Showing posts sorted by date for query texan of year. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query texan of year. Sort by relevance Show all posts

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.
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Friday, December 31, 2021

Wrangling 2021


I suppose the best we can say about the year ending today is that we lived through it, if only because so many who should have did not.


If the Texas Progressive Alliance had selected a Texan of the Year for 2021, my vote would have gone to Dr. Peter Hotez.


InnovationMap had Houston's top three COVID research stories.  I hope the 'rona and its latest mutation is not the most important story next year.  The climate crisis should be.  Maybe it will.


SocraticGadfly noted that Ronny Jackson and other Texas wingnut Congresscritters want to fight the effects of climate change, but only when it affects cops, and without admitting that the likes of Winter Storm Uri are connected.  The Concho Valley Homepage reported that the USGS recorded one of the largest earthquakes ever in the Permian Basin last Monday.  And Earth911 offers ten green living New Year's resolutions.


Texas will be changing enormously in the years to come.  All of us -- wherever we fall on the political spectrum -- are hoping the changes favor our points of view.


But the San Antonio Current quotes a recent report that advises liberty lovers to move somewhere else, ranking Texas 49th in personal freedoms.

Whatever the evolving demographics portend for the Lone Star State, we'll still have to deal with those who are stuck on stupid.  COVID isn't going to kill 'em all.


I'll be surprised if this remark does not cost Chairman Padron his job.


Still think they're both losers.

Here's a few criminal and social justice updates.


Mark Pitcavage presents some random facts about white supremacist tattoos.  Mandy Giles is now blogging at Parents of Trans Youth.  And as promised, some lists.

The Texas Observer submits its ten best longform reads of the year.  Politico collected the worst predictions of 2021.  The San Antonio Express News had all the spooky and strange things.  And Texas Freedom Network rounded up the ten best and worst from the Lege.

A few political items, and the soothers to close out the year.

Kuff covered a couple more redistricting lawsuits; a new one filed by Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer over CD35, and an earlier one filed by a state prison inmate objecting to the practice of counting inmates where they are incarcerated rather than where they live.   IPR opened a time capsule:

Prohibitionist Andrew Jackson Houston, son of the legendary Sam Houston, the hero of San Jacinto and first president of the Lone Star Republic, died in a Baltimore hospital on June 26, 1941.

Two months before his death, the 87-year-old Houston had been appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. “Pappy” O’Daniel to fill a vacancy created by the death of Democratic Sen. Morris Sheppard, who died of a brain hemorrhage on April 9.

Houston, who authored several books on Texas history and taught military science at St. Mary’s University on Trinity Bay, had been the Prohibition Party’s candidate for governor of Texas on two occasions. He also briefly challenged popular 1908 nominee Eugene W. Chafin for the dry party’s presidential nomination in 1912 -- the same year Roosevelt himself had snorted and thundered against the two-party establishment on his newly-formed Bull Moose ticket.

Houston was a Democrat at the time of his surprise Senate appointment on April 21, 1941.


Reform Austin introduced us to some school librarians who are fed up with and fighting back against book bans.  And Susan Hays and nonsequiteuse eulogized Sarah Weddington.

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Monday, December 27, 2021

The Between Holidays Wrangle from Far Left Texas


As we come to the end of another calendar I'll collect some listicles of noteworthy people and events from the past 12 months in a year-end Wrangle.  Today I'm playing ketchup.


As stated before, I favor mask requirements by public and private orgs but not vax mandates.


Moving on to the political happenings before and after the Yule.


Ted Cruz doesn't just want to be the '24 GOP nominee, he expects to be.


We'll see what we can do about that.

Here's a few news items about Lone Star Republicans and Democrats who definitely made Santa's 'naughty' list.


And some on the 'nice' list.


Which provides the segue to the social and criminal justice updates.


Background, ICYMI:


The other environmental headlines.


Influential Texans who departed us over the weekend.


US Rep. Colin Allred:

Texas was home to Sarah Weddington who argued Roe, which no longer exists here. A Texan, LBJ, enshrined voting rights but we're now the hardest state in the country to vote. Our history provides hope for our future. We must keep fighting for a better Texas.


And the calm-me-downs to close today.

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Friday, December 03, 2021

The Weekend Wrangle from Far Left Texas


A lot to catch up on before a weekend full of outdoor activities (Mrs. Diddie and I are doing Dickens, as we always do).


These are among the variety of hurdles and onstacles that I cannot see Texas Democrats overcoming on their way to an electoral breakthrough next year.

Still, t'is the season for optimism, so I'll try to hold that.


We're all hoping Jessica is right.


Let's do the criminal and social justice news next.


Let me take that as my cue to segue to the environmental headlines.


Two COVID updates.


Lamb founded Daystar in late 1997, in Dallas.

