All Categories

David Bruce Collins for US Senate—the Official Site

Shortest. Candidacy. Ever.

9/12/2019

Hi y'all. This blog is back in business, although its proprietor may have to return it full strength gradually.

Two months ago, I put this thing on hold. A week before that, I was making noise about running as a Green for the US Senate currently occupied by Texas's senior senator John Cornyn. The plan was to run on the standard Green platform but make a lot of noise about Instant Runoff Voting and Move to Amend's proposed "We the People" Amendment.

Today, 9 December, is Texas's deadline to submit to the Secretary of State's Office (or the various County Clerks' offices) applications to run in the 2020 elections. Last Wednesday I gave mine to Green Party of Texas co-chair Alfred Molison, so that he could take it to Austin today. However, unless something changes very dramatically and very soon, my candidacy will be over before it has even begun. Click the Read More link to get the details.

0 Comments

Blog, Calendar on Hiatus

9/10/2019

Due to some recent changes in life circumstances, DBC won't be able to post to this blog very much, if at all, for the next few weeks. The Activist Calendar section has also been hidden for the time being.

Alert the Prog Blog Squad, We're In for 2020

2/10/2019

Greenings, y'all! Sorry it's been a while since I last had time just to sit & blog. There has been plenty to keep me busy lately, between health issues, computer issues, & occasional gigs. Amid all that, I am trying to get my candidate muscles working again, starting a campaign for US Senate from Texas in 2020. This is the seat that John Corny currently occupies.

Consider this a soft opening for the campaign. We'll have a louder opening soon, after dbcgreentx.org undergoes some refurbishment.

Please Understand the Following

I need to submit 5,000 petition signatures or $5,000 by 9 December, the deadline for candidate filing.
I don't have $5,000. Sometimes even $5 is hard to come up with.
I'm not good at asking people for money. If you are, I could use some help in that department. But I'd rather get on the ballot via petition.
Very important: Those who sign the petition will be ineligible to vote in the big-party primaries or be delegates to any other party's conventions. That's the law. They also may not sign petitions for any other Green candidates for Senate.
About 70% of registered voters in Texas typically don't vote in primaries anyway. The trick is finding them.
If a stronger Green candidate emerges between now and December, I will end my campaign & help that candidate instead. There's no reason to try collecting 10,000 or more valid signatures for the same office.
If Sema Hernández wins the Democratic nomination in March 2020, I do not plan to campaign against her, but will instead use my position as Green nominee to campaign for Instant Runoff Voting in Texas.

Climate Strike in Houston, Featuring TS Imelda

21/9/2019

High school student as the Climate Strike rally at Houston's City Hall holding up a pasteboard saying,

Climate Strike Houston was promoted as a family-friendly event. One young activist pushed the envelope a bit.

Well, we did the thing. In our own small-town-in-a-big-city way, we did the thing. More than a thousand of us, probably closer to two thousand, skipped school and work (which for many was closed due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda) to gather at City Hall.

Imelda showed up too, about 45 minutes into the rally. By 1 pm, quite a few of us were soaked through, as if we had all cannonballed into the reflecting pool at Hermann Square without stripping down first.

The young climate-strikers gave some speeches, ranging in quality from pretty good to excellent, on a barely adequate public address system. There were clever signs and lots of sincerity. After about an hour and a half, some young'ns started a slippery game of tag on the lawn. A few elected officials and candidates showed up, but they wisely did not try to hijack the proceedings from the young leaders.

Through the downpour, there were chants of "We're Still Here!" As, indeed, we were.

Chronicle: GPTX Ballot Access and Climate Policy

19/9/2019

Chronicle photo of ten Green Party candidates with fists raised at a press conference during the Green Party's 2016 national convention at the University of Houston.

Green Party candidates from Texas and across the country hold up their fists after speaking at a press conference at the Green Party Convention at the University of Houston Friday, August 5, 2016 in Houston. (Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle)

PDiddie's comment on the most recent entry alerted me to Marina Kormbaki's article in the Chronicle's online edition. (UPDATE: GPTX comrade Don Cook has informed us that the story is also in the print edition, on page A-3.) I had thought that the author would send me a message when it went to digital press; perhaps Janis Richards, Laura Palmer, and I will hear from her today.

As coverage of the Green Party in mainstream papers goes, Kormbaki's piece is above average. It contains no obvious factual errors and treats the Party as a legitimate political movement, not just a one-off human-interest story. It certainly doesn't hurt that Kormbaki works for a German news outlet aligned with the Social Democrats, a party whose role as leaders of the left is gradually shifting to the Greens, as is happening elsewhere in Europe.

The photo selected to accompany the article features some Greenfolk I love and admire, such as the late Ashely "Flashe" Gordon (on the right end, partially obscured by a camera). This photo helps bust the persistent myth that the Green Party is just for old white recovering hippies. It is a microcosm of the convention delegates and the Party as a whole: diverse in ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, and other dimensions.

dbc Interviewed for Chronicle Article

13/9/2019

Too bad the headline couldn't be "dbc Interviewed for Job at Chronicle." But I can fantasize that my editorial skills are worthy of a position at the Chron.

