The Weekly Wrangle

On July 13, 1992, US Rep. Barbara Jordan gave a keynote address on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.

(Jordan) was raised in Houston and attended Phillis Wheatley High School in the Fifth Ward. She had a gift for public speaking and was a champion debater in high school. She graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1959, and six years later she won a seat in the Texas Senate, becoming the first black woman to do so.

In 1972, she was elected as pro tempore by her peers, which meant she would serve as governor if both the governor and the lieutenant governor were out of state. On June 10, 1972, she was actually the governor of Texas.

After she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, she was known as an effective legislator. She gave the opening televised remarks demanding the impeachment of President Nixon and blew away constituents with her eloquent reasoning and influential speech.

And again, Barbara Jordan made history becoming the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Sadly, two years after she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in ’94, Jordan passed away after a long battle with leukemia.

 
The Texas Progressive Alliance doffs its collective hat to the legacy of a true progressive in bringing you the best lefty blog posts from last week.

Off the Kuff notes the first appearance of lawyers bound and determined to help a few recalcitrant county clerks deny marriage licenses to same sex couples in Texas.

Horwitz at Texpatriate says farewell as he enters the next chapter of his life.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos exposes Rick Perry and Greg Abbott's myth that tort reform ensures more public access to affordable healthcare. In GOP Texas tort reform means insurance companies and corporations are the winners while real people pay the price. Abbott and Perry: Tort Reform as a Trojan Horse.

SocraticGadfly discusses the decline and fall of Walmart, especially in small towns and rural areas.

Should Sen. Bernie Sanders ultimately be eliminated from contention for the Democratic nomination, what's the best choice for progressives moving forward, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs asks.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants everyone to know that Jeb Bush's son is following the GOP anti-environment playbook in ploy to kill songbirds. The apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

Neil at All People Have Value posted a number of interesting pictures from his trip this past week to beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

2012 saw the Republican Party lose the presidency once again, mostly because of their complete refusal to learn from their mistakes, and evolve. As we inch closer to 2016, Texas Leftist is left to wonder if the GOP learned anything from the last cycle. Given the dominance of media harlot Donald Trump, the answer is a likely "no".

===========================

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

Prairie Weather doesn't consider it very presidential that a former president took a large speaking fee from a disabled veterans' group.

Texas Election Law Blog celebrates its second birthday.

As their staff exits en masse, the Texas Observer asks: whither Battleground Texas.

Gilbert Garcia takes note of state Sen. Donna Campbell's Alamo histrionics that is fueling the World Heritage truther paranoia that the UN is taking over Texas' most sacred shrine.

Mike Tolson hears the echoes of Loving v. Virginia in the arguments made by same-sex marriage opponents.

Paradise in Hell counts down the last days of freedom in Bastrop until the inevitable Obama/UN takeover of Texas.

Charlotte Coyle confesses her reluctant patriotism.

jobsanger posits that Nikki Haley might be the GOP's antidote for Donald Trump.

Texas Clean Air Matters envisions Houston as a leader in zero-emission cargo transport technologies.

Better Texas Blog celebrates beautiful, messy democracy.

Grits for Breakfast analyzes Rick Perry's speech on race relations and criminal justice reform in the context of his time as governor.

Carol Morgan says it's time to stop asking (petitioning, calling) our lawmakers and to start making demands of them.

And Facist Dyke Motors has a short story entitled "Castle Katy and the Flying Buttresses".

Sunday Funnies

Battleground Texas struggles to maintain relevance

If you're still wondering why Democrats in Texas cannot seem to find any traction despite the fact that the world's worst conservatives run this state lock. stock, and Jade Helm gun barrel... look no further than here.

It’s mid-summer, after the legislative session and before the proper start of next year’s election cycle, which means the state’s political organizations are in full churn. Politicos of all stripes are leaving politics for policy or vice versa, getting fired and promoted, and maybe leaving the game—or the state—altogether. That’s a normal part of life in politics, where jobs are often short-term and so is loyalty.

The same holds true at the high-profile organizing group Battleground Texas, where political director Cliff Walker will be stepping down next week. It’s the latest of a number of departures by Battleground senior staff since last year’s crushing electoral defeats. Walker, who had been with the organization since the beginning in 2013, was the highest-profile Texan in the group. As the relationship between Battleground and other parts of the Democratic coalition suffered during last year’s election due to mutual distrust, it fell to Walker, respected by other Texas Dems, to try to repair things.

But since November, a lot of Battleground’s founding notables have been looking for other work. A number of Obama campaign veterans have left for greener pastures in other states, including former Campaigns Director Ramsey Reid, former Communications Director Erica Sackin, and former Field Director Victoria Zyp. Former Digital Director Christina Oliver left the organization for a job at an Austin consulting firm owned by Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn’s former campaign manager. The departure of Walker means that a large part of the original Battleground brain trust is now gone.

That italic emphasis at the end there is mine.  I'm sure Ms Oliver is wonderful person with a fine family, as Ross Perot used to 'compliment' his political opponents.  Bless her heart (as the good Christians say), she just needs to put food on her family.

As wildly successful as BGTX was in the 2014 cycle, this self-implosion may not be a bad thing.  Texas is a goddamned tough state to be a liberal in, has been for almost a generation now.  I feel sure that wide-eyed Team Bluers think they can conquer it with the tools that work in places like Chicago or Los Angeles or New York, and then watch in horror as their battleships get sunk.

Political organizations like Battleground experience a high rate of turnover naturally. And for years, there’s been something of a conveyor belt taking talented Democratic political staffers away from Texas, or out of politics altogether—options that offer more rewarding work, and usually, bigger paychecks. Former Texas Democratic Party chief Will Hailer, who party leaders expected to stay for longer than one election cycle, jumped ship shortly after last year’s election for a Washington, D.C. consulting firm.

