Monday, January 13, 2020

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance marks some of our Republican leaders' more egregious conduct in this week's roundup of the best blog posts, Tweets, and news from around and about our Great State.

Our devout Christian governor turns into Judas again.


Our lazy-eyed indicted attorney general is busy getting government off our backs.


From the Strange Bedfellows Department, Karl Rove shares the same concerns (with Dennis Bonnen) of Donald Trump that Barack Obama has of Joe Biden's campaign.


But Trump has bigger crawfish to boil than Rove; he doesn't want to be eclipsed by his junior partners in Austin.  Failing (for now) in starting WWIII with Iran, he's going on the attack against our air and water, via the EPA.


So we need to elect some environmental guardians in 2020.  Steve Taylor of the Rio Grande Guardian covered the Democrat running for Railroad Commissioner who visited the Rio Grande Valley this past weekend.

Chrysta Castañeda at a breakfast meet and greet at Mi Casita Adult Day Care in Pharr, Texas.

Asked about her top campaign issues, Castañeda spoke mostly about the need to eliminate the flaring of natural gas in Texas oilfields.

“We have had laws on the books for 100 years that prevent the waste of our natural gas, which, currently, the oil companies are lighting on fire. The oil is produced along with natural gas and they flare the natural gas rather than take it to market,” Castañeda said.

“If we turned that natural gas into electricity, it would be enough to power the city of Houston. There is so much waste going on. ... My opponent will not enforce that (100-year old) law because the oil companies find it too costly to follow the law. I will enforce the law.”

In Democratic presidential candidate developments, New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent last weekend on a bus tour of Texas.  He met with supporters in San Antonio and Austin, kicking off on Saturday in Dallas, where he campaigned with television's Judge Judy.  The Houston Chronicle reported former mayor Pete Buttigieg made a three-day trip to the Lone Star State last week; he hosted two Dallas fundraisers and a private meeting with local Democrats at Paul Quinn College.  And Joe Biden will attend an event this week in Dallas, along with a fundraiser hosted by former mayor Mike Rawlings.

But some Democrats don't think this is enough.

"We had a moment where it felt like Texas was important to everybody, and then it slid to the back burner," said Harris County Democratic Party Chairwoman Lillie Schechter, reflecting a sentiment several other Texas Democrats shared with The Texas Tribune.

The fear is that a few weeks of television advertising and a few pit stops in the state as candidates blitz the rest of the South are not sustaining investments toward making Texas a battleground state and making progress down-ballot, like winning the state House of Representatives.

PDiddie at Brains and Eggs posted a two-part weekly Dem prez update focused on tomorrow's debate and the re-ordering of the leaders due to Bernie's surge and Biden, Warren, and Buttigieg's foundering, as well as the usual snark.  There will be an update on Tuesday about the debate and the latest on the Warren/Sanders 'she said/he said' bullshit.

There was a Texas Senate candidate forum in Houston over the weekend, and the candidates blasted both Greg Abbott and John Cornyn.

Amanda Edwards, left, Victor Hugo Harris, Jack Daniel Foster, Jr., Sema Hernandez, Adrian Ocegueda, Annie Garcia, Michael Cooper, Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, Chris Bell, and Sen. Royce West, right, are shown during the U.S. Senate Candidate Forum at the Green House International Church, 200 W. Greens Rd., Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020, in Houston. 
Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Grassroots activist Sema Hernandez of Pasadena, who finished second to then-U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke in the 2018 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, said Abbott’s refusal to accept additional refugees was particularly unseemly because so many of those refugees were, she said, a direct result of U.S. military and economic policies.

“This is the damage we have inflicted in over four decades, 40 years, of neoliberal policies,” Hernandez said.


Kuff interviewed the three Democrats running in HD134: Ann Johnson, Ruby Powers, and Lanny Bose.  Update: TXElects has the full candidate list available for subscribers.

Our Crib Sheets have been updated with the Green Party’s candidate slate. They now include the 347 Republicans, 328 Democrats, 90 Libertarians, 14 Greens and 44 independents who have filed for the state’s federal, statewide and legislative offices on the ballot in 2020. Any candidate who did not file by the December 9 deadline may still seek to become a certified write-in candidate. Otherwise, the fields for 2020 are set.

