Straus for governor?

At the end of this Jon Tilove/First Reading blog post, he speculates that the Speaker of the Texas House might be the only person who can defeat Greg Abbott in 2018.

[...] Joe Straus could conceivably run for governor or lieutenant governor in 2018, and win.

He just can’t do it as a Republican, because he would never survive a Republican primary. But he could do it as an independent in which the Democrats, who really have no prospects of winning for either governor or lieutenant governor next year, simply stand down.

Straus would run as an independent – in the name of saving Texas and his Grand Old Party from the extremists – pick up most of the Democratic vote, and win just enough of the independent and Republican vote to defeat Abbott or Patrick who would be in the unnatural position of having to pivot to the center.

I don't think Texas Democrats, with at least two candidates mentioned and one running full tilt already, would be willing to quit on the Lite Gov race at this juncture.  But nobody wants to take on Hot Wheels and his $41 million; consequently I find a Straus indy gubernatorial bid a highly plausible scenario ... at least here at the start of the special session.

Joe Straus and his band of Democrats and moderate Republicans, frankly, is the reason why we didn't get an anti-sanctuary law two (or four) years ago.  Straus, et.al., is the reason why we don't already have an anti-transgender bathroom law in this state.  Joe Straus is -- reach for your butthurt ointment, Donks -- as much a Democrat as Sylvester Turner is, for Pete Laney's sake.  If we're going to have anything resembling two political parties in Texas in the foreseeable future, they're going to be comprised of this kind of cobbled-together Straus House Caucus, and the Right Wing Freaks.

If Straus can beat Patrick and Abbott over the next thirty days -- perhaps even if he can't -- his political future might very well lie elsewhere than on the House dais, wielding the gavel.  It's sure not going to be on Pennsylvania Avenue; that's a bad joke.

In the Mansion, he can veto any and all of the BS legislation that Patrick and the next House Speaker, who will without question be selected by Tim Dunn and Mucus, pass up his way.  It strikes me as the best plan available if sane leadership is your goal.

(Boy, have we lowered the bar over the past twenty-five years.  I suppose that's what happens when you cut funding for public education down to the bone.)

KPFT's turmoil is a microcosm of the left's dysfunction in Texas

Texas Democrats can't find anybody willing to be slaughtered by Greg Abbott in 2018 (and that person will surely be slaughtered).  Texas Greens can't decide whether to even try to collect signatures for ballot access despite the handful of vacancies the Democrats will leave open for them to reach 5% (and access for 2020; Gadfly has already warned them this would demonstrate unacceptable weakness).

Update: Chris Hooks, though, is pumped -- pumped! -- about the Blues' 2018 prospects.  He's the same Jackass he's been since last year.  He has me muted on Twitter (told me so!) and probably doesn't read this blog, so I doubt whether he's capable of figuring it out.  All that matters that he gets paid to churn out the same drivel every two years, changing the names to protect the guilty.

And the smartest decision I have made in the past decade-plus of progressive activism was to avoid entreaties to engage in the local Pacifica radio station's politics like it was the bubonic plague.  Which it has been for its entire existence.  Alyson Ward at the Chronic (sorry to have to link to it; getting off the dope is going to have to be gradual):

Since its founding in 1970, the left-leaning Houston radio station has been bombed by the Ku Klux Klan, shot at, and has struggled to raise operating funds from its listeners. On Friday, the station boiled over yet again.

After less than three months on the job, Obidike Kamau, the station's interim general manager, was fired Friday morning by the acting head of Pacifica, the national foundation that owns KPFT, sparking a protest march by Houston staffers, board members and volunteers.

About 35 protesters gathered outside the station's Montrose headquarters Friday evening to support Kamau and demand his reinstatement.

Many of those mentioned in this article are friends of mine.  Some are Democrats, like Geoff Berg; some are nominally so (voting and participating in Donkey politics as a defensive measure, as Chris Ladd describes in his thoughtful piece here),  several are active to some degree with the Harris County Green Party, and another bloc of Democratic Socialists, Socialists, Communists, and unaffiliated independent progressives likely comprise most of the remainder of KPFT's supporters.

Kamau's dismissal came from Bill Crosier, the interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, which owns KPFT and four other noncommercial stations.

The California-based foundation is in serious debt — to the tune of $7 million — and has been sued by creditors across the country. On top of the money woes, Pacifica has been plagued by infighting and politics, inspiring media blogger Ken Mills to call it "public media's most embarrassing, dysfunctional and disappointing organization."

Crosier, who lives in Houston, was brought on early this year to help get all of Pacifica back on track. He said he didn't expect Kamau to turn KPFT around in 90 days, "but we at least need to get a plan for turning it around. ... We essentially don't have a plan yet."

All day at the station, Kamau's colleagues and supporters gathered to show solidarity — and to comb over KPFT's bylaws, looking for a way to nullify the firing.  By Friday evening, protesters were armed with signs and speeches that suggested race played a role in the firing of Kamau, who is African-American.

Crosier "calls himself a progressive, but he acts like Donald Trump," said DeWayne Lark, past president of the local station board.

Kamau's vocal supporters include Audel, the station's interim development director. (Yes, he's interim, too. The station is "so disorganized, half the major positions seem to be interim," he said).

