(courtesy The Nib)
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
The Weekly TexLeft Wrangle
Still got that Latinx vote post on the way; maybe after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile: time, the presidential transition, special elections, and bills for the 87th legislative session march on.
Early voting is underway in various local jurisdictions holding December 8 runoff elections including Arlington, Coppell, Denton, Duncanville, Frisco, Haltom City, Irving, Keller, Mansfield, Odessa and Palmview. Early voting begins on Wednesday in local jurisdictions holding their runoff elections on December 12 including El Paso, Baytown and The Woodlands. Early voting for jurisdictions holding December 15 runoff elections generally begins on December 3. Early voting for the December 19 special runoff election for open SD30 begins December 9. As of (Sunday, Nov. 22), just over 400 voters had returned absentee ballots.
🧵Planned Parenthood Texas Votes PAC recognizes the crucial role of local races. We are proud to endorse the following candidates in Austin and Houston who have demonstrated a commitment to protect and expand access to reproductive health care.
— Planned Parenthood Texas Votes (@PPTXVotes) November 20, 2020
In a nine-count Twitter thread from last week, the NYT broke down the presidential vote by county across the nation; embedded below is the 4th Tweet in that string with the widely-reported development regarding Tarrant County.
Biden’s biggest group of additional voters came from large urban and suburban counties that are mostly white, and big cities in the South and West.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 17, 2020
In Republican Fort Worth, for example, Biden got 121,000 more votes than Clinton had; Trump got 62,000 more than in 2016. pic.twitter.com/vBnoHXWypq
Kuff also examined recent presidential results in the Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth area.
The 2020 Presidential Election by Texas Congressional District. Overall, Biden held Beto's 2018 margins in suburban districts, but lost ground with Hispanics in the RGV.
— OryxMaps (@OryxMaps) November 20, 2020
This includes provisional ballots and is more up-to-date than any previous map.
#txlege #ElectionTwitter pic.twitter.com/4Y2Bick8ZN
As @mattmxhn found, if Texas had a state-level Electoral College, we'd have Sen. O'Rourke rn. https://t.co/REgoCpgSik
— J. Miles Coleman (@JMilesColeman) November 19, 2020
Once again, rural Texans voted en masse for President Donald Trump in 2020, especially in the oil patch. Local leaders say it’s a sign that Biden’s messaging on environmental issues didn’t work here—and that Trump’s did. https://t.co/XbCIkLNrI8
— Texas Observer (@TexasObserver) November 23, 2020
As long promised, there will be more to come.
COVID-19 has everyone's attention.
A Public Service Announcement: #Thanksgiving #Thanksgiving2020 #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/FRaNcIIkcY
— Nick_Anderson_ (@Nick_Anderson_) November 20, 2020
One death every minute: COVID-19 hospitalizations rising in Texas as Thanksgiving week begins https://t.co/GtLG5QDfQh
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) November 23, 2020
Really feeling for Texans, and so many other folks across the country right now, whose leadership would rather treat this like some some sort of principled defense of personal freedoms, and not a serious matter of public health with dire consequences.https://t.co/mo74hhXU6Y https://t.co/EggXO85wRi pic.twitter.com/Gcq08soE8r
— i would prefer not to (@mikerugnetta) November 23, 2020
Maybe this was a legitimate offer from our junior senator to feed some of the 25,000 suddenly-struggling Texans in Dallas, or the National Guardsman called to El Paso to handle the surplus of cadavers in that city ...
Who am I kidding? Leadership from our Twitter trolls in the US Senate? WTF does that look like?
"I guarantee you..." pic.twitter.com/HRjKjtrziV
— Bad COVID-19 Takes (@BadCOVID19Takes) November 23, 2020
Not so. But since you started the conversation, how about those Biden noms? https://t.co/o9DbDnn10v
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) November 23, 2020
I'll skip Greg Abbott this week if it's okay with you. Ken Paxton, on the other hand, is not worthy of a hall pass, much less any other kind.
So just to recap, the Texas Attorney General is:
— Pamela Colloff (@pamelacolloff) November 18, 2020
--under indictment on fraud charges
--under investigation by the FBI regarding whether he illegally used the power of his office to benefit a political donor
--the subject of a whistleblower lawsuithttps://t.co/LQX8VQONML
This is unfortunately a longer-than-it-should-be segment of "Texas Republicans Behaving Badly."
