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Gov. Greg Abbott had big plans. It was Feb. 1, and he took to the podium prepared to deliver his annual State of the State address. He wanted Texans to know the state was brimming with promise, words that must have rang hollow to those who were still shell-shocked from the U.S. Capitol riot less than a month earlier. Still, he vowed that this years legislative session would provide relief.

Just three weeks earlier, state lawmakers had convened the 87th Legislature. And another two weeks after Abbotts address, Texas would plummet into darkness as a deadly winter storm cut off the lights for millions across the state.

On Feb. 1, though, Abbott was busy laying out his legislative priorities. Speaking to the camera, he urged lawmakers to tackle five emergency items, including so-called election integrity bills. Among the non-emergency priorities were expanding gun rights and banning abortion.

The ground was laid for what became a historic legislative session, one that some Republicans have celebrated as the most conservative session yet.

Rockwall state Rep. Justin Holland is among the Republicans championing the session. Taking to Twitter on May 5, with only a few weeks of lawmaking left, Holland insisted that it was perhaps the most conservative session in Texas history.

While many liberals would begrudgingly agree with that claim, some Republican Party leaders have slammed lawmakers for not moving the needle far enough right.

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Rockwall state Rep. Justin Holland has claimed this was the most conservative session yet

courtesy Rep. Justin Hollands office

On May 24, Holland apparently dressed to make history. He sported a navy and red tie and a plaid blazer. The state Senate had just passed one of his bills, all but ensuring that Texas would become a so-called Second Amendment sanctuary state. Soon, itd be on its way to the governors desk.

Holland was beaming as he posed for a photo beside Republican colleagues. State Reps. Shelby Slawson and Matt Schaefer had also advanced the conservative cause this session, spearheading two of the Houses anti-abortion and pro-gun bills, respectively.

With time running out on the clock, Holland knew the 87th Legislature would be one for the books. We have addressed a very large number of conservative priorities, Holland told me. And I do think it is when the dust settles the most conservative session weve ever had, certainly since Ive been here, but I think ever.

Gov. Abbott celebrated Hollands Second Amendment sanctuary bill onTwitter, writing it would protect the Lone Star State from any new federal gun control regulations. Dont tread on Texas. The Senate had also approved a compromise on Schaefers so-called constitutional carry bill, which would allow Texans to carry a handgun without a license. And the previous Wednesday, the Senates heartbeat bill was signed into law, effectively banning abortions statewide. Slawson had authored an identical companion bill in the House.

On top of tending to regular responsibilities, such as passing the states budget, the Legislature also had the once-in-a-decade redistricting process to contend with. Last year, state lawmakers expected theyd have to make a grueling series of budget cuts, but the federal government helped by providing COVID-19 aid.

And a special session for redistricting will be held later this year because of a delay in receiving census data. That further freed up the Republican-majority Legislature to focus on issues important to its base.

Soon, Holland said, conservative lawmakers had passed religious liberties and bail reform bills, plus those pertaining to election integrity or, as Democrats call it, voter suppression. The way Holland sees it, those were all major victories and conservative lawmakers had delivered the goods for Texas voters who resoundingly reelected them in November, despite Texas Democrats hopes of reclaiming a House majority. Instead, they didnt pick up a single seat.

Holland isnt the only one who thinks this was the most conservative yet. On May 11, Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith echoed the sentiment in a tweet: this is my fifteenth #txlege and it is, hands down, not even close, the most conservative session ive ever seen, he said, along with the hashtag #electionshaveconsequences.

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Republicans want to keep police in Texas well funded.

Brian Maschino

Last year, after a police officer killed George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, in Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter protests surged around the country. Activists rallied around the slogan defund the police. But conservative state lawmakers fought back, threatening to fiscally punish cities that slash law enforcement funding. They also pushed legislation that would make it more difficult for educators to teach about racism.

On Thursday, May 6, state Rep. Jasmine Crockett booked it up to the House mic. The Dallas Democrat had a few pointed questions for House Bill 1900s author, and she didnt hold back.

State Rep. Craig Goldman, a Republican from Fort Worth, had authored a bill that would punish certain municipalities that cut their police funding. The legislation would penalize cities of more than 250,000 people, including Dallas, which last year had opted to decrease its police overtime budget, though the departments overall budget increased.

Crockett battered Goldman with questions that day, her attorney skills on full display. For her, it was personal. Sadly enough, plenty of people havent been to South Dallas, where Black people are afraid most of the time because they dont know if theyre going to get killed, Crockett said, fighting back tears. And instead of us doing something to protect people in this state, we decide to punish punish people who are already suffering. Last week, the bill passed out of the Senate.