"At a minimum, (Crosier) was extremely sneaky in how he handled it," Audel said. The board of directors was "completely blindsided."

Crosier acknowledged the dissent on the staff and admitted that the station's no stranger to controversy. "It's been like that at KPFT ever since I've been involved," he said. "I like to say KPFT attracts frustrated people."

More evidence of turmoil: At a meeting Wednesday night, the KPFT board heard and approved a motion to investigate Crosier. The motion listed several accusations that boil down to divisive management and mishandling of station funds. Friday's protesters called Kamau's firing "a retaliation" for that motion.

That's only the beginning of the station's problems, Audel said. "Let's be honest: KPFT, in a lot of ways, has been a laughingstock for a long time."

The station's programming has been solid, Audel said, but "businesswise, it's the Keystone Cops."

Crosier has appointed Larry Winters, a longtime KPFT deejay, to replace Kamau as interim general manager. But he said he's "open to negotiations" with Kamau's supporters. That might mean reinstating Kamau, he said, or arranging for Kamau and Winters to share the role.

"If they can come up with a plan, I'll be happy to reconsider."

Apparently not, as the spouse of one of the radio station's program hosts relates on Facebook.  Most of the dirty laundry aired there.  Benjamin Craft-Rendon:

The firing of Dr. Obidike Kamau from 90.1 FM KPFT Houston when he's spent his 3 months on the job trying to lower costs while maintaining morale among programmers seems like an infuriatingly bad call.

Three people tagged Crosier's personal page with their thoughts on his move: Rachel Clark ...

"(A) plan within (a 90-day) time frame would not have buy-in or be rooted in collegiality and in the spirit of collaboration. At best, creating such a plan would result in compliance, lack of energy, and programmers, staff, and volunteers, 'going through the motions'. Obidike understands this and had dedicated the last three months to changing the culture at KPFT. He set about having backyard parties on a regular basis once again to build community and raise funds. He also hosted the first two programmer meetings in years, and there was an energy and passion among programmers as well as a new transparency from staff and leadership that I don't think I have ever witnessed in my 17 years of being connected to the station.

Not only did Bill Crosier fail to take any of this into consideration in his seemingly unilateral decision, he also completely failed to acknowledge that Obidike was the first person of color appointed as station manager in KPFT's 40-plus year history. These blind spots are coupled with his ignorance of organizational leadership research that cites, under ideal circumstances, it takes three to five years to turn an organization around, with staff and community buy-in and a cohesive culture being key influential factors. I am not speaking as a representative for Houston IndyMedia, but rather as a volunteer who has been connected to this station since moving to Houston in 2000."

Ted Weisgal (founder of Houston's now-former Leisure Learning Unlimited):

"I had hoped wisdom prevailed but overnight (July 15-16) the interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, parent of KPFT, withdrew his offer to leave in place Dr. Obidike Kamau as general manager of KPFT. Many people including myself maintain that Mr. Crosier never had the right to remove Dr. Kamau in the first place because Crosier failed to follow protocols/the bylaws. Crosier, the INTERIM ED, says the bylaws don't apply here because Dr. Kamau was INTERIM. What rules do apply?

Crosier placed himself firmly behind the microphone during almost every early morning minute of the recent failed pledge drive and droned on and on while few people gave. I asked to be given an opportunity to pitch and only one morning was I granted, though briefly, that opportunity. I wanted to tell people the truth, that the drive was doing poorly. I was told not to. That was a bad strategy, they said. And now it's being used as grounds to fire Dr. Kamau. 

This is hypocrisy. When black people are denied the right to vote, it's called racist. When they aren't given a fair chance to do a job... there's no way around it: that act by Bill Crosier is racist too. This is about the survival and strengthening of KPFT as a progressive voice for the Texas Gulf Coast.

And Remington Alessi, more vehement about the racial aspect. 

The firing of Obidike Kamau from KPFT is the epitome of what people complain about when talking about white liberal racism. Hordes of safety pin- and rainbow-decorated white people are coming out to defend their friend, Bill Crosier, even if it means ignoring, gaslighting, and trolling the black folks who are explaining what a basic form of racism this whole fiasco is.

Crosier is my friend, but I'll be damned if I'll make excuses for this racist garbage. And shame on any of you white folks who do make excuses for it. I have a long memory, and so do plenty of other folks, so don't think we'll forget where you stand.

Crosier is also my friend of long standing, but he completely screwed the pooch here.  Tone deaf to both his white privilege and the demonstration of it to the listener community, unresponsive and then saying one thing and doing another after the move before retreating back into his bunker, Crosier created a Category 5 shitstorm that he should not be allowed to weather as an authority with Pacifica.  What he did wasn't just racist and incompetent but ridiculously stupid.

The larger point to be made is that in my relatively long activist experience, what all degrees of "The Left" seem to do best is fight almost constantly with each other -- and not just Hillary/Bernie-type shit, either -- which leaves no energy to accomplish anything of substance against the real political opposition.  The Democrats do it, the Greens do it, and the mishmash of progressives at KPFT have done it for decades as well.  There's an example in the field to be learned from -- an ecumenical movement toward a single goal, as it were -- but Houston's progressives are still busy tearing everything down to the slab.

