Monday, April 15, 2019

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance was a little perturbed about having to unpack a jacket and pick up a few limbs in the yard .... while also collecting this week's best blog posts and news from the left of Texas from last week.

(We're both thankful for not being near -- and hope the best for those who were close to -- heavier winds in east Texas over the weekend.)


There will be lots to watch in Austin this week.  Pages of Victory notes Dan Patrick's plans to blow up decades of Senate comity by trying to ram through the sales-tax-hike-for-property-tax-cut proposal as soon as today.  Carlos Sanchez at Texas Monthly questions whether it's even sound policy.

“It’s a dangerous idea, one that increases taxes on working families to disproportionately provide tax cuts for corporations and the rich over everyday homeowners,” said Representative Ramón Romero, D–Fort Worth, on behalf of the Texas House Democratic Caucus.

Even with accidental shooting deaths on the rise, Kate Groetzinger at the Texas Observer writes that there are Texas Republican legislators that are still not interested in so much as a gun safety public awareness campaign.  The NRA -- and the extremist conservatives who vote in the GOP primary -- still have them too spooked to do the right thing.  The same holds true for the Pro-Life (sic) Caucus, which is apparently threatening state Rep. Jeff Leach, a very conservative lawmaker who has refused to advance a bill calling for the death penalty for a woman who ends her pregnancy.  Meanwhile,  Better Texas Blog would prefer to keep children on health insurance plans, thanks.

Grits for Breakfast points out Greg Abbott's flipflop on marijuana reform, and the Polk County Enterprise catches the governor in another hypocrisy.

A letter from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Kevin McCarthy expresses his opposition to video bingo on the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation and the passage of H.R. 759, filed by Rep. Brian Babin (R-Woodville).

That letter has local political leaders scratching their heads.

Abbott was criticized in the 2017 session of the Texas Legislature for expanding his role to “mayor in chief” for Texas; now he apparently wants to be dealt a bigger hand in Washington D.C.

Click and read to see how Abbott is leaving east Texas supporters confused and upset.

Charles Kuffner was not surprised to see Ken Paxton flip off the demand from the US House for documents relating to the SOS's advisory on non-citizen voters.  Silas Allen at the Dallas Observer sees it as slow-walking, but either way, it's a pantsload of disrespect for Congress.

With the latest in election developments, TXElects.

CD7: The campaign of U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Houston) announced she raised $515K during the first quarter and has nearly $550K on hand as of March 31. More than 70% of funds raised were from “Houston-area residents.”

Former Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegel stepped down from the Metropolitan Transit Authority board, effective immediately, to challenge Fletcher as a Republican. Siegel was mayor from 2004 to 2012 after serving six years on the city council. Houston sales manager Tom DeVor and Houston homebuilder Wesley Hunt are already in the GOP primary.

CD10: The campaign of Democratic challenger Pritesh Gandhi announced he raised $160K during the last 27 days of March.

CD12: Hurst progressive activist Al Wollum established a campaign committee for a potential challenge of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth) as a Democrat. Wollum began a campaign for the seat in 2017 but withdrew before the filing period began.

CD26: Frisco business analyst and conservative activist Jason Mrochek established a campaign committee for a potential primary challenge of U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Lewisville). He is the executive director of the Patriot Coalition and the Federal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Coalition. He has appeared on Fox News, MSNBC and other media outlets.

Arlington: The Dallas Morning News endorsed Mayor Jeff Williams for re-election. Meanwhile, Joe Arpaio, former sheriff from Arizona, was the featured speaker at an event for challenger Ashton Stauffer.

National Democrats: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it would open a satellite office in Austin with eight paid staffers. The DCCC has targeted six Republican-held districts in the state: CD10 (McCaul), CD21 (Roy), CD22 (Olson), CD23 (Hurd), CD24 (Marchant) and CD31 (Carter). A similar effort in California last year contributed to the flipping of seven seats there.

Progrexas expands on this news.  Down With Tyranny, Splinter, and The Intercept all remind us that the DCCC's record with respect to supporting progressive Democrats ... sucks.

Harris County: By a 3-2 vote, Commissioners Court opted to appoint a replacement for County Court at Law Judge Bill McLeod, who accidentally resigned in late March when he declared his candidacy for Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Stace at Dos Centavos wrote about the kerfuffle surrounding this appointment, and prior to doing so, Lowering the Bar chimed in with the former judge's supporters who felt that the state's Constitution is a little too strict in this regard.

Politico concern-trolled Texas Democrats about the 2020 US Senate primary.  In lockstep with the rest of the corporate media (and Kuffner), only establishment candidates mulling the contest were referenced; no mention was made of the Latina already declared.  One Houston consultant does give her some props, however (even if it is only to acknowledge a spoiler role):


In this week's edition of "Cops Behaving Badly", The Root reported that a plainclothes policeman instigated an altercation with a group of young women at a Nacogdoches apartment complex pool and tackled one for resisting arrest.  After seeing bystander video (at link), the police department  began an investigation.

In climate news, Brendan Gibbons at the Rivard Report says that sewage treatment plants across the Hill Country are threatening to turn clear streams into algae pools.  And a Houston outfit wants to establish a market-based solution to carbon offsets, connecting businesses and individuals with marshland property owners.

SocraticGadfly talks about a Lone Star history event known to relatively few Texans and to very few non-Texans: The Great Hanging at Gainesville.

In Port Arthur, petrochemical giant Motiva will purchase and renovate two historic buildings for company offices, improving the fortunes of that city's urban district.


Houston's mayor and the head of the firefighters union continue to squabble over the implementation of the voter-approved pay raise in order to avoid municipal layoffs.  Last Friday's developments saw agreements that were later disagreed to.

