Be vewwy, vewwy careful: I’m RINO hunting (and Overton Window moving)

So now, Jeebus H. Trump fancies himself as Darth Cheney with a firearm, at least a metaphorical one, eh?

In reality, Trump would be as much a laughingstock with an actual firearm as his big game target: Strangeabbott the RINO. (Supposedly, ranchers took him on a shoot years ago and he came off almost as “sissified” as Bobby Kennedy did out at the LBJ Ranch.)

To remind you what’s up, Jeebus had this comment after the Blue Wave flooded Texas Tuesday night:

“If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost. He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!”

First, this is the usual mix of Trumpian lies and blame shifting.

Strangeabbott changed nothing until the last month or so before the election, when by executive order he promulgated some fake audits of data centers for water usage and then put a temporary pause on grants to finance local law enforcement use of Flock cameras, then claimed he didn’t know the money had been diverted in the first place.

That said, this is a reflection of the circular firing squad already unlimbering within the Tex-ass GOP, which will soon probably go full bore on:

Ready.Fire.Aim.

Jokery about some firing squads.

What’s going to happen in all likelihood is an intra-party Overton Window. And, yes, we in Merikkka, especially we non-duopoly leftists, but to a fair degree the DSA Rosey types as well (though their sheepdogging still enabled it in the past), know what the normal Overton Window is.

And, that’s that every time Rethuglicans move right, Democraps move right chasing them. This is despite political science polling indicating as low as the individual Congressional district that constituents, whether in an R or a D district, are often to the left of their Congresscritter.

But, the Overton Window shifting can happen within a party, as well.

And, it usually happens when euphemisms and excoriations wear out.

Outside the party, “socialist” lost its bite, so Democrats were called “communist” instead, for example.

Here in Tex-ass, within the GOP, positive euphemisms have lost their power.

“Conservative” means nothing. So, “true conservative”? “Real conservative”? “Real Texas conservative”?

Those have started losing power, too.

So, “super dooper paratrooper conservative”? “King James Version conservative”? “Unaltered Augsburg Confession conservative”? (That’s for Lutefash Lutherans.)

None of those is (yet) real, but could become that way.

Within all of this, Republican population biologists are weighing in.

Some think the RINO, especially the White RINO species pictured, is in critical danger and should be put on the endangered species list, housed in a political zoo, or something similar, if nothing else to be preserved as a Republican living history legend.

Others want to hunt them to extinction.

Yet others claim that since this species exists by definition, more can be conjured up out of thin air and that RINO hunting will always exist and be plentiful and bountiful.

Indeed, for some, like “the cockroach of the Lege,” Brian Harrison, an expansive definition of RINOs is an easy way to shove your face in the media.

==

Expect a second or third round of follow-ups, but not immediately. Maybe something before the end of the year and something else during next year’s Lege.

At the same time, if Gina Hinojosa is really, really ConservaDem? I’ll invent a parallel acronym, even if BlueAnon objects. I could do TransRINO but that would be wayyyyyy too easy.

She has, already, as of last night, uttered that BlueAnon and Democratic consultant beloved concept: Bipartisanship. What do you expect from Gilberto’s daughter, I guess? Well, per her transition team, appointing the good old bipartisan Republican as part of it. Maybe she thinks, on modifying or overturning some of Strangeabbott’s education moves, that will work. Maybe it will. Or maybe, like Preznit Kumbaya, she’ll get her face handed to her. (It’s been a while since I’ve use that phrase instead of Dear Leader.)

Dan Patrick has wanted to Christianize America along with Texas, and screw up its universities

The biggest lie you'll hear from any Tex-ass politician is one that Dannie Goeb has been pushing hard for years — the claim that there is no such thing as separation of church and state. Per the Monthly's piece, it's like, even more than Karl Marx, he sees secularists and atheists lurking under every bush and behind every tree in Texas, as well as actually believing that Merikkka is legally and constitutionally, not just sociologically (at least now) a "Christian nation." Related, from the same piece, and indirectly, is his second-biggest lie, that he really cares about rural Texas, when in reality, his talk about "government-run schools" show he's as big of a voucher enthusiast as Strangeabbott. I am breaking out the Christian nationalism stuff for a separate piece.

== 

Speaking of Patrick, in a long-form at the Texas Monthly, Forrest Wilder talks about the wingnuts taking over tea-sipping UT. Dan-o was, and still is, a key part of that play. It first led to that playbook being copied for the A&M and Texas State university systems, etc. It then expanded to actively attack anything "woke" on campuses. A big part of the piece is the faculty exodus that is already starting, especially among people of color, marginal groups, and above all, people who fall into both categories.

