Texas Progressives talk Paxton, abortion, more

Off the Kuff has some advice for running against Ken Paxton in the 2026 Senate race. 

SocraticGadfly "eagerly" awaits what will surely be Ken Burns' American exceptionalism version of the American Revolution on PBS.

The Texas GOP's tweaks to abortion law still don't care about women. 

The Barbed Wire has frank advice for anyone who wants to get pregnant in Texas.

El Paso is taking recycled water the next step, with what could be a national first on a direct sewer to tap system. Other areas of Texas need to look at water recycling before the costly, environmentally degradating work of desalinization. (hey also need to look more at conservation. They also, per Cactus Ed Abbey, need to look at growth for growth's sake.

Evil MoPac finishes off its list of 100 fundamental truths about Austin. 

The Eyewall takes a close look at the annual hurricane forecast. 

City of Yes makes the case for single-stair buildings.  

Franklin Strong raises a red alert about a truly terrible anti-library bill.

The Dallas Observer talks to new TDP Chair Kendall Scudder. (And, aside from LGBTQ etc issues, and the fact that Dems should care about the economy and public schools, they don't find out his stance on other issues.)

Texas Progressives talk polls and races, plus abortion and death penalty

Off the Kuff published an interview with a co-founder of the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance, to discuss their fight against an abortion travel ban in that city. 

SocraticGadlfy had fun trolling Mark Robinson (and selected bycatch) on Twitter.

Colin Allred is ahead of Cancun Ted Cruz in one poll; and a debate is set for Oct. 15. I won't be voting for either, but getcha popcorn. Related? Allred, in an interview with the Monthly, doubles down on being a ConservaDem.

Multiple Texas House Rethuglicans have already thrown their hat in the ring. But, they've now "suspended" those hats after 48 members of the House GOP said they unanimously — after multiple rounds of voting — back David Cook to replace Dade "Dade" Phelan as speaker. Per LBJ, 48 ain't 76. And, if Phelan gets all Democrap members (assuming they're still a minority) will the Texas state GOP really expel half a dozen House members from the party for violating a House GOP caucus rule?

That said, a bipartisan group of House members officially urged clemency for Robert Roberson.  The Observer has a lot more background than the Trib. The Barbed Wire also jumps in.

There's a shit-ton of hydrogen sulfide leaking from older wells at the north end of the Eagle Ford area and further north.

As of late latest week, the State Fair's gun ban was still in place.

The Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance folks had a guest post on Jessica Valente's Substack about their fight. 

Tony Blinken, genocide blank-check cutter. 

Remember, the "most lethal military" that a Black woman wants the US to have as president already badly affects indigenous people around the world.

The Texas Observer has a deep dive into Ken and Angela Paxton's "ties to a jet-setting lobbyist-turned-CEO caught in a tangled web of alleged fraud involving a powerful business clan and a commercial shipping giant". 

 The Dallas Observer talks to some of the men in Texas who are speaking out about the need for reproductive freedom. 

The Current ponders the future of a San Antonio architectural icon.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said it’s important for active rank & file Democrats doing the work to sustain the party, to consider that the elected officials they are backing often have different objectives than they do.

The complex world of being a medical resident in an anti-abortion state and wanting to learn how

Politico's magazine has an in-depth story about a doctor deciding to seek out just such training, and all the work involved. It shows that a cram course, while certainly better than nothing, simply isn't what ob/gyn doctors could get anywhere 20 years ago, and still can in pro-choice states today. 

Also per the story, the post-Dobbs landscape for women unlike this doctor, who can dodge dodgy residencies, is going to change in anti-abortion states, who will lose doctors.

That's even as a New Mexico, under direction from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, builds an abortion clinic in southern New Mexico specifically for Texas women above all else. And, the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center noted that part of the reason for it is to improve residency opportunities in southern New Mexico.

The abortion fix was in, in Arkansas

In a scene reminiscent of third-party and independent presidential candidates trying to get ballot access, by a 4-3 margin, the Arkansas Supreme Court yesterday barred a petition to put a pro-choice referendum on the ballot.

Details:

Election officials said Arkansans for Limited Government failed to comply with state law primarily because it submitted documentation regarding paid signature gatherers separately and not in a single bundle. The group argued that it should have been given more time to provide any additional documents needed.

“We find that the Secretary correctly refused to count the signatures collected by paid canvassers because the sponsor failed to file the paid canvasser training certification” in the way the law requires, Justice Rhonda Wood wrote for the 4-3 majority.

A dissenting justice wrote that the decision strips Arkansans’ of their rights and effectively changes the state’s initiative law.

States generally show some flexibility on such requirements — unless "the fix" is in. And, per the story, it clearly had more than enough signatures.

The fix was in, organizers say:

Supporters of the measure said they followed the law with their documentation, including identifying each paid gatherer. They have also argued the abortion petitions are being handled differently than other initiative campaigns this year, pointing to similar filings by two other groups.

