Texas Dems elect ConservaDem Kendall Scudder as state party chairman

So, Texas Democrats have gone from finally getting Gilberto Hinojosa to walk the plank from the water-treading SS Texas Democrats Minnow to this, Scudder getting elected in a highly contested race? (Interesting the TDP uses instant-runoff voting; now, along with stopping your effort to keep Greens off the ballot, maybe support it in state races?)

ConservaDem Kendall Scudder is, and I first met him seven or eight years ago. Riding Beto Bob's coattails then promoting Matthew McConaughey to run for gov is proof of that. More proof? In 2022, Kendall, in the DMN interviewing him for his state senate primary, said both parties had moved too far from the center.

As for his plans?

He wants the party to pay attention to areas he says it has previously written off, like rural communities, and put a priority on Spanish-language communications.

Wrote off rural Democrats? Did you forget about Beto, or Beat-0, in Muleshoe, which also involved his being a general PanderBear?

The reality is that rural Democrats, as in county-level political organizations, have long written themselves off. Those that aren't totally moribund welcomed Beto in Muleshoe for a bit of recognition in turn for a bit of his low-level grifting. That's in counties that even have a county level organization. Many don't, and the state party admits this.

And, Scudder, you served on the state party executive committee. You know this.

One other thing on Scudder, per my ConservaDem link? He bragged on his podcast about having a concealed carry permit, even with living in the Metromess. And yes, I saw it as bragging.

That, in turn, ties back to my post Friday: "With Texas Democrats, who needs Texas Republicans," as one part of that was about a majority of Senate Dems voting to get even tougher on the death penalty. In the DMN interview, Scudder wasn't asked about the death penalty. However, one of the other four candidates in that same state Senate race, Charles Gearing, twice volunteered his opposition to the death penalty, under the same question, about criminal justice reform. Maybe the fact that one of Scudder's three (step)-parents worked for either a county jail or TDCJ, as a correctional officer, per his website campaigning to replace Hinojosa, indicates he might tilt toward frying people, even if that was the dad his mom divorced. This would probably tie to his concealed carry permit, too. As would his being a "volunteer in patrol" with the Dallas PD. A more righty junior Jim Schutze? Gack.

I've done plenty of teh Google and can't find his stance. In addition to all of the above, IMO, if he actually opposed the death penalty he would have volunteered that info somewhere. 

I also don't know his position on Zionism and Palestine.

One-third trollingly, two-thirds seriously, I rhetorically asked about this on Shitter Monday night. Non-rhetorically, I asked Texas Progressive Caucus on Hucksterman, and Texas Democrats on Shitter. The purpose there is to see if THEY know, more than to get the answers themselves, since I already indicated I think I know what they are.

And, 24 hours later, neither has answered me.

So, contra Michelle Davis at Lone Star Left, in my world, Kendall Scudder is NOT a "pergressuve." Well, he surely is on LGBTQAI (If we're doing alphabet soup, I'm adding "Incel") issues, but not likely other than that. 

But, Jim Hightower supported him, because he has know-how and can raise bucks. Careful, Jim, or you'll find yourself in the neighborhood of yellow stripes and dead armadillos.

I mean, sexual orientation issues and abortion are important. So is combating US imperialism (Russia-Ukraine and NATO) and Israeli imperialism. So is real action, not fake action, on climate change. (Remember, in 2022, Beto-Bob discovered the religion of "drill, baby, drill.")

Scudder DOES know about running for office. Huntsville city council, multiple times. State Senate. The new elected member slot on Dallas County Appraisal District. Now this, and I'm probably missing something. In short, he's a permacandidate. Will he use the party chairmanship to run for office again at some point?

RIP Grandma Carole Keeton Strayhorn Rylander

RIP Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn Grandma. A symbol — one of four — of Tex-ass politics in the 2006 gubernatorial race, all of whom eventually shot themselves in the foot politically. (Libertarians had a candidate and there was a write-in, but they don't count.)

