The Texas Progressive Alliance urges you to exercise your freedom of electoral expression in ongoing special elections, and in the upcoming primary runoffs. dbc adds, "...if you absolutely must."

Your host at dbcgreentx.net also thanks PDiddie for his kind assessment of last Thursday's post and wishes all his comrades a joyous Walpurgisnacht/Beltane.

One other small point to make before we begin this week's Texoblogosphere: I tried to watch the whole video of Michelle Wolf at the WHCD, and I got about halfway through it. I know this is make me look like some uptight old white dude, but...no matter how well deserved her cheap shots were, she just. wasn't. that. funny.

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Here's last week's lefty blog and news roundup from around the state!

In lieu of any scheduled debates between Democratic gubernatorial sacrificial lambs—er we mean competitors—Andrew White and Lupe Valdez, some candidate fora happened during the past week where both were questioned about their campaigns and plans for the state. At the Jolt Texas (Latin@ youth) convention in Austin, that organization endorsed White after Valdez "came across as ill-prepared or -informed," according to Patrick Svitek at the Texas Tribune, in explaining her record with ICE as Dallas County sheriff. White and US Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke came in for some tough questioning as well. (Good on the Jolt Texans for doing the job that our state's corporate media—taking too many campaign advertising dollars, or perhaps simply lacking the will—can't get done.)

Neil at All People Have Value posted a picture of the violence initiated by HISD board president Rhonda Skillern-Jones against lawful and peaceful citizens advocating for Houston school children at a recent meeting, and Durrel Douglas at Houston Justice reported on the outcome of that meeting: the minority schools in question will not be loaned out for privatization. And Stace at Dos Centavos saw the tactics employed by the board to silence dissent as the same old, same old.

We're taking a break from the political scene, which remains hardcore depressing despite some encouraging news from the Koreas.

This entry started out as a set of brief observations on a variety of topics, but it has turned into a rantlet about the tribulations of the Houston Dash, in which I throw around a couple-dozen players' names to make it look as if I know what I'm talking about. Socratic Gadfly has his Cardinals, Kuffner has his Yankees; I've got my Dynamo and Dash (and the US national teams).

The Rockets are steamrolling through the NBA playoffs. The Astros are finishing one of the best Aprils in their 57-year history. Our professional soccer teams? They're not exactly keeping pace: The Dynamo are 2-2-3 (8 points), the Dash 0-2-3 (2 points).

Despite the club's casual attitude about losing Christen Press to Sweden before she played even a minute in orange, her absence is really starting to sting.

Raise your hand if you survived Earth Day weekend with your mental health intact, or at least undiminished. In the Lone Star State, we just endured a three-day onslaught of unofficial holidays: Santa Maria Juana Day (4/20), San Jacinto Day (a school holiday in my childhood years, commemorating the decisive battle in the War for Texas Independence), and an Earth Day with a case of middle-age existential dread appropriate for a holiday soon to turn 50.

Yesterday's Earth Day celebration at Discovery Green was not fertile ground for a Green Party apparatchik chasing petition signatures. The overwhelming majority of attendees whom I approached told me that they had voted in one of the March primary elections; I didn't ask which primary, but it was a Democrat-heavy crowd, as you might imagine. This phenomenon doesn't occur exclusively because environmentally-minded voters mistake the Democratic Party for a bulwark against industrial pollution and global warming: Plenty of progressive voters voted to support progressive candidates, regardless of their chances of winning—which, as a longtime Green I can respect, whether or not I agree with it. The Sunday Streets event in Third Ward was no better.
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With this week's lefty blog post roundup, the Texas Progressive Alliance won't be flying Southwest Airlines for awhile. Not even for five grand in cash and another G in flight vouchers, thanks.

In that *ahem* spirit, Socratic Gadfly looked at Southwest's fatal engine blowout and sees it as a continuation of past bad practices.

High Plains Public Radio reports—and links to more in the Houston Chronicle (paywall)--regarding the Texas gerrymandering lawsuit, with opening arguments before the Supreme Court this morning. The Texas Observer posits that disgraced former Congressman Blake Farenthold was one of the undeserved beneficiaries of those goofy, and possibly illegal, maps. And Alexa Ura of the TexTrib, at the SCOTUS today, has the explainer. (Three weeks ago she reminded us why this 7-year-old-saga has everybody angry.)

Peace-Mom Cindy Sheehan asked a bunch of us peacenik comrades to tweet some graphics and hashtags. I was only to happy to oblige. If you are capable of intersectional thinking, you know that Earth Day is not just about picking up trash and recycling. Even if every individual or family on earth recycled the majority of their waste and switched to all-electric vehicles run on renewable energy, we would only cut our worldwide energy consumption by about 30%. Businesses and governmental agencies would have to clean up their act as well in order to get the world on track to thwart climate change and its effects. Of those governmental agencies, the biggest consumers of energy by far are the world's military forces.