Then you have what looks like a spinoff of Stockholm Syndrome:

Devin Stauffer, a mildly disheveled government professor with a scruffy beard, said his colleagues were too dour about the changes afoot. I met with him in May at his office. His desk was watched over by Plato’s visage in a nod to his area of expertise, classical and early modern political philosophy. A university spokesperson sat in on our interview, which I found strange, though Stauffer didn’t seem to mind.

Really? That said, if you're believing even one-third of the worst of what wingnuts are calling "woke," you'll be OK with making yourself a willing captive of the Austin version of the Stockholm bank robbers. 

And, fallout could indeed happen, as Wilder cites past history.

The Rainey episode did lasting damage to UT. The stain made it harder to recruit faculty, and it landed the school on the American Association of University Professors’ censure list for nine years.

Of course, you'd have to have modern collegiate oversight institutions, or non-wingnut, non-ConservaDem US presidents be part of the pushback. If there is? Current wingnut UT president Jim Davis would probably screw the pooch more under orders from state higher authority.

If it did happen? 

Compared to "up north," Texas and other Southern-like states lag in other ways. Unionism is one. Directly connected to academia is another — the number of newspapers per 100,000 people. Even as print media still declines, nonetheless, that decline is a lot slower in the Midwest and Northeast. Also, per the Kuffners who refuse to write about this issue, even in Tex-ass, at least one former prof, who called herself "right of center," was crushed by Strangeabbott and his minions crushing anti-Zionist protests on various campuses. Speaking of?

Liberal Zionist bullshit is bad enough here in the United States. Per Mondoweiss, it's far worse in Israel. 

==

Fortunately, it's too late for Dannie Goeb to go further.

Cockroach of the Lege Brian Harrison strikes again

Harrison, so identified in 2025 by the Texas Monthly, on Wednesday asked Strangeabbott to call a special session of the Lege ASAP to block Gina Hinojosa from making herself a dictator in January.

Harrison has been known by his fellow Rethuglicans as a grandstander. Even Tony Tinder(holt) said so over one of his 2025 stunts, which was to try to unseat Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows midsession.

The loneliest point in Harrison’s session came when he tried to unseat Burrows by forcing a mid-session recall vote. “I’m not here to fight for Brian Harrison’s interests,” Harrison said, drawing mocking laughter from his colleagues. Just one member voted with him. Even Arlington Representative Tony Tinderholt—once the king of the solitary right-wing stand—condemned the effort: “Representative Harrison stood for himself.”

There was plenty of other stupidity that the Monthly documented. 

He's also a zero-IQ fucking idiot who doesn't even understand Texas law and the Texas Constitution.

Who said that, me?

No, Monty Bennett's wingnut identity thieving "media" outlet, the Dallas Express.

A bill would need support from two-thirds of the full membership of each chamber to take effect before the January transition. Otherwise, the state Constitution generally requires a 90-day wait after adjournment.

Obviously, that ain't happening. And, no, I don't think the cockroach, even lower than a MAGAt, knew that at the time he made his request, which he could have used as a call to reform overthrow the Texas Constitution.

It would fit with his grandstanding persona, also called out by Rethugs, per the Monthly:

He is an “insufferable combination of hair gel, studio makeup, and narcissism,” one Texas GOP executive committee member said.

But, he's not that smart to deliberately do something he knows would fail. 

He's also also a liar.

He claimed he did similar with Abbott back in 2022.

The same Dallas Express piece said, nope. Instead, in 2022, he filed a normal regular bill for the 2023 regular session of the Lege, to that end. It went nowhere, of course. 

Remember, Brian? God damns liars! 

Side note: You can tell how many MAGAts on Shitter either aren't from Texas, or if they are, are totally illiterate about politics, who uncritically re-Shit Harrison's Shits. (That said, some are surely bots; Elmo will give anybody a blue check for cash.) 

Side note two: Any Rethug in the Lege who's more than two degrees left of Tinder(holt) knows Hinojosa is a ConservaDem anyway, even if they won't admit it in public. 

Side note three: If Strangeabbott was even one-quarter as gracious as Gina Hinojosa claimed he was yesterday in their first transition meeting, he's already told Harrison privately to fuck off. 

Side note four: Harrison is also apparently too stupid to notice the irony and hypocrisy of trying to get Strangeabbott to become a short term dictator to block the alleged dictatorship Hinojosa is about to impose. 

A roundup of non-elections issues in Texas and beyond

A quadrivirum of Greater Middle East states think a quadrivirum of European countries will save them from Trump's likely re-escalation of the war with Iran. 

Trump personally keeps losing lawsuits like his administration loses election lawsuits, as his "Epstein birthday letter" suit against the WSJ was dismissed with prejudice. 

