The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you that TODAY is the last day to register to vote in the 6 March primary. DBC reminds you that, even if you intend to skip the primary and instead participate in a Green or Libertarian precinct convention on the evening of 13 March, you need to be registered to vote. Also, please bring your cotton-pickin' registration card to the convention. Here's the blog post and news round-up from last week... The Houston Chronicle reports that 175,000 voters in Harris County have been marked "in suspense," many due to having their homes destroyed by Harvey. The good news? They can still vote. From Democratic activist Jerry Wald, via Facebook: To clear up misinformation regarding Harris County residents displaced by Hurricane Harvey being taken off the voter rolls: Socratic Gadfly says that Beto O'Rourke appears to be a ConservaDem or something halfway close.
David Collins at DBC Green had lunch with Harris County Judge candidate Lina Hidalgo, and came away impressed. This evening in Clear Lake, CD-36 candidate Dayna Steele has a fundraiser hosted by two friends from her 'Rock Goddess' days: Melissa Etheridge and David Crosby. Texas Leftist published a candidate questionnaire from SD-17 candidate Fran Watson. John Coby at Bay Area Houston re-enters the fray with a handful of snarky campaign finance report postings. They follow the same tired cliché that the establishment believes is canon: whoever raises the most money wins, or should win, or should at least be considered the front-runner (irrespective of their political stances on any issue), and the ones who raise the least money should drop out. This is no way to run a democracy, but far too many Democrats just don't get it. In a stunningly appropriate metaphor, Congressional Republicans traveling to a weekend retreat to discuss the impact Trump will have on their 2018 prospects were on a train that hit a garbage truck, killing the poorest (the sanitation workers) but leaving the politicians only a little shaken. (Passenger rail enthusiast DBC adds: Condolences to those killed and injured in the collision Sunday morning between the Amtrak Silver Star and a freight train in South Carolina.) The Dallas Observer has news of the grand opening of the first cannabis oil dispensary in the state. The AP, via the Beaumont Enterprise, is following the case of four Texas youth prison guards who were arrested after they choked a 19-year-old unconscious and badly beat another. In the past year, at least nine officers of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department have been arrested on abuse or misconduct charges, and another was convicted of having sex with a youth in custody. The still-unfolding crisis has so far prompted Governor Greg Abbott to replace the agency's top officials and launch yet another investigation. The Texas Standard wants to know how gerrymandering might be solved, and has news on a group of mathematicians who gathered in Austin over the weekend to work on the problem. There is a public hearing tonight (Monday) for Houston-area residents (specifically, it's being held at Woodward Elementary in Cypress at 6 p.m.) regarding the Texas high speed rail line, according to HPM. jobsanger sees Trump's deregulation as a war on workers. Free Press Houston notices that the attorneys representing roadside megastore retailer Buc-ees are an aggressive and litigious bunch when it comes to "protecting" their logo. And Harry Hamid celebrates a blogaversary with David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich on the ramparts. A friend who lives in TX-7 dropped by the Democratic candidates' forum over the weekend. This gathering also featured Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke, who from this friend's account induced in him a "man-crush" (the word he used in his Facebook summary). I'm sure Rep. O'Rourke is very charismatic, and even with my deep skepticism I might be susceptible to his charm offensive. That's how the best liberal politicians operate, right?—saying all the right words with the right tempo and tone, but not necessarily adding up to progressive policies when analyzed in the cold light of a January day.
