Green Party: Howie Hawkins clinches and the haters are hating

Just after Jesse Ventura crapped on the Green Party — and surely timed for that effect — Howie Hawkins clinched the Green Party presidential nomination.

And the hating, lying and conspiracy thinking erupted.

If not Jesse-stanners, it was Dario Hunter-stanners, claiming Howie has run a corrupt campaign.

Er, no! If anybody's run a corrupt campaign, it was Dario, for his part in tweaking the certified candidates issue, then lying to Ian Schlakman about it.

Then there are the people who drink the Kool-Aid of Aaron Maté, Matt Taibbi, Max Blumenthal and others on Russia issues, and call Howie a Russiagater. In reality, I don't entirely agree with him, but I think he's fairly nuanced. And, per that link and many others, the conspiracy theorists ignore that RNC as well as DNC computers were hacked.

I'm not linking to any of the official Green Party Facebook threads. I don't want to give these people more airplay, nor do I want to indulge conspiracy thinking in general. (Many of the Howie-haters, besides disliking his stance on Russia, are conspiracy theorists in general, especially horseshoe theory coronavirus conspiracy theorists. I've also run into, and blocked, more than one chemtrails person.) Besides, I'm tired of the censorship levels there.

Then there were the lies, claiming Howie hadn't clinched. In reality? He had, per the official GP list of accredited delegate numbers. With nuttery like this, many Greens ARE like Libertarians. Disorganized as hell. The actual accredited number was 350 as of last week and he had more than half of that. Period and end of story.

On the third hand? Issues of favoritism DID pop up last year. Is that "corruption"? I think not. But ... it was bad optics.

On the fourth hand, for various reasons, I may not vote Green this year. (Down, Democrats. Not you either.) I think the crack-up Mark Lause wrote about, and I blogged about off his post, four years ago, is near.

Speaking of? Even though he has lost, and even though the Lavender Caucus, along with Michigan, put Howie over the top, a group of Dario-stanners is continuing to meddle. And tell lies about the Georgia Green Party on trans rights, claiming that an olive branch was extended to Georgia Greens and they wouldn't dialogue. Given that Dario was at the Georgia GP convention, and saw its woman sex-workers' rights plank passed, and raised no objection at the time, this is the rankest of hypocrisy.

Texas progressives round up various coronavirus and other issues

I am continuing to keep remnant coronavirus news within the main umbrella of the Texas Progressives roundup while, at least for now, splitting out police and race news.

That doesn't mean that there isn't coronavirus news of some sort to talk about, of course, so as with last week's roundup, there will be subsections.

Texas schools

As a member of the media myself, I know that there's lots of uncertainty and fair chunks of fear about coronavirus and the start of the 2020-21 school year at many metro urban and suburban school districts. Even out in the hinterlands, there's worry. At the same time, there's worry about state financing for schools, especially in light of the second year of effect of last year's House Bill 3, combined with COVID hits on the state budget. And, since much state funding is based on average daily student attendance, these two issues connect. The Trib has more.

Texas coronavirus

SocraticGadfly says that (complete with quote-Photoshopping) Gov. Strangeabbott has coronavirus blood on his hands.

Off the Kuff enjoys a bit of schadenfreude at the expense of the terrible people at Empower Texans.

Jeff Balke fears a sports pandemic within the current pandemic.

Robert Rivard salutes Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff for successfully calling Greg Abbott's bluff on face masks.

Texana

The Observer has a roundup of news of the weird.

Texas/national

DosCentavos puts the SCOTUS DACA decision into perspective.

The Dallas Observer reports on the celebrations by immigration activists over the SCOTUS ruling on DACA.

Dreamers may have been temporarily let off the hook by the Supreme Court last week, but a lawsuit by Kenny Boy Paxton working its way through the federal courts could make that temporary indeed.

National

Howie Hawkins clinched the Green Party nomination, as made clear by actual accredited delegate count. Unfortunately, the official Facebook group posted, and has kept up, a fake news post by someone who's either a general Howie hater or a Dario stanner. And, as for the fake news poster, even if there are going to wind up being a few more accredited delegates, there's no way there's 402 at end. There's also no way Howie doesn't win.

Jesse Ventura, abetted by Gnu Media conspiracy theorist Primo Nutbar, publicly crapped on the Green Party. Primo did this, I have no doubt, in part because he's a Howie hater. Speaking of the GP official Facebook group? It's moderated, and the first time I posted, they just trashed it rather than post it. I reposted, and have tagged a (former?) admin and all listed moderators (Sunday night) when I reposted it in comments. I'm tired of the censorship, and per other comments by Starlene Rankin, the (former?) admin, a certain amount of anti-Howie may be an issue there too.

