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Monday, January 31, 2022

"It's not Monday you hate, it's capitalism" Wrangle


How was your weekend?


There were two polls regarding the Texas primary elections released over the weekend.  The first, on Friday from the Hobby School of Political Affairs at the University of Houston, has most GOP statewide incumbents -- Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, Sid Miller, Glenn Hegar -- holding comfortable leads for renomination.  Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, not so much.  The Republican primary for commissioner of the General Land Office, vacated by George P. Bush in his bid against Paxton, is a tossup (80% of those queried are unsure for whom they might vote).

In the Democratic primary, Beto O'Rourke leads handily.  In the lieutenant governor's race, Mike Collier is ahead with 24% but 58% are undecided.  Rochelle Garza (14%), Joe Jaworski (12%), Lee Merritt (7%), and two others with 7% portend a runoff in the scrum for attorney general to face off with Paxton (60% of Dems are unsure).  Same in the contest for GLO, with Sandragrace Martinez leading Michael Lange, Jay Kleburg, and Jinny Suh with 64% undecided.

While these numbers don't seem out of place, it's possible that the pollsters could be weighting Latin@ voters a bit too much and under-sampling Black Dems for my interpretation.  But there was also a general election matchup polled, and IMO these results are the closest to accurate for predicting the ultimate fall outcome.


Six percent uncertain is a rather stunning number nine months away.

The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler's poll, out yesterday, looks somewhat the same... and somewhat different.


Robert Showah has more on Texans' opinions from that survey, including this:


I did not want to open today's Wrangle with an overflowing vat of stupid and crazy, but I can't leave the topic of conservatives behaving badly without a few more items.


They simply outdid themselves this past week.

I have a few criminal, legal, and social justice headlines; the first deals with the previous Tweet regarding Tim Dunn above.


On January 22, members of the Karankawa Nation and several hundred supporters gathered in front of a Bank of America location in Austin (to speak out) against the planned expansion of an oil pier owned and operated by Canada-based oil giant Enbridge. The expansion would cross sacred land at a Karankawa village site near Corpus Christi Bay in south Texas. Pipeline construction would also endanger burial artifacts and have a disastrous effect on the sensitive and biodiverse wet marshes.

Chiara, a Karankawa organizer, gave an impassioned speech defending the environment of her people’s homeland and called out Bank of America for financing fossil fuel extraction. Bank of America invested $42 billion in fossil fuels in 2020 alone.

That will be my segue to the environmental news.




“I’ve seen a lot of Big Oil ads, but this has to be one of the creepiest,” Jamie Henn, the director of Fossil Free Media, said in an email. “Valero wants us to feel like it isn’t just our cars, but the very lives of our children that depend on their product. There’s an unsaid threat in these commercials: transition to clean energy and the world as you know it will cease to exist. That’s of course false ..."

"East Texas, North Texas residents push back against solar plant construction" via KLTV

*heavy sigh*

Dozens of people living in Crawford, just half an hour west of Waco, raised concerns at a school district meeting about the company, OCI Solar Power, building facilities just outside the city. The company is based out of San Antonio, and it proposed a $115 million solar farm. A company official managing the project said the project will not cost the community any tax dollars if approved -- now it’s up to the school board to designate land as commercial property.

A farmer in Crawford said he’d been offered more money than he could make farming to sell his land to make way for construction, but said his neighbors, “would not be happy living next to a plant.”

A similar situation is happening in Southmayd, near Texas’ border with Oklahoma. The school district board there voted to agree to a deal with Galactic Energy. The solar development company is proposing the construction of a 1,750 acre solar farm. Some residents there said they don’t want to lose the landscape and property they’ve lived on for generations. People raising their concerns are asking the school board to reconsider, and say they’re considering starting a petition against construction.


Going extra long on the calm-me-downs to wrap today.

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Monday, December 06, 2021

The Monday Morning Wrangle from Far Left Texas


Opening with the latest in state political news as the filing deadline for the March primaries and the November general election approaches.


O'Rourke is also in Beaumont this Thursday.


Hinojosa appears to be in a spirited tussle for his job with Col. Kim Olson.  She has released a long list of endorsements (that are not slouches).  As an ex-Democrat, I don't care which of these two wins, but the dynamics -- Olson's white women and rural and conservaDems versus Hinojosa's incumbent, establishment, South Texas and Latin@ bloc -- will be interesting to observe.  And the race could be further scrambled from an identity politics POV if Carroll Robinson throws his hat in.