PDiddie, who steadfastly refuses to be charmed by O'Rourke, did not post much last week, and thus does not appear in his Weekly Wrangle/Texoblogosphere this week. However, on Friday he managed to cough up Part 4 of his Revolution vs. Resistance no-longer-Trilogy. And it's brilliant. Among other points, PD invokes a recent column from Ted Rall that I strongly recommend reading in its entirety, and then illustrates how the Democratic establishment is actively smearing actual progressive Senate candidate Sema Hernandez. Meanwhile, that same establishment actively promotes corporate-friendly candidates as part of its keep-the-big-donations-coming-regardless-of-how-many-seats-we-lose strategy. It is because of Progressives like Sema that PDiddie plans to vote in the upcoming Democratic Primary, giving at least the Texas Dems one more chance to prove their bona fides. Given the current condition of the Green Party in Texas, I can hardly blame him, and am tempted to join him, although I'd prefer to have his signature (and those of his readers) on our Ballot Access petition. (Reminder: Per state law, if you vote in a primary, or attend another party's convention at any level, you can't put a valid signature on that petition.) Enough preamble. Let's serve up some hot links. The Texas Progressive Alliance marched in solidarity with women over the weekend, and stands shoulder to shoulder with them as the second year of the quest for equal rights, decent treatment, and fair consideration is a clear demonstration that they are twice as pissed off as last year. DBC missed the march due to taking care of domestic business, but is happy that some Harris County Greens turned out for it, complete with a banner and green t-shirts. DBC also agrees with Dr. Margaret Flowers, who reminded us on Twitter and Facebook that, unless marching for women's issues includes vociferous opposition the US's lethal foreign policies, killing women and children through bombing and hunger, irrespective of which corporate party is in power, then that march is not worth the wear & tear on our shoes. Here's the lefty blog post and news round-up from last week. Michael Li interprets the latest SCOTUS action on Texas redistricting. G. Elliott Morris gives a short course in poll tracking. Two weeks after Houston native Nathan Neblett became Tarrant County's elections administrator...he's out, via PoliTex. Commissioners will address the vacancy in their meeting this week, but don't expect to tap a replacement before the March 6 primary. DBC Green blog praised a couple of the Democratic candidates who spoke at Our Revolution Gulf Coast's quarterly meeting. EgbertoWillies.com said that many Democrats seemed to have believed that because Trump is unpopular they would coast to a blue wave. Those who warned were attacked as pessimists; not reading the data objectively. The double-digit Democratic generic polling lead has evaporated. There is work to be done. The Lion Star videotaped interviews with Gina Ortiz Jones and Judy Canales, two of the Democrats running in TX-23, and the Lewisville Texan Journal covered the debate between Will Fisher and Linsey Fagan, contending to challenge incumbent Republican Michael Burgess in TX-26. Here's an excerpt: Probably the most interesting moment of the debate came much later when they were asked about the other side of the 2016 ticket. Both candidates strongly supported Bernie Sanders in a Democratic primary race that has been called into question by Sanders supporters and some party officials. The issue remained contentious among Democrats nationally right up until the general election. (Ed. note: The issue remains contentious; legally so.) jobsanger finds merit-based immigration to be a bad idea, hurting workers by depressing wages, thereby helping corporations. Texas Standard--linking to the Statesman--asks if the state ought to be insuring its $7.4 billion (guesstimated worth) of property, rather than self-insuring it as is currently done. Michael Barajas of the Texas Observer reports on a lawsuit questioning the conduct of Port Arthur police and the staff of a hospital there after a mentally ill patient wound up dead for refusing to take off his underwear. And in an ongoing examination of the challenges facing rural Texans, Christopher Collins finds that if they want decent health care, they'd be best off self-deporting to New Hampshire. Texas and other Southern states are home to small-town doctor shortages, skyrocketing rates of preventable disease among rural residents and some of the highest uninsured rates in the nation, according to a new report that places Texas’ rural health care failings in a national context for the first time. Better Texas blog has an update on the Lege's efforts to stabilize the individual health insurance market (better known as the Affordable Care Act).
Socratic Gadfly has some thoughts on the nuances of universal healthcare, Medicare for All, co-pays, and the positions on all of those of Beto O'Rourke and Tom Wakely. Stuart Williams urges Texas Democrats to compete in rural areas. Neil at All People Have Value shared a picture from the weekly John Cornyn Houston office protest, held each Tuesday at 11:30 am to 1 pm, at 5300 Memorial Drive. And Harry Hamid has been ill long enough as to be hallucinating. Last August, Hurricane Harvey caused widespread delays at the beginning of the Fall 2017 semester. Winter Storm Inga wrought some havoc with the start of Spring 2018, what with two days of what we call "severe weather." It wasn't so much severe weather as severely messed up highways. The presenters on the Weather Channel were calling our roads "skating rinks" with drinking-game frequency, and the Southwest Freeway definitely fit that description.
