Friday, September 09, 2016

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

Dateline San Antonio.

Eight months before the next municipal election, Mayor Ivy Taylor is ramping up her re-election bid — shaking up her campaign and winning support of her former arch political rival.

Just a little over a year ago, things had become so strained between Taylor and mayoral challenger Leticia Van de Putte, a former state senator, that Taylor refused to shake her opponent’s hand after a debate broadcast on Texas Public Radio. But after Taylor won the bitter runoff election, hatchets were buried, fences mended and olive branches extended.

This week, the two stood side by side at a Taylor fundraiser in Terrell Hills that raised $180,000 for her re-election bid and where Van de Putte heaped praise on the mayor.

“I generally thought I was better suited to be mayor simply because of my experience and maybe the style of leadership I have. I knew Ivy to be a good administrator,” Van de Putte said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News Thursday, describing what she said at the fundraiser.

“But she’s stepped up to the plate and she has shone. And so it is with those results that I wholeheartedly stand in support, and I said, ‘Voters got it right,’” Van de Putte said of her endorsement.


As a commenter at the OP noted ...

If Van De Putte can deliver the Latino vote to a token black anti-LGBT Republican with an ethics background that is totally shameful and who's in the lobby's fold, Latinos are in serious trouble. But the fact is she couldn't deliver it for herself, why should we think she can do it for Taylor. She's probably already lined up the city's lobbying contract for her and her Rino (Republican-in-name-only) friend Hope. At some point Leticia, it's time to move on and let the next generation of qualified and ethically responsible leaders step up and move the city in a transparent and accountable manner.

Bexar County Latin@s have, as throughout Texas, failed to drive their voters to the polls and take back (or take over) the city, county, and state for conservative Democrats since the Anglo Dems became Reagan Republicans in the Eighties.  Thus the Anglo Republicans -- we'd have to call them moderates for the most part -- and their considerable wealth are the ones who run the show.

Two more excerpts.

Van de Putte, who is now a lobbyist with former Secretary of State Hope Andrade, lauded the mayor for several accomplishments since she took over leadership of San Antonio, including ...

And:

According to an email sent to a contributor, about 150 people attended the Wednesday fundraiser for Taylor that raised $170,000, nearly doubling what she had reported was left in her account on June 30. ...

The invitation to the fundraiser, obtained by the Express-News, shows scores of supporters contributing as much as $1,000 apiece. The list of 236 people, organizations and political action committees included dozens of well-known San Antonians, including (mega-auto dealer) Ernesto Ancira Jr., Louis Barrios, Bill Greehey, Gordon Hartman, Peter Holt, (former CEO of Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia) Lowry Mays, Red McCombs, Gene Powell, (construction magnate) Bartell Zachry and (former General Motors chairman and former CEO of Southwestern Bell/ATT) Ed Whitacre.

[...]

In a campaign shakeup, Taylor replaced Justin Hollis, currently running a re-election campaign for U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, with Christian Anderson, a veteran political consultant.

[...]

Taylor’s bid was notable because she entered the race late, having originally said she wouldn’t seek the elected position after being appointed to the seat in 2014, and was under-funded in the race that included Van de Putte, former state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, and former Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson.

Taylor said in a statement that she would still work with Red Print Strategies, a Washington-based Republican consulting firm. But she said it would be Anderson running the local operations.

"Van de Putte, who is now a lobbyist with former Secretary of State Hope Andrade ..." is just one nugget of data in this piece that reveals the merging of pro-business Democrats and Republicans in Texas.  It's an adjunct of the damage Trump is wreaking upon the GOP, and to a lesser degree the rejection of Hillary Clinton as the kind of Democrat that many longtime liberal Democrats can unite behind.  Neither group of centrists wants to be associated with its base of so-called 'extremists', the people who for the most part turn out for GOP primaries and don't in the Democratic one.

We're witnessing the birth of a modern-day American Tory Party.  It's likely to be the third party that everybody who isn't a progressive or a Tea Partier will ultimately join.  If either the Dems or Repubs can succeed in chasing off their base, they'll co-opt the name and ballot line of the hollowed-out shell of the former duopoly member and assimilate it.

And for the time being, they'll praise this as "bipartisanship", in the same manner as it is presented by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Scattershooting the blogroll

-- Because the "most recent posts" feed in the blogroll to the right is jacked, I have switched it to alphabetical order until it can be fixed.  I prefer "most recent", but the alpha listing will enable you to more easily find something that you have followed here previously.  There's lots of 'T's because of 'The' and 'Texas", so be patient in searching.

-- I've also made several additions and subtractions, so there is considerably more fresh content and minority POV.  And fewer Shillbots.

