Tuesday, September 08, 2020

The Weekly TexProgBlog Wrangle


With the best blog posts, Tweets, and leftist news from around the Great State, the Texas Progressive Alliance is really hoping that cool front makes it all the way down here.

The biggest political fight at the moment isn't Trump versus Biden or Cornyn versus Hegar ...


... it's whether Texans will be able to cast their November ballots in a manner of their choosing, and not Ken Paxton's.


Kuff is trying to follow the back and forth of the Republican attempts to prevent Harris County from sending vote by mail applications to all its voters.

Voting isn't the only thing Texas Republicans are suppressing.


With so much demonstrable incompetence you would think that prominent Republicans funding the campaigns of Republican elected officials might be complaining. And you would be right. Just not in the way you think.


“Furthermore, as we learn more about COVID-19, we now know that elementary and middle school-aged children are practically impervious to it; even high schoolers, who bear a slightly higher risk than younger students, are relatively safe when compared to adult cohorts,” the letter states. “The scores of daycares and summer camps that have been operating in Texas are further evidence of this fact.

“We will harm children far worse, therefore, by keeping schools closed than by reopening.”

Although the tone throughout the letter remains respectful, the names listed at the bottom may be sending a louder message.

In all, more than 100 Texans are named, a list that includes a wide-range of influential individuals, such as mega donor Farris Wilks to iconic ballplayer Lance Berkman.

[...]

A name that really stands out, however, is Ray Washburne, a member of President Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

To curb the spread of COVID-19, Abbott shutdown bars and cut restaurant occupancy -- a decision that has drastically impacted thousands of Texas business owners, including Washburne.

Washburne, a restaurant owner in Dallas, recently appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

“Running a restaurant at 50 percent is absolutely ridiculous,” Washburne said during the show. “If you go to a restaurant and every other table is seated and you need to go to the bathroom, you’re walking by every table in the restaurant. It makes zero sense.”

Washburne adamantly stated that: “We have to open up the economy.”

When Carlson asked Washburne what message he would give his governor, Washburne said: “Open up.”

“People need jobs,” he said. “They need to support their families.”

Carlson went on to say Republicans are intimidated, “maybe even your governor,” to which Washburne replied: “They are very intimidated, and they need to understand that they don’t need to cower to the liberal left.”

And the Texas Signal reported on state Republicans putting a quiet end to public redistricting hearings.

So apparently there were more important things for the TXGOP to be doing, such as rallying the base with bus tours and boat parades.


Therese Odell, daughter of a military family, cannot hold back her fury at Donald Trump's words about people who serve in the armed forces.

Not to be outdone by Trump in the "Republicans Behaving Badly" category ...


Meanwhile John Coby at Bay Area Houston was glad to see a racist assistant Attorney General get fired for his bigotry.

That's just a small sample of the Pachys' woes from the past week or two. Like the Donks, their younger voters are trying to tell their older voters something, but the senior set isn't listening.


No place is this generational dynamic better illustrated than the (mostly unspoken, certainly under-reported) tension between Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.


Hidalgo is collecting huzzahs as the D's rising star.


No error, Judge.

The latest COVID numbers in the state:


Dr. Peter Hotez gives a dozen reasons why he's worried about releasing a COVID-19 vaccine through an emergency use authorization (EUA).

Here's the latest environmental updates:


And the recent developments in police reform and criminal justice.


Grits for Breakfast gives the backstory on how Austin's budget cuts for police came about. Dallas Mayor Erik Johnson is resisting his police department's overtime hours reductions but presses ahead with reducing the bureaucracy at City Hall.

In noteworthy requiems:

D Magazine eulogizes its founder, Wick Allison.

Socratic Gadfly had three "critical" RIPs of people in political, cultural and social news recently, most recently with Green Party activist Kevin Zeese, then before that with heterodox anthropologist and economics critic David Graeber and first with secular humanist leader Ed Brayton.

And let's close out with some human interest stories.

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Sunday, September 06, 2020

Sunday "Garbage In, Garbage Out" Funnies

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Thursday, September 03, 2020

White House Update: Tiz the Law should win

It's nearly Labor Day, the time when talking heads on teevee tell us "everybody starts paying attention"; the debates are scheduled and the mods selected.  It's also Kentucky Derby weekend, but there will be no crowd, no big hats.  Find your irony in the name of the morning line's heavy favorite.

Let's see what the two old demented white dudes are up to.