So Battleground’s staffing issues aren’t unique—a statement from the group called them “really normal transitions,” and pointed to the continuity of Executive Director Jenn Brown’s leadership—but they could pose a greater threat to the organization than progressive groups with deeper roots in Texas. One of the talking points when the group launched concerned Battleground’s ability to attract top talent from across the nation and fuse it with in-state know-how, helped along by a dedicated source of donor money. But it will most likely be harder for Battleground to recruit top talent now.

Whatever is left of the organization should probably be leveraged by the last of the deep-pocketed, legal eagle, azure-blue activist Mohicans, Steve Mostyn.  He's got a real good thing going with the Texas Organizing Project, so perhaps he can simply consolidate one outfit with the other, despite their somewhat divergent efforts (TOP is minority-focused while BGTX has been decidedly Anglo, IMHO).

Jeff Rotkoff, who represents one of Battleground’s largest backers, Houston mega-donor Steve Mostyn, praised Walker’s work and career and predicted he would “continue to be an important member of [the] community in whatever comes next for him.”

[...]

Brown is currently developing what a statement from the group called a new “strategic plan for the organization.” In it, she’ll need to come up with fixes for a host of unresolved issues regarding Battleground’s place in the Democratic coalition. In particular, some Texas Democrats worried that Battleground would turn into an adjunct of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, to the detriment of efforts in local and legislative races. That has echoes of one of the major conflicts of the 2014 cycle—some candidates felt that Battleground’s focus on a divisive top-ticket candidate, Wendy Davis, hurt down-ballot efforts.

First question: Does anybody know who Mostyn is supporting for president?  Second question: with Clinton's new point person's boots on the ground here, and a promise to roll out a 50-state strategy and build the Democratic bench and all that, who's going to be held accountable if/when a Clinton-Castro ticket still can't carry Texas against the likes of, say... Donald Trump?

Ultimately, Hillary Clinton is going to use Texas the way every other Democratic presidential nominee has used us for the past twenty years: as an ATM plugged into the elites, and as a farm system for fresh-faced young people who are willing to work for nothing, subsist on pizza for a year, and walk lots of blocks and make hundreds of phones calls in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, and Colorado.

Please, someone make a case for how I am wrong.

Alan Grayson bids to replace Rubio in US Senate

Another Sanders Democrat steps up.

I announced today that I’m running for the Senate. If you read these e-mails, then there’s a good chance that you and I think alike. We are kindred spirits. We see things the same way.

So in a way, it’s sort of like you’re running for the Senate. I’m just doing it for you.

Think about it. You and I have a lot of shared beliefs, a lot of shared values. You and I see what needs to be done, and how to do it. If I make it to the Senate, there’s a good chance that I’ll do that job just as you would.

And one thing is for sure: You deserve your support. As the Jewish scholar Hillel asked, “If I will not be for myself, who will be for me?” 

A little heavy on the ask, but he's certainly going to to need all the help he can get in Florida.  Grayson is the toughest Democrat I've ever seen, and that includes Bernie Sanders and David Van Os.  He's a 1940s-style, FDR, New Deal Democrat.  He and Elizabeth Warren together would slay.

Do you know what I really like the best of all about him?  He calls out the Democratic Party on its own bullshit.

As you may have heard, Democratic turnout dropped off a cliff again last year, just like it did in 2010. I was wondering why, so I asked. I polled Florida non-voters. I found that the main reason why they didn't vote last year was simple: They couldn't see any difference between the candidates. When there is no difference between the candidates, Democrats don't vote, and Democrats lose. 

Couldn't see any difference between the candidates.  And Democratic activists keep saying there is, and pointing to the various statistics that demonstrate what a fabulous president Barack Obama has been, or mention something about Obamacare or the stock market or jobs reports or even the Supreme Court.  Activist Democrats -- the kind that read blogs -- don't seem to get that inactive Democrats -- the ones that don't -- are in fundamental disagreement with their primary selling point.

The customer ain't buyin' what you're sellin', guys.  Whose fault is that?

By way of background, the top race in Florida last year was the race for Governor. The Republican incumbent was Rick Scott, whose hospital chain perpetrated the largest Medicare fraud in history. (That is not a misprint.) Nevertheless, because he had an (R) next to his name on the 2010 ballot, he won. He has been a horrible governor, easily one of the worst in the country. Everyone knew that the Democrats had a chance to bring him down last year, especially since our Democratic President had carried Florida twice in a row. There are 500,000 more registered Democrats than registered Republicans in Florida.

The Democratic nominee was Charlie Crist, a REPUBLICAN former governor. Crist was so far to the right that he was known as "Chain-Gang Charlie." In 2010, when Scott was first elected, Crist killed the Democrat's chances for a US Senate seat from Florida by dropping out of his own Republican primary, where he was 25 points down, and running as an "independent." That "stinking maneuver" (as Yitzhak Rabin would have put it) made Marco Rubio the junior senator from Florida.

Rather than shunning Crist for blowing that 2010 Senate race for the Democrats, the Democrats actually recruited him. They crowned someone who was a Republican just a few years earlier, and a conservative Republican at that, as the "Democratic" nominee for governor.

Political strategists called this a brilliant move by the Democratic Party. And Democratic voters were appalled, as my own little poll showed. Democratic voters stayed home in droves, and the Democrats lost. 

This is legacy now in Florida.  As we have been continually reminded, here most recently, Florida Democrats will not vote for a conservative Democrat.  And if you think Florida is the only state where this happens... then I have some prime South Florida real estate you orthodox Democrats may be interested in.  You're already standing in it, in fact.

