The Texas Progressives condemn racism in all of its forms, while also condemning Trump Train riders who try to pull the "
No true Scotsman" philosophical argument about
alleged mass murderer Patrick Crusius. With that sad news, followed 24 hours later by a second mass shooting (while also noting overall gun violence rates seem to be declining in America) we give you this week's Roundup.
The Assad bullshit is exactly that, and so is the ad
hominem of her upbringing by religious homophobes.
The Assad angle from DNC regulars might be bullshit. The nuanced take that Assad ain't an angel of light isn't. Because he ain't. And, with her, it ain't just Assad. It's Sisi and others she has met with.
And, speaking of religious homophobes? First, given that Hawaiian LGBTQ groups still don't fully trust her (I wouldn't either, dude), it's not an ad hominem to bring it up.
Otherwise, you're going to ignore her Hindutva Hindu fascism? Her Islamophobia? And her vote just a week ago?
Tulsi Gabbard -- the focus of Bernie-ish hate from the
establishment -- will be, I sincerely hope, Secretary of Defense in a Sanders
Administration
NOOOOOOO! Three years ago, when we both talked about how Bernie was weak on foreign policy and such, I thought you were insightful on national politics, and not just because we agreed. You pointed out the occasional thing I hadn't thought of.
I still thought that two years ago, pretty much. But, even before you first came on strong for Gabbard, and not just because of our final social media dust-up, I was questioning bits of your political insight, and more than bits of non-political thoughts.
David Bruce Collins
scattershoots what he saw from Twitter takes on the debates, along with melting Greenland and other issues. He, like Brains, likes Tulsi.
In the bigger picture, while not every stereotype about the MSM is true, refusal to ask Israel/Palestine questions just after the HRes 246 vote shows many of the stereotypes ARE true.
I had three ways of playing this section.
One is to have ignored Brains, still a TPA member though not a weekly contributor, for a full year. (I still look at his blog to see if something is worth posting). Ditto on ignoring DBC, who is not a member, but whom Brains hunted up when he WAS an active member himself more regularly than he does now. (I've posted David in roundups 2x as much in the last six months as Brains.)
The second was to post everything except my blog post in a separate post and link to it. I debated, but decided I wanted the focus here. I thought surely David, at least, would think twice after Gabbard's pro-AIPAC vote, but I guess not.
So, this is option three for now. Option 3A includes seeing what either of them says down the road, including how Brains frames my submission for this week, then doing a follow-up with THAT in a separate post.
Dos
Centavos is ready for the Democratic Presidential field to be
winnowed down.
Bonnen and Mucus
House Dems want Mucus Sullivan
to release the recording of his talk with Speaker Dennis Bonnen. OTOH, the Snooze reports that many Republicans fear the tape's release
would lead to mutual destruction within the GOP.
And now
Bonnen has blinked.
And, it turns out he was throwing both Dems and some fellow Republicans under the bus.
As per others, I'm puzzled as to why he met Mucus in the first place on such a situation, and why he didn't assume in advance Mucus was taping him.
The House General Investigating Committee
is going to take a look at the mess. Will it subpoeana Mucus about the tape, if he hasn't released the full thing to the public? (Remember, he's sponsored James O'Keefe type stuff in the past.)
And, Aug. 9, Dallas-area state Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos, reportedly named on the tape, sued Sullivan individually and an "unknown named political committee," (presumably Empower Texas?),
to get it released.
As for the result? He WILL face a Speakership challenge, assuming of course that Dems don't capture a House majority. (If that happens, he'll never be Speaker again.) He'll survive, by reaching across the aisle, but the price of survival will be higher.
As for the issue in parentheses? The bigger picture issue is how does this affect the Texas GOP brand in the state House? And, how much worse might Mucus make that if he decides to try to primary some urban-area moderate-conservative for Texas Republican House members?
As for House wingnuts, not to mention their Senate counterparts, thinking Bonnen is too Dem-cozy? Well, two of the 16 state Senate committees have Democritter chairs. True, Whitmire and Lucio are ConservaDems, but still. But, the big deal is that Bonnen, like Straus, reflects a traditional, as in pre-Danny Goeb as Lite Guv, degree of bipartisanship in House committee operations;
the Trib has more.
Texana
Kenny Marchant, who moved from Dallas County Commissioners Court hack to Congressional hack, has followed Mike Conaway, Pete Olsen and Will Hurd and is the fourth GOP Congresscritter
not to run for re-election. Shifting Texas demographics plus the Trump boar anchor explain all but Conaway. In Marchant's case, the demographics is part of why he bailed on his commissioner's seat, too. That said, the first Rethug rushing to try to replace him
is far worse.
Hurd decided to go out on the high note of a nice Republican lie, or turd (it rhymes!), claiming he wanted to
make the GOP more diverse by stepping down. Yeah, the only black Rethug in the House leaving it does that how? (Would-be answer that Hurd won't mention: By becoming a lobbyist.)
Looks like DPS
ain't fully listening to Gov. Strangeabbott's pleas for a continued hard line on marijuana.