-- Trump keeps moving his rhetoric; past conspiracy-theory territory now, straight to vote fraud.

(Trump) told voters in North Carolina they should vote twice, once by mail and once in person, even though doing so would be illegal. Trump was asked whether he has confidence in the mail-in voting system before suggesting voters break the law as he cast further confusion over the process ahead of November's election. "Let them send it (their mail-in ballot])in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote," he said."So that’s the way it is. And that’s what they should do".


If the GOP base is dumb enough to drink bleach to cure COVID, I'm sure they're dumb enough to follow these instructions.  It's not as if Greg Abbott or Ken Paxton, to use our local examples, would prosecute them for it, after all.  They're much too busy jailing people for not being aware they were ineligible, or collecting seniors' mail ballots at nursing homes and taking them to the post office.

Update: “Bipartisan” Washington Insiders Reveal Their Plan for Chaos if Trump Wins the Election

Top Democrats fear that protests could help Trump win

-- While there are considerable conflicting reports about whether or not Trump (or Joe Biden, for that matter) got a polling bump following their nominating conventions, the race appears to be right back where it started before the RNC and the DNC did their thing.  There have been several excuses for why Texas Democrats and Republicans didn't get prominent face time.


So as it seems the contest will once again turn not on the significant policy statements of either man -- Trump's cannot be believed, and Biden's aren't going to break any new ground -- the only thing remaining will be the performative artistry of the debate spin, and whatever gaffes Biden is certain to make ... because Trump's don't move the needle.

That puts Old Joe in a tight box.



Oh yeah; Putin's Army of Trolls again.


Not unexpected.  I do believe that Nate's Liver -- I mean Nate Silver -- has found his excuse for when the polling is wrong again and Biden loses to Trump: the Electoral College.


Much better than blaming Russian bots.  Or the Green Party's presidential nominee.  But what if someone proposed meaningful systemic changes?


Following Ms. Savage's advice would also make all of this polling that shows the race tightening more legitimate, as it querys likely and/or registered voters scattered across the country.  That would be as opposed to state surveys consolidated into an EC projection ... which is the only legitimate poll you should be considering.  Those show Biden still with a comfortable lead.

Can he still choke?  Like Michael Moore, I expect that he will.  I'll lay that out in a future post.

Update:

Electoral college explained: how Biden faces an uphill battle in the US election

Biden Has What It Takes to Lose

-- Howie Hawkins soldiers on, but the corporate media -- and the polling outfits -- are studiously ignoring him and the Libertarian Jo Jorgensen.


They will likely have to host their own debate, as in years past.

-- And Mark Charles' campaign is creeping up into the public eye.


-- Gonna have to mention Kanye a bit.  His presidential campaign is being described as 'unraveling' in two separate reports, but his vice-presidential campaign seems to be flourishing.

Didn't know he was running for veep? Neither did he.

Update: Just screamingly funny.

A couple days ago, Ballot Access News reported that the American Shopping Party (ASP), which has ballot access in Hawaii, is considering nominating a presidential ticket of businessman Rocky De La Fuente for president and entertainer Kanye West for vice president.  This is the same ticket the American Independent Party (AIP) nominated for the California ballot last month.  However, according to the ASP Facebook page, the party wants actor Jason Momoa to be its presidential nominee.  The only catch is that the party cannot contact him.

There's more but I'm choking on my laughter too hard to post it.

-- If you thought that was weird, the Alaska Green Party nominated Jesse Ventura for president and Cynthia McKinney for VP.  Alaska Greens succeeded in petitioning for 'limited political party' status, meaning they can put forth only a top-ticket pair of candidates.  They promptly blew it, big time (read the comments at the link for some hilarity).

-- Gonna wrap this with some Tweets about the Movement for a Peoples' Party, which held their organizing convention last weekend.


David Collins did an outstanding job live-blogging their virtual convention.  He's enthusiastic about its prospects; more so than me.

Update: The Two Parties Have Failed Us, But The People Can Succeed

If the Greens can't get to 5% this year, it's time for them to fold their tent and throw in with somebody else, be it the PP or the SWP or some combination of united left parties, movements, etc. that can get ballot access and challenge the Democrats -- more strongly than the GP has ever been able to -- from their portside.  They need labor to really get this done, which ought to be easier than it sounds considering how badly working people have been left behind by the Donkeys.  And they need some big money backers.

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