MON brief 12.6.21
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Today’s Stories
MATT RINALDI, Chairman of the Texas GOP, said in an interview over the weekend that a special session will likely soon be called to deal with vaccine mandates in Texas.
Before Rinaldi’s remarks, Governor Abbott stated lawsuits against the Biden administration were sufficient and that Texans need not worry about vaccine mandates.
Tell that to the Texans losing their jobs to vaccine mandates.
As anticipated, if a special session is called, it won’t be the first or second time in the past year that protective maneuvers (see: CRT, election integrity) were lauded only to be deemed insufficient. This is a predictable consequence of the Texas GOP’s desire to do the bare minimum on any issue of concern to its base.
Additionally, if a special is called, the fourth for four theme (days and items) is in order. Another three items that could be included to round out the four:
Abolish the M&O property tax
Fix election law SB1 screw-ups
Tax money wires to Mexico & S. America
A January special session gives Abbott about a month to see how Omicron shakes out. At this point, it appears that the latest variant of COVID-19 will be widespread but weak. Still, he’ll have the excuse to poll and see how tightly scooped a session he can get away with.
Democrats ought to return for the special in January to grandstand, in contrast to whatever the GOP proposes, over the grid failure of 2021. Also, don’t underestimate their willingness to take the bait on forcing jabs.
Dan Patrick and Dade Phelan are in a public war of words regarding the grid. Neither has covered himself in glory, but Phelan’s committee chair is the one who became an industry lobbyist.
Speaking of the grid, see the next item.
TED CRUZ is pitching BITCOIN mining as a (partial?!?) solution to Texas’ electricity grid challenges. Maybe/maybe not. Either way, two and a half cheers for novelty.
The basic proposition (explained in detail in the linked piece) is to sell surplus wind and natural gas power to BITCOIN miners at fixed prices. This would provide essential price support to keep those sources online when demand surges (e.g., the February ‘21 freeze or an equivalent heatwave); BITCOIN miners can easily shut down their rigs and sell their power to the general public.
It’s unclear to non-electrical engineers how this would impact the grid during a crisis but monetizing surplus natural gas/wind via BITCOIN mining is an excellent example of how Texas can win the economic war against woke Wall St. (AC)
JEFF YOUNGER has announced a campaign for the Texas House. Younger is running in District 63, based in Denton county.
Younger came to public attention due to efforts to stop his ex-wife from deranged efforts to sexually “transition” the couple’s now nine-year-old son. Tragically, Younger’s efforts fell short when a Democrat judge awarded Younger’s ex-wife full custody.
Given the backdrop, Younger’s campaign can be characterized as a last-ditch effort to save his son. Godspeed. (AC)
LATINX isn’t working for Democrats.
The admission is one of several truth tellings that Democrat operatives are working to beat into the thick skulls of their electeds up and down the ballot ahead of 2022.
Another reality of the 2022 cycle that Democrats should come to terms with is the issue of life.
Manipulated polls that avoid the issue of heartbeats and pain felt in the womb won’t save Democrats at the ballot box. They ought to know this after 2016 and 2020.
Compounding their pain, in 2022, they won’t be able to run against the bad orange man. This tactic was proven ineffective in Virginia, and it’s been proven ineffective in Texas. So was running on the issue of January 6.
Hit the Links
More than half of Houstonians who died from COVID had diabetes
If we legalize it, we can tax it = flawed
ISDs continue requiring face masks despite the governor’s ban
Mark Cuban buys entire Texas town
Thanks for reading
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