Texas Republicans Attempt Voter Suppression Again

When Governor Abbott designated “election integrity” an emergency item last month anyone who has paid attention to his rhetoric and that of the rest of the Republican Party knew it was a bad sign. Sure enough after weeks of rumors Senate Bill 7 was just introduced and it comes as no surprise that the 27 page bill contains a wide range of voter suppression and anti-democracy provisions.

SB 7 expands prosecutorial powers for the Attorney General over voter registration violations, whether intentional violations or accidental. Given Attorney General Ken Paxton’s predilection for using his office for purely political purposes; like trying to overturn the results of a presidential election, giving him expanded powers to prosecute voter registration mistakes is a profoundly bad idea.

The bill prohibits counties from proactively sending vote by mail applications which some counties did in the 2020 election cycle to encourage eligible voters to stay safe by voting by mail rather than risk infection from the coronavirus at a polling site.

SB 7 prohibits counties from operating early voting poll sites later than 7pm. Only a few counties offered later hours but it certainly helps people who work long hours to have an opportunity to vote.

The bill mandates anyone who wants to vote by mail because they are disabled must provide specific documentation. So now folks who already have a hard time getting along in life face another hurdle exercising their constitutional right to vote.

SB 7 requires that any person in the car with a voter who is voting curbside, including people who transported them there, shall officially be deemed an assistant under law who must sign the form documenting that they provided assistance. So if a disabled person takes a cab to the polls the cab driver must sign in as an assistant. How many cab drivers are going to find that acceptable?

Senate Bill 7 continues a pattern we’ve been seeing throughout the pandemic where county election workers do their best to find ways to let Texans vote safely and securely state officials do everything they can to stop them.

As Common Cause Texas Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez said recently “It’s already harder to vote in Texas than any other state and Senate Bill 7 would make it considerably harder.”

There is a reason we keep hearing so much talk from politicians in Texas about “election integrity”, without any basis in reality, it’s because they need to invent a justification for a bill that drastically limits voting rights. There is one and only one purpose to Senate Bill 7 and that is to help the politicians in charge stay in power. 

The real problem with elections in Texas that we should be addressing is too few people participating in our democratic process. We should be doing things like implementing online voter registration, improving civics education, and investing in our election infrastructure.

You have an opportunity to be a part of the process and stop this truly bad bill by contacting your state representative John Kuempel at (830) 379-8732 and depending on which part of the county you live in state senator Judith Zaffirini at (512) 463-0121 or Donna Campbell at (512) 463-0125. Both senators sit on the State Affairs committee to which SB7 is assigned.

$15 Minimum Wage Is Over Due

The pandemic relief bill, known as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 has passed the Senate we can feel fairly confident that the major points will be there when reconciliation of the House and Senate versions is complete. One aspect that was removed is raising minimum wage. Most Democrats in Congress have recognized that its past time to raise the minimum wage since inflation has eaten away at the buying power of a dollar over the nearly 12 years since it was last adjusted.

You might think that most minimum wage workers are teenagers working after school and summer jobs but you'd be wrong. In reality minimum wage earners average 35 years old, in fact only about 10% teens. 59% are women, 54% are full time employees. Most of them are in fact the frontline workers most at risk of contracting COVID-19 due to their exposure to customers while on the job.

Several groups are pushing for a gradual increase to $15 an hour so that it’s a living wage. $15 sounds like a lot until you start calculating what it costs to live in this country. Even in supposedly low cost of living states like Texas a single person working a 40 hour week needs to earn more than $12 an hour just to rent a one bedroom apartment, and pay for transportation, medical insurance, utilities, food, and clothing. In the San Antonio metro area which includes Seguin, New Braunfels and Boerne it takes almost $13.50 an hour, while that same person living in Corpus Christi needs over $14 an hour, Houston over $14.25 an hour, and Austin over $15 an hour.

If your cousin or brother-in-law tries to argue that minimum wage was never intended as a living wage, it’s just a starting place to get experience, you can let them know they don’t know their history at all. In his 1933 address following the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act, President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted that “no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By ‘business’ I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level — I mean the wages of decent living,” he stated.

As Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren recently put it “When billionaire CEOs skimp on wages and rely on public subsidies to cover their employees’ health care, housing, and food costs, that’s not a free market. That’s a rigged system. We need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and put power in the hands of working people.” Remember, its companies like Walmart that have high rates of employees on SNAP, Medicaid, and other federal and state benefits that your taxes pay for. Those profitable companies are being subsidized by your tax dollars.