It's the sort of backbiting and infighting that makes people new to the organizations (young people, non- or infrequent voters and activists in the case of political parties, volunteers and financial supporters in the case of KPFT) run screaming in the opposite direction.  Even those who've been active for a long period get burned out and withdraw, as David Collins has recently attested.

There's got to be a better way, people.

Update: Collins expands on my take with his own, as someone more involved than I with both the Green Party and KPFT in recent years.

Update II: If you'd like to learn more from the source about the Richmond Progressive Alliance (referenced and linked above), Steve Early is appearing in Austin later this month as part of a Rag Blog event, also hosted by Austin's DSA chapter and others, and will join the Local Progress conference there that weekend.

The Special Weekly Wrangle

As the Texas Legislature is poised to reconvene for its special bathroom session, the Texas Progressive Alliance has the mega-blog post roundup from last week and also wants to know where it can buy one of those "Sunset and Sign, Die" pins.

Off the Kuff highlights a spate of LGBT candidates running for office in the near future.

SocraticGadfly tells any Texas Greens who are thinking of skipping 2018 in working to restore party-line ballot access to stop entertaining such thoughts because next year will be a good opportunity.

Got any Democrats in mind to run for governor in 2018? Drop a line to the TDP if you do, says PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Stace at Dos Centavos watched as the Harris County commissioners pollo'ed out on joining the lawsuit against the anti-sanctuary law.

Grits for Breakfast examines what police reform looks like from the conservative (specifically the representative from Empower Texans) perspective.

Texas Vox posts some of the videos of the Center for Nonprofit Studies at Austin Community College's series of “civil” discussions of the significant social issues Austin is facing, entitled Civil Society.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notices that the war on immigrants is taking a toll on the shrimping industry.

The Texan Journal reports that a federal judge has denied the request of a Title IX plaintiff for a new trial, after a jury found the Lewisville ISD not guilty.  The case will be appealed to the Fifth Circuit.

jobsanger links to a New Republic piece on Trump and Russia, quoting 'Deep Throat' of Watergate infamy: "Follow the money."

McBlogger laughs at the religious left's attempts to gain relevance.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston thinks we really need a bathroom bill.

Neil at All People Have Value attended the Medicare For All town hall sponsored by the Bernie Sanders/Our Revolution group and also by Houston socialist organizations. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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

More Lone Star lefty blog posts and news!

The Rivard Report says it's Greg Abbott's special session and the rest of us are just livin' in it, but San Antonio lawmakers have other ideas.

PoliTex reports on Abbott's prolific use of social media, particularly Facebook Live, as he kicked off his re-election campaign last Friday.

Melissa del Bosque at the Texas Observer has the story on Trump's southern border wall already taking shape, running through an environmentally sensitive South Texas wildlife refuge.

Better Texas Blog keeps digging into how bad Trumpcare would be for our state.

Juanita Jean has some fun with a Republican neighbor.

Paradise in Hell wonders what town hall meetings Ted Cruz goes to, and High Plains Blogger sees "Lyin' Ted", of 2016 GOP primary fame, making a comeback.

DBC Green Blog previewed CD-36 Green Congressional candidate Hal Ridley Jr.'s event in Clear Lake over the past weekend.

Chris Ladd at Political Orphans is here to remind us, as a former 'GOPLifer', that Democrats are not going to save us from Trump and extremist Republicans. 

Michael Li demonstrates how easy it is to draw minority opportunity districts in Deep-In-The-Hearta, and Gabriella Dunn at Burkablog documents the many requests for Texas voter data.

Somervell County Salon carefully documents a recent appellate court case in North Carolina that found that county commissioners cannot say a prayer before their meetings.

Ashton P. Woods at Strength !n Numbers asks: is loving a black man a revolutionary act?

And Harry Hamid retells a children's tale as "Gabble, Rabble, and Ross".

Sunday Funnies

The Chronic cans their best asset

Nick Anderson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist at the Houston Chronicle, must update his resume' to 'formerly' at the Houston Chronicle.



Always the class act, here are his parting words:

I have an unfortunate announcement: Today is my last day at The Houston Chronicle. My position was eliminated. Much has been written about the reduction of staff editorial cartoonists at newspapers (along with print journalists in general) and today, the odds caught up with me. Ironically, thanks to social media, my cartoons are seen more widely than ever.

One cartoon I posted during the heat of the presidential election campaign last year was shared around 550,000 times on Facebook alone, and those were just the ones I could track. I was at a wedding in New York around that time. The woman sitting next to me asked me what I did for a living. I told her, and she said, "Oh, I saw your cartoon on Facebook today." She pulled out her phone and there it was. Thanks to the internet and social media, the reach of editorial cartoons has never been greater.

While the internet and social media help spread my work widely, they also have made it harder for anyone in the news business to make a living. I was able to drive significant traffic to my employer's web site at times, but not on the same scale as the Facebook traffic. And traffic alone isn't enough anymore. Newspapers are moving to a subscriber/paywall model. Unfortunately, the powers that be decided a full-time cartoonist was not going to be a part of that model.

I've had a good run, and I'm grateful to been a political cartoonist for so long. I've been extremely fortunate in my professional career. I really want to thank my readers for their encouragement, comments, and feedback. Even the insults and disagreements have been appreciated.