Boston Review offers a left-liberal perspective on how Gorsuch's opinion in the LGBT discrimination case was quasi-radical in some ways.

Stat News, the go-to site for details on coronavirus (and many other medical issues) says Trump's delays cost "70-99 percent of its Covid-19 deaths."

Juanita basks in Trump's latest egotistical tirade.

I couldn't do it, High Country News

Your refusal to apologize for the absolute dreck guest piece from Melanin Base Camp, combined with you disallowing letters to the editor because it was an online-only piece, still sticks in my craw too much.

So, a year of digital-only access for $12? Yes, cheap. But ... can't do it.

That's not the only unapologized error. Getting cap-and-trade on climate change confused with a carbon tax is sad. It was one of several errors at around the same time late last year that went both unacknowledged and uncorrected. That was followed this year by a puff piece about incremental steps being taken on climate change (even if unmeasured and unmeasurable) can win the battle.

More recently than that? Willful hypocrisy about throwing black Cherokees under the bus of non-acknowledgement. And, "noble savage" and "environmental wisdom of the elders" legends here.

All of this comes from guest pieces. Put a bookmark there. That second link also has what I see as multiple ethical problems with winners from last year's photo contest.

Hey, on a piece by a freelancer recently, I did get acknowledgement they'd look at a possible error on what I KNOW FROM MY OWN MEDIA EXPERIENCE is an error.

Maybe, if you offer this special again in the fall, and you've fessed up to something, I'll sign up again.

Until then, no.

And, I know I don't like admitting all of my newspaper mistakes. (And some smaller ones, I don't do so in print, maybe.) That said, issues like climate change? Western economics? These aren't small ones.

Maybe we should get High Country News to have Melanin Base Camp write about the black Cherokees!

As I said at the one link, I recognize it's not love-hate, but it IS a love-frustration relationship with HCN. Until that changes ....

Does Greg Abbott have coronavirus blood on his hands?

I say yes.

Six weeks or more after telling cities and counties they couldn't order individuals to wear masks, he said that his policy DID allow local officials to require businesses to have a masks policy.

So, rather than telling Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff "Heh, heh, I'm glad you found the loophole," why didn't he announce that straight up?

Because as many people in Texas know, from wingnuts within the wingnuts at Empower Texas to mainstream media and beyond and as clearly demonstrated here, Abbott hates public accountability.

Elected wingnuts like Bob Hall, a wingnut within the wingnuts of today's Texas GOP, and even wingnuts-lite, are attacking Abbott for being too draconian.

The reality is reflected in the rise in COVID cases and the re-closure, in major metro areas, of restaurants that had tried to reopen themselves at 75 percent. (Yours truly has hopped inside a fast-food restaurant twice in small town north Texas to avoid drive-through lines; I haven't been inside a sit-down restaurant, even in a small town, since the coronavirus hit the fan and have no plans to change that for months.)

At the same time, Abbott ain't up for re-election until 2022, and non-wingnut suburban-district House legiscritters are halfway willing to go along with this, and with police reform, because of this paired set of numbers: 83-67.

But, Strangeabbott's attempt to dodge responsibility has failed. Medical science knew that, those six weeks ago. "Personal responsibility" when three-quarters of Texas GOP backers is libertarian yahoos, whether having the additional encumbrance of being Religious Right or not, is a recipe for disaster.

Those five black male youth? Almost certainly suicides, says this Occam's Razor wielding skeptical leftist

Any youth of either sex and any so-called race dying is tragic, whether it would be suicide, lynching or even natural causes.

But, in the post-George Floyd world, it's easy to think that nine young African-American men hanging from various objects in various parts of the U.S. are actually lynch victims. I saw this first from an African-American woman on Twitter a couple of days ago, then from alleged outside-the-box steno (and regular readers know what I think of them) Jordan Chariton.

Black teenager found hung outside elementary school in Harris County, Texas. This makes 5 black men hung across the country in two weeks—most declared suicides by police without providing evidence to support that. https://t.co/DmhT9M2gSO

— Jordan (@JordanChariton) June 19, 2020

The reality is that this is totally ordinary.

Yes, you heard me right.

Per the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a simple and straightforward walk through suicide statistics (don't quote Mark Twain's "lies, damn lies and statistics" to me, per my own "simple and straightforward" comment) will refute the claim I first saw on Twitter (back one week, and no better a hellhole than before, mainly from the MAGAs, but an occasional SJWer and other things).

