Sunday, January 21, 2018
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Scattershooting shitholes
-- A Houston man fell into a sewer last October when a manhole cover near US 59 was left uncovered. He shattered his ankle, went undiscovered for nine days, ate bugs and snakes to survive ... and the hell he's living hasn't ended yet.
There's a Trump joke in there somewhere, but I don't want to look for it.
-- "Shithole countries" is essentially the official Republican party line on immigration now. Everybody but them already knew that it always has been; they've just been forced to be out about it because Trump, you know, 'speaks his mind'.
Yeah, conservatives are bigots. Whoodathunk?
-- Regarding #TX07 developments: Stace confirms for me that I've got the right candidates in mind for my next Congress person. From the debate last week, and their positions on the government shutdown over immigration obstinance by the GOP...
I'll keep them ranked Moser and Westin in a first place tie, followed by Sanchez and Butler neck and neck for third. The rest, for me, are out of the running for my March 6 vote.
-- Read this insightful analysis of the Fifth Circuit's new judges, Don Willett and James Ho, the remaining vacancies on the appellate bench and the federal district courts within the circuit, and the possible appointees from David Lat at Above the Law. Warning: it's heavier on the conservative cheerleading than you may be able to tolerate. Know your enemies. Excerpt:
Oldham's star is rising fast in Republican judiciary circles.
2018 needs to derail this train.
“I have nightmares,” Courtney told Free Press Houston in an interview this week about the personal injury lawsuit he’s planning. “I get close to any kind of hole and I start freaking out. I have panic attacks. Since October I haven’t even sat on the toilet once to take a shit. I do it in the shower. I don’t even want to touch my own ass any more. I don’t want to touch shit anymore; I was down in a shit hole.”
There's a Trump joke in there somewhere, but I don't want to look for it.
-- "Shithole countries" is essentially the official Republican party line on immigration now. Everybody but them already knew that it always has been; they've just been forced to be out about it because Trump, you know, 'speaks his mind'.
If you’re arguing against race-conscious, pro-minority hiring or college admissions in the United States today, your main rhetorical weapons are quotas, set-asides, and merit. Your goal, politically, is to be perceived as advocating nondiscrimination. Your pitch is that we should treat people as individuals, not as members of racial or ethnic groups. The worst thing you can say is that, behind all the talk about quotas, set-asides, and merit, what you’re really interested in is helping white people.
Trump made the mistake of saying that part out loud in the Oval Office on Jan. 11. Republicans have spent years transplanting the careful language of quotas, set-asides, and merit to immigration. They said their goal was to get more productive immigrants, not whiter ones. In a flash, Trump blew up all of that. He blurted out an ethnic calculus behind the rhetoric. And his party is still trying to clean up the damage by obfuscating what he said and twisting his words to conform to the party’s race-neutral rhetoric.
[...]
That’s why Trump’s allies are ... recasting his outburst in the familiar tactical language of the affirmative action debate. The Democratic approach to immigration, (Sen. Tom) Cotton told (CBS News' John) Dickerson, is “to create more quotas, more set-asides for other countries.” (DHS Secretary Kirstjen) Nielsen, when asked what Trump had said in the Jan. 12 meeting about immigration from Africa, offered the same spin: “What I heard him saying was that he’d like to move away from a country-based quota system to a merit-based system.” Trump’s concern isn’t really about Africa or Europe, the argument goes. It’s about fairness.
There are two problems with this argument. One is that the immigration system isn’t unfair to Europeans. Every month, the Diversity Visa Lottery allocates more visas to Europeans, on a per capita basis, than to Africans. When you factor in the discrepancy in applications—Africans are more likely to apply than Europeans—a European applicant is much more likely to get in. More broadly, among the entire population of foreign-born U.S. residents, those accepted from sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to have or obtain some college education, and almost as likely to have or obtain a four-year degree, as those accepted from Europe or Canada. Immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are substantially more likely to participate in the U.S. labor force than immigrants from Europe or native-born Americans—perhaps in part because, on average, they’re younger.
