Texas Progressives talk election audits, other nuttery

Texas politics

A Quinnipiac Poll says three-quarters of all Texans, and even nearly 60 percent of Republicans, oppose permitless carry. Ditto for a plurality of all Texans and one-third of Rethugs opposing the so-called "fetal heartbeat" bill. Of course, these numbers mean nothing today. Call me back in November 2022. 

The federal unemployment pay boost has ended; evictions go back to normal process in a month. And, landlords are jacking rents again. How much will this further increase income disparity? (In case you're wondering, Texas is among the worst states in income inequality already.) And, that's on top of what happens when hurricane season starts.

Same old ERCOT: It won't say which plants were down and why earlier this month.

Off the Kuff discusses a couple of polls that show no great love for what the Republicans have been doing lately.

Grits for Breakfast calls Greg Abbott's vetoes "a final punch in the nose for the bipartisan criminal justice reform movement". 

The San Antonio Report presents the results of a four-month investigation into the root cause of February's winter storm crisis. 

The Texas Observer explains why title insurance in Texas is a total scam.

Texas-lawsuits

Wendy Davis is leading a lawsuit over a Biden campaign bus being harassed by Trump Trainers last fall. The law enforcement officers included in a parallel second suit? "Qualified immunity," of course, even if this is something new, and what the city of San Marcos has said about this.

House Dems and Lege staffers are suing, asking the Texas Supremes to overthrow Strangeabbott's veto of the Lege funding budget.

Facebook lost a big lawsuit at the Texas Supreme Court vis-a-vis its platform being used by human sex traffickers. But (shock me) it was largely based on crappy legal thinking, the ruling was.

Texana

Gene Kelly, often hidden behind the long shadow of Herb Kelleher, is stepping down as Southwest Airlines CEO. Texas Monthly gives him a profile. Joseph Guinto argues that Kelly, not Kelleher, was the company's most successful CEO. It was Kelly who changed the "cattle call" to "A, B, C" and who bought Air Tran and ATA and gave Southwest the once-unthinkable: International flights. And, pre-CEO days, he started the fuel-hedging program.

Many border residents aren't much enamored of the DPS' latest call-up to try to stop Ill Eagles.

I had never before heard about Bass Reeves, Black Deputy U.S. Marshal in 19th-century Arkansas, Indian Territory and Texas. Sadly, the tale as it connects to today reflects continued racism.

Melissa Thiel wants to erect a monument about the 1930 Sherman race riot outside the Grayson County Courthouse. County Judge Bill Magers won't even let it on the commissioners court agenda.

Space City Weather previews the 2021 hurricane season.

National

The New Republic is right: We're not a democracy, and no, wingnuts, not in your claim of "we're a republic so duh we're not a democracy."

As a skeptic and secularist, I've long considered pseudoscience to be part of, or behind, many religious beliefs. But, per a mask-resistant Air Force pilot, I guess pseudoscience itself is, per se, a religious belief.

A big kudo to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis for signing into law Senate Bill 87, the Farmworker Bill of Rights. It makes Colorado the first state in the nation, ahead of any West Coast states, to give migrant farmworkers some real labor rights protections, as described here. (Side note: Colorado also recently implemented a law requiring employers to post a reasonable pay range when advertising jobs. And corporations HATE it.)

RIP Mike Gravel.

Start the Steal

Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, the group doing the pseudo-audit of Maricopa County, Arizona, votes, was in a just-released election fraud video. And, the filmmakers appeared to get special access to the psuedo-audit. (The film has also seemingly left itself open to suits by Dominion's Eric Coomer.

The Atlantic interviews former AG Bill Barr about his semi-effectual semi-break with Trump.

In Michigan, the state Senate's GOP-led State Oversight Committee has rejected all claims of "widespread or systematic fraud." Trump's response: Siccing the Trainers on the committee chair and GOP state Senate majority leader.

Sports

SocraticGadfly puts on his sports hat and drops three NBA stories. First, he salutes the Mavs for hiring Jason Kidd. Second, he says the Sixers need to trade Ben Simmons. Third, he says shut up Scottie Pippen.

Mean Green Cougar Red ponders an expanded college football playoff.

Global

Chris Carter, the creator of the X-Files, says he rejects the new UFOlogy. Beyond that, the Pentagon report says little about UFOs and much about us, says Adam Mann.

Xi Jinping Thought, like the Trump Train, can lead to calls of treason against the insufficiently enthusiastic.

Joe Biden's Secretary of State Tony Blinken hating on Palestinians isn't a surprise. After all, Status Quo Joe himself is status-quoing Trump actions here.