State records show that the abortion campaign did submit, on June 27, a signed affidavit including a list of paid canvassers and a statement saying the petition rules had been explained to them. Then, the July 5 submission included affidavits from each paid worker acknowledging that the group provided them with all the rules and regulations required by law.

And, that's that.

Sidebar: One of the three-justice minority, per the story, is challenging Wood for the chief justice spot. 

Sidebar two:

The proposed amendment would have prohibited laws banning abortion in the first 20 weeks of gestation and allowed the procedure later on in cases of rape, incest, threats to the woman’s health or life, or if the fetus would be unlikely to survive birth. It would not have created a constitutional right to abortion.

The ballot proposal lacked support from national abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood because it would still have allowed abortion to be banned after 20 weeks, which is earlier than other states where it remains legal.

Will Planned Parenthood ever make itself more flexible on this issue? The story doesn't say it opposed it, but it does say it didn't support it. That said, did petition drive organizers want its support anyway?

That said, that's a lie by PP anyway. I mean, the story says that post-20-weeks exceptions would have been part of law.

I personally don't believe that post-20-week abortion should be allowed without restriction. I think Roe's trimester system has collapsed. But, I think viability will never be pushed back before the 20-week mark, so the proposed amendment is actually right up my alley.

In other words, I'm part of the great muddled middle on abortion and long have been. This is why I don't write about it often here, have never written about it for pay, and have never given money to an organization like Planned Parenthood.

Abortion, Amarillo and avarice

I had a group of related items that, once the last one came up on my radar screen, I pulled from this week's Texas Progressives Roundup to run separately.

Amarillo nutters, after the city council rejected it, have Mark Lee Dickson's abortion travel ban on the November ballot as a referendum. I've written about Dickson's lies before.

Off the Kuff also looked to Amarillo and its forthcoming vote on an abortion "travel ban".

Do Texas crisis pregnancy centers help anybody? ProPublica asks. 

This:

But an investigation by ProPublica and CBS News found that the system that funnels a growing pot of state money to anti-abortion nonprofits has few safeguards and is riddled with waste.

Is the nut graf.

And here:

In some cases, taxpayers are paying these groups to distribute goods they obtained for free, allowing anti-abortion centers — which are often called “crisis pregnancy centers” and may be set up to look like clinics that perform abortions — to bill $14 to hand out a couple of donated diapers.

Distributing a single pamphlet can net the same $14 fee. The state has paid the charities millions to distribute such “educational materials” about topics including parenting and adoption; it can’t say exactly how many millions because it doesn’t collect data on the goods it’s paying for. State officials declined to provide examples of the materials by publication time, and reporters who visited pregnancy centers were turned away.

Are some of the details.

That last part is important. These people, both the state officials and center officials are like rats or moles that don't want to see the light of day.

Abortion sanctuary city lies by Mark Lee Dickson et al

These lies by any fundagelical Protestant Christian, or Catholic or Orthodox equivalent, done willfully and knowingly (and yes, they're knowingly) are a violation of the Eighth Commandment.

AND, this is more egregious since Mark Lee Dickson is a Protestant pastor of whatever damnation, or non-damnational independent church he has.

Let's dive in with the lies that Dickson presents at a typical small-town governmental meeting.

First, he claims Biden administration supports abortion any time, any reason. 

Lie: Majority of national elected Democrats, including Biden when in the Senate, supported the Hyde Amendment. In addition,  presidents have repeatedly taken a pass on codifying Roe. 

Claim: “Biden Administration committed to abortion access in every zip code.” 

Lie: See above. 

Then he'll likely mention George Soros. 

Lie: Soros has never indicated abortion is a primary focus. 

Dickson will then claim the power of these ordinances could cross state lines, that an abortion provider in Kansas or New Mexico would be afraid of Texas lawsuits. 

Doubt it. Look at the folks in Washington state telling Paxton to go fuck himself on transgender and transsexual treatment records. And, a Texas district court upheld. (Some state appellate court could overturn, yes.) And, on New Mexico, we're still waiting for the state Supreme Court to rule whether or not the state can outlaw local sanctuary city ordinances. They're sure taking their sweet time.

Not a lie, but a reference to a liar?

Dickson claims Abby Johnson among supporters.

Fact: Nutbar alert! And a liar herself. And, like most such liars, a big old grifter off of it too.

The big lie is either actual misinformation or misframing of what these people say about human reproductive biology.

A canard, rather than a straight-up lie, is the suits against transportation of fetal remains. Did not the Texas Lege pass, and Abbott sign, a bill requiring burial of fetal remains inside Tex-ass? Shouldn't the concerned pro-lifers want other fetal remains to get a burial, too?

And, the biggest lie of all is the self-brainwashing behind this.

Beyond all this? 

What I would ultimately like to see is what it was talked about some librul states might do after SB8 was passed. Gun control was mentioned, but it would be hard to do a lawsuit enforcement on that.