Exchange journalist Marina Kormbaki, who also appears in this entry, interviewed me by phone today for about a half-hour. She also interviewed my Green comrade Laura Palmer and possibly some others. The interviews covered several overlapping topics, all having to do with the state of the Green Party in Texas and its positions on climate policy, in light of the Democrats' debate devoting all of five minutes to The Biggest Existential Threat Other Than Thermonuclear Annihilation last night.

I'll let y'all know when Kormbaki's article appears in the print or online editions of the Chronicle.

Hawkins Completes Texas Tour in Houston

10/9/2019

A group photo with nine of the attendees at Howie Hawkins's campaign appearance, plus Don and Laura Palmer's two children.

Presidential candidate Howie Hawkins (third from left, in the Teamsters t-shirt) met with some Houston-area Greenies at the Palmers' residence.

First, a disclaimer: I like and respect Howie Hawkins as a candidate for president, but I haven't entirely made up my mind whether I'll be a delegate for him at the Green Convention in Detroit next year. I also like and respect Dario Hunter, the other Green who has met the requirements for presidential candidacy thus far, but I have yet to meet him in person.

That said, after last night (see this hour-long video of last night if you're so inclined), if Hawkins does win the Green presidential nomination, I plan to campaign for him as hard as I did for Jill Stein in 2012 and 2016, and possibly as hard as I remember promoting Ralph Nader in 2000. This is especially true if the Democratic Party nominates yet another triangulating centrist.

I am willing to overlook recent missteps in which Hawkins echoed the establishment narrative about Russia interfering with US elections, because no candidate is going to get everything right. Folks who accuse Greens of imposing "purity tests" on candidates because we can't abide voting for centrist Democrats can stick those accusations where the proverbial sun don't shine.

More importantly, however, I have enormous respect for some of the progressive luminaries lining up to support him, including the late Bruce A. Dixon and 2016 VP nominee Ajamu Baraka of Black Agenda Report. Plus, yesterday former Alaska senator Mike Gravel, briefly a presidential candidate in this cycle, urged his supporters to back...no, not Bernie; no, not Tulsi; Howie.

Busy September Reminders

9/9/2019

See the Activist Calendar for additional information, included street addresses.

In case you'd like to join in the fun:

Tonight 9 September: Howie Hawkins visits Houston, fresh from appearances in Dallas and Austin.
Tomorrow 10 September: Green Party Houston meets at the home of Deb Shafto and the late George Reiter. Part of the evening will be devoted to brainstorming about a permanent meeting space.
Thursday 12 September: Supposedly right here in Third Ward a painstakingly curated subset of the Democratic presidential candidates will be not holding a debate on climate policy. Some climate activists will gather nearby, at the corner of Blodgett and Ennis Streets, near TSU's athletic facilities, to express their disappointment in the Democratic National Committee for not adopting the climate-debate resolution.
Wednesday 18 September: Extinction Rebellion HTX has its second meeting at the AFL-CIO Hall. The main focus of that meeting will be preparations for...
Friday 20 September: Houston's contribution to the international Climate Strike will take place at City Hall at noon, facilitated by the Sunrise Movement. Walk out of school or work to show your concern for an issue far more important than that trig test you'll probably miss.

Apart from XR HTX, another organization in which I participate will have a delegation at the Climate Strike: namely, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston. Look for them in their yellow Side with Love t-shirts (formerly known as Standing on the Side of Love). There will be a planning meeting in the church's Fireside Room following the service, on Sunday the 15th at about noon.

The Rebellion Is Underway in Houston—Maybe

5/9/2019

It's no longer a secret that Extinction Rebellion now has a presence in Houston. What kind of presence, we won't know for a bit, at least not until 20 September. Even if I knew, I would not say.

I can tell you that some people who showed up at last night's XR HTX organization meeting will appear at the Climate Strike rally outside Houston's City Hall on that Friday afternoon, but I can't tell you who will show up or what (if anything) they will do there.

Harry's Gone

28/8/2019

This is an update of the post from 25 August. As with Sunday's entry, we're leaving some of this intentionally vague.

Yesterday morning, I contacted Harry Hamid's brother, who informed me that Harry might not make it through the day. I heated up and ate some leftovers, and then headed over to the nearest Metro stop to travel to the Texas Medical Center. While I was en route, the brother sent me a text message that Harry had passed away.

When I arrived, family members and co-workers were gathered in or near the ICU where Harry spent his last days.

PDiddie also noted Harry's passing as an update to this week's Weekly Wrangle. If I'm not mistaken, he got to visit Monday; I did not, mostly due to an errand I had to run in Greater Woodlands that afternoon, but I'm fairly sure that my showing up Monday wouldn't have done any good. At least I can say that I could provide comfort and information to his family yesterday.

If there is an afterlife, I'd like to think that Harry Hamid's spirit will continue to take occasional strolls through Montrose after midnight.

<<Previous