Early voting began in Texas today.  By 1:00 today, 50,000 people had voted in blue Harris County (think Houston).

You can vote anywhere in Harris County and check out this map of how long the wait is at each polling place.  They have a new Democratic elections administrator who is doing a great job so far.

My county – Fort Bend – is a disaster because the machines weren’t working.  Our election administrator is totally incompetent. He was hired by the Republicans and they have an ingrained ability to pick incompetent people.  The good news is that he might as well hand in his resignation the day the votes are canvassed because Democrats will pick the next elections administrator.

I’m feeling good about Texas voting right now.  We have registered 1.8 million new voters since 2016 and 585,156 since September 1st. Analysis from targetsmart shows that 60% of these voters are either under the age of 25 or people of color, groups that lean Democratic.

Hearing anything in your area?

UPDATE:  Harris County voted 67,000 in 2016 on the first day of early voting.  Today they voted 128,000 with an hour still left to vote.  FINAL First day in Harris County 169,517.  I am stunned.

Amy Coney Barrett danced a cute one this morning, finding a rusty old dog whistle to toot a fast one on Democrats and a sloooooow one on Republicans.

“I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and I would never discriminate on the basis of sexual preference.”

First, that’s a bald face lie.  From 2015 to 2017 she served on the board Trinity Schools, who had a policy of not accepting children of unmarried parents.  Gays could not marry at that time. And, even beside that, it’s never  just and honorable to discriminate against children for what you view as the sins of their parents.

Secondly, sexual preference is not sexual orientation.  Sexuality is not something you prefer, like vanilla ice cream.  Sexual preference is the term used by those who believe that every member of the LGBTQ community can be fixed.

Sexual preference: “I like screwing a guy who wears a thong and has thick hair.”
Sexual orientation: “I’m a male who has always been sexually attracted to other males.”

Food preference: “I’m not crazy about eating beets”
Food orientation: “I have to eat, or I will die”

This is not difficult.

Today’s first post was written by guest stylist Nick Caraway

Have Mask, Will Travel

Kids don’t get the virus. That is until they do. Well, they don’t spread the virus. That is until they do. I’m one of those poor schleps that works as a teacher. Except, I don’t have my own classroom. I’m a support teacher that goes into other teacher’s rooms and share an eight by twelve office with seven other people. It’s perfectly safe. That is until it isn’t. In order to prepare for these conditions, we were given two masks, a gaiter, and a face shield. I think we were given a bar of soap too.

The common refrain is that kids don’t get the virus and when they do, they don’t suffer. Some within the administration have even argued that kids aren’t spreaders. Sure, that’s why I get sick every September. I get sick because they aren’t spreaders. Sure. Makes perfect sense. Our district is one of those that went back to face to face instruction almost immediately. So, half of our students are at home. Half of them are there. We teach them at the same time. We do this even though many of us are also sick ourselves.

Here’s the issue. Our governor really doesn’t want to make the call on what we should do. He believes in shucking leadership to the local level. So, they stepped up and made some decisions. Except those decisions were wrong. At least that’s true if you ask him. So, we are doing a proverbial Texas two-step with the virus. We have already gotten multiple letters about students testing positive. They can’t name them. They can’t tell you if they were in your class. They certainly won’t tell someone like me because I’m not the official classroom teacher.

Two years ago, my doctors gave me the worst news of my life. I am a diabetic. Fortunately, I don’t need insulin, but I still have to watch my diet, take a cocktail of pills every day, and have all the assorted side effects you’d expect. It also means I’m immunocompromised. I realize that’s an awfully big word for the president and the governor, but it describes any number of adults working in schools and more than a few of the children.

So, we do the dance that only we can do. We go from classroom to classroom and travel the halls, so that we expose ourselves to hundreds of students a day. We have had multiple positive tests, but no one really knows how many is too many? Some districts say ten percent. Others say we’ll know when we get there. Unfortunately, I work in one of those. So, all of us are waiting for the virus to come tap our shoulder.

Those of you with children and grandchildren might be tempted to criticize teachers. All we are doing is teaching some students in class and some students on computer at the same time. We have to plan lessons that can be completed both virtually and in person. We do all this while given very little PPE and putting our own health on the line. So, consider that when the next parent/teacher conference comes up.

Watch Senator Sheldon Whitehouse destroy John Cornyn.  And the expression on Cornyn’s face says it’s true.

If you want to watch the whole ten minute video of it, click right here.  It’s worth it.

Cornyn tries to laugh it off, sees no one else is laughing and looks a little frightened.  No, a big frightened.  He looks a big frightened.

Thanks to William for the heads up.  

https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1315624667193974787?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1315624667193974787%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2F2020%2F10%2Fwoman-caught-on-video-threatening-neighbor-over-terrorist-joe-biden-yard-sign%2F

I don’t know where this is but it’s surely south of the Mason-Dixon.

I flat love my Ring doorbell.  However, I bet this woman wishes she had opened the door to this one-woman-superspreader spitting venom on the porch so she could have whacked her upside the head with a potted plant for violation of the peace and decency state laws for her vile language and trespassing laws and the real estate threat code.

Now if you listen to this very carefully, you can hear a man’s voice in the background saying, “I’m gonna have to call you back…”

Have you noticed that she ain’t even got any pearls to clutch?

Thanks to Kary for the heads up. 

Amid all the regular crap going on, you might have missed that Allen West, former Florida congressvarmint and certified rightwing fruitcake, was elected chairman of the Texas Republican Party.

West thinks Gov. Greg Abbott is first cousins to Bernie Sanders.

Last Saturday, West and his good buddy Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller have teamed-up to hold a protest at the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Austin.  What they want is for Abbott to open Texas so the Coronavirus can spread more easily.

I didn’t count and I seriously doubt that anybody else did either, but the guess is that about 200 people showed up and left their masks at home. They were white and they were old.

West has been taking on the Governor for being way too liberal.

The worst kept secret in Texas is that West is going to primary Abbott in two years.  He’ll probably win the GOP primary.  Just in time for Texas to flip statewide.

Lemme tell you exactly how lost West is in Texas.  He scheduled the rally at the Gov’s house exactly the same time as the Texas/OU football game.  Never in the history of Texas has a governor not been at the Texas/OU football game. It’s a job requirement.