Some of the real heroes of Jan. 6.

Some of the real heroes of Jan. 6.
Aides carrying the electoral ballots to safety.

Officer Lt. Michael Byrd - a hero, defending lives and the Capitol.

A villain - Ashli Babbitt

who was shot assaulting elected officials and police while breaking through a door and window:





As the certification process was underway, Trump gave a speech encouraging his supporters to march to the Capitol. Many of them did, whereupon they joined other protesters already gathered in the area and violently breached and stormed the Capitol, eventually entering the Senate chamber as well as numerous offices. The Congressional proceedings were suspended, and the legislators were taken to secure locations.

Babbitt, wearing a Trump flag as a cape, was among several dozen rioters who approached the doors to the Speaker's Lobby, adjacent to the House chambers. Three uniformed officers were posted outside the Lobby where they were threatened by the crowd. One member of the mob yelled, "Fuck the Blue" (blue being a reference to the police). One officer guarding the doors told the others "They're ready to roll", and the three officers moved away from the barricaded doors leading to the Speaker's Lobby. No longer impeded by police, rioter Zachary Jordan Alam smashed a glass window beside the doors. On the other side of those doors, many lawmakers and staff were being evacuated by Capitol Police, but some were trapped in the House balcony.

After "he's got a gun" was yelled several times when Lieutenant Michael Byrd aimed his weapon, Babbitt, hoisted by two men, began to climb through the shattered window. She was then shot in the left shoulder by Lieutenant Byrd and fell back among the other protesters. Babbitt had been warned not to proceed through the window: one witness recalled that "Several police and Secret Service were saying 'Get back! Get down! Get out of the way!'; [Babbitt] didn't heed the call."

Many rioters immediately began to leave the scene, making room for a Capitol Police emergency response team to get in and administer aid, and Babbitt was transported to Washington Hospital Center where she later died. She was 35 years old. According to a January 11, 2021 crime scene examination report by the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences, the police "recovered a 'Para Force' folding knife in Ms. Babbitt's pants pocket" after she was shot.

U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a witness to Babbitt's attempted breach, said that Lieutenant Byrd "didn't have a choice" but to shoot, and that his action "saved people's lives". - adapted from Wikipedia.

Big villain - Trump praising an insurrectionist dying trying to kill police officers and politicians.



An American hero - Lt. Michael Byrd.



Americans have to take a stand on which side they are on.

I have.

.

Texas Progressive Blogs 4/15/21

The Texas Progressive Alliance weekly roundup counts as infrastructure. That's it, that's the intro.

 

Off the Kuff analyzes the big Senate and House voter suppression bills. 

SocraticGadfly says that with new legislation on the table in Oklahoma and passed in New Mexico, Texas faces new pressure to liberalize its marijuana laws.

Stace is riding for Alzheimer's Research. Read about it, and, if you can, make a donation!

 ================= 

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs. 

 Emily Eby personally points out all of the bad things in voter suppression bill SB7. 

The Texas Civil Rights Project reminds us that there are other, smaller but still malicious voter suppression bills to watch out for. 

Progress Texas highlights the efforts to put pressure on the Legislature to reject voter suppression.

Charles Luke opines against the proposed ban on local governments hiring lobbyists at the Legislature. 

Ted Cruz Ditty

The dark and cold
Was getting old
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Deep in the heart of Texas

Pipes burst each night
He hopped a flight
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ted Cruz abandoned Texas

He tried to hide
And then he lied
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ted Cruz abandoned Texas

So make a note
Next time you vote
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ted Cruz abandoned Texas.

#CancunCruz
#ResignTedCruz
#PoorSnowflake

TPA - Halloween 2019

The Texas Progressive Alliance encourages you to enjoy Halloween and make sure you vote as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff bids adieu to soon-to-be-former Speaker Dennis Bonnen, who was brought low by his dumb decision to trust Michael Quinn Sullivan and by his own trash mouth.

SocraticGadfly does his alt-history schtick again and says imagine a world that never had American Indians.

The TPA congratulates Noah Horwitz for passing the bar exam.

=========================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

G. Elliott Morris examines the value of 2020 general election polls at this time.

Juanita finds new reasons to dislike Sen. John Cornyn.

Sanford Nowlin is right there with her.

The Texas Signal reads the Census report on income inequality in Texas.

Nonsequiteuse reviews the Astros front office debacle.

The Daily Texan decries UT's lack of action against professors who have been accused of sexual misconduct with students.