Absent a write-in candidacy, 32 legislative incumbents are unopposed for re-election: Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) and Reps. Ernest Bailes (R-Shepherd), Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio), Terry Canales (D-Edinburg), Sheryl Cole (D-Austin), Tom Craddick (R-Midland), Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth), Yvonne Davis (D-Dallas), Jay Dean (R-Longview), Art Fierro (D-El Paso), Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth), Jessica González (D-Dallas), Mary González (D-Clint), Ana Hernandez (D-Houston), Kyle Kacal (R-College Station), Ken King (R-Canadian), Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa), Ben Leman (R-Iola), J.M. Lozano (R-Kingsville), Mando Martinez (D-Weslaco), Will Metcalf (R-Conroe), Ina Minjarez (D-San Antonio), Lina Ortega (D-El Paso), Dade Phelan (R-Port Neches), Four Price (R-Amarillo), Richard Raymond (D-Laredo), Toni Rose (D-Dallas), John Smithee (R-Amarillo), Chris Turner (D-Arlington), Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston), Armando Walle (D-Houston) and James White (R-Hilister). All statewide and congressional incumbents seeking re-election have opponents.

Transitioning from electoral politics to some of the social and legislative matters that impact our beloved Deep-In-The-Hearta ...


Grits for Breakfast has doubts about a proposed judicial appointment system.  Amber Briggle at Love to the Max documents how to pass an equality ordinance.


SocraticGadfly looked at the New York Times' 1619 Project, trying to claim that year, not 1776, is the keystone to US history, and says BOTH it AND its major opponents are all wet.

Rogelio Sáenz at the Rivard Report notes that children of color are already the majority in many US states.  The Bloggess presents her TED talk.  And some just wanted to blog about weed.



As Fort Worth gets ready for their Stock Show and Rodeo, Bud Kennedy at the FWST brags that the attendees will find a revitalized Cowtown, aimed at the '21st century cowboy'.


Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Sunday 'Close Call' Funnies









Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, January 11, 2020

The Weekly Twenty Twenty Update, Part 2

With a host of developments surrounding the White House incumbent this past week -- the most recent being that Speaker Pelosi has at last decided to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate -- I'll forgo extended mention of the warring, lying, megalomanic for now.


News flash: Bernie's going to win.


Establishment Democrats Can’t Stop Sanders’ Surge

Bernie Sanders is surging in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary polls, and, as CNN analyst Harry Enten wrote Sunday, “It’s becoming more apparent” that the Vermont senator and former Vice President Joe Biden “are the candidates to beat.” Sanders, according to Enten, has an extra advantage: “Biden’s fundraising is not anywhere near as strong as Sanders’.” As a recent Politico story observed, Sanders’ campaign is “being taken seriously” among Democratic party insiders.

Sanders’ ascension is scaring acolytes of former President Barack Obama, but according to a new story from the Daily Beast, they can’t figure out a way to stop him.

“As Sanders gained new flashes of traction in recent weeks,” the Daily Beast reports, “the former president’s lack of official guidance to halt his momentum, and the scattering of his inner circle to rival campaigns, have hampered any meaningful #NeverBernie movement.”


Proof Bernie Sanders has the Billionaire Class' Attention

Billionaire Jeff Gundlach told fellow wealthy investors late Tuesday that Sen. Bernie Sanders is the “odds-on favorite” to win the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination -- and warned the senator’s potential general election victory could pose a serious threat to Wall Street profits.

“Bernie is stronger than people think,” Gundlach, who correctly predicted Donald Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, said during his annual 'Just Markets' webcast.

Gundlach, CEO of investment firm DoubleLine Capital, said Sanders’ possible win over Trump in November represents the “biggest risk” to financial markets.

“I think it’s Bernie Sanders becoming more believed in as a real force, and we have to start taking him more seriously,” Gundlach said. “If people get more worried about Bernie Sanders and they start to price in his spending programs, then you could really start to see trouble in both [long-term Treasury] bonds and stocks, which could really be on a rough ride.”

Asked by CNN reporter Ryan Nobles about Gundlach’s assessment of the 2020 race, Sanders’ communications director Mike Casca offered a snappy response: “A stopped Rolex is right twice a day.”



