tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55053089833851278472024-03-17T12:34:22.227-05:00Blue in GuadalupeThoughts on progressive issues in Texas, the U.S. and the world.Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.comBlogger521125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-58491679628537016992024-03-14T14:04:00.001-05:002024-03-14T14:04:00.136-05:00Christian Nationalism Threatens Democracy<p>According to a study released last month by the Public Religion Research Institute; more than a third of Texans agree with the following five statements: The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation. U.S. laws should be based on Christian values. If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore. Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.</p><p>God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society. Such agreement indicates what is known as Christian nationalism. Worse yet Texas is only slightly above the national average. In Louisiana 46% agree with those statements while in Mississippi 50% agree.</p><p>Americans under 50 years of age or who have earned a bachelors degree or higher are far less likely to be Christian nationalists. Gender isn’t an indicator, as men and women are equally likely to be Christian nationalists. The percentage of Christian nationalists among Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks are nearly the same. The big indicator is the variant of Christianity someone belongs to, two thirds of members of evangelical Protestant congregations are Christian nationalists as opposed to about a third for Catholic and mainline Protestant congregations. The biggest concentration of Christian nationalists is among the followers of prosperity gospel purveyors such as Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, John Hagee, T. D. Jakes, and Paula White.</p><p>The higher the percentage of Christian nationalists in a given state the more likely that state is to vote Republican and the more likely the voters there are to support Trump. That’s bad enough, what’s worse is more than a third of those folks also believe political violence may be justified. That means that should Trump lose in November, as I believe is likely, 1 in 10 Texans may very well support a violent attempt to over turn the election.</p><p>Aside from the threat of political violence perpetrated by Christian nationalists the other thing the rest of us need to worry about is their desire to base U.S. law on their distorted interpretation of the bible. They’ve already succeeded in denying many women bodily autonomy. They’re working on denying rights to the LGBTQ members of our society. The Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, wants to go back to the days when women were denied the right to vote. Where will they stop?</p><p>As an excuse to eliminate public agencies like the Department of Education, Republicans often claim that if it isn’t in the constitution then the federal government isn’t allowed to do it. At the same time nothing in the constitution says the country is a Christian nation and in fact the reverse is true, in Article VI it says: “but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Then to make it even more clear the First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Either Republicans and Christian nationalists haven’t read the Constitution or they don’t understand it.</p><p>In November it is important that everyone votes to reject Christian nationalism which means voting against Republicans from top to bottom.</p><div>Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 13, 2024</div>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-13658815718788903672024-02-18T19:25:00.001-06:002024-02-18T19:25:07.873-06:00Fix Immigration Now<p> Republicans hyperventilate over the number of immigrants requesting asylum their solution are rejection, building Trump’s wall, or Gov. Abbott’s barbed wire in the Rio Grande. Trump and his sycophants demonize people who are poor and have darker skin than themselves. You can be sure they’re hypocrites because those same Republicans are falling all over themselves to protect a German family who came here a decade ago and over-stayed their 90 day visa. The Romeike family claims they suffered religious persecution and their evidence is that Germany doesn’t allow home-schooling so every child must attend a public or approved private school. The Romeike’s are evangelical Christians and claim that the public school system might have an impact on the children’s family values.</p><p>Citizens of Germany, New Zealand, Hungary, Iceland, and Estonia to name just a few, all have a straightforward and legal entry path into the United States but that program specifically excludes majority non-white nations such as Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines. The Romeike’s chose not to apply for legal immigration they broke the law and flaunt it.</p><p>Those same Republicans defending the Romeike’s make so much noise about the purported open borders that the media in many Central and South American countries repeat it creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that our border with Mexico is swamped with immigrants. Republicans in Congress are unwilling to add funding to address the need for more immigration judges and staff. </p><p>A U.S. State Department travel advisory reads: “Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor healthcare infrastructure.” Yet this past August, 60 refugees fleeing for their lives were forced back to Haiti. I wonder if they'd still be here if they were white and fleeing the horrors of a public school system they didn’t like.</p><p> I’ve been unimpressed with Democrats’ discussion of immigration as well because they fail to discuss or do anything about the reasons that those seeking asylum want to come here so desperately that they’ll give up their homes and family ties then make a dangerous 1500 to 3000 mile journey just to request asylum here. Unlike the Romeike’s the folks streaming to our border with Mexico are actually trying to escape violence in the form of cartels and trans-national gangs.</p><p>This country bares some responsibility for the instability of so many Central and South American countries since we have interfered with their governments including sponsoring the overthrow of left wing governments in at least a dozen of them. Some such as Cuba and Nicaragua then revolted and were taken over by outright communists and are now dictatorships much like the old Soviet Union. We also provide the profits of their narcotics gangs with our failed “war on drugs” which just leads to corruption in government and violence in the community.</p><p>We should be supporting the people in their home countries with funding for education and health care. We should encourage exports and manufacturing through our trade policies. We must take the profits out of drug production and smuggling by decriminalizing most drugs so that funding for gangs dries up and they can no longer corrupt local governments.</p><p>There are millions of undocumented immigrants already here, quite a few came as young children and have grown up, gotten jobs, married and had children of their own yet we still deport them even though they often don’t speak the language of their country of origin and have no ties to it. This nation needs to provide a quick path to citizenship for all those currently here and create a system that is fair to all immigrants. </p><p>Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 21, 2024</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-79742942988934158062024-02-08T07:00:00.001-06:002024-02-08T07:00:00.148-06:00Independents Uninformed but Key to Victory in November<p>Political researchers have found that independents and soft
partisans (voters who lean Democrat or Republican) are woefully under-informed
regarding Donald Trump’s criminal indictments and trials. They’ve also found
that once those voters learn of the charges behind those trials they are much
less likely to support his re-election. Worse in some ways, these voters don’t
see Trump’s actions including those on January 6 as an attack on our democracy.
In fact, those voters aren’t even clear on what a democracy is.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When doing market or political campaign research
organizations use polling to learn how people feel or what they believe about a
topic. In order to get a better understanding of why they feel or believe as
they do they’ll hold what are called “focus groups”. In a focus group just as
in polling the organization tries to select participants that fit their needs.
In political polling that is usually registered voters or when an election is
close what are defined as likely voters, often those who vote nearly every
election. Polling organizations usually try to find a mix of genders, ages, and
economic groups that is also representative of the overall population of the
area they’re researching, congressional district or state for example. For a
focus group the organization may choose from a narrower group in order to
better understand how that group thinks and why they might vote a particular
way.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In focus groups organized for Navigator Research in three
swing states, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Georgia</st1:country-region>, <st1:state w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:state>, and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nevada</st1:place></st1:state>,
voters who lean Republican or consider themselves independent generally were
very disturbed to learn that Trump had been indicted on 91 charges over 4
criminal trials. Participants were also concerned with Trump’s claims of
immunity for anything done by the president including the use of the military
to murder opponents.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even some voters who lean Republican cited Fox News as part
of the problem regarding the political divide in the country, misinformation,
and distrust of media. Unfortunately that has caused many voters to distrust
main stream media entirely rather than find more reliable sources. It’s also
frightening that the voters participating in the focus groups didn’t have a
common understanding of political violence or recognize it beyond the
insurrection on January 6, 2021.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The only positive point I see is that for the most part
participants in the focus group and hopefully others like them were less likely
to support Trump upon learning more about the indictments and criminal trials
as well as his claims of total immunity.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is important to remember that Trump lost the popular vote
in both 2016 and 2020. He only won in 2016 because of a relatively small number
of votes in a handful of swing states giving him the edge in the electoral
college. It will only take a small number of independents and soft Republicans
voting for Biden to insure that Trump never again has political power in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a Democrat and believer in the peaceful transfer of power
through free and fair elections I hold out hope that readers of this column and
others will reach out to family and friends to insure that they are informed