What would not be so hard to do is, in an anti-death penalty state, allow citizens to sue over:

• any chemical used in lethal injections being transported through the state;
• any citizen of that state driving to a state execution in another state, or a citizen of another state driving through that state for one;
• any steel, concrete, etc., for a lethal injection room being created in that state or transported through it;
• and anything else like that which I am missing.

Mark Lee Dixon isn't a Catholic, but the residents and civic leaders of Catholic-heavy small towns are. And, I know what the Church teaches about the death penalty, and I know there's a lot of conservative cafeteria Catholics out there. Run into them, high hypocrisy levels and all, on Twitter.

==

Per the Trib, the pair has also meddled in New Mexico. The New Mexico Supreme Court temporarily blocked such laws when it got the case last December but has yet to issue a permanent ruling. 

Also per the Trib, the city of Clarendon told him to go fuck off.

Meanwhile, his co-thug, Jonathan Mitchell, has scared people, on issues related to this, but the former state solicitor general has yet to garner a single deposition.

And, per Mimi Swartz at the Monthly, there's payment shenanigans between Mitchell and Dickson on fees for a lawsuit he won for Dickson. Bottom line is it looks like Dickson is doing the moral equivalent of money laundering.

==

Amarillo has continued to punt, though may consider it again June 11. The constitutionally untenable travel ban is why. And, it officially said no on June 11; Mark's Minions are now trying to decide whether to gather signatures for a referendum.

RFK Jr: apparent gaslighter on abortion

I had blogged last fall about Kennedy visiting Auntie Angie's House, an abortion alternatives site for Black women that apparently believes the "abortion is Black genocide" BS.

So, imagine my surprise last night when ... I heard something else.

Bob Jr. now seems to be a BIG OLD GASLIGHTER on abortion! He and Veep nominee Nicole Shanahan were both on Sage Steele's podcast, him some time back, her a bit later. Bob said that abortions should be allowed the full nine months; the podcast was pre-recorded. Steele then asked Shanahan about that when interviewing her. Here's what Bob said, when Sage pushed:

“Even if it’s full-term,” Kennedy said in response to a follow-up question. “I don’t think it’s ever OK,” he added. When Steele said that would allow late-term abortions, Kennedy said, “I think we have to leave it to the women rather than the state.”

And, here's Nicole:

“My understanding with Bobby’s position is that, you know, every abortion is a tragedy, is a loss of life,” Shanahan said. “My understanding is that he absolutely believes in limits on abortion, and we’ve talked about this. I do not think, I don’t know where that came from.”

Oops.

But wait, it gets better!

Despite being on YouTube AT Angie's House:

 

Bobby Boy has deleted his campaign Facebook post and at least one other site with him talking about that visit and video. (The actual video ain't his.)

In case Bobby Boy pressures someone to delete that video?

No worries:

 

That's a screengrab from it. Lighting was pretty low, so I did some levels and contrast editing on it. 

Per the NBC story, Bob Jr. has at other times said he supported first-trimester abortion only, then claimed he misunderstood the question.

As for Shanahan, she didn't get her ideas about what RFK Jr. thinks out of nowhere. They came from somewhere, including the Angie's House visit, and probably comments made elsewhere, like the one he disavowed.

Now, Bob Jr. may pivot to the claim that he was simply talking about government control. But, isn't that what a lot of Liberal Cafeteria Catholics say on the issue? (There are also Conservative Cafeteria Catholics; ask anti-abortion Catholics if they're really pro-life to the point of following official Vatican teaching and doctrine against the death penalty.)

Anyway, Bob Jr. has gaslighted a lot more people than Nicole Shanahan.

Texas Progressives talk abortions, Paxton, economy

The Texas Medical Board has partially punted on clarifying exceptions to the state's anti-abortion laws. Not surprising, and in this case, I don't totally blame them. At the federal level, a bureau or agency filling out what a federal law means (Chevron doctrine) is part of the territory. But, here in Tex-ass, it's not supposed to be.

Weasel shit Ken Paxton may pretty much beat the rap in his securities trial, as lead prosecutor Brian Wice is supposedly cutting a sweetheart plea deal that doesn't look a whole lot different than the one a second prosecutor supposedly was negotiating a month ago and that Wice blasted. Update: The rumors were true. Did a Wice assistant leak, trying to push their boss harder? Didn't work, if so.

Tom Oliverson is the first of what will surely be several contestants for Dade Phelan's throne. Phelan has fired back, saying the announcement is unseemly with several runoff elections still to be held, among other things.

"Mattress Matt" McIngvale flies under the radar screen of Ferris Wilks and Tim Dunn, but he's doing his own "hard work" to move Texas from rightist to far right. TNR profiles the reality, not just of his wingnuttery but his shysterism.