Fortunately, my place of work prudently scheduled the beginning of the Spring term for today, as if the committee knew we'd have Houstonians-don't-know-how-to-drive-in-it weather after MLK Day. ============ Downwinders at Risk chronicles the holiday in the aftermath of the cancellation of the Arlington MLK Day parade (the one Greg Abbott was supposed to be the grand marshal of). Neil at All People Have Value blogged about the Houston Democratic Socialists of America–endorsed slate for 2018. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com. PoliTex reminds Texans that we are first in the nation with our primary elections, and that the deadline to register to vote in them is less than two weeks from today. Socratic Gadfly is still waiting for Lupe Valdez to take a political stance. And in a sidebar, he had snarky pieces about Trump's alleged payoff to Stormy Daniels and what's new on Gorilla Channel viewing, both run with Ken Silverstein's Washington Babylon. Michael Li outlines the Texas redistricting case SCOTUS has agreed to hear. Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher reluctantly climbs down into the shithole. Grits for Breakfast points out a problem with life-without-parole sentences. Off the Kuff takes a shot at predicting which female candidates for Congress in Texas have the best chance at getting elected, and Lion Star has video of some of the CD-16 candidates (he seems to like Norma Chavez). Even as larger communities like Houston have welcomed the New Year and largely turned the page on Hurricane Harvey, this is not the case for many other Texas cities and towns. As Texas Leftist shares, Harvey is very much a 2018 reality for coastal towns like Rockport. In his latest "water is wet" post, jobsanger bar-graphs a poll that shows race relations in the US are still a problem. ============ Jim Schutze at the Dallas Observer notices that life has gone on in Dallas even after tearing down the statue of Robert E. Lee. Texas Standard's regular aggregation of state news includes the story at the Statesman that justices of both the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals heard in a symposium from experts on how to better serve defendants with mental health issues. Leah Binkovitz at the Urban Edge ponders the Houston region's transit future. Sarah Martinez at the San Antonio Current documents the brief but impactful life of the #DentonTrumpster, and Leif Reigstad at Texas Monthly profiles some Texans, well known and lesser known, that we lost last year. Somervell County Salon laments the pending reuse of sodium nitrite to control the feral hog population. DBC Green blog has his mind blown by a conservative host on RT. Better Texas Blog plans to face 2018 with a fierce sense of optimism about what can be accomplished. Harry Hamid approaches Ludditia. And Millard Fillmore's Bathtub reminds you to fly your flag today (i.e., Monday, MLK Day, because this Texoblogosphere was published that day). Sadly, I did not arrange to make it possible to celebrate this day with fried peanutbutter and banana sandwiches. But I did pick up two King Cakes Saturday at a nearby Whole Foods Market. It's the birthday not only of the King, but also of the Thin White Duke. What foodstuffs do you associate with David Bowie?
