Wednesday, May 26, 2021

A skirmish won


Update: Big battles yet to come, even as Little Guv Dan Patrick throws a temper tantrum and demands a recount of the ones he was beaten on yesterday.


The war, alas, mostly lost already.

Lay it at the feet of the scowly-faced man with the gavel in the video above, along with statehouse Democrats who slid fearfully to the right, and all who trusted Speaker Forehead to be a fair arbiter this session.  Dade Phelan is no Joe Straus.  Back another horse in 2023, Donks.

Between now and then you need to fight like hell for a few more days, then again in a special session on redistricting, and whatever else Gov. Helen Wheels adds to the call -- undoubtedly some of the trash y'all defeated this time -- and then win some goddamned elections.  And don't blame or throttle the Green Party in your efforts to do so, or by Dishrag I'll stop voting for your judicial candidates down the ballot in reprisal, and encourage as many as possible to do the same.

Here's your platform.


(ICYMI: Patrick's 1991 vasectomy, broadcast live on his Houston radio station)

Moving on to other topics ...

Greg Abbott has had a winner of a session by anybody's scorecard, and he's setting up the special to capture a few more flags.


Yeah, just trust him.


If a meteor struck the Capitol today and ended the session early, Abbott would at the very least be able to claim Trump-ish bonafides like outlawing abortion, freeing guns from the tyranny of licensing and training, and some extra helpings of steak tartare to his donors like Kelcy Warren.

It won't be enough for Allen West and Sid Miller and MQS and the rest of the Lafitte privateers in the GQP (don't forget about their big shindig in Dallas this weekend) but that's a fight we can wait to watch next year.  Today the chattering class is excited about who former Prezdint Agolf Shitler might endorse between Ken Paxtoon and George Pee Bush.

"I like them both very much," Trump said in a statement Tuesday. "I'll be making my endorsement and recommendation to the great people of Texas in the not-so-distant future."

Bush has said he is "seriously considering" a primary challenge to Paxton and has scheduled a campaign kickoff for an unspecified office on June 2 in Austin. Bush spoke with Trump about the race Monday.

I really don't care.  Do you?  In more immediate Texas election news, voting has begun in the municipal runoffs across the state, and the most prized for Democrats is the Fort Worth mayoral.


And CD-10 progressive Dem Mike Siegel calls your attention to a like-minded candidate in the runoff with a conservative incumbent in Grand Prairie.

I have a backlog of criminal and social justice news.  First: more photos and video from marches and rallies in the Lone Star State in support of the cause of Gaza and Palestinians living there under the boot heel of Israeli ethnocide.


And Sam Russek's thread with video of the Houston rally that turned into a march is remarkable.  Read the whole thing; here's where the crowd quite gently took down the police barricades and filled Post Oak in front of the Galleria.


HPD's response was incredibly muted compared to past actions I've attended and witnessed.  I believe that's unlikely to be the case in the future, given the recent bill passed in Austin.


Also: laws decriminalizing the driving into and running down of protestors in other states are bound to head our way too soon.  Then there's the bills that penalize cities for defunding their police departments; these didn't need any Democratic votes, but they got them anyway.


Grits for Breakfast hypothesized that "anti-defund" legislation could have the effect of redefining what it means to be a "police officer".

With respect to the statewide camping ban law -- an action taken in response to Austin's efforts -- we know now that cruelty is the point.


And the same with cash bail.


Having run long again here, I'll post environmental updates -- the spat between George Pee's GLO and Harris County's non-existent portion of Harvey funding, Coastal Bend Queen Diane Wilson's ongoing struggle against the Big Chem polluters, and some other items -- tomorrow.  Here's my collection from the softer side.

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Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Guns Up, Voting Down Aggregation


Not so much a Red Raider Wrangle as a Wild West one.


You might find yourself envious of all the Democratic and Republican attorneys having an orgasm thinking about the billable hours they'll accrue when all of this legislation goes to court.


So let's not spend much more of our beautiful mind, or day -- the sun is trying to come out from behind the clouds after two weeks of dreary -- thinking about the wickedness pouring out of the Pink Dome like slime from a sewer.  After all, they still have voting to suppress, trans kids to stop from playing sports ...


... and all of this.


Then there will be redistricting in a special session later in the year.  A fresh hell for many dead bills to be resurrected.  In other words, there will be plenty to get irate about later.

Besides, there has been some good news.


Talerico wins my award for best lawmaker, going away.  He found several ways to make a positive impact during the most hideous legislative session ever.


Patrick's got it bottled up, though, so if this is your jam, it's time to act.


From my cheap seat, nobody has done a better job of Johnny-on-the-Spot advocacy than NORML this session.  Every Texan's Dick Lavine has been relentless on Chapter 313 and Texas Watch's Ware Wendell similarly on the trucking tort reform bill (which passed, unfortunately), but the weed folks have really moved the needle.

Corporate media has been shafted by Lege leadership, and transparency has been ... translucent when it hasn't been opaque.


That is to say, when they have not embarrassed themselves.


And some Republican state leaders learned the hard way that telling the truth is hazardous to their political health.


Dr. Hotez elaborates from his perspective.


So our beloved Texas has a poor prognosis for democracy, facts, and justice, unless the courts can come to our collective rescue.  Yes, I know.  Not the kind of blue anybody wants to turn.

Hard-right politics rules the day, week, month, year, biennium, and perhaps decade.


Are moderate Republicans -- and Democrats who vote in the GOP primary -- the only ones left to rescue the state from this fate?


It's a serious question.


I still I have a lot to post on these and other topics I have promised, but I'll pause here. One soother.

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Monday, May 24, 2021

"There is Too Much Evil" Round-up


Under the guise of Christian family values and an emphasis on freedom and liberty, the fascists running Texas demand that you show them your child's genitalia; the government must be assured that all children's clothes and hair match what Jeebus gave them below the belt at birth.

And their obnoxious, overbearing, intrusive god forbid anyone who would question -- much less dare to alter -- his decision-making in the womb, under penalty of state law.

To mark Pan-Visibility Day today, and Trans-Youth Advocacy Day belatedly, it's appropriate to focus on the more cruel business the Lege has been up to over the past week.


Thank goodness there's a Texas governor candidate (and a political party) doing more than Tweeting pictures of themselves wearing a pink and blue flag lapel pin and congratulating each other on how hard they fought as they lost.


Yvonna Marquez at the Texas Observer also looked at the stress that the onslaught of anti-trans bills is causing our state's trans kids.  Adam Briggle, writing at Issues.Org, examined the use of science and his love for his son amid the debate over appropriate trans children's health care.  Mandy Giles is grateful for the community she has found while advocating for trans rights at the Lege.  OutSmart spoke to five Houston-area families who have traveled to Austin to advocate for themselves and their children.  And Socratic Gadfly's take on these bills is a mix of supportive and challenging thought for both critical race theory and gender-critical radical feminism.

Updates as they happen in the Tweet feed to right, or follow it yourself under the #txlege hashtag, or check in here later in the week for the aftermath.

Taking these legislative developments in bite-size pieces, with lots of water and some Maalox to keep them down.  More ahead.
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