The second problem is that behind the rhetoric of merit, there’s a cesspool of prejudice. What irks many whites about immigration and affirmative action isn’t quotas or set-asides, which were widely accepted when they favored whites. It’s suspicion that quotas and set-asides now favor nonwhites. That’s what Trump expressed last summer, when he complained in an Oval Office meeting that Haitians coming to the United States “all have AIDS” and that people coming from Nigeria would never “go back to their huts.” Last week, he exposed it again. The hole full of filth isn’t in Africa or Haiti. It’s in the president’s head. And his friends are trying to cover it up.
Yeah, conservatives are bigots. Whoodathunk?
-- Regarding #TX07 developments: Stace confirms for me that I've got the right candidates in mind for my next Congress person. From the debate last week, and their positions on the government shutdown over immigration obstinance by the GOP...
- Fletcher: Work across the aisle, no shut down. (Because that has worked so well, huh?)
- Alex T – No Shutdown, we need reform. (Y los DREAMers, que?)
- Laura Moser: Yes! Fight! (I liked her ánimo)
- Sanchez: Yes on shutdown. (Good)
- Joshua: Tough decision because of gov’t employees affected, but yes! (Good way to preface it)
- Cargas: No Shutdown, “we are better than Republicans” (The fight makes you better than Republicans)
- Westin: Yes. (Good)
I'll keep them ranked Moser and Westin in a first place tie, followed by Sanchez and Butler neck and neck for third. The rest, for me, are out of the running for my March 6 vote.
-- Read this insightful analysis of the Fifth Circuit's new judges, Don Willett and James Ho, the remaining vacancies on the appellate bench and the federal district courts within the circuit, and the possible appointees from David Lat at Above the Law. Warning: it's heavier on the conservative cheerleading than you may be able to tolerate. Know your enemies. Excerpt:
Even after the Ho and Willett confirmations, there are still three current and future vacancies on the Fifth Circuit: the seats of Judges Edith Brown Clement (Louisiana), W. Eugene Davis (Louisiana), and E. Grady Jolly (Mississippi). For Davis’s seat, the nominee is Kyle Duncan, and for Clement’s seat, the nominee is Chief Judge Kurt Engelhardt. I predict that both Duncan and Engelhardt, deemed “well qualified” by the ABA, will be confirmed.
Kyle Duncan, currently in private practice at his own firm, previously served as general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and as Louisiana’s first solicitor general. His work on such controversial matters as Hobby Lobby and Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. (aka the Gavin Grimm case) made him friends among conservatives, who strongly support his nomination, and enemies among liberals, who strongly oppose it. But Duncan got voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line vote, and I expect him to win confirmation along similar lines. (His most serious obstacle was actually his home-state senator, John Kennedy — a Republican, but miffed over how little the White House consulted with him — but Senator Kennedy came around after Duncan’s hearing, pretty much ensuring eventual confirmation.)
Chief Judge Kurt Engelhardt should be an even easier sell. He has ample judicial experience — a judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana since 2001, chief judge since 2015 — and he did well at his hearing. As Carl Tobias, University of Richmond law professor and longtime analyst of the judiciary, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, “I thought that the judge did well in answering a number of difficult questions, especially from Democrats.” There’s no reason for any Republicans to defect from supporting his nomination, either in committee or on the Senate floor.
That count of three current and future vacancies on the Fifth Circuit, based on the tallies on the U.S. Courts website, does not include the Texas-based seat of Judge Edward Prado, since that’s still subject to his confirmation as ambassador to Argentina. But I predict that the moderate and well-regarded jurist will be confirmed to the post (despite his lack of diplomatic experience; many ambassadorships go to non-career diplomats, often friends or fundraisers of the president, and Judge Prado has great credentials when measured against the typical non-career diplomat). If that happens, look for his seat to be filled by one of the two runners-up in the Texas Fifth Circuit sweepstakes, Judge Reed O’Connor (N.D. Tex.) or Andy Oldham, recently promoted to serve as general counsel to Governor Greg Abbott.
Oldham's star is rising fast in Republican judiciary circles.
(There was a little game of musical chairs down in Texas: Governor Abbott’s former GC, Jimmy Blacklock, got appointed to Judge Willett’s former seat on the Texas Supreme Court, making way for Oldham to take over as general counsel. This is a modified version of a game plan I suggested last May during the Fifth Circuit deadlock: appoint Willett ahead of Oldham, despite Oldham’s similarly superb credentials, because that would allow Oldham — still quite young by judicial-nominee standards, as a 2005 Harvard Law School graduate — to take Willett’s SCOTX seat and get more experience.)