I wrote about the campaign at the time it was breaking out.

She herself? Siring future Texas GOP progeny by her first husband while eventually exemplifying Texas and national GOP hypocrisy by becoming a three-time divorcee.

Kinky Friedman? Couldn't stop cracking jokes long enough to get serious, despite advisors from then-Minnesota Governor Jesse The Body Ventura helping him out — before most quit. Frankly, I think Kinky was afraid of the possibility of winning, as I noted at his death.

Chris Bell? Eventually showed how much of a ConservaDem he is, despite Progress Texas anointing him, and that his ethics schtick was bullshit. More here, from his own mouth, on his shallowness.

Tricky Ricky Perry? Failed presidential runs and getting high on back pain meds while being tough on drugs.

Sadly, sites like "Reform" Austin (really?) have non-takedown encomium obits.

With Texas Senate Democrats, who needs Texas Republicans?

More than half of Democrats in the Texas Senate earlier this week joined Dannie Goeb and all Republicans in supporting SB 990, which gets even more ghoulish about the death penalty in the Pointy Abandoned Object State.

For the unaware, the bill now means that killing a 10-15 year old becomes capital murder, even without another crime. It also gives prosecutors, despite their 96 percent conviction rate on crimes in Tex-ass in general, "enhanced tools." Fourth degree instead of third? It also "closes legal loopholes and gaps." Like, "Hey, he's 9 years, 364 days old, or 15 years, 1 day old?" What stupidity. 

Stupidity and concern-trolling and virtue-signaling that 6 of 11 Senate Democrats voted FOR.

Before that, apparently ALL Senate Dems joined Rethuglicans in saying that K-12 public school teachers MUST tell their students about the "unique" evils of Communism.

What? They can't teach both sides, like the Southlake Carroll administrator telling teachers there to talk about "opposing views" on the Holocaust?

In reality, because SB 24 doesn't mention fascism (let alone capitalism) it's virtue signaling on those grounds alone.

It's also virtue signaling, because of what I said yesterday about national-level Democrats, that it doesn't mention Zionism.

Maybe I should be quiet, before Dan-o brings up another bill about Islamo-terrorism.

The death penalty — the US isn't totally an outlier

First, off to those nice polite Canadians.

Canada doesn't actually have the death penalty. It got rid of it long ago. But, via David Moscrop at Substack? A majority of Canadians wish they had it.

In this year’s survey, just over half of Canadians (53 per cent, down five points since 2023) think the death penalty is “sometimes” appropriate. About one in four (26 per cent, up one point) say it is “never” appropriate, while 14 per cent (up five points) say it is “always” appropriate.

Interestingly, per the story, that's a marginal decline from 2020, but not a real decline:

Starting in 2020, Research Co. and Glacier Media have asked Canadians annually about their views on the death penalty for murder. Although our country eliminated this possibility in July 1976, we have consistently seen about half of Canadians voicing support for reinstating capital punishment.

Also interestingly, that 53 percent doesn't exactly match with:

Lest one thinks, from what Americans know of politics north of the border from south of the border, this isn't all Conservatives. 

Conservative voters in 2021 are more likely to endorse this course of action (69 per cent) than counterparts who voted for the Liberal Party (56 per cent) or the New Democratic Party (49 per cent).

I guess Greens don't count in Canadian polling any more than in US polling. (Canada has no real equivalent of the US Libertarian Party. In Europe, people who identify as libertarian there think that US L/libertarians are fucking nuts, and they're right.)

There's also one other point, that we'll get to in more detail in a minute.

The intriguing fluctuations on this question are related to ethnic origin. While 31 per cent of Canadians of European descent believe the death penalty is “never” appropriate, the proportions are lower among respondents whose origins are Indigenous (20 per cent), South Asian (15 per cent) and East Asian (10 per cent).

Really? Yes.

