Thursday, September 12, 2019

The Weekly Twenty Twenty Update: H-Town Fight Night


There will be no cursing, Beto.



I won't be on the scene this evening (despite receiving a very special invitation, details of which I shouldn't disclose) due to lingering balance and audio difficulties.  I also turned down multiple watch party invitations.  So I'm viewing at home, just like you.  And live-Tweeting, to your right; with a morning-after synopsis tomorrow.


Everybody read last week?  I'm trying not to laugh any more at this kind of thing.  Here's an update to what I posted there:


The Dementia Train is finally showing signs of slowing down.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead in the Democratic primary has been cut in half, according to a new poll out Wednesday, and while Biden still maintains his grip on front-runner status, the CNN poll shows Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders incrementally creeping up on him.

The CNN poll shows a drop of 5 percentage points in support for Biden in the past three weeks, to 24 percent from 29 percent. The national survey of Democratic primary voters also saw Warren jump Sanders for second place, though the two are still within the margin of sampling error at 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Texas Democrats are, as usual, a little slow on the uptake.


And this one's for that jackass at the beauty shop.


There are lots of reasons for not voting for WAR-ren piling up; it's just that EJ Bob doesn't have the right idea about what they are.



So with Biden and Warren onstage together for the first time, there ought to be some friction.

Over this past weekend in New Hampshire, all of the major candidates -- including Biden and Warren -- were in the state for its Democratic Party's annual convention. Which is where, from the stage and with thousands of loyal Democrats cheering her every word, Warren said this:

"There is a lot at stake, and people are scared. But we can't choose a candidate we don't believe in because we're scared."

If you think a) that line was accidental or b) it wasn't aimed directly at Biden's electability argument, there's a very hot video company named Blockbuster I'd like to sell you.

[...]

But Biden has prepared a counterargument.

"I expect you'll see Biden echo an important point he made during last week's climate forum: We need more than plans, we need a president who can deliver progress on the most pressing issues facing Americans -- which Joe Biden has proven he can throughout his career," a Biden adviser told CNN earlier this week.

Plans are not enough is, again, a very purposeful shot at Warren -- even though her name wasn't invoked by the adviser -- who has premised her entire candidacy on the idea that she has a detailed plan for anything and everything.

Biden's team sees the contrast between his years of fighting and winning political battles and Warren's years spent in academia and her relative lack of legislative accomplishments during her seven years in the Senate.

One of these two candidates has done things and one has talked about what she would do, goes the Biden argument.

*yawn* Sometimes Cillizza is so dense.

One of these two candidates has his right foot in the grave and his left foot on a banana peel, and the other has stolen all her plans from Bernie and watered them down with capitalism.

The sooner Biden exits, the sooner Democrats can have the real debate.

So here's where I might have posted a bunch of excerpts and Tweet embeds about Bernie being ignored or dissed by corporate media, as per usual.  I'll just do this one.


Okay, one more.


Okay, that's it.  Let's move on.

Now is as good a time as any to reference the Three Stooges.


More on their debate here.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R) are slated to appear in the Sept. 24 debate, while former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) has also been invited.

The debate will be held as part of Business Insider Today, a daily online news show from the publication on Facebook's video on demand service.

"President Trump was invited to participate but has not responded," Business Insider said in a press release Tuesday afternoon announcing the event.

Trump on Monday indicated he would not debate the Republicans who have announced bids to challenge him for the 2020 GOP nomination, pointing to their low polling figures and dismissing their bids as "a publicity stunt."

Business Insider said it would hold its debate at its New York City headquarters. The event from Business Insider, a company that launched in 2007, will be moderated by Insider CEO Henry Blodget, politics editor Anthony Fisher and columnist Linette Lopez.

I'll be more interested in this than whatever Bathroom Book Collector or Boot Edgex2 or Copmala or Last Chance Bob or Yank have to say tonight.

Booker and Castro, on the other hand, are my preferred choices for the Biden vote migration.  And not just here in Deep-In-The-Hearta.

Castro, who held a “Castro Country” rally Monday night in Houston, remains confident he can win his home-state primary once he proves himself in the earlier states.

