Texas progressives talk JFK assassination issues with wishes of happy T-day and real green chile burgers

The Texas Progressives hope you have a happy Thanksgiving and safe travels through what looks like it could be a nasty weather system in West and North Texas.

I personally wish any shutterbugs, and chain gangs, who still have to work Friday Night Lights, or Saturday games, a day as safe, warm, dry, and perspective adjusted as well as possible.

And, let's dig in.


Dallas/JFK

SocraticGadfly, with Nov. 22 falling last week, has a twofer, first writing about the irony of Jackie's JFK Camelot legend  actually reflecting Kennedy reality beneath the legend, then, looking in part at Jack's assassination, noting — with examples —  how to distinguish conspiracies from conspiracy theories.

In the wake of another (fading?) JFK assassination anniversary, Texas Monthly takes a look at how much the Sixth Floor Museum is about capitalism (an area where Texas exceptionalism really IS No. 1) as much or more than it is about history.

There's also a live Dealey Plaza webcam, so that, if you don't believe me, you can see just how easy of a shot (relatively speaking) Oswald had. The cam also shows how Bugliosi and Posner are right in pointing out one Warren Commission error. Oswald's FIRST shot was surely the one that missed, with him firing slightly before JFK's limo had fully cleared into his line of fire, and so, Oswald hit a thin tree branch and his high-velocity Mannlicher-Carcano bullet was slightly deflected.

At the same time, Earth Cam's description of the cam is kind of weaselly:

This is the view from the window from which an assassin fired the shots that killed President John F. Kennedy and severely wounded Texas Governor John Connally as the presidential motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. The Sixth Floor Museum, located on the sixth and seventh floors of the building, explores President Kennedy's life, death and legacy.

No "Lee Harvey Oswald," but yet, "the window from which an assassin fired the shots." OK, got it. 

Conspiracy theory nutbar author Robert Groden got married at the plaza. Jim Schutze has the story.


Houston

What? A Burger? vs. In-N-Out? There's better alternatives for a green chile burger, just not in (what really should and should not be) Texas.

Brains has his take on Houston runoffs.

HISD teachers' union sues TEA over its takeover of the district. (Marlin ISD teachers be thinking: We were a small district, poor, and not unionized. Damn!)

Off the Kuff has some thoughts on the planned effort to try again on a Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

Mike McGuff shares the trailer for the documentary about legendary former Houston rock and roll station KLOL.

Want to find out if (or maybe better, how much) Houston police officers have been engaged in racial profiling on low-level drug arrests? Here you go. By officer name, too.


Texana and politics

TEA loses a lawsuit filed by a fired whistleblower. Interestingly, Kash blew the whistle on a no-bid special education contract in 2017. Nine months or more and counting since TEA settled with the feds on special education issues in general, many parents allege it's still not doing enough.

Many borderlands landowners are refusing to sign "build the wall"-related permissions agreements with the feds.

Statewide food news: Can Luby's survive? Read that in-depth piece for a take on what it's done wrong, and what's gone wrong, in the past 20 years.

The TPA wishes Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora all the best in their new media venture as they go bowling for pink-themed sponsorship dollar or whatever. No, seriously, they may not be doing that, since their new gig isn't the Texas Tribune. But maybe they will be doing that? And I still don't get how the hell Ramshaw got from Focus Daily News to the Trib's top editor spot. Or even to her level at the Snooze. Oh, I do now. Family background, which gave her exposure, and even privilege, per this story. THAT, in turn, leads me to wonder why the hell she was working for Marlon Hanson's rag in the first place. That said, Robert Wilonsky, before HE jumped the Observer ship to jump the Snooze shark, slightly p'wnd her and very much did the Trib, with this brief.


Austin/politics

East Austin gentrifies. The Texas Observer reviews the book documenting it.

EMILY's list endorses ConservaDem Shannon Hutcheson, the Austinite equivalent of Wendy Davis.

The Texas Signal notes Greg Abbott's loss of affection for Chick-fil-A now that they have pledged to stop giving money to anti-LGBTQ groups.

Better Texas Blog tells the untold stories of the Texas budget.

RG Ratcliffe explains how to win Texas in 2020.


National

Brains looks at the carnage from the fifth Democratic debate.

What all Texans, besides Tricky Ricky Perry and Ken (Slimeball) Starr, who says he sees an impeachable offense (big deal, he's a Never Trumper but still a wingnut) are connected to Ukraine? Click the link.

Therese Odell was all over the Fiona Hill hearing.