The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance announces that all of its members have renamed themselves "Simone" as we bring you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff notes the changes to the voter ID law that were approved last week.

Harris County Republicans completed the epic fail trifecta with Commissioner Steve Radack's "enjoy your floods!" remarks, which piled on the continuing troubles of DA Devon Anderson and Sheriff Ron Hickman. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs posted that Democrats have a good shot at a clean sweep of these three offices, and only one of them should require a little effort to accomplish.

Like PDiddie and most others around Houston, Texas Leftist was quite surprised to hear/see Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack's insensitive comments about flood victims. Thankfully his Democratic challenger Jenifer Pool was quick to respond. This race may have just gotten interesting.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is appalled at the McAllen Monitor for publishing an oped describing how to strip TWO Supreme Court Justices from Barack Obama.

Socratic Gadfly, as he continues to recover from a fairly bad broken arm, tells 1 percenters he's not a freeloader because of the legitimate assistance of workman's comp.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston can't tell if his Congressman, Brian Babin, has endorsed Donald Trump or not.

MOMocrats sees the 2016 election as a referendum on continuing gun violence.

Priscilla Villa at Bluedaze writes about the Eagle Ford shale's deleterious health effects on the residents of South Texas.

Neil at All People Have Value saw a mother steer her young daughter away from some Legos at the Lego store saying that a Lego airplane and truck was for boys. Neil wondered what is wrong with people. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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More great lefty Texas blog posts!

The Texas Moratorium Network links to the WaPo's video of Jeff Wood, whom the state of Texas has condemned to die for a murder he did not commit.

Grits for Breakfast interprets the declining prisoner population numbers as evidence for closing a few TDCJ units ... by letting some private prison contracts expire.

Not-Breaking News: Chris Hooks at the Texas Observer reports that Lone Star neoliberals with more money than critical thinking skills will once again be used as an ATM by the Clinton campaign.

Zachery Taylor assembles the evidence that the corporate media has indeed 'rigged' the 2016 presidential election.

Josh Blackman highlight's the Electoral College's intended role as a check on despotism.

Paradise in Hell counts all the ways that George P. Bush's endorsement of Donald Trump is awesome.

The TSTA Blog reminds us that school finance depends on legislators, not lottery players.

Fatima Mann guest-posts at Ashton Woods' Strength in Numbers that liberation for black women is a demand and not a request.

Texas Freedom Network has the most absurd right-wing quotes from last week.

CultureMap Houston details the $44-million Galveston beach restoration project.

Space City Weather explains why hurricanes go where they go.

And John Nova Lomax ponders the morality of Steve Miller's rock classic Take The Money And Run.

Sunday Funnies

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody
and I wouldn’t lose any votes.”

The Daily Jackass: "A vote for..."

"Repeat after me..." (and remember: every time you say it, an angel gets its wings).

Some people are comparing it to rape.  That's an overreach, but "bullying, badgering, shaming, scaremongering, insulting, belittling, mocking, and abuse of all varieties" isn't.  What I have been persuaded of is that Hillbots think that Berners are just as shallow and intellectually corrupt as they are, and thus will respond to these playground taunts.

They won't (not if they're as smart as I believe they are, that is).  And if it is you that is saying "a vote for the greater good is worse than a vote for the lesser evil", then it is YOU that has become the Jackass.

The best response to bullying has always been a punch to the bully's nose.

Since we're shaming bullies on the playground these days, it certainly seems appropriate to do the same to the grownups online.  And offline, as necessary.

Capitalism's psychopathy

The Green Party, at their Houston convention last week, passed an amendment to the platform that replaced the words "responsible stakeholder capitalism" with "an alternative economic system" based on "workplace and community democracy."

Because capitalism has demonstrated that it cannot function properly without socialism to rein in its rapacious greed.  Here's how Bill Maher -- who gets it wrong on the "chicken or fish" choice in this election -- gets it right here.

"Someone needs to explain to the free-market crowd that when it comes to socialism, you’re soaking in it.” So many Americans hate the word ‘socialism’ but love the concept: Medicare, unemployment, disability, farm subsidies...."

"America’s real religion is capitalism. And like any religion, it needs a devil. And that devil has always been socialism."

"... (T)he unfounded fear of socialism spreading out of control is nothing compared to how we've let capitalism spread out of control. It's eaten our democracy. It's eaten our middle class. It's eaten our health care system, our prison system, our news media. It's even eaten our food system so thoroughly that a lot of our food is no longer something that should be eaten."

In the common unacknowledged ground rule of negotiations, you can't get a little if you don't ask -- or demand -- a lot.

One of Maher's main targets in the kind of capitalism most often seen corporate in America, and the way it leaks into every part of our culture. Recently, the National Parks system decided it would allow naming rights as a solution to it's $11 million debt problem, which Maher thinks of as the last brick in the fall of America. "Get ready to see the bison roaming at Yellowstone with the Nike swoosh shaved into their ass."

In the end, Maher doesn't say socialism is a replacement for capitalism, but that he thinks of it as "capitalism's lap band." 

I can settle for some if we can't have it all.  And if Clinton's Democrats are afraid to ask for any... then I suppose we'll be back here in four years.  And Bernie Sanders, the guy who lit the socialism fire that burns so brightly this year, is probably going to be lying on the dock in back of his new summer home, on the lake in Vermont.

Harris County GOP fails: Anderson, Hickman, Radack

Throughout the year I've left the wild tales of incompetence of DA Devon Henderson and Sheriff Ron Hickman by the wayside in spending time blogging about the presidentials.  In the local contest to see which Republican can be the biggest ass, Precinct 3 county commissioner Steve Radack elbowed his way to the top of the dung pile with his "Enjoy your flood!" remarks over the weekend, videotaped and in heavy rotation on social media.

He's not backing away from them, either, presumably because he's getting some support from commenters on and offline.

So... suppose I was one of those "some people" who wanted a new car, my house redone, but wanted my insurance company to pay for it all?  How would I go about summoning a deluge in order to get my upgrade?  Prayer? Rain dance?  What if my insurance company short-sheets me and I don't get enough for my flooded car or home to replace it or make it like new?  Steve Radack doesn't mention how much I'll like that.

I could write at length about these three public servants who have lost focus on the meaning of their jobs, but I really shouldn't have to.  Everybody knows what you're getting when you vote for a Republican these days, and it's the farthest thing from good governance that your mind can imagine.  I'll just point out that Anderson, Hickman, and Radack all have election opponents, worthy challengers who are better choices for these county executive responsibilities, in November.

Kim Ogg is running to defeat the DA, Ed Gonzales is going to take out the current appointed sheriff, and Jenifer Rene Pool is the Democratic candidate aiming to replace the odious and insensitive county commissioner.

In a wave election -- which 2016 is portending to be -- where Democrats and Republicans of the establishment variety throng the polls to cast votes against Donald Trump, Ogg and Gonzalez should be able to ride Hillary Clinton's coattails to victory.  Pool is going to need a little more help to get there, and you can assist in a least a couple of ways.

(Who said I was a lousy Democrat this cycle?)