TPA October 7, 2019

The Texas Progressive Alliance wonders how many administration officials can fit under a bus as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff looks at the recent PPP poll of competitive Congressional districts in Texas.

SocraticGadfly looks at his state rep, Drew Springer, see that he's NEVER faced a general election and says that if Democrats are serious about turning Texas blue, they need to challenge even candidates like him.

Noah M. Horwitz endorses Elizabeth Warren for President.

================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Christof Spieler runs through an autonomous vehicle thought exercise.

Therese Odell goes to town on Day One of Impeachment Inquiry TV.

Before the verdict in the Amber Guyger murder trial came in, Dan Solomon analyzed the problem with the "Castle Doctrine".

And after the verdict, Grits offered his thoughts on the trial and the case as a whole.

G. Elliott Morris describes Texas now as "magenta" rather than "purple", but says it is on the way there.

"Moscow Mitch" not working for the American people

House Democrats have passed 230+ bills for the people. "Moscow Mitch" doesn't care about the American people or democracy and refuses to even bring them up for a vote. #ForThePeople

The House has passed 230+ bills and sent them to the Senate. Tell @SenateMajLdr to do his job and pass the #ForThePeople plan! Call Mitch: 202-224-2541 pic.twitter.com/KnXGTjHhit

— Future Majority (@future_majority) September 9, 2019

vc

July 22 2019 TPA

The Texas Progressive Alliance stands with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Presley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib and against Donald Trump's appalling and unacceptable racism as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff looks at the young candidates for City Council in Houston, where the municipal electorate tends to be pretty old.

SocraticGadfly shows and describes why Texas arts aficionados who have any chance to see the late-life Monet exhibit at the Kimball need to go.

Dos Centavos scoffs at the weak Republican response to Trump's latest racist diatribe.

========================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Better Texas Blog urges a vote against HJR38, the double secret illegal anti-income tax constitutional amendment.

Juanita applauds former CCA Justice Elsa Alcala's departure from the Republican Party.

Streetsblog cheers Houston's elimination of minimum parking requirements in two near-downtown neighborhoods.

Indivisible Houston commits to flipping Texas in 2020.

The Lunch Tray wants a real federal response to lunch shaming.

Elise Hu provides your Trader Joe's shopping list.

TPA Roundup 1/14/2018

The Texas Progressive Alliance stands with federal workers and contractors and their families as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff congratulates Dan Patrick for his success in claiming victory on the bathroom bill.

SocraticGadfly saw the number of "names" already making 2020 presidential announcements, along with the speculation about many others, and offered his initial oddsmaking take on Democratic candidates along with other assessment.

Stace at Dos Centavos is back! Last week, he provided more context to the recent prison release of La Raza Unida Party's Ramsey Muñiz than the MSM.

It's been a fun time, but Texas Leftist has decided to finally close up shop in the blog format. But if you've enjoyed the great content over these years, please give my brand new venture a listen. Welcome to the Ingressive Voices Podcast!! Hope to see you (hear you??) there!!


============================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

State Rep. Erin Zwiener asks us to take sexual misconduct seriously.

Dan Solomon notes that the town of Marfa is now famous enough to be mocked by The Simpsons.

Grits for Breakfast gives the Lege a to do list for criminal justice reform.

The Lunch Tray calls for action to oppose the weakening of school lunch nutrition standards.

Paradise in Hell remains our foremost interpreter of Individual One.

Swamplot finds a visual compendium of where Houston's neighborhood names came from.

TPA Roundup - 12-10-18

The Texas Progressive Alliance knows the value of cooperation as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff made two last attempts to find a relationship between straight ticket voting and Democratic likeliness to "drop off" from long ballots.

As winter meetings arrive, SocraticGadfly switches from politics to baseball to applaud the Cardinals for the Paul Goldschmidt trade.

===========================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Better Texas Blog warns of the dangers of short term health insurance plans.

Paradise in Hell wants to see that Confederate plaque in the Capitol banished.

Texas Vox takes a first look an environmental bills for the 86th Lege.

The TSTA Blog reminds us that funding schools is the state's responsibility.

Juanita always takes the time to marvel at the wonder of Louie Gohmert.

The Lunch Tray explains the latest USDA announcement on school mean nutrition policy.