One of the King Cakes was completely consumed on Epiphany at a gumbo gathering of some fellow Progressive types. The name Beto O'Rourke (see below) came up in conversation that evening. Since the Green Party will have no dog in the Senatorial fight, someone asked, would we Greens vote for O'Rourke to try to evict Ted Cruz from his seat, or would we grouse about how Democrats are just Republicans in donkeys' clothing and not vote at all. I was pleased to inform the other guests that O'Rourke is not the only Democrat in the primary—and, if they are inclined to vote in March, they can vote for Sema Hernandez instead. ============ The Rivard Report covered the opening of Dream Week 2018 in San Antonio. Socratic Gadfly blogged about Beto O'Rourke's visit to Northeast Texas. RH Ratcliffe at Burkablog got reactions from some Texas mayors regarding US ICE director Thomas Homan's threat to lock up elected officials in "sanctuary" cities. Dos Centavos wonders if Latin@s will roll with Trump on the basis of him actually doing something--no matter how terrible it might be--on DACA. (Senate Democrats who folded on a fix at the end of last year left the DREAMer activist community outraged.) PoliTex saw and heard the backlash in Fort Worth to that city's selection of Governor Greg Abbott as the grand marshal of the MLK parade next week. And the Houston Press is still wondering why there are two different MLK Day parades in the Bayou City. The Lewisville Texan Journal has a profile of Willie Hudspeth, the civil rights activist and Vietnam vet running for Denton County Judge. And from the Texas Observer: Austin community organizer and self-described "democratic socialist" Lewis Conway Jr. wants to find out if a convicted felon can get elected to, and then serve on, city council. The Lion Star blog sees a state district court judge in El Paso who wants off the 2018 ballot, and DBC Green blog links to Kuff regarding all the Democrats who have filled the primary that are gunning for a seat in the US House. And Elliott Morris at Decision Desk HQ also has five numbers that frame where the 2018 Congressional elections stand. With so many candidates on the primary ballot, Texas Leftist has his candidate questionnaire, TLCQ 2018, up and ready to go, so check it out and look for responses to come in soon. The TSTA Blog urges teachers to be the voting bloc some state legislators fear they can be. ============ A Trump social media guru previously based in San Antonio (having relocated to Florida in preparation for the 2020 re-election campaign) has been called to testify before Congress in the ongoing investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, reports the Current. Neil at All People Have Value noted that Trump was making a case for street protests against corrupt government in his tweets about demonstrations in Iran. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com. The Texas Tribune takes a look at the furniture rental outfits across the state who threaten their customers with jail time, and follow through on it, if they miss a payment. Mike Snyder at the Chron wants to consider the question of how Houston should grow post-Harvey. The Texas Living Waters Project talks to Dr. Andrew Sansom about his freshwater environmental activism. And Harry Hamid reported some issues with an arson investigation in his 'hood. The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone reading this has a happy, healthy, prosperous, and very progressive 2018. (No substitutes or pretend-progressives will be accepted.) DBC reminds those of you who actually still write checks/cheques to start writing "2018" instead of "2017" in the appropriate blank.
PDiddie at Brains and Eggs picked his Texan of the Year, and unlike the Dallas News, neither Joe Straus nor white supremacist Richard Spencer were ever in contention. SocraticGadfly riffed on the idea of the Twelve Days of Christmas and found 12 jobs even better than knitting for Hillary Clinton. In its own state news roundup, Texas Standard wants you to know that the Parks and Wildlife Department is hosting more than 75 hikes in state parks across Texas today. Texas is leading the nation in flu cases, reports the San Antonio Current. Grits for Breakfast has Brennan Center data that shows murder rates were down in the largest Texas cities in 2017, but violent crime was up slightly. Save Buffalo Bayou asks more questions about Houston's "flood czar," Steve Costello. A poll graphed by jobsanger indicates that the American public wants action on gun safety legislation in 2018. A poll reported in the Dallas Observer shows Mark Cuban leading Trump in Texas. The poll, conducted by PPP, has the billionaire investor listed as a Democrat, but Cuban has said that if he runs for president in 2020, he will do so as a Republican. (There's a point about shitty polls or dumbass Texas Democrats—or both—to be made here, but I'll save it for later.) Jeremy Wallace in the SAEN's Austin bureau sees Texas Democrats in a quandary as to whether to embrace the Bernie Sanders/Our Revolution progressive movement...or not. The article details the awkward fence-straddling of presumptive Senate front-runner Bob "Beto" O'Rourke, who got another puff piece in Texas Monthly's latest issue. Neil at All People Have Value thinks Democrats running for office at every level of government in 2018 should be asked how they will respond to the threat of authoritarian government in the US. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com. Down With Tyranny was first with the news about gubernatorial candidate Tom Wakely, who will be rocking out in South Texas in late February as part of a Latin@ GOTV effort. There will be six free concerts—in six cities in six days—by Comba, led by Jorge Guevara, the former lead singer with Elefante, and past and current members of Maná, a Gualdalajara rock band who own 4 Grammys and 8 Latin Grammys. Blogging El Paso Democratic politics (not new but rediscovered, and added to the right-side column) is Jaime Abeytia's Lion Star blog, while Off the Kuff took a closer look at Democratic Congressional candidates around the state. DBC Green blog has some thoughts on killing one's inner Trump, and Zachery Taylor has a long and righteous rant about Trump's unqualified judicial appointees. Michael Agresta at the Texas Observer writes about photographer David Taylor's exhibit (at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts, through January 28) documenting the monuments marking the true Texas-Mexico border, and the pictures tell their own story of how the line between the two countries has shifted through the years. The Texas Tribune passes along the details about a South Texas bureaucrat who became a multi-millionaire when the federal government ordered construction of sixty miles of border fencing ten years ago. And as crude oil climbs back to a profitable range for drillers, frackers, and refiners—the Permian Basin shattered production records going back to 1973--Texas Monthly's Energy Report prefaces Lawrence Wright's long piece in the New Yorker about the resource's long Texas history and influence on everything in the state. As noted below, Socratic Gadfly has tossed in his tuppence-worth regarding the current state of the Green Party of Texas, with updates following the revelation that GPTX had four (4) candidates filing to run as Greens in 2018.
I still haven't resolved my feelings about the filings or dearth thereof, but I'm leaning toward PDiddie's diagnosis that GPTX is waxing irrelevant. This situation is not irreparable, but fixing it does require putting the right folks in charge in the big metro county parties, with enough time to formulate strategies and coordinate implementations. That's a tall order, since we have a history of electing co-chairs based on whoever is willing to serve a two-year term. In less than two decades, we have witnessed county parties go dormant for years at a time, only to be revived with fresh blood, and then going back into hibernation. The Occupy movements of 2011-12 were a terrific source of personpower, energy, and inspiration; even after Occupy was effectively crushed, GPTX kept going on the momentum it generated. Yesterday I got so involved with my dissection of PDiddie's revelations that I neglected to repost the Weekly Wrangle. This morning I made an effort to goose the Green Party of Texas, reminding the co-chairs The Texas Progressive Alliance wonders if Donald Trump has ever heard of Krampus as it brings you this week's roundup. Off the Kuff gave multiple candidate filing updates, and DBC Green Blog covered the "looms" of the filing deadline today (which is now yesterday—dbc). Socratic Gadfly offered his take on Trump, with egging on from top Democrats, naming Jerusalem the capital of Israel. The actual progressive Texas Democratic candidates—as well as the ones pretending to be—are in PDiddie at Brains and Eggs' latest post. Egberto Willies covered Indivisible Houston's tax protests and net neutrality protests. Neil at All People Have Value said even if the external world is in disorder, we can still move up and up and up. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com. As Texas Leftist slowly makes an effort to get back in the saddle for 2018, he's thankful for the incredible work of all of his blogging colleagues. Before we leap into next year's political hopefuls, it's worth noting that a former Texas elected official made a big move this week. Get ready to see and hear more from Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker in 2018. Dos Centavos is looking forward to the 2018 Democratic primary, and jobsanger has a bar graph that shows a record number of women are running for Congress in 2018. Texas Vox suggests to Greg Abbott that Texas' part of the Volkswagen lawsuit settlement funds—$289 million—be dedicated to purchasing electric vehicles for the state fleet and creating green jobs. And the Lewisville Texan Journal passes along the details of the Texas Smooth Groove Holiday Concert, to be held there on December 22. ================== Amid calls for resignations, Texas Standard reports that the Texas Legislature approaches its day of reckoning over the alarming and widespread allegations of rampant sexual misconduct by lawmakers. A raft of TPPP-bred anti-environmentalists are seizing power in the Trump administration, writes Naveena Sadasivam at the Texas Observer. The Rivard Report has the story of Mona Patel, who sought San Antonio community services as an amputee and, finding none, built a support network for all of the Alamo City's physically-disabled. Houston Public Media reports that John Cornyn's bipartisan-supported gun safety bill (which strengthens federal background checks) has become endangered by getting linked to the NRA-favored concealed-carry reciprocity bill. Chuck Smith at Equality Texas breaks down the Colorado bake shop/same sex marriage case that was argued at SCOTUS. Free Press Houston's Jef Rouner has an interview with Silky Malik, one of the Democrats running in TX-2 (to replace Ted Poe). Excerpt: There are two ways a person running for this seat can play it. The first is running a Republican-like campaign, play it close to the center. Maybe you’ll pull 20 percent of the Republican vote. Then you’re at a 50-50 toss-up. I’m definitely not that sort of person or candidate. Better Texas Blog explains how the Republican tax cut bill threatens local and state public services.