The Texas Signal talked to state Rep. Michelle Beckley about her candidacy for lieutenant governor, and to Jay Kleberg on his bid for land commissioner.  Kuff did a couple more filing updates.


Bears watching, especially if Abbott calls the TXGOP's heavily-requested fourth special session.  And Comptroller (pronounced 'controller') Glenn Hegar finally managed to get some bad publicity.


The Texas Observer also reported on this story earlier in the fall.  Last: a very good thread here about the influence of Steven Hotze on Houston elections, especially if you're voting in the school board runoffs taking place right now.


While we wait for the Supreme Court to strike down a woman's right to choose, here's some reading on that topic.


COVID next.


Your Local Epidemiologist is on top of the omicron situation.  Socratic Gadfly dove back into COVID with his post on the gain of function issues, along with Fauci and NIAID's apparent failure to monitor Peter Daszag.  And with medical news apart from the novel coronavirus, Texas 2036 warned that the shortage of doctors in the state is getting worse.  (Hey, remember when tort "reform" was supposed to fix that?)  Writing in the San Antonio Report, Doctors Junda Woo and Barbara Taylor urge Alamo City leaders to use the tools at its disposal to end HIV there.  And condolences poured in for Danny Jensen of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, who passed away over the weekend.

Criminal and social justice news:


How about some redistricting updates?


And the latest from your local library and schoolhouse.


For Texas Monthly, Ashley Hope Pérez tells what happened when a school district banned her book.


A few items about climate and the environment.


Stephen Eisenman at Counterpunch profiled the history and the dilemma of Port Arthur, and spoke to local activist Hilton Kelley there.


I'll take that as my segue to the soothers.

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Saturday, September 11, 2021

The 2022 dilemma for Texas Democrats


Not sure where to start, so for what few Team Blue friends I have left, I'll ease into this with some recent reporting (which, both inside and outside the state, has been terrific all year).  Jim Henson, whom regular followers know conducts the polling for UT and the TexTrib, does my aggregating.


You could stop with those two pieces if you didn't want your sensibilities offended by what comes next.  But I try as hard as I can to tell the truth here.  And the truth is brutal.


Toonist Mike Fluggenock's excerpt from The Atlantic above implies what I've been saying for awhile now: there will be no Congressional relief from the ravages of SB1 (or SB8), and the litigal and judicial remedies are far away and uncertain as hell.



And with redistricting teed up, Dems in Texas are in deep doo-doo.


Some of those who would be most likely to break the quarter-century losing streak at the statewide level -- Beto, a Castro -- realize these circumstances, and will not respond to the exhortations of those who wish to hang their hopes on someone, anyone, which without the FTP Act or a liberal SCOTUS would be more of an albatross around their neck than a laurel wreath on their head.

Still, it seems the best-connected TexDonks don't understand this.


Read the whole thing and weep (if you care, that is) at the elitist white privilege.


There's more, and it's worse.


Read all the replies. It turns out that "literally" does not mean literally.

This might be less embarrassing for Evan if no Democrat was actually running for Texas governor, but there are three listed here and a few more possibles here.  What Evan and Harold and others such as Charles Kuffner mean is both heavily insinuated and plainly stated: you're not worthy of consideration unless you can raise the millions of dollars necessary to hire political consultants to tell you what to do, who will earn commissions from TV, radio, and direct mail media buys, and so on and so forth.

As if this was the model of success for Texas Democrats over the past 25 years.  Repeating myself again: if Greg Abbott loses in 2022, it will be in the Republican primary, and 'money raised' won't have a got damn thing to do with it.

Abbott raised $2.27M during the first special session. His largest contributors for the period were Houston foundation president Nancy Kinder ($250K), Midland investor Douglas Scharbauer ($100K) and San Antonio alcoholic beverage distributor Alan Dreeben ($75K).

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Speaker Dade Phelan, Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, Comptroller Glenn Hegar, Land Comm. George P. Bush (running for AG against Paxton), Agriculture Comm. Sid Miller and Railroad Comm. Wayne Christian -- all also on the GOP primary ballot in 2022 -- raised $450K combined during the same period.

Former Republican Party of Texas chair Allen West raised $404K during the period, including $160K from Lake Forest, Ill. shipping supply company owner Richard Uihlein. Texans supplied 42% of West’s contribution total. In addition to Uihlein, West raised $73K from out-of-state donors.

(Since I'm on this topic -- and since Chuckles Kuffner doesn't seem to be reporting it yet -- Lee Merritt, one of the two Democrats running for the right to take on Paxton in the fall of 2022, collected more than all of the AG GOP contenders combined.  So there's that.)