2018 needs to derail this train.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Texas Seventh developments
(This is part three of the Resistance versus the Revolution. Part one, about the candidates for governor, is here. Part two, regarding the US Senate candidates, is here.)
I had hoped to get this posted earlier, but today's "wintry mix" day in Southeast Texas enables me to catch up with last night's CD-7 candidate forum in Bellaire (video from last night is here). As blogged previously, my top two in this race -- neither, to be clear, fully meets my definition of 'progressive' -- are Jason Westin and Laura Moser. At the 1:12:53 mark on the video, a viewer indicates that a Moser supporter in the audience made a remark that some in the comments at that link are inferring to be racist. I am unable to hear the audio, so listen for yourself and tell me what you think in my comment section here.
Update: upon clarification, the comment isn't on the videotape but on the Facebook page itself, but it still is not visible to me for whatever reason. I am told that it has something to do with Ivan Sanchez and ESL classes, so yes, that would indeed be entirely out of line.
My deafness also makes Kuffner's interviews with the candidates last week useless to me, unfortunately, so if someone wants to give those an ear and give me their opinion that's not of the cheerleading variety, feel free. I would be particularly interested in stances on single payer, the environment, and anything else that might meet the definition of progressive (or not, for that matter).
As I have repeatedly blogged, James Cargas has indicated in his past three defeats to John Culberson that he supports fracking. And unless he's moved recently, he still lives outside of District 7. So with everything else I have discovered to be odious about him aside, he's not worth anybody's vote, much less mine. Some Democrats being the dumbest of asses, he appears to be holding a base of support.
Joshua Butler and Ivan Sanchez are engaging young men with a few progressive bonafides. As the only two people of color in the contest, they should get a good share of the primary vote. Good on him if one emerges to square off against Cargas; my vote will be easy.
Also as I have written, by process of elimination I've excluded Alex T and Lizzie Pannill Fletcher for raising metric shit-tons of money, early and often. These simply aren't the kind of Democrats that will show up, if elected, as supporting people who need Medicaid, much less Medicare for All, and their vague platforms indicate to me they won't be advocates of anything approaching universal single payer. With the Texas Medical Center bordering the district and so many physicians as potential constituents, it's a certainty that caucus has weighed in with their checkbooks on T's and Pannill Fletcher's campaigns.
The same likely holds true of Westin and Moser, but at least their language suggests they're more amenable to healthcare reform that favors people over profits (Westin certainly).
I'll get to find out more about how they stand on the environment at the end of this month.
This forum should have invited Sema Hernandez to participate, but word comes to me that they have declined to do so (one of the sponsors is giving "Bob" an award).
The statewide candidates scheduled to appear in Houston tonight as part of the county party's Johnson-Rayburn-Richards dinner kickoff has been postponed.
From l to r: Westin, Pannill Fletcher, Triantaphyllis, Moser, Sanchez, Butler, Cargas.
I had hoped to get this posted earlier, but today's "wintry mix" day in Southeast Texas enables me to catch up with last night's CD-7 candidate forum in Bellaire (video from last night is here). As blogged previously, my top two in this race -- neither, to be clear, fully meets my definition of 'progressive' -- are Jason Westin and Laura Moser. At the 1:12:53 mark on the video, a viewer indicates that a Moser supporter in the audience made a remark that some in the comments at that link are inferring to be racist. I am unable to hear the audio, so listen for yourself and tell me what you think in my comment section here.
Update: upon clarification, the comment isn't on the videotape but on the Facebook page itself, but it still is not visible to me for whatever reason. I am told that it has something to do with Ivan Sanchez and ESL classes, so yes, that would indeed be entirely out of line.
My deafness also makes Kuffner's interviews with the candidates last week useless to me, unfortunately, so if someone wants to give those an ear and give me their opinion that's not of the cheerleading variety, feel free. I would be particularly interested in stances on single payer, the environment, and anything else that might meet the definition of progressive (or not, for that matter).
As I have repeatedly blogged, James Cargas has indicated in his past three defeats to John Culberson that he supports fracking. And unless he's moved recently, he still lives outside of District 7. So with everything else I have discovered to be odious about him aside, he's not worth anybody's vote, much less mine. Some Democrats being the dumbest of asses, he appears to be holding a base of support.
