Texas Progressives want gun control now

The Texas Progressive Alliance thanks Briscoe Cain for clearly demonstrating why no civilian should own a weapon of mass murder as it brings you this week's roundup. Yours truly also "thanks" Speaker Dennis Bonnen for, beyond his continued surrenders to Mucus, showing how he's such a squish by not condemning Cain. I also offer my take on R.F. O'Rourke's Dem Debate 3 statement that lead Cain to shoot his mouth (only, fortunately) off, as well as my constitutional and other disagreements with mandatory buybacks in this post.

Read on for the rest of the roundup!

Texas politics

The Trib has a preview of the first Texas redistricting since the One-Eyed Umpire, John Roberts, gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act and removed the Texas Legislature from "preclearance."

Off the Kuff analyzed those two polls from last week that again showed a competitive Texas between Democrats and Republicans.

Rick Casey finds a common thread among the Republicans targeted by the Bonnen/MQS fiasco


Texas politics/gunz

At the Dallas Observer, Stephen Young notes that Gov. Strangeabbott has moved to the right of Lite Guv Danny Goeb on gunz.

RG Ratcliffe evaluates Dan Patrick's seeming change on background checks for gun purchases.

John Coby calls for the end of open carry.

Dallas

SocraticGadfly calls out the Dallas Observer for doing a hit job on a wind farm that's not even in its normal coverage area.

It's "nice" of Brains to think about me on Texas' high speed rail, but, as I blogged several weeks ago, per Jim Schutze, the real real estate grifting may not be out in Roans Prairie (though we shouldn't ignore that) but in downtown Dallas. There's also good evidence that there is plenty of good old capitalist lying on ride count estimates.


Fort Worth

The FW Weekly has a rave review of the just-reopened, revamped, Amon Carter. The design is better, the layout is better, including thematic displays, and more.


Houston/national

David Bruce Collins talks about his interview with the Chronic about All Things Green. (Article is not yet up, but he promises an alert when it is.)

Grits calls out Houston mayoral candidates for lying about crime stats.


Texana

A state judge has blocked the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority from draining four reservoirs.

The Observer notes that more and more apartment landlords are doing fee-cramming on residents.

The Austin Chronicle eulogizes Daniel Johnston.


National

The Texas Observer dings Trump twice. First, it notes how the administration is blocking journos from asylum hearings. Second, it notes that the administration has double the burn rate Congress appropriated on #BuildTheWall. Kudos to Gus Bova on both.

Mondoweiss notes that only two Democratic presidential candidates have explicitly called for the U.S. to cut foreign aid to Israel. INNNNNterestingly, neither Bernie Sanders nor Pete Buttigieg spell their name as "Tulsi Gabbard." Take THAT, #TulsiTwerkers; one again your Kool-Aid is a potion of lies. So, Brains, the "Boot" may be a dipshit, but he's not a lie-spinner with a cult of lie-lovers.

Brains offers his take on Dem Debate 3 in Houston last week.

In what is far from the first time for Julián Castro to be a hypocrite (Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer has savaged his time as HUD Secretary), the Trib notes that, while he called out Biden on immigration issues in the Houston debate, he backed the immigration policies of Biden's boss and his, Dear Leader Obama, when at HUD.

Also apropos debates, at the Houston Press, Jef Rouner says whoever gets the Democratic nod should simply refuse to debate Trump. I get where he's coming from, but I think that would backfire, too. Better answer is to selectively use Trump's own tactics — and use them first.