Texas Progressives talk gunz, stimulus, more

Besides COVID vaccines and stimulus money, there's other things on the national agenda, and that's before we see if Status Quo Joe gets actually woke on climate change. Spoiler: He won't.

One biggie, and what we're leading the Roundup off with this week, is, the few ConservaDems aside on this issue, a top divider between Dems and Reps: Gunz.

National

Gunz: The House passed two gun control bills last week. Will they die in the Senate? Joe Manchin is a squish but not, I think, totally so, on guns. The first would extend the background checks to Internet gun sales. (A better idea would be banning such sales; of course, you can [allegedly, you're probably getting scammed] buy scrips over the Net, so it might not stop much.) The second would expand the length of time for the feds to do background checks before sales are greenlighted from 3 days to 10.

At least 100 more people may be charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Special Ops is essentially today's CIA in the hands of presidents, to translate this Atlantic piece. And, of course, that's not good.

More here about Nevada's butthurt Harry Reid Dems.

State

SocraticGadfly talks about the winter storm kabuki theater under the Pink Dome.

Per Watergate and the whispered words in "All the President's Men," you should "follow the money" when pondering ERCOT and the PUC, especially on electric transmission infrastructure. Note to Wayne "The Gay" Christian of the RRC. It wasn't the PUC requiring money be spent on new transmission capacity for wind farms, you Dum Fuq, it was the PUC allowing electric companies to string that up and charge for it.

Danny Goeb wants Strangeabbott to rescind the massive surcharges on electricity that ERCOT let stand during the Abbott Blackout. Strangeabbott says he doesn't have the authority.

Off the Kuff examines a recent poll that shows good approval numbers for President Biden in Texas, but also for Greg Abbott and some of his priority legislation.

The quasi-technical term wasn't used, but in essence, a federal court cited Mark Elias for barratry in attempting to force Texas to continue straight-ticket voting last year. Another reason I'm not a Democrap.

The Observer says Bryan Slaton is "most likely to succeed" ... at being the next Former Fetus Forever Fuckwad Jonathan Stickland. (Per the same link, I reported Paul Anthony Hale many times on Facebook.)

The Texas Historical Commission loses my respect as Confederacy defenders.

Twitter has sued Ken Paxton and I love it, in part because it's Paxton, in part because it pisses off MAGAs, including a Trump official whose ass I kicked on Twitter, and in part because it's correct.

Strangeabbott said Gab is antisemitic. The Texas GOP's vice chair says the party should delete its account. State GOP leader and high wingnut Allen West says no. GOP kerfuffle news here. This will probably increase speculation West will primary Abbott. He's in better position than Jeebus Shot Sid Miller from the right. Goeb doesn't want it.

How is the Tarrytown neighborhood of Austin reacting to Biden's call for racial equity? Per this Medium piece, probably not well.

MrsAstrosCounty details how her miscarriages that resulted from ectopic pregnancies are officially counted as "abortions" in her medical record. 

David Beard offers three potential explanations for the shift in Latino voter preferences towards Trump in 2020. And weirdly, doesn’t include Biden’s alleged ban-to-be on fracking among the explanations. Not that impressed.

The Texas Living Waters Project warns that Texas' aging water infrastructure is another vulnerability highlighted by the big freeze of 2021.

Here's a rundown of anti-voting bills in the Lege. Of course, nutbar Bryan Hughes is shepherding them on the Senate side.

Metroplex

How many racist cops does Fort Worth have? Way too many, and yet, three fewer than a couple of years ago.

Houston

Houstonia looks back on the year in COVID.