The economy is fantastic — unless you want a new job, a new home, or a new car. Let #BlueAnon talking heads spin that one. Biden would like you to compare now to the worst of COVID, and see what a genius he is, but that likely isn't happening. As I said on Twitter to Zachary D. Carter? Inflation is still above pre-COVID levels and unemployment has started creeping up again.

Even if SCOTUS eventually gives SB4 the green light, how are local sheriffs going to enforce it? Let's see Strangeabbott, David Spiller et al pony up all the money and such that would be needed. In addition, AMLO's government in Mexico has already said that on things like repatriations, it will only deal with the US federal government. Greg Abbott, a pouty-faced state version of Trump at times, will thus have reality punching him in his pouty face.

Meet Abraham George, Matt Rinaldi's likely successor as head of the Texas GOP.

Off the Kuff notes that hand counting ballots is still a bad idea.

SocraticGadfly talks about a new airline battle at Love Field.

Stace offers another edition of Thoughts on Viernes covering an SB4 protest, the Firefighter deal in Houston, and the election denying fascist on the METRO board.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said we must reach out with respect to the Palestinian protest movement. 

Eater Houston looks at the long tradition of Black cowboy culture at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  

Texas 2036 reports that our state leads the nation in billion dollar disasters. (And probably does not look in detail at how much Texas oil and ranching causes that.)

The Texas Signal looks at the latest report showing a significant increase in medication abortions. 

Evil MoPac has some thoughts about Ken Paxton's anti-porn crusade. 

The Fort Worth Report attended the beginning of construction on Opal Lee's new home.

Texas Progressives talk lawsuits on Ill Eagles, more

As promised, Biden's DOJ is suing Strangeabbott over Senate Bill 4 empowering Texas law enforcement to make arrests for "illegal entry." I think it's likely it will lose again, given the Arizona case in 2012, where five of eight justices struck down in entirety everything but "show me your papers," and Alito concurred on the direct parallel to Texas: striking down the Arizona state crime of illegal entry. Kennedy is gone (as is Scalia and Ginsburg) but that still leaves five for the key issue if Alito doesn't change and we know that Kagan won't recuse. The three newbies of Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett are at issue, especially if Alito does flop.

Related? New York City is suing not Abbott, but the bus companies that send Ill Eagles there. It's the first suit of its type. Since it's against the bus companies, not Tex-ass, I think it would he hard to get it kicked to federal court. If nothing else, I suspect that at a minimum, while the suit plays out, these companies will want an ironclad hold harmless from Strangeabbott before transporting any more people to New York.

SCOTUS will hear, from Idaho, the case on the federal emergency medicine law being used to try to protect emergency abortion. Kuff calls the simple act, via Talking Points Memo's header, as "ominous." Rather, on it's own, it's the normal action of a Supreme Court when two circuit courts give totally differing rulings on a major issue. Now, on the big picture, I think it's ominous because Team Biden has been trying to get the law to do what it wasn't designed to do and I expect they'll lose.

 Law Dork and Steve Vladeck go deep on the Fifth Circuit's EMTALA decision. 

The Dallas Observer reminds is that there remain challenges to Texas' draconian anti-abortion law.

Here's some potential fallout from federal COVID money for schools ending this fall.

SocraticGadfly said RIP to Eddie Bernice Johnson.

Contra Alexandra Samuels, 52 degrees is BELOW normal for most of Texas outside the Panhandle in early January. Note that where I live, where the almanac on Weather Underground says the average is above 52, has actually had that many days above 52 in the last 10 days. (By next Monday, we're supposed to have sub-20s low with snow.) If Samuels had wanted to talk about something relevant to climate change this time of year and over the recent past, she would have discussed polar vortexes.

Off the Kuff analyzed the runoffs for Mayor and Controller in Houston.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said that Houston Mayor John Whitmire has no plan to protect Houstonians from the extremism of the Texas far right. 

The Eyewall explains what a polar vortex is.  

Bishop C. Andrew Doyle pens an open letter to the NY Times about its use of "taco sauce" in a crossword puzzle.  

Jeff Balke makes nine transportation-related resolutions for Houston for 2024.

A deeper dive on Dobbs, Putin, Zionist Nazis of the IDF and Gaza

Behind the scenes of the Supreme Court's ruling on Dobbs and the Roe reversal. One big issue is that the leaked draft, per the story, probably hardened all of the apparently locked-in conservatives, notably Kavanaugh, from joining Roberts on a controlling centrist opinion that would have granted Mississippi's original basic request of rolling Roe back to 15 weeks. I figured this at the time, but this is why I assume it was some conservative who leaked it, and precisely for that reason. As for the investigation of clerks by court marshals? Assuming it was a conservative clerk or two involved, winners write the rules, including whitewashing. The story doesn't discuss how detailed a report of the investigation Roberts gave to fellow justices.

As for whose clerk?

