SocraticGadfly: Texas progressives talk rogue cops, poll tax, more

July 23, 2020

Texas progressives talk rogue cops, poll tax, more


We've got more on cops and policing issues, duopoly polling issues, constitutional questions about mail-in voting and even bits of third-party argumentation and possible skullduggery. Add in some fun Twitter mockery of Texas cities and there you go.

Let's dig into all of it in this week's roundup.


Texas

Off the Kuff had the goods on two more polls of Texas.

SocraticGadfly called out Texas Monthly for naively accepting at face value the "poor me" story of a major fracking company's head.

DosCentavos ruminates on what Trump's threat to cut public education funds is really about.

Grits for Breakfast sees the forthcoming sunset review of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement as an opportunity to limit the number of police forces in Texas.

Shari Biedinger reports on the 50th anniversary re-enactment of the Great Brackenridge Park Train Robbery.
For Twitter fans of Dril, the TPA brings you this Twitter thread about Texas cities that we guarantee you will not have thought of before.


National

Bill Barr's DHS thug cops have descended on Portland, Oregon, complete with unmarked vans and other Gestapo-like tactics.

Donald Trump's 35-year-old tiff with the NFL, as described by Politico, is perhaps the best illustration of how he lives in a world frozen in at least 35-year-old amber.

Related, and also from Politico — how Trump's 60-year-old or so reading of Norman Vincent Peale taught him how to ignore reality through the self-deceptive so-called power of positive thinking.

Judge Paul Grimm says, in light of the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump Administration must accept more DACA applications.

Greens who oppose the still-possible expulsion of the Georgia Green Party over its platform this year call out trans activists who shut down dialogue. (Many still worry about the overall stance of nominees Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker on this; I personally wouldn't be surprised if, after sweeping this under the rug this year, a move for expulsion comes up at the GP's 2021 national meeting.)

Are stamps for mail-in ballots a form of a poll tax? I sympathize with some determined voters worried they can't afford that, but as a legal argument? Calling it "dubious" would be polite.

ALLEGED Putin puppet Trump is increasing cyberwarfare against Russia.

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