Joshua Butler and Ivan Sanchez are engaging young men with a few progressive bonafides. As the only two people of color in the contest, they should get a good share of the primary vote. Good on him if one emerges to square off against Cargas; my vote will be easy.
Also as I have written, by process of elimination I've excluded Alex T and Lizzie Pannill Fletcher for raising metric shit-tons of money, early and often. These simply aren't the kind of Democrats that will show up, if elected, as supporting people who need Medicaid, much less Medicare for All, and their vague platforms indicate to me they won't be advocates of anything approaching universal single payer. With the Texas Medical Center bordering the district and so many physicians as potential constituents, it's a certainty that caucus has weighed in with their checkbooks on T's and Pannill Fletcher's campaigns.
The same likely holds true of Westin and Moser, but at least their language suggests they're more amenable to healthcare reform that favors people over profits (Westin certainly).
I'll get to find out more about how they stand on the environment at the end of this month.
This forum should have invited Sema Hernandez to participate, but word comes to me that they have declined to do so (one of the sponsors is giving "Bob" an award).
Please join us at the Houston Climate Forum 2018 with Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Texas' 7th District Congressional candidates: Joshua Butler, James Cargas, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, Laura Moser, Ivan Sanchez, Alex Triantaphyllis, and Jason Westin, M.D.
Saturday, January 27, 2018 -12:30pm-4pm
West University Elementary School, 3756 University Blvd. Houston, 77005. Parking available around school and neighborhood. Front doors to the school will be locked, as entrance to the forum will be in the back, via Edloe/Goode St.
Learn Congressional candidate positions related to climate, energy, and environmental issues and solutions, nationally and locally, in an open forum. Bring your questions!
Your hosts: 350.org-Houston, Pantsuit Republic-Houston Climate and Environmental Racism Committee (CERC), Indivisible TX7-Houston, and Texans For Climate Change Action, will facilitate the open forum. The forum will be moderated by Daniel Cohan, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at Rice University.
Tickets are free but limited; register here.
The statewide candidates scheduled to appear in Houston tonight as part of the county party's Johnson-Rayburn-Richards dinner kickoff has been postponed.
Monday, January 15, 2018
The MLK Day Wrangle
With this week's lefty blog blog post and news round-up, the Texas Progressive Alliance celebrates the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Downwinders at Risk chronicles the holiday in the aftermath of the cancellation of the Arlington MLK Day parade (the one Greg Abbott was supposed to be the grand marshal of).
Neil at All People Have Value blogged about the Houston Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed slate for 2018. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.
PoliTex reminds Texans that we are first in the nation with our primary elections, and that the deadline to register to vote in them is two weeks from today.
Socratic Gadfly is still waiting for Lupe Valdez to take a political stance. And in a sidebar, he had snarky pieces about Trump's alleged payoff to Stormy Daniels and what's new on Gorilla Channel viewing, both run with Ken Silverstein's Washington Babylon.
Michael Li outlines the Texas redistricting case SCOTUS has agreed to hear.
Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher reluctantly climbs down into the shithole.
Grits for Breakfast points out a problem with life-without-parole sentences.
Off the Kuff takes a shot at predicting which female candidates for Congress in Texas have the best chance at getting elected, and Lion Star has video of some of the CD-16 candidates (he seems to like Norma Chavez).
Even as larger communities like Houston have welcomed the New Year and largely turned the page on Hurricane Harvey, this is not the case for many other Texas cities and towns. As Texas Leftist shares, Harvey is very much a 2018 reality for coastal towns like Rockport.
In his latest "water is wet" post, jobsanger bar-graphs a poll that show race relations in the US are still a problem.
Jim Schutze at the Dallas Observer notices that life has gone on in Dallas even after tearing down the statue of Robert E. Lee.
Texas Standard's regular aggregation of state news includes the story at the Statesman that justices of both the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals heard in a symposium from experts on how to better serve defendants with mental health issues.
Leah Binkovitz at the Urban Edge ponders the Houston region's transit future.
Sarah Martinez at the San Antonio Current documents the brief but impactful life of the #DentonTrumpster, and Leif Reigstad at Texas Monthly profiles some Texans, well known and lesser known, that we lost last year.
Somervell County Salon laments the pending reuse of sodium nitrite to control the feral hog population.