Japan is one of four democracies, or alleged ones, that still has the death penalty. Per Wiki, it's executed 98 people this century. Aside from the US, those other countries are Singapore (shock) and Taiwan. It's also still on the books in South Korea, but on hiatus there since 1998.

And, I don't think I need to spell out the ethnicity of those places.

Now, the 98 in Japan is far fewer than the 1,018 in the US this century. 

That then said, what prompted this is that Japan, in at least one case, has shown that it can be as egregious in prosecutorial misconduct in a murder trial as in the US.

Zionist Dems trying to "own" Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, John Ratcliffe

Yeah, for shits and giggles, its "fun" watching Senate Democrats call out the trio of the Department of Defense Drunkards, Department of National Intelligence Israeliness, and Central Intelligence Agency, respectively over Hegseth's — or somebody else's — looping Jonah Goldberg into a Signal chat. (It would have been overkill to do the "Intelligence" strikethrough a second time.) A kudo, with surprise, to Goldberg for having the Atlantic run the basics of what he had.

But? John Warner, Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Jimmy Gomez in the House?

All Zionists.

All cutters of blank checks for #GenocideJoe and Kamala is a Zionist Cop over the genocide in Gaza — a genocide to which the Houthis reacted with their Red Sea maritime patrols.

In other words, these Zionist Democrats are the reason that Trump and his national security advisor Mike Waltz — the person who reportedly actually screwed the pooch — are making war plans against Yemen.

And, for #BlueAnon on Shitter? "Whiskileaks" may sound funny as a trending item, but, since Mike Waltz — who now has been shown to have left a Venmo account unsecured — is the problem, not Hegseth, it's another swing and a miss.

Oh, and since the Nat-sec Nutsacks™ class within Blue Anon hated the actual Wikileaks long before Julian Assange rightly earned hatred over Seth Rich conspiracy theory promotion, it's a swing and a miss that way, too. 

On the more serious side? Waltz is a Green Beret, Bronze Stars, not going through life "(fat), drunk and stupid," etc., the level of incompetence is more scary than if it were him rather than Hegseth.

Also on the more serious side, which the Zionists in national Democrats' contingent will also NOT like? The clusterfuck, called Signalgate now by many of them, or Signalghazi by Brian Beutler, had one good thing — it outed an Israeli spy. 

That said, per Beutler? The real issue is the one of administrative competence in general — and Trump cluelessness in general, like on not knowing about US troops dead in Lithuania.

Consider this to also be a post about The Resistance 2.0, to the degree it, as a subset of BlueAnon, applauds these callouts in Congressional testimony while ignoring the hypocrisy.

Texas Progressives talk foreign policy, abortion, measles

Off the Kuff says to be very skeptical of the arrests for allegedly performing illegal abortions announced by Ken Paxton, as all we have so far is Paxton's word for it. 

SocraticGadfly dives deep on a couple of foreign affairs issues, first looking at the at least eight sides in the Russia-Ukraine war, then looking at post-1949 Tibet-China history and the US role in it, even as a new book by the Dalai Lama ups the stakes there. 

Health experts say it could take a full year to fully contain the West Texas measles outbreak.

A judge has stricken down multiple components of 2023's SB1 on mail ballots.

Speaking of unconstitutionality, SB 2880, the Lege's latest attempt to suppress mifepristone usage and related things, almost certainly is that.

TDCJ allegedly falsified prison temperature logs? Shock me.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project noted the Houstonian who came to Council about HPD’s collaboration with ICE despite Whitmire saying that would not happen. Of course you can be disappeared to El Salvador for dissent.

Reform Austin highlights concerns that measles has on human immune systems.

The Barbed Wire observes that Texas is a testing ground for anti-abortion policies.

In the Pink feels like we're trapped in the Upside Down. 

City of Yes had a positive experience with a driverless Waymo, but doesn't want cities to learn the wrong lessons about them.