Still, Progress Texas keeps throwing out wish lists.


I simply don't think anyone who broke quorum and then slinked back to the Capitol -- that excuses Gilberto Hinojosa's daughter -- is going to be running for a promotion to the Mansion.  I could of course be mistaken.


There's a link in that story with a list, Do.

Remember: Kuff is the one who said this was always going to happen, so I suppose he's not as upset about it as others.  The Vote Blue No Matter Poo crew is like that.


I. Am. Not. Falling. For the Banana. In the Tailpipe. Trick. Again.

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Monday, January 11, 2021

The Far Left Texas Wrangle *updates




I am going to make an effort to keep the focus forward, as the Lege gavels in tomorrow and the Traitor-in-Chief visits South Texas to celebrate something.


Something tells me our junior senator will be greeting him.  Update:


(Original:)


More about last week's sedition in an extended version of "Texans Behaving Badly", downpost.  Returning to the Lege, one seat needs to be filled in the first election of 2021; TXElects.

HD68 special: Early voting begins (Monday) for the January 23 special election to fill the unexpired House term of Sen. Drew Springer (R-Muenster). Five candidates are on the ballot:
  • John Berry (R), Jacksboro financial planner and former Jack County Commissioner
  • Jason Brinkley (R), Gainesville attorney and Cooke County Judge
  • Craig Carter (R), Nocona boot manufacturer who has twice unsuccessfully run for SD30
  • Charles Gregory (D), Childress retired postal employee; and
  • David Spiller (R), Jacksboro attorney and Jacksboro ISD board member.


Later this morning, Comptroller Glenn Hegar will release his estimate of the state's revenue for the next two years.  Raise Your Hand Texas, advocates for public education, runs it down from their "Across the Lawn" newsletter.

The state’s current budget is already facing a $4.6 billion shortfall due to the recession caused by the pandemic and downturn in oil prices. Legislators will likely use a mix of the Rainy Day Fund, which has $8.8 billion on hand, and federal stimulus dollars to fill that hole ... What worries most budget writers, legislative members, and advocates is the estimate may be similar to 2011, when the state faced a $27 billion shortfall and cut $5.4 billion from public education.

Read on at that link about the $900 billion stimulus Congress just passed, the $5.2 billion it contains for Texas schools, and the chances that the state's teachers and children won't see any of that money invested in education because of the games the Lege is likely to play.

Update:


Speaker-to-be Phelan is already pouring cold water on the possibility of casino gambling becoming a tax revenue stream for the state.


Update: The death of GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson -- announced Tuesday morning; he was investing heavily in a lobbying effort for casinos in the Lone Star State -- further clouds the possibility of that legislation being approved.  Let's look at the state's worsening COVID crisis next.


Joe Deshotel for The Texas Signal does not want COVID-19 to be used as an excuse to shut the public out of the legislative process.  And RG Ratcliffe, writing at Texas Monthly, puts the blame for the state's vaccine rollout chaos on Greg Abbott.

So will things get better or worse before they improve?  Magic 8 Ball says, "Ask again later/Better not tell you now/Don't count on it/Outlook not so good".

As much of a selection of "Texans Behaving Badly" as I could tolerate.


Kuff demands swift prosecution and punishment of everyone involved in the violent assault on the Capitol, and points to Cruz and Paxton as the top two priorities for those who value democracy.


Larry R. Brock is from Grapevine, actually.  His 'uniform' had a vinyl sticker of the Texas flag overlaid on the skull of The Punisher, the Marvel comic book character.  His ex-wife recognized him from the photos and turned him in.


Cudd ran for mayor of Midland last year.



Steve Jackson, a Wichita Falls city councilman who attended the January 6 rally at the state Capitol, displays a Trump campaign poster ... with Mike Pence's name cut out.

That's all I can manage.

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Monday, August 26, 2019

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is wishing hard -- really hard -- for Harry Hamid's health.


Update, Tuesday, 8/27: Rest in peace.  I'll post a remembrance in the coming days.

This is the full edition of the best of the left from, of, and around Deep-In-The-Hearta from the past week; we'll open with some gubernatorial promotions.


Gov. Greg Abbott announced his intent to appoint former appellate justice Jane Bland to the Texas Supreme Court to succeed Justice Jeff Brown, who has been confirmed as a federal district judge by the U.S. Senate. Bland authored more than 1,200 signed opinions while serving on the First Court of Appeals from her appointment in 2003 until her narrow 2018 general election loss to Gordon Goodman (D).

