Monday, December 06, 2021

The Monday Morning Wrangle from Far Left Texas


Opening with the latest in state political news as the filing deadline for the March primaries and the November general election approaches.


O'Rourke is also in Beaumont this Thursday.


Hinojosa appears to be in a spirited tussle for his job with Col. Kim Olson.  She has released a long list of endorsements (that are not slouches).  As an ex-Democrat, I don't care which of these two wins, but the dynamics -- Olson's white women and rural and conservaDems versus Hinojosa's incumbent, establishment, South Texas and Latin@ bloc -- will be interesting to observe.  And the race could be further scrambled from an identity politics POV if Carroll Robinson throws his hat in.

The Texas Signal talked to state Rep. Michelle Beckley about her candidacy for lieutenant governor, and to Jay Kleberg on his bid for land commissioner.  Kuff did a couple more filing updates.


Bears watching, especially if Abbott calls the TXGOP's heavily-requested fourth special session.  And Comptroller (pronounced 'controller') Glenn Hegar finally managed to get some bad publicity.


The Texas Observer also reported on this story earlier in the fall.  Last: a very good thread here about the influence of Steven Hotze on Houston elections, especially if you're voting in the school board runoffs taking place right now.


While we wait for the Supreme Court to strike down a woman's right to choose, here's some reading on that topic.


COVID next.


Your Local Epidemiologist is on top of the omicron situation.  Socratic Gadfly dove back into COVID with his post on the gain of function issues, along with Fauci and NIAID's apparent failure to monitor Peter Daszag.  And with medical news apart from the novel coronavirus, Texas 2036 warned that the shortage of doctors in the state is getting worse.  (Hey, remember when tort "reform" was supposed to fix that?)  Writing in the San Antonio Report, Doctors Junda Woo and Barbara Taylor urge Alamo City leaders to use the tools at its disposal to end HIV there.  And condolences poured in for Danny Jensen of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, who passed away over the weekend.

Criminal and social justice news:


How about some redistricting updates?


And the latest from your local library and schoolhouse.


For Texas Monthly, Ashley Hope PΓ©rez tells what happened when a school district banned her book.


A few items about climate and the environment.


Stephen Eisenman at Counterpunch profiled the history and the dilemma of Port Arthur, and spoke to local activist Hilton Kelley there.


I'll take that as my segue to the soothers.

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, December 05, 2021

Sunday Morale Booster Funnies

Posted by at No comments:

Friday, December 03, 2021

The Weekend Wrangle from Far Left Texas


A lot to catch up on before a weekend full of outdoor activities (Mrs. Diddie and I are doing Dickens, as we always do).


These are among the variety of hurdles and onstacles that I cannot see Texas Democrats overcoming on their way to an electoral breakthrough next year.

Still, t'is the season for optimism, so I'll try to hold that.


We're all hoping Jessica is right.


Let's do the criminal and social justice news next.


Let me take that as my cue to segue to the environmental headlines.


Two COVID updates.


Lamb founded Daystar in late 1997, in Dallas.

And a few items that don't fit easily in the previous categories.


Ending another very weird and bad week with some calm-me-downs.

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, December 02, 2021

A news update from the Republic of Gilead


It's just to the west of Dystopia.


Tackling only the last item in this post.

As the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority seems poised to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, more than twice as many Americans (55 percent) say they want the court to reaffirm its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision as say they want it overturned (24 percent), according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

Yet when asked about the specifics of the Mississippi case, respondents are far more divided -- a sign that America’s views on abortion are not quite as clear-cut and polarized as many assume.

The survey of 1,696 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Nov. 17 to 19, found that equal numbers favor (39 percent) and oppose (38 percent) the Mississippi law when it is described as something “that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, or about three and a half months.” (Roe v. Wade currently prohibits states from outlawing the procedure before about 23 weeks.) A significant share of Democrats (19 percent), Black Americans (25 percent) and Hispanic Americans (29 percent) also say they support a 15-week ban. Another 23 percent of overall Americans are unsure.


During oral arguments Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts emerged as the leading voice on the right for a narrow decision that would allow other states to ban abortions before 15 weeks but not fully overturn Roe.

“The thing that is at issue before us today is 15 weeks,” Roberts said.

But Justice Samuel Alito disagreed, arguing that “the only real options we have” are to reaffirm Roe in its entirety or to overrule it -- a view that at least two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, are thought to share.

Who's to blame here?


"Vote Blue No Matter Who!"


There are ways the Democrats could save abortion and save democracy and sweep back the country’s inexorable trend toward theocratic fascism, but they all involve using power in a way that, so far, no leader from the party has been willing or able to do.

You’ve probably heard of several of these: eliminating the filibuster, packing the court, or even simply using the executive branch to ignore the right’s new grasp over judicial review, which was never in the Constitution in the first place and we can all see has clearly gotten out of hand. Even within the flawed system of the Senate and current legislature, Democrats could be making a concerted push for D.C. statehood or Puerto Rico statehood or both, giving them a better chance to secure majorities so that every single bill doesn’t rest on people like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Democrats could even pass a law ensuring a woman’s right to an abortion (imagine that) right now, technically, if they chucked the filibuster and convinced Manchin and Bob Casey to support the bill that passed the House in September.

They can’t do this, of course, because Manchin and Casey probably won’t budge on abortion and Manchin and Sinema won’t budge on the filibuster. All of these people are Democrats. So while it’s potentially true that if we just elected “more Democrats,” these few ideological aberrations might be less of a problem, but the question becomes how many? How many do we have to elect? And what if we keep voting for Democrats, somehow flip a few more red states to purple, but the only way we do so is if we elect another Joe Manchin? What then? What do we need to secure these things -- 60 votes in the Senate? Obama had 59 in 2009 and barely got the Affordable Care Act passed. Political priorities have changed a bit in the past 12 years, but is there any guarantee that we’d get anything done with 59 or 60 now? Not really. And where are those seats supposed to come from?

Democrats aren't going to save Roe.  They could have long ago if they wanted, but then they couldn't raise money off the issue.

Donating to, voting for, or electing more Democrats isn't going to save Roe, or pass Medicare for All, or raise the minimum wage, or cut subsidies to fossil fuels, or anything else that needs to be done NOW and not later.

Democrats can't even save themselves from an electoral wipeout in 2022.  What makes you think they're going to do anything for you?
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)