Thursday, November 18, 2021

The Thursday Credible Wrangle


Already this morning there's a Democrat preparing to challenge Jesus Shot Sid, but that's not relevant to me.  (I'm hoping Kenneth Kendrick is getting ready to launch his bid as a Green again.)  I'd like to know what Svitek's definition of 'credible' is.  Specifically how close it comes to Kuffner's, and whether it is dictated by the state's top oligarch, Evan Smith, Svitek's boss at the TexTrib).

Restating the obvious: I have less than zero interest in letting people like the afore-mentioned make the rules by which our governor, etc. are selected.  Call them what you will -- I prefer lickspittles, sometimes starfuckers -- by any definition they are limiting our choices to red pill or blue pill.  And it doesn't take a brain scientist or a rocket surgeon to look around and see where that has gotten us, and not just here in Deep In The Hearta.  These gatekeepers don't want to share, don't want competition for their affections, and damn sure don't want the great unwashed masses having any say-so.  So if you got the money, they got the time.  And if you don't, then heet de rhoad, Jack.

Listen up, bitches: either stop pretending and put the richest MFer in charge, somebody like Elon Musk or Kelcey Warren, or think about what a neo-Bastille Day might look like once the commoners' patience has red-lined.

Don't take it personally.  Strictly business.  The peoples' business.  Oh, and word to Svitek: your spreadsheet is woefully out of date.  Get your assistant on that toot sweet.


Another symptom of the insider establishment thumb on the scale.  I'm guessing Davis -- still feeling the sting from losing to Abbott in 2014 and Chip Roy in 2020 -- is just trying to get back in somebody's good graces.  As long as 'somebody' isn't a woman or outside the halls of power.


No more oligarchs, plutocrats, sycophants, party hacks, Republicans too embarrased to run as Rs, or anybody else in it for the money or the intoxication of authority.  Of the people, by the people, and for the people.  Or hit the reset button and start all over.

Moving on.


Incredible. I need to get offline.

Houston geologist, historian, musician, and author Dan Worrall will speak about the long distance trade routes among the Indigenous peoples through Texas and beyond.

The talk, titled “The Late Archaic Lower Brazos Culture and the Nature of Long Distance Exchange Networks”, is sponsored by the Houston Archeological Society.

Worrall will speak at the monthly (in person and virtual) meeting of the society on Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7:00 p.m. He will bring a collection of artifacts from a site in west Fort Bend County for show and tell.

According to Worrall, people of the Late Archaic Lower Brazos Culture (4,000-2,000 years ago) lived along the lower parts of the Brazos and Colorado Rivers extending to the coast. Their territory was approximately equivalent to that of the Coco/Karankawa of the early Historic Period (500 years ago).

The meeting takes place at the Trini Mendenhall Community Center, 1414 Wirt Road in Houston, starting at 6:30 p.m. The program begins at 7. Here is more information about the talk.

The meeting will be offered virtually via Zoom and YouTube Livestream. The YouTube Livestream link is https://youtu.be/xfCvhInhBp4.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The #TakeAHikeDay Wrangle from Far Left Texas


While Beto's every twitch and utterance continues to be scrutinized and fawned over by the corporate media gaggle following him everywhere, I'll wait until the kerfuffle subsides before addressing the marquee matchup next year.  I would like to give one of the consistently under-reported candidates some attention.


Aside to Governor Fish Lips: Get your socialists straight, dumbass.


And she's right; the Texas Greens do have a tall task ahead.


So pitch in, and help out Delilah if you can.

On to a few more noteworthy filings of late:


The news here is that a woman and an actual Democrat entered the race for lieutenant governor, but the TexTrib settled on describing Beckley as "one of the most liberal members" of the statehouse.  Many Texas Democrats seem to dislike her, if Twitter comments are any barometer.  This may say something about Beckley but probably says more about rando TexDonks who Tweet, as well as the TexTrib, who in announcing GOP bids for office do not lead off with "one of the most conservative members" ... Mark Jones' reviews notwithstanding.  Even poor Beckley called herself a 'moderate' in her announcement.  Meanwhile the titular head of the Texas Not-So-Progressive Caucus shrugged and semi-endorsed Mike Collier, the other former Republican already running.  I'd laugh if any of this marginalization, unconscious or otherwise, was funny any longer.  It isn't.