People, Peace, and Planet over profit.

As I mentioned Monday, I missed the Green Party confab over the weekend, so I didn't have the information who got elected or nominated to do what. But it's available now, if somewhat incomplete:

• Here is the page with the current State Executive Committee and the National Committee delegation.
• Here is the page with Texas Green candidates for various offices. It hasn't changed since I last linked to it.

Our Slate
Gubernatorial candidate Janis Richards informed me that she and George Reiter were indeed officially nominated to run for Governor and Railroad Commissioner, respectively. She did not have the information on whether Jamar Osborne got the nomination for Attorney General; however, she did note that Osborne did not receive the Libertarian nomination for which he had filed back in December; that went to Michael Ray Harris.

Richards, Reiter, and the other candidates will appear on Texas ballot only if the party manages to acquire the requisite petition signatures, which we have discussed in this space ad nauseam. We have also observed that this slate is considerably smaller than in recent years when the Texas Greens had guaranteed ballot access.

State Executive Committee
Harris County is well represented on the SEC, with four of the nine members. This is nothing new or unexpected: Even with all the recent rancor, Harris County remains the largest and strongest of the county organizations.

Houstonian Joy Davis is the new Co-Chair, starting a two-year term. Long-time Greenie Alfred Molison is taking the fiscal reins; David Wager has tried for some time to find his own replacement as Treasurer, and it took withdrawing entirely from active membership for someone to finally step into his shoes.

Like Richards, Davis is a recent arrival, having found the Harris County Greens via the Green Party Black Caucus at the 2016 convention we hosted here. A newly elected member of the Harris County Steering Committee as well, Davis has demonstrated organizational acumen, enthusiasm, and a diplomatic disposition.

The GPTX website shows all the At Large SEC members having terms that expire next year. Normally those terms are staggered, just like the co-chair positions. I'll post an update if that turns out to be inaccurate.

National Committee
The National Committee delegation's terms also universally expire at the 2019 annual meeting, according to the website. Three of the nine NC delegates are from Harris County: Richards, Alán Alán Apurim, and now-former state co-chair Laura Palmer. You might also count Harris County co-chair Valerie Alessi, although she and Remington now dwell in Galveston County.

In addition to running for governor, Richards now has a trifecta of responsibilities within the party: She serves on the Harris County Steering Committee, the State Executive Committee, and the National Committee. As I have told her at least once, the line between commitment and overcommitment is indeed a fine one; participating in those three bodies borders on the masochistic.

Adrián Boutereira, Jill Stein's 2016 field director, also represents the Lone Star State on the NC. In a recent downsizing at GPUS, Boutereira lost his paid position, but he is still a devoted Green and an avatar of the Party's overtly eco-socialist identity. (Yeah, that's a nifty string of ten-dollar words, innit?)

This post shouldn't be about me. Yes, it's my blog, and I'd love to talk to you about my activities over the weekend, but I can't help feeling that those activities are of so little importance compared to other recent events. It seems inappropriate to talk about oneself when one's government is committing mass murder yet again.

Appropriate or not, I will talk about my weekend. There are lessons to be learned from it.

Over the past week, the United States of America got even more deeply involved in the Syrian conflict, raining death and destruction on yet another Middle Eastern nation and creeping closer to direct confrontation with Russia. It's what we do. It's kind of become our specialty.

So, on Saturday afternoon, rather than go Downtown to see Houston's 31st annual Art Car Parade, as I had planned, I yielded to my peacenik reflexes and joined in a small protest rally Uptown. Downtown I likely could have added dozens of signatures to the Green Party's ballot access petition while other Greens were tied up with their state convention; Uptown I managed to get ten. Brian Harrison and several others from the most recent Socialist Alternative meeting were present, and all of them had signed the petition that evening.

Sigh. I didn't go to the State Convention of the Green Party of Texas Saturday. Some of you know why. Thus, as of this morning, all I know about what happened there is what I've read toward the bottom of this entry.

I also didn't go to the Art Car Parade, which I'd been looking forward to with my customary eagerness. Despite long-held plans to petition downtown, where 100,000 Art Car fans were likely to show up despite the damp and chilly conditions, I joined a few dozen peace activists at Westheimer and Post Oak to hold signs and chant. I'll post something about my weird weekend later today.

Meanwhile, we present the weekly adaptation of Brains and Eggs's Weekly Wrangle.

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