Texas Progressives talk New Hampshire turkey

So, our first-in-the-(white)-nation primary is now in the bag, after our  first-in-the-(white)-nation caucuses. (Actually, per Dems using a mosque for at least one caucus site, Iowa is not quite so white any more and is less white than the Granite State.) Sanders has a win, but Mayo Pete remains nipping at his heels and Klobberin Klobuchar was a surprise in a strong third. My take here.

Before the roundup, a note to ponder: Why do white folk who generally hate black folk obsess so much about tanning, that is, moving from white closer to black? Melatonin envy, to riff on Freud? Maybe, per Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles, there's some unknown schwartzes in Trump's German ancestry background. Or a black woman among the ladies of the evening his granddad was pimping in the Klondike.

OK, NOW we can continue.


Texas politics

Off the Kuff analyzed the Q4 2019 campaign finance reports for Texas Democratic Congressional candidates.

Dos Centavos presented his Stace Slate for the primary. Per Brains, how you square supporting Bernie for prez and ConservaDem grifter Royce West for Senate, I dunno. (Alonzo is not the best Dem for RRC, either.)

Sanford Nowlin reviews the state of election integrity.

The Texas Signal ponders the rise of Michael Bloomberg and his Presidential campaign in the state.

Texana, pollution division

Beef: It's what's for dinner, it's what's for causing climate change, and now, with the consolidation of the meat packing industry and bigger feedlots, it's what's for fucking up your lungs in Amarillo. And, of course the TCEQ isn't doing anything. And the Texas Department of Ag? Besides Sid Miller fucking up hemp regs, it's doing less than nothing on this issue. Result? Panhandle counties have higher asthma rates than most of urban Texas. And the Texas Cattle Feeders Association bigfoots people who would speak out.

Petrochemical refineries in various spots on the Gulf Coast continue to break federal emissions regs on benzene. Reminder 1: Benzene is carcinogenic. Reminder 2: It's a byproduct of cigarette smoke.

Kinder Morgan's Hill Country-transecting pipeline nears completion. Rich Rethuglicans in the Hill Country who are mad get the schadenfreude sad trombones from me. Others there get actual sympathy IF they're not GOP blank-checkers.

That said, it may have less and less to pipe in the future, and that future may be coming sooner than it would like. Read that link for the latest on fracking cannibalizing itself.


Texana

Hair discrimination is a thing, sadly.

Selena is remembered in pix in San Antonio.

The TSTA Blog notes that public school principals don't have private jets.

Better Texas Blog connects income inequality with the decline in union membership.

Dallas

Surprised that Stephen Young didn't ask if Our Man Downtown JWP has an alternative, friends of John Wiley Price, concessionaire in mind for Dallas County Jail inmate phone calls, and that that's what's behind the delay in a new contract.

Young more than redeems himself by bank-shotting from Trump's comment about Mitt Romney to put Robert Jeffress in the spotlight.

Reverchon Park neighbors are suing the city over the council's sweetheart development deal to a group led by Donnie Nelson. D Mag has all the details.

Tiny houses get their own community within Lake Dallas.


National

Brains saluted Bernie's New Hampshire debate performance while also calling James Carville nucking futs. I pointed out details of Carville's lies on Twitter:

It's time for spot the bullshit from James Carville. https://t.co/6UGCT9QFYz
.@JamesCarville?
1. Bernie's a Dem https://t.co/nfhXgUw7Zc
2. It's a FUCKING LIE Russia was fronting Stein .@DrJillStein please sue Carville!
3. The Dem party is the party of #neoliberal bazillionaires.

— Why didn't Pelosi use the Emoluments Clause? 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) February 7, 2020

More here and here in Tweets by others, reTweets of others, or a response thread, on the vapidness of Carville.

Before that, Brains offered a 2020 elections update, noting that Yang is burning lots o money. Sidebars in his piece note falling oil prices and possible effect on Texas and more.

SocraticGadfly looked at the recently ended impeachment process and talked about why it failed politically.

Sports

SocraticGadfly had a trio of Metroplex and Houston related pro sports roundup posts. First, in the wake of the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl plus tweeting during the AFC title game, he asked if it was sad trombones time for DFW and Houston pro sports. Second, he said Rick Carlisle was getting it wrong by trying to make Unicorn Porzingis into a 3-ball machine. Third, as unconventional as Daryl Morey's plans may be, he said the Rockets were among the winners at the NBA trade deadline.

Gadfly also, per ESPN, saluted Rock Chalk Jayhawk head coach Bill Self for his 700th win, the second-youngest college hoops coach to ever do that, and the team for its record-tying 31st straight 20-win season.