about they recognize the dangers of re-electing Trump.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette February 7, 2024</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-55892177400824623522024-01-18T07:00:00.003-06:002024-01-18T07:00:00.144-06:00Republicans Protecting Tax Cheats<p> Eighteen months ago the then Democrat controlled Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Since then, using funds allocated by that legislation the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) declared open season on wealthy tax cheats and so far has recovered over $480 million in overdue taxes from delinquent millionaires. Last month the IRS opened 76 new examinations into the largest partnerships in the U.S. that include hedge funds, real estate investment partnerships and large law firms.</p><p>More than 160 million Americans voluntarily pay their federal income taxes every year and generally pay what they owe. The right leaning Wall Street Journal reported that “Americans didn't pay an estimated $68 billion in taxes due on their 2021 returns—the largest shortfall ever.” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) organized an investigation which found that nearly 1,000 Americans who make more than $1 million a year failed to file tax returns over multiple recent years, potentially owing $34 billion in taxes.</p><p>According to a 2021 White House study, the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the US paid an average federal individual tax rate of just 8.2 percent. If you’re reading this article you likely paid around 10% of your total income in federal taxes. The really wealthy pay a lower percentage of taxes than you and I do and yet still cheat on their taxes.</p><p>During last year’s debt ceiling negotiations between the Biden administration and the now Republican controlled House; Monica de la Cruz, Chip Roy, and their cronies held the paychecks of millions of Americans hostage. In order to avoid damage to individuals and the national economy that a government shut down would cause, President Biden accepted budget reductions that include taking back billions of dollars allocated to the IRS. Those cuts will affect the ability of the IRS to continue pursuing wealthy tax cheats and modernization that was intended to reduce wait times and improve the experience tax payers have when calling the IRS for answers to questions about their incomes taxes.</p><p>The fact that supposedly budget conscious Republicans chose to target the IRS for major funding reductions when all indications are that for every $1 spent the agency will bring in an extra $2 goes to show you it isn’t really about the budget. The Republican attack on the IRS is all about protecting the wealthy tax cheats that provide campaign cash, high paying jobs for family members, and free vacations in posh resorts.</p><p>None of the billions in overdue taxes include the taxes evaded through tax shelters like owning professional sports teams or race horses, or other income re-classification tricks the super-wealthy use to game the system.</p><p>When Trump was in the White House an American earning less than $50,000 a year was more likely to be audited than someone earning $1 million a year and the percentage of mega-corporations earning billions hit an all time low. No wonder the super-wealthy want Trump back in the White House. How anyone earning less than $1 million a year can vote Republican is beyond me.</p><div>Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 17, 2024</div>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-64214067797749136992024-01-04T07:00:00.001-06:002024-01-04T07:00:00.129-06:00Biden Making US Better<p> Since this is an election year let’s review some of the most important accomplishments of the Biden administration in the last year and how the American people were affected by it. </p><p>In the area of prescription drug and health care costs; 15 million Americans now save $800/year on health insurance and insulin cost for seniors for seniors is now capped at $35 per month. Drug companies are now required to pay rebates to Medicare if they raise prices faster than inflation. Pharmaceutical companies now must allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, starting with the 10 costliest, most widely used drugs used to treat blood clots, cancers, arthritis, diabetes. The Biden administration successfully encouraged 42 states to expand Medicaid postpartum coverage from two months to 12, but not Texas. A record number of Americans now have health insurance and we’ve just had the strongest Obamacare enrollment ever.</p><p>Regarding the costs of living; inflation spurred by the pandemic has fallen 65% since last summer and gasoline prices are down more than $1.90 from its peak. Grocery inflation is at its lowest level in two years; egg prices are down a $1/dozen. Americans are saving billions of dollars a year due to crack downs on hidden junk fees in airline tickets, banking, investment advice, health insurance and apartment rentals.</p><p>In the area of employment and pay the Biden administration’s economic policies created over 14 million jobs, including 800,000 manufacturing jobs, while unemployment has stayed below 4% for 22 straight months. Biden supported unions and collective bargaining making him the most pro-union president in history. The economy is so good that the country set a record of 14.6 million applications to start new businesses. Wages, wealth and the share of working-age Americans with jobs are higher than before the pandemic. The US has had the fastest post-COVID economic recovery of G7 industrialized countries.</p><p>In only three years the Biden administration has made more progress on the climate crisis than any prior administration while lowering energy costs. The Inflation Reduction Act, provided for the largest investment in climate action ever by created 210,000 new clean energy jobs in 2023 alone. While there is much more to do Biden deserves credit for helping to secure a historic, international agreement at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels, triple renewable energy globally by 2030. The administration’s fiscal and other policies spurred hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector investment in wind, solar, electric vehicles, saving families an average of $500/year on energy costs. Biden took executive action to cut emissions across the economy, including issuing standards to reduce methane pollution.</p><p>The Biden administration made higher education more affordable by approving $127 billion in debt cancellation for 3.6 million Americans, more than any President in history even in the face of Republican-led lawsuits. Biden’s SAVE plan will cut undergraduate loan payments in half and prevent student loan balances from growing due to runaway interest. Administration policies helped 700,000 people access public service loan forgiveness programs. The administration invested $7 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities.</p><p>Biden signed Executive Orders to protect access to abortion, contraception and the right to travel across state lines to obtain care in reaction to state abortion bans that followed the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, like here in Texas. The administration strengthened privacy protections for patients and doctors.</p><p>There’s plenty more that Biden and Democrats have done in the face or Republican obstruction, just think of how much more could be accomplished if we re-elect Biden and a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate.</p><div>Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 3, 2024</div>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-42247884392407822482023-12-28T07:00:00.001-06:002023-12-28T07:00:00.137-06:00Immigrant Bashing for Votes and Bad Policy<p> Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis is showing Texas what happens when a state passes draconian immigration laws. Undocumented immigrants flee the state which then shuts down construction businesses and leaves unpicked crops in the fields. Republicans in Florida are getting mad at DeSantis for wrecking their businesses while he grandstands on his harsh immigration policies while campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in states like Iowa.</p><p>Gov. Greg Abbott just signed S.B. 4 last week which is similarly harsh regarding undocumented immigrants sending them to jail or deporting them quickly. In a few months there will be crops that need tending, homes that need building, and repairs that need doing but not enough people to do them here in Texas just like Florida today. Of course if Texas Republicans could remember as far back as 2011 they’d know this all played out before in Georgia and Alabama leaving millions of dollars in crops rotting in fields.</p><p>Florida has a 2.8% unemployment rate, which is more than 25% lower than the 3.9% national rate, so the argument that immigrants steal jobs from citizens is easily discredited. In fact there are only 53 people looking for work for every 100 job openings in Florida. Now the Republican controlled Florida legislature is considering solving the “problem” by loosening child labor laws to allow 16 and 17 year olds to work overnight during the school year. Such regulations were originally put in place to prevent work from interfering with children’s health, safety, and education. This isn’t about doing something positive for children it’s about bailing out the legislature from its own bad policy and giving benefits to corporations. From their point of view Republicans probably think high-schoolers that work too much and end up not finishing their education are a gold mine of future voters as the lower a voter’s educational attainment the less likely they are to vote for Democrats.</p><p>20 years ago Democrats and Republicans shared similar views in that they equally believed that immigrants strengthened the country. Today that’s no longer true as Republicans candidates and media talking heads have found a receptive audience for immigrant bashing. Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign and presidency raised such bashing to new heights all while Republican legislators have fought any form of comprehensive immigration reform. Today Republicans are using the desire of President Biden to continue supporting Ukraine in protecting its borders and citizens against the Russian invasion as leverage to push further harsh measures on immigrants and asylum-seekers.</p><p>Strangely we have blowhards like Senator Ted Cruz raising a ruckus about supposed open borders under Biden, a claim that is patently untrue, but which is getting media attention in Central and South American countries thereby encouraging migrants to rush to our southern border. Cruz and his Republican colleagues are actually a major cause of the very “crisis” they’re so loudly complaining about.</p><p>Then you have Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) whose mother was a Cuban refugee who fled the island nation in 1959 when Fidel Castro took power. When Malliotakis campaigned to represent the 11th District of New York in 2022 her rhetoric consisted of attacking asylum-seekers. That's more than a little hypocritical coming from the direct offspring of someone who came here seeking political asylum.</p><p>Democrats have repeatedly tried to pass comprehensive immigration reform that is both fair and effective but their colleagues across the aisle refuse to cooperate. If Republicans really wanted to address immigration they’ve had plenty of opportunities but have chosen not to because they prefer to use it as a hammer when campaigning and fund-raising.</p><p>Published in the Seguin Gazette December 27, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-56291484643706581452023-12-14T07:00:00.001-06:002023-12-14T07:00:00.148-06:00Proof Republicans Lack Moral Courage<p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It’s astonishing to me that contrary to what Republican
legislators like Senator Bryan Hughes says about his 2021 anti-abortion bill
SB8, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is dead set on proving that claims that
Republican passed anti-abortion laws apply even when a woman’s life, health,
and future ability to have a child is at risk.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This latest episode started with Kate Cox, a 31 year old
Dallas mother of two, who was delighted to learn she was pregnant with her
third child then months later learned that the fetus suffers a lethal anomaly which
could cause it to be born only to die within hours at best and at worst die in
her uterus and a cause fatal infection that even if treated could cause to be
unable to ever have another child at worst. She wants to terminate her
pregnancy and while Sen. Hughes and others claim the law allows that doctors
and hospitals and their lawyers say that’s not what the law says. A <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Travis</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">County</st1:placename></st1:place>
district judge granted a temporary restraining order allowing Mrs. Cox to
terminate her nonviable pregnancy. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A.G. Paxton then sent a letter to three hospitals,
