Category: Texas Progressive

No-Relief-from-Harvey-Stories Texoblogosphere

18/9/2017

This week's blog-a-thon contains quite a few intriguing-looking links, IMHO. That's not to say that I'll click through all of them, and I seldom do, but there's plenty of stuff below that looks as if it will hit home.

I have already taken a peak at Durrel Douglas's piece regarding "racism in the progressive movement," on his Houston Justice blog. It was not what I expected, but it's an important read. Activist organizations—particularly those addressing issues of racial justice—seriously need to put more POC in the top decision-making roles, he reminds us. It isn't just a matter of crusty old white folks being racially insensitive (or just plain clueless) at meetings, as unfortunate and sadly pervasive as that might be.

To no one's great surprise, the big story in Texas remains a mix of cleanup efforts and ruminations on how public policy must focus on flood-proofing counties near the Gulf coast. We've just completed three weeks since that ungodly wet weekend, but it's just over a week that residents near the Addicks Reservoir can even get to their homes to assess the damage. I find myself both nauseated by the constant Harvey focus in local news outlets and addicted to it.

0 Comments

Nine'll Get Ya Eleven Texoblogosphere

11/9/2017

0 Comments

Today is the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and we solemnly pause and remember the lives of the victims lost on that day sixteen years ago. I firmly believe that it takes nothing away from those victims and their families to remember the unquantifiable death and suffering that followed in the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Let us also not forget that today is the 44th anniversary of the US-backed coup that brought Augusto Pinochet and his cronies to power in Chile, the 35th anniversary of the Israeli massacres of refugees at Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon.

=================
SocraticGadfly offers up a trio of Harvey-related thoughts related to possible future "big ones." Would an Ike Dike be a massive military-industrial complex boondoggle? Can Houston and Harris County do anything different on evacuation ideas? And does greater Houston, like some other disaster-prone areas, simply have too many people living there?

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is angry with the previous head of Houston flood control and the current pollution helpers.

Dos Centavos wants us to think about undocumented immigrants as something other than cheap labor for rebuilding after disasters.

jobsanger profiles the four Texas Republican Congressmen who voted against federal assistance for Harvey victims.

Texas Vox, the blog for Public Citizen, kicked off its Texas Climate Change Tour in Austin.

Family feuds are the most fun to watch, especially when you're not in the family, laughed PDiddie at Brains and Eggs as he popped more corn.

Neil at All People Have Value said Democrats really need to move on from the Sanders/Clinton primary fight. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

The Lewisville Texan Journal reports that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission is suing Denton County over allegation of gender pay discrimination.

Off the Kuff looked at the hopefully temporary reinstatement of the voter ID law as it goes through the appeals process.

And Nick Anderson, previously the Houston Chronicle political artist and now drawing for Texas Monthly, sums up what merits a special session for Greg Abbott and what does not.

=================
In other disaster-related news, Houston Matters reports that aftershocks from the 8.1 magnitude earthquake that leveled the Mexican city of Juchitan continue to hamper relief efforts there.

An Associated Press account reveals that more than two dozen storage tanks holding crude oil, gasoline and other contaminants ruptured or otherwise failed when Harvey slammed into the Texas coast, spilling at least 145,000 gallons of fuel and spewing toxic pollutants into the air. The environmental calamity left behind by Harvey will be the most difficult cleanup of all (where it manages to occur, that is).

Texas Standard asks: will those displaced by Hurricane Harvey return to the Texas Gulf Coast?

Better Texas Blog talks fighting hunger after Harvey.

The Texas Living Waters Project will work to find innovative flooding solutions for the next hurricane.

The TSTA Blog cheers the selection of John Sharp as statewide rebuilding (post-Harvey) czar.

Offcite curates a few hurricane think pieces, including a NYT op-ed which uses a phrase familiar to Jill Stein supporters as the premise for rebuilding the nation's coastal regions. An excerpt:

Environmentalists and scholars have sometimes called this a “green New Deal” or “environmental Keynesianism.” We should invest in science and public education to train the next generation of engineers who will build safer homes and infrastructure. (President Trump promised us infrastructure but, just weeks before this storm, rescinded an Obama-era regulation that required structures built with federal money to take sea-level rise into account.) We should expand and enhance programs that make adaptation to climate change possible for ordinary Americans, helping them to retrofit their homes or relocate to safer ground.