DBC Green blog has his mind blown by a conservative host on RT.
Better Texas Blog plans to face 2018 with a fierce sense of optimism about what can be accomplished.
Harry Hamid approaches Ludditia.
And Millard Fillmore's Bathtub reminds you to fly your flag today.
Downwinders at Risk chronicles the holiday in the aftermath of the cancellation of the Arlington MLK Day parade (the one Greg Abbott was supposed to be the grand marshal of).
Neil at All People Have Value blogged about the Houston Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed slate for 2018. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.
PoliTex reminds Texans that we are first in the nation with our primary elections, and that the deadline to register to vote in them is two weeks from today.
Socratic Gadfly is still waiting for Lupe Valdez to take a political stance. And in a sidebar, he had snarky pieces about Trump's alleged payoff to Stormy Daniels and what's new on Gorilla Channel viewing, both run with Ken Silverstein's Washington Babylon.
Michael Li outlines the Texas redistricting case SCOTUS has agreed to hear.
Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher reluctantly climbs down into the shithole.
Grits for Breakfast points out a problem with life-without-parole sentences.
Off the Kuff takes a shot at predicting which female candidates for Congress in Texas have the best chance at getting elected, and Lion Star has video of some of the CD-16 candidates (he seems to like Norma Chavez).
Even as larger communities like Houston have welcomed the New Year and largely turned the page on Hurricane Harvey, this is not the case for many other Texas cities and towns. As Texas Leftist shares, Harvey is very much a 2018 reality for coastal towns like Rockport.
In his latest "water is wet" post, jobsanger bar-graphs a poll that show race relations in the US are still a problem.
Jim Schutze at the Dallas Observer notices that life has gone on in Dallas even after tearing down the statue of Robert E. Lee.
Texas Standard's regular aggregation of state news includes the story at the Statesman that justices of both the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals heard in a symposium from experts on how to better serve defendants with mental health issues.
Leah Binkovitz at the Urban Edge ponders the Houston region's transit future.
Sarah Martinez at the San Antonio Current documents the brief but impactful life of the #DentonTrumpster, and Leif Reigstad at Texas Monthly profiles some Texans, well known and lesser known, that we lost last year.
Somervell County Salon laments the pending reuse of sodium nitrite to control the feral hog population.
DBC Green blog has his mind blown by a conservative host on RT.
Better Texas Blog plans to face 2018 with a fierce sense of optimism about what can be accomplished.
Harry Hamid approaches Ludditia.
And Millard Fillmore's Bathtub reminds you to fly your flag today.
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Sema versus Beto
(Part two of The Revolution as opposed to The Resistance. Part one is here.)
Once more we find a corporate media blackout on the most progressive candidate in a statewide contest. To paraphrase Sarah Silverman: frankly, it's ridiculous.
Sema Hernandez is told she is the first Texas Latina ever to qualify for the ballot for US Senate. She has an enthusiastic Twitter following that was instrumental in raising the funding necessary to get her on the ticket. Her story is powerful. And yet ... if all you did was watch teevee or read the newspapers, you might believe that there was just one person standing up to challenge Lyin' Ted Cruz in November. (There are three, but the third one is a ghost. Only this site has the slightest bio of him, an 'ex-pressroom manager'.)
Exhuming the lede: the more I have researched Bob O'Rourke, the less likely I am to be voting for him. Today I'm including the general election in that assessment. There's much time and many opportunities for improvement on his part should he emerge as the nominee, and lots of unexpected things can happen. But if November 6, 2018, was tomorrow, and the options were Cruz, O'Rourke, and a bunch of nobodies on the extreme right ... I would undervote the US Senate race here in our beloved Texas, and here is why.
-- There is no Green candidate running, or attempting to qualify to run, by all indications.
-- The gaggle of Libertarians dueling for that party's nomination are, to be kind, completely insufficient candidates, and the independents declared with even so much as the slightest profile -- Dale Bible of the Constitution Party, Bob McNeil of the American Citizens Party -- are far to the right of the GOP and the Libs. This research was comedic relief: finding Texans who think Cruz is too liberal helped clear my lungs of a small bucket of phlegm, screaming and coughing in laughter.
