Texas Progressives see Kenny Boy Paxton lose again

The first abortion aid lawsuit enabled under SB 8 has been dropped. And, that shithead Jonathan Mitchell refused to comment. Side note: Will this give ballot opponents of an abortion remains ban in Amarillo more ammunition?

Parts of 2021's SB 1, about voter assistance, were struck down last week. U.S. District Judge Xavier. Rodriguez cited the 1965 Voting Right Act. Unfortunately, it's too late to change forms for this election, which means some voters, and those assisting them, will still feel intimidated, which is the whole purpose. Why it took this long for a ruling to be made? Presumably, dilatory tactics by Kenny Boy Paxton are part of it. (That said, other parts of the bill were already struck down.)

Kenny Boy also had part of a state statute declared unconstitutional on him last week.

The Fifth Circuit has removed Judge Janis Jack from overseeing the long-ongoing case over problems with Texas' foster care system. The plaintiffs' lawyer said they will appeal. No indication on whether or not the ruling can be stayed during the appeal. As for the Fifth Circuit panel and its mindset? Tex-ass deserves getting roasted at times. And, the three? Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee, might seem less wingnut than a Shrub Bush or Trumpy one. Wrong. She's faced allegations of racism and more in the past. Cory Wilson? Authored the Fifth Circuit ruling saying the Congressional ban on people with domestic violence history owning guns was unconstitutional, which was overturned by the Supreme Court; he's a Trump appointee. Edith Clement? Another wingnut of sorts, but one with less in the way of being memorable. Both she and Jones were allegedly on Shrub's shortlist for the SCOTUS seat that went to Roberts.

SocraticGadfly looked at the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023, mainly at much of "mainstream media" giving passes to mainstream politicians.

The Monthly offers a preview of the Cancun Ted Cruz vs ConservaDem Colin Allred Oct. 15 debate, with questions it would like to see asked. Especially on Israel-Gaza, the questions are shit, because Biden's "urging" that the conflict cease is itself shit.

TxDOT is paying a bunch of money to take back the south Houston loop tollway, Texas 288 (not to be confused with the Texas 288 loop in Denton) from the private contractor that built it. When Danny Goeb lies about the benefits of the takeover, you know Texans are being screwed. Of course, per the story, the big lie is about the need for it in the first place.

Off the Kuff interviewed Railroad Commissioner candidate Katherine Culbert and CD14 candidate Rhonda Hart. 

Space City Weather does not want to hear your crap about "controlling the weather".  

Paradise in Hell translates JD Vance. 

The TSTA Blog urges you to join the fight against vouchers.  

El Paso Matters explains why "mass deportation" would be really bad for Texas.  

Nonsequiteuse makes the case against a Steve Radack comeback.  

The Bloggess learns something about wasps while decorating for Halloween.

Federal judge: Texas statute Kenny Boy Paxton is using to harass groups he doesn't like is unconstitutional

Texas' "request to examine" lawsuit, ever more abused by Kenny Boy Paxton, has been struck down by a federal judge as unconstitutional. The Trib links to Bloomberg Law, which cites Mark Lane's reasoning about the statute, more than a century old:

Judge Mark Lane of the Western District of Texas said his decision “wasn’t that hard” because Texas’ Request to Examine statute doesn’t expressly allow a served party to pursue pre-compliance judicial review before producing requested records. ...

Lane said the Request to Examine statute was written for another time, and that recently it has been “frankensteined” by Paxton’s office to include exceptions that don’t appear in the law. The law requires immediate production of requested records, leaving a served party no chance to seek pre-compliance judicial review. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that a served party is entitled to a court’s review in Los Angeles v. Patel.

There you go.

The Trib wonders how this will play out in state courts, vis-a-vis individuals who have no presence outside Texas. That said, the Sixth and Eighth Amendments have been fairly, if not totally, "federalized," so I don't think state courts can really ignore this.

Too bad the 200-plus-year-old US Constitution doesn't get more and more judicial rulings about being from another time.

Third party news roundup, Oct. 11

Although Claudia de la Cruz will be my protest vote within a protest vote, her campaign never responded to me asking by email why she had yet to register to attend a third-party candidate forum, the Free and Equal Elections Debate, to which she had been invited. Other than travel costs from NYC to LA, it's FREE exposure! 

Hey, Claudia? The few bucks I might have given you personally or PSL? Maybe not.

