referendum passed and Cruz were on the ticket, can you imagine the campaign? “Why vote for a Texas Republican? They don’t even want to stay in the Union.”

Since 1861, Texas secession has always been a farcical idea promoted by liars, self-important patriots and greedy merchandise peddlers. This year, it just happens to be a particularly self-destructive idea for Republicans, which must be why the Tea Party party-wreckers brought it up.

There was an interesting article recently that suggested the Tea Bags, while losing favor overall, still have cracking up the GOP in mind.  Psychologically, they've already quit on the party, they just haven't filed the divorce paperwork.  While I found that premise somewhat intriguing, it seems more likely to me that they -- with Trump as their tool -- will actually take over the GOP and push out the moderates, who are hesitant emotionally or physically to disconnect.  Is Lindsey Graham correct in saying that nominating Donald Trump means the end of the GOP as we know it?

Are they at risk of becoming 21st century American fascists?

Honestly I'm more focused on seeing if Hillarians are going to be successful in driving out the Sandernistas.  Democrats, after all, have repeatedly demonstrated a propensity not to vote if the candidate nominated does not enthuse them enough to do so.  This is so obviously the difference between Hillary and Bernie that I am almost surprised that so many Democrats do not get it.

If I'm right about this trend, Trump could get elected president.

Mark this post as the first time I have publicly entertained the possibility that Clinton loses in 2016.

Sunday Thoughts and Prayers Funnies

A letter to Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan from their baby, Max (Warning: language)

Cheney, busted

In keeping with the Star Wars references, this isn't the frogmarch we've been looking for.

One of the most controversial vice presidents in U.S. history will have a permanent presence in the halls of power in Washington after a marble bust of Dick Cheney was unveiled Thursday at the U.S. Capitol. (Former president George W.) Bush, Vice President Biden and other dignitaries offered effusive praise — and polite jokes as the sculpture was unveiled.

I think the Darth Vader comparisons are unfair.  The former Anakin Skywalker fought in every war that occurred during his lifetime; Cheney was more than happy to let others fight and die in his place, many times.

The real sculpture also has a difficult time convincing me it's an accurate representation.

So do the plaudits and jokes, especially Joe Biden's.

"The way you have conducted yourself is a model for anyone in high public office," Biden said. "I'm afraid I've blown his cover. I actually like Dick Cheney."

I call bullshit, Joe.

Update: More cringeworthy satire from Slate.  "Honored for ending terrorism"...

However, in retrospect it is hard to say that Cheney's decisions were anything but deeply prescient, and one thing is certain: The invasion ended Islamic terrorism and did not create a civil war that ironically allowed al-Qaida to flourish in an area where it had no prior presence, ultimately begetting an even more dangerous and inhumane splinter group called ISIS that continues to threaten American lives to this day.

[...]

Cheney was also praised for his ethical decision not to arrange for a company which had very recently paid him tens of millions of dollars and in which he had "a continuing financial interest" to become one of the largest beneficiaries of United States federal spending in Iraq. One can only imagine the repercussions if he had actually done something like that.

Competing polls show Turner, King with small leads over each other

Both are, shall we say, non-independent.

The Houston Realty Business Coalition (HRBC) released a poll of 300 active voters today measuring support of Mayoral candidates in the December runoff election.  

Blahblahblah.

In the upcoming runoff election for Mayor, if you had to choose, would you be voting for Bill King or Sylvester Turner?

 

Bill King                      48%

Sylvester Turner          43%

Undecided                     9% 

More at the link if you want it.  Conversely, Sylvester Turner's polling outfit shows him at 47-40, with 13% undecided.

The war of the polls: King touts survey showing he's ahead, Turner's camp rushes to counter #houvote pic.twitter.com/YWenctrSm8

— Rebecca Elliott (@rfelliott) December 3, 2015

Right down to the wire, folks.  Vote early until Tuesday, vote a week from Saturday if you don't.

Update: Sue Davis with the Turner campaign adds this (via email):

The King campaign is pushing a poll today with numbers that are drastically different than ours. But check the methodology before you take what King says at face value. His poll is a 300-sample, notoriously unreliable robo-call poll. It claims a 4% margin of error. However, in a sample size that small, according to our pollsters FM3, the margin of error should be 5.7%.

Additionally, 16% of people only use cell phones (like me). Robo-call polls are not allowed to call cell phones, so King’s poll missed out on a whole segment of voters.

"Thoughts and prayers" as gun safety policy

Working about as well as you would expect.

(Yesterday) saw not one but two mass shootings, on opposite sides of the country. In San Bernardino, California, three gunmen entered a center for persons with disabilities and killed at least fourteen people. In Savannah, Georgia, a single gunman killed a woman and injured three more people in the early hours of this morning.

There was also a shooting death in front of a Houston women's clinic yesterday.

All three Democratic presidential candidates responded to the shooting by calling for something — ANYTHING — by way of action to prevent the next mass shooting. All of the Republican presidential candidates called for prayers, and perhaps some thoughts, for the victims, their families and first responders on the scene.

It didn’t stop there, though. (Think Progress contributing editor) Igor Volsky has found 38 -- and counting -- Republican members of Congress, not counting the ones who are running for president, who tweeted out some version of “thoughts and prayers” immediately following the San Bernardino shooting. He also made a second pass through with said members’ contributions from the NRA.

Go check it out.  As the linked piece's headline so bluntly reveals, the sum of gun safety policy for the Republican Party begins and ends with "thoughts and prayers".  The New York Post also pointed out the hypocrisy of asking and then waiting for the Supreme Being to take action.