But you're not rid of me yet. I'm still syndicated with The Washington Post Writers Group. I’ll continue to draw 3 to 4 cartoons a week for the foreseeable future and, hopefully, for many years to come. Meanwhile, please feel free to let me know of any opportunities that you think would be a good fit, inside or outside of journalism.

One last note: I called our Human Resources department earlier this year to see about getting more vacation time -- be careful what you wish for...

As you may know, the Chronic is owned by Hearst, which long ago employed yours truly as an advertising executive.  I prepared budgets for three of their smaller newspapers at a time (mid- to late Eighties) when they were running profit margins between 30 and 40%.  Newspapers don't make that kind of money any more, but they don't lose money unless they're going head-to-head in a single market, which is how joint operating agreements came into being back in my day and before.  Even those legal and political machinations don't make enough cash for their corporate overlords any longer, and many of the weaker papers have died or gone paperless, like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (which Hearst also owns).

The Chronic has laid off staff a few times over the past ten years, sold their downtown office for its high real estate value, watched costly talent like Ken Hoffman bail out for objecting to the paywall model, and now has eliminated the last reason for reading that newspaper.  Truly the best thing they had going, in their last-gasp quest to maintain what is probably only a 10 or 15% profit margin.  Their Austin/Lege coverage has face-planted, their DC bureau is invisible; it's like they've given up on reporting in exchange for photo slideshows on the free site.  I find it embarrassing to have watched the paper fall so far as the result of the decisions made by their consistently weak and excessively staffed management.  There's at least three times the number of managers that there was thirty years ago.  For what?  To do what?  Drive the business further into the ground?

Positively disgraceful.  My subscription has already been canceled.  Nick Anderson will be just fine, but the Houston Chronicle is sinking faster than Hillary Clinton's poll numbers on the day before Election Day.

Starring Sylvester Turner as Donald Trump

And several of the Democrats on city council as Republicans (you pick which ones) in Congress.

Karun Sreerama (l), Chris Oliver (r)

Houston's public works director will vacate his post temporarily following revelations that he made unlawful payments to a Houston Community College trustee now awaiting sentencing on a federal bribery charge.

Karun Sreerama paid $77,143 to longtime HCC trustee Chris Oliver in three installments between late 2010 and mid-2013, when Sreerama owned a private engineering firm. Federal authorities say Oliver was leveraging his power to influence the awarding of HCC business contracts.

Wait for it ...

Mayor Sylvester Turner said (on July 12) he was unaware of the criminal case or Sreerama's involvement prior to this week. Turner added that he spoke with the public works director during a "brief telephone call" before placing him on paid administrative leave.

"I am taking this action so that I may thoroughly review the information to make sure there are no further related implications for the city and him," Turner said in a written statement. "It is against everyone's best interest for a public servant to have to operate under a cloud."

The mayor, who is traveling in Europe on city business, added, "I continue to have confidence in Karun and look forward to his return."

Wait for it ...

City Council members widely praised the mayor's decision to place Sreerama on leave, but largely were reticent to say whether they thought he ought to remain as director of the city's largest department, with a $2.1 billion budget.

"At this time, I can't say one way or the other," said Councilman Larry Green, who chairs the council committee that reviews public works issues.

Wait ... for ... it ...

Over the years, Sreerama has been a prolific political donor, predominantly to Democrats, and was a key supporter of Turner's 2015 mayoral bid. His family contributed a combined $20,000 to Turner's runoff campaign. He also has contributed to the campaigns of seven of the 16 sitting council members: Green, Ellen Cohen, Amanda Edwards, Brenda Stardig (a Republican), David Robinson, Jack Christie (also a Republican), and Jerry Davis.

Oliver has been reprimanded (!!!) by his colleagues on the community college board, but further action such as removal from office awaits ... something more serious and external than his pleading guilty to felony bribery charges, I suppose.  Sentencing, perhaps?  Sreerama awaits Turner's return from Europe for additional judgement, if any.  The mayor pro tem doesn't think it's a big deal.

Cohen said she could see Sreerama resuming his leadership role with the city.

"As far as I'm concerned with the information I have to date, I believe that he's in a position, once everything is discussed, to continue to do a credible job," Cohen said.

No.  Just no.  Even Marc Campos gets it, and he can't find his asshole without using a mirror.  Oliver should have been gone long ago, and Sreerama should follow him right out the door, along with his firm being barred from receiving further municipal contracts for an extended period of time.

It's almost as if these people know they're not going to be standing for re-election for a long time -- if ever again -- and are grabbing all the money they can, with both hands, while the grabbing's good.

Now do you understand why Houston's Democrats strike me as the kind of thing we used to refer to as moderate Republicans?

Friday Scattershots: Beto's 2, Abbott's 34, and the special session

Normally I leave the fundraising reporting to those that groove on it.  But occasionally it's newsworthy, and this is one of those times.

-- Beto O'Rourke out-raised Ted Cruz, and he did it without PAC money, or big donors, or out-of-staters, like that Blue Dog loser Jon Ossoff.  He merits kudos from The Intercept for his Bernie Sanders-style fundraising, also his (finally) unqualified support for single payer.  Let's pick out just a little of Ryan Grim's piece for consideration.

He is far from the centrist mold that power brokers in Washington might recruit to run for Senate in Texas, but then again, power brokers in Washington don’t spend much time thinking about running for Senate in Texas.

