Texas Progs talk stupidity in the Lege (no April Fool) and more

All the state political and news mags note that, due to COVID, The Lege is a bit behind the curve on normal business, setting aside that redistricting will have to wait for a special session.

The Lege is NOT anywhere near being behind the curve on already serving up a heaping helping of numnutz stupidity.

And, with that, let's dig in.

Briscoe Cain shuts down his own committee. Nuff said about a wannabe successor to Former Fetus Forever Fuckwad Jonathan Stickland.

The Monthly (while also saying its paywall is going back up, so I'll read and link less) says that Legiscritters to watch include Kelly Half-cocked and Lois Cockwhore. And, the REAL successor to Former Fetus Forever Fuckwad Jonathan Stickland, Bryan Slaton.

Warren Buffett is trying to grift, and grift hard, on the Abbott Blackout.

Will the George Floyd Act make it across the Lege's finish line? If so, how mutilated will it be? Here's a first look.

In things related to both the Lege and Helltown, Off the Kuff speculates about Sen. John Whitmire's political future.

Voting issues

The Lone Star Project presents Greg Abbott's long history of discriminatory vote suppression.  

 

John Coby got a preview of Harris County's new voting machines. 

 

The Dallas Observer warns of the threat to voters with disabilities in the Legislature's vote suppression bills.

Texana

Skip Hollandsworth (among many, of course) remembers Larry McMurtry.

H-E-B, tied with What? A Burger? for Texas' biggest business cult (Bucee's is third but coming up hard on the outside) is coming to Big D. The Snooze's story couldn't even mention Winco among chains already established there. (I'm not a cultist for any supermarket chain, but still ...)

Gentrification, or whatever, of East Cesar Chavez in Austin .... has its first issue.

Tom Hanks fan? I am. But the Observer says his new movie traffics too much in stereotypes, and excludes more portrayal of American Indians.

Also at the Observer, Karl Richter loves "Hiding in Plain Sight," the new quasi-biography of Lady Bird focused on her White House years audio diary. I think it's not that good, even problematic. Or worse.

Stephanie Stradley answers all of your questions about the Deshaun Watson lawsuits.

 

National

SocraticGadfly talks about being real versus being “woke” on the scope of Biden’s stimulus bill and what’s permanent in it and what’s temporary. (Being real also includes being real about the “greenwashing” that’s already being done on Biden’s environmental ideas.)

Mitch the Turtle and the Kochtopus are freaking out about HR1. That's even though, for NON "dark" money, it would actually vastly increase the money flow, and is also anti-third party, as explained by Mike Feinstein. Feinstein's right; the voting rights stuff in the bill is great, the dark money disclosure is at least decent, but broad chunks of the bill suck.