In response to Larry David's complaint the previous night on Colbert, regarding a Bernie Sanders victory in November ...


So there's all of that, a splendid week for Tio Bernard.

Uncle Joe?  Not so much.


Try to keep in mind that facts are not attacks.


Trump's conflict with Iran exposes the real difference between Biden and Sanders

Sanders is a longtime antiwar advocate who voted not to authorize the use of force in Iraq. He’s staked out distinct positions on foreign policy, including America’s relationship with Israel and its role in the Middle East. Biden represents the establishment wing of the party’s views. He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for years, voted for the Iraq War, and is running on a platform of a return to normalcy.

“Joe Biden voted and helped lead the effort for the war in Iraq, the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper Monday night.

Sanders co-introduced a bill late last week to block funding for any military action in Iran and put out a video saying he’s “not sorry” for his long history of opposing US wars.





We're working pretty hard on it. The message seems to be slowly sinking in, though it would be grand if I could get my Boomer Black friends to read this blog.

Now it's not as if the criticism of Bernie has been muted.  The Neera Tandens and Joy Reids and Mimi Rocahs are having brunch this weekend to plot a new strategy.  Nervous Nellies among blue progressives are crying for a unity ticket, presumably to avoid a disputed national convention.  Those to the left of Bernie are making the more cogent arguments, as usual.  <<-- The two links in this sentence are the best in this post, IMHO.  But about 90% of you who try to read them are going to have your heads explode before you can finish them.  Give it a go anyway.

Here's a collection of topics relevant to the election generally.

-- So Facebook Cleared Things Up for 2020: Politicians Can Totally Lie to Users

Please #DeleteYourFacebook.  Especially if you are a member of the Resistance terrified by Russian hacking (sic), still blaming Jill Stein for 2016, or just generally suffering from an undiagnosed case of cranial-rectal inversion.

If you think you would be unable to communicate with high skool pals or family or associated whatnot, try to remember what you did BFB: email listservs.

-- In a captivating interview with Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, Dennis Kucinich addresses his legacy as a Democrat before his time.


I muse about this very same premise, as well as the Texas version of the 2000s Kucinich, David Van Os.  I would imagine that DVO would prefer to be compared to Bernie Sanders ... except for lacking any electoral success.

-- In a smattering of Libertarian developments, we have the former head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair (note the misspelling in Tom Sullivan's take) concern-trolling Democrats for her vote.  Mentioned at the very end there is the biggest news of the week for the Libs.

(On January 8), at the National Press Club in Washington, former Republican Senator, Independent Governor, and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, formally announced he is seeking the Libertarian Party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

Born into a politically connected family, Chafee succeeded his father, John Chafee, as U.S. Senator in 1999 and established himself as a Liberal Republican, emphasizing support for gun control and environmental protections.  He was the only Senate Republican to vote against the authorization for the Iraq War in 2002, but supported the Patriot Act the previous year.  In the 2004 presidential election, he wrote-in former President George H.W. Bush.  Chafee was voted out of office in the Democratic wave election of 2006.  The next year he publicly endorsed the presidential campaign of future president Barack Obama and officially left the Republican Party.  He was elected Governor of Rhode Island as an Independent in 2010 but did not seek re-election.  He endorsed the re-election of President Obama in 2012 and joined the Democratic Party in 2013.  He sought the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination and participated in a widely criticized Democratic debate in which he called for the adoption of the metric system. Due to a lack of support, he withdrew before the primaries and endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

[...]

Chafee joins a growing field of candidates that includes New Hampshire representative Max Abramson, anti-war activist Adam Kokesh, businessman John McAfee, former Vice chair Arvin Vohra, 1996 Vice presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen, 2000 presidential candidate Jacob Hornberger, software engineer Dan Behrman, Radical caucus vice chair Kim Ruff and performance artist Vermin Supreme.

Others speculated to make a run include former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, Independent Congressman Justin Amash, former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, and businessman Rocky De La Fuente.

More about McAfee at the very end of this post.  VS was referenced at the bottom of the Update two weeks ago.  Walsh was a Republican primary opponent to Trump earlier in 2019 but dropped out.  Weld and De La Fuente have already filed in various states as GOP primary challengers.

It's snark time.


(Here's the reference.)






I had so many more, too.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)