Sunday, January 26, 2020

Sunday 'Elephant in the Room' Funnies

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Friday, January 24, 2020

The Weekly #Election2020 Update

So much has happened since last Friday.  Bernie and Elizabeth have patched things up ...

... Sanders and Warren seem to now be working together to repair the disunity the media, trolls, and anti-progressives are trying to sow between them. Both are refusing to talk any more about the controversy, and instructing their staffers to do the same ...

And so, at least for that moment in South Carolina, did Biden and Bernie.

Former Vice President Joe Biden also offered a handshake and a smile to Sanders, two days after he called on Sanders' campaign to retract what he called a "distorted" video clip questioning his commitment to protect Social Security.


It's reasonable to conclude that the exchange of pleasantries was simply for the cameras, but it also paused the leeching of bad blood long enough to ascertain who benefited -- and who didn't -- as regards the polling post-debate, post-fight, post-reconciliation.  And once again, despite the best efforts of the women on The View and Karen Finney on CNN and David Brooks of the New York Times and Rick Wilson on MSNBC ... Bernie is winning.




Update (1/25): More from the NYT ...

DES MOINES — Senator Bernie Sanders has opened up a lead in Iowa just over a week before the Democratic caucuses, consolidating support from liberals and benefiting from divisions among more moderate presidential candidates who are clustered behind him, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely caucusgoers.

Mr. Sanders has gained six points since the last Times-Siena survey, in late October, and is now capturing 25 percent of the vote in Iowa. Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. have remained stagnant since the fall, with Mr. Buttigieg capturing 18 percent and Mr. Biden 17 percent.

The rise of Mr. Sanders has come at the expense of his fellow progressive, Senator Elizabeth Warren: she dropped from 22 percent in the October poll, enough to lead the field, to 15 percent in this survey. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is garnering 8 percent, is the only other candidate approaching double digits.


... and the WaPo.

Biden entered the race saying the 2020 general contest would be a struggle for the soul of America. First, though, he will have to win a struggle for the soul of his own party. Sanders is surging and is now in a near-tie with Biden both nationally and in Iowa, setting the stage for a mano a mano struggle between the two that could crystallize the electability vs. ideology question for Democrats as never before.

A false premise there at the end, IMO.  Just another example of the corporate media's manufacturing consent against Sanders.  This could be considered an improvement over the #BernieBlackout, but it continues to require a concentrated effort on social and alternative media to counter the ridiculous smears and outright lies that have replaced the silence.

Did I forget to mention Joy Reid?



Before the kissing and making up on MLK Day, the Times endorsed Warren and Klobuchar.


It's not too early for snark, is it?


Let's see; I believe that brings us to *checks notes* Hillary Clinton.


At this point both Bernie and his supporters chose to take the high road.  And as the fresh polling above reveals, the attacks appear to be driving more support -- and more small-dollar contributions -- to his campaign.  But you might have guessed that Nate's Liver disagrees.

Sanders' momentum could be blunted by his absence from the campaign trail due to the ongoing impeachment trial (same for Warren and Klobuchar, of course).  Bernie has the best support network, IMHO, with AOC, Ilhan Omar, Michael Moore, the fabulous Nina Turner, and a string of new endorsements this week from Pramila Jayapal, Zephyr Teachout, and a variety of immigrant rights and labor activist groups.


This morning's Twitter feud surrounds Joe Rogan's endorsement, in case you haven't noticed.

Biden, Buttigieg, Steyer, and Yang -- who picked up a non-endorsement endorsement from Marianne Williamson earlier in the week -- might still be able to make some hay out of their opponents being MIA in the two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.  We shall see.

Worth noting also is that Barack Obama is again rumored (first instance, last November) to be tanned, rested, and ready to take a break from golfing and lounging around Martha's Vineyard to herd a few cows (second instance, this week) onto Bernie's train tracks.  For now, he's letting his stooges do the dirty work.  The former president apparently prefers Warren, having mumbled a few concerns last summer about Joe's tendency to swallow his entire foot at seemingly every available opportunity potential threat to the Great One's legacy.

Speaking of Goofy Old Joe, he had another incoherently bad week.




This is one of the videos Biden alleged the Sanders campaign "doctored".



As if that wasn't bad enough, the stress of it all is making him crack up.


Biden's polling has slowly eroded in recent weeks as these chickens have come home to roost, but it remains entirely within the realm of possibility that he could float to the nomination on the politics of exhaustion.  Ennui as campaign strategy seems like a loser to me, but YMMV.

Two weeks to Iowa.  Three tickets get punched.

I need some laughs.  You?


“Bernie has been polling very well, but everybody on Team Sanders knew that we were one Clinton endorsement away from losing everything,” stated senior campaign official Ron McMeel. “We already avoided the threat of a New York Times endorsement, so now everybody here at headquarters has decided to take the rest of the afternoon off and get day drunk.”



Update (1/25):  I follow politics pretty closely -- all kinds of politics, all kinds of obscure political crap -- and I have never read or heard of a single one of these people.  Via William Saturn at Independent Political Report:

I have received the names of the presidential candidates scheduled to participate in the 2020 Lesser-Known Presidential Candidates Forum this Tuesday at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.  Participants include several candidates familiar to those of us who follow third party and independent politics, including former college football coach (and 2012 Constitution Party and Reform Party presidential candidate) Robby Wells, trans-humanist (and former 2020 Libertarian Party presidential candidate) Zoltan Istvan, and others.

