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David Bruce Collins for US Senate—the Official Site

Bite-Size Hungarian: Unit 1 Is Up

31/7/2017

Most of the relevant information about the Bite-Size Hungarian project is on this page. In the next few months, I intend to do the same thing for Latin, a language that I have studied at the collegiate level. Although I have no business publishing a Hungarian language text and charging money for it, I'll happily place one on my own website as a free download.

There are plenty of free resources on the WWW for learning all kinds of languages. The difference is all in the formatting. My observation is that the actual hard-copy texts that I have seen present long, complicated lessons that throw tons of vocabulary at the learner. I found the Teach Yourself series a good fit for my learning style, but these books require the learner to absorb a great deal of vocabulary and other information from each chapter. (Teach Yourself Gaelic proved a disappointment, especially without the accompanying CDs, because the book never explores the correct pronunciations for the many diphthongs and triphthongs for which Gaelic is infamous.)

My approach is to scale it back and provide concise two-page lessons, each with about a dozen new words and at most one or two new grammatical concepts. Only the very first lesson, devoted mostly to pronunciation, is a double-length episode. Each unit is divided into a dozen lessons, including a vocabulary review, plus some bonus material. Busy learners can master small amounts in small chunks of time, more easily, at their own pace, before moving on to the next lessons.

Harry Potter's Birthday TexProg Blog-o-Rama

31/7/2017

Wow, I took the whole week off from this-here blog. It's not that I've had nothing to say, but that nothing has happened that inspired any coherent entries, especially on the Green front. Last Monday I missed the opportunity to collect blog-fodder by abstaining entirely from the monthly general meeting of the Harris County Green Party for the second consecutive month. In the week since then, my initial anguish over letting my comrades down by announcing my withdrawal from participation has evolved into the Serenity of Letting Go.

Last night, however, I participated in a GPTX conference call regarding candidate development, and that call has inspired a post that will appear here in the next day or two. Beyond that, I expect to post at least a couple of times this week.

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Off the Kuff looks at July campaign finance reports for Democratic Congressional challengers.

SocraticGadfly, looking over the battle to (apparently) kill Trumpcare, notes that insurers were only temporary allies, not friends of America, and remain bloodsucking leeches who are part of why true national health care in America needs a British-style NHS.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme calls out the so-called pro-life Texas Republicans for drastically increasing the maternal death rate. Now they are going for more deaths.

Democrats appear to be suffering another severe outbreak of Jill Stein Derangement Syndrome, reports PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

The Texas Tribune reveals Cong. Lamar Smith and Randy Weber complaining to the Department of Treasury that Russia is funding a massive, back channel, disinformation campaign—aka fake news—against America. Just not the one you may have thought.

Ted at jobsanger observes today as Black Women's Equal Pay Day.

Neil at All People Have Value called upon all people to show up and fight back. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

The Mom of No, writing at the Lewisville Texan Journal, takes a vacation but not before becoming the Mom of Everything Must Be Sparkling Clean in This House.

And the Rivard Report was on hand as more than 350 San Antonians gathered at the historic San Fernando Cathedral and lit ten candles for ten migrants who perished in the back of tractor trailer truck, found in a Walmart parking lot.

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More Texas lefty blog posts and news!

Dan Solomon at Texas Monthly has the latest update from the FBI on the state's most dangerous cities, and there are a few surprises.

Grits for Breakfast finds AG Ken Paxton as perhaps the most unlikely Fourth Amendment advocate imaginable, but apparently only when a Second Amendment right was at stake.

The Texas Living Waters Project highlights the activism of Janice Bezanson, who advocates for wise water use over the construction of reservoirs.

The Texas Observer documents Greg Abbott's Texas Tree Chainsaw Massacre.

The TSTA Blog is not impressed with the Senate's "fake" pay raise for teachers.

Transgriot wants to hear more black voices in the coverage of the bathroom bill, and Equality Texas urges pushback on Greg Abbott's arm-twisting to make Republicans sign on to them.

Paradise in Hell has some sage words about highway driving.

And Katie Walsh sets the record straight about the authenticity of Tex-Mex.

Moon Day Prog Bloggage

24/7/2017

The chicanery that Kevin Zeese reported at the Green Party's Annual National Meeting weekend before last: Can we really call that "racial strife," as noted below (fifth paragraph from the end)? Some ANM attendees obviously see it that way, according not just to Zeese but to other observers.