-- It shouldn't have to be mentioned, but Cruz or any of the four Republicans who might upset him in their primary are non-starters. I only wonder if disgraced prince of darkness Steve Bannon's support of Cruz helps or hurts the incumbent at some point. Texans Republicans are both forgiving of all sins and massively hypocritical when they can manage to acknowledge them, so there's probably nothing for the lazy corporate media to find even if they looked. If televangelist Bruce Jacobson is to gain any traction, he would be wise to go after Cruz's porn Tweets, the Bannon free pass, and anything else that can leverage Trump's MAGATs against the senator. It's quite possible that Cruz has to go to a runoff, and that helps the Democrats. So does so many freak right-wing others in the general.
So then ... can Sema run strong enough in south Texas, among other places, to push O'Rourke into a runoff? If Edward Kimbrough, whatever and whoever he is, can collect some vote share above 1 or 2%, then the chances increase. That's her best bet today.
So why can't you vote for "Beto" again, PD?
For starters, he comes from a excessively privileged background, and it's been my experience that people like him don't have a lot of genuine empathy for the less-than-fortunate. His parents were well-off and well-connected; he attended an all-male boarding school, went to Columbia University (was on the rowing team), drifted somewhat aimlessly and in bohemian fashion for several years after graduation. He would rather you think of him as the punk rocker who got busted twice in the '90's, once on a forcible entry charge at UT and also for DWI. Both charges were dismissed -- lucky him -- but he apparently earns 'street cred' from the repeated mentions of his criminal record.
What he really doesn't want you to know is that he has a long reputation as a phony. This excerpt from Texas Monthly has details about his El Paso real estate fronting for his father-in-law.
Watch this video of the Segundo Barrio residents and activists confronting O'Rourke about the project. Read this extensively researched blog post from 2012 at Deep Inside El Paso regarding the pattern of displacement of minority communities for 'economic revitalization' demonstrated by real estate developer and O'Rourke's FIL, Sanders. Note that as an El Paso city council member. O'Rourke recused himself from many votes on real estate projects in the city ... but not Segundo Barrio. Even when former mayor John Cook suggested that he do so.
And if you like your snark wicked, read this send-up of 'Beto 4.0'. Excerpt:
Learning all this gave me a greater understanding for the Congressman's duplicity -- there's no other word for it -- on single payer. He declares that healthcare is a human right, but it's a right he expects everybody to have to pay for, and that hospitals have a right to profit off of.
That's the equivalent of favoring a poll tax for the right to vote. Which is bullshit, Bob.
The prevaricating doesn't end there; PolitiFact caught him in a half-truth regarding his piousness about "not taking PAC money". It's long, and complicated by the usual hurdles in tracing political contributions, so here's the nut graf.
I think "half-true" was generous.
In the past week, one thing O'Rourke did that he had to quickly backtrack on was his call for a mandatory national service program for millennials. Because, as blogged above, he did so much in his own youth to serve his country.
Stace and Wayne were both quick to make excuses for him.
All this is forcing me to take a hard pass on Bob. By sharp contrast, Sema is from the Democratic Socialist wing of the Democratic Party, she's for Medicare for All without conditions, also tuition-free college, the good kind of comprehensive immigration reform (she's the daughter of immigrants), a $15 minimum wage transitioning to a universal basic income, and a whole lot more that I find genuine and direct, not to mention meeting the definition of 'real progressive'.
Please don't give me any crap about pragmatism over purity. I am so worn out by logic represented by "if everybody who voted for Jill Stein would have voted for Hillary Clinton, Hillary would have won" that my stock response turns that inside out: if everybody who voted for Hillary would have voted for Jill Stein instead, Trump wouldn't be president. And we'd all be even better off than that.
So you vote your principles in the primary and I'll vote mine. Don't expect me to vote for your neoliberal shitholes in November if you wouldn't vote for a Democratic Socialist now, or then. There's gonna be a Revolution inside the Democratic Party sooner than later; I'm voting for now.
If you're in the Houston area, you can meet Sema next Friday. The following day is the 2018 Women's March in Houston (last year more than 20,000 participated) and Sema will host a meet-and greet prior to it. She'll also have a community town hall at U of H on February 7. If you're elsewhere in Texas, she's raising funds for a state tour right now.
She is as solid as a progressive populist can be.
Once more we find a corporate media blackout on the most progressive candidate in a statewide contest. To paraphrase Sarah Silverman: frankly, it's ridiculous.
