Sunday, March 29, 2020

Sunday 'Worse Than the Problem Itself' Funnies








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Friday, March 27, 2020

RIP Toy Cannon

Not feeling the politics blogging today.


Wynn was one of my favorites -- one of every Astro Buddy's, no matter their age -- in the mid-and late '60's.  Many of his fans thought his nick was for his bat.

Wynn played 11 of his 15 MLB seasons in Houston and was named an All-Star in 1967.

At 5-9, the diminutive outfielder earned the nickname "Toy Cannon" for his powerful arm. He debuted with the Colt .45s in 1963.

Some great photos at this link.


And a review of some of the best remembrances, via Tweet.  Click on them and you'll find more videos and memories.



The Astrodome in its early configuration was well-known as a pitchers' venue.  Nevertheless, a couple of Astros crushed balls into the remote upper tiers back in the day, and had the seats they hit painted with their nicknames.  Wynn was one; can you name the other (he's pictured here on the left)?




Wynn was traded by the Astros to the LA Dodgers during the 1973 winter meetings for Claude Osteen (and another player), and Wynn made the All-Star team in both of his two seasons in southern California.  In '75 he went from the Dodgers to the Atlanta Braves in a blockbuster trade involving current Astros manager Dusty Baker.


At the time of his passing he served as a community outreach executive for the Astros.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2020

The Weekly Wrangle II, extended pandemic pandemonium edition

Too much to cram into one.

Let's begin as we often do with TXElects, this time with a personal message from publisher Jeff Blaylock: "Like Much of Daily Life, Elections Grind to a Halt".



The ongoing response to contain the severity of the spread of COVID-19 has impacted most aspects of a normal, daily life in the state’s largest counties. ...

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last week postponed the May 26 runoff elections until July 14, the date he ordered for the SD14 special election, which normally would have (occurred) in conjunction with the May 2 general election. Unable to postpone those elections on his own, Abbott  suspended portions of the Election Code and other codes to enable local governments to hold those elections in November. ...

Campaigns are hamstrung by social distancing, limits on the size of gatherings and the economic pressures so many Texans are facing. Candidates are simply unable to campaign. Door-to-door blockwalking efforts have largely ended. Rallies can’t be held because of social distancing guidelines and prohibitions of events above a certain attendance. “Retail politics” is largely impossible.

They are also unable to raise money. I expect the July semiannual and quarterly reports will show a significant downturn in contributions compared to the same period in prior election cycles.

Fundraising events cannot happen. Economic pressures and uncertainty affecting Texas families will sharply reduce the number of small donors. Candidates will likely be more reliant than ever on large donations or the ability to self-fund their campaigns. We may very well see this come into play in the runoff elections where candidates who have built a broad network of support are suddenly disadvantaged.

I expect campaigns will get created with digital campaigning, including video meet and greets and increased reliance on social media. Fundraising efforts will get creative as well, but they are facing a cascading uncertainty that will likely drive down political contributions. Creativity does not necessarily require money, so I expect we will see some innovative uses of cheap technology in the coming weeks and months.

I also expect the pandemic response will slow voter registrations, although we will not see this data for some time. The next statewide data point does not come until November, which we all hope is well after Texas has returned to business as usual. Depending on when that occurs, registrations may rebound.

In the meantime, there are signs that campaigns are shifting their grassroots efforts to community service from politics. “I will put my campaign’s grassroots team on the job of helping our neighbors across our huge district,” said CD13 Republican runoff candidate Josh Winegarner in a press release. “I want to help people and help Texans help each other.” Several other candidates have released similar statements, as has the Texas Democratic Party, which launched ConnectTexas, an online community where folks can connect with people locally and statewide to communicate their needs, share resources, and create a sense of unity despite the uncertainty.”

-- Lite Guv Dan Patrick saw Greg Abbott, John Cornyn, and Louie Gohmert all getting free publicity for being stupid, discriminatory, or just plain incompetent and hypocritical, and decided he couldn't be left out of that action.


 "No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that's the exchange, I'm all in," he said. "And that doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that.

"I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me ... that what we all care about and what we all love more than anything are those children," he added. "And I want to, you know, live smart and see through this, but I don't want to see the whole country to be sacrificed, and that's what I see."

Patrick -- as he has unceasingly reminded us -- is pro-life ... but should the Wall Street gods require a human sacrifice, I believe we have our first volunteer.  Personally I'll never be willing to risk myself for a corporation's P&L statement.  YMMV.

-- Speaking of "pro-life", Greg Abbott banned abortion on Sunday.

Gov. Greg Abbott didn't say anything about it last week when he announced his ban on elective medical procedures, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made it clear Monday afternoon -- abortion is banned in Texas until, at the earliest, April 3. Before the novel coronavirus pandemic, anyone seeking an abortion in Texas faced a lengthy ordeal.
Now they face utter uncertainty.

“We must work together as Texans to stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure that our healthcare professionals and facilities have all the resources they need to fight the virus at this time,” Paxton said. “No one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers. Those who violate the governor’s order will be met with the full force of the law.”

The full force of the law, in this case, is a $1,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail.

Paxton's office says the ban is essential to preserve Texas' stock of personal protective equipment. Texas anti-abortion groups are praising Abbott's order for different reasons.

-- Those centralized voting centers the Harris County Clerk and other election administrators throughout the state were so impressed with themselves about implementing?  Maybe not so much.

-- And postal voting might be a good thing (obviously the TDP wouldn't be paying Chad Dunn, et.al. the money they are if they didn't think so) but it would present a host of new problems.  Such as: where do we store all the paper?