The Bloggess is once again spearheading a grassroots effort to help people in need for the holidays. Zachery Taylor sees the corporate media assisting (and profiting) from the fraud of televangelism. Pages of Victory links to Dissident Voice regarding the shake-up and shake-down of China, Saudi Arabia, and the US to explain why he cannot support our country's ensconced-politician class. Mean Green Cougar Red tries to wrap his mind around flat earthers. The Houston Communist Party links to the joint statement from the Communist Party of Israel and Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), which strongly condemns Trump's decision on Jerusalem. And Harry Hamid thanks one of her blogging muses as a requiem, and acknowledges some of her favorite blogs. Please indulge me as I get intentionally vague about a sensitive issue of great importance to me.
This past Saturday afternoon, I met with about ten other Harris County Greens, who shall remain unnamed for now, at a location that I shall not disclose. The extraordinary meeting was called in response to some continuing difficulties within the party, with an eye toward possible resolutions. The most proximate motivation for this impromptu huddle was the painful drama of HCGP's November general membership meeting last Monday. Those attendance trained their focus on a particular member, not in attendance, who appears to have gone out of his or her way to create or compound those difficulties over the past three years. There was also some discussion regarding whether those assembled simply did not have the personal relational skills to communicate effectively with the aforementioned problematic member, as well as a strategy for informing him or her—with all due compassion, perhaps through a trusted intermediary—that he or she is broadly perceived as an obstacle to the county party's effectiveness. With a mixture of wistfulness and diffidence, I can report that Saturday's get-together
This week's Texoblogosphere (below the ReadMore) links to Harry Hamid's recent blog entry relating his visit to the meeting last Monday evening, and his egress in the middle thereof to escape the toxicity therein. Please be forewarned that Harry's post consists of a dozen flavors of irony thickly wrapped around a frail stalk of sincerity, and it gets even thicker in the comments. It illustrates amply, if with a vagueness as purposeful as this post, why HCGP has been unable to attract new members and has recently been driving off party veterans. It's partly due to the Thanksgiving interruption, and partly due to a lack of suitable material, that has kept me off the blog these last two weeks. We can also add general disgust with current events. Despite the unending barrage of news about the awfulness of our species, there still isn't much to report within my particular purview.
This would be a good place, however, to remind Greens and Green Sympathizers that the window for applying to run for public office in 2018 is open until 11 December 2017. See this page on txgreens.org for the downloadable PDF application and the address to which to send the completed form. Anyone who volunteers to run should be prepared to assist with the ballot access petition drive in the 11 weeks following 13 March. To hedge your bets against the petition drive not succeeding (and the odds against a successful drive are pretty tall), run as an independent, as JosH [sic] Darr is doing in US House District TX-2. (JosH does not have a website up yet. Anybody wanna help with that?) For most not-statewide races, including for the US House, independent campaigns must collect and submit only 500 signatures, as opposed to the 47,000-plus that third parties must gather. Your blog-o-rama awaits below the fold. |
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