Sunday, May 30, 2021

Memorial Day Weekend "Back to Work" Funnies



If you’re anywhere near Stockbridge, Massachusetts (western MA, near the New York border), the Norman Rockwell Museum’s exhibit Pat Oliphant: Editorial Cartoons from the Nixon and Clinton Eras lasts until Monday, so if you can get there, go see it.  If you can't, read Mike Peterson's review.

And support today's political cartoonists here.
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Thursday, May 27, 2021

Petty, Party of Two



Late hours, extreme fatigue, frayed nerves, the old push me/pull you between the far right and the freak right is worth a laugh.


Not as funny as eating flies crawling into your mouth, though.


We understood a long while ago that Kremlin Toad Cruz was not human; there's just no need for him to keep proving it.  He can't help himself.


Every single time he tweets, he is savaged.  But it's interpreted by him, and his lickspittles, as "triggering/owning the libs".  It IS a game, we're all playing it, he thinks he's winning.

Apropos of nothing except more of our TXGOP leadership behaving badly ... are Angela and Ken Paxton in an open marriage?


She's working long, late hours under Dan Patrick's tutelege while he's ... doing whatever this is.  The AGTX was previously reported as flinging with a woman whom he referred to one of his rich contributors for a job, which became more grist for his corruption mill.  "Recommitted to his marriage", as the link from six months ago says, does not seem reflected in these photos.

That's enough mockery at these clowns' expense.

I now return you to your regular "Republicans Behaving Badly" programming.  Back under the Pink Dome, as Sine Die bears down ...


"You'll be invoiced for our expenses from our negligence that resulted in your neighbors freezing to death.  Sorry, that's capitalism; some win, others lose."

"Oh by the way, we have openings for unpaid internships for the special session.  Please have your young, attractive daughters and nieces apply now."


Be sure and read Phillip Martin's tweet attached to that thread.


I suppose I'll stop there, though I could post some more.  Maybe later; it's early and our representatives and senators are still asleep.  Mostly.

Oh hell, here's a few more petty pairings.


Still more to come.  My ever-lengthening environmental post, a collation of "cruelty is the point" of this legislative session and a few others.  Just feel the need for some cleansers right now.

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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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