threatening legal action if they allowed the abortion to be performed at their
facility. Next Paxton asked the Texas Supreme Court to intervene and they have
issued a stay on the temporary restraining order, meaning the existing law
remains in effect so no abortion for Mrs. Cox, she’ll just have to suffer the
consequences of Republican over-zealousness.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some months ago Hughes wrote a letter to the Texas Medical
Board asking for an investigation into "disturbing allegations" that
patients with serious pregnancy complications were being sent home from the
hospital without care. Hughes wrote "Pregnancy complications such as these
should be swiftly and reasonably treated to prevent or address a medical
emergency determined by the physician," asking the Texas Medical Board to
issue guidance on the issue.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paxton is the state’s lawyer and he believes that there are
no conditions under which terminating a pregnancy is not a violation of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> law. This is the
same Ken Paxton who has been impeached for accepting bribes and other crimes in
order to cover up his adultery and provide his mistress with a job and home in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Austin</st1:city></st1:place>. Paxton has also
been indicted for violations of federal securities laws.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">About half the population of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Guadalupe</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">County</st1:placename></st1:place>
is represented in the Texas Senate by Dr. Donna Campbell who talks about her
career as an emergency room physician and her anti-abortion stance whenever she
campaigns. You’d think that a physician, a career that most of us associate
with extreme compassion, would be the first to recognize that sometimes
terminating a pregnancy is medically necessary. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Campbell</st1:place></st1:city> has not once made an effort to amend
the state’s anti-abortion legislation to make it possible to address the
complexities of pregnancy that she must know full well exists. Of course, she’s
also among the majority of Senate Republicans that voted to acquit Ken Paxton
in his impeachment trial even after Paxton’s former chief assistant described
his efforts to encourage Paxton to step back from his dishonorable actions and dismay
at having to resign and report Paxton’s behavior.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There’s a reason that maternal mortality dropped over much
of the last century but has been going back up here in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> for the last few decades. How many
women will have to die, how many will have to lose their ability to have children
before these Republicans who lack empathy are forced to back off even a little
on their zealous application of narrow-minded law?</p>Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 13, 2023<p></p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-81545484755641009092023-11-30T07:00:00.001-06:002023-11-30T07:00:00.145-06:00Believe Trump When He Tells You Who He Is<p>Respected media sources such as NBC and the right leaning
Washington Post have recently reported disturbing plans that show Donald Trump
and groups supporting him, especially the Heritage Foundation, marching further
into right-wing authoritarianism. What’s more frightening is how positively
Republican voters have reacted to his plans and pronouncements.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trump hasn’t even been subtle about his desire to turn the
Department of Justice into a retribution organization that he’d unleash on his “enemies”
including his own former Attorney General William Barr, and Chief of Staff John
Kelly. Trump is miffed by their harsh criticism of him since he left office in
2021. That’s in addition to Trump threatening to tap a special prosecutor to
“go after” Biden and his family.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Heritage Foundation is working on a guide for use by the
next Republican administration which they’ve named Project 2025. The guide envisions
changing federal service rules that would allow Trump to cut tens of thousands
of civil service workers and replace them with ones deemed loyal to Trump’s
agenda. The guide also calls for invoking the 1871 Insurrection Act on the
first day in office in order to use military forces against protestors.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">CNN reports that according to a source familiar with it
Trump’s anti-immigrant plan involves rounding up undocumented immigrants
already in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and placing them in detention camps to await deportation. This sort of thing
has been done before and often ends up with <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place> citizens being deported
because they have brown skin and no one believes them when they claim
citizenship even when documentation is provided.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trump has said he would require local law enforcement
agencies to use the widely disparaged stop-and-frisk tactic in order to receive
some Justice Department funding. He’s also suggested he would deploy the
National Guard to cities dealing with high levels of crime.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a policy aimed at combating homelessness Trump calls for
the building “tent cities” on “inexpensive land” staffed by health care
workers, then giving homeless people a choice between relocating to the tent
city or facing jail time. That’s not a solution, that’s hiding the problem and
past experience with other attempts to hide problems like orphanages and homes
for pregnant girls shows the residents are often abused, sometimes fatally.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In his speech at a Veteran’s day rally Trump said that “we
will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs
that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” The “vermin” comment
wasn’t an off the cuff remark, it was contained in the written remarks provided
to the press. Trump is using the same kind of language as previous genocidal
leaders. Nazis characterized Jews as “rats” infecting their pure Aryan society,
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cambodia</st1:country-region>, the Khmer Rouge
described their enemies as “worms” and “leeches” and in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rwanda</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Hutu
leaders called Tutsi “cockroaches”.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The poem on the Statue of Liberty says; “Give me your tired,
your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of
your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my
lamp beside the golden door!” Apparently welcoming and openness is no longer appreciated
by Trump and the vast majority of Republicans.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All this ugliness has been revealed by Trump and his team
yet he is gaining support among Republican voters. Both Trump and his
supporters are telling us who they really are, we should believe them and act
accordingly.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 29, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-88036977836372708032023-11-09T07:00:00.003-06:002023-11-09T07:00:00.156-06:00Not Conservative, Reactionary<p>The contortions that the conservative mind can go through to
justify an action or choice is mind boggling. A case in point is the reaction
to the claims that Hillary Clinton has classified information on her personal
server and therefore risked national security. Only one actually was ever
actually marked classified and it was inconsequential in content. Trump
supporters chanted lock her up. Seven years later, it has become quite clear
that Trump retained more than one hundred classified or higher level national
security information after leaving office. Many of those documents were stored
in boxes or scattered on desks at his Mar-a-Lago club behind doors with locks a
ten year old could pick while foreign nationals wondered around un-escorted. I
have yet to hear a single one of those chanting lock her up in 2016 say such a
thing about Trump even though his behavior is far more egregious especially
considering that we now know that he bragged to Australian business tycoon Anthony
Pratt providing details on how stealthy our nuclear submarines are and how many
nuclear missiles they carry.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state>
the state legislature with the backing of Gov. Abbott passed a bill to provide
incentives in the form of low interest loans to electricity generators that use
fossil fuels, gas in particular. They did this claiming that it’s to brace up
the electricity grid which is in danger of failing due to high energy demand.
The reason we barely escaped the summer without blackouts is the record high
temperatures experienced across much of the state. It is beyond doubt that
climate change is causing the extreme weather and that human activity, such as
burning fossil fuels and thus dumping massive amounts of CO2 into the
atmosphere, is causing it. We know all that and yet our governor and state
legislature are all in on building more power plants that will dump more CO2
into the atmosphere exacerbating the problem rather than mitigating it. They’d
rather give away taxpayer dollars to their fossil fuel friends than arrange to
build out sufficient transmission lines to the west Texas wind mills and solar
power facilities that investors are anxious to build but can’t get permits because
there isn’t enough transmission capacity. Let’s not forget the big freeze in
2021 when most of the state was without power for 3 days was due to gas powered
plants and pipelines not being sufficiently weatherized to deal with extreme
low temperatures, and nothing has been done about that.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There many other examples of the hypocrisy and denial that
Republican voters and their elected officials engage in but I’ll leave you with
just one more. The pro-life crowd rants about the sanctity of life but does
nothing to make that life better for either child or the mother. In reality
they are simply pro-birth and are quite happy to leave children go hungry,
lacking in health care, with inadequate education and worst of all no hope.
They will lie about abortion risking the health of the woman when the fact is
that carrying a child to term in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state></st1:place>
is much riskier especially if you are a poor black woman.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In summation Republicans can claim to be conservative but
that’s a lie, they are reactionary and I’m sick of it.</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-37082427754026876062023-11-02T07:00:00.001-05:002023-11-02T07:00:00.143-05:00Insurrectionist in Charge<p>Last week House Republicans finally managed to select a new
Speaker of the House to replace Kevin McCarthy. It took three weeks and several
false starts to accomplish. They finally settled on Louisiana Rep. Mike
Johnson, a man who’s most outstanding accomplishment is having provided the
legalese of what is essentially the dog ate my homework quality excuse for
voting to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump which was then
used by two thirds of the Republicans in the House.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Not only is Johnson an insurrectionist, he has voted for a
nationwide ban on abortion with no exceptions and against same sex marriage. Johnson
is one of the extremists even if he isn’t as loud as the first speaker
candidate Jim Jordan, or Matt Gaetz who threw Kevin McCarthy under the bus.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In an interview with journalist Irin Carmon in 2015 Johnson
said “Many women use abortion as a form of birth control, you know, in certain
segments of society, and it’s just shocking and sad, but this is where we are.