But the way O’Rourke is raising money changes the game. The El Paso congressman does not have much in the way of a national fundraising network, has refused corporate PAC money, and is known among his colleagues to be a less-than-enthusiastic fundraiser. That’s the kind of lawmaker who often had little future in Washington — but exactly the kind many grassroots Democrats would like to see rise. The type of person who is good at spending hours a day with doctors, bankers, lawyers and other professionals who can write four and five-figure checks is a) probably not hard-wired to be a conviction politician and b) vulnerable to have their politics diluted just by virtue of the conversations they’re having day in and day out.

Former Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., said that spending so much time on the phone fundraising winds up creating “an enormous anti-populist element, particularly for Dems, who are most likely to be hearing from people who can write at least a $500 check. They may be liberal, quite liberal in fact, but are also more likely to consider the deficit a bigger crisis than the lack of jobs.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Greg Abbott announces for re-election today with gobs of money in the bank and no challengers.

His lips are ready to smooch the backsides of the big check-writers.

Despite criticism, Abbott remains a popular figure among Republicans statewide and has a campaign kitty that will be daunting to any potential challengers. He had more than $34 million in his campaign account in January, and that number is expected to grow when new fundraising totals are announced shortly.

Let's just go ahead and acknowledge that we're not going to be rid of Helen Wheels until he decides to run for president.  And since he can do so and remain governor after losing a White House bid, perhaps not even then.

If the special session does not go his way, will it damage him politically?  I think the opposite, candidly.  First, note that Texas is already losing commerce to other states for the first time in over a decade (that's at least two oil slumps ago, not counting the current one) and if he and Dan Patrick ram through the bathroom bill, that will hurt the state's reputation for a welcoming bidness climate even further.  But it is the capitalist titans inside and outside Texas that are going to have to make him pay the price for his governmental intrusion and over-reach into our private lives: in corporate or branch relocations reconsidered, in conventions and events like the Final Four canceled, and in their reduced, or embargoed, or eliminated campaign contributions to him.

To the GOP base, though, he'll be martyred on a toilet in a transgender-friendly restroom.  He'll have fended off the primary challenge from Lite Guv Goeb, and he'll have the Christian Soldiers marching onward as to war for him.  He wins by losing (if he loses, and Joe Straus has to be feeling pretty lonely these days).

-- Did the Russians try to hack Harris County's elections website?  Stan Stanart's IT guy isn't saying yes, isn't saying no.

Despite widespread alarm over the breadth of Russian cyber attacks on state and local election systems last year, including revelations of Dallas County being targeted, Harris County officials are refusing to say whether hackers similarly took aim at the nation's third-largest county.

Releasing information on whether Harris County election systems saw attacks from Russian hackers would threaten the county's cyber security by emboldening hackers to further target local systems, county officials said this week.

The county's argument was dismissed by experts, who said the secrecy is unnecessary, and could actually downplay the seriousness of the threat and the resources needed to combat it.

So ... 'don't ask, don't tell, maybe it will go away' seems to be the strategy.  This strikes me as pluperfect Stanart.  Did you know that a number of voters greater than one out of every four say they are considering not voting because of fears of the elections being hacked?

More than a quarter of recently polled registered voters say they will consider not casting ballots in future U.S. elections because of hacking concerns, with 27 percent saying they may stay home from the polls when the 2018 midterm elections roll around.

That number could mark a challenge during the midterms, with the possibility of as many as 58.8 million of the more than 200 million eligible voters choosing to stay home, according cybersecurity firm Carbon Black. The June survey of 5,000 people found a lower level of confidence in the overall voting process compared to data collected prior to most recent presidential election.

This is what Democratic paranoia hath wrought.  So in a perverse way, maybe Stanart's office is on to something.  We certainly don't need any more vote suppression efforts, especially not those borne out of Clinton Democrats' fever dreams.

There has been a lot of Moscow-on-the-Potomac to digest this week.  Maha has a good summary, including that McClatchy piece that Gadfly has already skewered.  But her lede is slightly buried.

To those who are certain the Trump/Russians stole the 2016 election, I would like to point out that if the Clinton campaign hadn’t been so brain dead, there would have been fewer vulnerabilities to exploit. Ultimately, it was Clinton’s election to lose, and she lost it. She might very well have lost it had the Russians done nothing at all. Historians will probably be arguing the point for the rest of eternity. But this is about something bigger than who won the election.

Yes it is.  More on that later.

-- I also have some thoughts coming on the dispute between Caitlyn Johnstone and Yoav Litvin (and some who have responded ahead of me) over the potential direction and alliances of the Green Party, specifically David Cobb's role in said, in the middle of it all.  BTW, the Greens' national meeting is happening right now in Newark, NJ.

So how about those Russians?

Toldja it would break open, and I toldja it wouldn't be about hacking the election.

Fake news alert: Neither Reagan nor Nixon are actually in Heaven.

Collusion is a pretty huge deal, as most of us know, but not if you're Sean Hannity or the millions of MAGAs who refuse to accept the truth being told elsewhere on teevee.  But the White House knew it was time for an intervention, so they called in the God Squad.

Such an honor to pray within the Oval Office for @POTUS & @VP . pic.twitter.com/JrDOSJyFeN

— Johnnie Moore ن (@JohnnieM) July 12, 2017

Evangelical leaders laid hands and prayed over President Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, and discussed several policy issues, the Washington Post reports.

