Toxoblogosphere Syndrome

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

1. gladdened me that HCGP members had taken a crucial first step,
2. saddened me that people I consider friends and comrades were so disillusioned by the way HCGP meetings have become such a trigger for stress hormones, and
3. reminded me that I had hosted a similar meeting to address the same problems posed by the same member about two years ago, with no net result.

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.

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes everyone Treason's Greetings with this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff is doing his best to keep up with filing news.

Socratic Gadfly discusses three big bits of political news from around the Metroplex area. First, he offers his initial take on Lupe Valdez's possible entry into the Democratic gubernatorial race. Second, he says good-bye and good riddance to Helen Giddings. Third, he offers a bigger good-bye and good riddance to Smokey Joe Barton.

Egberto Willies wants us all to be on the streets and more engaged in combating the Republican tax cut scam.

Texas Leftist also blogged about the #GOPTaxScam that was ultimately passed by the Senate in the wee hours last Saturday morning. 

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez had a false start to her gubernatorial campaign last week, and once her bid for the Governor's Mansion is official, it will help carry a lot of down-ballot Democrats to victory, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Harry Hamid attended the Harris County Green Party's recent monthly meeting but was forced to stage an unintended walkout, and David Collins went to a community gathering about a sports bar's traffic issues instead of attending the same GP assembly. Both bloggers used the word "toxic" in their posts to describe their attendance (or lack thereof). Perhaps the party's leaders will catch a clue (Note: dbc can assure you that they have).

Neil at All People Have Value suggested that personhood be taken away from human beings and extended to guns and bullets instead. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

jobsanger has a bar graph that shows the minimum wage in every state, and uses it to illustrate how that is not a living wage.

And the Lewisville Texan Journal passes along the details of that city's annual holiday pet adoption event, Santa Paws Village, being held this coming Saturday.

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In more Lone Star lefty blogs and news posts:

Houston Public Media links to ProPublica's investigation of current and former military installations across the United States (more than 60 in Texas) contaminated by hazardous waste. One of the worst sits roughly 15 miles east of downtown Houston (the San Jacinto Ordnance Depot bunker).

In an aggregate of 2018 filing developments:

• A former Monsanto lobbyist is challenging Ag Commish Sid "Sharia Law" Miller in the GOP primary, and Christopher Collins at the Texas Observer sees both men pandering as hard as they can to freak Republican base voters.
  
• In the wake of Joe Barton's somewhat involuntary retirement, the FWST was on the scene as his former chief of staff filed to replace him in Congress. (The several other Republicans and Democrats vying for TX-6 are also mentioned.)
  
• And the TexTrib has news about former state Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, who wants his old seat in the Texas House back. He's running against Rep. Diana Arévalo in the Democratic primary for HD-116 (San Antonio).

Grits for Breakfast wonders what happens next after the latest details of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department's sexual abuse of child prisoners at the Gainesville State School have been made public.

Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher reacts to the Matt Lauer news and the reaction to the Lauer news by Donald Trump.

The Lunch Tray asks you to comment on USDA school nutrition standards.

The TSTA Blog keeps pushing back against school privatization untruths.

Bill Barker at The Rivard Report urges haste in adopting a Climate Action Plan.

Keep Austin Wonky offers his proposal for a 2018 City of Austin infrastructure bond.

And Ty Clevenger at Lawflog reports on the federal death row inmate who is appealing his sentence, hopeful to receive a hearing from a judge who is not drunk.