Friday, December 27, 2019

The Last 2020 Update of 2019

Mainstream Democrats constantly argue that their party must move toward the center, the right, in order to win elections. Republicans never argue anything similar, yet win elections. Go figure.

The big news this week is that the corporate media has finally discovered something the rest of us have known all along.



Now begins the time when we will see the unhinged ad hominem smears and attacks on Sanders come into full fruition.  The comparisons of the UK's election, and Jeremy Corbyn's losing to Boris Johnson, was the early skirmishing.


"Hey, it worked over there; let's try those lies over here.  Oh wait, Bernie is Jewish?  Well, that'll be a bit of a heavier lift."

More to blog on this later.  Moving on for now.


For Democrats who believe money is the most important political variable, who don't know or don't care that the private prison industry is just indentured servitude, where the prisoners are paid slave wages ... Bloomer is your guy.  Congratulations.  Business as usual.


Like Trump, Mike Bloomberg can't be bought.  But for those Democrats looking for an after-Christmas bargain, you can still get Pete Buttigieg for a big discount.




You have to be pretty oblivious to his craven hypocrisy to still be supporting this little fellow after his overexposure the past couple of weeks.

Which may be why Andrew Yang has been easing up to fourth lately.  Where does he grow from here is his big question.  If Warren and Biden keep slipping, I suppose we will find out.


Old Joe seems to be acknowledging that he has a family problem.



If Biden is nominated, 2020 will be rerun of 2016.  It will be nothing but scandals and epithets and vitriol and venomous spew between the two factions.  And Trump will win.

But at least some Democrats want to focus on the primary issue.

A court ruling last week putting the Affordable Care Act further in jeopardy may provide the opening Democrats have been waiting for to regain the upper hand on health care against Republicans in 2020.

At the most recent Democratic presidential debate, candidates largely avoided discussing the lawsuit or Republicans’ years-long efforts to dismantle Obamacare, and instead continued their intra-party battle over Medicare for All.

But Senate Democrats, Democratic candidates and outside groups backing them immediately jumped on the news of the federal appeals court ruling -- blasting out ads and statements reminding voters of Republicans’ votes to repeal the 2010 health care law, support the lawsuit and confirm the judges who may bring about Obamacare’s demise.

“I think it’s an opportunity to reset with the new year to remind people that there’s a very real threat to tens of millions of Americans," Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said in an interview. "We Democrats are always striving to improve the system, but, at a minimum, the American people expect us to protect what they already have."

It's more than possible -- likely, IMO -- that the Democrats cannot do anything to prevent Obamacare from being dismantled by the SCOTUS.  Which is why every single Democrat running for Congress needs to be asked: "What will you fight for if Obamacare is struck down?"

Ask this question now, before you vote in the March primary.  Again, I believe the only acceptable answer is Medicare For All.  Anything less means that sick Americans will die because of the cost considerations of insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, doctors, hospitals, medical collection agencies, and all of the rest of our glorious healthcare capitalists who value profits over people.  The politicians who are fine with that are the problem.

Robert Reich Paul Krugman talked with Ezra Klein at Vox recently, and while much of this interview is cringeworthy because of its intellectual investment in political calculus, Reich at least made a salient point about acting first on healthcare as opposed to climate change.  There's a smorgasbord for thought there, plenty to buy into and plenty to reject outright.

Closing this Update with more embedded Tweets and a Libertarian news item at the end.






And IPR passes along the holiday message from Vermin Supreme, who's running for the Libertarian nomination for president: "I dream of a world of holidays without cages" (it appears to be the same message he posted in 2018).
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Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Tinsel Toons




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Monday, December 23, 2019

The Festivus TexProg Wrangle

Christmas Eve Eve is a time of panic for shoppers who've procrastinated (pro tip: a gift card from Kroger earns you gas points), the start of a long holiday week certain to be filled with high caloric lack-of-activity, and the much-anticipated airing of grievances.


Here comes your round-up of the best of the left from around and about Deep-In-The-Hearta for the next-to-last week of the decade.



First we have some political posts (the Alliance is foremost about politics, after all).




David Collins updates the list of Texas Green Party 2020 candidates.  Kuff published three interviews with SBOE candidates: Michelle Palmer, Kimberly McLeod, and Debra Kerner.  John Coby wraps up the Houston elections.  And Stace at Dos Centavos posts about a Harris County judicial filing controversy.


And statehouse Republicans will make every effort to continue the legacy of ultraconservative oligarchy in Austin.


PDiddie at Brains and Eggs caught up his Democratic presidential primary updates with four posts leading up to, and then after, the sixth debate last Thursday.

DC politicos like Chuck Schumer want to keep chasing the Republicans being left behind by the careening Right; the DSCC chose to endorse the Libertarian who voted in the GOP primary in 2016 for US Senate, to the outrage of ... well, pretty much everybody.



(T)he Democratic Senate Campaign Committee endorsed former U.S. House candidate MJ Hegar in her bid to run against Republican incumbent Senator John Cornyn. The decision to back Hegar -- who is running in a crowded, diverse field -- strikes at the heart of an intra-party debate: how to run (and win) in red states on the brink of political realignment.

The endorsement drew swift backlash from Hegar’s fellow candidates, who condemned the national party’s Senate campaign arm. Although the committee has played primary favorites in other priority Senate races, many people in Texas politics were surprised that it waded into a race more than three months out. “We had no idea that was going to happen,” said Abhi Rahman, the communications director for the Texas Democratic Party, which is running a multimillion-dollar operation aimed at defeating Cornyn.


Lite Guv Dan Patrick and Commissioner of Land George Pee Bush kicked off their Festivuties a few days early.


Lone Star political podcasts are all the rage these days.



A smattering of posts about the homeless at Christmastime always seem to tug at the heartstrings (not Greg Abbott's, but Texans who actually have hearts).




There are some environmental justice -- mostly injustice -- developments to report.






This Wrangle caught several Tweets about immigration and border news and opinions.






SocraticGadfly, with background on Muenster teacher-relationship conviction and other such cases, talks about how issues of philosophy play out in the courts.

Thanks for reading this elongated-for-Festivus Wrangle.  Wrapping it up and putting a bow on it with a few lighter items.



The Webb County Heritage Foundation will celebrate the 180th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of the Rio Grande with a cocktail reception on January 11, 2020 in the historic capitol building of that independent nation -- the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum at 1005 Zaragoza St. in Laredo.

The San Antonio Current provides solid advice about tamales.

The Bloggess is starting a book club.




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Sunday, December 22, 2019

Sunday 'Feliz Navidad' Funnies











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