We should plan recovery and rebuilding projects that address local poverty and exclusion, rather than line the pockets of developers. We should commit expenditures to the kinds of projects that mitigate climate change, like clean energy and public transportation. And we should strengthen our safety nets so that when the next storm’s victims are picking up the pieces, they are not also worried about job insecurity, rising health care costs and precarious retirements.

Space City Weather points out that Houston is already pretty dried out, and going to get drier.

Michael Li shows the proposed remedial Congressional maps.

Grits for Breakfast sees a rare moment for bail reform.

Michael Barajas at the Texas Observer took note of Trump’s nomination of two lawyers, Jeff Mateer and Matthew Kacsmaryk, from the First Liberty Institute—a far right Christian advocacy organization—to vacant federal judge seats in Texas. The reaction from LGBTQ groups and civil rights activists was swift.

First Liberty Institute has used anti-LGBTQ policies to blatantly vilify our families and neighbors for two decades,” Equality Texas said in a Friday statement. “By nominating associates of this hate group, the president is using his office in an attempt to ensure policies will be created and spearheaded to advance anti-LGBTQ discrimination in employment, housing and places of business all under the guise of protecting religious liberties.

Kathy Miller of Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for church-state separation, called the nominations “a clear signal that President Trump intends to make our federal courts the place where civil rights go to die.” Their nominations must still be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Last, Texas Moratorium Network announces that the 18th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty is scheduled for October 28 at the Capitol in Austin.

0 Comments

Back to Bidness Blogorama

6/9/2017

0 Comments

In a variety of ways, blogging can be a public service before, during, and after an event like Harvey. If used correctly, blogs don't just keep the reading public informed; they also can give them more positive feelings on which to return from disaster mode to routine. When we talk about "recovery" after a disaster, what we really mean is recovering or rebuilding the life we had before, perhaps not wholly but in large part—i.e., in the Texas idiom, getting back to bidness.

If we or our loved ones lose treasured objects or people, we lose part of that life-before. In essence, it is a partial death. For most of us, grieving is a healthy and necessary process, even if we are (in a sense) mourning for ourselves.

But I have not been blogging much lately. When opportunities have arisen, I have instead spent parts of two days helping friends empty their inundated homes, and parts of two other days involved in the Burners Without Borders Harvey Relief effort. The BWB group and others met at warehouse location in Houston's Near Northside to assemble packages of donated food, clothing, toiletries, and cleaning supplies for shelters and neighborhoods all over Southeast Texas. After a hot and busy Sunday afternoon, when I had time to breathe, it occurred to me that I had never been so proud to call myself a Burner: not for anything I had done that day, but for the way my friends made it all happen.

0 Comments

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun Bloggage

22/8/2017

0 Comments

I'll be representing the Harris County Green Party at a League of Women Voters forum this Saturday, but that's the extent of my recent GP activity. Next Monday, I will report on what I say, and what the reps from the other three invited parties say. Perhaps thereafter I'll become more inclined to blog more regularly.

OOPS! UPDATE! The looming Tropical Storm Harvey, bringing possibly very heavy rains this weekend, has postponed the LWV Rising Stars forum. It will take place on 23 September.

Between now and then, I plan to post something lengthy about Naomi Klein's concise yet thorough No Is Not Enough.

==================
Here's the blog post and news roundup from last week.

Off the Kuff notes a new lawsuit filed to protect spousal benefits for Houston city employees against an assault by anti-LGBT zealots.

SocraticGadfly writes about another personal experience with age discrimination.

Texas (aka Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton) are going to take their chances with a new, conservative Supreme Court rather than have the Lege redraw Congressional and statehouse maps ruled unconstitutional for the umpteenth time, reports PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

A Texas Republican legislator thinks running over protestors should be encouraged. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks he and his party are deplorable.

Texas Vox celebrates the end of the special session.

Texas Leftist reminds us that Trump also tossed out his infrastructure advisory council last week.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston remembers a time when "not all Republicans were racist."

The Lewisville Texan Journal shares the announcement that longtime Democratic activist Amy Manuel will run for Denton County Clerk in 2018.

As always, Neil at All People Have Value took part in the weekly protest outside the Houston office of wicked-doing Senator John Cornyn. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

==================
Confederate monuments came down on the campus of the University of Texas overnight. Large rallies supporting their removal in Houston and Dallas were held over the weekend. Six Flags Over Texas bowed to public pressure and announced that only the United States flag would fly at its front gate (but the flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States of America would continue to fly—and be sold as novelty items at gift shops—elsewhere in the park).