Arguably, a Roberts clerk could have said "what the fuck, I'll leak it" in order to box his boss in. Highly unlikely. Pissing the Umpire off could have backfired on future career prospects. A Kavanaugh clerk trying to force his boss's unsteady hand is much more likely. Whether that's more likely than a Thomas, Alito or Gorsuch clerk being the leaker, but for the reasons above, I don't know.

==

The Times Magazine reports on the shattering of trust between many more leftist Israelis and Palestinians after Oct. 7. Unfortunately, sadly, disgustingly, whatever, the story hits a chughole early on when it appears to accept all hasbara-type claims about the Tribe of Nova music festival at face value. And, while discussing rape, it only discusses allegations of rape by Hamas, not rape by members of the IDF, nor does it discuss if the Palestinian portion even raised this issue, lest it shatter what fragile alliance remained.

That said, as shown here in the States (where tensions are admittedly lesser) such fractures don't have to happen, per this Medium.

Reminder, via here and here, that Zionist Nazis in the IDF will kill Palestinian Christians just like Palestinian Muslims, and will attack churches just like mosques. But, the #ReligiousRight in the GOP and the candidates it herds, as well as "good Catholics" Joe Biden and RFK Jr., and good New Ager Marianne Williamson, whose "love faucet" doesn't flow to Gaza, won't tell you this. And, Israel's already out with the most blatant hasbara yet, on this. Jerusalem's deputy mayor says there are no Christians and no churches in Gaza. Worse yet, with an Arabic name, Fleur Nassan-Nahoum is presumably a Palestinian Christian willing to play Stephin Fetchit to Zionists just to attack Muslims.

Also, as seen in a Beeb interview and elsewhere, too many media professionals globally still work on the presumption that "Palestinian" without modifer = "Palestinian Muslim."

==

Great story, with the New York Times actually detailing a fair amount of the truth on how Russian President Vladimir Putin punked the Western sanctions world in general and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in particular. Punked them he has, and contra Sonnenfeld's sneers (which ooze through the Internet's electrons), many of the new Russian owners, for the short term at least, are apparently running their new companies OK or even better than OK.

That said, the Times kneecaps itself by repeating the likely canard, which I first saw on Financial Times a week or two earlier, that the Russian economy would overheat some time next year. These are the same folks who claimed a year ago, just before Putin started doing these Russian-style Special Acquisition Vehicles of Muscovite capitalism (I see what I did there), that the Russian economy would be brought to its knees by American-led sanctions. James K. Galbraith ripped that claim to shreds with actual empirical evidence eight months ago; he or somebody similar may do the same with this.

==

Democrats hate on Tommy Tuberville for hurting the military. (In reality, continued and presumably rising problems with obesity in particular and fitness in general among the section of today's high school graduates that don't perceive better job opportunities elsewhere hurts the military far more.) If only someone would tell him, as I did on Twitter with that link, that abortion is legal in Israel.

Speaking of the health spectrum of today? Americans are shrinking as well as getting heavier. Blame Millennials and/or the corporate food they eat and/or are offered, or that they're not offered via cuts in food stamps and other aid directly to the poor, as both problems started about 1980.  On height? By countries of the world, Merikkkan men are barely top 50, and women aren't even that. 

As for Tuberville? This isn't a direct quote, but per an old MASH episode, you know what happens if he hurts the military enough? "Peace."

==

Cornel West thinks President Biden may pull an LBJ 1968. I doubt it. If nothing else, his "Irish Alzheimer's" will keep him from doing that. (And, contra others, I think Biden has more of it than many other people think.)

Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly offing more opponents. Mark Ames doesn't want to believe it, but Mark, somethings these things are real and you, like Counterpunch at times, need to drop a reflexiveness in your anti-American foreign policy establishement stance.

 

On behalf of Kate Cox, fuck the Texas Supreme Court

Kate Cox appeared to have a "win" with a Travis County district court approving her to have a seemingly medically indicated abortion and cutting through the surely deliberate "fog" at the edge of Texas' anti-abortion laws, only for Kenny Boy Paxton to appeal and the Texas Supremes to temporarily agree, even as the clock ticked for Cox.

On the morning of Monday, Dec. 11, Cox left the state, according to her legal backers at the Center for Reproductive Rights, saying she couldn't wait any longer. As I said in a retweet, Kenny Boy will argue her case is moot, but per the link, her lawyers, rightfully and righteously, want it argued out.

Meanwhile, in a clear conflict of interest? Justice John Devine (NOT "divine"!) brags on camera about his many arrests for harassing women at clinics.

And, was part of the Supreme Court that gave the back of the hand to Cox late Monday, and, as the piece notes, indicated it will take a narrow reading of the state law in the future. 

Meanwhile, I saw Ann Coulter talking about trisomy 18 on Twitter, and a number of #BlueAnon saying, "If you've lost Ann Coulter," while a few persons responded or quote-tweeted with words to the effect of "Ann Coulter knew this could happen; fuck that bitch." And, that's my thought and my sentiment.