Debunking three of the biggest climate change deniers

Richard Lindzen is wrong. On the quotes page as well as the myths page you will find over 30 times he is wrong.

https://www.skepticalscience.com/skeptic_Richard_Lindzen.htm

Here is a summary from 2012 of climate scientists taking on Lindzen.

https://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-scientists-take-on-Richard-Lindzen.html

And here is a dozen errors from 2017.

https://blog.ucsusa.org/brenda-ekwurzel/a-dozen-doozies-setting-the-record-straight-on-richard-lindzens-letter-to-president-trump

Will Harper – His 23 errors.
https://www.skepticalscience.com/William_Happer_arg.htm

A response to a 2018 lecture by Harper, one of many he gives.

“Happer argues that the current concern over human-caused greenhouse gases is overblown. Although he clearly understands basic climate science, his presentation includes claims that are exaggerated, misleading, or incorrect regarding human-caused climate change. His presentation is entertaining, but he argues in many places against claims that climate scientists do not make. He acknowledges that CO2 has an influence on climate, but emphasizes that the influence is small. Yet he gives no physical reason to conclude that the current scientific understanding on the response of climate system to CO2 (the “climate sensitivity”) is wrong, other than to say that he does not trust climate models. His claims that climate models do not work are exaggerated and misleading. He also claims that increased CO2 will be beneficial by increasing plant growth – it is true that plant growth will increase by the CO2 increase alone, but he does not show that it will be beneficial, especially when climate is changing at the same time as CO2. His presentation ignores the large number of studies available that show that through climate change, CO2 will be detrimental to agricultural productivity as well as to human well-being generally.”

and more:

https://www.unc.edu/~jjwest/climatechange.html


Patrick Moore is policy advisor to the Heartland Institute, the leading source of climate change disinformation which has spent many millions provided by energy companies and conservative foundations and billionaires with energy company ties to stop government regulations against climate change.
Greenpeace accuses him of leaving when he saw opposing Greenpeace was much more financially lucrative and his career now is speaking out against climate change.

https://www.desmogblog.com/patrick-moore



Bjorn Lomberg is pretty famous for being fully funded by energy companies to deny the severity of climate change.

https://www.desmogblog.com/2014/06/25/millions-behind-bjorn-lomborg-copenhagen-consensus-center


https://www.desmogblog.com/bjorn-lomborg


He got major funding and wrote a book called ‘The Skeptical Environmentalist’ he was mostly known for along with his later book ‘Cool It’. Another writer decided to write a book examining that books claims. He found every reference cited was wrong or misleading in two chapters. The book ‘The Longborg Deception’ was going to handle the entire book and every citation but it would take years so he skimmed checking the cites in the other chapters. It concludes Lomborg is ‘a performance artist disguised as an academic,’ ‘misrepresenting academic research, misquoting data, relying on irrelevant studies, (omitting important citations and sources), (using the lowest estimates of likely climate changes), and citing sources that seem not to exist.’ Many of the cites appear to be simply cited to build up the number of cites with multiple entries to simply show where a person worked for example.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1nq1hv


http://www.newsweek.com/debunking-lomborg-climate-change-skeptic-75173


A short critical analysis of recent articles.

https://climatefeedback.org/authors/bjorn-lomborg/


Errors in the first book

http://www.lomborg-errors.dk/


There is a reason climate change skeptics rely on lies and misrepresentations. The science and evidence of human-caused global climate change is overwhelming and the warming is accelerating.

Don't use drugs kids, also avoid mind pollution

via SIZZLE

In addition to filing election report violations I paid attention to these political items

The Texas Progressive Alliance doesn't take loyalty pledges as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff considers the possibilities of Big John Cornyn's Senate seat being vacated by an appointment as FBI Director.

A volunteer, me, files complaint over election law violations.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes Sally Yates owned John Cornyn and Ted Cruz this week. Cornyn proved he's a Trump puppet and an excellent choice of FBI director - if you want to destroy our democracy and make Trump officially god emperor.

On the day the world lost its mind, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs was a little dizzy and nauseous but otherwise got through it ... same as everyone else.

Neil at All People Have Value attended a Trumpcare Die-in and saw a Sandra Bland memorial railroad car. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.


===============

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Paradise in Hell notes a correlation between life expectancy and Trump support.

The Texas Election Law Blog comments on a big ProPublica voter ID story.

Better Texas Blog laments the likely demise of some good school finance legislation.

Andrew Edmonson tells what you can do to fight against attacks on LGBT Texans.

The TSTA Blog wonders why charter schools are asking for more tax money.

Texas Vox bemoans the bills killed by the House "Freedom Caucus" in a fit of legislative pique.

TPJ adds up how much predatory lenders have been spending this legislative session.