Meanwhile Houston's mayor, Sylvester Turner, has called for a study to help him decide whether or not the statues should be taken away in the Space City.

==================
More news and blog posts from across the Lone Star State follow!

The CPPP Blog reflects on the special session, which sine died a day early last week.

Michael Li breaks down the redistricting ruling.

RG Ratcliffe wonders if the Republicans are going to start running the Lege like they do Congress.

Pete Von Der Haar rounds up ten movie scenes in which white supremacists get their butts handed to them.

Better Texas Blog calls the Senate-modified version of HB21 a step in the wrong direction that pits education against health care.

The Texas Living Waters Project calls for proactive drought response plans.

Somervell County Salon suggests Trump's various golf clubs and resorts as a great place to relocate the Confederate statues being removed in various cities across the country.

And Pages of Victory posts the letter from Rosanne Cash that reminds white supremacists NOT to associate their philosophy with the long legacy of social justice her father lived.

0 Comments

May Day Prog Blogs

2/5/2017

0 Comments

It pleases me to note that my entry from Sunday received a mention in Texas Progressive Alliance's latest weekly link-fest. There is also a link to fellow KTRU alumnus Scott Hochberg's repeat of last fall's call to vote Yes on Houston ISD's Proposition 1. Before the November election, local sources of conventional wisdom were urging a No vote, but they weren't listening to former State Rep. Hochberg, whose public school finance wonkery has few (if any) equals. Early voting for HISD residents ends today; actual election day is Saturday 6 May.

Ben Franklin and a friend hold up the "No More Sacrifice Zones" banner for TEJAS at the People's Climate March, 29 April 2017.

Off the Kuff takes a very early look at potential Congressional races for 2018.

SocraticGadfly offers his reflections on the career and trial of "Our Man Downtown," John Wiley Price.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that Republican hatred of democracy and people marches on in Texas.

Democrats keep looking for excuses to kick people out from under their tent, and the evidence was everywhere PDiddie at Brains and Eggs looked over the past couple of weeks. There aren't enough Marches, Resistances, and Revolutions to overcome so much squabbling, backbiting, and infighting. In similar vein, Captain Kroc at McBlogger wants to see the two factions battle it out.

jobsanger cites the Economic Policy Institute in detailing the damage Trump has already done to workers in his first 100 days.

MOMocrats writes about Trump's hundred days in terms of the end of Obama Nation. (This is NOT a play on words.)

The Lewisville Texan Journal posts an op-ed from The Mom of No about the low bar she set—and barely cleared—for Easter.

And Txsharon at Bluedaze tells a true fracking story in eight lines of poetry.

=================

The publisher of the Austin Monitor, Michael Kanin, has been named the new publisher of the Texas Observer. Congratulations!

Jonathan Tilove at First Reading wraps up his coverage of Alex Jones' child custody suit by noting the post-trial press conference where Jones berated the media, Trump-style.

DBC Green Blog was a little disappointed in the Climate March but has greater expectations for today's May Day rallies.

Scott Braddock reports on the school voucher astroturfing story.

Robert Rivard makes a case for changing the timing and frequency of San Antonio's elections.

Michael Li rounds up and summarizes the remaining disputes over the Texas Congressional map.

Therese Odell recoils in horror from the transcript of the AP interview with Trump.

Sandra Thompson follows the money that is opposed to bail reform.

Former Rep. Scott Hochberg explains why he is voting Yes on the HISD recapture referendum.

Somervell County Salon has a good laugh with Stephen Colbert about the red button on Trump's desk that summons a butler bringing a Coke.

Ty Clevenger at Lawflog sees the Booger (Robertson) County Mafia growing nervous again.

And Right Wing Watch documented US Rep. Randy Weber's tearful apology to God (sic) for the American sins of pregnancy termination, prayer in public schools, and marriage equality...but not slavery, or the atrocities inflicted on First People, or even the excesses of corporate greed or war. What a f'n guy.

0 Comments

No-Relief-from-Harvey-Stories Texoblogosphere

Nine'll Get Ya Eleven Texoblogosphere

Back to Bidness Blogorama

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun Bloggage

May Day Prog Blogs

DBC Sez...

Archives

Categories