Any time that I see a Crenshaw post I think of this pic.twitter.com/zUnFF0QQVG
— Michael Leone🧢🧦🔮🔰🗽🌾 (@MichaelFromIL) November 21, 2020
This didn't age well 😬 https://t.co/hp1rGqnnGR
— Cecilia (@cecikahlo) November 23, 2020
#Texas Trump supporters say they’re ready to take up arms the minute the president gives the order https://t.co/E1DRYMuUVS #TXLege
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) November 20, 2020
If you need to wash your hands or use some hand sanitizer or pour bleach in your eyes to get past all of that, take a minute and go ahead.
Okay then.
Weed may have some chance of seeing daylight in the forthcoming Lege.
amid budget shortfall and with growing bipartisan support, marijuana reform may get a boost in texas : https://t.co/sb5hwraBOK #txlege
— quorumreport (@quorumreport) November 23, 2020
Time has come for Texas to legalize marijuana, and decriminalize much more https://t.co/UELgujPohC
— Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) November 23, 2020
Casino gambling, too. ("Toomey", mentioned in the Tweet underneath, is Mike Toomey, the head -- or perhaps former head; his status is not clear at this time -- of Abbott's "Strike Force to Re-Open Texas". He has re-registered as a lobbyist for the coming session.)
Notably, Toomey is the latest high-powered lobbyist to be hired by Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp, to lobby on gambling issues in Texas. #txlegehttps://t.co/ECEjFPJbbL
— Justin Miller (@by_jmiller) November 23, 2020
Then again, cannabis and slots may have the same odds as Matthew McConaughey has of being elected governor in 2022.
Read the article. He was talking to Hugh Hewitt. His views are Libertarian/Republican/individualism. Every four years we get this recycled BS. I'm so old I remember when TXDems were simping Tommy Lee Jones and Lance Armstrong. #TX2022 https://t.co/Iq48QDumPX
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) November 18, 2020
Texas public education faces the same old intractable problems: lack of money and the state's Puritanical culture.
NEW: Starting in 2022, 7th and 8th grade Texas students will learn about non-abstinence birth control, but not about consent, gender identity or sexual orientation.
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) November 19, 2020
The Texas State Board of Education votes Friday to finalize the sex ed curriculum. https://t.co/CPILLHjse8 #txed
Today’s final votes on new health and science curriculum standards for Texas public schools prove that strong, ongoing activism can lead to progress. But they also make clear that a majority of the @TXSBOE remains trapped in the culture war arguments of the past. #TeachTheTruth pic.twitter.com/B7QFyTcuOQ
— Texas Freedom Network (@TFN) November 20, 2020
Raise Your Hand Texas prepares for the next fight over school finance at the Legislature.
With a couple of environmental takes, Socratic Gadfly wonders if a new Norwegian-British study shows the James Kunstler types might be right? And it appears we now have the measurement tools to implement a carbon tax plus a carbon tariff, which must be a part of climate change control.
Texas will host the largest solar project in the US https://t.co/qN1FdfuHjT #TXLege
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) November 21, 2020
Progrexas brings word of the growing concerns of Texas communities about the pollution associated with concrete plants.
Wrapping up today with these items.
Pentagon puts San Antonio on short list in race for Space Command headquarters https://t.co/fwvLqz7EiG via @saddamscribe & @GregJeffersonSA
— Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) November 19, 2020
Dos Centavos writes about one of his favorite performers, Max Baca, of the Grammy-winning Los Texmaniacs, who has been in a fight against COVID-19.
Struggling with COVID in the ICU, musician Max Baca faces an increasingly desperate future. https://t.co/Ec67Cx9EiM
— San Antonio Report (@SAReport) November 22, 2020
The popular Lone Star State export topped the Session Beer class in the 2020 European Beer Star competition in Nuremberg, Germany. https://t.co/ki7H1q7jMY
— San Antonio Current (@SAcurrent) November 18, 2020
Roger Winter was once one of the most prominent artists in the state, best known for pastoral scenes of rural Texas and realistic depictions of "the good life" in Dallas.
— Texas Monthly (@TexasMonthly) November 23, 2020
A new exhibition and book show there's much more to the painter's oeuvre. https://t.co/KYimNUY9Yt
LBJ and JFK campaigning together in Austin, 1960. pic.twitter.com/jLSFf0rnvg
— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) November 21, 2020
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Pre-Turkey Day Funnies
The true stars of the show. #NewYorkerCartoons pic.twitter.com/yXZP3v5qrM
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) November 20, 2020
Mike Peterson at The Daily Cartoonist has a list of cartoonists’ Patreon and other support sites. As newspapers and media companies continue to shed staff positions, direct support from readers becomes ever more important. Please check it out and consider giving support where you can.