When you break up the nuclear family, when you tell a generation of people that
life has no value, no meaning, that it’s expendable, then you do wind up with
school shooters.” That’s a wild and evidence free connection between school
shootings and abortion.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Johnson’s way out there conspiracy theory like ideas don’t
stop there. He delivered a sermon at <st1:placename w:st="on">Christian</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Center</st1:placename> of <st1:city w:st="on">Shreveport</st1:city>
in 2016 and claimed the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United
States</st1:place></st1:country-region> was founded as a Christian nation but
had gotten off track in recent years with the introduction of things like
“no-fault divorce laws,” “legalized abortion,” and the teaching of evolution,
per the MeidasTouch PAC. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Johnson then explained how in his addled mind this leads to
mass shootings: “And people say, ‘How can a young person go into their
schoolhouse and open fire on their classmates?’ Because we’ve taught a whole
generation, a couple generations now of Americans, that there’s no right or
wrong, that it’s about survival of the fittest, and you evolve from the
primordial slime. Why is that life of any sacred value? Because there’s nobody
sacred to whom it’s owed. None of this should surprise us.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In addition to voting for a nationwide abortion ban Johnson
has co-sponsored three anti-abortion bills all of which carry criminal
penalties of up to five years in prison for physicians who perform abortions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a September 2022, Johnson spoke about is ahistorical view
of the doctrine of separation of church and state saying, “The founders wanted
to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around. If
anybody tries to convince you that your biblical beliefs or your religious
viewpoint needs to be separated from public affairs, you should politely remind
them to review their history and you should not back down.” Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison, and John Adams all said differently.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When he was chair of the Republican Study Committee, which
puts out budgets, last term Johnson proposed extreme cuts to programs like
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The fact that the entire Republican caucus voted for an
insurrectionist is another example of what I wrote a few weeks ago, voting for
Republicans is voting for an authoritarian takeover of the country.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In my view Johnson’s best attribute is he has zero
experience raising big campaign donations for his party which is one of the
primary functions of the Speaker after setting the House agenda. Between his
extremist views and lack of fundraising prowess he should be helpful in
enabling a Democratic takeover of the House in 2024.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 1, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-58543869890873596912023-10-19T07:00:00.001-05:002023-10-19T07:00:00.139-05:00Republicans the New Fascists<p>“When fascism comes to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>, it will be wrapped in the
flag and carrying a cross,” is a quote often mistakenly attributed to Sinclair
Lewis. Given some of his books, “It Can’t Happen Here” among them, it certainly
has the ring of authenticity. While Lewis wrote in the 1930’s his commentary on
capitalism and politics as practiced in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> is still relevant
today, nearly a century later, and that’s truly sad. When Donald Trump
campaigned for a second term as president he quite literally wrapped himself around
a flag and kissed it at the Conservative Political Action Committee convention
in February 2020. Later that year, in June, after days of protests over police
brutality Trump strutted over to the steps of the nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church and struck several
poses holding a bible for press photos.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Merriam Webster dictionary defines fascism as “a political
philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the
individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a
dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible
suppression of opposition”. Trump has frequently made ugly, racist remarks
about immigrants, particularly those from South and <st1:place w:st="on">Central
America</st1:place> while exalting white evangelicals over everyone else. Trump
has threatened on numerous occasions to sue or direct the Department of Justice
to punish detractors and has only been stopped from doing so by the
increasingly fragile guardrails of democratic norms.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As he Republican Party has continued to move rightward becoming
an expressly Christian nationalist/fascist party following Trump I fear what
may happen if he or one of his clones like <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> governor Rick DeSantis were to win
the presidency in 2024. Just look at what’s happening here in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> and other southern states as women’s
right to control their own bodies has been taken away and some counties even
creating ordinances to make it a crime to drive a woman across that county in
order to obtain and abortion out of state. They’re turning <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Sheriff</st1:placename></st1:place>’s
and Constables into Gestapo agents.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s not just the political leaders to be blamed. Republican
voters are complicit as they go along with this anti-democratic behavior. If
you doubt this just check the polling results for the Republican primary and
you’ll see Trump leading at nearly 60%. Republican voters are willing to give
up control of government by the people in order to have a leader that speaks to
their bigotry. It didn’t start with Trump although he has given permission to
use the ugly, racist language that until recently wasn’t spoken out loud. Look
at the language and imagery attacking Barack Obama back during his term as
president, it was awful including a photo of the president painted over to look
like an African witch doctor and claims he wasn’t born in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> even though <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:state></st1:place> recorded his birth certificate.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2024 if someone votes for Trump or one of is clones they’re
making a statement that they are in favor of the nation being led by a fascist
tyrant. If someone tells you they didn’t want Trump or a clone but couldn’t
vote for Biden because anything, they’re telling you they’re okay with an
autocrat running the country. If a local official runs as a Republican and
doesn’t repudiate Trump and his clones then they are complicit in wrecking this
country. Whether voters or elected officials if they don’t act to stop Trump they’re
as bad as Germans who joined the Nazi party but claimed they just did it to
keep their jobs.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 18, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-28271367426985512172023-10-05T07:00:00.004-05:002023-10-05T07:00:00.143-05:00False Patriots<p>When the vote to pass the continuing resolution to prevent a
government shutdown was held in the House 90 Republicans voted no, 16 of them
were from <st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state> including Chip Roy who
represents <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Comal</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype></st1:place>. In the Senate, Ted Cruz is one
of 9 Republicans who voted no. Cruz and his fellow cranks were perfectly
willing to put well over 6 million Americans out of work. 4 million of who
would lose out on their pay entirely as they are contract workers such as
office cleaning staff, groundskeepers, and others who don’t work directly for
federal agencies.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then there are all the businesses that depend on those
employees to spend their money, like the food truck or sandwich shop nearby
which then furloughs employees or cuts their hours. In addition, when national
parks are closed it isn’t just the park rangers who suffer, there are all the
folks who made plans months in advance that would not be allowed visit the park
or would be forced to leave early, the hotels they’d have stayed in, the
restaurants they’d have eaten in, the gift shop in the park that is also closed
so their staff is laid off. The overall economic impact on small businesses is
staggering. Most estimates suggest a shutdown costs the economy over $310
million per day in direct costs.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is also the affect a shutdown has on citizens who have
business with federal agencies, often with appointments that were set weeks or
months in advance. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would stop insuring
some new mortgages. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) would stop new loan
and loan guarantee activity.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All the turmoil and damage to peoples’ lives and a lot of
Republicans don’t seem to care at all. Here’s one example, in an interview on
C-SPAN Republican Rep. Brandon Williamson of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place> said “I don't think you're going to
find a huge amount of sympathy, you know, for people that have been furloughed,
or early retirement, or laid off, or their pension going bankrupt.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The big concession that was made to pass the bill to keep
the federal government open for 45 more days was eliminating funding for aid to
Ukraine in it’s war to eject the Russian occupiers from its territory and
protect its people from the murders, rapes, and kidnapping that have been perpetrated
by Russian troops. Republicans talk a good game about defending freedom and
were big on “fighting communism” but they’re just fine with autocrats invading
democracies. The Russian invasion of Ukraine orchestrated by Vladimir Putin was
unprovoked and illegal under international law, but Donald Trump and his MAGA
crowd including members of the House like Paul Gosar (AZ) and Matt Gaetz (FL), was
well as J.D. Vance (OH) among others in the Senate are willing to turn their
backs on the desperate people of Ukraine. They are unwilling to stand up to the
bully even though no American troops are involved and most European countries
are handing over equipment, ammunition, and supplies in addition to providing
training for troops and repairs to damaged equipment.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anyone who thinks that if Putin succeeds in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ukraine</st1:place></st1:country-region> he’ll
stop hasn’t studied history at all. They should go back and review Neville
Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement when Hitler violated the terms of the
treaty that ended World War 1. Hint, Hitler invaded <st1:country-region w:st="on">Poland</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Denmark</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Norway</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Belgium</st1:country-region>,
the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Luxembourg</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Yugoslavia</st1:country-region>, and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Greece</st1:country-region></st1:place>
in just 2 years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Republicans are willing to wreck American lives and the
economy as well as world peace. Remember that when they claim to be patriots.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 4, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-30361271106136119192023-09-21T07:00:00.001-05:002023-09-21T07:00:00.150-05:00Paxton Acquittal Proves Republicans Corrupt<p>Last Saturday proved that most of the Texas Senate’s
Republican membership is just as corrupt as their federal counter-parts by
acquitting Attorney General Ken Paxton of all 16 charges. Only two Republican
senators, Kelly Hancock of <st1:city w:st="on">Fort Worth</st1:city> and Robert
Nichols of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jacksonville</st1:city></st1:place>,
had the integrity to vote for conviction.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The evidence presented of criminal wrong-doing, such as
Article 10 accusing Paxton engaged in bribery in violation of the Texas
Constitution when Paul provided extensive renovations to Paxton’s Austin home
and in return, Paul received favorable legal help from Paxton’s agency, was
overwhelming yet 16 of 18 Republican senators ignored the facts and testimony
of former staff in order to fulfill an entirely partisan agenda. It’s not even like
removing Paxton from office would have somehow placed a Democrat in the
Attorney General’s office, after all an appointee of Gov. Abbott has been
running the office since Paxton was suspended after the House impeached him
months ago. Every senator who voted go acquit is now complicit in the Paxton’s
crimes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m no stranger to crooks holding high public office, I lived
in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Louisiana</st1:place></st1:state>
when Edward W.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Edwards served four terms
as governor and the only time I voted for him was in 1991 when the Republican
candidate was Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and even many Republicans voted
for Edwards. At the time there was a bumper sticker that many Republicans put
on their cars “Vote for the crook, it’s important”. Here in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state></st1:place> we voters knew Paxton was dirty and we
didn’t have such a poor choice in the last election and yet Paxton won handily.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As Common Cause Texas Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez
pointed out after the acquittal, "During the course of this trial,
corruption, bribery, abuse of office, and dereliction of duties were proven
beyond a reasonable doubt. In any impartial court in the country, the verdict
would almost certainly have gone differently." Now that even more evidence
of Paxton’s corruption has been presented to the public we can hope that real
independents and the few Republicans with integrity will vote him out of office
in 2026.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Every Democrat will have to talk to their friends and family
about Paxton’s criminality and the complicity of Republican senators when they’re
up for election again. We’ll have to be more persuasive than Republican cultist
and Gazette columnist Terry Harper who was one of the leaders of the effort to
censure Rep. John Kuempel for among other things not being sufficiently “conservative”.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As reported in the Texas Tribune Rep. Steve Toth, a
Republican from the Woodlands and a member of the House’s Freedom Caucus stood
outside the Senate chamber after the acquittal and stated “The Texas House owes
all of Texas a big apology, this was a sham … This is terribly destructive to
the Republican Party of Texas.” Toth said he expects there to be “retribution”
by voters for his fellow Republicans who supported Paxton’s impeachment. And he
agreed that the party’s internecine conflict has no end in sight. Since Rep.
