SocraticGadfly: Texas Progressives look forward to Pres. Biden (well, not totally)

November 17, 2020

Texas Progressives look forward to Pres. Biden (well, not totally)

Trump continues to be a titty-baby, but contra The Resistance, there will be no actual coup.

Contra one increasingly erratic pundit, though, Trump's non-coup firings don't mean what they are claimed to mean.

As for the header? That comes from a blog post of yesterday. Go here.

As for the likes of the increasingly idiotic Glenn Greenwald claiming the firing of Esper and other things are to get us out of Afghanistan?

And with that, off to the rest of this week's roundup.

Texas/national

Turns out there were a lot of ticket-splitters in South Texas, people either voting Trump then lower-level Dems or else Trump then undervoting. Gilberto Hinojosa, he of whom I started the #FireGilbertoHinojosa Twitter tag, should let lower level Texas Dems thank their lucky stars the suit to reinstate straight ticket voting failed. This in-depth analysis notes a lot of them were Hispanics worried about oil and gas jobs. "Defund the police" issues may have been another. That said, even within Texas' Mexican-Americans, the "Hispanic" vote isn't monolithic.

The Observer also weighs in, noting that in the Dem primary, Biden ran THIRD in many Valley counties, behind not only Bernie Sanders but also Michael Bloomberg. It notes that Biden/DNC got lazy during the national campaign, with lack of boots on the ground. Look, Biden wasn't going to win Texas anyway, but this points to a bigger issue — his seeing the campaign and probably the nation, as binary, as in Black and White, with little room for "Brown," whether Hispanic, South and East Asian, or American Indian.

Meanwhile, Capitol and Main falsely claimed that "Black voters saved America." This is wrong on MANY counts. First, I HATE the "GROUP X OF VOTERS saved America." It's simplistic at best. Second, as Biden's Black vote, along with his Hispanic vote, declined nationally as in Texas vs Clinton 2016, it's simply wrong. Third, David Sirota's latest landing ground risks going off my blogroll again with a simplistic duopoly-driven narrative that Joe Biden, vs Donald Trump, will "save America."

National

SocraticGadfly talks forthrightly about how COVID made Biden president and probably not much else.

DosCentavos reminds Dems that the election is over and that continued fighting with the "radical left" only damages the 2020 Biden coalition kept together by dollar store scotch tape.

Vox pulls a Libertarian twist on the old "Greens cost Dems the election, with the same stupid assumptions, in this case that Libertarians would have voted GOP if given a forced binary choice. At least Jane Coaston interviews actual Libertarians, contra MSM doing hit jobs on Greens in similar cases.

Texas

Scammin Ricky Scaman defeated for re-election as Falls County sheriff. I take personal pleasure in this one.

The four fired whistleblowers against Kenny Boy Paxton have sued him.

Off the Kuff has an early look at some election data.

Bill Kelly recalls a time when Republicans respected the will of the voters.  

Sri Kulkarni analyzes his defeat in CD22. 

Rick Casey finds reason for optimism.

Dallas

D Mag interviews some snooty neoliberal Californians (well, the wife actually went to Plano PLANO WEST!!!! for high school) who are now polluting the Metromess. 

Schutze talks to Drunkenville's Monte Anderson, still doing well in the development world.

World

Could vote suppression happen in other advanced democracies? The Guardian weighs in from the UK.

RIP, Robert Fisk. The best obit I've read so far comes from Patrick Cockburn.

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