New York Daily News cover on #SanBernadino NAILS it. pic.twitter.com/weyLaQH4od

— Tom McKay (@thetomzone) December 3, 2015

As was the case with October’s mass shooting in Oregon, the Republican party line hasn’t even included the traditional hand-waving at the need for improved mental health services — even as there are bills currently stalled in Congress that would improve our country’s mental health services! Instead, the unified message has been that thoughts and prayers are the necessary and sufficient reaction to this shooting tragedy.

You don't have to be a non-believer to understand how powerfully ignorant this is. But as expected, Christians pushed back against being shamed for doing nothing but close their eyes and meditate.

In isolation, nothing. ... (I)f you, personally, want to send good thoughts in the direction of someone who has just experienced a loss, go ahead. It doesn’t hurt anyone, although God’s continued agnosticism on American gun violence has made it pretty clear that it isn’t helping, either. What absolutely is hurting people, however, is the continued implicit insistence of the Thoughts and Prayers Caucus that there simply isn’t anything else we can do about America’s off-the-charts homicide rate.

Because when politicians offer their thoughts and prayers, they don’t do it in a vacuum. These are people charged with making sure that tragedies like these don’t happen again, and ... the same representatives who are driven to prayer by the sheer horror of this tragedy have stopped even pretending to put any effort into curbing gun violence. Hell, they’ve blocked efforts to research the issue.

This being the case, the regular call to prayer we see every time someone takes legally-purchased guns and kills a whole bunch of people with them comes off as nothing more than a dodge. Prayer is being passed off as what we’re supposed to do instead of coming up with any ideas for how to make mass shootings happen less than once per day. Given that the number of prayers being offered by various politicians seems to be directly proportional to the size of the investment the NRA has made in their campaigns, you don’t have to be all that creative to imagine why.

If you're one of those people who votes straight ticket GOP, is afraid that Bill Clinton Barack Obama Hillary Clinton is coming to take away all your guns, you might be part of the problem.  Whether you're sending thoughts and prayers to the latest victims of the most recent mass shooting, or not.

If Republican thoughts and prayers were followed up with anything by way of an actionable solution to this epidemic-level problem, it’d be one thing. But when their conversation starts and ends with an earnest, prayerful tweet, it feels like they’re sticking their fingers in their ears until the news cycle moves on. They bring no actual ideas to the table, just well-wishes. Doing nothing appears to be the line item on the party platform, but “thoughts and prayers” are scribbled into the margins in order to give candidates something to tweet out.

The Atlantic’s Emma Green is dismayed that prayer isn’t being welcomed in the political debate today, writing that “At one time in American history, liberals and conservatives shared a language of God, but that’s clearly no longer the case; any invocation of faith is taken as implicit advocacy of right-wing political beliefs.” But today, prayer really is being used to defend a particular right-wing political belief: that the only feasible solution to mass shootings is to get on your knees and ask God to let more than a week pass before the next one. One political party’s pseudo-religious commitment to that belief is indirectly contributing to the deaths of thousands of Americans every year.

If that’s what prayer is being used for, it deserves to be shamed.

Daily mass murders from high-powered weapons are officially this nation's most pressing concern, whether the shooters be Muslim or whether they are not.

I'll ask again: what do we expect our elected leaders to do about this?  I'm asking more specifically beyond thoughts and prayers.

Houston mayoral debate tonight

There was also one last night, which I skipped, and two more after tonight, one of which has been previously advanced.

Univision 45/KXLN-TV and ABC-13/KTRK-TV have joined to co-host the Houston Mayoral Debate, streaming it live from the University of Houston-Downtown at One Main Street, Houston, Texas at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 2nd. The Houston Mayoral Debate will feature runoff candidates Bill King and Sylvester Turner and will be accessible live on-air on KTRK-TV abc13 and online at www.abc13.com and www.univision45.com. Simultaneous Spanish-language translation will be available on Univision 45's website and will air the same day at 10 p.m. The debate will be presented in partnership with the University of Houston-Downtown and Mi Familia Vota.

Univision is the most-watched television network in Houston. How's the ad rotation between King and Turner over there?  Anybody who knows want to say?

ABC-13's Erik Barajas and Univision 45's Rebecca Suarez will moderate the debate. The audience will be by invitation only; however, Houston voters are encouraged to submit their questions in English or Spanish by posting them to twitter using #ABC13VOTE.

In other election news...

That's my state representative, Borris Miles, in the top left corner.  Next to him is Dr. Alma Allen and former council contender Laurie Robinson, and the bottom row, left to right, is Harold Dutton, Willie Alexander, and Garnet Coleman.  Former Texpatriate blogger Noah Horwitz, whose father challenged Christie in 2013, also declared on his FB page that he was voting for Christie.

NO.  Just no.

These are Democrats -- some of whom allege themselves to be 'progressive' -- recommending a vote for a conservative Republican who stands firm against influenza vaccines, saying "you don't die from the flu".  (In the United States of America, the number of deaths from the flu -- not complications from it but the illness itself -- is a number estimated to be between a few hundred to a few thousand annually.  Most are children or elderly who don't receive the vaccine.  Christie was the only 'no' on city council two years ago to accept federal dollars for flu shots for Houstonians.)

Yes, it is accurate to say that Sharon Moses, the so-called Democrat in the runoff against Christie, sucks.  But she doesn't suck so hard that you should be voting for this. fucking. guy.  That makes you a moron, not a lofty non-partisan.

Your best vote other than nobody in this race is to write in Cthulhu, the least worst of three evils.

This is the dumbest thing I have seen a bunch of local Democrats do yet.