Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Giving Tuesday Wrangle


No boycotts and no strikes today.  Give what you can to those who ask, and to those who need help but are too shy to ask.  It's better than involuntarily donating to corporations.


More of the latest state politics.


JoJo has been one of my favorites for a very long time.  She really gets it, and has the scars from jackasses like Bill White and many other shitlibs to prove it.  All power to her.


Does the Pope shit in the woods?  Of course he does.  I'm not interested in local school board elections, but if that's your jam, now is the time to make your vote, voice, and objections loud to the Q-Crew schoolhouse bullies working hard to Dominionize your kids and grandkids.


I post Dr. Jones' tweets here on the occasions when he manages to keep his red partisanship out of his analysis.  Which is about half the time he tweets.  When he fails in that he embarrasses himself, as Braddock shows here.

Making the effort to challenge one's thinking -- to break out of the silo, so to speak -- requires rigorous self-inspection.  I appreciate when others do the work and create the breakthroughs.  Here's an example of that not happening.


The problem here is the word 'siphon'.

As I have blogged many times in the past, votes are not zero sum.  Votes are earned.  The confusion arises due to Gohmert's intention for his bid.  It was the same as Matt Krause's before he dropped out: capitalize on the scandals of Ken Paxton by offering oneself as the Qonservative alternative to Pee Bush and Eva Guzman.  (The sticky point is obviously trying to understand whatever passes for logic in the TXGOP primary voter's mind in choosing between Paxton and Gohmert.)  Paxton would make the runoff easily -- polling suggests without a runoff -- if it weren't for Gohmert now in.  Bush's chances improve as a runoff entrant.  So if I'm laying odds today, about 90 days from the spring election date, I'm favoring K-Pax and Baby Bush as the top two.  But a lot is going to happen between now and then, not the least of which is the possibility that Tejano Republicans carry more clout than anybody has been able to measure so far.


Yes, Beto needs their counterparts to save him and the rest of Team Donkey down the ballot.  So the RGV is ground zero for March and November.  I don't think it's going to happen for him, but stranger things have.


Still pisses me off that Ms. Crockett Bigfooted into this primary and has squashed Jessica Mason, the actual progressive.  I don't really see the suddenly-presumptive nominee as anything more than another all-talk no-action Squad member.  In similar fashion, Donna Imam beat Julie Oliver to the punch, jumping in to face Lloyd Doggett in the TX-37 primary.


Moving on to the criminal and social justice links.


Even as Abbott has again mobilized Texas Guard troops to the southern border, polls show support for his immigration moves ticking upwards.


There's your cray-cray read of the day.  I'm heading on to the climate news.


The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung reports that opponents to a new quarry to be dug over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone are fighting the company, Vulcan Construction Materials, in court and in the community.


Closing today with some holiday lights and music options.

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Monday, November 29, 2021

The Cyber Monday Boycott Wrangle



A very Merry Christmas to ExxonMobil Beaumont for making their locked-out employees' holiday a little darker.


A bit of Lone Star political goings on:


Thus endeth the latest episode of Hamlet-esque dithering of potential Texas Democratic goobernatorial candidates.  This series began in 2012 and ended in January of this year when the original lead, Julián Castro, was first cast.  That hasn't stopped national and state media from keeping candles lit at the church altar for him.  We can only pray to Doorknob that he will eventually join Henry Cisneros in the Hall of Forgotten.

And that smell isn't from Pasadena; it's River Oaks Lawn Odor.
$770,000 for "much-needed equipment and training for HPD".

Well as long as it's for the cops.  Let's get a bipartisan photo and demonstrate that George Carlin was right all along.


THIS is how to analyze campaign finance reports.


After cleaning up ERCOT and PUC (I perhaps should have inserted a 'sic' after "cleaning up") heads need to roll at the Railroad Commission.  They won't.


 Let's move on to the criminal and social justice lowlights.


Whew.  A week's worth of foul behavior over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Quite an accomplishment.  Here are some climate updates from around the Great State.


Greg Abbott guarantees us that it will.  What does he know that he isn't telling us?  Let's keep our eyes peeled for clues.


And via Bloomberg (use this link for Yahoo and jump the paywall) a Permian-based oil company went up in flames, burning their lenders and the planet as well.

Mark Siffin, 71, was no ordinary wildcatter. Sitting in an office in Houston on a rainy day last year, wearing navy corduroys and red sneakers, Siffin recounted the circuitous path he had taken to become the chief executive officer of MDC Energy LLC. He had dabbled in lots of businesses, from gemstones to art, before becoming a big-time real estate developer with projects in West Hollywood and Times Square. Then, in 2018, he snagged more than $700 million in loans to drill wells in the Permian Basin ...

It took just 14 months for his company and his half-century dream to implode. Siffin shelled out money he didn’t have, his lenders said, drilling wells too fast as oil prices slumped and investor interest in the shale patch waned. In November 2019, MDC plunged into bankruptcy.

[...]

While Siffin was battling with creditors, his employees were dealing with another problem: MDC couldn’t pay to treat the unwanted byproducts that come up with its oil. The company was required by its pipeline operator to get the hydrogen sulfide content below 4 parts per million. A few of MDC’s wells produced gas with a concentration of 2,000 parts or higher, state records show.

Instead, MDC burned it off. Javier Morin, a former completions consultant for the company, remembers driving from the trailer where he slept to the well pad and seeing either side of Interstate 20 lit up by MDC flares. “At one point it looked like a little town,” said Morin.

In November 2019, the same month MDC filed for bankruptcy, the company’s flaring doubled from the previous month, according to production reports filed with the state, while its gas output grew just 1.4%. By the end of that year, MDC was flaring more than 12% of all the natural gas it produced. That rate continued in 2020, making MDC the second-worst Permian operator for flaring in a list of 45 companies compiled by consulting firm Rystad Energy.

Data derived from satellite imagery show that MDC’s flaring may have been even greater -- roughly twice as much in 2020 as what it reported to regulators ...

Don't miss Sharon Wilson's reporting at the end.

Sadly I have more Tweets and links on all these topics that will appear in the next Wrangle, tomorrow or later in the week.  Let's wrap today on a calmer -- if not entirely happier -- note.

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Sunday, November 28, 2021

Thanksgiving Leftover Funnies

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