Sunday, March 07, 2021

Sunday "Tex-Ass Backwards" Funnies

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Tuesday, March 02, 2021

Texas Tuesday Masks Coming Off Round-up


Everybody seems to think we know what's up.


Guvnuh Quixote -- pronounce that however you like; I'm rolling with "Kwiksoat" -- has been under tremendous pressure from the Trump Caucus of the TXGOP to give Texans back the freedumb to die for the economy.  What better than Texas Independence Day to declare it?


I'll be celebrating Taco Tuesday myself (wearing a double mask).


In the latest criminal justice developments:


That's our transition to the Lege, which was mostly buried in meetings that have been consumed with blaming and finger-pointing about the Texas Blackout.  In the abridged version of events, PUC chair (and Abbott appointee) DeAnn Walker testified before committees in the Texas House and Senate, and her answers to their questions about winter preparations to the state's power grid, its subsequent failure, etc., were found to be universally unacceptable.  Lite Guv Dan Patrick called for her head yesterday, and within hours, she resentfully submitted her resignation letter.


I have more links regarding who will ultimately pay for their mistakes (hint: it won't be them) that I'll save for the next Wrangle/Round-up.  The Legislature's planned short work week was lengthened by other matters.


It gets worse, but we'll move on.  COVID numbers are improving, but the gains will be lost if the mask mandate, restaurant and bar restrictions, and/or limits on social gatherings are loosened.


And that's my segue to the social injustice news of the week.

Last week, our producer Davis Land headed out from his neighborhood in Houston to talk with people trying to restore their homes after a devastating winter storm knocked out power for so many Texans. It was nearly 80 degrees -- a huge change from a couple of weeks back, when many Texans were shivering under coats and blankets, waiting out a deep freeze and a utility shutdown. But after the cold let up, what was left behind was a mess of plumbing: burst pipes and sagging walls full of leaking water. There simply aren’t enough hands to do the work.


D Magazine caught up with Jim Schutze, whose decades-old book, The Accommodation, will be re-printed after CBS This Morning aired a story about its topic -- Dallas' complicated racial and political history -- last weekend.


No, I am certain we won't.  The freeze and its aftermath was very likely the last straw for some.


Let's move toward the end of this Round-up with some overdue election news.


Here's a thread with the standard "can the Donks do it" speculation, short a couple of candidates from Svitek's list above.


With 18 hats in a jungle primary, and perhaps more, anything is possible.  The election is in May.


Another too-long post, so let's close it here and save the rest for later.

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Monday, March 01, 2021

The Weekly Wrangle from Far Left Texas

So Joe Biden's H-Town photo opp seemed to go well.



Perhaps he should have skipped making the remarks at the end of the afternoon, though, as the Aricept had clearly worn off.



"Representatives, uh, Shirley Jackson Lee, Al Green, Sylvia Garcia, Lizzie Pannili, uh, excuse me," Biden said and winced. "Pannell, and uh, what am I doing here?" he said. [...] "I’m going to lose track here," he added.

Prior to his day trip, he was not wrapping up a good week.  Few Houston journalists noticed or cared, apparently.  No inquiries were made -- or if they were, left out of the reporting.


Fuck it, I guess (right?).  Texas has bigger problems (right?).


Yes we do.


Kuff would like you to be more mad at the Public Utility Commission.  Socratic Gadfly offers his suggestions for people to fill those vacant "unaffiliated" board positions on ERCOT.  And whatever we're calling the winter storm and subsequent blackout, it's true that as bad as we all had it, the least among us had it worse.


A total of 509,206 people were still impacted by boil water notices as of Sunday night, with 458 boil water notices in effect, according to the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

San Angeloans had already been boiling water for a couple of weeks prior to the Big Freeze, as documented all over.  The Texas Living Waters Project urges the Lege to use this session to address the long-running water infrastructure challenges laid bare by Winter Storm Uri.


The death toll in Houston so far is 51.  In Austin, 86.  The full tally may not be known for weeks. Environmentally, we all got crushed again.


Should I mention all of this as just the usual failure of Texas Republicans, Texas government generally ... or is it is a failure of capitalism?


What do you think it is ... if it's not?


It's not all bad news.  Some people out of state even stepped up to help.


And those plumbers from New Jersey, who've decided to stay in Houston awhile, plumbers being the people most needed right now.

Citrus farmers in the RGV, also devastated.  We're beginning the 15th month of 2020, it seems, even as the outlook for the pandemic brightens.


Dos Centavos tells us about his successful vaccination experience. And Robert Rivard for the San Antonio Report is firm about the need to continue taking the pandemic seriously.

Too long today to include election news, social justice/injustices, and all the rest of the usual Wrangling, so I'll add that tomorrow or later in the week.  Here's our wrap.

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