“My plan is to work hard so that I can do well in Iowa, I can gain momentum and then by the time we get to Texas, it's going to be a different ballgame,” Castro told reporters after the rally. “What we see now in the polling is simple theory, because by the time we get to March 3, there's going to be a lot of changes in this race and I know I need to do well before Texas so I can win in Texas.”

[...]

 ... Cory Booker headlined the Texas Democratic Party’s yearly Johnson-Jordan Dinner a year ago in Austin. That appearance seemed to be on the mind of the Travis County chair, Dyana Limon-Mercado, as she introduced Booker last month at a small-dollar fundraiser for his campaign in Austin.

Booker, she said, had been “paying attention to Texas when a lot of other people weren’t.”

For his part, Booker pledged to be the kind of party standard bearer who works hard for down-ballot candidates, mentioning the U.S. Senate race next year in Texas. “And if I’m your nominee, I’m back down here helping to organize so that I win Texas and you win Texas,” Booker said.

I did finally figure out why Beto is polling so strongly with Latinxs: a handful of small reasons.

1)  Beto speaks Spanish fluently and Castro does not.  (To be clear, this can be a mixed bag, and the difference, as with Biden's support among African Americans, is generational.)
2)  Beto's actions, post-El Paso massacre, have been gratefully acknowledged.
3)  He's the only candidate doing this (so far).

This is a big switch from his 2018 Senate campaign against Ted Cruz, if you recall.

-- We have been reading for some time now that Beto O'Rourke's fate lies in the hands of these intractable non-voting, mostly RGV-dwelling brown voters.  But so does that of Gina Ortiz Jones, a little further up the Rio Grande along the Big Bend, and it appears she will suffer the same fate as Pete Gallegos did in SD-19's special election last month.

Here's the best thing I read about Gabbard this week.


Heading for the finish line with Mike Gravel and Howie Hawkins.

(On September 9) the Mike Gravel campaign urged supporters to back the Howie Hawkins campaign’s efforts to qualify for federal matching funds. Hawkins is running for the Green Party’s nomination for president.

Gravel had previously endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in the Democratic primary. In Gravel’s email today he also urged support for Howie Hawkins in the Green primary.

[...]

Hawkins has admired Mike Gravel since he read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record on June 29, 1971. Gravel read the papers into the record when the New York Times was enjoined from publishing them and the issue was before the US Supreme Court.

More here from David Collins, who was with Hawkins this past Monday evening here in Houston, and photos and a post from the Dallas meetup from Gadfly.  Green presidential candidates will debate later this month.

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Monday, September 09, 2019

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance has written this week's roundup entirely in Sharpie.


The best of the left Texas blog posts, Tweets, and news always has to include looking at what the Right is doing ... or more likely, not doing.  Last week was no exception.

The focus ahead will be presidential candidates debating in Houston, raising money in Dallas and Austin, and Republicans who've decided to challenge Trump in the GOP primary as well as a new face in October's fourth Democratic debate.


Patrick Svitek's recent Twitter posts contain more details.


SocraticGadfly took an initial look at Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins and his intra-Greens controversial statements on Russiagate shortly before his visit to Texas. A follow-up post is coming, about his Dallas stop.

But before we gaze any further ahead, let's glance back ...


We're past Labor Day, "everyone is paying attention", and the 2019 (and '20) election season is shifting into high gear.  The H-Town mayor's race is coming to a boil.

The mayoral candidate forum was just several minutes underway when the gloves came off between Tony Buzbee and Bill King, two self-styled independents seeking to win Houston’s top office behind a base of conservative and moderate support.

Facing a room of Republicans Wednesday at the ritzy Walden Country Club off Lake Houston, Buzbee and King took their most direct shots at each other yet: King, casting himself as a “technocrat,” pressed the case that Buzbee is unprepared to become mayor, while Buzbee suggested King would never truly reform the city’s system for awarding contracts, as both candidates have promised.

Buzbee also scoffed at King’s argument that the next mayor should not have to “rely on a bunch of experts” or be trained on the job.

“I’ll surround myself with the smartest people,” Buzbee said. “Maybe I’ll even hire Bill.”


In "They Persisted", Megan Kimble at the Texas Observer profiled three women who are back for another swing at a Congressional seat.