Getting back to our poll, we focused on people who actually could have voted, not permanent residents, convicted felons whose rights had not been restored or children. We offered the non-voters 12 different reasons to explain why they hadn't voted. Reason #1, the most "popular," was that "people did not like either choice for Governor." Forty-one percent of the Democratic non-voters said that this was the main reason why people didn't vote.

By the way, the non-voters were overwhelmingly Democratic, whether or not they were registered as such. When asked whom they had had favored in the 2012 Presidential race, they chose Obama over Romney by 17 points. President Obama won Florida -- among the actual voters -- by less than one point.

So, let's be honest. When we put up a pseudo-Democrat or a neo-Democrat or a quasi-Democrat or a semi-Democrat for Team Blue, our voters are not amused. They are not fooled. And we only hurt ourselves.

The voters deserve a choice. In fact, they insist on it. Or they simply won't vote. 

I hate to point this out -- well, not really -- but if you think Hillary Clinton is going to win the state of Florida against Jeb Bush in 2016, you might ought to think again.  That's one swing state already lost to the Freak Party.  How many more can you stand?

And are you sure you want to advance a primary attack where you insist Bernie Sanders is a socialist (and not a Democratic socialist in the EU model), AND is also using Republican talking points to describe the economy?  His FB settings may not let you see that, so here's the OP.

Bernie Sanders says that the "real unemployment rate" is 10.5 percent. In other news, my "real height" is 6'2'', my car's "real gas mileage" is 50 mpg and my "real GPA" is a 4.0. See how easy lying is, no wonder he does it!

Methinks thou doth project too much.  Anyways, Imma let Alan finish.

The net worth of the average American household dropped by more than one-third in ten years. The decline from the 2007 peak was almost 50 percent, in just six years. (Most of that loss was in the value of one’s home — home is where the heartache is.)

That’s why everyone is so angry.

The net worth decline of someone at the 25th percentile (meaning that three-quarters of all household are richer than you) was even more extreme — from $10,129 to $3200. And among the bottom five percent, whose net worth is negative, their debt tripled.

Only the top 10 percent of all Americans improved their standards of living during that decade. As the study summarized, “wealth inequality increased significantly from 2003 through 2013; by some metrics inequality roughly doubled.”

By the way, this is not an isolated study. Other studies have shown declining hourly wages going all the way back to 1974. That’s more than four decades of worse-and-worse.

Look at what’s been in the headlines lately: Fast Track. Obamacare. Power plant emissions. Marriage equality. Greece. Entirely absent from the airwaves is any discussion of what’s really on people’s minds, i.e., this.

So, to sum it up, people’s lives are circling the drain, and nobody’s even talking about it, much less doing something about it. That’s why everyone is so angry. And I’m hoping against hope that my party, the Democratic Party, wakes up and does something about it.  (My emphasis.)

Speaking for myself, I’ll try my best to do something about it. But you knew that already.

I can't be convinced that Alan Grayson was inspired to run for Marco Rubio's Senate seat because Hillary Clinton has indicated than when she is president, we're going to attack Iran.  Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars may believe that Clinton will build a Democratic bench but Sanders won't "because, well, he isn't a Democrat", but that's another laughable premise.  As far as bench depth goes, any Democrat elected in 2016 had better be running for something that has a four-year term, because two years from now they're going to get wiped out.  This is historical; it's also what happens in a Clinton presidential midterm (see 1994).

My personal, humble opinion is that Hillary Clinton supporters need to calm their asses down, because what I am seeing from them recently suggests widespread panic, fear, and loathing of another primary defeat at their own hands.  I have to think that outcome cannot be what they want, but their behavior suggests otherwise.

Old-school ad hominem isn't going to get it done this time, y'all.  Please remember that it didn't work out well for Clinton against Obama in 2008, either.  Sanders isn't going down that road, to his credit.  If you do and she does, there's going to be a cleaving of the Democratic Party that will be slow to heal once the primary dust is settled.

Hell, maybe Hillary Clinton snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in November, 2016 is just what has to happen, though.  I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it.  Let the GOP screw things up so monstrously while they screw over everybody but the wealthiest, bring God into the Constitution and the Supreme Court while getting involved in a half a dozen fresh wars across the world, while the Earth cooks a little hotter in the climate oven and the robots take all our jobs and....

Maybe it has to all burn down before we go.

(Too dramatic?  If so, then you understand why I'm for Sanders until he's pushed out, and then for Jill Stein, and Alan Grayson.  And for every other Democrat like them, and against every Democrat that isn't.)

Money changes everything

Especially for Adrian Garcia, at least from my POV.

City Councilman Stephen Costello raised $1.8 million in the reporting period that ended June 30, his campaign announced Wednesday, putting him atop the field of top-tier contenders.

The candidates' campaign finance reports are not due until next Wednesday, but already this year's announced hauls top $6 million.

Former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia was first out of the gate with his figures, announcing Tuesday that he raised $1.5 million since announcing his candidacy in May. According to his campaign, Garcia neither contributed his own money nor transferred funds from his sheriff's account.

Garcia gets the gold star, both for his effort and for the spin applied.  I personally don't feel any differently about him as a candidate, but it seems apparent that I am in the rapidly shrinking minority in this regard.  Strong polling and strong fundraising always does a lot to flip the script in the media's eye.

Former mayor of Kemah (Bill) King followed with a statement Wednesday morning saying he raised $1.25 million, $750,000 of which came from donors, meaning King likely supplied $500,000 for his own bid.

Costello also financed his own campaign to the tune of $250,000 and transferred $262,000 from his city council account, according to his release.

