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Is it a little hard to believe that the voters in the Land of the Free actually put people in power who promise to take away people's hard-won rights? that the news from our federal and state Capitol buildings is an endless stream of legislative hatred? In principle, yes, it's hard to believe; in practice, not at all. Big business knows that it's profitable to keep people afraid. Fear sells. That's why they pay news-drones and politicians to get on TV and push fear, to manufacture consent for morally repulsive policies and practices.
Done preachin'. Here are this week's selections from the Texoprogoblogosphere. ================ Off the Kuff took a look at the already-crowded field vying to knock off Rep. John Culberson. Easter Lemming recapped the disappointing Pasadena election, and the the Lewisville Texan Journal also has posted results for elections held there over the weekend. SocraticGadfly snuck into FBI Director James Comey's Senate testimony hearing and found out the 10 real takeaways. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme noted that Texas Republicans are just as greedy and mean spirited as ever. Insurance industry over consumers and papers please for profiled people. Dos Centavos saw Greg Abbott's signing of the anti-sanctuary legislation as an outlawing of brown skin. And on Cinco de Mayo, John Coby at Bay Area Houston issued a call to arms (to the polls). Texas Leftist decried the passage of Trumpcare by the US House, and Ted at jobsanger sees racism as the cause for the GOP abandoning their own plan. Texas Vox advanced the state's solar energy conference to be held in Austin in June, as energy entrepreneurs throughout the state will convene and network. On Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) the Empire struck back, observed PDiddie at Brains and Eggs. Neil at All People Have Value attended May Day protests in Houston that called for fair wages for all. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com. ================ The Rivard Report takes a look at the San Antonio mayor's election, where a runoff between incumbent Ivy Taylor and city council member Ron Nirenberg will determine the winner. From KERA, allegations of voter fraud have delayed the election results of a city council seat in west Dallas, with a runoff likely. And All Ablog Austin has the final poll numbers from the Central Texas counties of Travis, Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop. Equality Texas has the call to action on some of the more hateful legislation on tap this week from the Lege, including HB 3859, a bill that would allow child welfare organizations, agencies, employees, and foster parents that contract with the state to discriminate against LGBTQ families and others when making foster care and adoption decisions. Texas Watch marks the passage of the House version of the Blue Tarp Bill, with the Senate still to vote on its own, and Grits for Breakfast rounds up a few of the police accountability bills that are bottled up in the Lege. Via the Texas Tribune and the Austin American Statesman, the Texas House passed two other noteworthy bills: eliminating the governor's right to appoint his donors to state posts, and doing away with the straight-party ticket voting button. RG Ratcliffe at Burkablog documents the trend toward partisan local elections (which used to be much more non-partisan). Texas has experienced an alarming spike in pedestrian deaths throughout the state, with drunk or distracted walking blamed as the cause, reports CultureMap Houston. Somervell County Salon ruminates for the easily amused about the demise of net neutrality, and Pages of Victory excerpts from a recent article wondering why, in the face of such repeated and terrible Republican action, the Democrats keep losing to them. Bob Marley got it right: It's war. Everywhere is war. It has been war for a long time. But now that war is more overt than at any time since the Gilded Age, the time back to which our plutocrats and their elected lackeys are busily bulldozing our society and our politics.
Yesterday's US House vote on the American Health Care Act and the recent introduction of the risibly named Financial Choice Act have delivered a spiteful jolt to my third eye. Even if We the People are not on a war footing, the plutocratic establishment types are, along with their minions in Washington and various state capitals. The top 1% (more or less), through their political puppets and their police, are waging war against poor people, against working people, against people of color, against LGBT+ people, against the natural environment, against anyone or anything standing between the 1% and increased profits. This afternoon I feel compelled to devote an entry to pimping this long-awaited piece from Perry "PDiddie" Dorrell at Brains and Eggs. PDiddie is not known for mincing words in print, but here I must applaud him for exercising a fair amount of restraint.
No, Diddie is not literally equating Mayor Sylvester Turner to Stepin Fetchit, any more than Ralph Nader was calling Barack Obama an Uncle Tom in an infamous 2008 interview with Shep Smith. Diddie promised last week to post an entire piece on a piece of municipal legislation he found particularly loathsome. To his credit, he wanted to regain his composure and get his facts as straight as possible before posting. As Diddie himself has phrased it, he has recently been "blogging less and enjoying it more," so he doesn't generate bloggage as quickly as he had only a few months before. Sigh. I would like to believe that the liberal majority on Houston's City Council (the ones PDiddie calls "Democrats") have the best interests of the people at heart and in mind when they craft ordinances like this. Even if they do, even if they aren't merely running interference for their cronies in the bidness community, I don't think subjecting people to fines and potentially jail time for pandhandling or pitching tents in underpasses is the right solution. 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. |
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
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