The Weekly Wrangle

With this week's lefty blog post and news roundup, the Texas Progressive Alliance urges our government to attend to the much-needed care of our American brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico.

Off the Kuff documented the requirements for cities to receive state money from the Rainy Day Fund for Harvey recovery.

SocraticGadfly notes Ken Burns' Vietnam series is online, and, given its degree of faults and weaknesses, offers up a stark in-depth critique of Burns' entire oeuvre of work, capped by the current series.

The latest update on Russia -- including Paul Manafort and Facebook -- has been posted by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme is upset that GOP legislators will ask Texas drivers to pay for reducing the backlog of rape kits waiting for forensics testing.

Grits for Breakfast suggests that a public defender for criminal appeals cases would reduce waste, increas inefficiency, and protect the civil rights of those enmeshed in the so-called justice system.

jobsanger highlights Trump's racism and disdain for equality.

The Rivard Report announces changes at the top of that publication's editorial leadership.

Houston Matters quotes Dallas Congressman Jeb Hensarling as telling Harvey flood victims that "at some point, God is telling you to move".

Sophie Novack at the Texas Observer asked some Texas congressional Democrats where they stood on single-payer, and the responses were a little dodgy and disconcerting.

The AP, in the Waco Tribune Herald, reports that the EPA has removed several hundred containers of "potentially" hazardous material from toxic waste sites in Texas, but won't say where they came from, what the contaminants might be, or even whether there remains a danger to the public.

The Texas Living Waters Project sees trouble in the decline in wildlife in Texas' rivers.

Scott Braddock calls on Greg Abbott to take the opportunity to act like a leader post-Harvey.

Writing in Wonkette, Respectable Lawyer demonstrates how he got a stripper-beating Republican mega-donor to back off about the mugshots that Juanita Jean had posted.

Beyond Bones welcomes the start of autumn with a little science.

Houston buried Harvey's bad memories with a little help from its New Orleans music-making friends, and John Nova Lomax at Texas Monthly felt the bond between the two Gulf coastal cities grow even stronger as a result.

And Dos Centavos advances the details of two events in Houston: the 38th Annual Festival Chicano at Miller Outdoor Theatre weekend after next, and the retirement party/tour for Americans United president Barry Lynn in mid-October.

Sunday Afternoon Funnies (apologies to Elton John)

"Here is Nambia." / "The map is upside down."

Sunday Funnies

North Korea: Trump's UN speech amounted to 'the sound of a dog barking'

Your Russia update

1. Paul Manafort is in deep дерьмо (derrmo).

In the middle of Donald Trump's presidential run, then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort said he was willing to provide "private briefings" about the campaign to a Russian billionaire the U.S. government considers close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Manafort's offer was memorialized in an email exchange with a former employee of his political consulting firm in July 2016. It was first reported by The Washington Post, which said portions of Manafort's emails were read to reporters.

Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni confirmed to The Associated Press that the email exchanges were legitimate but said no briefings ever occurred. The email involved an offer for Oleg Deripaska, a wealthy Russian who made his money in the aluminum business.

I would say that with an indictment pending, his troubles are just beginning.  Let's hope this goes all the way to Trump himself, in a thread Bob Mueller is gradually and painstakingly unraveling ...

2.  ... because Facebook ads bought by the Russians don't count as collusion, and don't count as 'hacking the election', either.

Just days after last year’s election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told an audience that the suggestion that misinformation on his social network had any substantial effect on the outcome was “pretty crazy.” Now, imagine a disembodied Ron Howard narrator voice saying, “It wasn’t.” And then smash cut to … September 2017: Facebook is turning over evidence to federal investigators that Russian government–linked agencies bought Facebook advertisements with the intent of influencing the election. Today, it gets even weirder: The Daily Beast reports that a Russian-created, Trump-supporting Facebook group actually threw well-attended pro-Trump rallies in Florida.

