Monday, December 20, 2021

A Wrangle Before Christmas


I'll be adding to that list, here in this post and in the coming days.  Yes, there's lots of ground to cover; I'll open with the exploding omicron variant/COVID numbers.


Distressing news as we approach the holidays and planned gatherings.


We are three times jabbed, with the Pfizer following two Moderna shots exactly on schedule (one month ago, 7 months ago, and the first last April).  We are masked, KN95, every time we leave the house, and have recently stopped dining out again despite all these precautions.  I support mask mandates, but I oppose vaccine mandates.  People who don't want to get the shot shouldn't be forced to.  Neither should their employers keep them on payroll, or their health insurers pay for their treatment if they contract the virus.  These are the choices.  Everybody should clearly understand by now what's at stake.

The greed of Big Pharma, the waiver of liability from damage, the federal government's refusal to share the vaccines with poorer nations, the patents being protected and all of that bullshit also extends the pandemic.  For some reason we cannot compel people to do the right thing.


This does not give me hope for resolving climate change or social inequality.  Way down the list from there is worrying about whether the Democrats can figure out how to appease Joe Manchin in order to save their asses in the midterms.  As Tony Soprano might say, "Whaddaya gonna do?"

Be of good cheer anyway.  Mine comes from laughing at the foibles of the intellectually feeble, the terminally corrupt, and the uber-demagogues.





After all, I'm just here to document the atrocities.


There have been some developments regarding redistricting -- or gerrymandering, if you prefer -- since my last Wrangle.  Also the new SOS has been efforting to "clean up" (sic) the voter rolls.


Will Wilder and Elizabeth Hira for the Brennan Center show how the Freedom to Vote Act would defang Texas' voter suppression law.  Too bad that's not going to happen.  And Ken Paxton has a sad that he will not be able to go after these "criminals".  If they should break the law, that is.  His track record was poor anyway.


The War on School Libraries is the new War on Christmas.


Our school board trustees do have other things to worry about.  "Things" being legal problems of their own making.


It's not as if potential school shootings are a concern, after all.


The power grid has been in sharp focus recently.  Let's round up the latest.


I've run long here, so I'll put the criminal and social justice news in the next Wrangle.  And more calm-me-downs.  Here's one to close.

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Sunday, December 19, 2021

Sunday 'Week Before' Funnies

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Thursday, December 16, 2021

As the Filing Dust Settles Wrangle


Really am enjoying everything Nick Anderson and his gang are doing.

Beto's wave is building.


Candidly I've seen this before.  First in 2006 when David Van Os went to every single county courthouse in the state in his bid against Abbott for attorney general.  And nobody in my estimation had more momentum to defeat Governor Fish Lips than Wendy Davis in 2014, when she delivered a filibuster that shook the Capitol.  Literally, some will recall.

A lot of things have changed in the Lone Star State since then, not the least of which is that it's gotten redder and more extreme.  And now, of course, there's fresh gerrymandering and voter suppression to contend with.  So you'll have to forgive me if I don't deem this early enthusiasm all that contagious.


The marquee race remains, IMO, the state's attorney general contest, in both the GOP and Democratic primaries.  Just yesterday K-Pax was rebuked by the appeals court for overstepping his authority in prosecuting alleged voter fraud charges.

An election code provision granting the Office of Attorney General the ability to prosecute criminal election fraud cases is unconstitutional, the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in an 8-1 decision. The case arises from an alleged campaign finance violation by the Jefferson County sheriff, a case the county district attorney declined to prosecute.

Section 273.021 (of the Texas) Election Code provides that the “attorney general may prosecute a criminal offense prescribed by the election laws of this state.” The Court ruled that power properly resides with county and district attorneys, who are part of the judicial branch, and not the attorney general, which is part of the executive branch.

“Absent the consent and deputization order of a local prosecutor or the request of a district or county attorney for assistance, the Attorney General has no authority to independently prosecute criminal cases in trial courts,” wrote Judge Jesse McClure for the majority (PDF). “Any attempt to overlap the Attorney General’s constitutional duties with county and district attorneys’ constitutional duties in the sense of a Venn diagram of sorts is unconstitutional.”

The CCA is all Republicans.  And none of them are moderates.  They're death penalty freaks like Sharon Keller.  (Sidebar: Regarding the death penalty, there's good news on that front.)  So let's hope the TXGOP primary voter can scrounge around and find enough logic to follow their lead and rebuke Paxton themselves in March.