Six Democratic challengers to John Cornyn debated in Frisco last Thursday; both the Dallas News and the Houston Chron provided an account.


Follow the link in the Tweet and you should be able to jump the paywall.


The TexTrib had state Sen. Royce West's financial disclosures -- revealed because he's running for US Senate -- analyzed and found a lot to be concerned about.


Ross Ramsey's take underscores the laxity of the Lone Star State's oversight in this regard.  And Cornyn may get another challenger in the primary.

Sen. Pat Fallon (R-Prosper), who ousted longtime Sen. Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls) in the 2018 Republican primary, announced he was exploring a primary challenge of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R) from the right. Fallon said he would meet with voters and Republican leaders over the next few days.

Fallon is not up for re-election until 2022, so this would be a "free shot" for him. Fallon’s ability to self-fund -- He kicked off his state Senate campaign by loaning it $1.8M -- and appeal to more conservative factions within the party [emphasis PDiddie's] could make him Cornyn’s most difficult primary challenger since his 1998 run for attorney general.

Cleveland business owner and 2014 primary challenger Dwayne Stovall and Plano investment advisor Mark Yancey are already in the race. Cornyn was held under 60% of the vote in the 2014 primary by Stovall (19%), former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman (11%) and five other candidates. Cornyn received 81% and 77% of the vote in the 2008 and 2002 primary elections, respectively.


Svitek at the TexTrib also reports that there are 27 candidates who have filed to fill three vacant seats (HD28, HD100, and HD148) in the Texas House for special elections -- which means jungle primaries -- on this November's ballot.


More from Austin:

Quorum Report's Scott Braddock traveled to Angleton Monday night for the local Republican party's referendum on their hometown boy.

Strong at home: Brazoria County GOP rejects resolution condemning Speaker Bonnen

Vote was 23 to 9 as the GOP executive committee in Bonnen’s home county agreed with the argument that MQ Sullivan and Empower Texas should have to “do their own dirty work.”

“Pray for Dennis Bonnen. That’s the best thing you can do,” said Brazoria County GOP Chairman Shayne Green after the executive committee he leads voted down a resolution calling on the scandal-plagued Speaker of the Texas House to resign.

After a debate that was at times tense in a small un-airconditioned room in the county courthouse annex, the Brazoria County GOP Executive Committee voted 23 to 9 to reject the resolution that read, in part, "Corruption and bribery within our state government shall not be condoned.” The rejected language then reads: “we call for the immediate resignation of Speaker Dennis Bonnen.”

The debate was limited to about 20 minutes after Chairman Green said it would be possible for him to allow it to run as long as midnight.

Local Republicans were not in the mood for that.

The Texas Signal is skeptical of Dan Patrick's seeming willingness to consider more background checks for gun purchases.



Off the Kuff discusses some strategies for dealing with the latest voting restriction ploys.

Better Texas Blog worries about lower Medicaid and CHIP enrollment numbers.


And out in west Texas ...


And in Houston:

Urban Edge examines the connection between wealth and tree distribution in American cities.


This op-ed in the Chron ...


... received an indignant rebuttal from Tory Gattis.

Some lighter fare, starting with a little mockery.


Danny Gallagher at the Dallas Observer says that the second year of the Plano Comedy Festival is going to be bigger, better, and funnier.

The San Antonio Current reviews a new animated series set in the Alamo City.

And KISS shouted it out loud one last time at Big Greasy's Toyota Center.


In the end, as with so many of their other shows, the band was unsentimental and workmanlike, and there were few references to the fact this was to be the band's final show in Houston. Aside from a few references to playing at the Music Hall and the Summit, there weren't any pauses to soak up the adulation.

KISS came, KISS saw, KISS coordinated an efficient performance. Long live KISS.

Personal Bias: Dressed as Ace Frehley for 3rd grade Halloween. I think that's all that needs to be said.
The Crowd: Lots more kids than I was expecting.
Overheard In The Crowd: "Do you need to sit down, dude?"
Random Notebook Dump: "Some of you weren't born when this song came out; it's about cunnilingus."
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Sunday, September 08, 2019

Sunday 'Category 5' Funnies









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