As stories of Facebook being used by Russian agencies and trolls to influence the election trickle out, the general narrative — certainly Facebook’s narrative — has been that this is a misuse of Facebook, an abuse of its platform. In April, the company called the strategies used in last year’s election “insidious forms of misuse, including attempts to manipulate civic discourse and deceive people.”

Certainly, we can agree that it’s bad that hostile foreign powers are able to easily and cheaply sow discord and division among American voters. But it’s not at all clear to me that what Russia is doing is a “misuse” of Facebook. Isn’t this the company that explicitly markets its ability to influence and swing voters? Isn’t this the company whose decade-long mission has been to allow people on one side of the globe to communicate and influence people on the other side?

Didn’t Zuckerberg say last year, “We stand for connecting every person. For a global community. For bringing people together. For giving all people a voice. For free flow of ideas and culture across nations”? You don’t have to be particularly cynical to see how Russians sharing Trump memes falls under the “free flow of ideas across nations.” As Zuck put it: “We’ve gone from a world of isolated communities to one global community, and we are all better off for it.” Well, maybe we wouldn’t go that far.

The point is this: Facebook has always wanted, from a business and ideological perspective, to be a tool with which people can reach across the ocean and exert influence on one another. The problem is that 2016 is a case study in why mere connection is not enough to make something good. Cynically motivated Russian actors used Facebook to pose as grassroots Americans, and did so in support of an authoritarian reality-television star.

There are a lot of fresh questions raised here, particularly in that Daily Beast piece.  Before we can move on to them, we have to agree on something: if Americans were big enough fools to have their votes swayed -- or even have their existing biases confirmed -- by Facebook ads, then the blame for Hillary (now Rodham again) Clinton losing does not lie in any of the various places she has strewn it in her recent book.  It lies with the ignorance of the general electorate.

Not sure what Democrats can do to overcome that in 2018 and 2020, but I doubt that fighting the 2016 primary all over again is the answer.

3.  There are some lingering questions about Russia's actual influence on the election, and they may still be waiting to be unearthed.  Josh Marshall:

Over recent weeks we’ve learned much more about how Russian operatives used Facebook to support Donald Trump, attack Hillary Clinton and spread conspiracy theories pumped up the heat of the 2016 campaign. One big question has been: how effectively did they target those messages, given Facebook’s vast ability to target messages? And if they did target their messages to areas of particular Democratic weakness in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, how were they able to do that? Where did they get the data to drive the effort?


One possibility is obvious: Maybe the Trump campaign gave the Russians access to their data and voter files. To date, there’s at least no public evidence that this happened.

But maybe it didn’t have to.

Marshall refers back to this story of his, which I blogged about on June 2nd, and linked to him and the original in the WSJ (scroll down to "May 25").  You should finish reading Marshall's premise there; it's plausible and even ominous ... as long as you believe that the Russians hacked the DNC.

As mentioned here back in December, both Julian Assange and retired NSA and CIA analysts (not exactly the best of buddies, mind you) assert that the Clinton and DNC emails were leaked, not hacked.  The latter two, William Binney and Ray McGovern, show their computer forensics analysis work to prove it.  It's technical, but anyone with an understanding about computer data files and the speed with which they can be transferred will get it.  On that basis, the DNC, etc. had -- perhaps still has, but go on by yourself and follow the Seth Rich or Imran Awan conspiracy theories -- an IT security breach of epic proportions.

Manafort should be on his way to prison, Facebook should be severely penalized, financially and in perhaps other ways (and you might consider deactivating your account to make 'em pay yourself, especially if you spend time there arguing over politics) and Democrats need to find the ball and then keep their eye on it.  Trump's tax returns, collusion, emoluments, the 25th Amendment, some combo thereof ought to get it done.

All else is white noise.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance encourages continued support for Harvey (and Irma) relief efforts as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff reminds us that we have elections this November and they still need our attention.

As part of job hunting, Socratic Gadfly pays careful attention to some of the fluffery and hyperbolic language in employment ads and job descriptions and translates some for you, likely as part of an ongoing series.