Kuempel voted in favor of impeachment I suspect he’ll find himself challenged
in the primary. Conversely Senator Donna Campbell who voted to acquit probably
won’t. The radical right truly does run the Republican Party of Texas.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Edwin W. Edwards finally went to federal prison in 2001,
five years after leaving office. With the current federal criminal cases
hanging over Paxton we can only hope justice is served quicker than in Edwards’
case.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 20, 2023</o:p></p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-53521605836110224522023-09-14T07:00:00.004-05:002023-09-14T07:00:00.136-05:00Electricity, Money, and Diversion<p> For over a decade Texas and the rest of the world has been suffering record high temperatures in June, July, and August with more frequency. Across the globe we see Arctic sea ice at unusually low levels. In some parts of the world continued dissipation of glaciers have revealed bodies of early humans and extinct animals that were once encased in hundreds of feet. In the United States and elsewhere, there have been both massive wildfires spreading heavy smoke over thousands of square miles and torrential rains that caused rivers to overflow destroying homes and lives. Hurricanes have already struck both California and Florida and there are two more very powerful storms out there, Lee in the Atlantic and Jova in the Pacific off Baja California.</p><p>Here in Texas a few weeks ago we came within a hairs breadth of the rolling blackouts to prevent the entire grid from shutting down. One of the ways that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) avoided such drastic action was to pay nearly $32 million to Riot Platforms, a Bitcoin miner to “voluntarily curtail its energy consumption”. In other words they powered down most of the computers they have running all day every day making calculations that run the crypto-currency exchanges. What’s really disgusting is that $32 million which we’re paying as part of our electric bills is nearly 4 times what Riot Platforms would have earned had they left the computers running. Riot Platforms isn’t the only crypto-currency mining operation in Texas with this kind of sweetheart deal it’s just the one that announced receiving such excessive payments in a press release.</p><p>Rather than take action to address the increasing demand for electric power in Texas by helping homeowners improve insulation or provide incentives to install solar panels and batteries the state legislature pass SB 2627 which a low interest load program funded by the state for companies that build or upgrade power plants and pay a bonus for getting them connected quickly. The program will not provide loans for battery storage facilities even though they could serve to provide significant buffers during high use periods like 5pm when temperatures are highest and people are getting home from work and turning on their air conditioners.</p><p>All this is just more proof that the Republican controlled Texas legislature is more concerned with enriching their friends in the fossil fuel industry than addressing the very real threat of global climate change. Coffee production in Columbia, corn and soy beans in Argentina, as well as other crops throughout South American has been hurt by a multi-year drought. Here in Texas, corn and sorghum production is down and cattle ranchers are selling of parts of their herds due the ongoing drought in much of the state.</p><p>To divert voter attention from their 20+ year failure to actually make the lives of Texans better the governor and legislature spend their time fighting faux villains like trans-gender athletes and drag queens. It’s up to independent voters that lean conservative to recognize that they’re being conned into voting for those who only want to enrich their already very wealthy friends while exercising power over women, those of other faiths, and people who don’t fit in easy gender classifications.</p><div>Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 13, 2023</div>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-14315162993725387602023-08-31T07:00:00.001-05:002023-08-31T07:00:00.136-05:00Chaplains Don't Belong in Public Schools<p>On Friday, September 1, one of the new laws taking effect in
<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state>, SB
763, authorizes public school districts to hire chaplains using funds allocated
to improve school safety and security. There are several problems with this, no
requirement for training in child psychology or development, no prohibition on
proselytizing, and it is clearly unconstitutional.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Conservative Christian proponents of the bill claim without
evidence the bringing religion into public schools will somehow reduce violence,
drug use, and suicide in schools. I went to Catholic schools for 12 years with nuns
and brothers as teachers and I can tell you from personal experience there was
no lack of violence or drug use in Catholic schools. House Democrats offered
amendments that would have required chaplains to have similar accreditation as
chaplains who work in prisons or the U.S. military, to bar proselytizing or
attempts to convert students from one religion to another; to require chaplains
to receive consent from the parents of school children; and to make schools
provide chaplains from any faith or denomination requested by students. All of
those amendments failed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In legislative hearings, the bills proponents like Rocky
Malloy, assured lawmakers that chaplains were not interested in proselytizing. Malloy,
a self-described former drug-smuggling pirate saved by divine intervention, founded
and runs Mission Generation, the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>group’s
website says “Mission Generation has 20 years of experience bringing Jesus to
the classrooms of public schools.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty opposed
the bill and has organized efforts to urge school boards to keep chaplains out
of public schools. In a letter to school boards signed by over 100 certified
chaplains they state <span style="background: white; color: black;">“As trained
chaplains, we are not qualified for the duties envisioned by SB 763. We
cooperate with mental health counselors – we do not compete with them. Further,
professions which help children with sensitive matters, such as therapists and
police investigators, typically require special training on how to interview
and treat juveniles. Few chaplains have this expertise.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black;">I don’t know
about you but when my daughter was in public school I’d have been quite upset
if some Protestant or Evangelical chaplain had been proselytizing to her in the
guise of counseling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black;">SB 763 is part of
a broad push by conservative Christians to insert religion in public life
claiming that separation of church and state is a false doctrine. Mind you
these are the same folks who claim that if it isn’t specifically stated in the
constitution that it isn’t constitutional when arguing that the Department of
Commerce or Department of Education shouldn’t exist. Anyone who reads the
constitution will see that there are only two mentions of religion. The first
is in Article VI which says in part “The Senators and Representatives before
mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive
and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States,
shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no
religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or
public Trust under the United States.</span>” The second is in the First
Amendment stating “Congress make no law respecting an establishment of
religion or prohibiting its free exercise.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You have an opportunity to put a stop to this in your
community. Find out when the school board meets and plan to attend at least
long enough to participate in the citizens to be heard segment which is usually
in the early part of the meeting. Tell them you want the board’s official
policy to be that chaplains are not hired or accepted as volunteers.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 30, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-53946986588722485152023-08-17T07:00:00.001-05:002023-08-17T07:00:00.142-05:00Injustice Clarence Thomas<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Congressional Republicans like Monica de la Cruz
and Speaker Kevin McCarthy are talking about impeaching President Biden
as a way to deflect attention from all the indictments and very real
corruption of the real estate con man who lost the popular vote twice
and is once again the leading candidate for the Republican nomination.
They’ve also now got their work cut out diverting the public’s eyes from
the lengthening list of ethical and legal violations of several
Republican members of the Supreme Court most especially Justices
Clarence Thomas.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial;">
Research and reporting by ProPublica the nonprofit Pulitzer
Prize-winning newsroom that investigates abuses of power has provided an
ever lengthening list of corrupt behavior by Thomas.<br />
<br />
During his 32 years on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed a
lifestyle most Americans can only imagine which has been provided by a
list ultra-wealthy corporate magnates and executives who have taken him
on lavish vacations aboard their yachts, invited him to premium suites
at sporting events and sent their private jets to pick him up. On more
than one occasion, a 737 was sent just for him. The list of luxury is
both longer and from a larger group than has been previously understood
or reported. The broad range of leisure activities have been paid for by
wealthy conservative benefactors who </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> share the ideology that drives Thomas' judicial philosophy but </span>didn’t have any connection to him until he gained his seat on the nation’s highest court.<br />
<br />
Pro-Publica reports “At least 38 destination vacations, including a
previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private
jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes
to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the
skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one
standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the
Atlantic coast.” <br />
<br />
None of the men who have provided the luxury travel - oil baron Paul
Novelly, billionaire H. Wayne Huizenga, former Berkshire Hathaway
executive David Sokol, and Texas real estate tycoon Harlan Crow - appear
to have met Thomas prior to him taking a seat on the Supreme Court.