Without straight-ticket voting it might be easier than in the past to dislodge some of these squatters from office in November, but that's too far away to be concerned with just yet.  Focus on spring turnout, Ds.  Media will make hay if your numbers are lower than the Pachys'.

Stace reviews his favorites for the statewide Donkey races and also Harris County, linking to the Erik Manning spreadsheet.  The San Antonio Report profiles the race for Bexar County judge, sure to be as spirited as the one in Harris.

I have some catch-all items.


A couple of environmental headlines:


An expansive collation of border and immigration developments.


And the criminal and social justice news.


Two items regarding critical race theory.


And today's soothers.

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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Filling the Filings Wrangle (with updates)


I'm so old I remember when Warren G. Harding (not the former president) got elected state treasurer, and Gene Kelly (not the deceased dancer, as Barbara Radnofsky will attest) almost -- well, not quite -- got elected US Senator.


Anything that pisses Dave Carney off is worth a few laughs.  Update: Such as the Bum Steer of the Year award.


The downside is that serious candidates will again be forced to beg for attention from the state's political reporters while they chase the 'not that Rick Perry' story.  As long as you can accept that we live in an oligarchy on the days when it isn't a plutocracy, you won't be too disillusioned.  More blunt: Just stop with the 'democracy' shit already.


Not fond of but not surprised by Collier's overuse of the royal 'we' in his statement here.  He really ought to be called a 'perennial' -- or 'frequent' -- candidate in that dismissive tone that some use.


We'll wait and see re: "progressive".  Far too much co-opting of the word by Democrats, certainly Texas Democrats.  I question whether Latinas in South Texas not named Jessica Cisneros are breaking the mold, but I'll keep an open mind.


An update to TX-07:


On Tuesday, Javed acknowledged he was being asked to get out of the race but said he was determined to stay in it. Several hours later, Javed declared he had pulled out, too, with no further explanation.

And one additional morning-after reaction.


Really hoping the Democrats in John Whitmire's Senate district see fit to send him off to his previously-announced '23 H-Town mayoral campaign.


The Dean is going to have to put a lot of lipstick on his pig if he loses his last run for re-election to Austin.  And I will be here for it.

Truth to tell, however, there are bigger wads holding office that need to be ejected next year.  Let's consider the professional evaluations of Beto's latest tactic.


Seems like it might be effective.


Someone might fact-check Ms. Gilberg's claim, but regardless, enough evidence stands up to point out the governor's hypocrisy on defunding the police, especially in Austin.  Watch to see if this gains traction among LEOs.


I teased Michelle good-naturedly about her header and she took it in stride.  Her blog is outstanding from a civil rights perspective.  A little too heavy on the blue shilling for me, but that's because I'm Green now.  Delilah Barrios gets my support, money and vote for Texas governor.


One last filing update, intersecting with the criminal and social justice news (which follows).


... Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced grand jury indictments of three local Democrats -- Richard Bonton, Natasha Demming and Damien Jones -- connected to two election fraud schemes tied to local Texas House of Representatives races in House Districts 142 and 132.

You can read on at the link.


Nothing particularly new here; an aggregate of stories that have been ignored by the Blue crew for reasons that are patently obvious.

Updates from Texas Monthly's Mike Snyder and the Chron's Matt Schwartz.


Just plain weird.  Update:


The San Antonio Current is on top of one Alamo City school district's willingness to pull library books off the shelf.


The latest in climate.


Bloomberg Quint reported on two mysterious plumes of methane appearing on satellite above some East Texas oil and gas fields.  Update: ExxonMobil says it will use satellites to monitor the Permian Basin for methane leaks.  On the bright side, Environment Texas has a list of the top ten wins for the state's ecology this year, and the AP recounts the many coal-fired plants closing after the implementation of new federal wastewater guidelines.

Power producers that say they will shutter coal-fired units as a result of the new rule include Atlanta-based Southern Co. and Houston-based NRG. Southern, which operates electric utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, said it will shutter two-thirds of its coal fleet, including units at the nation’s two largest coal-fired power plants, Scherer and Bowen, both in Georgia. NRG said it plans to stop burning coal at its domestic plants outside Texas, and install new pollution controls at its two Texas plants.


That's enough for today.  Closing with one soother.

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