State Rep. Sylvester Turner reported raising $750,000 in the nine days between the end of the state legislative fundraising blackout and the close of the reporting period. Turner started the race with $900,000 from his legislative account already in the bank.

Meanwhile, 2013 mayoral runner-up Ben Hall raised nearly $800,000, according to his campaign, $500,000 of which he donated himself.

Former Congressman and City Councilman Chris Bell ended the reporting period with the lowest number of the group, having raised $400,000. 

John Coby had a fun post from a couple of weeks ago about who wasn't going to get elected mayor of Houston.  He's pretty close to my thinking.  I won't have much more to say about fundraising but I'll link to Charles when he does, probably make fun of him a little about how he focuses so much on it for the benefit of access to the various consultants.  Will try not to not be mean about that.  Update: Via Charles, Stace has more.

If you want to be really impressed -- or really revolted -- about somebody's fundraising, however, just read this story about Greg Abbott from Jonathan Tilove at the Statesman.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign committee raised $8.25 million the last nine days of June.

That’s very good. Nearly $1 million a day. At that pace, he could run for president.

But, to put it in context, those were the first nine days Abbott could receive contributions since being elected governor, so it reflects a certain pent-up energy.

I'm trying to render a mental image of the kind of people -- and their PACs -- that would give Abbott a million dollars a day and do so feeling their 'pent-up energy'.  "God, we are just aching in our hearts to donate to our good Governor George Wallace, and the day(s) have finally arrived!  Quick, Maw!  Scratch out a check for a couple hundred thousand so that Greg can fight Operation Jade Helm, the gays, and defend that good Christian man Ken Paxton from those evil libruls who are trying to take him down!"

To avoid the indelicate impression that influence might be being bought or sold, state officeholders in Texas cannot receive contributions during biennial legislative sessions and the veto period that follows. The prohibition extends from Dec. 14 to June 21.

Even so, the fundraising numbers – released by his campaign Wednesday ahead of next week’s filing deadline with the Texas Ethics Commission – only enhance Abbott’s reputation as an epic fundraiser and a politician who knows that the best way to discourage a serious challenge, or defeat an opponent, is with a big pile of cash.

Abbott’s campaign committee has $17.7 million in cash on hand. Two years ago, as he embarked on his campaign for governor, he had $20 million in the bank. Abbott is not up for re-election until 2018.

Doesn't it just warm your heart to see such good government in action?

What should progressives do if/when Bernie Sanders is defeated for the Democratic nomination? (Part two of two)

In Part One I detailed the postulate that no matter how much momentum Bernie Sanders is able to generate, he will eventually be blocked from the presidential nomination by the establishment and corporate Democratic Party machine.  For Sanders supporters, the $64,000 question is: what are you going to do if and/or when that happens?  What are your options besides not voting (an inappropriate and even irrational option, IMO).

I identify these three:

1) Take Bernie Sanders' endorsement and vote for Hillary Clinton.

2) Write in Sanders' name.

3) Vote for the Green Party's Jill Stein.

I'm not going to tell you what to do.  I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do.  You can take that for whatever it is worth to you.

First let me summarize what first appeared as a reply to a comment in Part One.  One of my regular readers here, a blogger and terrific writer in her own right, advanced the theory that Sanders is a stalking horse, aka sheepdog, for progressive voters.  In fact she mentions it as "a guard for a Nader effect", i.e. a repeat of a still-common paranoia and urban legend among shallow-thinking blue partisans that Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the 2000 election.  I -- and many others, like Jim Hightower -- have previously debunked this myth, unmasking the terrible Nader demon as the hideous and horrifying "monster under the bed" for too many rank-and-file Democrats.

Interestingly enough, an unscientific survey of some hard-core Democrats (not published anywhere, just in a private discussion) revealed that Clinton supporters believe that the most important reason they have for voting for Hillary is "the Supreme Court".  If you've traveled anywhere online where political discussions are being had, you see this premise mentioned often, complete with the ages of certain Justices referenced.

This business of predicting which potential SCOTUS judges might be replaced in the next presidential term is folly.  A fool's errand.  If you don't think so, then ask John Sununu about David Souter being a slam dunk.  Or any Republican you know today about Chief Justice John Roberts.

We can go further back, if you like, to Gerald Ford and Justice John Paul Stevens, but I believe that's enough to convey the message.  It's just as silly as blaming Ralph Nader for Samuel Alito.

To be clear: it's not a completely unreasonable premise given that so many Justices wind up reflecting the politics of their appointees, but it's only valid in the general election cycle and not the primary one.  You know, the cycle we're in for the next twelve months.  In the primary season, it is a positively ridiculous idea.  To demonstrate: wouldn't it be fair to say that Bernie Sanders' Supreme nominees would be even better than Clinton's (unless you want more Anthony Kennedys on the Court, that is)?  The immediate response I've gotten from Clintonites is: "But Bernie can't win" (yes, I already know this, I remind them, but that's a separate discussion).

If Yellow Dogs are able to grasp that concept -- not always the case, in my experience -- we delve a little deeper.  It is well known by now that in 2000, there was some large number, variously referenced as between 250,000 and 300,000 registered Democrats in the state of Florida who cast their ballots for George W. Bush.  I feel certain that their reasons for doing so were many and varied, just as I know that "the Supreme Court" premise fell on their deaf ears.  So even if the primordial fear of an ultraconservative  "SCOTUS" works for many liberals who pay attention to politics, there is empirical evidence that the contention fails for many, many others.  About three times as many Democrats in Florida than there were total votes for Nader, and the hard numbers prove it.

So it is apparently a weak and unconvincing argument, one that extends in my projection to the kind of soft Democrat, the one who votes irregularly and usually only in presidential years, and with those voters we know of as 'low-information', the kind who report to pollsters in the waning days of general elections as "undecided".