Is this a strife that will damage the Party, or will the Party emerge stronger for having endured it? Some longtime white members may decide that they've had their fill of being reminded that they are racist, or even running the risk of being reminded, and leave. Will a greater number of black, LatinX, indigenous, and LGBT members replace them? Perhaps other Party veterans will turn that strife inward, in the classic definition of jihad, waging an internal struggle to acknowledge that they have a problem that requires constant vigilance, and making amends to those affected when they speak or act from implicit bias.

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Off the Kuff notes the two Democratic candidates who have emerged so far to run for Governor.

SocraticGadfly looks at Mitch the Turtle's ongoing Senate manueverings on Trumpcare.

Texas Democrats who can't support Tom Wakely for governor may be stuck with having to draft Joe Straus, according to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that Texas Republicans are all about encouraging polluters and not about the health and well-being of people.

Texas Leftist sees Ashley Smith making THE point about the bathroom bill debate in her selfie with Greg Abbott.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston posts the fundraising totals for the seven candidates in the running for CD-7, and the best news is that four-time perennial James Cargas is badly losing that race also.

Stace at Dos Centavos follows up on Harris County's stance on SB4, seeing county attorney Vince Ryan filing a brief against enforcement despite the commissioners' reticence to do the same.

Texas Vox is stumped by Abbott's anti-tree agenda.

With a vacancy in the Denton County district clerk's office, the Lewisville Texan Journal collects some of the candidate filings for the position.

jobsanger joins the question of what Puerto Rico should be going forward: state, nation, or territory?

Neil at All People Have Value promoted the half-year mark of the weekly protest at the Houston office of terrible Senator John Cornyn. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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More progressive news & views from the Lone Star State:

The San Antonio Current reports that in the aftermath of the tragedy discovered in an Alamo City Walmart parking lot—where several people were found dead and others stricken by heat in the back of a semi-trailer—it's worth underscoring what SAPD Chief William McManus said:
“This is not an isolated incident; this happens quite frequently," he told reporters. "Fortunately, we came across this one. Fortunately, you know, there are people who survived.”

The Texas Observer explains what a ban on abortion means for women with high-risk pregnancies.

The Rag Blog co-hosts authors Steve Early and Nick Licata on July 27 at Scholz Biergarten in Austin, who will speak about the progressive alliances in their respective cities (Richmond CA and Seattle) ahead of the Local Progress conference in Austin's AT&T Center this weekend.

RG Ratcliffe at Burkablog reveals Greg Abbott's million dollar donor, which helps explain why's he's veering his wheelchair ever more to the right.

Houston Justice Coalition is back and ready to get to work building up and not tearing down.

Robert Rivard calls the bathroom bill a choice between social justice and discrimination, and PoliTex quotes some anonymous Texas Republicans in the Lege as saying they don't want to have to vote on the bill...but are afraid they might have to.

Grits for Breakfast updates on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's latest court loss, requiring the state jail system to address the stifling heat inmates are forced to live in, and posits the next legal avenues.

DBC Green Blog took note of the "racial strife" that rose to the fore at the GPUS annual meeting earlier this month.

Better Texas Blog reminds us that the state relies an awful lot on local property taxes to fund our schools.

The Texas Election Law Blog flags a Rick Hasen editorial about the perils to our democracy.

Fort Bend ISD school board president Kristin Tassin explains how Greg Abbott's voucher plan hurts kids with disabilities.

And Keith Babberney at Trib Talk speaks for the trees.

GPUS ANM 2017: Maybe Not Such a Rousing Success?

22/7/2017

Perhaps in this recent entry I spoke too soon regarding the success of the Green Party's Annual National Meeting last weekend in Newark NJ. You may need to scroll down to the section head The Partisan Picture: Greens and the Fractured Left to see my comments on the slow, painful disintegration of my political tribe.

The too-soonness is twofold: The first fold is that, along with the general good feelings of accomplishment and the largest attendance ever for an ANM outside of Presidential Nominating Conventions, there was conflict aplenty in Newark, some of it downright bitter. Second, as Kevin Zeese might attest, the dissension can be viewed as growing pains; what appears as disintegration may in the end prove to be evolution.

More Blogrolling with PDiddie, Pacifica Edition

17/7/2017

This piece was intended to be brief, but...uhm...sorry, it ain't.

Hanging out on the left wing has never been easy. You see the world differently from your neighbors because your media intake is not limited to the major corporate networks; you actually read and understand books with big words; you spout Chomsky-esque inconvenient truths that make middle-class lifestyles seem inherently immoral. As a result, the mainstream world tends to ignore you, belittle you, cast doubt on your sanity, or find less savory ways to neutralize you.