The Lesser-Known Presidential Candidates Forum is a quadrennial event held at Saint Anselm College since 1972 by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics which invites the lesser-known presidential candidates who qualify for either the Democratic or Republican New Hampshire primary ballot.  Archives of previous events (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016) can be found at C-SPAN.org.

Now I do remember when the following happened, although I can't seem to find record of my having blogged about it.

In previous events, fringe and eccentric candidates, often more familiar to us than the public at large, have provided memorable moments.  Notably, at the 2012 event (held in December 2011)performance artist (and current candidate for the Libertarian Party’s 2020 presidential nomination) Vermin Supreme"glitter bombed" anti-abortion activist (and 2012 independent presidential candidate) Randall Terry.  In 2016 (at which Supreme was barred due to the previous incident), businessman (and current 2020 Republican presidential candidate) Rocky De La Fuente met fellow candidate, attorney Michael Steinberg, and the two later went on to form the Reform Party’s 2016 presidential ticket.

The full list of nobodies is here.
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Monday, January 20, 2020

The MLK Day Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance salutes the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with this collection of the best blog posts, Tweets, and lefty news from around and about our Great State.


First, a few political and electoral stories that need attention from voters in statehouse districts in Dallas and the Houston area.  TXElects:

An abbreviated early voting begins (tomorrow) and runs through Friday for the HD28, HD100 and HD148 special runoff elections. January 28 is Election Day.
  • In HD28, Republican Gary Gates faces Democrat Liz Markowitz for a Fort Bend County seat that has gone from 14 points redder than the state as a whole in 2002 to less than a point redder in 2018. In the November special election, the six Republican candidates collectively received 61% of the vote. Markowitz, the lone Democrat in the race, received the other 39%. Turnout was 19.7% of 148K registered voters.
  • In HD100, Lorraine Birabil faces James Armstrong III, both Democrats, for a Dallas County seat. Birabil led the five-candidate field with 33%. Armstrong received 21%, finishing five votes ahead of Daniel Clayton. Turnout was 7.9% of 87K registered voters.
  • In HD148, Democrat Anna Eastman faces Republican Luis LaRotta in a Harris Co. seat that has been steadily 15-19 percentage points bluer than the state as a whole since 2002. In the November special election, 12 Democratic candidates split 69% of the vote, led by Eastman’s 20%. LaRotta finished second with 16% of the vote, nearly four points ahead of third-place finisher Adrian Garcia, a Democrat with the same name as a current Harris County commissioner and former sheriff. Turnout was 25.2% of nearly 88K registered voters.


Kuff interviewed three Dem candidates in HD138: Akilah Bacy, Josh Wallenstein, and Jenifer Pool.


Olson has endorsed Pierce Bush, the grandson of GHW Bush, as his replacement.


From the Rio Grande Guardian:

Prominent civil rights attorney Jim Harrington will be the keynote speaker at tonight’s celebration of MLK Day at Cine El Rey.  [...]

Harrington is founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project and was attorney for the late civil rights icon Cesar Chavez. The president of the Cine El Rey Group, Bert Guerra said Harrington will stress “the importance of incremental change at the 10th Annual MLK Celebration.

“While Jim Harrington may be best known as the attorney who sued the city of McAllen for the infamous police brutality during the 1970s and 1980s, his homecoming will provide a very important message of healing and forgiveness,” Guerra said.


“His return to McAllen reminds us that even though there is still and perhaps will always be work to be done in seeking justice, that pursuit demonstrates that MLK’s Dream is alive and well in this part of America we call the Rio Grande Valley.”

See this link for details on tonight's event, and read Harrington's column, "Using the MLK holiday to kickstart organizing for justice", here.

Two El Paso blogs added to the roll are Max Powers (a non-Trump Republican) and Jaime Abeytia's Lion Star (Democratic).  Powers picked a bone last week with Abeytia bashing the Rethugs while cashing their checks (a common practice among political consultants across Texas).  And in other sidebar additions, you can find another GOP blog there: Big Jolly Times, whose contributor, Howie Katz, wrote an amusing take about the Democratic presidential primary.  PDiddie at Brains and Eggs, keeping to his regular beat, had two Updates on that topic that appeared before and after the contentious debate in Iowa, with the Warren-Sanders feud still simmering.


CD Hooks, writing for Texas Monthly, puzzles through Abbott's senseless rejection of refugees.

Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher revisits Impeachment Corner.


DeSmogBlog reports that Formosa Plastics, the giant Taiwanese conglomerate owning a chemical plant on Lavaca Bay, has continued to pollute the coast with plastic nurdles despite being fined $50 million and signing a consent decree to cease doing so.



The Lunch Tray looks at a new effort to eliminate school "lunch debt shaming".



SocraticGadfly did a non-political double dip on Texas sports, first talking about the glories of Luka Doncic, then noting why he, along with a majority of other non-Houstonians, thinks the cheating Astros got off light.  Cort McMurray, editorializing in the Chron, gets to the heart of the Astros' cheating scandal.


More than a few football fans noticed that Sunday's AFC championship game featured two teams with Texas roots.



In a compelling read from Dan Clouse at LareDos, 'The Incident at Laredo' details a little-known account of a faulty assessment of a nuclear attack from Cuba that occurred in the 1960s.


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