So if "SCOTUS" is a joke excuse in the primary, and a failing one in the general... how is it valid at all?  It's not motivating turnout, it's not swaying the potential Democratic voters in need of the most encouragement.  It's a dry well, so why do Dems keep going back to it?

The only answer I have for that is habit.  Lazy reasoning, perhaps.

So back to the original question.

1.  Should Sanders supporters move on over to Clinton, even f they have to hold their nose (because of SCOTUS or "they've always voted for Dems" or some similarly sheep-like excuse)?

My suggestion is no, as you probably have guessed.  Here's my olive branch to the Hillary fans: if Clinton's been your gal all along, good on ya.  For whatever reason: that you like her, that it's time for a woman president, that she's experienced, and so on like that.  Those are all well and good enough reasons to vote for anybody.  If she has NOT been your first option, again for whatever reasons are self-important, you should be able to recognize that she's not going to be your best option even if you believe that she's your only remaining option.  This is the old "lesser of two evils" shit sandwich.

Despite who she claims to be, despite the wildly varying, free-range political animal she has been in the past, Hillary Clinton today is who she is.  She may have taken her "listening tours", she may have evolved over the decades from Goldwater Girl to McGovern field worker in South Texas to staff attorney for the House Judiciary Committee investigating the Watergate impeachment inquiry, allegedly fired -- this is disputed -- for unethical behavior.  (Read that link, it's worth it.)  Apparently Clinton thought that it was a good idea not to impeach Richard Nixon, because then it would be easier for Sen. Ted Kennedy to defeat him and be elected president in 1976.  And actively performed sabotage on the impeachment proceedings.

Where have we seen this kind of hilarious, seemingly LSD-induced Democratic partisan logic before?  Oh yeah, I just blogged it: Ralph Nader and the Supreme Court.

Beyond her cozy relationship with Wall Street, Hillary Clinton is more than likely to advance American military activity in the Middle East -- and around the world -- as much so as any Republican, including Lindsey Graham.  It's always been her first instinct.

What was striking about Hillary Clinton’s remarks, which to its credit, the Atlantic reproduced in full, was how often she depicted the US policy of aggression as morally desirable as well as necessary to protect Christians in the US from jihadis.

With Clinton you get more wars, more drone assassinations, more bombings in more places -- certainly across western Syria and northern Iraq, where ISIS holds control, absolutely in Yemen and elsewhere in the Saudi peninsula, perhaps even an attack on Iran or in the Ukraine as a proxy war with Russia.  Escalating tensions with South Korea and China are also a given.  Does all this sound like someone worth voting for if you're an actual progressive and not a pretend one, or just a social one?

The nation's weapons manufacturers are the winners in 2016, no matter who goes into the White House, with the exception IMO of Sanders.   (My friend Socratic Gadfly hotly disputes this, and so do others.)

But if more war is what you want, then go for it.

2.  Should Sanders acolytes cast a write-in ballot for him as a protest vote?

That might send a message, but I doubt that the telegram gets received.  This piece is something I agreed with, right to very end, until he recommended writing in Sanders.  (Note that many commenters also disagree with that.)  It's written in a much harsher tone than I can occasionally muster.

...Bernie Sanders voters grotesquely morphing into Hillary Clinton voters takes the political bait-and-switch to a whole new galaxy. Not merely will such a switch exhibit an astonishing failure to learn from the egregious prior examples of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and even “Dubya” Bush. Such a switch will replace a rare honest politician offering real prospects of overhauling U.S. government from functioning as a predatory machine (whose only face for many innocent, terrorized Arabs, is the predator drone) with a deeply corrupt one who’s the virtual indentured servant of plutocratic predators. So much so that the fittest form of address for President Clinton II—in splendid parody of the “Madam President” moniker now fondly polished by her supporters—would be “Madam Predator.”

Now, one scarcely expects average “low-information voters,” daily victims of mainstream media propaganda, to “grok” the hideous aptness of the “Madam Predator” label. But for early Sanders supporters—far more idealistic, politically aware, and policy-demanding than average voters—the damning truthfulness of the label should be self-evident. For Hillary Clinton is provably in bed with military, surveillance, financial, and fossil fuel predators who menace not just the peace, freedom, and well-being of U.S. and global citizens, but (through ramped-up drilling and fracking) the very survival of our species.

So why do so many Sanders supporters—the ones I’m apt to call Bernie’s sheep—act as if the switch from delightedly voting for Bernie to choking back one’s vomit to vote for Hillary will be anything but a harrowing electoral tragedy? A tragedy we should, very arguably, refuse to take part in.

Read it all if you think you can handle it.  Like I wrote at the top, it's brutally direct, but it's also a little misguided at the very end.

Indeed, it depends on a free, responsible citizen’s act of political interpretation: that we take Bernie’s scarcely acknowledged call for a political revolution vastly more seriously than his pledge that, should he lose, he’ll support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Viewed in other terms, it means true Sanders supporters must combine support for Bernie’s campaign with Chris Hedges’ emphasis on the “moral imperative of revolt.”

[...]

A political revolution supporting Bernie Sanders—but in terms of Chris Hedges’ “moral imperative of revolt”—must be even more outspoken. Where the corporatist media has criminally abdicated its democratic responsibility of truth-telling, Bernie’s revolution must “be the media.” Therefore it must take relish in bird-dogging Hillary—brandishing such slogans as “Madam Predator” or “Show Us the Anti-Money.”