The Monthly has a long-form interview / profile of former state legiscritter Glenn Maxey, reported as the first openly gay man under the Pink Dome. 

The Observer has a good piece on how BlackRock overcame blacklisting by the Comptroller's office over its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies, mainly by funding data centers. As the Observer notes, the 2021 law behind the blacklisting has been declared unconstitutional. More importantly, it notes BlackRock spouting shit when asked by others how data centers squared with environmental concerns.

Vanity Fair profiles Nick Fuentes, and notes that ultimately, he's nothing more than a grifter making money off people who think he's actually working for wingnut political change. 

Quick and dirty thoughts from Texas and beyond about the 2026 midterms

OK, we’ll start in Texas.

Although not all Republicans have conceded yet, it looks like Democrats have swept every statewide office.

To add to this, as of the time of writing, in an even bigger shocker to me, Democrats were within five seats of claiming a majority in the Texas House.

Republicans will still control the Texas Senate, but that will now be run by a Democrat, Vikki Goodwin, and not Dannie Goeb, aka Dan Patrick.

Speaking of, to extend a quote from “somebody” during the COVID years?

“Old Republican politicians have a duty to die.”

With that, this is an edited version of selected small bits from what will be my editorial column in my newspapers next week along with additional commentary.. Per part of what I said about Suzanne Bellsnyder yesterday, it, for reasons of journalistic ethics, will not be a straight-up run of that column. That column is essentially an open letter to both duopoly parties in Texas and nationally.

First, Dems winning the state House may be one of those “could be good, good be bad” things of that old pseudo-Chinese proverb.

The good is that she can now put forth a full agenda, rather than rounding up coalitions of the moment on individual issues and otherwise playing defense.

The bad is that if House Dems have a majority, they’re going to want stuff and it will be like herding cats. Senior House Dem Senfronia Thompson has already thrown her hat in the Speakership ring. Given previous speaker races, some young buck or doe may challenge her within the Dem caucus but will likely get nuked in a floor vote, as most Democrats will accept having a pair of stable hands at the tiller.

The good is that, on matters that are not of actual social principle, (whether real social principle or fake/but are overstated by Texas Rethuglicans anyway) Hinojosa will be able to put the screws to Senate Republicans.

For fellow Texas denizens, “data centers” to me is shorthand for “local control,” and ultimately the 2023 “Death Star” bill. Half the Senate is up for election in two years; Republicans in that half, per the likes of Bellsnyder, can either listen to their actual consultants or pricey self-proclaimed anti-RINO consultants. Your choice.

The bad? Hinojosa is the most ConservaDem of the statewide Dems. Per her one campaign ad, she’s not going to attempt to even modestly modify the state’s draconian laws on reproductive choice. She likely won’t back anything close to Lite Guv-elect Vikki Goodwin’s push to legalize marijuana. Structural changes be Strangeabbott, like the 15th Appeals Court, may stay in place, too.

Downballot? Per the Trib link on statewide races, the biggie is Nathan Johnson winning the state AG race to replace Kenny Boy Paxton. No more suing the feds to back Trump’s agenda, especially via court-shopping. This was one race I actually voted in and for the D. Nothing objectionable about Johnson re what he wants to actually do.

Will either he or Comptroller-elect Sarah Eckhardt undo the state’s official anti-BDS and anti-ESG stances? Will Hinojosa take any lead on this? Sadly, probably not. What happens if, say, a pro-Palestine group has a lawsuit against the state? How vigorously will Johnson defend the state? Still unknown.

Next?

Will Rethugs in Texas and beyond finally realize that, while words like sticks and stones can hurt, at the same time, vapid repetition of some words eventually make them empty?

Probably not.

“Socialist” had diminishing returns, so “communist” was unveiled. But, despite Elmo Musk’s direct mail fliers, no, Karl Marx was not hiding behind every tree and under every bush.

And, as Bo French showed, straight-out Islamophobia had him running no better than any other Rethuglican. It also didn’t help Haley Stevens block Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate run in Michigan. For whatever reasons, some conservative Muslims here in Texas still want to vote Rethuglican even as you slapped them in the face.

Republican Party of Texas chairwoman D’rinda Randall said last night:

[T]onight, we accept the results. Tomorrow, we begin rebuilding.

Will you learn WHY those results happened, and accept that, in the first step of rebuilding? Not just on bigotry, but on the local control issue and more? Color me skeptical until I see it happen.

Now, one other word.

An hour after Strangeabbott conceded, Trump called him a RINO. Let’s tackle that first.

Those consultants I mentioned above, versus constituents, will see dollar signs still looming if they double down on RINO in 2028 primaries. Overton Window shifting is a thing within political parties, too, and these people will push it one last time.

