I promised this on Friday so before I get way behind again ...
First however is the news from Austin regarding the shooting on Sixth Street.
A man has died from his injuries following a mass shooting on a crowded downtown street in Austin, Texas, that left over a dozen people injured, police said. Douglas John Kantor, 25, had been hospitalized with critical gunshot wounds after the shooting. https://t.co/5L4JD3ZkZ6
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 14, 2021
In the wake of Saturday's mass shooting on 6th Street in downtown Austin, three other shootings happened overnight Sunday. Here's what we know.https://t.co/jhLpEqewZg
— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) June 13, 2021
Reaction has been swift.
Texas’ response to 13 individuals being shot was to pass more laws restricting voting rights.
— Ethan Wolf (@ethanmwolf) June 12, 2021
You read that right.
1/ I didn't survive 7 yrs of war zone deployments to get shot on dirty 6th. 2/ this is EXACTLY what happens when its easier to get / carry a gun than a drivers license. but please, by all means, tell me how your RIGHT to carry is more important than someone else's LIFE. #AustinTX https://t.co/UQ2yl1K6Re
— Kristen (@kristenmurdock) June 12, 2021
I've lived in #AustinTx most of my life, watched it devolve from hip small city to Disneyland For Adults/Developer Paradise. After last night's 6th Street bloodbath, we can add 'mass shooting site' to our CV. Governor Abbott & @TexasGOP, y'all are flat-out evil. #GunControlNow pic.twitter.com/YVhR3x55aH
— 50% of US reading at/below 8th grade explains GOP (@lindajaniebrou1) June 12, 2021
I blame you 100% @GregAbbott_TX
— Sandy (@tweeterdee420) June 12, 2021
You stay bought don’t you? NRA owns that flat ass. #GunControlNow #AustinTx #AbbottFailedTexasAgain https://t.co/ZvScNQUD0M
Texas state rep spending his time trolling @MomsDemand volunteers. He knows full well that only licensed gun sales require a background check in Texas; unlicensed sales - at gun shows or online - don’t. About a quarter of all guns are sold through unlicensed dealers each year. https://t.co/swgOEx7huP
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 13, 2021
Especially the reactions associated with defunding the Austin PD.
The shooting in Austin would’ve happened if police had their current budget or ten times their budget, and the people who tell you otherwise are voting to flood our streets with guns despite those same police repeatedly saying that makes their job more dangerous.
— Lucas Schaefer (@LucasESchaefer) June 12, 2021
🧵Disappointing and opportunistic of APD to take this moment to criticize defunding of the dept. I pray the victims recover and that the city is able to offer them services for their trauma they experienced. 6th st is highly policed yet they were not able to stop or apprehend https://t.co/kXTGYTx7PM
— DelilahForTexas💚☮🌻🌎 (@DelilahforTexas) June 12, 2021
It's the same in San Antonio.
Remember last summer when thousands answered the budget survey overwhelmingly saying that we wanted to REDUCE spending on police in solidarity w/ BLM... then city council voted unanimously to do the exact opposite & increased SAPD budget by several million $....🤡
— Bexar County Greens 🌻💚 (@BexarGreensTX) June 11, 2021
Good times. https://t.co/qWX99Rdyxd
And everywhere else.
Thread. You're going to hear a lot about how cops need more resources because "crime is surging" in the next few months. It's propaganda, and here's how you can respond:
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) June 10, 2021
The state's capital is far from the only Texas city plagued with gun violence. This was Houston over the weekend.
"A 9-year-old boy is in critical condition after accidentally being shot in the chest by his father at the end of an alleged road rage incident they were engaged in."https://t.co/WWpvC21fKQ
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 13, 2021
HPD investigating after new Rolls-Royce found shot up, abandoned along East Freeway @houstonpolice #khou11 #HouNews https://t.co/6Pqvr6QvZR
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) June 13, 2021
And Grits for Breakfast wonders what will happen to all those old convictions for unlicensed carrying of a weapon.
Governor Strangelove had to quickly come up with yet another diversion from failed Lege policies, and his choice was ...
So let me get this straight. Abbott is going to spend 1 billion dollars on building a wall at the border instead of putting $$ to upgrade the electrical grid in Texas?https://t.co/Tp1R1rrlVx
— Queen of Typos (@KellieADennis74) June 11, 2021
You got it straight.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says it’s time to secure the state’s border with Mexico and wants to build a wall. Critics call it political theater. And some say Texas doesn’t have the authority — or money — to do it. https://t.co/67TacvF76P
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) June 11, 2021
Gov @GregAbbott_TX finally thought of something @GovRonDeSantis couldn't do first #txlege https://t.co/WVNa26HcD9
— Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) June 10, 2021
Braddock with the win.
A good, timely explainer by @BenjaminEW on what @GregAbbott_TX is saying, and how that aligns with reality #txlege https://t.co/ICIHK2cSOG
— lomikriel (@lomikriel) June 11, 2021
Abbott is not one to let the grass grow under his wheelchair. Part of his re-election strategy is to set the agenda and have others react to him; he never responds to what happened yesterday or last week, and rarely if ever to his critics. This is his definition of "leadership".
Case in point: the swelling national backlash over critical race theory.
1836 Project promoting 'patriotic education' in Texas heightens concerns about whitewashing history https://t.co/TUKQLUGKDZ via @houstonchron #hounews
— Matt Schwartz (@SchwartzChron) June 10, 2021
Dealing with history as history and not merely as propaganda means being serious about America’s past. https://t.co/9BKp4R0j8F
— Jacobin (@jacobin) June 13, 2021
Ben Sargent (2010) pic.twitter.com/FjOcQqzGFg
— Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) June 11, 2021
The whitewashing has been going on for almost two centuries.