Minjarez joins former state district judge Peter Sakai in the race.  In reporting that news, TXElects listed all of the state representatives and senators who are retiring or running for another slot.  The list was the best I had seen but is already out of date with Beckley's announcement, the departure of southeast Texas Rep. Joe Deshotel, and this:


You can see why following this just on Twitter is a job for someone who gets paid a lot to do so.  I'm a pensioner, so I'm moving on ... to lesser but still notable developments.


Aren't we all.


A couple of labor items:


With Thanksgiving a week away, Kroger shouldn't be fucking around with the help, because they are very likely to find out what happens when they do.  (And the truth is they have been, for a very long time.)  If you needed a reason to start shopping at HEB, please take this one.


And don't buy any gas from ExxonMobil, either.

Here's the criminal and social justice news.


I sure wish former cops wouldn't cover for cops.


Ed Gonzalez can Tweet all the daily platitudes and inspirational quotations he likes.  When he becomes Sheriff Joe's top border cop, nothing is going to fundamentally change.  And everybody knows it.

How about some good news?


And a few more soothers.

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Monday, November 15, 2021

The Filing Wrangle from Far Left Texas


Please stand by while this morning's breaking news sucks all the oxygen out of the 2022 statewide races for the next few days.


At the very end of the TexTrib's piece they catalog a few of the failures of O'Rourke, Texas Dems, and their inept D.C. counterparts.

For the rest of the 2020 election cycle, O’Rourke and his group focused mainly on Democrats’ fight to capture the state House majority. They came up woefully short, failing to net a single seat.

[...]

Over the summer, O’Rourke became a leading figure in Texas Democrats’ push for federal voting rights legislation. While Democrats in the Texas House broke quorum over Abbott’s priority elections bill and went to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress for help, O’Rourke crisscrossed Texas to build public pressure for federal legislation.

However, Democrats were not successful on either the state or federal levels. The state House Democrats eventually returned to Austin to allow Republicans to pass their restrictive elections legislation, while Congress still has not sent a voting rights bill to Biden’s desk.

There will be plenty of ink spilled and pixels scattered about fundraising, polling, guns, the grid, and other various and sundry issues that arise over the course of the next 11.75 months.  I feel pretty sure that our ability to -- and our interest in -- casting our ballots next year will determine who wins and who loses.  Not to be simplistic about it, but the negatives for both these losers are too high and will only go higher once the mud starts flying.  That depresses what is certain to be the more historical pattern of low voter turnout here.  And that's my marker.

Other candidate filings from over the weekend appear on Patrick Svitek's spreadsheet, and Reform Austin has compiled a grid that is difficult at best to determine party affiliation without a scorecard or knowledge from elsewhere.  It looks like they lumped the third-party challengers into a category called 'potential candidates'.  (Do better, y'all.)

Moving on ...


The tragedy at Travis Scott's AstroworldFest claimed two more victims over the weekend, and everybody with a conscience is reassessing the rapper's prior good works for the city and even his contributions to music and the festival scene.  Not Kuffner, though.  Firefighter logs, lawsuits, and business insurance.  One of the more appallingly tone-deaf posts I've read on that blog in recent years.  He had nothing to say about Scott in the years before, and has turned into his predictable scold after, same as with the Astros' cheating, the Texans being owned by the McNairs, and other items often "seen in the background" that demonstrate how much he doesn't actually care about the people of Houston.  What would you expect from a Yankees fan, after all?  Wait and see how happy he is when Carlos Correa signs with the Bombers; that'll tell you.

Disgusting.

Continuing with a few more items of note that revulse me:


Of all the reasons I have not to fly, rude-ass conservatives starting fights with airline employees is moving rapidly up the list.


I was mad enough about the possibility of freezing in the dark this winter without being reminded that I'm paying for Kelcey Warren's million-dollar contribution to Greg Abbott out of his $2.4 billion profits from last winter.  If the power goes out for days once more, maybe Beto's got a shot after all (as long as the Texans who rarely vote don't all die of hypothermia, that is).


I'll stop here for now -- lots more to come -- with these calm-me-downs.

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Sunday, November 14, 2021

Sunday "Big Bird, Little Bird" Funnies

That time a cartoon preempted the Cuban Missile Crisis

In his column looking back at past interviews, veteran journalist A. Craig Copetas remembers a time when The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends offered an alternative version of US-Soviet history.

Support a disappearing craft and give a Christmas gift subscription to your loved ones from your favorite cartoonist(s).
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