Beyond that?

I mentioned the magic name: Donald John Trump.

He may be feared inside Republican elected and infrastructure circles, but I certainly don’t picture him as liked the way Ronald Reagan was, or even George W. Bush. He’s already older now than Reagan was when he left the presidency.

Once the fear subsides, to riff on an old saying Lyndon B. Johnson reportedly had as president about his vice president, Hubert Humphrey:

I want his pecker to be in my pocket.

Or the longer version about staff assistants:

I don't want loyalty. I want loyalty. I want him to kiss my ass in Macy's window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses. I want his pecker in my pocket.

Republicans can either decide to reclaim their body parts — or not. This seems less true nationally, but even there, not totally untrue, versus Texas. 

Update: Here in Texas, a reminder. Those 38 electoral votes are now in play. Whoever the Democratic presidential nominee is, they WILL BE IN TEXAS during the general election. 

As for national Democrats?

To riff on Dan Boguslaw, new Church Committees, but broader focused ones, on things like ICE/DHS, will be nice.

But, on what caused Trump to lose?

It’s called the War Powers Resolution. But?

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and presumable new Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries are both Zionist. They may well do their best to neuter such resolutions, let alone kill attempts to block Trump shifing Merikkka’s $4 billion in aid to the Zionist genocidalists running Tel Aviv into indirect dark money channels.

Update: Per Drop Site News, Hamilton, El-Sayed and other Democratic Senate newcomers have already said, for a variety of reasons, they want any option to Schumer there is. Chris Van Hollen's been mentioned by name. So, for Democrats, including Democrat commentariat inside as well as outside of Texas, the days of not talking about pro-Palestinian issues are over. The days of not talking about Strangeabbott cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests in your own Houston back yard, in one case, need to be over. (They'll be over in a sense with the change in governors, and that in turn will likely mean more such protests if national Democrats don't do something.)

As I said to fellow leftists on Shitter last night? Beyond those two, there’s a lot of ConservaDems who will need their feet held to the fire, including holding their feet to the non-duopoly fire.

I thought Suzanne Bellsnyder had more integrity

Than to be bought and paid by Gina Hinojosa. Or, even more, to not disclose it.

Sadly, Monty Bennett's Dallas Express broke the story on Bellsnyder, who is the publisher of the Sherman County Reporter, a former Republican Lege staffer and runner of a profitable Substack, ran an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News supporting Ginojosa.

But, rather than a Republican disgusted with Strangeabbott? This:

The Dallas Morning News continues to display Suzanne Bellsnyder’s endorsement of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa despite acknowledging that Bellsnyder had an undisclosed paid consulting relationship with Hinojosa’s campaign. Financial records show the campaign paid Bellsnyder’s firm $57,000 in 2026.

Oops. 

And, Bennett is also right on the Snooze being wrong for not hauling down the online version.

I have no problem with Bellsnyder endorsing Ginojosa. 

I have huge problems with her not disclosing that she was, essentially, paid to write that op-ed. I have big enough problems with her not disclosing the paid consultancy in general.

It's a matter of journalistic ethics, since she runs a traditional newspaper as well as a Substack. And, she's probably getting roasted in Sherman County. 

I've had previous reasons to say "gack" to her as a newspaper publisher, and as a pseudo-environmentalist. 

And, perhaps it's because it was written after she got busted, but her Substack yesterday had just a voting guide with no endorsements.  (The guide was pretty bare-boned, too.)

The money? Chump change with what Elmo's spending.

The reach? Judging by the number of comments on most posts on her Substack, maybe not that many. That said, this summer, she had an apparently paywalled piece about Ginojosa. And, I'm not sure how much her Substack overlaps with the semi-syndicated columns she does for other newspapers. Was she paid for that? What else?

As for the overlap? If it's too tight, that may be an instance of self-plagiarism. And yes, such a thing is also talked about in journalism. And, her Nov. 2 voting guide piece appears to be a word-for-word of the column she sent out to newspapers last week; I checked one. (I don't run it myself.) Personally, I have once or twice dropped an EDITED version of a column of mine on Substack. Never here, because I can put it behind the paywall at Substack. And, it's always been non-political stuff, and non-time-sensitive stuff, so I can delay it, oh, 2-3 weeks.

Finally, from my own investigative side, why just Hinojosa? Does Bellsnyder think Talarico's brand of Christianity is a no-go vs. Paxton? That Vikki Goodwin wanting to legalize marijuana is a no-go against Dan Patrick? 

Further downballot, she clearly favors at least one Republican, Nate Sheets, versus Clayton Tucker, in the ag commish race, per this post.