Monday, October 18, 2021

The Monday Wrangle from Far Left Texas


“Shortly before Texas' new abortion law went into effect, the SAFE Alliance, a nonprofit that supports survivors of sexual abuse, was counseling a 12-year-old girl who had been repeatedly raped by her father.”

Any minute now, Governor Strangelove is going to eliminate all rape in Texas.  He told us so.  And he always speaks the truth.


After taking a General Strike break at the end of last week, I have more than enough for a very long post.  I'd rather not subject either you or me to that, so let's just hit the highlights.  Or lowlights and lowlifes, if you prefer.


Yes.  Well, Texas Democrats in the Lege could have honored the general strike, or perhaps thrown some other wrench in the gears, but I feel certain they did not have the stomach for a fourth special session.  They all -- mostly -- want you to re-elect them next year anyway.  To keep fighting.  Something.

My personal general strike extends to voting in this current election.  I see no point in weighing in on constitutional amendments.  Similarly, I won't be voting n next spring's Democratic primary.  They can choose who they like and I'll choose whether to vote for any of them in the fall.

There is -- as I have come to understand -- a messsage being sent to government's leaders in not voting.  And that message ranges from "FU" to "IDGAF".

I'll move on while I still have the will, or the interest, to provide these news updates.  Documenting the atrocities is hard.

Environmental developments:


The Axios Dallas newsletter (subscribe here) says that illegal emissions were lower across the state in 2020.  But...

... but North Texas saw an increase in unauthorized pollutants, according to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project and Environment Texas.

Why it matters: 2020's pollutant decline was mostly due to pandemic shutdowns of manufacturing and oil and gas production and not due to increased enforcement of environmental protections, the report says.

The Dallas Observer's Jacob Vaughn writes about a west Dallas neighborhood's concerns about yet another concrete plant's pollution.  HPM says that Galveston Bay researchers are literally fishing for data on chemical runoff.  And the Statesman's op-ed board says that the EPA must save Texas from itself.  In more newspaper news, D Magazine says that the DMN should retire its editorial board, and El Paso Matters reports that the El Paso News is now printing the paper in Cuidad Juarez.

A few too many criminal and social injustice updates.


One spot of good news here.


And a few calm-me-downs.

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Sunday, October 17, 2021

Sunday "Democracy's Boundaries" Funnies

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Saturday, October 16, 2021

The Weekend Wrangle from Far Left Texas


A very antiseptic take on the end of the week's election-related Lege actions from TXElects.

The House passed Senate Bill 4, the Senate’s redistricting plan for itself, without adopting any amendments.

Both plans head to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk in plenty of time to keep the filing period and primary elections on schedule.

The House will take up Senate Bill 6, the congressional redistricting plan, (today).

Early voting begins Monday for the November 2 constitutional, general and special elections.

Let's go elsewhere for some analysis.


As mentioned, Congress maps later today.


Redistricitng/gerrymandering wasn't the only debacle.


There was too much ugliness in the deliberations (sic) on this bill to be repeated here.


The repercussions of previously-passed bad laws are quickly being felt.


“What is the other side of the Holocaust?” he asked rhetorically. “Are you going to assign fourth graders Mein Kampf? Are you going to make them listen to Seb Gorka’s radio show? I just don’t know what she actually had in mind. But again, this is exactly what you get when you have politicians playing culture war and then trying to ram that into badly thought out draconian legislation.”

He added, “Republicans in Texas have been conservative for a long time, but there was a time when conservative Republicans in Texas were not absolutely batshit crazy.”


Moving on to criminal and social injustice news.


And there will be some justice.


A few climate items.


And some updates to news that haven't been made here recently.


One snarky bit: "Brain Flakes". They need to be eating more of those in rural Texas, but Mr. Hart needs to be paying his people more to move those boxes.


And a soother.

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