Revolt Against Plutocracy aspires to be the needed political revolution, leveraging Bernie Sanders’ historic campaign to fulfill Chris Hedges’ “moral imperative of revolt.” We categorically refuse to vote for “Madam Predator” Hillary Clinton, strongly endorsing a pledge to write in Bernie Sanders in November 2016 should he (God forbid) lose the Democratic nomination to her. And in the toxic atmosphere of party and media censorship, we alone (among supporters of electable candidates) intend to sustain the revolutionary tradition of “speaking truth to power”—which Democrats’ tight muzzle on Bernie keeps him from doing.  

Sorry dude; no can do.  Your distinguishing Sanders as an 'electable' candidate as a write-in is just false.  Seven states don't allow write-in presidential candidates at all; even Texas will only count write-in votes if the candidate's name has been properly 'declared', a legal obstacle almost as tough as ballot access.  And see that link for more of the onerous requirements in other states.  But if you prefer, you Sanders die-hards can go that route.  You have a significantly less chance of being successful as....

3.  Voting for the Green Party's presidential nominee, to be determined at the party's national meeting in a couple of weeks in the summer of 2016, and likely to be Dr. Jill Stein.

This is what I'm going to do.

As of February 2015, the GP has qualified for ballot access in twenty states, and is expected to be qualified for 40+ in time for the 2016 election.  Their concurrent 'Plan B' is the same write-in strategy as the one recommended in Patrick Walker's piece excerpted above; they'll just have to execute it in far fewer states.  So while Sanders' name won't appear on any November ballots (assuming Clinton defeats him for the nomination), Stein's name will be seen on roughly 4 out of 5.  That is by easy definition far more 'electable' than Sanders as a write-in.

If you want real, actual progressive populist political revolution -- that is to say, ballot box revolution and not torches and pitchforks -- then Stein and the Greens are your best, most logical choice.  What the Green Party represents is clearly communicated and completely in line with what Bernie Sanders represents.  You cannot find a better mission statement in any Democratic Party platform since at least the 1940s.

Finally, it sends the message the Democrats really need to understand: stop taking your progressive populist base for granted.  Green votes do not belong to the Democratic Party.  We have other options.  You must conform to our issues and beliefs or else we will abandon you.

That's absolutely the most critical message that people of our political persuasion can send, and that can be received.

Update: There are plenty of supporters of Bernie Sanders -- the kind of people who demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of everything I have written -- unwilling to so much as entertain the idea of the option I'm taking.  There's no question that until Sanders is eliminated, these folks won't be thinking or acting rationally, perhaps long after that.  And as Katy in the comments has noted, the Electoral College swing states are the only places where a vote for Stein might jeopardize a Democratic nominee, be that person Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.  So in Texas -- and California, and New York and about 37 other states -- a vote for any third party comes with a clean conscience.  Hear that, Republicans?  This is your chance to act smarter than the Democrats.  If you don't like your nominee, you also have an option called "Libertarian Party'.

So that's how I see it.  How do you see it?

Why hasn't Ken Paxton resigned yet?

Hat tip to nonsequiteuse, who first posed the question.

No need to recount the extremist legal opinions nor the various laws he has broken.  If this is going to drag out for months as it did with Kyle Janek, then it is Governor Greg Abbott who is going to start paying a political price for it.  And everyone knows that Abbott does not expend political capital; he accrues it.  Always.

If Paxton skates past an indictment in Collin County in a couple of weeks, expect him to hang on.  If he catches one or more... well, Ken Paxton is no Rick Perry.  That much is certain.

Update: And the hits just keep on comin'.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose admitted violations of state securities laws will go before a grand jury this month, has also figured in a federal investigation of a Dallas-area technology company suspected of defrauding investors.

Paxton owns at least 10,000 shares in Servergy Inc., a company based in his hometown of McKinney. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating Servergy in 2013 after receiving complaints, according to federal court records reviewed by The Associated Press. The records show Paxton's name was singled out as a search term to satisfy an SEC demand for documents and Paxton's law firm email address was among a lengthy list of Servergy contacts searched as part of the SEC's investigation.

Update (7/9): And coming.

Despite promising last year to "wind down" his involvement in dozens of real estate and business ventures, Attorney General Ken Paxton continued to expand his holdings in 2014, according to personal financial documents.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance congratulates the US women soccer team on its FIFA World Cup victory as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff reports that thousands more Texas state employees are now eligible for spousal benefits thanks to the SCOTUS ruling on same sex marriage.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos, and contributing to Daily Kos, observes that it should be obvious the state's government has become a gathering place for crooks, crony capitalists, religious fanatics, homophobes, racists and misogynists, in Texas Governor's Cruelty.

nonsequiteuse's serious question is: why hasn't Ken Paxton resigned yet?

SocraticGadfly takes a look at American exceptionalism, and the subject of counterfactual history, to produce some musings about the Fourth of July and American independence.

TXsharon at Bluedaze has some frackquake lawsuit updates and other fracking news.

There are two things that will probably keep Sen. Bernie Sanders from acquiring the Democratic nomination for the US presidency, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs in the first of two posts on the topic. Clue: one of them isn't money, and the other isn't the questionable intelligence of the average American voter.

jobsanger -- the biggest Hillary Clinton supporter in the Texblogosphere -- grudgingly acknowledges that Bernie Sanders has closed the gap on the front-runner in Iowa.

Dos Centavos noted the Donald Trump outburst and its potential impact on Latino voting.

And Egberto Willies has video of the Kingwood Area Democrats marching in the Fourth of July parade.

============

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

Grits for Breakfast writes about the rigged criminal justice game in the Waco bikers shootout.

The Rag Blog rounded up a handful of its recent podcast interviews, from historian Victoria Bynum on Southern history, racial violence & the Confederate flag, to Maria Svart of the Democratic Socialists of America, to pioneering gay activist and Houston ‘Living Legend’ Ray Hill.

