MON brief 5.23.22
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Today’s Stories
BRISCOE CAIN has sent the CEO of Lyft a warning of potential repercussions for the company’s stated plans to facilitate out-of-state abortions.
Lyft woke virtue-signaling following the Texas Heartbeat Act and the leaked SCOTUS draft. While the details of Cain’s proposal remain TBD, this is a winner conceptually.
Mainstream headlines focus on denying these companies the ability to do business in the Lone Star State; it doesn’t take a genius to see how the unintended consequences of such a proposal might not be worth it (OTOH, you absolutely could deny them entry into the state’s ‘economic development programs).
Later in the article, almost as a throwaway line, it mentions allowing shareholders to sue companies that engage in this behavior. That seems much more profitable.
Furthermore, that this letter comes from Cain should give supporters pause.
While Cain frequently has exciting ideas, he’s not very good at completing complex tasks. This is especially the case when one considers that leadership has yet to sign onto Cain’s proposal.
In this case, however, Cain might not have to pass a bill to change the behavior of the companies in question. The credible threat, alone, might do it.
We’re not prepared to endorse any specific proposal, but this is a healthy conversation.
MATT RINALDI recently spoke about the current/future status of the Texas GOP.
Specifically, Rinaldi is touting the party’s recent engagement (and success) in School board races, which is relevant because they control what your kids learn.
Not remarked upon but also relevant from a party-building perspective, school boards are a farm team for future state/federal campaigns. Liberals in both parties have been doing this for ages. It’s about time that conservatives returned fire.
Rinaldi also discussed the party primary/runoff elections, calling for the election of officeholders “that will disrupt the status quo…or our Republican priorities won’t go anywhere.” Rinaldi explicitly discusses this in the context of school choice.
Likewise, Rinaldi re-states the party’s opposition to Democrat committee chairs in the Texas house.
TEACHERS UNIONS continue to spend big in GOP Texas house runoffs. Specifically, they continue to funnel money into candidates endorsed by Greg Abbott despite the Governor’s claim to support school choice.
This is an excellent example of how nobody at the Capitol takes Abbott seriously.
Abbott could be called “all hat, no cattle,” but we don’t want to insult hats with the comparison.
Related: TPPF launches a“Parents matter” ad campaign.
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY, in response to demands from activists on campus, will rename several areas on campus because the namesakes were slaveowners.
Admittedly, for a state with the history Texas has, this is a challenging area. Like it or not, many elements of our state’s history have been sanitized in conventional narratives. At the same time, you don’t want to appease “1619 Project-style” woke lunacy.
Nevertheless, this would all ring a lot less hollow if Baylor would apologize for all the rapes during the Art Briles/Ken Starr era.
Related: Southern Baptists refused to act on abuse, despite secret list of pastors
Hit the Links
Small Retail Can Make Neighborhoods Walkable
Bill DeBlasio has unfinished Business
Joe Straus never goes away (like Herpes)
Federal Judge blocks University of Houston policy for violating free speech
How to really be an anti-racist: Teach Black Kids to Read
Thanks for reading
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