Texas Progressives look at national and global nuttery

This corner of Texas Progressives saw so much nuttery outside the Pointy Abandoned Object State™ that he broke out a separate national and global roundup this week.

National

Mondoweiss notes that long-time Democratic House veteran James McGovern has explicitly called on Biden's Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, to "unambiguously denounce" Israel calling six Palestinian human rights and social groups terrorists. McGovern explicitly said "expressing concern" is not enough.

Stop buying so much shit. No, really. Even I had no idea American consumerism had gotten that bad. And, some liberals and some leftists may accuse me of guilting the poor, but if you live in a household with total income of under $40K and have more than 1 TV? The reasons you're poor or near-poor are partly your own.

I forgot that Ammon Bundy as well as Idaho's Lite Guv is primarying Gov. Brad Little, who hasn't formally announced yet but presumably is running. Bundy's now gotten Ron Paul's endorsement. Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachen's already gotten the Trump endorsement, so getcha popcorn.

Okie pot growing, which is essentially recreational-legal in all but name, is now a big fat legal mess.

The Flint water crisis legal settlement is indeed bullshit, both on lack of money and on lack of criminal sanctions for flunkies of former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.

Judge orders city of Portland to reveal secret, taped-on police ID numbers.

Global

The Atlantic reports on the latest mind and society control efforts of Xi Jinping Thought. No, really; kids get monitored for how many hours of online video games they play, for starters in the story. Michael Schuman notes not only the background picture of Mao's shadow and the longer-term attempt to make sure Chinese businesses, especially in the tech world, don't get too uppity, but the Communist Party Congress a year from now when Xi will stand for a third term, unprecedented in terms of either formal or informal power since the death of Deng Xiaoping. Schuman adds that some of this comes from a puritanical streak toward the excesses of capitalism that Xi reportedly has. In all of this, asterisks must be appended, started with the magazine this appears in, then going to Schuman being a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Sidebar off Atlantic's rail: the reality of cause, effects and fallouts of the one-child policy.

Legal "medical" marijuana coming to Texas via Oklahoma?

Via the Dallas Observer, the OK Lege wants to open its medical marijuana program to residents of all 50 states. That really means the program, widely considered the loosest in the nation, is targeting Texas, widely regarded as among the strictest.

Here's some key takeaways, starting with a direct quote:

A qualifying medical condition is not required for a nonresident medical marijuana patient license. The Authority may contact the recommending physician of an applicant for a nonresident medical marijuana patient license to verify the need of the applicant for the license.

Cost is $200 for a two-year license. No restrictions otherwise apply to non-residence licenses.

The bill would also establish a marijuana license for caregivers.

As I read the details, I am not sure whether Texas red-asses on pot would have too big a leg to stand on. It would be Oklahoma-granted licenses for out-of-state people. The "full faith and credit" clause of the Constitution says Texas would have to respect these licenses. The "interstate commerce" clause is more murky. Can having an Oklahoma medical license override Texas' personal possession laws? Probably not. So, posessors of such licenses would need to be careful when crossing back over the Red, or coming into the Panhandle.

Melo. Thunder. Wow

Woj just called it, so it must be official.

Thunder get Carmelo Anthony and send the Knicks Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and their second-round draft pick. (Actually, that's a second-rounder the Thunder got from the Bulls, so it could be decent.)

So, there will be ultimate questions of who won this deal, both short-term and long-term. And with that, see the poll at right.

Before or after you vote, here's my take and analysis, along with questions.

Will Melo be the 3 and Paul George the 4 for the Thunder, or other way around? Or will that be kind of fluid?

Next: How do Kanter and Kristaps Porzingis mesh in New York? What does that mean for playing time for Joakim Noah? (Not a lot, anyway, if he's still injury-riddled.) Willy Hernangomez? That's a bit of a backlog of big men now. Likely the Knicks aren't done trading, but to whom?

(Sidebar: They're over the cap. Kanter's contract is player option for next year, but I would expect him to invoke it. But, how many takers are there for an injury-riddled Noah or a defenseless Kanter?)

Also, does McDermott have any more growth potential there? If so, that could be interesting.

ESPN has more on the Knicks' road ahead. It notes, as many have known, that the team played better with the Unicorn not having either Melo or Derrick Rose on the floor with him. So, that's good. But they have about bupkis at the 3 and are thin at PG. See below for more.

In Oklahoma City, does this convince either George or franchise icon Russell Westbrook to stay after next year? Remember, Melo only has one more year than them on his contact. For this next year, that frees up more time for Steven Adams, who is more mobile than Kanter.

Early consensus is that this is all-in for the Thunder, and based on Lil Russ likely staying.

And, Lil Russ has now signed his $205M offer. So, let's see where they're at a year from now. Sam Presti might make a run at PG-13, swallow hard on the lux tax, and hope he signs him. Then, after that one year of massive contracts, let Carmelo walk after he exercises his player option. At that point, he'd know more of Adams' ceiling and how much to pay him anyway.

And now, PG-13 is dropping hints that the Lil Russ signing makes him at least more likely to stay after this year.

Thunder at No. 4 in the West now, after Warriors, Rockets, Spurs, if they weren't before, with George? Actually, both may be ahead of the Spurs if Kawhi is missing at least all the preseason.

So, Warriors, Rockets, Thunder right now. Not ready to push Thunder ahead of the Rockets yet.

And now, the other side of the coin.

Knicks? Ends drama and gets their salaries lower. Gives the Unicorn a chance to be the team leader. Certainly makes them different. Not sure that it makes them better in the short term.

Long-term, if it accelerates the Unicorn, and with young small forward Mindaugas Kutzminskas perhaps growing, along with McDermott, that could be an interesting team. They really need better point guards.