-- Here are some photographs from the Standing Rock camp, the swelling group of protestors joining the Hunkpapa Lakota and Yanktonai Dakota -- and the support of almost one hundred other tribes -- opposing the latest response from the fossil fuel industry to work around the blocking of Keystone XL.  It's taking on a Camp Casey quality.


-- This is what the planet is up against.  It's the reason why you have Democrats, especially Texas Democrats, supporting fracking just as much as you do Republicans.  It does make that Peak Oil conversation look quaint though, doesn't it?  Do you think they'll be able to extract most of this vast supply of oil and gas for equally massive profits before we all fry?

None of the Above for CiC

The biggest loser appears to have been Matt Lauer.  First, to the duopoly combatants.

After months of what the military calls stand-off attacks, launched from a distance, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump finally met on the same stage Wednesday night for hand-to-hand combat.


War analogies are almost as distasteful as football ones, aren't they?

Unfortunately for those seeking information on their respective military policies, they were separated by a half-hour, which meant there was plenty of unilluminating blather spewed by both candidates. That’s to be expected when neither has issued a detailed national-security blueprint or spelled out their plans to defeat ISIS with any specificity.

The candidates ran through their talking points—little they haven’t said before—set apart by stirring martial music, a “live exclusive” MSNBC logo on the screen, and nasal-spray and bladder-control advertisements. Of course, with each candidate limited to about 25 minutes, they couldn’t say much. Clinton spent much of her allotted time responding to questions over her lousy email security while serving as secretary of state. By the time a veteran asked her a serious question about defeating ISIS, moderator Matt Lauer jumped in, encouraging her to answer “as briefly as you can.”

Fun.  The lies and bullshit got thicker, though.

Clinton said she would follow the plodding path blazed by President Obama. “We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again, and we are not putting ground troops into Syria,” she said. “We’re going to defeat ISIS without committing American ground troops.” Trump didn’t address the issue, except to confirm he would destroy ISIS quickly. “The generals have been reduced to rubble,” he argued of the U.S. military’s high command, their hands tied by an overly cautious White House.

But Trump, who said last year that he knew “more about ISIS than the generals do,” has suddenly done an about face and says he will order “my generals”—itself a jarring construction—to devise a plan to defeat ISIS. Obama, of course, has done that as well, and has decided on a go-slow approach to grind the caliphate into dust. Sure, the U.S. could steamroll into the Syrian city of Raqqa, crushing at least ISIS’s physical capital. “I’ve talked to some U.S. generals who are really frustrated,” retired Marine general Anthony Zinni told Time Aug. 31. “They could be in Raqqa in a week.” But that would only set off a new wave of problems, as the U.S. has learned, relearned, and learned again in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Trump dismissed such concerns. In a non-sequitur, he suggested that a Trump Administration would “take the oil” to end such turmoil.

I'm as repulsed as any Clinton supporter.  Believe me.  But because of her lack of press availability over the past year, she was once again forced to refry the email beans.

She may have wanted to talk about why she is qualified to be US commander in chief, but she spent nearly a third of her time on the defensive about her emails.

She talked about classification "headers" and explained that there was "no evidence" her server had been hacked. She even said it may have been safer than those of the state department's, given that the government's (non-classified) system had indeed been breached.

When it came to handling classified information, she was unapologetic. "I did exactly what I should have done and I take it very seriously," she said. "Always have, always will."

For those keeping track at home, Mrs Clinton has gone from asserting that she never relayed classified information to that she never sent "marked" classified documents to that she never sent material with classified headers.

That's the rhetorical equivalent of rear-guard action that ends with your army pushed into the sea.

Her Iraq War authorization as a senator and the Libyan matter were also parsed.  As usual, she was unable to mollify the critics.  But leave it to Lauer to lower the bar enough for both Trump and Clinton to slither under it.


So Lauer didn't correct Trump on his record about Iraq?” The Washington Post’s Phil Rucker tweeted.

The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof wrote that the forum was “an embarrassment to journalism,” while his colleague Paul Krugman wrote that “everyone knew this would happen,” but Lauer didn’t “have a follow-up planned” for Trump’s answer.

"I hate media-on-media violence, but Trump's support for the invasion of Iraq has been. .. rather well documented. No Lauer follow-up?” wrote Yahoo News’ Olivier Knox.

NBC News’ own political unit fact-checked Trump's claim later, calling it “false”.

To be sure, Lauer got credit for pushing Trump on his plan for defeating ISIS and confronting Trump with a tweet of his from 2013 on the thousands of unreported sexual assault in the military where Trump said: “What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?” Many also lamented the short amount of time allotted for each candidate, just 30 minutes including audience questions.

But that didn’t take away from what many journalists saw as a quick and easy fact check.

"How can someone like @MLauer not set the record straight on Trump's bogus claim of being against the war in Iraq?” wrote the Washington Post’s fact checker Glenn Kessler.