Somervell County Salon reminds us that a hundred years after the birth of America, women were still denied the right to vote.

State Impact Texas takes a lot at what's next after HB40, the Lege's ban on local fracking bans.

The Lunch Tray updates us on her "pink slime" legal case and her use of Texas' shield law.

Eric Berger explains why some rocket launches fail.

Elizabeth Rose has no trouble reconciling her Christian faith with same sex marriage, while Cody Pogue finds no good reason to oppose it.

Two Houston Tomorrow interns share their bus-riding experiences.

Isiah Carey relates the never-before-told story of how his infamous "bug-in-mouth" video got out to the public.

And Fascist Dyke Motors had a much more interesting holiday weekend than you.

Fourth Funnies

Trump: I didn't expect the backlash to be "quite this severe"

We should know later today, Angela.

"The British government remained willing to conceive of Native Americans as subjects of the crown, similar to colonists," Ethan Schmidt writes in Native Americans in the American Revolution. "American colonists … refused to see Indians as fellow subjects. Instead, they viewed them as obstacles in the way of their dreams of land ownership and trading wealth." This view is reflected in the Declaration of Independence, which attacks King George III for backing "merciless Indian Savages."

-- "Three Reasons the American Revolution Was a Mistake", from Dylan Matthews at Vox.  The thing to keep in mind here is that one man's treason is another's righteous rebellion.  The Tea Party is hardly different from the Occupy movement in this regard.  And history, as we well know, is written by the victors.

DNC kills Texas Two-Step to protect Clinton from being Obama'ed by Sanders

That's my premise, anyway.

Seven years after Barack Obama earned the majority of Texas' delegates despite losing the primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic National Committee has put an end to the state's hybrid presidential nominating process, saying it "had the potential to confuse voters."

Under the two-step process, two-thirds of a candidate's convention delegates are awarded on the basis of the primary election results. The remaining third are chosen at caucuses, which are held after the polls closed on primary night.

Now, at the direction of the national party, delegates will be based solely on the primary results, a shift some party members lamented Tuesday.

"It's not the way we would prefer to do it," said Harris County Democratic Party Chair Lane Lewis. "I still think that there is plenty of opportunity for individuals who want to participate in the delegate process to be able to participate."

The Frontloading blog agrees with me.

As a side note, it hard to resist viewing the denied waiver request as a signal of if not the Clinton campaign's pull on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, then the reality that there are folks on the committee (Harold Ickes comes to mind) that are or have in the past been aligned with the Clintons. That comment is not meant as some form of conspiracy theory. That is how the Democratic process has worked: Surrogates of the various campaigns get involved in the rules process. Given that Clinton folks were not fans of the two-step (and for arguably legitimate reasons) after 2008, it is not a real shock that it would meet its end now.

But why now and not four years ago? Parties holding the White House tend not to tinker as much with their delegate selection rules. And by extension, those in the White House at the head of their parties often prefer to maintain the same combination of rules that got them to the White House in the first place. The denied Texas request is as much about the DNC transitioning to life after Obama as it is about Clinton (and company) not liking the two-step because of 2008.

Back in Part One of my thesis on Bernie Sanders' even-more-difficult-than-you-may-think path to the Democratic nomination (Part Two is still under construction), I mentioned that Democratic muckety-mucks would start jamming Sanders if he began to get traction.  Well, he's been getting some serious traction, and sure enough, they're changing the rules to protect HRC and thwart him.

If you think this is not the case, I'd like to read your argument against it in the comments.

Update: Still don't think the insiders are working against him?

Richard Trumka has a message for state and local AFL-CIO leaders tempted to endorse Bernie Sanders: Don’t.

In a memo this week to state, central and area divisions of the labor federation, and obtained by POLITICO, the AFL-CIO chief reminded the groups that its bylaws don’t permit them to “endorse a presidential candidate” or “introduce, consider, debate, or pass resolutions or statements that indicate a preference for one candidate over another.” Even “‘personal’ statements” of candidate preference are verboten, Trumka said.

The memo comes amid signs of a growing split between national union leaders — mindful of the fact that Clinton remains the undisputed favorite for the nomination — and local officials and rank and file, who are increasingly drawn to the Democratic Party’s growing progressive wing, for whom Sanders is the latest standard-bearer.

[...]

His message wasn’t anything new for the federation’s state leaders: They know that endorsement decisions belong to the national leadership. Still, it was unusual for Trumka to call them out in a memo. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one before like this,” said Jeff Johnson, the president of the AFL-CIO’s Washington state labor council.

Johnson agreed that it was important for the AFL-CIO to speak with a single voice. But “there’s a lot of anxiety out there in the labor movement,” he said, “and we’re desperately searching for a candidate that actually speaks to working-class values. The Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders camp is very, very attractive to many of our members and to many of us as leaders, because they’re talking about the things that need to happen in this country.”

Similarly, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman said he agreed that Trumka had to lay down the law. More tellingly, though, he added: “Bernie Sanders has spent his life actually fighting for working people. He’s made no secret of it, and he’s used it as his mantra. And that I respect very much.” When asked about Clinton’s candidacy, Tolman was less effusive: “Who? Who? Please. I mean with all respect, huh?”

Paxton faces first-degree felony indictment

The water just got hotter for the state's top law enforcement officer (who double-dips as minister of state religion).

The criminal investigation against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken a more serious turn, with special prosecutors now planning to present a first-degree felony securities fraud case against him to a Collin County grand jury, News 8 has learned.

Special prosecutor Kent Schaffer told News 8 Wednesday afternoon that the Texas Rangers uncovered new evidence during the investigation that led to the securities fraud allegations against the sitting attorney general.

"The Rangers went out to investigate one thing, and they came back with information on something else," Schaffer told News 8. "It's turned into something different than when they started."