The question "what happened" was not answered by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs, but rephrased as: 'WTF are Democrats going to do going forward?' (Hopefully not more infighting.)  He also had a good word to say about Houston mayor Sylvester Turner's efforts in managing the city's responses to Hurricane Harvey.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders: what's worse?  Denying food stamps to Harvey victims or refusing to register students to vote?

Turning 50 this week, Neil at All People Have Value offered a list of his favorite politicians in life.  It is not a long list.  APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

jobsanger serves some pie charts that reveal the US still has way too many racists.

Grits for Breakfast helps Just Liberty kick off their podcast, 'Reliably Suspicious', with a launch party in Austin on Wednesday.  Details are here.

Doyin Oyeniyi at Texas Monthly's Energy Department followed up on the largest Harvey-related oil spill, which occurred in Galena Park and went undiscovered for a couple of weeks.

Leah Binkovitz at Rice University's Urban Edge blog sees a nascent transformative moment for Houston's auto/carbon-centric culture: bicycles can  keep the Bayou City rolling.

Houston Justice is shockedIsayshocked to find gambling in this casino racism in the so-called progressive movement.

DBC Green Blog posts about Medicare For All, the enthusiasm it's generating among progressives irrespective of party affiliation ... and one careful warning.

And Dos Centavos wonders if Trump's deal on DACA with Democratic Party leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi is just another tease.  (If it is, Trump's base has swallowed the bait.)

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More lefty blog posts and news from across our beloved Deep-In-The-Hearta!

CPPP's Better Texas blog breaks down some of the US Census's latest poverty and income numbers relevant to the Lone Star State.

NBA and Spurs star Tim Duncan is in his native US Virgin Islands assisting with Hurricane Irma relief, reports the San Antonio Current.

Daniel Williams at Equality Texas highlights the continued need for local non-discrimination ordinances in Texas.

Melissa Law at Houstonia denounces the idea that Harvey was anything but a catastrophe that is still ongoing.

It's Not Hou It's Me shares her mucking experience.

Juanita Jean rounds up some of the lesser 9/11 memorials.

Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher has a few of the late-night reactions to the Ted Cruz Twitter porn-liking saga.

Michael Li explains what happens next in the redistricting case.

Mean Green Cougar Red examines Harvey-related survivor's guilt.

Dan Wallach at Freedom to Tinker goes into detail about the security properties that a voting system needs to have.

Space City Weather looks back at all of the Harvey-spawned tornadoes.

And Harry Hamid shares some forbidden text.

Sunday Funnies

Attendance sparse at the "Mother of All Rallies':

Matt Bors: "This but for single payer"

Dallas removes statue of Robert E. Lee from uptown park

WTF Happened and more scattershots

As previously referenced, this was Jiffy Pop chuckle-worthy last week.  This week it isn't.

Now that the SCOTUS has reinstated both Texas' voter ID laws and its gerrymandered Congressional and statehouse districts, prospects are bleaker for Democrats here than a flamingo in the Florida Keys.   And while the bandwagon for Bernie Sanders' Medicare For All is finally starting to fill up, there are way too many Donkeys that still aren't getting on board.  *That list needs updating; Tammy Baldwin and Al Franken and perhaps one or two more have lined up behind Bernie.

In contrast to the toon above, smart Dems are heading for the exits away from Her Book Tour, but I see too many standing in line to buy it, quoting passages from it, and otherwise driving the wedge in their party deeper.  This is such a fool's errand at this point that there's almost no use in continuing to point it out.  Jackasses are gonna bray, after all.

I red-lined many years ago on Hillary Clinton and her privileged, entitled bullshit.  The most unwoke person in the entire US of A.  If you must read a book about the 2016 election, start and stop with "Shattered", okay?  That tells the story that Democrats need to take heed of.  Or you can just read Matt Taibbi's take on it, which served my purpose.