Per what I posted on social media, and expanding it, here's the reality.

Until investigative facts say otherwise, this leftist, who is a skeptic and some degree of a capital-S philosophical Skeptic, not (just a) Movement Skeptic, says there is NOT a rash of black young men being lynched rather than actually committing suicide.

Nationally, there's not quite 50,000 suicides a year. We'll do easy math, round that up to 52,000, which gives us 1,000 suicides per week.

Blacks are about 13 percent of population, but half the suicide rate of whites. So, that gives us about 65 black suicides a week.

About 15 percent of those are likely to be "youth," defining as 15-24 per some national stats.
So, that's 9-10 black youth suicide a week in an average week. Of those, 6-7 would be male.

Guns are the most common version, tis true. But, hangings and suffocation are the second most common version.

And, contra the implications of the Revolt Gnu Media piece that Chariton referenced, in the Spring, Texas, case? Sheriff's deputies talked to neighbors, looked at surveillance video they could find and more, the Chron reports. Indeed, his own family said he was suicidal. In addition, he was Hispanic, not black. The Chron also notes that the Puff Hoes reporter who first identified the person as black had the ethics to delete the original Tweet, and then to retweet Sheriff Art Acevado's official information.

Malcolm Harsch? Hearing that he'd been found near a homeless encampment (and was indeed homeless himself) made me think it was likely suicide, too. And, yesterday evening, authorities announced that video confirmed this, and his family accepted this.

Update, July 9: Robert Fuller's death also ruled a suicide. Investigation led in part by the state attorney general documented multiple previous suicide attempts. Look, as with the other cases, I can see the family thinking there was a possibility of lynching, given Palmdale's history as documented in the story. At the same time, they knew his mental illness history, and if they didn't immediately disclose that (which, duh, they didn't when they said they didn't trust the initial finding of suicide), they're part of the problem, not the solution.

Occam's razor, first, folks, before claiming there's an epidemic of lynching. And, if you're an SJW of any race, Occam's razor first, second and third.

I have directly tweeted Chariton asking him to update his Twitter feed, but I ain't holding my breath.

Fuck lying Jesse Ventura and his official crapping on the Green Party and fuck enabler Primo Nutbar

I would have to have a suicidal death wish to listen to a full hour of Primo Nutbar fellating Jesse Ventura's limp libertarian political weathervane schlong.

Independent Political Report notes that Primo Nutbar has broken the SHOCK ME news that Ventura, too chickenshit to actually run in Green Party primaries after pledging his support to the party, mainly because, in my guess, his ass wasn't kissed enough, is now saying he'll write himself in for prez.

I have again asked the Green Party for an official copy of his letter of interest. And now, I've found the separate website for the Presidential Campaign Support Committee, which has an actual email, not a webmail.

We'll see if this one gets results.

Oh, and per the header? Fuck the stanners who claim Jesse's the greatest thing since white bread. I've got the receipts proving you wrong in my linked previous blogposts.

I have one other result. After calling out Primo Nutbar, and misreading one tweet, where I thought Howie or his Veep, Angela Walker, had blocked him, but rather, it was Walker who blocked hasbara-unrepentant Dario Hunter, and he called me a dumbass and I called him a conspiracy theory dumbass and more, I blocked him at the same time he blocked me.

Anyway, Primo doesn't care about Dario's hasbara. He just cares about using Dario as a stalking horse to attack Howie because he hates Howie for truthfully saying that Russia meddled in the 2016 American presidential election.

==

My posting of the Independent Political Report link to the official GP Facebook group has been censored once. I reposted, with a comment that Chrome shows when I have a pending post or not, so that admins can read between the lines and know that I know what they're up to, since I've been censored before. And, I used a Facebook workaround to view the posts (not posts plus replies) in chronological order, so I didn't miss seeing mine.

Given this isn't the first time this has happened, and given that this hasn't happened only to me, to take the SJW contingent within the GP,  like former group administrator Starlene Rankin, and hoist them on their own petard? This is a microaggression.

Update again, June 21: The post is no longer in moderation. But? I don't see it.

BUT! I got an official notice that an admin/moderator had approved my post from IPR about Howie clinching the nomination. More proof of censorship. I never got a notice that this post had been approved, but ... it wasn't in the approval queue. PROOF!

That said, I tagged it onto the post that WAS approved.

Update again, June 24: Fuck the Green Party's Presidential Campaign Support Committee. Getting a form reply after my first webmail to the general webmail of the Green Party asking for Jesse's letter of interest of early this spring, and getting nothing after a second post, I found the PCSC's email address. It's been five days, and nothing.