Schaffer, a Houston criminal defense attorney, said the securities fraud allegations involve amounts well in excess of $100,000. He declined to comment specifics of the fraud allegations.

A first-degree felony conviction is punishable by up to life in prison.

Just ponder that last sentence for a moment before we proceed.  It's nice to have friends in high places, like Rick Perry, when you screw up and break the law.

News 8 also learned Wednesday that Paxton had hired a former federal district judge.

"I met with General Paxton and he had retained me to look into the matter," said Joe Kendall, who practices in Dallas. "I am honored that he did. He's a good man."

Kendall told News 8 that he met with Paxton "very recently" in Dallas and confirmed that he was hired within the past two days.

"I'm going to be helping look into the matter," Kendall said, declining to comment further.

Yes, he's a good Christian man, one who has advised county clerks across Texas in recent days to violate their oaths (sworn on a Bible, mind you) and refuse to process marriage applications if they have religious objections to the people who wish to be married.  Never mind that state law defines this function of county clerks and their surrogates as ministerial, a definition everyone ought to acquaint themselves with.  Paxton's been forced to fold his tent for the most part in this regard, although he is still 'fighting the good fight', like a Japanese soldier hiding in a cave years after his nation's surrender in WWII.

As with our illustrious former governor and erstwhile presidential candidate, Paxton could still skate across the thin ice, since the Lege emasculated the Public Integrity Unit in Travis County, and the proceedings now will be heard in his home county of Collin.  It's the good old grand jury 'pick-a-pal' system that may save him, the perverse details of which earned the Houston Chronicle's Lisa Falkenberg a Pulitzer earlier this year, and which compelled the Lege to pass and the governor to sign into law a statute that eliminates it.  (That law does not go into effect until September.)

I can't bet against Paxton hanging on to his job.  God is on his side, after all, and the prayers of something in excess of 50% of registered Republicans in the state may lift him up to even more exalted status in the wake of all these "libruls" persecuting him.

How many fundraising e-mails did you get?

Did you delete them without reading them?  Did you actually make any contributions?

This is what democracy looks like now.

Enter to Win: Who doesn't love a shot at winning something? Ted Cruz invited supporters to "come shooting with me." It was free to enter the contest to win a shooting outing with the Texas senator, but Cruz told supporters: "After you've entered, make a generous Shoot With Ted contribution of $35, $50, $100 or more to my campaign." Jeb Bush threw a $3 contest promising that three winners would get a photo of Bush and his father "battling it out on the tennis court," signed by both the candidate and the former president.

Fake Deadlines: Tuesday's end-of-quarter fundraising deadline is the real deal. The candidates all have to report how much cash they've raised during the quarter and then face judgment on what those numbers say about their viability. But, hey, why wait for a real deadline when you can make up one? Marco Rubio's campaign urged supporters to help raise $44,000 in a day in honor of his 44th birthday. Columba Bush asked people to contribute to her husband in the first 24 hours of his campaign because "everyone is watching to see how much support we have out the gate."

Pivot Off the News: Republican candidates turned last week's Supreme Court rulings in support of the president's health care law and same-sex marriage into a barrage of fundraising emails. One Rand Paul subject line on the health care ruling: "I'm afraid this is bad news, Fellow Conservative." Rick Santorum took aim at the gay marriage ruling in a fundraising email urging supporters to help rescue America because "the relentless liberal agenda knows no pause." $100, please.

Family Affair: Candidates trot out glowing endorsements from spouses and kids to gin up cash. Rick Perry's wife, Anita, told supporters: "He's the most principled man I've ever known" — and please donate to "have a front row seat to history."

Size Matters: Big contributions are nice, but the little ones add up — and can say something about the depth of support for a candidate. Bernie Sanders made a decidedly lowball pitch as a way of making a statement in his Democratic campaign. "Stand up to the Super PAC attacking us by making a $3 contribution to our campaign today, and send a powerful message that you have had enough of the billionaire class buying elections," he wrote.

Don't Ask: Sometimes, it's nice to check in with supporters without hitting them up for cash. Supporters are more likely to keep opening a candidate's emails if it's not always about the money. There's no purchase necessary to enter Hillary Rodham Clinton's contest to win dinner with the Democratic candidate, for example. And Carly Fiorina's campaign sent out a chatty email from her friend and former business colleague Deb Bowker describing the Republican candidate as "a strong, determined, optimistic woman with a heart filled with a passion for service." There's no "ask" in either email. But recipients will surely be hearing more.

Since we also have a municipal election going on in Houston, some of us also got a daily boxcar load of e-mail solicitations from mayoral hopefuls, council candidates, and even judicials running for office in 2016 (some of them are trying to scare off primary challengers).

Nobody seems the least bit embarrassed by all of this money-grubbing.  A recent NYT poll showed...

• More than four in five Americans say money plays too great a role in political campaigns;
• Two-thirds say that the wealthy have more of a chance to influence elections than other Americans;
• This is true across the partisan divide: Republicans were almost as likely as Democrats to favor restrictions on campaign donations;
• Despite all this – almost no one in the poll ranked money in politics as the most important issue facing the country.

So what's it going to take the change it?  I just don't believe that voting for the same old people in the same old two parties over the years has done much to fix it, despite what few mumblings are being uttered.  Do we just keep on bumping down the road with a flat tire and nobody in the car willing to stop and get out and change it?  That's not what we teach our teenagers to do: ignore your problems, hope they'll resolve themselves.

There are other better options on your ballot; we just need more people to come to that realization and stop perpetuating the decay.  Because what we've been doing in the past isn't going to produce a result any different than what we have previously gotten.  Definition of insanity and all that.