Disappointing Pasadena TX election for Democrats - Isbell political machine becomes Wagner machine

The Houston Chronicle has a story on the Pasadena election.


The Houston Chronicle links no longer work correctly.

http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/pasadena-news/article/Wagner-leading-Pasadena-mayor-s-race-in-early-11127057.php

Some inaccuracies. The report on candidate finances ignored a previous report that the Houston Chronicle had of the Moon campaign loaning itself $100,000. Moon was financed by his loan and large Real Estate PAC money.

Wagner was financed by Isbell's political machine, city contractors and Isbell's large donors, pretty much exclusively. The Isbell machine has now become the Wagner machine.

The last article correction is that Schoenbein is elected with 50.9% of the vote without a runoff due to the returns from the last and largest polling location with five precincts putting him over.

Wagner won with 38.85% of the vote and is in a runoff with Moon with 18.29% of the vote, assuming voter errors are not found which would not significantly change the results. The next four candidates are bunched with Flores at 11.4% followed by Talton and Van Houte and with Gallegos at 9.6%. Pena had less than 2% with him ceasing to campaign in the last weeks.

Turnout was a disappointing 13.45% although still much more than the last mayoral election. Although there was increased Latino turnout on the north side that was matched with increased turnout from the south side that was Anglo, older, Republican and religious. The two mayoral forums did not explore controversial topics or hard questions, surprising given the recent controversies that had national attention.

During the highly attended Chamber of Commerce Mayoral Forum Wagner answered one question by leading the crowd in prayer. No controversial or tough questions were asked. One question of this election was how Wagner, Moon, and Talton would split the religious Republican vote. It was only on election day that it was clear to outside observers that Wagner had secured it as well as Isbell's donors. Every polling location had eager volunteers from the largest church in Pasadena, to which Wagner belongs, helping him with what seemed liked religious fervor. Moon seemed favored by the less numerous business Republicans and had run a campaign heavy on Chamber of Commerce boosterism - "Pasadena is the greatest city in the world."

The north side vote was split between Van Houte, a current at-large council member, and two last-minute candidates with no political experience:  Gallegos, a school administrator, and Flores, a Latino businessman. Pena's limited support also came from the north side. Refusing to collect money from large donors, city contractors, and click to donate here money from the Internet(!?) Van Houte's campaign ended up being underfunded and understaffed. It is unclear if the Houston Chronicle endorsement of Van Houte helped more than harmed with the large Texas distrust of the "liberal media." David Flores made a surprisingly strong showing with enthusiastic young Latino backers. He also floated by with not disclosing his Republican ties, he had gone through GOP candidate training, which could have harmed him with the younger Latino voters, and could easily have a future in politics. The Gallegos campaign, with backing from the Latino Democratic groups and some Democratic politicians mistakenly believing that the time was ripe for a Latino mayor for Pasadena, never broke through.

The election is especially disappointing in corruption and favoritism not becoming key issues and the transference of Isbell's city contractor donor base to his designated successor Wagner who is highly favored in the runoff.

This article needs to be read in conjunction with the Houston Chronicle's previous article on the crooked and dictatorial rule of current mayor Johnny Isbell.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Over-a-half-century-Pasadena-Mayor-Johnny-Isbell-11127104.php

Texas Progressive Bloggers Report

The Texas Progressive Alliance has squeezed all the news out of the past week like an $8 juice bag and put it into the roundup for you.

Off the Kuff takes a very early look at potential Congressional races for 2018.

SocraticGadfly offers his reflections on the career and trial of "Our Man Downtown," John Wiley Price.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that Republican hatred of democracy and people marches on Texas.

Democrats keep looking for excuses to kick people out from under their tent, and the evidence was everywhere PDiddie at Brains and Eggs looked over the past couple of weeks. There aren't enough Marches, Resistances, and Revolutions to overcome so much squabbling, backbiting, and infighting.


====================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Scott Braddock reports on the voucher astroturfing story.

Robert Rivard makes the case for changing the timing and frequency of San Antonio's elections.

Michael Li rounds up and summarizes the remaining disputes over the Texas Congressional map.

Therese Odell recoils in horror from the transcript of the AP interview with Donald Trump.

Sandra Thompson follows the money that is opposed to bail reform.

Juanita tries to explain how State Rep. Phil Stephenson twice screwed up a bill to name a highway after a murdered state trooper.

Jay Blazek Crossley advocates for lower speed limits on neighborhood streets.

Former Rep. Scott Hochberg explains why he is voting Yes on the HISD recapture referendum.