Republicans are trash talking raising minimum wage with poor arguments like the one spouted by South Dakota Senator John Thune. He claims he did just fine just out of high school in 1978 making $6 an hour, except that when you consider inflation since then that’s equal to $24 an hour today. Even when he was making the minimum wage of $2.65 back then its equivalent to $10.90 an hour today.

Minimum wage was always intended to be a living wage and while that varies some from city to city $15 an hour is a reasonable compromise.

Yes It's A Cult

The Republican Party has become a cult of personality. The most recent evidence is the gold plated statue of a certain twice impeached former president at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week in Orlando, FL. Considering that the current conservative movement leans heavily evangelical Christians you’d think such a statue and the worshipping of the former president would bring to mind Exodus 32:4 in which the Israelites put together a golden calf idol and Moses and shames them for their lack of faith.

In the last 12 months more than 500,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, many of them might never have contracted it if our federal and state governments had taken it seriously rather than calling it a hoax or as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick famously suggested grandparents should be willing to sacrifice their lives for the state’s economy. Patrick made that ridiculous statement in May last year, as of last week nearly 44,000 Texans have died from COVID-19. No Republican elected officials criticized him for his callousness and many of local conservatives still don’t want to wear a mask and when they do won’t wear it properly over their nose. Much of this refusal to accept reality is shear partisanship following their cult leader, he of the golden statue above, who at times called the pandemic a hoax and said it would just go away like magic.

The violent takeover of the nation's capitol January 6^th seems to have pushed away the former president's supporters, as evidenced by the growing number of Republicans around the country who have changed their voter registration to Independent or Democrat. Unfortunately diehard Trump loyalists have become even more fervent followers. The twice impeached loser and his devotees have long been known for their divisive rhetoric, strong affinity for conspiracy theories, radical views of the world that are divorced from reality, and support for authoritarianism. Since the electoral loss in November they have started exhibiting clearer characteristics of cult followers, such as victim mentality, and a tendency to blame others.

Cultists place blind and absolute faith in their leader. They believe that they are on the side of truth and in the righteousness of their group. When presented with facts casting doubt on their beliefs, they are unwilling to seriously consider the possibility that they're wrong. Instead, they simply deny reality or embrace a conspiracy theory like the nonsense presented as QANON.

Conspiracy theories can be very attractive as they offer intriguing stories about "truth that is not reported by media" and you've been let in on the secret. Such "theories" often provide support for the persons own views and feelings. Those who become fully committed to a conspiracy theory no longer have to fact-check or evaluate information. They are spared the effort of soul-searching and agonizing over weighty questions.

The aftermath of the U.S. presidential election has unfolded is graphic evidence of the danger inherent in allowing cult thinking to quietly gain ground. A prime example of this is Japan's experiences with Aum Shinrikyo. Chizuo Matsumoto the founder of a religious cult called Aum Shinrikyo, ran for election to Japan's parliament. Confident he would win, Asahara instead suffered a massive defeat. He then claimed there was vote-rigging, saying some votes had been "replaced." Any of that sound familiar? Aum Shinrikyo was allowed to grow into a powerful organization eventually committing numerous crimes  culminating in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, the world's first indiscriminate terrorist attack using a toxic chemical.

There really is no telling how this cult will end.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 3, 2021

Texas Republicans Responsible for Blackouts

Let’s start with the facts, nearly all of the power shortage last week was due to natural gas and nuclear plants being shut down due to frozen gauges, values and other equipment. Gov. Abbott lied to the public when he blamed green energy. In fact your neighbors who had power when you didn’t probably had solar panels on their roofs, that’s green energy. Texans died of hypothermia in their homes needlessly last week because they had no way to heat their homes for too long and nowhere to go to stay warm. In reality had the Green New Deal proposal been in effect years ago far fewer people would have suffered because part of the proposal includes insulating old homes and more of us would have rooftop solar panels to provide at least some power for heating.

Now you ask, how could this happen? Power generating and gas pipeline companies in Texas are lightly regulated and aren’t required to takes steps necessary to keep their equipment running in extreme conditions. Their management chose not to use equipment that tolerates single digit temperatures or provide insulated and heated coverings that would have kept the equipment operational. Were it not that the product these companies provide are relied on by every Texan every day such behavior would be reasonable as it’s been a decade since the last time Texas suffered such weather. If they produced cars, clothing, appliances, or toys and shut down for a week no one would suffer. Instead these companies are part of the public utility infrastructure that is necessary and expected to provide their product all day every day regardless of conditions.