Trump was buffoonish on the military rape question as well.

Trump [...]  began by  saying that it is  a "massive problem" and that "we're going to have to come down very, very hard on that."

"The best thing we can do is set up a court system within the military," he said according to Time. "Right now the court system practically doesn't exist."

[...] Lauer quickly interjected to read a tweet from Trump three years ago. In May 2013, Trump said that sexual assault was to be "expected" when you put women in the military:

After Lauer called Trump out on his 3-year-old tweet, Trump maintained saying, "It is a correct tweet. There are many people that think that's absolutely correct."

Lauer then asked if that means Trump would take women out of the military and the Republican nominee said, "No, not take them out, but something has to be happened [sic]. When you have somebody that does something so evil, so bad as that, there has to be consequences for that person. You should have to go after that person. Right now, nobody is doing anything."

Incoherent.

Despite the whining in advance that Hillary would "lose" because Trump is graded on a curve, and the predictable and rote complaints about sexism and misogyny (spawning its own hashtag, naturally), it's the macro view of this forum that leaves me disgusted.

The most dispiriting thing Wednesday night was the grim view of the world the candidates gave Americans, with their relentless focus on fighting and terror. That, in part, comes from candidates eager to court—some might say pander to—the military vote. There was scant optimism, reflecting the hunkered-down nature of U.S. politics since 9/11. The frontier spirit that made the U.S.—a national character trait for more than two centuries—was nowhere on the deck of the USS Intrepid, docked in the Hudson River.

More than 500,000 Americans have died on U.S. highways since 9/11. A U.S. resident is 1,000 times more likely to die in a car crash than a terrorist attack. While the federal government has succeeded in reducing the number of vehicle fatalities, few blame the federal government for the asphalt carnage. But because such deaths are an everyday occurrence, they have become part of the white noise of American life.

You wouldn’t know it from listening to the candidates, but the world today is less violent than it has been in generations. If the candidates had focused on that Wednesday night, instead of heightening fears over relatively small threats, the evening could have been inspiring, as well as informative.

With these two odious people?  Not a chance.

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Trump could win

-- But I don't believe he will.  As terribly bad a candidate as Clinton continues to demonstrate herself to be, I still think she's going to hold on and win the presidency.  But it's going to be a much closer contest than it should be, and if she were running against anybody but Trump, she'd be losing.


Update: Just so there's no misunderstanding, Trump has a much better shot at defeating Clinton than Texas does of turning blue.

-- In a week where the media's focus will be on national security (which I interpret as 'who's going to drop bombs on somebody else first') there will be various war pigs trotted out in favor of their  preferred CiC ...and some snarky rejoinding to that.

[...] Clinton and Trump will participate in a joint forum Wednesday sponsored by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and broadcast on NBC and MSNBC -- their first joint appearance of the campaign.

Clinton is also bolstering her national security push with a new television ad called "Sacrifice," highlighting Trump's criticism of Arizona Sen. John McCain's war-hero status and his fight with the Muslim parents of an American soldier killed in combat.

And her super PAC, Priorities USA, is launching a $5 million ad buy in the swing states North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Iowa and New Hampshire on Friday with a spot titled "I Love War."

Featuring a mushroom cloud, it touts Trump's hawkish remarks about war and nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, delivered a security-focused speech Tuesday in Wilmington, North Carolina, accusing Trump of flip-flopping on how the United States should handle the war in Iraq.

"He says whatever he feels like at any given time because you can do that when you're a TV star. But you can't do that when you're president of the United States," Kaine said.

First of all, it's impossible for Trump to love war more than Clinton.  That's not the bigger-dick  contest you might think in this case, though; baiting Trump into responding in some irrational way on Twitter to reinforce her message is, but so far he's only countering with a Pee Wee Herman-esque "I know you are but what am I".

"I just don't think she has a presidential look and you need a presidential look," Trump said of Clinton.

"I'm talking about general, by the way, she says things about me that are horrible," Trump said. "As an example, the single greatest asset I have according to those that know me is my temperament."

Yes, we're all laughing heartily.

This is simply the wrong conversation our nation ought to be having, as we are already bombing four different countries, seven if you want to include the three previously bombed during the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton -- you know, the one with all of the vast foreign policy experience -- thinks that's too few.

I won't be watching these "Bigger Balls" contests and I hope not to have to blog about them.  But Trump might say something like "I'll just use nukes", so I may be forced to comment.  (Pro tip to Trump's debate coaches: have him prepared for the nuclear question, and make sure he answers it less hawkish than Hillary.)

The truth is that I cannot stomach the fact that -- irrespective of how small his hands may or may not be -- Trump is probably smaller than Clinton in the macho/war/genitalia length and girth department.  And that fact is precisely as repulsive as you feel repulsed having read that sentence.

