Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The TexProgBlog Wrangle #VoteTexas edition *updates


This week's second post of the best of the left of Texas from last week provides some updates from the start of the runoff elections.  Update: TXElects.

Early voting continues for the July 14 primary runoff and special elections. Because of the inherent “lumpiness” of runoff elections across the state, meaningfully comparing turnout year-to-year is difficult. On top of that, the early voting period was extended by a week by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Voters will have 12 days – 11 in some counties who take Sunday off – to cast ballots in person instead of the usual five days. And on top of that, we anticipate a significant increase in absentee voting as many more voters requested ballots by mail than in recent years.

With all those caveats, nearly 123K people voted in the Democratic runoff in the 15 counties with the most registered voters through the first day (Monday), which is more than the Day 1 totals in 2016 and 2018 combined. The number of Democratic early voters is 65% above 2018 and 187% above 2016. These numbers include all mail ballots received up to and including Monday. Statewide Democratic turnout through Monday was 1% of registered voters. Three quarters of all votes cast through Monday by Democrats were by mail.

Around 53K Republicans cast ballots in person or by mail in those 15 counties by Monday. This is down slightly from 2018, solely because there are no Republican runoffs in Dallas and Williamson Cos., but 14% above 2016. Statewide Republican turnout through Monday was 0.6% of registered voters. Two thirds of all votes cast through Monday by Republicans were by mail.



Last night the two finalists who want to take on John Cornyn in November faced off.


Next we'll check in on "Republicans behaving badly".


Louie Gohmert reveals his IQ again for all to see.

Louie Gohmert spends ample time on the House floor not wearing a mask, often talking with aides and lawmakers at length while not maintaining a social distance. 
Asked why not, the 66-year-old Gohmert had an explanation that defied the science and the recommendations of leading public health experts. 
"I don't have the coronavirus, turns out as of yesterday I've never had it. But if I get it, you'll never see me without a mask," the conservative Texan told CNN Friday.



Told that health experts say that people who don't have symptoms may be carrying the virus and can unknowingly spread it to others, Gohmert responded: "But I keep being tested and I don't have it. So I'm not afraid of you, but if I get it I'll wear a mask."


“Their decision is completely baffling, it's reckless, it’s irresponsible,” (Abhi Rahman, a spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Party) said. “It shows you that they haven’t taken this thing seriously from day one. Houston is one of the biggest coronavirus hotspots right now, and they want to go there, they want to hold an in-person convention without requiring face masks, where they're gonna put even more people at risk, hospitality workers at risk ...”
 

The State Republican Executive Committee will decide at a meeting Thursday (July 2) whether to go forward with the state convention in person in Houston or go the online route, as the Texas Democratic Party did.

Noah Horwitz shares a term paper he once wrote about Greg Abbott, and Paradise in Hell has had his fill of Mike Pence, who made an appearance at a Dallas megachurch last Sunday.


Here's a few stories about the pandemic from different perspectives.


Two friends in Austin went to the same facility to be tested for the virus.

Their tests came back with the same result -- negative, allowing (their) trip to go ahead -- but the accompanying bills were quite different. The emergency room charged Harvey $199 in cash. LeBlanc, who paid with insurance, was charged $6,408.

A recent poll in Bexar County revealed stark differences in points of views about the current threat level of COVID-19 based on political party identification.

A recent surge in coronavirus cases has made San Antonio one of the nation’s hotspots, but respondents to the latest Bexar Facts/KSAT/Rivard Report poll differed on the severity of the pandemic – and what should be done to contain it – based on their political affiliation.

Fifty-two percent of the 616 respondents who identified as Republican maintained “the worst is over” regarding the impact of the coronavirus locally, and 61 percent said continued social distancing and business closures will cause unnecessary damage to the economy and residents’ lives. Only 14 percent of respondents who identified as Democrats thought the worst was over and 16 percent thought social distancing and business closures would cause unnecessary damage.

Seventy-eight percent of Democrat respondents believe the worst is yet to come. The nonpartisan poll was conducted online and via telephone from June 10-14, right before daily COVID-19 cases started spiking in Bexar County.


I still have enough Wrangled for a third post this week, focusing on Black Lives Matter and police abuse topics and an environmental round-up; it will appear at the end of the week, following the regularly-scheduled White House Update.  Let me close here with some of the pictures and stories from the past that I have enjoyed recently.

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Monday, June 29, 2020

The Weekly EV Wrangle


The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes that worsening virus statistics as a result of the striking ineptitude on the part of our elected officials were not -- again -- topic de jour for the roundup of blog posts and Tweets and news from around and about Deep-In-The-Hearta ... but it is what it is.


Circumstances took a dramatic turn for the worse last week.


And our so-called leaders continue to lie about it.


The most damaging reveal came from the doctors at the Texas Medical Center.


(Gov. Greg) Abbott had expressed displeasure to hospital executives with negative headlines about ICU capacity, sources familiar with the talks said. Abbott spokesman John Wittman said any insinuation that the governor suggested the executives publish less data is false.

It's not just the state's largest cities that are overwhelmed.


Far west Texas is simply not a place you want to be if you need medical care.


The Chron's Zach Despart also reports that Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is in self-quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus by a staffer who tested positive.