Exhuming the lede: the more I have researched Bob O'Rourke, the less likely I am to be voting for him. Today I'm including the general election in that assessment. There's much time and many opportunities for improvement on his part should he emerge as the nominee, and lots of unexpected things can happen. But if November 6, 2018, was tomorrow, and the options were Cruz, O'Rourke, and a bunch of nobodies on the extreme right ... I would undervote the US Senate race here in our beloved Texas, and here is why.
-- There is no Green candidate running, or attempting to qualify to run, by all indications.
-- The gaggle of Libertarians dueling for that party's nomination are, to be kind, completely insufficient candidates, and the independents declared with even so much as the slightest profile -- Dale Bible of the Constitution Party, Bob McNeil of the American Citizens Party -- are far to the right of the GOP and the Libs. This research was comedic relief: finding Texans who think Cruz is too liberal helped clear my lungs of a small bucket of phlegm, screaming and coughing in laughter.
-- It shouldn't have to be mentioned, but Cruz or any of the four Republicans who might upset him in their primary are non-starters. I only wonder if disgraced prince of darkness Steve Bannon's support of Cruz helps or hurts the incumbent at some point. Texans Republicans are both forgiving of all sins and massively hypocritical when they can manage to acknowledge them, so there's probably nothing for the lazy corporate media to find even if they looked. If televangelist Bruce Jacobson is to gain any traction, he would be wise to go after Cruz's porn Tweets, the Bannon free pass, and anything else that can leverage Trump's MAGATs against the senator. It's quite possible that Cruz has to go to a runoff, and that helps the Democrats. So does so many freak right-wing others in the general.
So then ... can Sema run strong enough in south Texas, among other places, to push O'Rourke into a runoff? If Edward Kimbrough, whatever and whoever he is, can collect some vote share above 1 or 2%, then the chances increase. That's her best bet today.
So why can't you vote for "Beto" again, PD?
For starters, he comes from a excessively privileged background, and it's been my experience that people like him don't have a lot of genuine empathy for the less-than-fortunate. His parents were well-off and well-connected; he attended an all-male boarding school, went to Columbia University (was on the rowing team), drifted somewhat aimlessly and in bohemian fashion for several years after graduation. He would rather you think of him as the punk rocker who got busted twice in the '90's, once on a forcible entry charge at UT and also for DWI. Both charges were dismissed -- lucky him -- but he apparently earns 'street cred' from the repeated mentions of his criminal record.
What he really doesn't want you to know is that he has a long reputation as a phony. This excerpt from Texas Monthly has details about his El Paso real estate fronting for his father-in-law.
In 2006, (city councilman O'Rourke's group of politicos cynically named the Progressives) championed a public-private redevelopment that would welcome a sports arena, hotels, big-box retailers, and an arts walk to downtown and southside El Paso. O’Rourke saw the plan as a way to “bring life and energy and vitality” to an area of the city that had long been characterized by abandoned buildings and shuttered stores. But entrenched property owners believed the plans represented an existential threat to their businesses; Chicano activists saw an aggressive gentrification that would “de-Mexicanize” the historic Segundo Barrio neighborhood, some of which was slated to be razed and rebuilt; and soon both groups mounted an offensive against the council members, accusing them of doing the bidding of a cabal of billionaire developers. O’Rourke responded by attending forums hosted by the business owners and walking door-to-door in the Segundo Barrio neighborhood to hear residents’ concerns—he found that most of them supported some kind of redevelopment—but the battle lines had already been drawn, and his opponents saw his listening tour as a cynical act.
“He was the young Kennedy progressive going to slums, offering a better perspective,” David Romo, a historian and activist who fought against the plan, told me. “That was the narrative that he was very good at promoting, but it was all false, it was all a mask. He made himself the absolute good guy and everyone who was fighting against displacement was the bad guy.”
That May, another El Paso activist initiated a recall campaign against O’Rourke. When the recall fizzled, the downtown property owners filed two ethics complaints against him, citing conflicts of interest because his father-in-law, prominent real estate investor William Sanders, was one of the key businessmen behind the plan. After an independent ethics-review commission dismissed the charges against him, O’Rourke denounced what he saw as a coordinated campaign of “character assassination and political intimidation.”
