Monday, March 08, 2021

The Far Left "Texas is Messed Up" Wrangle



Kuff focused on the maskless mandate and the widespread negative reactions to it.  John Coby at Bay Area Houston is mad about the damage Republican political leaders have done to our reputation (?!).  Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher vents her spleen at Greg Abbott.

Could the worst be yet to come?


Let's take that as our segue to the coronavirus.


Isobella Harkrider for Reform Austin documents the COVID variants now in the state. Alison Medley at the HouChron spoke to Memorial Hermann Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Linda Yancey about the pros and cons of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and the effectiveness of all the shots compared to each other, and to the variants.

"When you compare efficacy data, Pfizer ranks at the highest with 95 percent effectiveness in preventing COVID-19, compared to Moderna at 94 percent.  The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was found to be 66 percent effective at preventing moderate to severe cases of COVID-19, and  85 percent effective if disease is critical.  The concern has been whether the current vaccines will hold effectiveness against new COVID-19 variants, including the UK, New York, California, South Africa and Brazil variants.

"This vaccine is still effective against all these variants, as well as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines," Dr. Yancey reassured. "If we can get people vaccinated as quickly as we can, the virus will stop spreading."

Let's shift to the Lege, which gavels back in this week with more on their plates than ever.  Still desperate to change the subject, Abbott is diving into the culture wars.


Former RRC candidate Chrysta Castaneda opines in the DMN that the Railroad Commission and the PUC should be folded into a new energy commission (and those commissioners should be elected instead of appointed).  Socratic Gadfly looked at the Census delay and wondered if that will make redistricting even harder and more of a fistfight in a Lege special session, including the possibility of internecine Republican fights as well as R-D battles.  And Charles Miller for Texas 2036 appraises the new federal Medicaid proposal, which could mean $3 billion more for Texas.

Next, in criminal and social justice updates ...


And in political and election headlines:


Nearly two dozen candidates filed for the special election to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Ron Wright (R-Arlington) in a district that has become increasingly competitive in general elections over the past decade. President Trump carried the district by 3 points over Joe Biden in 2020, and the average Republican won the district by just over 6 points. Trump won the district by 9 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Mitt Romney carried it over President Obama by 17 points in 2012.

This is not a general election, and turnout is expected to fall well short of the 69% of registered voters who came to the polls in November. The 2018 special election for CD27, which was held in June, drew 15% of the number of voters as in the 2016 general election. A similar result for CD6 would result in around 55K votes cast. All candidates run on the same ballot regardless of party, and the top two candidates advance to a runoff, regardless of party, if no one secures a majority vote. Given the number of Republicans (11) and Democrats (10) in the race, a runoff is almost certain. The question is, what will be the partisan makeup of the runoff?

The last time a field this size ran in a special election was 1993, when 24 candidates filed to win the unexpired term of former U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D). There were 10 Republicans, five Democrats including the appointed incumbent, one Libertarian, six independents and two other minor party candidates. The Republicans collectively received 58.2% of the vote to the Democrats’ collective 40.5%, and the minor party and independent candidates combined for 1.3%. Eighteen of the candidates each received less than 1% of the vote, 16 of which received less than 0.5%. That left three Republicans and three Democrats with more than 1% of the vote.

Comparing a statewide race from 27+ years ago to a north Texas Congressional special election is IMHO a failure of analysis (which TXElects rarely makes).  Special elections are about ground game, and the Democrats failed there in 2020, by their own declaration.  I expect them to do so again in this contest, despite having 60 days to gear up for it.  Too bad they can't blame the Green Party.

It appears that Ag Commissioner Sid Miller is preparing to challenge Greg Abbott for the Republican nomination for governor, from his right.


And some environmental updates.


Last month Environment Texas released bold environmental agendas for Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio.  In recent years these three cities have demonstrated their environmental stewardship, but now EnTx is challenging them to improve their clean energy initiatives, bolster clean air and water protections, and put wildlife over waste by banning the worst single-use plastics.

Texas wildlife indeed suffered mightily during the freeze, and will keep bearing the brunt of the Lone Star State's refusal to move away from fossil fuels to cleaner, sustainable energy sources.

Speaking of wildlife ...


Stopping here; more later this week.
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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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