Monday, September 05, 2016

Labor Day Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you that Labor Day is more than college football, binge drinking, and sleeping late, and offers the resources of the Zinn Education Project to use and peruse as you wish.


Off the Kuff looks at the state's voter ID outreach efforts, which began last week.

Libby Shaw at Daily Kos is hardly surprised to learn about the veil of secrecy that shrouds the $2.5 million Texas Voter ID education effort.

Socratic Gadfly hears about a new idea in the newspaper biz, charging people to have candidate endorsement letters to the editor published, and rips it to shreds.

After listening to Donald Trump's white nationalist speech, CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme woke up very angry at the Republican party.  Remember the ugly, angry GOP debate audiences in 2012?  These were the special people invited to attend.  Think about Senate Republicans blocking a Supreme Court nominee, threatening the full faith and credit of the US and so very much more.

It's Labor Day, and according to (faulty) conventional wisdom, we can all begin to pay attention to the coming election, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at All People Have Value says his friend Libby gets enthused by ideas. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Texas Vox posts the details of the Texas Railroad Commission candidates' forum, in Austin on September 10.

The city of Lewisville reported its 16th case of West Nile virus in mosquitoes tested there, reports the Texan-Journal.

Txsharon at Bluedaze details her white privilege at age four.

And Texas Leftist got hungry and went out for lunch after blogging about the Trump surrogate's fear of 'taco trucks on every corner'.

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

The Texas Observer's Patrick Michels writes about how a campaign to keep a Jesus sign brought discord to a God-fearing East Texas town, while John Wright reports on El Paso's challenge to the anti-trans rhetoric of the GOP.

Grits for Breakfast exposes the Democratic Party's hypocrisy on criminal justice reform.

PoliTex asks whether Ted Cruz still has the golden touch.

Steve Snyder takes a deep dive into the voter ID litigation agreement.

Megan Woolard Arredondo explores the challenge of climate change for San Antonio, and Space City Weather explains why hurricanes are strongest on the right side.

Swamplot maps where Houston's pot smokers live.

Cherise Rohr-Allegrini critiques the anti-vaccinations film Vaxxed.

Eileen Smith calls on her fellow Texans to keep Rick Perry on "Dancing With The Stars" for as long as possible.

Houstonia raises a glass to the mannequins of summer.

And Pages of Victory finally cops to his age.

Sunday, September 04, 2016

Sunday Funnies

Conservative media take over Trump's campaign, look to post-election battle for soul of GOP

A lot of people don’t want to vote for a third-party candidate like Jill Stein or Gary Johnson because they believe their vote will be “wasted.” But they don’t apply the same logic to most other things in life, many of which involve setting yourself apart from the herd.

Friday, September 02, 2016

It's Labor Day weekend; time to start paying attention to the election

As some sayer of sooths will point out.  At some point.

-- A couple of fresh contenders for the crown of Daily Jackass (honestly, these two seem like the third-string players scrambling for a roster spot) include Tessa Stuart at Rolling Stone with the compilation of greatest hits, and Brent Budowsky at The Hill, calling for a debate between Gary Johnson and ... Bernie Sanders.


 Two of the most genuinely pathetic pieces I have read this cycle. 

-- If you don't understand why Trump has managed to erase Clinton's large and long lead (there's a Mel Brooks/Blazing Saddles joke there) in the national two-horse race polls, just look at one thing: the incessant media coverage of his ridiculous and pathetic immigration "plan".  It's not just because Hillary's Foundation is crumbling or that her e-mail Scandal O'Day resembles a a case of herpes, it's because Trump and his minions dominate the discussion everywhere you look.  I try my hardest to ignore the daily spew but it's become impossible.  What's truly remarkable is how his surrogates manage to catapult the propaganda in the least effective way: #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner, as if that were a bad thing.  Yes, it's hate speech and bigotry and we'll all be the worse for the experience even after he's finally gone away.  Unless he doesn't go away; consider the horror that the media asks him to comment on every single policy initiative of President Clinton's during the next four years, as they did with McCain following 2008 and Romney after 2012.

Turn him off.  Maybe our corporate teevee media will get the message if the ratings start going down, but I doubt it.

-- Vladimir Putin says he doesn't know who hacked the DNC.  And at this point, what difference does it make?

In an interview two days before a G20 meeting in China with U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders, Putin said it might be impossible to establish who engineered the release of sensitive Democratic Party emails but it was not done by the Russian government.
"Does it even matter who hacked this data?" Putin said. "The important thing is the content that was given to the public." 
"There’s no need to distract the public’s attention from the essence of the problem by raising some minor issues connected with the search for who did it," he added. "But I want to tell you again, I don’t know anything about it, and on a state level Russia has never done this."

I believe him.  Which is more than one could say about most of what both Clinton or Trump have had to say about the matter.