I emailed a second time. We'll see if I hear back.

(Hey, Cort Greene? In 2028, I COULD vote for the SWP cultist party. But won't.)

Next, though I'm protesting against Jill Stein, the Abandon Harris movement, formerly Abandon Biden, has officially endorsed her. That's unlike Lexie Zeidan and fellow DSA Rosey shitheads at the "Uncommitted" movement, whom I originally called "Abandon Biden" but who have no actual connection to any "Abandon" movement. They're "committed" — to keep supporting genocide.

The Democraps are doubling down on the "A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump" bullshit. You don't own my vote, as I said in 2016 and spelled out in 2020 (with a GP skeptical analysis) so fuck off. Reminder: Even in a swing state like Georgia with a large Libertarian Party, you never hear Rethuglicans doing this.

==

Update: For Cort Greene and any SWP cultists he drags here in his train? 

First, there are plenty more things in life to focus on than intra-Trot fights, Trot vs Tankie fights, Trot vs Maoist fights, or pseudo-Trot Zionist fights against all of the above! Remember, that's who today's SWP is. As for Cort's Fashbusters, given that the "about" page really doesn't have anything about it, the simplest conclusion is that it's SWP fellow-travelers/front-group/entryism project. I still haven't forgotten about entryism, dude.

Second, one can oppose what China is doing in Xinjiang, and in Tibet, AND oppose US foreign policy spinning on it AND oppose American stanners for Beijing like Max Blumenthal. Not hard to do.

Third, one can express legitimate concerns about Iran, while calling out blind hatred of Iran that's driven by Zionism.

Fourth, back to the start of the first point? Go hiking. Take a walk in your city park, or in a state or national recreation area. Watch butterflies. Cook something, like a frittata. I've done all in the past four days. In other words, get a life.

Fucking Donald Trump is why I'm no longer on Twitter, even as the NYT continues to be craven

As discussed in detail here, two weeks ago, my then-primary Twitter Shitter account got blocked by Elmo Musk and his Nazi goons because I posted the link to Ken Klippenstein's Substack about the J.D. Vance screening dossier allegedly hacked by Iran. (Note: If you're still working at Shitter, especially in some branch like Shitter "Security" two years after Musk bought the company, you're a Nazi goon. Period and end of story.)

Well now, per the NY Times (with an interesting angle, per the pull quote coming up) explains that Team Trump was behind this:

After a reporter’s publication of hacked Trump campaign information last month, the campaign connected with X to prevent the circulation of links to the material on the platform, according to two people with knowledge of the events. X eventually blocked links to the material and suspended the reporter’s account.

There you are.

What's interesting is that Maggie Haberman (barf me) et al never mention either what the material is — which those of us in the know, know — or who the reporter is, and ditto on that.

Are they, or an editor above their heads, worried about Elmo freezing the New York Times' Shitter account, too? What cravenness, especially when survey after survey shows that most of Merikkka gets little news information from Shitter.

Let's contrast with Mediaite, which linked to the NYT:

The Trump campaign “connected” with social media platform X, owned by billionaire MAGA supporter Elon Musk, to suppress links to a journalist’s newsletter that contained a leaked dossier allegedly stolen from the campaign when Iran reportedly hacked it.

The September newsletter, published by journalist Ken Klippenstein, included a dossier on former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance (R-OH), which Klippenstein was sent by an unknown source who claimed it had been acquired in a hack of the Trump campaign. Other news outlets said they’d also obtained some hacked information but chose not to publish it.

There you go.

Alternet gets quotes calling out the NYT:

Journalist Steve Mullis notes, “It’s crazy that this is a single paragraph in the NYT’s Elon Musk story. Given that there were congressional hearings accusing Biden and Democrats of doing this sort of thing, this should be its own huge story.”

It goes on to note how the NYT story doesn't do a deep dive on foreign money (like Saudi money) coming into Elmo's PAC. 

Side note on this? The "ranking member" for Democrats in some House committee could call hearings. So could any Senate committee, since that's Democrat-majority. But, because Iran is the alleged hacker and "Israel," they'll be as fucking craving as Maggie Habs.

Also, Emptywheel (not linking) mentions that Habs et al didn't mention Elmo's "joking" about Harris and assassination attempts less than two full weeks before he booted Ken off Shitter.