While mail-in ballots seem like an elegant solution as the United States grapples with containing COVID-19, experts say slow-moving state and county governments, inconsistent state rules and limited resources to buy essentials such as envelopes and scanners could make it difficult to ramp up nationally to reach more than 200 million registered voters in the November general election. Among the possible downsides of a quick transition are increased voter fraud, logistical snafus and reduced turnout among voters who move frequently or lack a mailing address.

[...]

“To move from a couple of thousand to a couple of million (printed ballots) requires an entirely different infrastructure,” said Tammy Patrick, a former county election official who is now a senior adviser at the nonprofit Democracy Fund in Washington, D.C. “It’s going to be a different logistical lift for them to even ramp up the printing of the ballots, let alone ordering a million envelopes that are the right size and compatible with” the U.S. Postal Service’s method of sorting mail automatically.

Amber McReynolds is the CEO of Vote at Home, which helps policymakers and election officials improve their vote by mail processes and policies. “The unprecedented public health crisis” calls for localities to “be extraordinarily creative with our solutions,” she said.

Yet there are states, like Texas, where McReynolds thinks it may be very difficult to implement a robust and universal vote by mail system. Texas’ election administration is almost entirely controlled by counties, which each set their own voting processes. Rural counties frequently use machines that produce no paper backup and have no infrastructure to store it, while larger counties have more sophisticated systems that keep a printed record of ballots. The state has little authority to change local election administration decisions.

McReynolds has called for centralizing the printing, mailing and collecting of ballots at the state level, though without legislative action this would not be possible in Texas. Centralization, with appropriate technology to open, sort and scan ballots, would mean fewer people counting votes and less need to recruit thousands of volunteers.

Much, much more at the link above.

-- And courtesy US Senate candidate David Collins, here is your updated Texas Green Party list of state and Congressional nominees, with more likely to come out of the state convention.
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Monday, March 23, 2020

The Weekly Pandemic Pandemonium Wrangle *updates

With this edition of the best lefty blog posts, Tweets, and news from around and about our still-Great State, the Texas Progressive Alliance has all the TP it needs for a two-month quarantine, but is already running out of potato chips and beef jerky.

(Ed. note: There have been so many developments since yesterday morning that this post contains only a few of the most significant updates.  Additional Wrangling to come for Tuesday, 3/24.)

Greg Abbott has postponed the May 26 primary runoff elections to July 14.

Holding the election in May “would cause the congregation of large gatherings of people in confined spaces and force numerous election workers to come into close proximity to others, thereby threatening the health and safety of many Texans and literally exposing them to risk of death due to COVID-19,” Abbott said ... It “would therefore prevent, hinder or delay necessary action in containing the COVID-19 disaster.”

[...]

The Republican Party of Texas supported a delay “to allow for time to ensure that Texas voters and their votes are protected and safeguarded.” In a letter released publicly, the Texas Democratic Party said it wanted a process that “reduces the need for in-person voting and enhances Texans’ ability to vote by mail.”

The Democratic Party has since filed a lawsuit in Travis County (.pdf) to expand ballot-by-mail voting, “instead of bringing our democratic process to a halt.” The lawsuit seeks to “allow any person who does not want to risk their health or that of their family’s [sic] during this coronavirus pandemic to vote by mail.” Specifically, the suit claims that Section 82.002, Election Code, already allows voters to cast ballots by mail “under the circumstances of this pandemic” and seeks a declaratory order.

Kuff looked at expanded vote by mail possibilities, the subject of the TDP's lawsuit.


Abbott has deferred to local governments the decision as to whether to take further action locking down their communities.

Abbott will not be ordering a statewide shelter-in-place at this time, pointing to the lack of positive novel coronavirus cases in more than 200 counties.

Update:


The governor had previously fallen in line behind the leaders of the state's major urban metropolitan areas in closing schools, assisted living facilities, restaurants and bars, and other large gathering places in order to stop the spread of the contagion.


Abbott has come under withering criticism for rolling too slowly on protecting the state's citizens against the rapidly-expanding pathogen.


But at least the governor hasn't been as big an embarrassment as John Cornyn ...


... or Louie Gohmert ...


Update: ... or Dan Patrick.


But Texas Democrats have lowlights of their own: Rep. Marc Veazey tried to earmark additional spending for F-35s as part of one of the governmental stimulus spending bills.



There is likely an overload of helpful -- and unhelpful -- information in your inbox, social media timelines, and on your teevee, radio, and podcasts about the pandemic.


Texas bloggers also had the topic foremost on their minds.  Here's a sampling:


Alex Birnal at the Rivard Report highlighted how coronavirus demonstrates the need for paid sick leave.  Lisa Gray at the HouChron interviewed vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez about the state of COVID-19.  Space City Weather shares their thoughts also, including social distancing and flattening the curve.  And The Bloggess tells her social distancing story.


A very strange story from the legal world makes news.

These are just some of the bizarre details of the years-long feud between former Proud Boys attorney Jason Van Dyke, who was also a member of the group and briefly led it, and Thomas Retzlaff, the man who Van Dyke alleges is trying to destroy him.


Now new evidence in a Texas police file obtained by the Daily Dot reflects that Van Dyke threatened Retzlaff’s life a little more than a year ago.

No excerpt can really do justice (pun intended) to this case, so click over and read.  The Southeast Texas Record offers a drier account.

Restaurants and their employees are suffering the worst of the economic body shots.  But no small entrepreneur adapts quicker to adverse business conditions, or takes better care of their own.



Here's something for us to watch while we shelter in place.


Kam Franklin, in Texas Monthly, tells how her band, The Suffers, got their start.


And music fans across genres said goodbye to Houston native Kenny Rogers.

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