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
The Weekly TexLeftist Wrangle
“Defund Police, open borders, socialism – it’s killing us. I had to fight to explain all that.”
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) November 15, 2020
@RepGonzalez, a South Texas Dem won by nearly 60% in 2018
This month he barely cracked 50%
Wild. As someone who does direct voter outreach, I could have sworn it was economic stress where there’s ~30% poverty rate & ~25% uninsured rate and the limited jobs are oil & LEO.
— Jessica Cisneros (@JCisnerosTX) November 15, 2020
Real talk: not advocating for investment, universal healthcare & livable wages is a disservice. https://t.co/yo4GxHnZ01
Muchisimas Gracias, Senorita Cisneros. I was hoping someone would remind dos Congressmanos that Bernie Sanders swept both the RGV and the borderlands in the March primary (and did not support defunding police, by the way).
DosCentavos also reminded Democrats that the election is over and that continued fighting with the "radical left" only damages the 2020 Biden coalition, held together by dollar store scotch tape.
Moving on to the coronavirus:
A state appeals court has put on hold El Paso County’s shutdown of nonessential businesses that was scheduled to last until December 1.https://t.co/IIlVhFHnwp
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) November 13, 2020
📍NEW: Chilling video of El Paso jail inmates hired to move bodies of #COVID19 deceased patients into mobile overflow morgues. Inmates wear full PPEs & paid $2/hour. They’ve been doing this tough work since Monday, before El Paso increased to 10 mobile morgues. I cry for El Paso. pic.twitter.com/KgQBpzD1mZ
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 15, 2020
As horrifying images come out of El Paso about overwhelmed hospitals and reefer trailer morgues, remember this: There are several military bases in Texas with mobile field hospitals that could be set up within 24 hours. But someone in the fed govt has to give the order.
— Jack'sHouseOfPancakes (@RegimeChangeInc) November 15, 2020
Looks to me El Paso TX has the highest #COVID19 rate in the nation for any large metro area, not sure what the levers are tonight, social distancing mandates, can we look at some biotechnologies, I think we’re reaching a desperate humanitarian situation https://t.co/5yRjRRvG3v
— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) November 15, 2020
Don't expect any leadership from Greg Abbott or Dan Patrick (as usual).
In 2018, when someone killed two Black men in Austin with mail bombs, Texas Governor Greg Abbott only offered a $15,000 reward. https://t.co/hSyAKLDYMl pic.twitter.com/Wtc9oCkKIp
— Resist Programming 🛰 (@RzstProgramming) November 11, 2020
Little Guv in particular is busy pursuing his fever dream.
Texas Lt. Gov. @DanPatrick on Fox: "There's less than 30,000 votes in Georgia and Arizona dividing Biden and Trump. And if those two states turn, if they do, then the Supreme Court could make the decision on Pennsylvania. And then Trump is president."
— Will Saletan (@saletan) November 14, 2020
All while Texans are hurting badly.
Thousands of cars form lines to collect food in Texas. @GovAbbott @DanPatrick What’s the state plan to combat hunger of your constituents and their children? #txlegehttps://t.co/UPhbvcdqG3
— genevieve (@genvc) November 16, 2020
Ken Paxton has an excuse; he's been preoccupied, though leading -- except in criminal charges and mafia-styled corruption, that is -- has never been his forte', either.
The lawsuit painted a picture of an attorney general so determined to help Nate Paul that he repeatedly defied and eventually denigrated his own hand picked staff.
— Lauren McGaughy 🌟 (@lmcgaughy) November 13, 2020
It also includes more details about their ties. Paxton allegedly ducks his detail and uses burner phones. #txlege https://t.co/9gGGsrnAKl
Twenty twenty-two, Democrats. And don't be so scared about what happened two weeks ago that you choose to sit out a challenge against these lousy fucks (I'm looking at you, Joaquin/Julian).
With respect to 2020 turnout, Texas had more voters than at any time in nearly 30 years, but that was still good for just 44th out of 50 states (plus DC). So is Texas still a non-voting state? Could it go blue if the Democrats focused on those who do not turn out, as opposed to trying to peel off disillusioned Republicans and conservatives? And what of the mostly abandoned, always demonized leftists? Would there be enough of those scattered around the Lone Star State to forge a viable alternative? These are questions I'll try to answer in my "Latinx vote" post.
With a few other takes: the removal of the straight-party voting option probably cost TexDems a couple of seats in the Lege. Can't blame that on 'soshulizm'.