Crow is the only one whose name appears in Thomas’ financial
disclosures, where justices are required by law to publicly report most
gifts. The total value of the undisclosed trips they’ve given Thomas
since he was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1991, is difficult to
measure. But it’s likely in the millions. All indications are that
Thomas violated the law when he chose not to disclose flights, yacht
cruises and expensive sports tickets, according to ethics experts.<br />
<br />
Maybe more important is that even if reported the breadth of free
vacation travel is well outside of judicial norms according to seven
current and former federal judges appointed by both parties and other
experts. Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who served for years on
the judicial committee that reviews judges’ financial disclosures said
“In my career I don’t remember ever seeing this degree of largesse given
to anybody, I think it’s unprecedented.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Since Chief Justice John Robert’s can’t be
bothered to take action of Thomas’ ethics and Republican Speaker Kevin
McCarthy isn’t about to impeach Thomas we’ll have to wait for Democrats
to return to majority in the House. Sadly even that is unlikely to
actually accomplish much as it takes 60 Senators to convict and its
doubtful Democrats will gain such a majority in 2024.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 16, 2023</span></p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-63881773557265243502023-08-03T07:00:00.001-05:002023-08-03T07:00:00.159-05:00Bidenomics and You<p>You might think that the more than 13 million jobs created
under President Biden are just recovering the jobs lost in the pandemic, but
even if you exclude the 10 million jobs that got us back to pre-pandemic level,
job growth since then has been about twice as fast as pre-pandemic job growth
under Trump.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Something often overlooked is the incredibly low
unemployment rate during this recovery for veterans. Nationally veteran unemployment
hit a record low of 2.2%, and has been under 3.5% for 19 straight months, the
longest such stretch on record. Workers without a high school diploma and
workers with a high school degree who did not attend college are also seeing extremely
low unemployment rates. Adjusted for age, a larger share of our population, 16
or older, was working at a job last month than anytime in the last 45 years, or
probably ever. Unemployment in 24 states is at or below 3%, a new record. <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> is not among them,
we're at just over 4%.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Private business investment in facilities and equipment
accelerated, contributing 1 percentage point to second quarter growth. Private
construction of facilities alone, such as factories, contributed about 0.4
percentage point, this category’s largest growth contribution since 1981.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The recovery under President Biden has been significantly
stronger than Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected when he first took
office. In 2023, the CBO says there will be more than 3 million more individuals
employed than they projected when Biden took office. The latest data shows
we’re on track to have the first, second, and third best years for new business
applications on record, all under President Biden.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s not just government agencies making these claims, Morgan
Stanley has revised its economic projections upward. Here’s why, infrastructure
spending is surging and manufacturing is booming. Both of those forces,
manufacturing and infrastructure, are the key parts of President Biden’s
economic agenda, which the media is beginning to call Bidenomics.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There’s been a shift in economic arguments that have gone on
for many years to one that says investing directly in American workers and
American families, via the expanded Child Tax Credit, was the right thing to do
in bad economic times. Then in 2021 and 2022, as we moved from relief to
recovery, the administration pushed Build Back Better which was not just a
slogan, but an actual idea premised on a better way to manage the economy, the
Biden team made an affirmative decision to invest in America directly,
including over a trillion dollars in infrastructure. And even more cutting-edge
was their decision to build safer, stronger supply chains: bringing jobs back
home through laws that would build everything from semiconductors to wind and
solar to cars and batteries, mostly here at home.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is Keynesian economics all over again; that’s the
Depression era policy that President Roosevelt used to start the country on the
road to recovery.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The experience of the past 2.5 yrs shows that we have the
tools to avoid painful spells of unemployment and to keep workers empowered
with a strong job market. President Biden has been focused on using these
tools, and American workers and the American economy have reaped the benefits.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In short Biden’s and the Democrats he leads have been
incredibly good for workers in this country and all indications are it will
only get better while he’s in office.<o:p></o:p></p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-42228199456383336482023-07-20T07:00:00.002-05:002023-07-20T07:00:00.140-05:00NDAA and the Republican Agenda<p>Congressional Republicans claim that diversity training in
the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
military is somehow a threat to our national security and have amended the
National Defense Authorization Act to prohibit such training. One of the amendments
proponents, Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), said the quiet part out loud while
advocating for his amendment saying it had “nothing to do” with “whether
colored people, or Black people, or anybody can serve.” Needless to say such
bigoted language caused quite a stir in particular among black members of
Congress. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) commented: “You can’t make this up.
This is who these people are, and who they’ve always been.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Republican amendments restricting the funding of abortion
services, diversity initiatives and gender-affirming care were approved
Thursday. The House voted 221-213 to prohibit the secretary of Defense from
covering expenses relating to abortion services, with our congressman Rep.
Henry Cuellar the lone Democrat voting for the amendment.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Quite a few GOP members of the House tried to restrict the
Biden administration from providing military hardware and supplies to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ukraine</st1:place></st1:country-region> while
it struggles to defend itself against the illegal invasion by Vladimir Putin’s
Russian troops. I’m amazed that the party that claims to be all about national
security and supporters of the troops has so many members who are unwilling to
help a friend to stand up to a bully. Fortunately that amendment was roundly
defeated.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If that’s not enough, Christian nationalist Rep. Mike Turner
introduced an amendment making it illegal for members of the military to even
communicate with Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The MRFF advocates for
service members who have been penalized for not participating in religious
services even when they are of some other faith, among other inappropriate
religiously oriented activities of their commanding officers. That amendment
was buried amongst a bunch of other last minute detail and was passed without a
fuss because no one noticed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now the NDAA goes on to the Senate which is controlled by
the Democrats where at least some of these ridiculous amendments are dead on
arrival. Nevertheless there will be a fight during reconciliation of the two
versions of the bill that is required for final passage.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the Senate side Tommy Tuberville, former <st1:placename w:st="on">Auburn</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
football coach and now U.S. Senator from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alabama</st1:place></st1:state>,
continues to hold up promotions of more than 260 one-, two- and three- star
generals and admirals. Tuberville’s holds also delay the confirmation of the
Pentagon’s top leaders, who make up the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the
chairman. Right now the U.S. Marine Corps is without a confirmed leader for the
first time in a century. The current Joint Chiefs chairman, Army Gen. Mark
Milley, is required by law to step down at the end of September, while the
current Army chief will leave his post in early August. Tuberville’s tif is
over the same abortion related policy that the amendment to the NDAA seeks to
prohibit. Tuberville’s pettiness is forcing less experienced leaders into top
jobs and raising concerns at the Pentagon about military readiness.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The fact that no one in the Senate’s Republican caucus has
put pressure on Tuberville to withdraw his hold tells you all you need to know
about how they really feel about military readiness.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m a little more disgusted with Republican leaders and the
people who vote for them every day.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 19, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-33379024480089764092023-06-29T07:00:00.001-05:002023-06-29T07:00:00.136-05:00Hypocrisy Thy Name is Republican<p> The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines hypocrisy this way: "a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not, behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel; especially, the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion." Today's Republican Party and most of its elected officials and candidates seem to embody hypocrisy, let me count the ways.</p><p><br /></p><p>While claiming to support parental choice as an excuse to provide public tax dollars to private for profit schools the Gov. Abbott and the Texas legislature also banned parents from providing gender affirming medical care to their children. The parents most likely to send their children to private schools either already do or are in the upper income range and likely vote Republican.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Texas legislature passed another book ban measure that Gov. Abbott signed all in the name of protecting children while the state cut Medicaid for thousands of Texas children preventing the most vulnerable from accessing healthcare. The standards set in the Texas book ban bill are so vague, they are likely to snag books that are not inappropriate, and materials dealing with LGBTQ+ subject matter are more likely to be targeted for bans. Texas has the highest percentage of children in poverty, without medical insurance, and unsure they’ll have enough to eat on any given day.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick got all lathered up over children attending drag shows with their parents; remember these are the same people with their hair on fire about parental choice. The legislature started out with a bill to ban children at drag shows then caught wind of the fact that they might have trouble in court so they went with more general language that is so vague it may even ban padded bras on female performers. The public and children have been exposed to performers in drag since before I was born, in fact in 1959 the movie “Some Like it Hot” appeared in theaters starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon in drag. The movie was a box office success and won 6 Academy Awards. Then there’s Bugs Bunny in drag in at least 40 cartoons and you can’t tell me that’s not aimed at children.</p><p><br /></p><p>While claiming that the Voting Rights Act was a burdensome over-reach preventing states from holding elections without federal interference Gov. Abbott and the Texas legislature banned cities from enforcing health and safety laws to insure that outdoor construction workers get adequate water and rest breaks in 100+ degree summer heat. In fact the bill bans cities from regulating anything that the legislature doesn’t give them explicit permission to regulate. You might notice that is exactly the opposite of the way the U.S. constitution is phrased as it says the federal government can only regulate what is specified therein while the states can address anything else. Texas has violated the letter and spirit of the Voting Rights Act for at least the last 3 redistricting cycles or more than 20 years, gerrymandering districts to protect their overwhelming majority in the legislature when based on statewide voting results the majority should be much thinner.</p><p><br /></p><p>This list is far from exhaustive but it’s all I have the patience for as just reviewing this batch made me angry. Remember this when it is time to vote in 2024.</p><div><br /></div>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-72855224304691410372023-06-15T07:00:00.003-05:002023-06-15T07:00:00.142-05:00Trump Indictment Charges No Comparison<p> When the topic of the latest indictment of Donald Trump comes up you’ll no doubt here various defenses, excuses, and what-aboutism, don’t accept any of their weak arguments. The indictment makes very clear with quotes from the evidence heard by the grand jury that the crimes Trump is charged with are serious and involved others in a conspiracy. The indictment includes 34 felony charges against Trump for which the penalties range from 5-20 years in prison and fines of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.