Texas Progressives talk elections, homelessness, abortion, more

The Texas Juvenile Justice Department, with an assist from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, has Joshua Keith Beasley's blood on its hands. And, this likely won't be a one-off as TJJD sends more juveniles disturbing the juvenile justice system off to adult prisons rather than spend more time and money addressing their psychological conditions in-house.

==

Could Jeebus Shot Sid Miller get himself personally and/or the Texas Department of Ag sued over his anti-transgender dress code? Could conservatives like him learn, and articulate, the difference between gender and sex, since only the latter is biological? And, kudos to the Observer for pointing that out.

==

Travis County DA José Garza will testify about Daniel Perry's conviction to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, as Strangeabbott's announcement he planned to pardon him, even before his appeals played out, may have backfired. The board will also hear from Garrett Foster's family. Remember, as Shrub Bush liked to point out over Karla Faye Tucker, a gov can only issue a pardon, per the state constitution, based on board recommendation. It also could backfire as Perry's personal background, not presented during the trial, WILL be presented during his sentencing and will also be part of what the board hears on this two-track process.

==

Off the Kuff takes another look at the evidence-free claims made by Republicans in their lawsuits to overturn 2022 elections in Harris County.

SocraticGadfly takes a close and skeptical look at Tablet Mag's puff-piece interview of RFK Jr.

Smartmatic wants BOTH more money out of Fox than Dominion got AND a full retraction. Dominion laid out the playbook, so Fox is going to be pushed even harder to settle on the money terms. A retraction? Would that include takedowns of old show clips on Fox's website and YouTube? Replacement with somebody reading a retraction statement? Depending on details of the ask, there will be a LOT of pushback.

Bill Walton has a serious idea to address homelessness. Yes, THAT Bill Walton.

Ronna McDaniel says GOP candidates must take a definite position on abortion. But (and yes, she's not a candidate herself, at least not for 2 years after her chair re-election) she refuses to say what that position should be.

Diego Alvarado calls attention to the large number of Texans who die on the job, and what we should do about it. 

The Fort Worth Report asks who would want to be the new Tarrant County elections administrator. 

The Dallas Observer reports on the allegations of sexual assault and a purported cover-up in Navarro College's cheer program. 

The Houston Press gives an update on the new processes in place in Harris County for the May election. 

The San Antonio Report attended the Cornynation drag show.

Tex-ass interference with personal lives continues

Multiple issues to that end popped up last week. Here's a few highlights, primarily abortion-related.

The Guardian wonders if the Texas ex's suit against an ex-wife's friends for helping her get an abortion wlll turn into state-sponsored spousal harassment.

Judge Matthew Trump Kacsmaryk promises to give a ruling (favorable of course for his wingnut court-shopping allies, aided by the chief judge of the Northern District) as soon as possible on a preliminary injunction to knock mifepristone off the market.

And, extracted from the rest of regular Texas Progressives' roundup news, Off the Kuff wrote about that unhinged abortion pill lawsuit.

Related? The First Amendment-hating Lege is targeting sites like Plan C, which has a documentary at SXSW. The Observer interviews director Tracy Droz Tragos.

Because of the attacks on abortion, things like a D&E operation for a miscarried but not delivered fetus, already hard to find in Tex-ass a few years ago, are almost gone now. The Observer has more, including how this affects medical training in general and could leave to a doctor exodus — not at all likely in the midst of a national doctor shortage exacerbated by (natch) algorithms and placements for residencies.

Kenny Boy Paxton wants an appeals court to lift an injunction so he can again snoop on families that have transsexual or transgender kids.

SB 8 curtailed; Felipe Gomez appears to be a liar

Senate Bill 8, the "sue the goddammed abortionists" bill, has had its scope dramatically narrowed by a state district judge tossing the lawsuit against its first target, Dr. Alan Braid, on standing issues. The Monthly has more, including that the plaintiff intends to appeal. Missing from either story is who's fronting the money for his lawyers? The Chronic reminds us that Felipe Gomez ALLEGEDLY filed the suit, which was before SCOTUS overturned Roe, in order to point out the hypocrisy of members of the Texas Lege. I call bullshit, especially because of his saying he's going to appeal. So, again, who's front the money for his lawyers?

Texas Progressives talk election harassment, puberty blockers

Off the Kuff comments on the resignations of Gillespie County's elections staff and the shameful silence of the Republicans whose words and deeds are the root cause of the problem. 

SocraticGadfly talks about the FDA's decision last month to put "black box" warnings on puberty blockers and the sad lack of overall media coverage.

Slim Pickens is not just a rodeo rider, stuntman and iconic actor. Per Texas Monthly, it's also the first Black-owned outdoors retail store. But, it's more than a retailer. Owner Jamaicah Dawes strives to diversify those experiencing the outdoors. At the same time, his dreams are still surrounded by struggles. It's a long read but interesting.