Decades ago the Texas legislature at the behest of management and the wealthy investors in power generation and pipeline companies deregulated the energy market. The legislature also cut ties to interstate power sources in order to avoid federal regulation of these public utilities. They did both in order to make the business more profitable. No consideration was given to the effect on reliability. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is responsible for transferring power from suppliers to users but it wouldn’t surprise George Orwell the regardless of its name ERCOT doesn’t actually do anything about reliability. In fact last November ERCOT fired the organization they had previously contracted with to check on the status of power providers and didn’t bother to replace it.

Statewide blackouts have happened twice in the last 32 years, in 1989 and 2011, in both cases federal investigators found a long list of things utility and pipeline operators should have been doing and suggested that the state take action to force them to do so. As Texas Republicans generally do when regulation is brought up they ignored the recommendations and took little action. Once again the people of Texas have suffered and Republicans don’t care. Former governor Rick Perry is quoted as saying “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.” Ted Cruz fled Texas to Cancun, Mexico with his family during the freeze.

Some of my neighbors claim we shouldn’t politicize a crisis, I say a crisis like the freeze of 2021 is political to begin with. If our legislators are holding power and pipeline companies accountable the we must hold our legislators accountable, that starts with state representative John Kuempel, state senator Donna Campbell, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott. They are all part of the problem and we need to replace them with people who will be part of the solution.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 24, 2021

Published in the Boerne Star - February 25, 2021

Election Legislation Preview

 Just months after traveling to Pennsylvania to help the Trump campaign challenge the results of the 2020 election State Rep. Briscoe Cain was named chair of the Texas House Elections Committee. That appointment doesn’t give me a lot of confidence that we’ll see real improvement in our election laws. Nevertheless there are plenty of good bills that if passed would make it easier for eligible voters to register and vote. There may be others filed later in the session and it often happens that the text of a bill is added to another so even though the original bill isn’t passed its goal is achieved. The following are bills I found using the Texas Legislature Online website’s Bill Search function. Using that site you can lookup any of these that catch your attention and read the full text of the bill yourself as well as find new additions, amendments, or bill status as the session goes on. You can even create an account and arrange to get emails when a bill is assigned to a committee, gets a hearing, is amended or passed out of committee, or will be voted on in the House or Senate.

HB 110 would add to the existing list of acceptable proof of identification any official mail addressed to the person by name from a governmental entity or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter

HB 160 and SB 246 would add any identification card issued by a public institution of higher education located in this state that contains the person 's photograph, full legal name, and is either unexpired or expired no earlier than four years before the date of presentation.

HB 230 would greatly expand the types of documents that would be acceptable voter identification to include documents if they show the name and address of the voter including a copy of a current utility bill; a bank or credit union statement; a government check; a certified copy of a domestic birth certificate among others.

HB 1366 allows voter registration card as sufficient ID for voting, removes requirement for photo ID to vote even without registration card and allows substitution of utility bill or birth certificate etc.

HB 142 / HB 519 / HB 712 / HB 856 would all change state law to all same day voter registration so that new voters could register to vote on the same day they cast their ballots.

HB 161 / HB 595 / SB 107 would restore voting rights to felons once they are released from incarceration.

HB 583 / HB 802 / HB 1232 / SB 95 / SB 303 would allow voting by mail by any qualified voter.

HB 844 / HB 1385 would expressly legalize mail ballot drop off sites as designated by the county early voting clerk.

HB 1036 would create limits on campaign contributions for state office such as $7,000 for each candidate for governor; $5,500 for each candidate for a statewide office other than governor; $4,000 for each candidate for the senate; and $2,700 for each candidate for the house of representatives. Political Action Committees would be limited to $30,000 per year for each candidate or officeholder.

HB 1425 / SB 130 would have Texas join the National Popular Vote Compact which would mean that Texas’ presidential electors would cast their ballots for whoever won the national popular vote regardless of the result in Texas. Think President Al Gore in 2000, and President Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 10, 2021

Cong. González on the Wrong Side

In just three weeks into President Joe Biden’s term our congressman, Vicente González, has already found cause to vocally disagree with him and González is wrong. President Biden has issued an executive order to pause on leasing federal lands for oil and gas extraction while the federal government reviews the process and contracts. González and three other Texas Democrats, Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher of Houston, and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth wrote a letter demanding the order be rescinded.

