THU brief 10.28.21
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Today’s Stories
FEDERAL stimulus funds (with strings attached) may force vaccinations on Texans and further cede state power to the feds.
This is why Brady, Texas, along with 65 other municipalities in Texas, have rejected federal funds and why the conservative grassroots organization GAWTP is calling for Governor Abbott to veto SB8. The political left is setting up the fight between higher ed and Republican leaders.
Meanwhile, in Florida, in direct defiance of a warning from the feds, Governor Ron DeSantis stripped federal aid from schools with mask mandates.
Coerced expansion of government programs and power is the same playbook that Obama used in the Affordable Care Act. Abbott has made a show of defying that program; he should do the same now.
Passed in the third special session, SB8 distributes federal stimulus funds awarded to the state but does not contain any prohibition of enforcing federal mandates on vaccination.
Texans are exposed to unnecessary harassment by local officials and federal mandates.
Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton are meant to be protecting Texans from the federal government, one intent on destroying its political opposition at all costs. Inaction now is a political liability.
The CENTER FOR RENEWING AMERICA is calling on Greg Abbott to deploy the Texas State Guard to the border, and Don Huffines has followed suit.
While deployment is unlikely to achieve security objectives, it’s directionally correct and places Abbott in a political bind. This might presage efforts to draw increased national attention to Abbott’s underwhelming hat/cattle ratio.
Dave Carney is likely working overtime on this week’s polling memo.
AUSTIN’S PROPOSITION A, the ballot measure to reverse police defunding, has become a political Sophie’s choice. No matter the outcome, bad behavior will be rewarded.
The previously covered Austin Police Association/Murphy-Nasica smear campaign against Ellen Troxclair has complicated the matter.
Obviously, it’s difficult to give an organization like APA a sizeable financial windfall after this sort of dirty politics. Yet, the passage of Proposition A would amount to just that.
On the other hand, should Prop A fail, the snot-nosed punks in the Greg Casar/Steve Adler/DSA wing of Austin politics would be emboldened. Nothing good can come from that outcome.
Thus, the correct play likely remains to pass prop A in the short run, deal rationally with police union over time, and qualify immunity after the dust settles.
CRITICAL RACE THEORY continues to undermine the political playbook Texas educrats have used for decades. That’s the inescapable conclusion from a statewide roundup on the issue by Lawrence Person.
Specifically, Pearson details efforts by parents in Eanes and Carroll ISD’s against various abuses. Pop quiz: Who was the state champion in 6A football in 2020? Who was the runner-up?
For those who don’t follow high school football, the answer to the first question is Austin Westlake (Eanes ISD). The answer to the second is Southlake Carroll (Carroll ISD). In other words, both sides of last year’s state championship football game have large parent movements opposing this nonsense.
That’s a subtle earthquake in Texas politics.
As recent as two years ago, there was a time when having a varsity football team in the state championship could inoculate a school board from all other forms of criticism. The high school football jock mafia is a well-known entry point into Texas’ good ol’ boy system; until it isn’t.
Related: Texas Schools are Peddling Porn
The BIG BUSINESS/LGBT lobby alliance has outed itself as the Potemkin Village it has always been.
That’s the most interesting takeaway from the Texas Tribune’s otherwise trite and predictable write-up of the “Save Women’s Sports” farce.
As discussed last week, HB 25 wasn’t a serious legislative effort. The TL;DR version HB 25 is 2021’s version of the “Save Chick-fil-a” bill.
While substantively meaningless, the bill nevertheless represents a defeat for Texas Competes. Founded in 2015 to slap a coat of pro-business lipstick on the pig of left-wing social policy, they ran critical interference against the Texas Privacy Act in 2017.
Woke corporate activism was always a myopic strategy. That it no longer works isn’t surprising.
Hit the Links
Elon Musk: government spending is the problem
Progressive run grift charges $100+ per vote
Federal judge tosses SWA pilots’ petition against vax mandate
Democrats confuse the term anglo and Republican
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