Texas Moratorium Network posted a trailer for the film 'Trial by Fire', which is the story of Todd Willingham's ill-fated journey through the state's criminal justice system.  It is widely believed today that faulty forensic evidence -- at the very least -- was used to convict Willingham, and that Texas subsequently executed an innocent man in the death of his children.



David Collins mourned the passing on March 30 of Texas Green Party leader and UH professor George Reiter.  A memoriam was also published by Todd Ackerman of the Houston Chronicle, highlighting his contributions to KPFT and his long marriage to another Green Party leader, Deb Shafto.

The Texas Progressive Alliance sends its condolences to family and friends.



And the TPA also salutes the life of Sulphur Springs high school, SMU, and Green Bay Packer football legend Forrest Gregg, who passed away last week.

Gregg (#75) in action against the Philadelphia Eagles in November 1962. Playing right tackle and occasionally right guard, Gregg was a first-team All-Pro seven times and selected for the Pro Bowl nine times. Photo courtesy New York Times


Finally and also on a gridiron-related topic, Dan Solomon understands that the Houston Texans have no right to wear Oilers throwback uniforms.  But they should.


It won’t happen. Amy Adams Strunk -- daughter of Bud Adams, the man who founded the Oilers in 1960 and moved them to Nashville in 1997 -- told Titans beat reporter Paul Kuharsky that the prospect of the Texans playing in Oilers uniforms wasn’t even up for discussion. “Very interesting, except the Oilers don’t have anything to do with the Texans,” she said. “So that’s a hard no.”

Thanks again, Bud!  You raised her to be just like you.

Friday, April 12, 2019

The Weekly Twenty Twenty Update

First up: Houston and TSU will host eight presidential candidates at the "She The People" forum.


CNN's Cillizza and Enten have their top ten ranking out, and the top five are Bernie and Biden tied at the top, then Kamala, Beto, and Mayor Pete.  The cable news network hosted Kirsten Gillibrand, Jay Inslee, and Julián Castro for townhalls this week, and later this month has five more candidates back-to-back.


On April 22, Chris Cuomo will moderate the Klobuchar (7 p.m. ET) and Sanders (9 p.m. ET) town halls, Anderson Cooper will moderate the Warren (8 p.m. ET) and Buttigieg (11 p.m. ET) town halls, and Don Lemon will moderate the Harris (10 p.m. ET) town hall.

While Senator Kirsten's was the lowest-viewed of all to date, Castro's townhall is receiving plaudits from various quarters.  Castro also held a counter-rally to Trump's fundraiser in San Antonio on Wednesday.  The former HUD secretary is having a good week.

By contrast, Inslee's townhall held Wednesday night did not break through for him; perhaps because of moments like this one.

In one of the more curious moments of the night, Inslee -- a candidate whose campaign is almost entirely focused on climate change -- said he didn't know enough about the recycling system to say how he would change it.

"I thought I had the answers to every question and I don't have (an) answer to that. But next time we meet, I'm going to have a better approach. I know that I have a team of people who are looking for options on this. We know how important this is," he said.

Here, Governor; show your team this.  Money shot:

There’s an interesting debate warming up about if we should focus on improving our recycling or if that is going to enable our continued consumption of plastics. In other words, let’s not focus on recycling, let’s just focus on not using plastics. I personally think that we need to do both, and I’m concerned about this argument that we shouldn’t even be improving recycling, that we just need to focus on not using plastic, because that seems like a lot harder of a goal to reach.

We must change the way we live.  That's a post for another day.

This post at Democratic Underground counts nineteen candidates so far declared, which means it isn't counting Biden or Michael Bennet.

Speaking of polls ...

-- It's true that the Democratic primary isn't going to vote as progressive as one might think, especially if you spend a lot of time on Twitter.  Biden isn't too centrist to win the nomination, unfortunately.  (To defeat Trump in the general, he is, but that's JMO.)  By and large, Democrats are unfazed by his handsiness.

-- Elizabeth Warren is in trouble.  She's third in her home state behind Biden and Bernie, and her main finance man quit because she won't solicit big donors.

(It does seem awfully strange that there are four white guys in CNN's top five listed at the top, and that even Harris seems to be losing some momentum.)

-- Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg are the top three in the most recent Iowa poll.

-- FiveThirtyEight congloms more polling wisdom, including who benefits if Biden does not run (or gaffes his way to the sidelines early, which I believe is more likely).

-- Carl Beijer says Nate Silver has screwed the pooch again, and shows his math.

I don't think that much further elaboration is necessary. There is no math or method to Nate Silver's madness; he's simply making it up as he goes along, and changing his approach in ways that appear to consistently favor some candidates and penalize others.

I agree.  Silver faceplanted on Election Day 2016 and has not been able to get up since.

Enough polling for this week.  Bernie Sanders had the best week of all candidates, reaching one million volunteers and introducing Medicare For All in the Senate.



Back in February, I blogged that the haters wouldn't have Jill Stein to kick around any longer, and it appears that US Greens are coalescing around Howie Hawkins.


Howie Hawkins exploratory committee announcement April 3, 2019, Washington, DC. 
Center, Howie Hawkins. 
To his right, Ajamu Baraka, 2016, Green Party vice presidential candidate, 
to his left, Cheri Honkala, Green Party 2012 vice presidential candidate.

Washington Babylon is little more blunt about the Greens' 2020 prospects.   Also from IPR is this interview from presidential candidate Sedinam Moyowasifza-Curry.

And if you're missing the 538 roundup I usually sample heavily from for this weekly update, here it is.  I'll mention one more development: Tulsi Gabbard is sympatico with my view on Julian Assange.


Tuesday, April 09, 2019

Compare and contrast



Questions?