Pastors at the meeting told The Post that the group discussed issues such as religious freedom, judicial nominees, criminal justice reform and the Affordable Care Act. Vice President Pence and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were also present at the prayer gathering.

The group included megachurch pastors Paula White of Florida and Mark Burns of South Carolina, former Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and three Southern Baptist pastors.

Presumably the laying of hands did not involve former Rep. Bachmann's nether region.  One question: if the pastors discuss judicial candidates with the president, then has the wall between church and state been torn down (to be shipped to the southern border)?

The laying of hands is a symbol of God's authority, practiced in many evangelical denominations. Jesus and his apostles used the sign throughout the New Testament to bless and heal people and to commission messengers of the gospel.

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne posted photos of the meeting on Facebook, and said he prayed for "supernatural wisdom, guidance and protection" for Trump. "Wow — we are going to see another great spiritual awakening," he said in the post.

Trump, who enjoyed wide support from evangelicals in the presidential election, is a self-described Presbyterian but does not attend church regularly. In January of 2016, Trump drew criticism from many evangelical Christians for his pronunciation of the Biblical book 2 Corinthians as "two Corinthians" instead of "Second Corinthians".

Trump in fact received more than 4 out of every 5 votes from white evangelical Christians, despite the pussy-grabbing and the Two Corinthians and all the rest of his failings as a Christian.  His religion, as practiced on Sundays, is the Church of Golf.  But his God is money.

This is going so bad so fast that Paddy Power has changed its odds of impeachment.

PaddyPower, an Ireland-based betting site, has seen more users placing bets on President Trump being impeached before the end of his first term, bringing the site's total odds of the President being shuffled out of the White House by 2021 up to 60%—the highest it’s ever been, according to company spokesperson Lee Price.

"[President Donald Trump] had gone quiet over the last month, and we were starting to wonder if he might have ridden out the initial controversies – but he’s back with a bang today,” Price wrote in an email to Fortune Wednesday.

Not only are PaddyPower bettors increasingly putting their money on Trump being impeached before his first term is over, but they are also betting on him being impeached as soon as this year, bringing those odds up to 33.3%. That's despite the fact that impeachment proceedings are usually lengthy.

"Everyone is betting on the 'yes' side of impeachment," Price said, saying hundreds of thousands of pounds had been placed on that bet.

This is your clue that the Euros gambling on this outcome have no idea what they are doing.  Use that conclusion as you like; I'm not giving any financial advice here. 

That said, PaddyPower is hardly a foolproof predictor. Another betting website called Predict-It sees just a 9% chance of Trump being impeached this year, down from the 30% chance it saw after then-FBI Director James Comey was fired in May.

So the euphoria of a potential windfall may be short lived for those PaddyPower bettors, most of whom are unlikely to be Americans. Although it's not just betting sites weighing Trump’s odds of impeachment since news of Trump Jr.'s Russia meeting.

"We believe the risk of impeachment proceedings is now higher than before," CitiBank’s Tina Fordham wrote in a note on Wednesday, though she added that impeachment is still unlikely. "It would be highly unusual and indeed likely politically costly to the party's electoral prospects to pursue impeachment proceedings against a president of their own party, particularly with Midterm elections a little over a year away."

Meanwhile, California Democrat Rep. Brad Sherman placed a different kind of bet when he filed an article of impeachment against President Trump Wednesday.

Trump won't be impeached by a Republican Congress.  Trump may be forced to resign at some point sooner than later, and the GOP would just be thrilled with Mike Pence.

I cannot BELIEVE I have to protest this Net Neutrality shit again

Whatever issues you are interested in depend on keeping the Internet free and open. ~ Lo

From Battle For The Net

July 12th: Internet-Wide Day Of Action To Save Net Neutrality

WHAT IS NET NEUTRALITY?

Net neutrality is the basic principle that protects our free speech on the Internet. “Title II” of the Communications Act is what provides the legal foundation for net neutrality and prevents Internet Service Providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T from slowing down, blocking, or charging websites an additional fee to reach their audience (which they would then be forced to pass along to consumers).

WHY IS NET NEUTRALITY IMPORTANT?

The Internet has thrived precisely because of net neutrality. It’s what makes it so vibrant and innovative—a place for creativity, free expression, and exchange of ideas. Without net neutrality, the Internet will become more like cable TV, where the content you see is what your provider puts in front of you.

FCC Chairman and former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai has a plan to destroy net neutrality and give big companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T immense control over what we can see and do on the Internet, with the power to slow down or block websites, and charge others extra to reach an audience.

If we lose net neutrality, we could soon face an Internet where some of your favorite websites are forced into a slow lane online, while deep-pocketed companies who can afford expensive new “prioritization” fees have special fast lane access to Internet users – tilting the playing field in their favor.

On July 12th, the Internet will come together to stop them.  Blogs, websites, Internet users, and online communities will sound the alarm about the FCC’s attack on net neutrality.

Got any Democrats in mind for governor in 2018?

Because it sure doesn't seem like the Texas Democratic Party does.  The most recent post on the topic that Google returns for me (if you don't count the Castros' turndowns in May) is dated February 9 of this year -- five months ago -- and is a bit of rumor and off-the-record chat collected by the TexTrib about a private meeting at the end of the previous month.