And a few items that don't fit easily in the previous categories.


Ending another very weird and bad week with some calm-me-downs.

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Thursday, October 21, 2021

Sine Died, Autopsied Wrangle


The executive summary, in case you've been taking some time off from the creepshow that the Texas Lege has been for the past ten months.


Lt. Dan has decided he wants a fourth special, but Governor Fish Lips says "not now, asshole".  Maybe later.  We have a few wieners and loosers ranked.


And sightless gerrymandering being the hottest topic ...


It wouldn't be the silly boundary season without some litigation.


Attention finally turns to 2022.


Kuffner has all the Donkey shuffling covered, and TXElects -- and his Tweet feed of the usual suspects, appearing to the right on his blog's landing page -- covers the Pachyderm dances.  I'll wait until after the filing deadline in December to muse about primary challenges.  I will say that I like the idea of Julie Oliver taking on Lloyd Doggett, whose reputation far exceeds his current value.

I'm looking forward to blogging on the regular about some things besides our state lawmaker goons, so praise the Lawd for small blessings.  First: some housing news, broken out from the criminal and social justice headlines.


Here's Kuff's catchup.  I note he still hasn't mentioned anything about it.

The Harris County District Attorney confirms a "pending criminal investigation" connected to Houston City Hall. In a letter obtained by 13 Investigates, the DA denies access to documents related to the probe, because in their words, "this investigation has yet to be resolved" and is "in the course of preparing for criminal litigation."

13 Investigates requested documents from the city weeks ago when the City of Houston's now-former Housing Director shocked City Hall with allegations of a "charade of a competitive process" to award millions in housing subsidies. According to sources and documents at that point, the DA was asking about specific payments made to specific individuals starting in 2018.


It's not all bad news.


Here's more criminal and social justice and injustice news from around the state.




And here are a few items specific to the border region of Texas.


I'm starting to wake up to the fact that Republican Latino/as in the RGV (and elsewhere) don't consider themselves Hispanic.  They call themselves Tejanos; they praise themselves for their good fortune based on hard work and Jeebus and not on luck or cronyism, just like whites; and they hate immigrants, 'gobermint handouts', and worship the flag and the military.  Sounds like any other MAGAt to me.


A few environmental updates.


And the soothers.

The South Texas Music Festival is this Saturday, October 23, in San Benito.

T'is the spooky season, so get out there and get scared of something beside the Texas GOP.

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Monday, September 20, 2021

The Beto/redistricting Wrangle

Tex Donks are orgasmic, but the scoop from Axios has them jumping the gun.

According to David Wysong, O’Rourke’s former House chief of staff, no decision has been made yet. “He has been making and receiving calls with people from all over the state,” Wysong said.

“We hope that he’s going to run,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, the state chair of the Democratic Party. “We think he’ll be our strongest candidate. We think he can beat Abbott because he’s vulnerable.”

Polling reveals that Hinojosa is the blind hog who found a truffle.


Also the Texas 2036 poll, showing widespread dissatisfaction with the state's direction.


"Inching closer".  Calves are already cramping across the Lone Star State.  I saw nothing referenced anywhere about Beto's previous condition that voting rights legislation pass the Congress before he jumps in.  And speaking of snark, I saw a lot more than I expected.


This tweet, and the subsequent argument about whether he took O&G money or didn't, illustrates the leftist/liberal divide better than any.


The good news is that this will at least quiet the talk of Joe Straus coming out of retirement.


Redistricting is a bigger topic; the first maps for Senate Districts dropped over the weekend, and Fort Worth's purple SD-10 (held by Beverly Powell) is a goner.  Republicans Donna Campbell (SD-25) and Dawn Buckingham (SD-24) would have to square off, which must be why Buckingham is running for Land Commissioner and not re-election.  Expect more and worse from Joan Huffman's committee.


Katya Ehresman shows us how to get involved in the redistricting fight.


I have a few more posts regarding the abortion law.


Read here at KXAN if the WaPo's paywall is a problem for you.


Obviously not the accomplishment he thinks it is.


Last:


Julie Cloud and David Currie at the San Antonio Report underscore that.  I'm not in the habit of posting rebuttals that make sense from Pastor Jeffress; it's been a strange week just passed.  After all, last Monday we were bracing for a hurricane.  Have you forgotten?


Two more environmental things.


The Texas Living Waters Project sees the American Rescue Plan Act as a historic opportunity to invest in our water infrastructure.

And some criminal and social justice posts.


This CBS Sunday Morning piece ...


... and Koppel's discussion with some of the tourists ...


... is the perfect lead-in to Jen Rice's thread about the eviction crisis.


A long read and worth every minute of your time.

Here's some more items to close today.


The Great God Pan Is Dead is looking forward to fall art season.

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