Judging from Donald Trump’s unpopularity in Dallas County, Morgan Meyer and Angie Chen Button should have been doomed this November. https://t.co/3Vymc8niZE
— KSAT 12 (@ksatnews) November 16, 2020
Snatching state House majority defeat from the jaws of poll-predicted victory was the ugliest loss in their column. With no control over redistricting and its decade-long impacts amplified by the SCOTUS' gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the gerrymandering will be brutal. And among several other catastrophes, women's reproductive rights are further endangered. They've been routed in previous sessions by Republicans.
3 anti-abortion bills filed this past week in Texas give us an idea of what we’ll be up against in the 2021 legislative session and in the fight to protect reproductive rights.
— Progress Texas (@ProgressTX) November 15, 2020
We have to be proactive and prepared. #txlege https://t.co/MmRB6cgSg9
Graciela Blandon writes for El Paso Matters about the Democratic Party there, suffering from more than than the average-sized post-election divisions. Kuff had his first look at some election data. Jef Rouner for Reform Austin wants to know if HPD chief Art Acevedo is running for something. (TexDonks just ran a Latina metro police chief for governor two years ago, so I can't imagine they'll make the same mistake twice -- LOL). Schaefer Edwards for the Houston Press profiled Harris County's first elections administrator, Isabel Longoria, who's not down for any drama. And in Laredo, a city council runoff between a detached incumbent and an aggressive progressive demonstrates the value of what many have been saying: to get Latino/as to vote for you, you have to go where they live and speak to them on the issues they are concerned about.
The work of political newcomer Alyssa Cigarroa, who waged a door-to-door write-in campaign in the City Council race for District VIII, produced a stunning return of 2,122 votes, which represents 42.62 % of the vote in the district.
She will face incumbent Roberto Balli, a six-year veteran of City Council service, in a runoff race on December 12.
I have some environmental updates, and then will close with the human interest stories, focusing on Native American Heritage Month.
What can Texas learn from other states to reduce oil and gas flaring and methane emissions?
— EDF Texas (@EDFtx) November 16, 2020
Tune in to this conversation with @ColinLeyden, @Jon_RosenthalTX, @TexasSierraClub and @EnvironmentTex Nov. 19 at 6 pm CST to find out. #txenergy #txlege https://t.co/3Nze8KqKZL pic.twitter.com/Rq6j6QEPhy
The Port Arthur Community Action Network, Lone Star Legal Aid, and the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club have joined with the Environmental Integrity Project to request that the EPA deny emission permits to Oxbow Calcining LLC, Jefferson County’s largest emitter of sulfur dioxide. The groups want the company to meet certain air quality standards that it has already been punished for violating by the TCEQ, which has declined their petition.
Which parks have Native American affiliations? All of them. Our latest podcast explores how Native American heritage is being recognized + preserved in #TxStateParks. Listen at https://t.co/PBLMzEe4dH or your favorite #podcast platform.#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth pic.twitter.com/Ecgcyba9Nc
— TX Parks & Wildlife (@TPWDnews) November 12, 2020
George Hass ‘22, a descendant of the Creek and Nez Perce tribes, paid homage to his Native American heritage by assembling his own traditional regalia by hand! #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth@AggieCorps: https://t.co/0DomaJs5hx pic.twitter.com/AeVnRMBwAd
— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) November 16, 2020
Jonathan Tilove takes a buyout from the Austin Statesman to return to his family in what sounds like semi-retirement. Here's to hoping we read him again.
After exactly eight years in Texas Dec. 1, I am leaving the Statesman and returning to DC to tell tall tales to my two-month-old grandson, William Thomas Tilove, and figure out what I learned. Enjoyed it beginning to end. Interesting state you’ve got here. Be nice to each other. pic.twitter.com/jDrXptj5X7
— jonathantilove (@JTiloveTX) November 10, 2020
More than 20,000 meals will be distributed to Houstonians in need every week for the rest of the year. https://t.co/tHgs5vHZkE
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) November 15, 2020
A man in Houston shows off his 1952 Pontiac, 1972. There's been a long tradition of "art cars" in Houston and we see evidence of that here almost 50 years ago. pic.twitter.com/tiCIZRitxa
— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) November 13, 2020
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Sunday "Prognitive Dissonance" Funnies
Mike Peterson at The Daily Cartoonist has a list of cartoonists’ Patreon and other support sites. As newspapers and media companies continue to shed staff positions, direct support from readers becomes ever more important. Please check it out and consider giving support where you can.