In late January, a high-profile forum for candidates vying to be the next Democratic National Committee chair brought hordes of Democrats to Houston ready to plot the party’s national future. But for Texans in the party, the more consequential meeting may have occurred the day before in Austin.

A tight-knit group of Texas Democratic leaders traveled to the state capital that day to begin preliminary conversations about the 2018 midterm races.

According to over a dozen interviews with Texas Democratic insiders and national Democrats with ties to the state, the meeting included some of the party's most well-known figures from Texas including former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, his twin brother, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, Texas Democratic Party Finance Chairman Mike Collier, former state Sen. Wendy Davis, state Democratic Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke of El Paso, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker and state Reps. Rafael Anchia of Dallas and Chris Turner of Grand Prairie.

Their main agenda: mapping out a strategy for the 2018 midterm elections.

You should already know what Collier and O'Rourke have decided to do.  It's highly doubtful Davis (who lives in Austin now) will make another bid for the Mansion, and Anchia and Turner have 'special session' on the brain.  Parker wants to run for Harris County Judge, but not if Ed Emmett is still there, and he's still going to be there in 2018.  Of these, perhaps Turner or Anchia will be so frustrated after the special and Abbott's heavy hand that they'll throw their hat in.  Some things haven't changed in the last six months, however.

The expectations in the room were not soaring but were cautiously hopeful. That optimism was mostly rooted around one person: President Donald Trump.

Uh huh.  Maybe Cliff Walker can find Betsy Johnson, clean off her combat boots, and keep the Greens from getting to 5% again.  (The GP already has to petition for ballot access next year, thanks to the two afore-mentioned in 2016.)  In similar vein, the two most vulnerable statewide Republican incumbents have also drawn no challengers to this point.

Party insiders are also coveting two other statewide offices: attorney general and agriculture commissioner. The two Republican incumbents, Ken Paxton and Sid Miller, respectively, have faced a series of political struggles that could complicate their re-election campaigns.

So here's my prediction: as in 2006, there will be a few populist figures with little to no experience in elective office step up; the party won't find any money or other support for them, and ... you can probably guess what will happen.  Then in December of 2018, as all eyes turn to the presidential tilt in two years, the chairman of the TDP will stand up at a meeting of the SDEC and say, "It was a tough year; we focused on a few targeted races".

The House Democratic campaign arm recently announced it was eyeing three GOP-held congressional districts: U.S. Rep. John Culberson's 7th District, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd's 23rd District and U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions' 32nd District. Only the appearance of Hurd's district on the list was unexpected.

Democrats did not spend money in either Culberson's or Sessions' districts in recent cycles, but presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's performance there in 2016 encouraged the party to take a second look.

Yeah, they're swarming into the primaries against Culberson and Sessions.  The money race is already being reported, and thank Jeebus James Cargas isn't winning that, either.

As for the statewide races?  I've seen this all before, and so have you.

Progressives (and Democrats) across Texas answer to the law

-- Facing the law (but not justice):  Shere Dore, Houston's foremost advocate for the homeless, was arrested on an outstanding warrant while she was on her way to a hearing for her felony charges of striking a HPD police horse.

Dore and her partner were driving to the Harris County courthouse for an appearance in the earlier case when officers pulled the pair over and arrested Dore for warrants stemming from a two-year-old speeding charge.

Local activists were quick to cry foul.

"Law enforcement agencies have decided to set Shere up for coming out against them with her activism and various allyship," said Ashton Woods of Black Lives Matter Houston.

"They were on their way to court - the officer was literally staked out waiting for them."

No local person in my memory has been subjected to more continuous, flagrant, and obvious police harassment than Dore.

The 41-year-old was taken to the Fort Bend County jail and held pending payment of her outstanding fees, prompting the Harris County court to revoke her bond when she failed to appear.

"It is interesting that this outstanding warrant did not come up when she was arrested in November of 2016 and more interesting that it would come up the morning of her court date," said Brian Harrison, who has represented her in the Harris County case, along with attorney Jolanda Jones.

It was not immediately clear which law enforcement agency pulled Dore over Thursday.

"I don't know why they were stopped on the morning of her court date, a date which I know a number of people thought was her trial date," Harrison said.

[...]

Local activists, supporters and friends rallied around the well-known advocate for the homeless, chipping in funds to secure Dore's release. But even once she pays the $1,083.10 owed in Fort Bend, she'll still be held until a Harris County judge can reinstate her bond, Harrison said.

The Harris County felony charge - interfering with a police service animal - stems from a spirited November march through downtown Houston.

During the nighttime protest two days after Trump's election, Dore was one of a handful of demonstrators arrested after the gathering spilled out into city streets.

As an officer on a police horse named Astro started to push Dore back onto the sidewalk, Dore allegedly hit the animal with a closed fist, a charge her lawyers have consistently denied.

"I want the world to know that our clients are absolutely innocent. They have a First Amendment right to protest," Jones said after a November court date.

"I think this is one of the first indications of what's going to happen with the new president."

I think it's a clearer indication of what's actually happening with our still-kinda-new police chief and our not so new but extraordinarily weak mayor, but whatever.  This is the kind of repercussion I was anticipating just last week (see the very last sentence).

