The Weekly Last of the EV Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you that early voting for the 2016 primaries continues through Friday as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff looks at how cases involving Texas may be affected by the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Harold Cook sees no winning scenario for Republicans in the SCOTUS vacancy.

Libby Shaw, contributing to Daily Kos, urges Bernie and Hillary supporters to kiss and make up. Don’t be Swindled by a Ham Head.

Not understanding the vitriol of the Clinton campaign's supporters toward their primary challenger, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs provided the polling numbers for the ten states voting on March 1 in hopes that Clintonoids might be able to calm down a little.

Meanwhile, Ted at jobsanger doesn't understand what Bernie Sanders' campaign is all about.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme says buckle up for a gay-bashing, theocracy-pushing Texas legislative session.

As Apple debates whether to give in to the FBI and supply programming code to unlock an iPhone, Socratic Gadfly moves past the company's civil liberties PR claims to take a skeptical look at its past and its hypocrisy.

TXsharon at Bluedaze suggests that choosing not to have one more fracked gas power plant is not a hard choice to make.

The Lewisville Texan Journal reports that two city council incumbents drew no challengers for the upcoming municipal elections there.

Neil at All People Have Value took a good picture of colorful things in Newport, Kentucky. Everyday life has a lot of value. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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

In GOP primary news, Trail Blazers  notes that Marco Rubio picked up the endorsements of two former statewide Texas officials. And Texas Freedom Network hears Pastor Robert Jeffress' call for an apology from the Pope to the 'martyr' Donald Trump.

David Ortez contends that Antonin Scalia would support President Obama nominating a new Supreme Court justice in his last year in office, while Steve Russell at The Rag Blog runs down some of the conspiracy theories surrounding the SCOTUS justice's demise.

Kathy Mitchell calls for transparent policies regarding police body cameras.

Progress Texas gives three reasons why the Railroad Commissioner race matters.

Primo at Juanita Jean's gives an overview of the Democratic presidential primary in Texas, Prairie Weather identifies the 'dirty trick' that gives Hillary an edge and insults Democratic voters, and Somervell County Salon adds a Sanders-Clinton brain dump.

Mark Reynolds advocates for finally putting a price on carbon.

Paradise in Hell is unimpressed with UT's campus carry compromise.

The Texas Observer attended a symposium on campus sexual assault hosted by an Austin right-wing think tank, and the takeaway was: sex is risky, rape is bad, and be safe. Also, underage drinking might be a problem.

Finally, Dallas Morning Views wants the over/under on the number of days "affluenza" teen Ethan Couch can stay clean and sober while out on (now-adult) probation.

The morning after Nevada and South Carolina

-- Progress.

Jeb Bush's campaign and Justice Scalia buried on same day, allowing the country to part ways with 2 guys who got George W Bush elected.

— Paul Lander (@paul_lander) February 21, 2016

Harper Lee was also laid to rest yesterday.

-- Delores Huerta got Snoped on her "English-only" chanting smear and failed the truth test.

I don't understand why people say they don't understand why Clinton is accused of lying when there's so much videotape evidence of it, and when her surrogates also lie repeatedly for her.  Just this past week, John Lewis claimed he met the Clintons in the '60s and implied Bernie Sanders was never present during the decade's most seminal civil rights activism, when he was.  WaPo reporter Jonathan Capeheart continues to insist that a photo of Bernie Sanders during the time period isn't him, when it quite clearly is.

Is this 'ends justify the means' politics?  Is it "just" politics?  Is winning the only purpose of all of these lies?  Does it depend on what the definition of the word 'lie' is?

I suppose making up lies is better than what Barney Frank is doing: scapegoating people who aren't voting for Hillary eight months in advance for her (potential) November defeat.

Clinton's going to move to her right in order to capture the voters she perceives she will need to win the fall election.  All of the effort people made in terms of "pulling her to the left" is set to be flushed, in about three weeks, shortly after March 15 when her nomination appears more inevitable than it does today.  Will Bernie Sanders' supporters meekly fall in line, threatened into submission with the "Supreme Court" whip?

There's a conversation people need to be having with themselves.

-- Jon Ralston, the big dog in Nevada politics, gives the credit for Clinton's win to Harry Reid and the Culinary union workers.  Lots of people rightly share kudos, however.

Sanders outspent Clinton 2 to 1 on TV ads in the state, and managed to build up his campaign operation to rival hers in size. But Team Clinton, which had been in the state since April under the direction of Barack Obama campaign alum Emmy Ruiz, was better organized. Clinton’s female-focused outreach strategy in Nevada paid off, with exit polls showing Clinton winning among women by 16 percentage points, reversing the embarrassing New Hampshire trend of women choosing Sanders. Clinton once led the state by large margins, but a poll last week showed she and Sanders in a dead heat. The former secretary of state canceled a campaign rally in Florida this week and spent an extra day campaigning in Nevada. 

Her high-profile surrogates, including actress Eva Longoria and Cabinet member Tom Perez, flooded the state and held multiple events every day, out-campaigning Sanders’ team.

There was also longtime Clintonite America Ferrera, who raised eyebrows when she said she wanted to "Netflix and chill" with Hillary (if you don't get why that's eyebrow-raising, then Google the phrase and read the Urban Dictionary's NSFW listing), and Will Ferrell, who until yesterday morning was listed on Sanders' website as a supporter but was out encouraging caucus-goers for Clinton.

Total team effort IMO.

Clinton finally arrived at Texas Southern University after midnight, rallying her Houston troops.

-- Can Cruz stop either Trump or Rubio?  Doubtful.

Now the GOP establishment looks fearfully forward to a new phase of the primary contest. It moves to Nevada in just three days, and then to a slate of a dozen states on March 1, 10 days from now. Of those March 1 states, seven are in the South or Midwest, and are likely to tilt strongly toward Trump 

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Trump, with 33 percent in South Carolina, cleared the 30 percent bar that many had pegged as a barometer for showing whether or not he had lost momentum over the last few days. Rubio and Cruz were locked in a dead heat for second place, at 22 percent each, before Rubio was projected as the second-place winner by less than two-tenths of one percentage point after midnight.

Rubio probably inherits the bulk of whatever Bush's campaign has to give.  He may get oodles of money from every establishment source.  But Bush didn't make that work for him, and Rubio is wet behind the ears for a Republican presidential contender.

Cruz can regain some momentum from a Texas win and perhaps a few other states on March 1, but he's still Plan B behind The Donald for the anti-establishment caucus.  His best shot is continuing to hope Trump implodes, and that looks less likely every day.

-- So for today's prognostications, let's call it Clinton-Castro versus Trump-Rubio in the fall.  Unless the GOP establishment can tube him at the convention with someone other than Ted Cruz, whom they also despise.  The only man left standing for that job is John Kasich.

On the chance that I have called it correctly, we'll see a vice-presidential debate (heck, maybe more than one) in Spanish, and a record-low turnout for Democrats across the nation, which may or may not mortally wound Clinton's presidential prospects but is likely disastrous for down-ballot Democrats in red states like Texas.  Harris County (unofficially the fifth-largest city in the country, right behind Houston incorporated) is looking ominous for Harris County Dems.