Texas progressives tackle Butosky, policing, more

Plenty of stuff regionally, statewide and nationally to write about, from Austin actually kind of defunding its police, through Seth Rich conspiracy theorist Ed Butowsky and his bullshit legal beagle Ty Clevenger facing new legal hot water, to conspiracy thinking on political websites.

So, let's dig in!

Austin

Kudos to the Austin City Council for being possibly the first big city in the US to take a BIG whack to its police budget, along with other actual reforms. Grits has more.

Dallas

Jim Schutze notes that a small bit of "reparations" are tucked into a major Dallas ISD bond issue, as well as discussion over whether that word should be used or not.

Schutze also notes the latest political screwups of Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. And that he's now gone and gotten into bed with some Religious Right grifters over a Dallas coronavirus day of prayer held yesterday.

D Mag also has a very good cover story profile of Mark Cuban.

State

Off the Kuff looked at the potential effects on the partisan balance of the State House that may result from the nomination of State Sen. Pat Fallon to Congress. (Yours truly will have more on this issue in a week.)

DosCentavos took the week off, but he does point us all to a piece by Latino Decisions , reporting that Latino voters are quite content with the Kamala Harris pick for VP.

Reform Austin warns of the bad effects of a Census undercount.

Dan Solomon brings us the twenty most iconic local TV and billboard legends, and continues his string of teh sux by omitting both Burton Gilliam and Brian Loncar. (I put the "no follow" tag in that so, just in case you the reader don't have Ghostery installed, TM doesn't get clicks from this. This is the same Solomon about whom I devoted a full article for writing "poor me in the oil patch," then called out on Twitter for first fellating HEB in a brief, then recycling that into a full story. Seriously, Texas Monthly is pretty sucky at times, and Kuff is so much a ConservaDem that in his Roundup links, I don't think I've ever seen one from the Texas Observer.

So, I'll supply what Dunghill Dan doesn't. Burton Gilliam:



And Loncar, the "Strong Arm" of the law. Picked this one because of a guy talking about being T-boned ... ironic given Loncar getting T-boned himself after failure to yield to a fire truck. Otherwise, just the cheese nuts of all that's wrong with ambulance chasers advertising on teevee:



The further irony? Loncar's own attorney in his suit against the city of Dallas? Clay Jenkins, now Dallas County Judge. Maybe John Wiley Price should have thought twice about the idea that Jenkins would be his puppet. Jenkins bought Loncar's firm after he died.

Dems have gotten Green Charles Waterbury booted off the state Supreme Court ballot. I'm of several minds. One is hating the mix of pettiness and fear Democrats, especially organizations, show toward Greens. Witness in Wisconsin, a petition against Hawkins/Walker just because she moved to another address within Charleston during their Wisconsin ballot access drive. Pure pettiness. On the other hand, that's the way politics is played at times. On the third hand, specific to this case? Waterbury voted in the Dem primary this spring. A no-no that he, as a repeat candidate, should know. Second issue is one that Kuff (where I saw the link) didn't mention: The onerous ballot access fees of HB 2504, which he has basically discussed not at all. Yeah, I'm sub-blogging, as in a riff on sub-tweeting, Kuff a lot this week.

Juanita checks in on Alex Jones.

Matt Angle documents the top ten ways that Texas Republicans have conspired to suppress the vote and undermine fair elections.

Grits discusses the Texas Legislature Black Caucus' George Floyd Act. He doesn't call it a nothingburger, but does, in essence call it weak tea of collected floor scrapings that the Lege refused to pass before. He wonders if the attitude in the Lege will have changed enough for this to pass. That said, he doesn't note that by it being this weak to start with, a la Barack Obama, Senfronia Thompson, Royce West, et al have compromised away the compromise in advance.

National

Ed Butowsky was facing legal sanctions over willfully telling lies in his lawsuit against David Folkenflik and NPR. One problem with NPR's filing, IMO. If there were any way of looping him into it, they should have asked for sanctions against Ed's legal beagle, Ty Clevenger. You know, the sack o shite Ty Clevenger who has a boatload of unpaid legal sanctions and other black marks. Unfortunately, there's not a way to make that happen under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37, the basis of this particular filing. However? Ty as well as Ed DOES face a sanctioning claim under Rule 11, in a sanctions claim from the same case. Rulings are expected in 2-4 weeks. Meanwhile, as yet more stories come out, in the middle of, and wake of, the RNC, Ed, Ty et al look worse than ever.

Fox News, Ed Butowsky & Ty Clevenger look more DISGUSTING by the day on #SethRich #ConspiracyTheory As do Elizabeth Lea Vos, Jared Beck, Suzi3D, Kim Dotcom & MANY OTHERS, incl alleged outside-the-box stenos of Blumenthal, Ames, Maté, Taibbi if "believers" https://t.co/RcvbvZ8d4p

— I come to Bari Weiss, not to praise her 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) August 26, 2020

More detail: NPR is asking for a motion for summary judgment (YES!) based on previous stupidity by Butowsky (which arguably is previous stupidity, passive mood, by Clevenger).

A lot of Democrats tout New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham as a rising star. The truth is that in Congress she was a neoliberal New Dem, and as governor, she's refused to implement a court order to improve education for Hispanic and American Indian students.

U.S. District Judge Lance Walker has kept ranked choice voting in place in Maine and kicked some lying Republican plaintiff ass in the process.

Biden's in the tank Zionism is another reason not to vote for him.

Independent Political Report, which I thought was better and smarter than this, had William Saturn post RFK Jr. popping up on Ron Paul's show. I can accept that. I can accept that Bobby Jr. is going to go full antivaxxer, and expand that to coronavirus conspiracy theories. Having read his book of lies about his dad and uncle, I can also accept he'll lie about that, too. I CANNOT, and will not, accept Saturn calling this "truthbombs."

“Truthbombs”? Pack o lies. 1. Jack (and Bobby) ordered Operation Mongoose for the CIA to topple Castro. 2. Jack knew about the Diem coup and signed off on it. His tears over Diem’s death were purely crocodile tears. He was also NOT “just about to get out of Vietnam.” 3. There IS NO link between thimerosal based mercury in vaccines and autism. 4. COVID ain’t done killing. Most knowledgeable health authorities believe the US current death count is at least 50K low. Shock me that an antivaxxer so nutbar that his own family wants him to shut up is also a coronavirus conspiracy theorist.

C'mon.

Therese Odell goes off on the Trump sabotage of the postal service. I explain why Dem tribalists like Therese Odell aren't totally correct on the short term and totally ignore Dems' part in the neoliberal decision 50 years ago to ditch the old U.S. Post Office.

Paradise in Hell translates and edits Donald Trump.