The federal government charges a 12.5% royalty on oil and gas produced on federal lands which is about half of what the state of Texas and other states charge on state owned lands or what private landowners typically get on their leases. That 12.5% leaves little to nothing for the federal treasury once the cost of cleanup and damage to roads is covered. Earning a competitive royalty rate alone is a good reason for the federal government to review oil and gas leasing on its lands as they’re currently leaving a lot of money on the table and enriching the already wealthy shareholders while leaving the rest of us to clean up the mess. It’s also important to know that most of the federal land currently leased isn’t in production so pausing further leasing won’t stop new drilling even a little bit.

Less than 2% of Texas is owned by the federal government and of that about three quarters is held by the Department of Defense or the National Park Services. There is no federal land not held by the Dept. of Defense or National Park Service that I could find in Congressional District 15 which Cong. González represents so it’s not like local jobs are at stake. In point of fact his constituents who own mineral rights in the Eagle Ford Shale in a few counties in the district should actually benefit from the pause in federal leases by their lands and the oil and gas produced thereon becoming more valuable; especially if the federal government raises the royalty percentage to the market rate.

The real reason that Pres. Biden has but a hold on leasing federal land for oil and gas development is that he understands that global climate change is an existential threat to our way of life and possibly our species. The world has less than 30 years to get carbon emissions under control before the climate is irrevocably wrecked. If we don’t collectively get our act together and stop spewing CO2 and methane into the atmosphere faster than trees and plants can absorb the CO2 our children and grandchildren will find that much of the world will be uninhabitable by the end of the century. There will be drought, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. The drought will cause crop failure and famine world-wide leading to mass migration and war over resources.

All four Texas Democrats who signed onto the demand to rescind the pause in leasing have two things in common: districts with substantial oil and gas businesses and the number one industry making campaign donations to them was oil and gas. It seems pretty clear who Cong. González is listening to and it isn’t his constituents since Pres. Biden’s climate change initiatives have been well received by the general public.

It is a national security imperative that we avoid a climate change caused disaster and our congressman is too worried about appeasing a handful of rich campaign donors. Call his Washington D.C. office at 202-225-2531 and let him know what you think.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 3, 2021

Reasons for Cheer and Caution

Today a new president will take the oath of office, one who doesn’t utter lies in every other sentence, one who is competent, one who respects his oath and the democratic principles and institutions of this nation. Today we reason to look forward to a brighter future.

While I’m certain that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in today I’m less certain that it will go forward without interruption and perhaps violence. Trump cultists have not given up and the FBI has warned of the potential for an even larger attack on our democracy today. We can hope they are as incompetent as the outgoing president and the January 6^th insurrectionists.

25,000 national guard troops have been called up to protect the inauguration and the FBI is reportedly vetting every one of those troops. There is cause for concern of an attack from the inside because while those troops have sworn to protect and defend the constitution, January 6^th showed that some, like Retired Lt. Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr. of Texas, were willing to violate those oaths. Dozens of law enforcement officers from around the country including some in San Antonio and Houston are also under investigation as well. The insurrectionists came within a handful of minutes of taking members of congress hostage. What would have happened to our nation had they been a little quicker?

We are in the midst of a critical time in this nation’s history and our form of government has been put at risk by Republicans including Ted Cruz and other members of the Texas congressional delegation who incited the insurrection and continue to spread lies. The failure of the January 6 assault on the capitol hasn’t stopped Cruz and others from fanning the flames of discontent. Neighbors and relatives of mine still believe the election was stolen even after Republicans in charge of elections in disputed states have insisted that there was no appreciable fraud committed in the election. After Twitter banned Trump, there was a 73% reduction in election misinformation spread on the Internet in a single week.

Unfortunately it isn’t just national figures inciting insurrection, prominent Republicans here in Guadalupe County have made chilling remarks in their social media such as “Mitt Romney needs to be introduced to Mr. Guillotine”. These folks aren’t just sore losers grumbling in their beer. Our community must stand up to them and refuse to allow them to sow discontent and threaten violence to get there way. Not doing so simply sets the stage for future insurrection, perhaps planned and implemented by more competent demagogues who will succeed.

The disgraceful spreaders of conspiracy theories and lies about the validity of elections, from Trump to Ted Cruz to our local leaders must not be allowed influence in the public sphere. Those who have been elected must be unseated in the next election. Those who are seen by neighbors and peers as community leaders must be shamed and their opportunities to spread their seditious speech limited. They must not be invited to speak to groups or have their writings published. Remember censorship is when the government prevents someone from speaking their mind, it is good judgement when community members choose not to provide a bully pulpit for those who would overthrow the legitimately elected government.