Sure, liberal-to-progressive ideology enjoys periods of vogue, when pop culture co-opts lefty issues and talking points, and when lefty males are society's rock stars, getting laid without much effort. Then comes the inevitable backlash from the hung-up wealthy men who are missing out on all the fun.

This is my big-picture way of introducing this reflection on Perry "PDiddie" Dorrell's fairly comprehensive Brains and Eggs post on the ongoing crisis du jour at Pacifica radio. As I write, I'm nodding along with his headline about "a microcosm of Left's dysfunction in Texas." Such dysfunction is certainly not limited to Texas, but considering the size of this state, one doesn't need a magnifying glass to see its effects.

Blog Days of Summer

17/7/2017

If Neil Aquino was indeed at the Medicare for All town hall Saturday before last, I didn't see him amongst several other acquaintances—or perhaps I saw him but didn't recognize him. Hell, it didn't even click for me that a certain diminutive and dynamic woman was The Real Dayna Steele until I saw the campaign sticker she was wearing. Steele has declared herself a candidate for Congress in TX-36, as I informed Hal Ridley, Jr., last night.

Speaking of Hal, last night (the 16th) he did appear at NOKturne and played some songs, but with very limited time to prepare and promote the gig, it was a very low-key affair. There will be more appearances as Greens from Harris, Galveston, and Brazoria Counties try to establish Progressive connections in NASA/Clear Lake. Progressive or not, if you have a soft spot for Texas picker poets as I do, I can earnestly recommend Hal.

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Off the Kuff highlights a spate of LGBT candidates running for office in the near future.

SocraticGadfly tells any Texas Greens who are thinking of skipping 2018 in working to restore party-line ballot access to stop entertaining such thoughts because next year will be a good opportunity.

Got any Democrats in mind to run for governor in 2018? Drop a line to the TDP if you do, says PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Stace at Dos Centavos watched as the Harris County commissioners pollo'ed out on joining the lawsuit against the anti-sanctuary law.

Grits for Breakfast examines what police reform looks like from the conservative (specifically the representative from Empower Texans) perspective.

Texas Vox posts some of the videos of the Center for Nonprofit Studies at Austin Community College's series of “civil” discussions of the significant social issues Austin is facing, entitled Civil Society.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notices that the war on immigrants is taking a toll on the shrimping industry.

The Texan Journal reports that a federal judge has denied the request of a Title IX plaintiff for a new trial, after a jury found the Lewisville ISD not guilty. The case will be appealed to the Fifth Circuit.

jobsanger links to a New Republic piece on Trump and Russia, quoting 'Deep Throat' of Watergate infamy: "Follow the money."

McBlogger laughs at the religious left's attempts to gain relevance.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston thinks we really need a bathroom bill.

Neil at All People Have Value attended the Medicare For All town hall sponsored by the Bernie Sanders/Our Revolution group and also by Houston socialist organizations. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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More Lone Star lefty blog posts and news!

The Rivard Report says it's Greg Abbott's special session and the rest of us are just livin' in it, but San Antonio lawmakers have other ideas.

PoliTex reports on Abbott's prolific use of social media, particularly Facebook Live, as he kicked off his re-election campaign last Friday.

Melissa del Bosque at the Texas Observer has the story on Trump's southern border wall already taking shape, running through an environmentally sensitive South Texas wildlife refuge.

Better Texas Blog keeps digging into how bad Trumpcare would be for our state.

Juanita Jean has some fun with a Republican neighbor.

Paradise in Hell wonders what town hall meetings Ted Cruz goes to, and High Plains Blogger sees "Lyin' Ted", of 2016 GOP primary fame, making a comeback.

DBC Green Blog previewed CD-36 Green Congressional candidate Hal Ridley Jr.'s event in Clear Lake over the past weekend.

Chris Ladd at Political Orphans is here to remind us, as a former 'GOPLifer', that Democrats are not going to save us from Trump and extremist Republicans.

Michael Li demonstrates how easy it is to draw minority opportunity districts in Deep-In-The-Hearta, and Gabriella Dunn at Burkablog documents the many requests for Texas voter data.

Somervell County Salon carefully documents a recent appellate court case in North Carolina that found that county commissioners cannot say a prayer before their meetings.

Ashton P. Woods at Strength !n Numbers asks: is loving a black man a revolutionary act?

And Harry Hamid retells a children's tale as "Gabble, Rabble, and Ross."

