What was I thinking when I decided to keep receiving Senator Ted Cruz's weekly email blasts? I had hoped to blog about his activities, or at least the ones he feels comfortable about reporting to his human constituents. However, I find it hard enough to read the damn things without clenching from head to toe. On the plus side, Cruz and his staff have the discipline to limit their communiqués to one per week. In yesterday's message, after praising #45's executive orders to effectively un-regulate the energy industry and the Judiciary Committee's vote to move Judge Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court nomination to the next level, the Tedster goes into his usual spiel about meeting with active or reserve military folks and the industrial lobbies who fill his campaign coffers. Throughout the week, I also had the pleasure of visiting with members of the Texas Farm Bureau, Texas Cattle Feeders Association, American Loggers Council, Texas Restaurant Association, and Texas AIPAC where I discussed my priorities for the 115th Congress. I remain excited and optimistic about the opportunities before us to repeal Obamacare, implement fundamental tax reform and regulatory reform, and confirm Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. (emphasis mine) It would be too easy to conclude from paragraphs like that, and the rest of the message, that Cruz does not give a tinker's damn about flesh-and-blood, air breathing people, rather than corporate or "pre-born" persons. It would be too easy to forget that he is not unique in that regard; plenty of other Congresscritters have similar sympathies or lack thereof. What continuously amazes and appalls me about Cruz and his ilk is the unmitigated glee with which he attacks federal regulations on everything. Apparently, homeboy truly believes that, absent these regulations designed to prevent needless death, maiming, chronic illness, and environmental devastations, corporations will behave altruistically, giving everybody a good-paying job and a pony.
As you read this press release about the latest fusillade of executive orders, you could nod along and say, "Oh yeah, that makes sense. We need jobs in this country, and regulation of greenhouse gas emissions is a job-killer." Or you could remember that the world's climate scientists have warned repeatedly for decades that not only is such regulation necessary for the survival of the world as we know it, but by this time we need to move toward limiting fossil fuel production and consumption to zero. It's not just Al Gore and those gol-durn lib'ruls at 350.org who say so. You might also remember that both parties have held open the exit gates for American manufacturing jobs for the past 40-plus years, and that "job-creators" have fought every effort to require living wages and adequate benefits for health and education. Sorry for not providing an April Foolish blog entry today. Far too many of my compatriots have been most dreadfully and chronically fooled already. Really, Teddy?
I just got back to Default World from a four-day weekend at the third annual Playa Pity Party for people unable to travel to Burning Man. During those four-days, I did not so much as glance at my main email box. When this afternoon I finally worked up the courage to ready all the new unread messages, I found the weekly missive from Senator Ted Cruz. I've been having these semi-serious fantasies about running for Senate against Cruz in 2018. Perhaps by then, the major parties will take a Green candidacy seriously enough to slag it rather than ignoring it. I'm envisioning the Texas Democrats dredging up the information that OMG!!! That Collins guy is a Burner!!! He hangs out with hundreds of people in various states of undress, many of whom may be consuming illicit substances!!! To which I'd reply, "Yeah. So?" Yes, Ted, I agree with you that our veterans should have the best medical care available. I also agree with you that ObamaCare is a boondoggle, although we differ on the best way to fix it. No, Ted, even my conspiratorial mind finds it difficult to believe that Obama poses any real threat to the Second Amendment, or that "transition[ing] oversight of Internet domains to a global organization that includes authoritarian regimes such as China, Russia, and Iran" (the notoriously apolitical ICANN) poses any threat to the Internet as we know it. I guess I got on Sen. Ted Cruz's email list after sending him messages of protest via one of the liberal and progressive clicktivism sites to which I subscribe. I seldom even look at Ted's messages before deleting them, but I've decided I should at least give them a glance in case there's blog material lurking in them.
The latest Cruz-o-gram has me rubbing my eyes and giving my head a quick shake, double- and triple-taking. The message and accompanying photos depict Cruz on August Congressional recess back in his home state. It looks like a typical boring legislative newsletter, and it doesn't begin with any vitriolic rhetoric about the Kenyan Usurper or the Stalinist Affordable Care Act. You have to look a little more deeply to see What's Really Wrong With This Picture. What's wrong with it is what isn't there. Seeing Ted Cruz & Dan Patrick on the Tube Together Was Bad Enough! The Venue? Icing on the Turdcake.2/3/2016
Reposted from Facebook, wherein dbc shared a link from Houston scenester Steve Patlan.
This is mostly for friends outside Southeast Texas. Caution: may cause intense nausea. The headline on this Gawker piece exaggerates only a little. Former Houston City Councilmember Michael Berry has proven himself on multiple occasions to be a racist. Merely saying something racist doesn't make one a racist. Saying it repeatedly, unapologetically, or insisting that it's not racist and then saying something equally racist definitely does. That would be Berry. Enjoy this listicle by the weekly Houston Press's Jef Rouner about The Ten Most Embarrassing Houstonians, in which Berry comes in at #1. The fact that KTRH has kept Berry on the air for so long makes the station's management and ownership (Clear Channel/iHeartRadio) racist by association. They keep him on because he gets the ratings, thanks to his regular listeners who lap up his racist rants, and who would turn on KTRH in a heartbeat if it caved in to the PC crowd. I wouldn't characterize Berry as an "extreme" racist. That adjective implies to me that he's actively advocating eliminationism and direct violence toward People of Color; if he has, I haven't heard it. But his record is bad enough that holding Ted Cruz's victory party at his bar makes Cruz racist by association too. As Rachel Maddow would say, "Senator Cruz, you kinda own this." Last night I saw, but did not hear, Cruz on TV delivering is Texas Primary victory speech. His wife stood to his right, and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to his left. (Not Dan Patrick the former "SportsCenter" anchor, but Dan Patrick the former KHOU sports anchor from the '70s). If you're not hip to Texas politics, Google "Michael Berry Houston radio" and "Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick" (not to mention "Flaming Asshole Ted Nugent") to know what kind of company Cruz keeps. |
Blogging Sporadically since 2014Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics. Categories
All
Archives
April 2023
|