Bland is Abbott’s third appointee to the state’s highest court, joining Justices Jimmy Blacklock and Brett Busby. Both Bland and Busby will face voters in 2020. Bland will run for the remaining four years of Brown’s term while Busby seeks a full six-year term.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Bland is one of several down-ballot Republicans appointed by the governor who lost elections to their Democratic opponents last November.


Abbott's bad behavior seemed to reach some sort of critical mass last week.



The TSTA Blog wonders if our state's elected leaders will ever criticize Donald Trump.


Off the Blockquote looked at the psychological shift -- i.e., "Democrats might actually win something big!" -- taking place in the pickled brains of Texas politicos.


A few interesting candidate filings for Texas Legislature contests next year:

SD19: San Antonio attorney Xochil Pena Rodriguez, the daughter of former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, established a campaign committee for a potential challenge of Sen. Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton) as a Democrat.

SD21: Seguin pastor Frank Pomeroy established a campaign committee for a potential challenge of Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) as a Republican. Pomeroy is the pastor at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, the site of a 2017 mass shooting in which more than two dozen people -- including Pomeroy’s daughter Annabelle -- were killed.

HD28 special: Rosenberg real estate investor Gary Gates announced he would run in the November 5 special election to succeed Rep. John Zerwas, who is resigning effective September 30. It would be his third try for the seat. Gates has spent more than $6.3 million in several previous unsuccessful attempts at elective office:
  • $2.9M on a 2016 race for Railroad Commissioner, losing the 2016 Republican runoff to Wayne Christian, 51%-49%.
  • $2.4M on a 2014 special election for SD18, which he lost to then-Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), 56%-34%, wth three others combining for 10%.
  • $390K on a 2006 race for SD18, losing the Republican primary to then-Rep. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy), 55%-36%.
  • $277K on a 2004 race for HD28, losing the Republican primary to Hegar, 61%-39%; and
  • $327K on a 2002 race for an open HD28 seat, losing the Republican runoff to Hegar, 58%-42%.


Following up on a story mentioned in the Wrangle three weeks ago, SocraticGadfly examined the proposed Gannett-GateHouse merger and how it might affect the Texas newspaper world.

Almost two dozen Texas cities had their databases compromised in a series of coordinated ransomware hacks.

Updating the latest in the ongoing "Cops Behaving Badly" series ...



Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast commented on Harris County DA Kim Ogg's opposition to the proposed bail reform settlement.  KPRC interviewed Susan Criss, the former Galveston County judge who presided over the Robert Durst murder trial, who talked about a chance encounter with the defendant at the Galleria shopping mall in Houston one Christmas season.

And the state of Texas executed another likely innocent man this past week.

Another development in the wake of the El Paso massacre regards local control; while Governor Abbott hosts roundtable discussions, mayors in the state's largest cities want something done beyond 'thoughts and prayers' to make urban regions safer.


John Coby at Bay Area Houston called out Houston mayoral candidate Bill King's dishonest endorsement claims.  And Space City voters will be looking at an extremely crowded municipal ballot in November, writes Jasper Scherer at the Chronic.


Some ecology news ...

Natural gas flaring in the Permian Basin is distressing environmental activists; the TPA's own Sharon Wilson is pictured in this account from Earthworks.  Texas could be a leader in the nation's much-needed low-carbon future, writes Michael E. Webber of UT's Cockrell School of Engineering (for Texas Monthly), if only a few minds would open up to the possibilities.  Downwinders at Risk called attention to the TCEQ misusing a 17-year old rural air pollution model in order to permit a new asphalt plant in the city of Joppa.  And a few hundred University of Houston students and alumni signed a petition to disinvite two senior employees of Exxon Mobil from speaking at the college's fall graduation ceremonies.

“We need universities and other institutions of power to stand up to corporations and other entities that do massive harm to the world and to our environment,” (recent UH graduate Katherine Fischer) told News 88.7.

She pointed to an accusation that the oil and gas company has known for a long time about the effects of burning fossil fuels on climate change but continued to deny the science.

And now for some lighter fare ...

Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher tapdances into the Sean Spicer/Dancing with the Stars controversy.

A Houston Popeye's fried chicken restaurant trolled Chick-Fil-A after the latter trolled the former over the popularity of their new chicken sandwich.


And the Texas Standard recounts the tale of how the town of Redwater, Texas, was once named after the famed humanist Robert Green Ingersoll.

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