The team, when Zen Guru Phil was still the GM, did draft Frank Ntilikina to be the PG of the future, although he's viewed as a defense-first person. Maybe that future is now. I'm not seeing it in an aging Jerrett Jack, nor in the Ron Baker that's supposably a favorite of coach Jeff Hornacek who has new, non-triangle challenges. Maybe Tim Hardaway Jr. gets more of a look at PG as well as SG?

I don't know if the Knicks made a run at Adams instead of Kanter or not. He has a new contract, starting this year, so the cap would have matched even without a McDermott throw-in. OTOH, the Knicks may not have wanted a burden of him at $25M a year and rising for four years. I think Adams still has some upside, but I don't know how much.

And, speaking of bucks, Woj notes that, without paying a BUNCH of tax money — and remember, they traded James Harden because of cap fears — bringing back Lil Russ, PG-13 and keeping Melo next year, especially with that Adams possible albatross — will be pricey. Woj says the Thunder will pay more than $27M in lux tax THIS year. That's without a new contract for Lil Russ, if he signs. (That said, ESPN notes that OKC offered Harden an extension to the contract he then had in place before trading him. Red Satan, though, does not note that even for that version of Harden, the extension was kind of a lowball.)

Texas GOP discusses Cliven Bundy

Texas Republican leaders were quick to defend Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, even before the librul media called him "sort of a welfare queen in a cowboy hat."


Rick Perry said that he couldn't say much of anything, on advice of counsel retained over the Public Integrity Unit veto, lest he be misinterpreted as intimidating somebody.

Ted Cruz said that the Bureau for Land Management reminded him of Castro's Cuba and therefore it was socialistic for trying to deny Bundy the right to freely appropriate land in the most libertarian of ways, by paying nothing for it. As for Bundy's talk about lazy Negros vs. hard-working Hispanics with better family structures than many whites, Cruz said, "Duh, look at me!"

John Cornyn said what Ted Cruz said because, per Lyndon Baines Johnson, Cornyn has voluntarily put his pecker in Cruz's pocket.

Louie Gohmert said "BLM? Blacklands Management? Black Land Management? Black Lazy Malingerers? Oh, yes, I agree with Bundy."
But he then qualified that, saying Hispanics only pretended to work hard until their first US-born anchor babies arrived.

Greg Abbott tried to claim the BLM was in the process of stealing millions of acres of Texas land when it actually has almost zero land in Texas. He then promised that questions about eminent domain for Keystone XL was just a trick by environmentalists to get him to mention that Earth Day was this week. He claimed that questions about seizure of the YFZ Ranch, knows for its previous fundamentalist Mormon ownwers and their underage marriages, was just a trick to remind people of Ted Nugent and underage girls. He then promised to tell even more lies about the BLM as preparation for his next suit against Obama. When asked about how he could have such apparent double standards, he said it was a dirty liberal trick to talk about him and a  "stand"-ard for anything.

He did add that Bundy was totally right about Hispanics. He said the Mexican-American wife he had recently discovered he had after 30-some years of marriage was proof of that.

Dan Patrick said Bundy was wrong about Hispanics. Although continuing to ignore his own getting some Ill Eagles to do lots of work for cheap, he said he knew that they stink and were contaminating America. Patrick said "no comment" if he had personal knowledge of the "contamination" from contracting venereal disease from a Hispanic.

David Dewhurst said he agreed that Hispanics were hard workers at every country club where he was a member. He said he was unfamiliar with Cliven Bundy, and wondered if he was related to Peg or Al Bundy.

Jerry Patterson promised to defend the Red River against Oklahoma and the BLM with the hogleg in his boot. He then invited Bundy to Texas, as long as he brought all his guns, and said he'd find Bundy land in the Christmas Mountains.

Ken Paxton touted his under-the-table financial genius, saying he would incorporate Bundy's ranch and sell stock to investors.

Joe Straus said to himself that he wished someone would let the air out of Abbott's wheelchair tires.

Texas, La Nina, global warming, Perry's prayers

This used to be a 5,400-acre lake.

Oops, oops, oops. Looks like Rick Perry needs to pray hard at The Response - real hard.

The U.S. Climate Prediction Center says La Nina may return in just a couple of months, which would guarantee the current drought extends into 2012.

As if it's not bad enough right now:

Also Thursday, the state climatologist declared this the most severe one-year drought on record in Texas. Officials expected to declare soon that it has become the worst drought since the 1950s.

Cities in West Texas that have long relied for much of their water for small lakes dammed on upper stretches of Texas rivers fear they may run out of water next year.

And, in East and Central Texas, especially, this ain't the 1950s:

In the mid-1950s, Texas had a population of 7 million.

"We got a state with 25 million now. You can see the impact would be significantly greater if we had a drought that the 1950s had," said Travis Miller, a member of the state's Drought Preparedness Council and AgriLife Extension Service leader.

That said, the climate center does not directly link an early La Nina return, or its strength, to anthropogenic global warming. But, it's hard not to tentatively make that connection, if La Nina returns that quickly, especially if it's a strong one again.

If Obama had any cojones, he'd link further disaster relief for Texas (and Oklahoma) to Congressional action addressing global warming. Period. End of story.

But, we already know he doesn't.

And, I mean more than cap-and-trade, which is toothless anyway. But, getting that passed would open the door. And, while there's no chance of a carbon tax passing, there are other things ... further upping mpg requirements for trucks and SUVs, promoting LED as well as CFL lights, abolishing alt-fuel exemptions for car, truck and SUV CAFE ratings and more. I'm sure readers can think of even more examples.