</p><p>Trump engaged in entirely different behavior than Joe Biden and Mike Pence with regard to classified documents they had in their possession after their terms were up. After Biden and Pence became aware they were in possession of classified documents they immediately contacted the relevant federal agencies and arranged for their return. Trump always knew he had classified documents and there is clear evidence that on several occasions he showed it off to people with no security clearance at all. Trump then attempted to retain possession of the documents claiming he didn’t have them, then that he had de-classified the documents and they belonged to him, then returned some claiming that was all he had, while he conspired with an aide to hide some of them when the FBI informed him they were coming to look for themselves.</p><p>While any president can de-classify some types of documents there is a process for that which Trump didn’t follow therefore the documents were never legally de-classified. In addition not all documents can be de-classified by executive action including one of the documents Trump held onto and referred to in the indictment as document #19 from the Department of Energy which is labeled as “Undated document concerning nuclear weaponry of the United States”. Such documents typically include information about the US nuclear weapons stockpile quantities, nuclear weapons safety and storage, nuclear weapon yields, and locations of US nuclear weapons.</p><p>The indictment includes a transcript of an audio recording of a meeting on July 2021 at Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey in which Trump shows a writer, a publisher, and two of his staff members a document that he says a senior military official whose name is redacted, but believed to be Gen. Mark Milley, gave him discussing a possible attack on a country the name of which is also redacted, thought by most reporters to be Iran, and proceeds to tell them “This is secret information. Look at this.” Later Trump says “See as president I could have declassified it.” After laughs and a response by as staff member Trump says “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.” The recording makes clear that Trump knew that documents in his possession were still classified and therefore not to be shared.</p><p>The indictment includes photos of the boxes containing classified documents that were found stored in various locations within the Mar-a-Lago Club including a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, Trump's bedroom, and a storage room. The ballroom, bathroom and shower, were not secured locations and easily accessible to the public, in fact an events were held in the ballroom while the boxes were stored there. The office space is the business center where Trump employees and others routinely visited.</p><p>You can read the entire indictment for yourself, it’s only 49 pages double spaced and many pages are only half full or have photos taking up much of the page so it’s a quick and fascinating read.</p><div>Published in the Seguin Gazette - June 14, 2023</div>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-22933746303376563112023-06-08T07:00:00.001-05:002023-06-08T07:00:00.138-05:00Texas Lege Failures 2023<p>The regular session of the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> legislature is over and has left the
citizens with important work undone. Instead of focusing on improving our state
by raising teacher pay and adequately funding public education too much time
and energy was spent on making life more difficult for very small number of
teens who see themselves differently than most. <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> classrooms have too many students per
class and often too many classes to teach while they are underpaid. Consider
that many of teachers with 20 years of experience earn less than most new
college graduates.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Gov. Abbott signed SB 16 last Saturday which prohibits procedures
and treatments for gender transitioning and gender reassignment, including
puberty blockers that delay the onset of puberty. These treatments are used
with their parents support when teens recognize that are not the gender they
were assigned at birth. All evidence indicates that such treatments have
positive psychological effects for these young people. Unfortunately Republicans
have made this small group of kids a symbol of the culture war and gleefully inflict
their narrow-minded views on them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While I’m fairly confident that the increase in the
legislature’s budget was warranted it sure doesn’t look good when they failed
to address low teacher pay. You can largely blame Lt. Governor Dan Patrick for holding
teacher pay raises hostage by tying them to private school vouchers which rural
Republicans have repeatedly shown they won’t support.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even though the state is being sued due to the over-broad
language of the previous session’s anti-abortion legislation which forced
several women into life and health danger when they had mis-carriages there was
no effort to make adjustments. Instead, all we got was denial that there was
even a problem.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, there was plenty of time for the legislature to strip
cities of their ability to regulate a broad range of environmental, labor and
health and safety concerns such as the right to enforce rest breaks for
construction workers in the summer heat, run no-kill animal shelters and to
maintain local water quality.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Once again our legislature failed to expand Medicaid even
though nearly 12% of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state>
children are uninsured and rural hospitals continue to close, forcing many
Texans to drive for hours to seek necessary medical care. A study commissioned
by the Texas Medical Association found that in 2016, the cost of lower lifetime
earnings and worse health for uninsured Texans was $57 billion. The price tag for
hospitals and physicians who provide unsubsidized and uncompensated care was $3.5
billion. 7 years later and those costs have only gone up. Republican orthodoxy preventing
the expansion of Medicaid available through the Affordable Care Act (aka
Obamacare) continues to cause suffering and economic loss in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state></st1:place>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There was one small but significant of Medicaid though, soon
the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state>
mothers who give birth while qualified for Medicaid will be covered for 12
months after birth instead of 2 months as has been the case.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the slightly positive side, teachers who retired in the
last 3 years will get a 2% cost of living increase in their monthly checks,
assuming Gov. Abbott signs SB 10 and the public votes to approve the
constitutional amendment in the November 7 election. Older retirees will get
either 4% or 6% increases depending on when they retired.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now it’s on the special sessions that will likely be called
to address some of the outstanding issues that Dan Patrick caused to be delayed
past sine die due to his demands for private school vouchers and other
unpopular legislation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - June 7, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-71448659018302968512023-06-01T07:00:00.001-05:002023-06-01T07:00:00.142-05:00Paxton Impeachment<p>Last Saturday the Texas House voted 121-23 to impeach
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. The landslide bi-partisan vote shows this
is not a political or a partisan matter. Ken Paxton has proven to be a liar, a
fraud, and a criminal in multiple ways during his tenure as Attorney General. <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> citizens deserve accountability
and our state representative, John Kuempel, did the right thing and voted to
impeach unlike 20 other Republicans.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The House charged Paxton on 20 counts. Half of the charges
are related to actions taken to benefit Nate Paul a wealthy <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Austin</st1:place></st1:city> real estate developer who has made
high dollar donations to Paxton’s political campaigns, rewards from Paul to
Paxton, or to cover-up those actions, including the firing of whistleblowers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In Article 1, Paxton is charged with failing to act as a
public protector of charitable organizations by directing his employees in the
attorney general’s office to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the Roy F. &
JoAnn Cole Mitte Foundation against entities controlled Paul, harming the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Austin</st1:city></st1:place> charity in an
effort to benefit Paul.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Article 9 Alleges that Paxton benefited from Paul’s decision
to hire the woman that Paxton has acknowledged having an affair with. In
exchange, Paul allegedly received favorable legal assistance from, or
specialized access to, the attorney general’s office.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Article 10 Alleges that in exchange for providing free
renovations to Paxton’s home, Paul received favorable legal assistance from, or
specialized access to, the attorney general’s office.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Other charges include Article 16 in which Paxton is accused
of conspiring or attempting to conspire with others to commit acts described in
one or more articles. Article 17 in which Paxton is accused of misusing his
official powers by causing employees to perform services for his benefit and
the benefit of others. Paxton is also charged with Dereliction of Duty,
Unfitness for Office, and Abuse of Public Trust among other allegations.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The next step is a trial in the Texas Senate, in which
Paxton’s wife Angela is a member. According to the <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> constitution the senate sets its own
rules for the trial so at this time it is unknown whether Senator Paxton will be
allowed to vote on the charges. Since the constitution requires that two thirds
of the senate members present at the trial vote to convict in order to remove
an official from office that means 20 or 21 must do so depending on whether or
not his wife is allowed to participate.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The partisan split in the senate is 19 Republican and 12
Democrats. I think we can be assured of the all 12 Democrats voting to convict
since Paxton’s mis-deeds have been in the public eye since well before the 2022
election. The real question in my mind is whether or not there are 8 or 9
Republican senators with the fortitude to do the right thing and remove the
odious Paxton from office.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Republican Senator Donna Campbell represents a section of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Guadalupe</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">County</st1:placename></st1:place> north of I-10 and west of Highway
123, Democrats Judith Zaffirini and Roland Gutierrez represent the rest of the
county. We’ll have to wait and see if Sen. Campbell has the integrity to vote
for conviction or prefers to pander to the Republican base.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette May 31, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-78364220214039803322023-05-28T15:59:00.001-05:002023-05-28T15:59:14.281-05:00Debt Ceiling and Republican Propaganda<p> Under Joe Biden’s leadership employment has
continued to
increase with total nonfarm payroll employment rising by 253,000
in April,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment is
down nationally to
3.5% and holding steady, while it is 4% here in Texas. All this
good jobs news comes while
interest rates keep rising due to the actions by the Federal
Reserve Board of
Governors as they try to slow inflation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s unfortunate that the Board of Governors
has
mis-diagnosed the cause of inflation as apparently they’ve been
listening to
the corporate media like the Washington Post instead of
economists doing actual
research. Had board studied the research by Josh Bivens, chief
economist at the
Economic Policy Institute, they’d realize that only 8% of total
inflation has
been caused by increased wages while more than half has been
going to increased
corporate profits as can be seen by the record earnings reports
from a slew of
big names.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As reported by David Sirota of Level News: In
March, UBS
Chief Economist Paul Donovan released a revealing commentary
concluding:
“Recent inflation has been driven by an unusual expansion of
profit margins.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He explained: “Profit margin-led inflation is
not caused by
a supply-demand imbalance. Profit margin-led inflation is when
some companies
spin a story that convinces customers that price increases are
‘fair,’ when in
fact they disguise profit margin expansion.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Donovan noted that “widespread reports of
rising
agricultural prices allow supermarkets and restaurants to raise
the price of
food.” Other spinnable stories include “supply chain disruption
(in fact global
trade is at a record high), labor shortages (in fact wage costs
are rising far
less than prices), and in the most circular of arguments
‘general inflation,”
he wrote.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Two weeks ago House Republicans voted to cut
veterans’
services significantly and limit their health care. That’s just
one aspect of
Republican extortionate debt ceiling and budget cuts bill they
passed 217-215,
with all but four Republicans voting for it. Those four thought
the cuts should
have been deeper.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The bill is estimated to cut 22% of funding
from the
Veterans Administration which would mean the immediate loss of
$2 billion in
funding for veterans services, and 30 million fewer veteran
outpatient visits.