NOK-NOK: Open the Green Bay Doors, Hal

13/7/2017

Two-time Green Congressional candidate Hal Ridley, Jr., will perform solo acoustic sets Sunday evening, 16 July, at NOKturne in Clear Lake City. The event begins at about 7 pm.

In addition to the live music, attendees will have a chance to express their vision of the nation or world they would like to see brought into being. These visions may be captured on video for Green Party promotional purposes.

NOKturne is located at the corner of Saturn Lane and Gemini Avenue, just off Bay Area Boulevard. It offers a variety of fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies, fine coffees and teas, vegetarian bites, and a few items with chicken or fish.

Admission for this event is free, but donations will be accepted.

If you'd like to reread the text above on a different site, go here.

Better Late Than Never (?) Texoblogosphere

12/7/2017

Texas Congressional District 35

This time I'm including one of the graphics from Brains and Eggs's Monday morning roundup: that svelte Congressional District 35 that runs from the historically underserved east side of Austin down the I-35 corridor to the east side of San Antonio (or up from San Antonio to Austin, depending on your perspective).

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Off the Kuff comments on the Justice Department's flipflop on voter ID.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks hurricane preparedness is so much more important than building a monument to racism. Today's white nationalist party, the GOP, disagrees.

SocraticGadfly moves from politics to scientific skepticism with an anniversary-based look at one of the most famous events in the UFO world.

The Russians tried to hack our election, and they may try again...but given the effective suppression tactics of voter ID and partisan gerrymandering in Texas and throughout the country, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs asks: shouldn't Democrats be focusing on the voting challenges they can affect, as opposed to the one they can't?

jobsanger wonders if the media is being played by Trump's Tweetstorms.

The Lewisville Texan Journal was on the scene in McKinney, as Ted Cruz talked veterans' support but avoided questions about Trumpcare.

Texas Leftist took note of Houston mayor Sylvester Turner's abandonment of one of his core issues: removing the city's revenue cap.

Texas Vox decries Greg Abbott's rejection of clean air for Austin.

Neil at All People Have Value posted that freedom-loving Texans showed up at the office of wicked-doing Senator John Cornyn even on the Fourth of July. You can't take a holiday from the work of freedom. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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More left-of-Texas news and blog posts!

The Austin American Statesman previews the legal challenge to the state's Congressional and statehouse maps, drawn by the GOP, as they go on trial in federal court this morning.

"Don't miss with Texas Pets" is the message sent in the law signed by Governor Abbott criminalizing the abuse of animals in the state, in a roundup of North Texas news posted at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex.

Rivard Report has an early advance on the coming special legislative session.

Grits for Breakfast muses on the future of non-profit journalism.

RG Ratcliffe at Burkablog writes about the TXGOP's long winning streak and how it has created an entirely different set of problems than the more obvious ones posed to Texas Democrats.

The San Antonio Current reported on the state Commission on Environmental Quality's seeming ignorance of 97% of all polluting violations by oil and gas industry. And Mark Collette at the Houston Chronicle explains how industry gets away with it.

Better Texas Blog runs the numbers on how Trumpcare would screw our state, Bonddad has a thought on Trump voters and the peasant mentality, and Therese Odell takes another dive into the Trump Twitter cesspool.

Saadia Faruqi explains why she wears a hijab.

And CultureMap Houston suggests four Hill Country places to get your grub on after you've floated the Guadalupe or the Comal.

Decision 2018: Not Running

11/7/2017

I have rolled it over in my mind since at least last August and vacillated between "Hell yeah!" and "No way!" Now I have reached a decision, and the noes have it: The Green Shadow Senator from Texas will not be candidate for US Senate or any other public office next year.

Although about five months remain before the filing deadline, during which I might change my mind, I hope that I can avoid that temptation. Lots of friends and Green Party comrades would like a chance to vote for me, and have said so; my hope is that a Green more willing and able than I can emerge to run for the Senate seat, or for Harris County Judge.

With Health Care and Intersectionality for All

10/7/2017

Due to other obligations Saturday, I was not able to stay for the entire Medicare for All Town Hall & Health Fair. But I sure was glad I went, not just because there was plenty of good information on single-payer health care systems, but because all the speakers saw the struggle for single-payer as an important piece in a larger puzzle. Although no one on the panel actually spoke the word aloud, one of my favorite buzzwords kept buzzing through my mind as they gave their spiels:

Intersectionality.

UPDATE: Egberto Willies got some video of the speeches from the Town Hall.

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