Texas Progressives and the usual stuff

The political hot stove league is heating up for the duopoly and third parties as well, just in time for summer weather.

The Texas Progressives have got you covered on all of it, so dig in.

Texas politics

Off the Kuff analyzes the latest polls of Texas.

Texas Democrats resoundingly lost their lawsuit trying to restore straight ticket voting. Kuff admits he expected the loss in question, but still appears to favor straight ticket voting in his last line.

The Supremes rejected Texas Dems' request to force vote-by-mail-for-all (NOT related to Medicare for All) for the July 14 primary runoffs. The big picture, for the general election, remains open.

Dikeman vs Hughs, the suit over whether third-party nominees should have to pay duopoly party filing fees in Texas, related to HB 2504, went before a Texas appeals court. Here's video of the hearing. Here's the big ticket background.

G. Elliott Morris throws a little bit of cold water on the positive polls for Joe Biden in Texas.

Noah Horwitz shares a term paper he once wrote about Greg Abbott.

Houston

In Houston, DosCentavos is not a fan of the latest attempt at police reform by committee.

Transform Houston outlines their objections to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner's task force on police reform.

San Antonio

Mario Bravo calls on elected officials to lead on police reform.

Texana

Doug Swanson's "Cult of Glory," in part because D Magazine ran an excerpt, got the statue of Texas Ranger Jay Banks removed from in front of Love Field. Here's my reviews (five-star!) on Goodreads and Amazon.

In the wake of Tiger King, the Observer looks at the burgeoning world of exotic animal parks in Texas.

National

SocraticGadfly looks at Howie Hawkins clinching the Green Party nomination and the various haters who still don't like it or him.

Election law guru Rick Hasen wants a 28th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote. As one wag on Ballot Access News asked rhetorically, "Doesn't the 15th Amendment do that?" As I told him on Twitter, ignoring duopoly-party efforts to suppress third-party ballot access makes his column unacceptable.

Shit. Hickenlooper vs Gardiner. The Colorado Green Party has to be bigger than the Texas one, and you all can't get anybody to run for the Senate? (Pictured at left: The North LoDo-distanced "protest area" at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, when John Hickenlooper was mayor. Part of his hatred of the freedom of assembly clause of the First Amendment, matched only by his love of fracking when Colorado gov. I was there on my last day of a vacation the Sunday before the start of DNC week.)

Egberto Willies thinks pergressuves should line up to vote for Status Quo Joe Biden, then demand single-payer. And, people like him as pundits are why Dems laugh out the Overton Window. It's also why he's back off my blogroll.

Goodbye and farewell to Zionist Eliot Engel.

G. Elliott Morris throws a little bit of cold water on the positive polls for Joe Biden in Texas. I threw more cold water on that nationally last week.

 Josh Berthume worries that the seven hours following the end of voting on the East Coast will be the biggest danger to democracy America has seen.

Paradise in Hell has had it with Mike Pence.

Meet the Black officer who was part of the George Floyd arrest (and is charged) and the adoptive White mom of him and two other Black children.

In what sounds like a sick joke, the Navajo Nation is reportedly buying Remington.

The rich get richer, indeed, in part because the IRS audits them less and less.

Global

Meet DDoS, the group replacing Wikileaks, and between reporting leaks from Russia, refusing to fuel the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, and deliberately avoiding the Cult of Julian, seeming to do a better job than Assange.

Feel different? NAFTA was replaced by NAFTA 2.0, called YMCA or the USMCA or something by Trump, yesterday. DeSmog Blog reports on the oil and gas angle. Remember how Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO, was going to be a breath of fresh air as Mexico's new leftist-leaning president? Per DSB, he ain't.