The VA would lose 81,000 jobs. That would mean fewer employees
to answer
veterans’ phone calls, schedule health visits, process their
disability claims,
and provide other critical services.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Remember, Republicans claim they are the only
ones who
support our veterans. With supporters like that I’m afraid our
veterans are
better off in the hands of those awful Democrats. By the way the
Department of
Defense’s budget is the only one not affected by the Republican
proposed cuts.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While we’re on the subject of the Department
of Defense you
should know that Senate Republicans are allowing a single member
to block the
confirmation of 184 Defense Department nominees over an abortion
policy
dispute. Not only is Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville blocking
those nominees, he’s
holding up pay raises for men and women in uniform, blocking key
senior
military leaders from taking their posts, and jeopardizing
national security.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified that
the
obstruction is harming national security. The delay, according
to Austin, has caused a “ripple
effect in the force that makes us far less ready than we need to
be.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tuberville’s block includes “five three-star
officers” who
were supposed to rotate to new jobs by summer, including “the
commander of the
Navy’s 5th Fleet, which oversees military operations in the
Middle East, and
the Pentagon’s representative on NATO’s military committee,”
according to
another senior defense official. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 10, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-78758168243459089672023-04-27T07:00:00.001-05:002023-04-27T07:00:00.152-05:00Republicans and Bogeymen vs. Guns<p>Once again Republicans in our state legislature are more
interested in wasting time on scary topics like trans-gender kids, forcing
their religion on our children, and banning school library books than actually
protecting those children from very real gun violence.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">SB 14 which recently passed the Senate and has been sent to
the House was introduced by Senator Donna Campbell, who is an emergency room
physician, prohibits <span style="background: white;">treatments for gender
dysphoria</span>. The American Psychiatric Association describes gender
dysphoria as psychological distress that results from an incongruence between
one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity. Though gender dysphoria
often begins in childhood, some people may not experience it until after
puberty or much later. Rather than helping our children learn to be
happy in their own bodies the Republican controlled Senate has made treating
them a crime.<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;">Last Friday the Senate passed
Senator Phil King’s SB 1515 which would, if passed by the House and signed by
Gov. Abbott, require that every public elementary school classroom post a 16”x20”
poster of the King James version of the Ten Commandments. That’s not the
version that Lutherans or Catholics use. So right off the bat Republicans in
the Senate have acted in a discriminatory manner even if you foolishly assume
that all public school students are some variant of Christian. Given that Texas
has a very diverse population that includes, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikh’s,
and other faiths as well as those of no faith, this is a case of the majority
shoving their religion down the throats of everyone else.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white;">A couple of weeks ago the
Senate passed SB 13, authored by half a dozen Republicans, this bill would ban
books based on vague characteristics involving sexual identity and behavior. A </span><st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state><span style="background-color: white;"> judge recently
ruled against similar book bans in public libraries on First Amendment grounds.
It would also require school districts to create committees of local citizens with
the power to further restrict the reading material on public school campuses.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;">Several bills were filed
related to gun safety, and gun sales and in every instance those bills were
filed by Democrats. SB 360 by Sarah Eckhardt and SB 1736 by Roland Gutierrez,
along with several similar bills in the House all languish in committee without
even a hearing.</span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Every day in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state>
nearly 4 people are murdered and nearly 6 people are injured by someone using a
gun. Every day 1 <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state>
child dies by gun violence. Texas Republicans like to say they don’t want to be
<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>
but people are a lot safer there since we’ve got a 65% higher rate of gun
violence. It’s not just <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state></st1:place>,
all 12 states with the highest rates of gun violence are controlled by
Republicans. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Republicans in our legislature continue to promote solutions
to make believe issues in order to distract from the fact that they are unwilling
to actually address real problems. Conservatives are easily motivated by fear,
that’s why Republicans need a bogeyman. Trans-gender kids are the current one
but there have been and will be others. As long as <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> continues to have a dismal voter
turnout we will continue to be governed by opportunists using fear to drive
their voters.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 26, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5505308983385127847.post-80220438658783602692023-04-20T07:00:00.004-05:002023-04-20T07:00:00.295-05:00Republicans Subverting Our Democracy<p>Texas Republicans aren’t satisfied that their gerrymandering
and other anti-democracy activities have put a lead thumb on the scales of
every election. Now they’re working on putting an entire lead hand on the
scale. In the last few weeks they’ve advanced several bills through committee
that if passed by both House and Senate will further subvert our democracy. One
such bill is SB 990 which repeals the highly popular countywide voting program
that allows any voter registered in a county to vote at any polling place in
that county. Some of us like this option because we can go to a less crowded
polling place, some like it because they can more easily get to a polling place
on the way going to or from work. I well remember the years ago being at a
polling place when voters were turned away because back then you had to vote at
the one polling site in your precinct and if you went to the wrong you had to
stand in line all over again at the right one. Some folks didn’t even know what
precinct they were and got so frustrated they just didn’t vote. Now Republicans
are all for going back to the old way just to stir up confusion and suppress
the vote. Only Republicans like a representative of the Republican Party of
Texas and another from the State Republican Executive committee testified for the
bill in committee, good government groups and election administrators uniformly
testified against it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When the Senate scheduled hearings on several other
anti-democracy bills they provided less than 48 hours notice, making it very
hard, if not impossible for interested parties to arrange to attend and
testify. Possibly the most dangerous is SB 1993 which would give the Texas
Secretary of State the ability to overturn election results in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Harris</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">County</st1:placename></st1:place>
without requiring any proof that claims of problems actually occurred. You can
tell the legislature is working to hide their intentions because they don’t
name any counties in the bill, instead it sets a threshold for population that
only Harris county meets.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">SB 823 and its House companion HB 2020 would allow the
Secretary of State to get rid of election administrators without cause. If
there is no cause like illegal or unethical behavior removal would only make
sense for partisan control. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">SB 220 and its House companion HB 549 would create partisan-controlled
election law enforcement division. Actual cases of voter fraud are a very rare
occurrence in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state>
and currently investigated by the Texas Rangers and the Attorney General. This
new office is part of a coordinated effort already seen in states like <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> to intimidate
and scare voters away from the ballot box with the threat of criminal prosecution
for inadvertent mistakes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">SB 1070 and its House companion HB 2809 would create a path
for <st1:state w:st="on">Texas</st1:state> to leave ERIC (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Electronic</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Registration</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Information</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>),
the cost-saving and effective bipartisan and multi-state voter list maintenance
tool that has saved tons of money and made cleaning voter rolls both efficient
and accurate. The only reason to do this is to provide the opportunity to purge
eligible voters from the rolls from behind a partisan smokescreen.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">SB 1933 would make it easier to allow sham election audits like
the one <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Arizona</st1:place></st1:state>
held in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. The state already has
plenty of power to review elections if there is evidence of impropriety, more
power is unneeded and dangerous to assign.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All of these bills make it harder to vote or easier for
those in power to steal future elections.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 19, 2023</p>Blue_in_Guadalupehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06781055706724830970noreply@blogger.com0