I read this via Mediagazer's feed, so I have some other sites that also, like the NYT, did NOT mention Klippenstein by name. That includes Mother Jones (shock me), Daily Beast (NYT only reference in passing, but its Justin Baragona was a shithead shill two weeks ago on shrilly insisting that Klippenstein was doxxing), The New Republic, TPM (like Daily Beast, only in passing), Raw Story.

Then there's the WaPost, all on its own in a tangential piece of shittiness:

Hackers linked to Iran reportedly obtained the briefing book compiled as Trump was vetting potential running mates. (His former vice president, Mike Pence, needed to be replaced on the ticket for noteworthy reasons.) The hackers shopped the briefing book around, finding few takers.

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein bit, however, publishing the document on his website. And in short order, X banned Klippenstein’s account, purportedly because the linked document included personal information about Vance.

This makes Ken look like some poor schlub, rather than a principled reporter, formerly of the Intercept. This isn't NYT-craven, it's "throw Ken under the bus" craven. Is there any wonder why many people on the left, for better reasons than Trump Trainers, don't trust the lamestream media any more?

Update, Oct. 12: Klippenstein got his Shitter restored and wrote about it on Substack. Including that link, I appealed again and got restored, too. I'm still using the Fuckbook page I created, though, and also Substack Notes, to post much of my blogging links. I told him on Shitter that he needs to write about Habs et al being so craven at the NYT.

Alternet? Worse than Counterpunch on electoral politics

After what is pretty close to the last straw with Counterpunch recently, over the anniversary of the Third Gazan War, as I'm calling it, I thought, let's check other allegedly leftist sites.

First stop? Alternet.

Alternet has a mix of head-fake pseudo-legit critiques of Stein and stuff that's "gotcha" right off the bat.

Among the "gotcha"? Calling out Stein for using a signature gathering firm with connections to Trump and possibly to J6. Is there any callout of Democrats' democracy suppression? No. Worse? It's a fucking reprint of a Salon article. THIS gotcha, signal-boosting AOC in the process, on the other hand? All their own. I'd thought of putting Alternet on my new blogs feed. Nuh-uh. This one, though behind Counterpunch's paywall? An APRIL payment by Stein's campaign (NOT her, technically) to a "Church of Cannabis"? Found for free at MSN, the payment was just $300 and was for renting the building for a speech. The piece, originally at Raw Story, has Russiagate Stein/Putin/Mike Flynn gotcha in it, too.

Candidates to the left of Stein? Not.Even.Covered.

Texas Progressives look at oiliness in the Permian and in politicos

The Trib offers its latest assessment of Dade Phelan's chances of keeping the Texas House Speakership.

Related? The Texas Observer wonders if the House will remain anti-voucher after the elections. (Answer: Too close to call right now, so the speculation doesn't matter yet.)

Given all of Oxy's problems within petroleum major and mid-majors, there's no way I'd trust it to run a carbon injection plant it wants.

The RRC is dealing with a major new blowout.

More and more medical societies and organizations, especially ones focused on women's health, are boycotting Texas and other anti-abortion states as sites for their annual conferences, or individual members are creating alternative meetings if the organizations won't relocate.

Shock me that Greg Abbott is engaged in A: Theatrics; B. Mislabeling a drug gang as terrorists; C. Doing something that attempts to intrude on federal power.

Tarrant County Appraisal District, under the new law with directly elected board members in larger counties, is allegedly violating state law. So says state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the guy who pushed for such restructuring. And, it may not be the worst county district! Bettencourt repoliticized the system; his shock at the actual repoliticization is bullshit.

Off the Kuff covered some polling and campaign news for Colin Allred. 

SocraticGadfly offered up the latest installment in his series on Southwest Airlines vs Elliott Investment Management.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project posted a list of questions local political press could ask the six Houston City Council Republican, to see if they support the authoritarians & proponents of mass deportations put forth by the Republican Party up and down the ballot in 2024.  (Yours truly could send Neil some questions to pass on to City Council Democrats to see if they support national Democrat vote suppression. He could also remind Neil that Kamala is a Border Cop. He does this rather than not run Neil.)

The Current tells you about some political events to avoid. 

Texas 2036 wants to spread the word about free or low-cost ACA plans that many people qualify for.

CultureMap offers some mammogram advice in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  

Evan Mintz reminds us what Donald Trump thought of Houston after Hurricane Harvey.  

Laney Hawes laughs at some election conspiracy infighting.