The myth of the Alamo, as we know it, is a lie. https://t.co/0g5pIiU2TA
— Texas Observer (@TexasObserver) June 11, 2021
ICYMI: @BryanBurrough and I talked about #ForgettheAlamo on @TexasStandard and described our biggest surprises when looking at the facts of the Battle of the Alamo. https://t.co/gKClafLVc9 @penguinpress
— ChrisTomlinson (@cltomlinson) June 9, 2021
Shell Seas with the less-than-280-character executive summary.
Dear Texas, You cannot have healthcare or a working power grid. We'll make the decisions about your body, income, cost of living, and we'll make sure to teach your children racism. And with your tax dollars, we'll build a wall.
— Shell_Seas (@LivingBlueTX) June 11, 2021
Yours truly,
Greg Abbotthttps://t.co/i0OruqROdR
Abbott and the Lege have an unfinished piece of business: the voting suppression bill due in the first special session. More skeezy details have leaked about SB7 in the just-concluded regular.
Top Texas House Republicans say they don’t know how the "overturning elections" section made its way into the state's controversial voting bill #SB7, denounce it as "horrendous policy" + say they don't plan to revive it in a special.
— Taylor Goldenstein (@taygoldenstein) June 11, 2021
My latest:https://t.co/bIwGiZFjVh #txlege
One thing you definitely didn't read about #SB7 in any Texas or national coverage are the worker protections barring employers from refusing to let employees vote while early voting is in progress or on Election Day. #txlege pic.twitter.com/nOS9p2Tt6B
— Robert Showah (@robertisnthere) June 10, 2021
There's justified skepticism of @SenBryanHughes's denial that he pushed for overturning elections language in #SB7.
— Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) June 11, 2021
Don't forget: Hughes was on the Trump legal team to overturn results in Pennsylvania but he retreated from that, too https://t.co/WdLLlUBSRf #TxLege pic.twitter.com/sFVUyD4ule
Accolades are still pouring in for the brave Donkey blockers.
Texas Democrats who blocked ‘#votersuppression’ bill get White House meeting with @VP Kamala Harris next week #txlege https://t.co/WFSgonFycN
— Todd J. Gillman (@toddgillman) June 10, 2021
And Beto's Texas tour brought him to the Bayou City yesterday, where he fired up the troops for the coming rematch.
"Democracy is under attack in the state of Texas," Beto O'Rourke said in Houston. "This is the challenge that we are up against right now." https://t.co/IVyhftECdc
— KENS 5 (@KENS5) June 14, 2021
Political watchers of the "expert" variety seem skeptical that Tex Dems will be able to reach their 'two million new registered voters' goal, along with the usual pessimism regarding their biannual electoral prospects.
More Texas 2022 election developments:
ICYMI : @JTiloveTX looks at @DonHuffines primary run against @GregAbbott_TX, complete with use of the phrase "Rothbardian heroine" + a short guy joke by @granitewinger. Good #Tx2020 read via @texasmonthly.https://t.co/sWvl9Torhe #txlege
— Jim Henson (@jamesrhenson) June 9, 2021
News: @JusticeGuzman files paperwork to run for attorney general https://t.co/I2DYP73zTW
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) June 14, 2021
I should give a COVID update since I haven't in a long while.
Texas is underachieving in its COVID19 immunizations. In anticipation of the delta variant and in view of what happened with last summer’s terrible surge, I worry about our vulnerability. Especially young adults and adolescents this summer. https://t.co/hoR08Jrck1
— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) June 13, 2021
Texas judge throws out a lawsuit against a Houston hospital that suspended 178 employees who refused to get jabs: "This is not coercion. The hospital is trying to save lives without giving them the virus, to keep staff, patients, and their families safer"https://t.co/PnfvilRx2C
— Alfons López Tena (@alfonslopeztena) June 13, 2021
Texas Republicans (like Louie Gohmert, Space Cadet and Ken Paxton, Thug) behaving badly and some environmental news still to come this week. Here's the soothers.
The Fort Worth Film Commission and the Modern are pleased to present special screenings of Channing Godfrey Peoples’s "Doretha's Blues" and "Miss Juneteenth." Join us on June 19 for music, drinks, and showings of these two films shot in Fort Worth.
— The Modern (@themodernfw) June 9, 2021
The traveling exhibition assembles more than 70 paintings by American icons including Mary Cassat, William Merritt Chase and others. @SAMAart #SanAntonioArt #ThingsToDoInSanAntoniohttps://t.co/yptiNzTvHV
— San Antonio Current (@SAcurrent) June 9, 2021
Ghost crabs found on Texas beaches can move up to 10 mph, hibernate for 6 weeks > #hounews https://t.co/qEd9BewuJ0
— KPRC 2 Houston (@KPRC2) June 6, 2021
A hippopotamus smashed open a watermelon in one fell swoop at the San Antonio Zoo in San Antonio, Texas, demonstrating the power of its jaws pic.twitter.com/7iyjKNXG8j
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) June 10, 2021
After losing its founder and navigating the pandemic, the San Angelo’s Old Chicken Farm Art Center preps for its 50th anniversary. https://t.co/DdkQqA8dLW
— Texas Highways Magazine (@TexasHighways) June 2, 2021