This week's scapegoat is the press, and yes, there is plenty of evidence that the liberal media -- like Joe and Mika Scarborough, for one example -- was deep in the tank for Trump from the jump.  I can buy that premise because I watched it happen, just like you: CNN cut to every single campaign event of his every single day from January to November.  And his Tweets; Dear Jeebus.  No other candidate, Republican or Democrat, got nearly as much free media.

But blaming teevee coverage for her defeat is akin to criticizing the refs for a bad call when your team loses.  Your team is not supposed to make the game close enough to be decided by an official's error, and there are no replay challenges.  We also should be well past the point of believing that our corporate media is either unbiased or interested in anything except ratings and clicks.  The press is many years and mergers away from being an honest umpire; they're not calling balls and strikes any more than John Roberts is.  Les Moonves reminded us in February of 2016, you know.

"It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS," Moonves said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco, according to The Hollywood Reporter — perfectly distilling what media critics have long suspected was motivating the round-the-clock coverage of Trump's presidential bid.

"Most of the ads are not about issues. They're sort of like the debates," Moonves said, noting, "[t]here's a lot of money in the marketplace."

The 2016 campaign is a "circus," he remarked, but "Donald's place in this election is a good thing."

"Man, who would have expected the ride we're all having right now? ... The money's rolling in and this is fun," Moonves went on. "I've never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”

So, as with the rest of the misplaced excuses for Her losing an election she should have won ... what can Democrats, Democratic candidates in 2018, and -- most importantly for some, people who get paid to consult and advise them -- actually do about it if in fact the media is stacked against them?

That is not a rhetorical question, by the way.  If you think the media got Trump elected, more so than Clinton's unforced errors, or James Comey's ill-timed decisions and announcements, or the Russians, or Bernie Sanders, or even FFS Jill Stein and the Green Party ... what precisely is within the Donkeys' power to fix that in 2018 and 2020?

I'll wait for your answer in the comments.

-- Sylvester Turner's past few weeks have enabled him a star turn; despite some ridiculous national second-guessing, his and Judge Emmett's decision to buck Governor "Houston Should Evacuate" was quickly and strongly defended by everybody local.  (We know better after Rita than to put six million people all at once on the freeways out of town.)  The mayor managed the crises wrought by Harvey quite well, to my eye; yes, there will be some lawsuits and lots of angry homeowners over aggravated flooding when water went over -- and was let through -- the seventy-year-old Addicks and Barker dams west of town, and the Red Cross bungled some shelter logistics and caught shit for it, including a red-faced rant from conservo-freak CM Dave Martin.

But a lot of these reactions are a bit theatrical (sorry, Alley) and the fault lies not (sorry, Mr. Shakespeare) with Mayor Turner exclusively; the county, the respective county agencies, etc., own it, though he'll catch a bit of heat from some uncareful thinkers and overly emotional victims.  Turner is feeling so strong of late that he is going to ask property owners to help pay for recovery, to the tune of an 8.9% tax hike for a year.  While I doubt he would make such a move if he were standing for re-election in two months, and it may still get turned down by the DINOs on city council joining Martin and the rest of the GOP, a tax increase is very much the right (and the left) thing to do.

So hats off to Sylvester Turner for showing up since Harvey came to town.  Keep it going forward, Mr. Mayor, and spare the wrath for the homeless and the first responders.  You'll need some extra to browbeat these conservatives into raising and spending money to rebuild this city.  Remind them that we can't just depend on the generosity of Les Alexander and JJ Watt and Kieu Hoang; the other Houston billionaires and multi-millionaires need to cough up some coin as well, along with all of the rest of us.  Not the evacuees at Joel Osteen's church, though.  Talk about clueless.

-- Ted Cruz likes voyeur porn, which makes complete sense in the context of having his lawyers argue ten years ago that Americans have no constitutional right to pleasure themselves.  The irony is as thick as a brick, but the hypocrisy is off the chain.

That's about all I have time to hit this morning.  More Russian crap is on the way (Facebook, I'm looking at YOU).