TX Progressives: Lege screws schools, Abbott screws science Happy Birthday Big Bend, 2020 previews, Dallas politics

As Gov. Greg Abbott hit the "sign" or "die" deadline Sunday after the Texas Lege's "sine die" wrapup, this week's Texas Progressives roundup nears the finish line of what the Lege did, and did not do, and what Abbott signed off on, from what it did send to him, along with learning the fate of Bobby Lee, discussing the fate of Eric Johnson, and other things.


The Lege

The Lege has apparently royally screwed over smaller school districts in House Bill 3.

The Religious Right laments winning relatively little beyond the save Chick-fil-A nuttery.

The Lege is finally paying for state parks.

But it gave itself an even bigger pass and loopholes on not being covered by public records laws with HB 4181.


Abbott

In one of his wingnut "freedom" moves, and in one of his wingnut "ignoring science" moves, Abbott vetoed a bill requiring rear-facing car seats for toddlers. It may have been another of his revenge vetoes, too.

He did, smartly, use an executive order to extend the life of the State Board of Plumbing Examiners. That also reduces the chances of a special session. (It's also an argument for Texas to have an every-year, rather than banana-republic every-other-year, legislature.)

And he was a weasel in letting the aforementioned HB 4181 become law without his signature.

But, he did legalize industrial hemp and CBD oil.



Texana

SocraticGadfly, through words and pictures from his many trips there, celebrates the 75th anniversary of Big Bend as a national park; besides the pictures in the blog post, a sunset to the west of Big Bend, near Marfa, is pictured at left. (Marfa might still be worth a visit, before getting totally Californicated or Austifornicated.)

 Mean Green Cougar Red celebrates twenty years in the real world.

 Miya Shay scolds the University of Houston for swiping a photographer's work.

What? A Burger?

What? A Burger? is now coming to you from Chitown City as the national hamburger of the Pointy Abandoned Object State™ sells not just a minority stake, as originally rumored, but a majority stake of itself to Chicago investors.

 Dan Solomon is not okay with the sale of What? A Burger?.

Like most Texas "national foods," with the exception of barbecue, it's overrated, IMO. Thus, tweets like:

Ok, I say we all chip in and buy Whataburger back. Make honey butter chicken biscuits available all day, add kolaches to the menu and change nothing else. Especially not the ketchup. https://t.co/HadutHXJ9l

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) June 14, 2019

Are actually kind of funny.

Now, if Whataburger had a good green chile (correct spelling, Texans) burger like New Mexico chain Lotaburger, we'd be talking.

Dallas

Stephen Young asks if the mayor's office is a likely dead end for Eric Johnson. (My answer? On elected politics, at least, yes.) That said, I disagree on one thing; I think Eddie Bernice's seat is Royce West's for the asking first, if he wants it, then Eric Johnson's second.

Young also reports who bought the Bobby Lee statue; the company no-commented.

And, he also notes the city lost a bunch of money settling a porn convention lawsuit.

Jim Schutze reports that one of Dallas' police unions wants chief U. Renee Hall canned.

The crane that killed a downtown Dallas woman should have been able to withstand winds twice as high as what actually brought it down. So what else was wrong and how does this tie to the city's and state's bad record on crane accidents?


State and national politics

Wingnut rural voters who surely, overall, hate single-payer health care despite its likely lowering of costs, and also back their wingnut state politicos in hating Obamacare Medicaid expansion, also hate paying taxes to keep a rural hospital open and will surely refuse to connect the dots.

ConservaDem Henry Cuellar is getting primaried. Meet Jessica Cisneros.

Greater Houston Greens are NOT imploding. David Bruce Collins clears up the mystery of who now owns the party website.

Congressional Dems are fighting back on wall funding.

The Trib looks at Red vs Blue Texas (And ignores Green Texas, whatever color Libertarians identify with, etc.) to see possible Democratic flips in the U.S. House and both houses of the Lege. It also offers up the latest presidential polling.

Stephen Young reports that Former Fetus and Forever Fuckwad Jonathan Stickland has a potential new residence. Judging by the polling in his House district getting tighter and that the Religious Right didn't get much out of this Lege cycle, some of his district might help him move.

Brains offers a Democratic debate preview in his latest 2020 roundup.

Therese Odell says her own goodbye to Lyin’ Sarah Palin.

Off the Kuff has had it with national writers who are clueless about who is running for Senate in Texas. (He has not asked them to mention Sema Hernandez more, I don't think, though I won't snark as much as Brains. And in any case, IMO, Royce West ain't running.)

As Bernie Sanders continue to call himself a "democratic socialist," more and more national magazines are asking "just what does 'socialism' mean in America"?

AOC has called for Congressional pay raises. Nope. Fix the three-day Congresscritter work week, and fix the issue behind that by passing federal campaign financing for Congresscritters, then we'll talk about pay raises. Congresscritters currently get $174K in base salary plus franking money and other expenses. Howie at Down with Tyranny calls out Steny Hoyer for pushing this without mentioning AOC's name. And, unlike him, I do NOT count the money Congresscritters are given to hire staff, because those salaries have to be paid. (That allowance, of nearly $1 million on the House side, includes other expenses as well as hiring staff, to boot. More here on what's false and what's true on what Congresscritters make.) Howie knows all this, too; he wrote his whole piece as a Hoyer smear. That's why I commented there about AOC supporting it, too.