The Weekly Wrangle

With early voting commencing tomorrow in the country's first November 2108* primary election, the Texas Progressive Alliance's member blogs want you to have all the data you need to make the best decision you can at your polling place.

(*see comments for explanation)

Nancy Pelosi energized Harris County Democrats and Mike Pence revved up Dallas Republicans at each party's respective fundraisers ahead of the GOTV effort for the primaries.

The San Antonio Current offers the city's voters their primary guide.  And Grits for Breakfast is watching DA races in Bexar, Dallas, McLennan, and Smith counties.

The Lewisville Texan Journal covered the Democrats from Highland Village, Flower Mound and Lewisville who met the voters and discussed the issues Saturday at the Barn in Highland Village’s Double Tree Ranch.  The candidates discussed an array of topics, including gun control, the justice system, climate change, and funding.

Moderated by the party’s parliamentarian George Nassar, the event featured debates between 63rd state district candidates Richard Wolf and Laura Haines, 26th congressional district candidates Will Fisher and Linsey Fagan, county judge candidates Willie Hudspeth and Diana Leggett and county chair candidates Angie Cadena and Phyllis Wolper.

In the Texas Observer, Michael Barajas covered the social media storm of Texas public education supporters who "blew the whistle" on conservatives trying to engineer some Lone Star-styled voter suppression.  The highly motivated bloc of Democratic voters (teachers and administrators) who've been on the front lines of the Lege's War on Education for the past several sessions made a mockery of the effort. #BlowingTheWhistle

Juanita Jean at the World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon passes along a couple of primary recommendations.

DBC Green picked up on "Bob" O'Rourke's duplicity regarding his promise (videotaped and YouTubed) to debate his primary opponents.  At post time, that doesn't appear to be on his schedule.

Texas Rural Voices conducted an interview with D LG hopeful Mike Collier when he visited Caldwell recently.  The first of that four-parter focuses on education and property taxes.

Off the Kuff questions the assumption that Republicans have the advantage for November in Harris County.  And as with so many other hopeful Democrats, Ted at jobsanger wants to believe that Texas might really be turning blue this year.

SocraticGadfly has some First Amendment and other questions about the Mueller indictments.

Neil at All People Have Value said school shootings are an intended result of America's gun culture rather than an aberration.  And Brene Brown speaks truth to bullshit on gun reform.

Texas Leftist shares news about the brave students of Houston's Austin High School, who protested the ICE detention of an undocumented classmate just months shy of his graduation.  Is it truly the priority of our federal law enforcement to persecute high school students who have done nothing wrong? #FreeDennis

Texas Vox celebrates the closing of three coal-fired electricity plants in the state.

Paul Battaglio, Doug Goodman, and Meghna Sabharwal at the Houston Chronicle voice concerns about how nonprofits are handling sexual harassment allegations.

Jason Pittman and Anita Ledbetter at the Rivard Report explain how Trump's tariffs on solar panels will affect Texans.

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In lighter blogging fare ...

Jim Schutze at the Dallas Observer considers AG Ken Paxton as nothing less than an agent of Satan, and considers him representative of the RPT at large. 

The Lunch Tray highlights a class difference in how parents treat junk food for their kids.

Stace at Dos Centavos is still sad that RodeoHouston doesn't have any Tejano Music on GoTejano day.  But San Antonio is having one awesome music fest in March with the Tejano Music Awards Fan Fair Weekend.  Because without Tex-Mex culture, politics is pretty boring.

Millard Fillmore's Bathtub reposted Phillis Wheatley's inspiring poem about George Washington to note Presidents Day, and reminds you to fly your flag.

And Texas expat Elise Hu prepares for the Year of the Dog.

Sunday "Keepin' Bear" Funnies

Was your vote in November of 2016 influenced by Russian meddling?

Not even the Republicans I know would answer yes.  I heard comments from some the week before the election that indicated Trump's loss was fait accompli.  Does anyone remember hearing that?

As I recall there were very, very few people who were undecided about who to vote for a year before November 2016 (when all those GOP debates with 20 candidates, like Michele Bachmann and Carly Fiorina, were happening).

I saw essentially no ads on social media -- I have my adblocker aggressively deployed, and anyway, this was long before Facebook adjusted their algorithms to embed more of them in the side panel and in the timeline -- and the premise that anyone could influence political opinion, or have their own influenced, by Facebook posts or Tweets is something I just find laughable.  Especially given that it was Trump who emerged as the nominee, a notion most Republicans simply weren't accepting as late as spring of 2016.

The memes, bots, group pages, etc. developed and foisted on a gullible American populace by the 13 Russians and three orgs -- the ones indicted by Robert Mueller's team yesterday -- hardened political opinions.  They did not change them.  I believe the most influence they could have possibly had was on suppressing voter turnout with the various firehoses of negativity spewing all around.  But even that does not explain why black voters stayed home.

In sum: the Russians tried to influence the election.  They did not succeed.  Even the indictments themselves do not connect those dots.  The AP likened what the Russkies did to a burglar jiggling your doorknob.  In this analogy, the suspect gets arrested and charged with attempted burglary. But he didn't steal anything (fortunately).

Ask yourself this: if we are so concerned about the government spying on us online, wiretapping our phones, etc. then why didn't one of our vaunted federal law enforcement agencies intervene and stop the Russians?  Did they fall down on the job, as with the FBI not acting to stop the Parkland high school shooter?

You might recall a certain high volume of shit that George W. Bush deservedly collected for failing to respond appropriately to a presidential daily briefing entitled "Bin Laden determined to attack US" about five weeks before 9/11.

