Texas Progressives agree: Ted Cruz should resign

That's also the verdict of the Houston Chronicle editorial board. Sadly, Havana Ted will again become Lyin Ted and dismiss it as a bunch of librulz. The Chronic has since doubled down, now calling of Kenny Boy Paxton and select Congresscritters to join Cruz in resigning.

Related: At the Monthly, Chris Hooks calls out Havana Ted, and for losing his political acumen ever since Trump entered the GOP political scene.

Texas

Teens for a Green New Deal sounds nice, but the Observer doesn't say WHOSE GND, as in: Democrats' or Greens'? We soon find out, with Chanté Davis saying she joined Sunrise Movement, the youth wing front for neoliberal Gang Greeners of the Sierra Club. (You'll find NONE of that in the piece, but plenty of that from me.)

Sheldon Adelson wants to bring (non-Indian) casino gambling to Texas. (Well, he was until he died this week!)

The semi-nutbar but not full-on nutbar wing of Texas Republican donors is gearing up for 2022.

Can the Texas GOP build on Trump, Trumpism, and related issues? University of Dallas professor Gladden Pappin hopes and thinks so, in detail. Of course, the reality, as I told him on Twitter, is that Trump was and is NOT an "economic populist," although he may have posed as one.

Off the Kuff points to Ted Cruz and Ken Paxton as the top two priorities for those who value democracy in Texas.

Joe Deshotel does not want COVID-19 to be used as an excuse to shut the public out of the legislative process. 

Odus Evbagharu keeps up the “Texas is turning blue” pep talk after Texas Dems had yet another disappointing November.

National

For some nutbar reason, James Comey says "don't prosecute Trump" after he leaves office. Fortunately, he's not in a position to do anything about that at the federal level. More fortunately, New York State's AG is unlikely to listen to national level Dems who might want to drink this Kool-Aid of kinder, gentler Rethuglican Comey. Not impeaching Reagan in the wake of Iran-Contra 35 years ago was a key factor leading us to the resurgence of the imperial presidency, after all.

Trump conceded, finally, and still a bit weaselly. And? The real MAGAs are turning on him now. The reasons why? Cassandra Fairbanks is correct. Trump incited the insurrection, then with his eventual, forced concession speech, threw them under the bus. (Funnier and sadder yet? The QAnon types thinking Trump had encoded a secret message in his concession video.)

The insurrection was NOT televised, per Gil Scott-Heron, but it WAS Instagrammed, which says something itself about the self-indulgence as well as the petulance of many insurrectionists.

(I)t was also quickly apparent that this was a very dumb coup. A coup with no plot, no end to achieve, no plan but to pose. Thousands invaded the highest centers of power, and the first thing they did was take selfies and videos. They were making content as spoils to take back to the digital empires where they dwell, where that content is currency. 

You can see this most clearly in this photo, where the man in the god-knows-what costume, Jake Angeli, the so-called QAnon Shaman, is posing on the dais of the Senate, his friends carefully framing him to get the perfect shot. It is the Trump supporter equivalent of an Instagram influencer getting a photo beside a perfect mural.

Couldn't say it better myself. Other than noting it was also livestreamed for profit.

My local Congresscritters, Ronny Jackson and Pat Fallon, were among the Biden denialists on Insurrection Day.

National Catholic Reporter calls out national Catholic politicians, elected or appointed, who abetted the insurrection.

 

Kirkpatrick Sale is a nutter. (As well as being wrong about his mythic Eden of the pre-Columbian New World.)

Therese Odell vents her rage at the Arsonist in Chief. 

G. Elliott Morris observes that we are witnessing the consequences of Republican radicalization.

Paradise in Hell could have predicted all this, as could anyone else with functioning brain cells. 

Global

From his philosophy blog, SocraticGadfly offers a detailed refutation of "presentism," the claim that philosophers, thought leaders, and artists of the past should not be judged by today's standards on matters like racism and sexism. In the particular post, the focus is David Hume, part of what will be a series of posts on his life and ideas.