Hemp is the future. The Monthly has another "just around the corner" story, like nuclear fusion power and "strong" artificial intelligence. Call me back when Texas changes its cannabis laws and other things.

Wingnuts in the Lege posture macho, but are scaredy-cats when asked to define details of what it means for a woman's life to be in danger under anti-abortion law.

It's also "nice" that the Lege isn't even bothering to phone it in on its contempt for church-state separation ideas of the First Amendment.

Congresscritter Vicente Gonzales and his wife, tax chiselers, or just SEVEN years of bad memory? You know, by where the hyperlink is, where I stand.

Last week, the SA Express-Snooze profiled people leaving Tex-ass. Now, the Trib looks specifically at Black Texans thinking about a Texodus.

The Trib also profiles Gohmert Pyle, aka Louie Gohmert, starting with him passing just one law in his 17 years as a Congresscritter.

Mexico and Texas have fought about water issues for years. Now, with drought on the south side of the Rio Grande as well as north, that's intensified. In reality, like with the Valley of the Sun in Aridzona, people need to move out — or BE MOVED OUT — of the Rio Grande Valley.

Paul Burka, long-time editor of the Monthly, has died at 80. Mimi Swartz and other past colleagues reminisce .

Good ConservaDem Kuff ignores the fossil fuel handouts of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Sean Pendergast grades Deshaun Watson's "apology".  

Space City Weather provides another update on the tropics. 

The TSTA Blog is not impressed by Chuck Norris as an answer to school shootings.  

Mean Green Cougar Red ponders why commercial aircraft don't have parachutes.

Texas Progressives talk nature, water, Paxton, Rushdie

SocraticGadfly saw the obits news last week, and immediately remembered Michael Badnarik as "Mr. Driving Without a License," and gave the 2004 Libertarian presidential nominee a "proper salute" for that and more. 

Off the Kuff takes a look at some more in depth polling data about attitudes towards abortion in Texas. 

Stace gives us his Thoughts on Viernes about the FBI raid, Abbott's Human Trafficking bus, and Beto's MF'in comments.

The Southern Baptist Convention is under federal investigation for its history of sexual abuse and cover-up.

So, were Texas Dems not ConservaDems by all voting for Biden's so-called Inflation Reduction Act? Actually, since it benefits fossil fuels in a number of ways (which the Trib doesn't even note) ...

Rich Richman, the head of Child Protective Investigations within the Department of Family and Protective Services, the guy investigating families of trans (gender?/sexual?) kids at the behest of AG Ken Paxton, has resigned. He also oversaw the flubbed Bastrop investigation.

Speaking of, Kenny Boy is suing the feds again, this time over tweaks to the federal school lunch program's discrimination statutes, and which cover ONLY those statutes within the school lunch program. Contra mouth-breathing types, including a speaker I heard at a school board meeting, it doesn't go beyond that.

The Farmer's Almanac claims Texas could have another year of winter storms. That said, re its claim of being right 85 percent of the time? When you try to look precise yet carefully remain as vague as a horoscope, that's not hard to do.

Texas Parks and Wildlife officially hates mountain lions. 

Mean Green Cougar Red warns us about the threat to monarch butterflies.

I wonder how THAT barbecue tasted? Maybe we should ask Ronny Jackson?

Yes, I know about the 1850s Sacramento floods, and I know that Anglo alteration of the Central Valley, as well as the wildfires and climate change mentioned in the story, would make a similar flood worse today. But, basically insinuating the whole Central Valley could be obliterated by a megaflood today is laughable.

G. Elliott Morris reassesses the landscape for Democrats following the Kansas abortion vote.  

Juanita finds some more ridiculousness stemming from the Alex Jones lawsuit.

Your Local Epidemiologist has a plan for the upcoming school year.

The Texas Living Waters Project says that the bipartisan infrastructure bill will provide a bounty of funding to help us deal with our growing water problems.

The Houston Press finishes off its Houston Bucket List with some honorable mentions.

Did British intelligentsia abandon Salman Rushdie (after a fair chunk of both left and right took their chance decades ago to get in a few swift kicks)? Had Rushdie himself moved on or become tired of being the focus of free-speech issues? Unherd has thoughts.

Few more quick post-Dobbs thoughts

First? Post-Dobbs, allegedly (important), vasectomy and tube-tying are surging in red states.

That story about the pregnant 10-year-old girl in Ohio reportedly denied an abortion there? I'm not saying it's not true, but per Glenn Kessler ... it comes off as iffy. And I'm more skeptical than him. The Indiana doctor to whom the girl was allegedly referred is the only source. She calls Ohio doctor a "child abuse doctor" according to Kessler. (He has the phrase in quotes himself.) I've never heard such a phrase used before. As I a newspaper editor know, said doctor in Ohio should have reported this to law enforcement. No such reports show up in Ohio's larger metro areas, says Kessler. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the Indy doctor, won't name the name of the Ohio doc, or even where they're located. Again, I'm not saying it's untrue, but it is "iffy." 