To this day, the fight produces strong reactions. Romo refuses to call O’Rourke Beto, because he sees the name as an act of cultural appropriation by “someone who betrayed our trust.”
Watch this video of the Segundo Barrio residents and activists confronting O'Rourke about the project. Read this extensively researched blog post from 2012 at Deep Inside El Paso regarding the pattern of displacement of minority communities for 'economic revitalization' demonstrated by real estate developer and O'Rourke's FIL, Sanders. Note that as an El Paso city council member. O'Rourke recused himself from many votes on real estate projects in the city ... but not Segundo Barrio. Even when former mayor John Cook suggested that he do so.
And if you like your snark wicked, read this send-up of 'Beto 4.0'. Excerpt:
“This is pretty alarming,” says CNET analyst Amado D. Kompuradoras. “The Betobot has had a series of problems since its initial outing as Robert O'Rourke.1.0. At that time, that version was sufficiently Republican until you got the BetoBot released in Version 3.0, name change and all, now a Democrat.”
Learning all this gave me a greater understanding for the Congressman's duplicity -- there's no other word for it -- on single payer. He declares that healthcare is a human right, but it's a right he expects everybody to have to pay for, and that hospitals have a right to profit off of.
O’Rourke supports universal coverage and sees a single-payer approach as the “only clear path” to get there. He’s not signed on to the House bill (HR 676, 'Medicare For All', the Conyers bill), even though he likes its goal, because he disagrees with the requirement that providers be public institutions or nonprofits. “If you like the way Medicare works today, I don’t know why you wouldn’t use the same model in what is being called a Medicare for All bill. Instead, Conyer’s bill changes that model fundamentally, takes a big chunk of potential providers out of the mix and starts out with some entrenched opposition,” O’Rourke told the Observer. “I think we can do better.”
O’Rourke likes what he’s read of Sanders’ bill, but disagrees with having no copays for anyone and no premiums for low-income families — he’d prefer everyone pay in to some extent.
That's the equivalent of favoring a poll tax for the right to vote. Which is bullshit, Bob.
The prevaricating doesn't end there; PolitiFact caught him in a half-truth regarding his piousness about "not taking PAC money". It's long, and complicated by the usual hurdles in tracing political contributions, so here's the nut graf.
O’Rourke said: "I’m one of two members of Congress out of 535 that takes no corporate cash, no political action committee money."
Unsaid: no candidate can take corporate cash; that’s illegal. Otherwise, we found, O’Rourke was one of at least five (not two) House incumbents to keep no PAC contributions in the run-up to the 2016 elections. He also hasn’t accepted PAC aid into 2017 though he drew on about $297,000 in PAC donations in his House bids of 2012 and 2014 -- actions not recapped in his Dallas call for contributions.
I think "half-true" was generous.
In the past week, one thing O'Rourke did that he had to quickly backtrack on was his call for a mandatory national service program for millennials. Because, as blogged above, he did so much in his own youth to serve his country.
Stace and Wayne were both quick to make excuses for him.
All this is forcing me to take a hard pass on Bob. By sharp contrast, Sema is from the Democratic Socialist wing of the Democratic Party, she's for Medicare for All without conditions, also tuition-free college, the good kind of comprehensive immigration reform (she's the daughter of immigrants), a $15 minimum wage transitioning to a universal basic income, and a whole lot more that I find genuine and direct, not to mention meeting the definition of 'real progressive'.
Please don't give me any crap about pragmatism over purity. I am so worn out by logic represented by "if everybody who voted for Jill Stein would have voted for Hillary Clinton, Hillary would have won" that my stock response turns that inside out: if everybody who voted for Hillary would have voted for Jill Stein instead, Trump wouldn't be president. And we'd all be even better off than that.
So you vote your principles in the primary and I'll vote mine. Don't expect me to vote for your neoliberal shitholes in November if you wouldn't vote for a Democratic Socialist now, or then. There's gonna be a Revolution inside the Democratic Party sooner than later; I'm voting for now.
If you're in the Houston area, you can meet Sema next Friday. The following day is the 2018 Women's March in Houston (last year more than 20,000 participated) and Sema will host a meet-and greet prior to it. She'll also have a community town hall at U of H on February 7. If you're elsewhere in Texas, she's raising funds for a state tour right now.
She is as solid as a progressive populist can be.
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