-- A JP faces justice: the SCOTX suspended controversial (that's an understatement) Harris County Justice of the Peace Hilary Green for ... oh, let's just call it 'conduct unbecoming'.

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday issued an order to suspend Harris County Justice of the Peace Hilary Green from office immediately based on allegations that she illegally abused prescription drugs, sent sexually explicit texts to a bailiff while on the bench and paid for sex.

The state supreme court had been asked to take the unusual emergency action by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which in May presented a 316-page document in support of an immediate suspension. That document summarized evidence it had collected in its own investigations of previously secret complaints made against Green from 2012 to 2015.

It's the first time any Texas judge has received a temporary suspension in at least a decade in a contested matter, the commission says.

The commission alleged that in its own closed proceedings, Green already had admitted to many allegations against her, including illegally obtaining prescription drugs and using marijuana and Ecstasy while she was presiding over low-level drug possession cases involving juveniles in her south Houston courtroom. As a justice of the peace for Harris County Precinct 7, Place 1, Green handles thousands of low-level criminal and civil matters a year, including traffic tickets and evictions.

So ends (let's hope) the saga of one of Houston and Harris County's most prominent black Democratic couples.  Their future as political players was once as as bright as the July sun.  Now they'll be lucky if they can avoid the big house themselves.

-- Facing down unjustice: US House candidate Derrick Crowe, a contender for the 2018 Democratic nomination in TX-21 (the incumbent is virulent climate change denialist Lamar Smith), got himself arrested outside John Cornyn's Austin office.

“Demonstrators waved signs, led chants and blocked the sidewalk in opposition to the Senate GOP plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, which would slash coverage for many and the taxes that help pay for it,” the Austin American-Statesman reported.

A coalition of local groups targeted Cornyn because he is a key sponsor of the unpopular Senate health care bill. Mr. Crowe was among a small group that chose to make an even bigger statement against the legislation.

“At about 12:20 p.m., a handful of us blocked the sidewalk,” Crowe explains in a post at Daily Kos. The act of civil disobedience was “a line in the sand against the attack on our families represented by this bill. Blocking pedestrian traffic resulted in our arrest.”

Crowe is one of a half-dozen Dems lining up to challenge Smith.  All across the state, Democrats smell opportunity amidst the overwhelming stench of fear hanging on GOP Congressional incumbents, who are running and hiding from their constituents like roaches when the lights come on.

In contrast to some of my more recent negative postings about their chances, maybe this fierce resistance (and certainly some effective organizing and a positive message) will translate into good news for a few of them.  To boil it down to one sentence: Trump can be neutralized with one chamber of Congress flipped in 2018, and turned out of office in 2020, but Democrats need to get their shit together fast.  And time's a-wastin'.

Update: Somehow I neglected to mention the federal conviction of Houston Community College Trustee Chris Oliver on felony bribery charges.  Oliver has been a candidate for city hall and also Harris County Democratic Party chair in the recent past, while still serving on the school board.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance would like to bottle and sell Angela Merkel's eyerolls as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff comments on the Justice Department's flipflop on voter ID.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks hurricane preparedness is so much more important than building a monument to racism. Today's white nationalist party, the GOP, disagrees.

SocraticGadfly moves from politics to scientific skepticism with an anniversary-based look at one of the most famous events in the UFO world.

The Russians tried to hack our election, and they may try again ... but given the effective suppression tactics of voter ID and partisan gerrymandering in Texas and throughout the country, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs asks: shouldn't Democrats be focusing on the voting challenges they can affect, as opposed to the one they can't?

jobsanger wonders if the media is being played by Trump's Tweetstorms.

The Lewisville Texan Journal was on the scene in McKinney, as Ted Cruz talked veterans' support but avoided questions about Trumpcare.

Texas Leftist took note of Houston mayor Sylvester Turner's abandonment of one of his core issues: removing the city's revenue cap.

Texas Vox decries Greg Abbott's rejection of clean air for Austin.

Neil at All People Have Value posted that freedom-loving Texans showed up at the office of wicked-doing Senator John Cornyn even on the Fourth of July. You can't take a holiday from the work freedom. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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More left-of-Texas news and blog posts!

The Austin American Statesman previews the legal challenge to the state's Congressional and statehouse maps, drawn by the GOP, as they go on trial in federal court this morning.

"Don't miss with Texas Pets" is the message sent in the law signed by Governor Abbott criminalizing the abuse of animals in the state, in a roundup of North Texas news posted at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex.

Rivard Report has an early advance on the coming special legislative session.

Grits for Breakfast muses on the future of non-profit journalism.

RG Ratcliffe at Burkablog writes about the TXGOP's long winning streak and how it has created an entirely different set of problems than the more obvious ones posed to Texas Democrats.

The San Antonio Current reported on the state Commission on Environmental Quality's seeming ignorance of 97% of all polluting violations by oil and gas industry.  And Mark Collette at the Houston Chronicle explains how industry gets away with it.

Better Texas Blog runs the numbers on how Trumpcare would screw our state, Bonddad has a thought on Trump voters and the peasant mentality, and Therese Odell takes another dive into the Trump Twitter cesspool.

Saadia Faruqi explains why she wears a hijab.

And CultureMap Houston suggests four Hill Country places to get your grub on after you've floated the Guadalupe or the Comal.