I pulled both out of the Roundup for the week for bits of additional thought.

At one time, I would have said that libruls, or even left-librulz, at least those inside the duopoly, need to have their factual ducks in a row. Well, in the MAGA world, even if that mattered moderately with some Republicans in the past, it doesn't today.

Morally, though, you still need your facts in a row. 

Update on the Ohio-Indiana story: Ohio police have arrested Gerson Fuentes, who reportedly has confessed to the sexual assault. That WSJ piece is a long correction, and it gets a kudo. Judd Legum says the initial pall of high-level skepticism was all a right-wing smear campaign. My skepticism was not, and it came, per the original link about this piece, from Maddow's website. That said, with hindsight, especially over the antics of Ohio state AG Dave Yost, I can't blame Dr. Bernard for not naming the Ohio doctor.

Abortion and women's mental health: A 'gold standard' study that really isn't

Does abortion traumatize or "wound" many women? A major longitudinal study says probably not, BUT Annie Lowrey at the Atlantic overstates the case; 14 percent feeling sadness five years later is NOT a nothingburger. In addition, what all does "feel sadness" mean? Is it deep or light on depth? Persistent or fleeting on occurrence? And, two of three having few or no emotions about it means one in three did. And, there's other problems with her framing. What does "wound" mean? And, what percentage of women declined to participate? What percentage of women failed to complete all questions?

As someone in the great muddied middle, these things are also problematic. I support eliminating "waiting period" laws, not on the alleged ground that no women have sadness later, sadness that may even be regret. Rather, I support eliminating them on the grounds that women are autonomous and can, in theory, both think and emote through "playing it forward" before having an abortion.

If the Turnaway Study doesn't have more details itself, then being the "gold standard" is certainly relativistic and based on being the only such study. And, as you can see by me posting that second link, Turnaway doesn't have percentages on this themselves, nor answer the other questions about "sadness."

So, in my great muddied middle world, this is really a "silver standard" study.

Revisiting Ted Rall on abortion

As we await finding out whether the recently leaked draft Supreme Court ruling on the Mississippi abortion rights law portends a final ruling or not, I decided it was time to revisit one of Ted Rall's more famous, or infamous, statements, which I blogged about more than a decade ago.

Here you are:

Abortion is murder. In my view women have--and ought to continue to have--the right to murder their unborn babies. Each abortion is a tragedy, some necessary and others not, and all of them are murder.

At one time, I thought that was semi-profound and maybe at least approaching being fully so. That was before I realized that Ted Rall was a self-aggrandizing bullshit artist far more than a font of profundity.

The reality?

Ted Rall doesn't believe abortion is murder. If he thought it were, in either a legal or a sociological sense, he'd be a full-on pro-lifer, and he's not.

Don't step in Ted Rall's bullshit, people, and don't let others peddle his bullshit as pancakes.

Texas Progressives talk abortion, trivia and more

Off the Kuff reminds us that Texas Republicans are way out of step with public opinion on abortion. 

Stace lectures us all regarding taking advantage of Democratic majorities before it's too late.

Therese Odell vents her fury at that draft opinion.

Your Local Epidemiologist demonstrates that abortion is still health care and won't just go away in a post-Roe world.

The Texas Signal brings Rep. Veronica Escobar's warning that the Republicans will push for a nationwide abortion ban. 

Jessica Shortall has no trouble connecting the pending evisceration of abortion rights to a broader culture of misogyny among its proponents.

Yours Truly will have thoughts for next week's Roundup.

"I'll take 'Obscure Texas Democratic trivia' for $1,000, Alex." "Answer: This man was the last Democrat to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate." "Question: Who was the just deceased Bob Krueger?" The interesting thing, per the link, is how much Slick Willie and Miz Ann Richards harshed on him for losing the special election to Kay Bailey Hutchison. I mean, Krueger was a ConservaDem and had served in the House before. He wasn't a neophyte and I don't think screwed the pooch in anyway. It's just that this was the first installment of the Republican tsunami.

Austin is trialing what is called basic income, but really isn't. True UBI isn't means-tested, for example, but the Austin pilot is. That's not to say what Austin is doing is bad; it isn't. But, it's not basic income. Thus, there's nothing to really be learned from it — other than neoliberalism strikes again.

Dallas County DA John Cruezot has indicted three area police officers on brutality charges related to 2020 George Floyd protests.

The Texas State Bar is suing Kenny Boy Paxton. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

SocraticGadfly says that the Squad is really the Fraud and that Chomsky went a bridge too far on various Russia-Ukraine War issues.

Amanda Marcotte digs into Greg Abbott's desire to use the Dobbs decision to push for an end to public education for undocumented children.  

The Bloggess talks about depression, joy, and music.

Jessica Wildfire talks about progressive survivalism. I have my doubts.

James Dorsey has more hope for moderate Hindu nationalism than I do. In fact, I find the idea an oxymoron.