Moving on to election news, you can go vote this week (if you're feeling lucky).


Willie Nelson and several other special Lone Star guests are raising cash for Joe Biden in a virtual concert later today.

PDiddie at Brains and Eggs sees Biden sleepwalking to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in his latest White House Update.  G. Elliott Morris threw some cold water on the positive polling for Biden in Texas. (*ahem* a little ahead of you, dude.)


Kuff blogged about the latest state polls, and SocraticGadfly looked at Howie Hawkins clinching the Green Party nomination and the various haters who still don't like it or him.  With respect to runoff election developments, Grits for Breakfast points out that Rep. Eddie Rodriguez has a tall hill to climb against his SD-14 opponent, former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, in overcoming his missing vote on the Sandra Bland bill when he was in the Lege.


In H-Town, the most recent city council meeting was flooded with peaceful protests to the city's law enforcement reform initiatives.


DosCentavos is not a fan of the latest attempt at police reform by committee.  Transform Houston outlines their objections to Sylvester Turner's task force on cop reform.  And Mario Bravo at the San Antonio-based Rivard Report calls on elected officials to lead.  And almost a month after the Dallas PD attacked BLM protesters in that city, the rallies go on.



For the past 27 days, dozens of protesters have gathered at City Hall and marched through the streets of downtown and Uptown in a show of solidarity against police violence and systemic racism. Yesterday evening was no different. Nor was the evening before that.

This Monday marked three weeks since we last saw police become violent toward the protesters, when they kettled and detained 674 peaceful marchers on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge after they shot smoke or tear gas—that’s still unclear—and fired “less lethal” munitions at them.


Democracy Now! interviewed Brandon Saenz, the Dallas protester who lost an eye after DPD shot him with one of those “less lethal” projectiles.  Grits has a lot more from Space City and Big D and also Austin, plus a police union's bitching about working the protests, ridding our schools of cops, and #BlueLeaks in his lengthy CJ round-up.

There's much more Wrangled, including some important environmental developments -- look for another post this week -- but we'll stop here for now with a couple of lighter pieces.

Jim Schutze, formerly of the Dallas Observer, will have a column in D Magazine.

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Sunday, June 28, 2020

Sunday "Electoral Distancing" Funnies


Government refuses to say which businesses received over $500 billion in coronavirus bailout loans
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Friday, June 26, 2020

Race for the White House Update: Sleepwalking to 1600 Pennsylvania


Go back to sleep, Joe.  We'll call you.


The waiting is the hardest part

The Democratic National Convention Committee announced Wednesday that the "Convention Across America" will be "anchored in Milwaukee," moved from the arena where the Bucks play to a smaller convention center downtown.

"[S]tate delegations should not plan to travel to Milwaukee and should plan to conduct their official convention business remotely," the DNCC said.

There goes my yellow-vested vacation in Wisconsin.  They're blaming the plague, but it's a convenient excuse to avoid a historical repeat of what happened in Chicago in 1968: "the police are there to preserve disorder".

As with every other moment this cycle has produced for him, Biden went soft on cop reform.


And the climate again.


The vast majority of the uncritically thinking electorate cares nothing about what he says or does; he's not Trump, and that's all that matters.

Is that really going to be enough in the fall?

Before you declare Biden the winner, remember his lead is not insurmountable. Polls closer to November could very well show a race that is tightening. At this point in the 1988 cycle, Michael Dukakis led nationally by almost 5 points, and in 2000, George W. Bush was up by nearly 8 points. But Dukakis ended up losing by nearly 8 points in November while Bush narrowly lost the popular vote. 

Frontloading HQ appears to be doing an Electoral College update on a daily basis now, so I'll dispense with mine for the foreseeable future, unless I think there's reason enough for my insights to be worth contrasting to the statewide polling, moving averages, yadda yadda.

That leaves the veepstakes as the only parlor game left to play.  Perry Bacon at 538 has the exhaustive compendium, but it seems to me the choice among the four reported finalists is already down to Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren.  And while some (mostly white) people think Warren has a good case electorally, I just don't see that happening.

Biden could pick a Black woman he feels more comfortable with -- bad pun on Carville intended -- but Kamala is going as hard after the job as she can.  It's actually kind of shameful.


In any other year, this pandering might be considered ridiculous and awful by a vast majority of the American electorate.  Not in 2020, though.

-- Trump had another really bad week, beginning in Tulsa last Saturday.


Click to the Tweet thread if the WSJ isn't letting you jump the paywall.  The Supreme Court slapped him around a bit, too.  Probably don't need to mention the polling again.  He was, remarkably, back to his bubbly old self last night with Sean Hannity.


Nice haircut.  Next time have them take some off the top.

-- Howie Hawkins will be the Green Party's nominee.


The Greens' national meeting and presidential nominating convention, also virtual in a few weeks, will give you the opportunity to find out what they're all about.


Bernie Sanders was the compromise.

 
-- Mark Charles' independent campaign remains low-profile but is gathering momentum.


-- Last, WikiNews via Indy Poli Report has interview transcripts with the Constitution (William Mohr), Libertarian (Spike Cohen), and Green (Angela Walker) vice-presidential nominees.
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