Yes, Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for election meddling ... in December of 2016.   If you accept the premise that the Russians hacked influenced the election in some significant way (but like Bigfoot, there's still no solid proof) ... wouldn't you also have to conclude that Obama's DOJ or FBI or CIA or someone in his administration should have moved faster to stop them?

Such as before November of 2016?

And if the Russians have been doing this stuff since 2014, then why weren't they arrested, charged, and indicted years ago?  Did our government look the other way because of not wanting to rock the boat diplomatically with Putin?   "Diplomatic immunity"?  (Say it in the voice of the South African from Lethal Weapon 2.)

I don't know the answers here.  Maybe they were no more interested in starting a New Cold War than the rest of us.  But what's been going on in Syria and the Middle East and other places around the world, where the US and Russia are fighting hot proxy wars against each other and have been for some time, seems to undermine that logic.

What does seem improbable to me is that 13 spies and three organizations defeated a $1.2 billion dollar effort waged in favor of Hillary Clinton's election.  That they overcame David Brock's million-dollar Correct the Record troll army.  That they created a narrative of the greatest country in the world -- where 78% of Americans live from one paycheck to the next; where the minimum wage has not kept pace with the lowest inflation rate over the past two decades (but Hillary Clinton only supported an increase to $12/hour, and not $15); and where 31 million Americans remain uninsured (but even California Democrats fight against single payer and Medicare for All).

I don't believe those things can be blamed on the Russians.  Or for that matter, Jill Stein.

But you keep on being you, Donkeys.

The Weekly Wrangle

Recovering from Mardi Gras weekend (and with Fat Tuesday and Valentine's Day converging), the Texas Progressive Alliance is pacing itself for early-week celebratory events upcoming.

Here's the blog post and news roundup from around the state ...

Socratic Gadfly notes that various state Democratic activist groups can't get on the same endorsements page.

Houston Justice names five things Texas Democrats could learn from the Houston Astros.

In the Texas Senate District 10 D primary, the Texas Tribune finds the 2016 Clinton/Sanders feud still being contested.

Jonathan Tilove at the Statesman also covered the Dem primary for TX-21 and heard the same echoes of the national party debate between the liberal/progressive candidates  -- Derrick Crowe, Elliott McFadden, and Mary Wilson -- and the centrist money leader, Joseph Kopser.

Texas Leftist published two more candidate questionnaires, from CD-10 Democratic candidate Kevin Roberts, and state Senate TX-5 candidate Brian E. Cronin.

The Lion Star details CD-16 Democrat Dori Fenenbock's financial flops, and Jim Schutze at the Dallas Observer drags former Channel 8 reporter and now ConservaDem CD-32 candidate Brett Shipp for some really lousy work in his old job.

Houston media blogger Mike McGuff was at CD-36 candidate Dayna Steele's fundraiser that featured Melissa Etheridge and David Crosby.

DBC Green has a couple of posts about Our Revolution Texas' endorsements.

The Democratic judge in Dallas County hearing the case against 127 D primary candidates who may be disqualified from the ballot because the party's county chair did not properly sign their applications has indicated that he will not recuse himself, according to the Dallas News.

Gilbert Garcia at the San Antonio Express News sees Greg Abbott's heavy hand and fat wallet in a few GOP primaries disguising his personal vendettas as political principle.

From the Waco Tribune-Herald: Thirteen cases in the 'Twin Peaks' biker shooting were dismissed last week, and one of the defendants' lawyers said that McLennan County DA Abel Reyna showed "moral cowardice" in extending their prosecution for so long before he gave up.

Texas Vox announces that Public Citizen is a proud sponsor of Air Alliance Houston's 2018 State of the Air Gala.

In his regular collation of criminal justice news, Grits for Breakfast notes that the full 5th Circuit will hear the case of a teenager who was framed for assault by the Brownsville police.

The Texas Standard's own roundup of state news includes Lt. Governor Dan Patrick's rant at the TPPF regarding 'Let Her Speak', the forthcoming movie about Wendy Davis' 2013 filibuster that will star Sandra Bullock.

Leif Reigstad at Texas Monthly passes along health news from one of Trump's evangelical advisory board members, Gloria Copeland of Fort Worth megachurch Kenneth Copeland Ministries.

“We’ve got a duck season, a deer season, but we don’t have a flu season. Don’t receive it when somebody threatens you with ‘everybody’s getting the flu!’ We’ve already had our shot ... Jesus himself gave us the flu shot.”

Right Wing Watch has video.

Jim Henson and Joshua Blank at the Texas Politics Project, writing in the Rivard Report, weigh the question of whether the Texas conservative political climate might affect Amazon's HQ2 decision.

KHOU reports on members of the Amish and Mennonite church communities traveling from out of state to assist Houstonians in rebuilding after Harvey.

"They’re cabinet makers, or they’re carpenters," said Scooter Buck. "And they’ll work until it gets dark. Show up, eat and do it again. That’s saving people thousands of dollars."

Buck, who is leading the Harvey Relief Volunteer Group for Cypress United Methodist says some Amish men first came to Houston nearly six months ago to help the community.

In the last five months, about 600 Amish or Mennonite men and women have flown or driven to Houston. They've come from California to New York and every state in between. They've tackled 120 homes so far.

"We’ve treated for mold. We’ve hung insulation. We’ve hung sheetrock," said McCollum. "We’ve taped, we’ve floated, we’ve textured and we’re painting walls."

Jonah Raskin at The Rag Blog interviews John Campbell McMillan, author of Smoking Typewriters, about the '60's underground press and the rise of alternative media.

AJ Bauer at the Texas Observer recalls the state's last liberal lion in the US Senate, Ralph Yarborough.  (Don't confuse him with Grady.)

And Harry Hamid's resolution to change his life resulted in getting a new cat.