Other Texas Democrats have also felt helpless to keep conservative legislation from advancing.

On May 11, the Texas Democratic Party slammed House lawmakers for passing Senate Bill 7, which would limit the ways Texans can cast their ballots. The bill joined hundreds like it across the country, proposals to impose tighter restrictions on voting. The wave of legislation came in response to the 2020 presidential election, which many Republicans falsely claim was rigged against former President Donald Trump.

Texas Democrats had again failed to stir up a blue wave last November, but the partys chair, Gilberto Hinojosa, issued a scorching statement on Republicans voter suppression efforts, calling it their only hope of staying in power.

Even some Republicans were unhappy with the bill, albeit for different reasons. Take Allen West, chairman of the Texas GOP. He said SB 7 had been gutted and replaced, a fact that disappointed him, given that election integrity was a priority.

I caught up with West by phone on May 20, two days after his first grandsons birth. He gave lawmakers credit for passing the heartbeat bill that practically outlaws abortion an end to the dismemberment of unborn children, he called it but that wasnt enough.

West insisted the grassroots conservative base was disappointed with the Republican majority they worked so hard to elect. When I think about some of the other things that have been wasted upon I mean, declaring Dr Pepper the official drink of Texas or San Marcos as the official mermaid capital of Texas I dont think the people want those to be priority issues, he said.

Lawmakers let die bills that would protect Confederate monuments. Important legislation regarding school choice and taxpayer-funded lobbying also fizzled out, West said. Plus, certain bills that would essentially ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors failed to make it to the finish line. So to come out and say this was the most conservative legislative session in history for the state of Texas, West argued, thats delusional, and I dont understand why anyone would say that.

State Rep. Holland thinks West is merely posturing for personal gain and positioning himself to run for higher office. The Republican Party of Texas has been hijacked by a carpetbagger from Florida, and so Allen West does not represent all of the Republicans in Texas, Holland said.

The type of Republican I am is to work on issues that mean things to our party and mean things to our conservative values, he continued. [Wests] is to stoke up his base and make them think were not doing a good job.

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Gov. Greg Abbott is laying out a conservative agenda for the legislative session

Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool/Getty Images

Theres no denying fissures within the Texas GOP have grown since Wests ascension to state GOP chair last summer.

A former Florida congressman and Tea Party favorite, West moved to Texas sometime after he was defeated by a Democrat in his 2012 bid for reelection. Since then, hes carved a name for himself as a political firebrand and one of the governors greatest Republican foes. Last October, he protested against Abbotts coronavirus restrictions outside the governors mansion. Legislation that would have reined in some of Abbotts executive powers also died, West said, which was another state GOP priority.

When we spoke, West said hed give the 2021 legislative session a D grade. But Thomas Marshall, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, disagrees: As of last Tuesday morning, hed give the session, from a conservative point of view, an A-minus.

After holding onto a legislative majority in the 2020 election, Republicans set themselves up for success, Marshall said. They changed the Senate rules to require 18 votes instead of 19 for a supermajority, ensuring an easier route to pass conservative legislation. From there, they deftly avoided progressive legislation, such as skirting some of the provisions in the George Floyd Act, a police reform bill.

Until around a decade ago, the Texas Senate was run by more moderate Republicans, Marshall said, but some have since lost reelection or retired. The remaining Senate Republicans are a more conservative bunch, certainly more so than those of the 1990s.

But during the 2020 election, Democrats failed to gain enough ground in the Legislature, and that harmed their chances of blocking legislation they saw as particularly damaging, Marshall said. Republicans would have offered red-meat bills anyway, but this time around, it was easier to advance them.

Although politics have become increasingly polarized for some time, Marshall said, last years contentious presidential election and social justice protests sharply escalated the tension at the grassroots level. Republican voters expected their lawmakers to make big moves, even if they were symbolic.

Legislators already anticipated a special session for redistricting in the fall, during which officials will take census data and redraw voting districts. But the legislative session got more complicated last Wednesday, with less than a week left to go before adjournment.

Last Tuesday was the final day for the House to advance Senate bills, and as the clock struck midnight, Democratic House lawmakers celebrated: Time had run out on three of Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks priorities. One bill would have prevented local governments from paying lobbyists with taxpayer funds. Another would have prohibited social media giants from "censoring" Texans for their political viewpoints. The third bill was even more controversial: It would have kept young transgender athletes from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity.

But Patrick had one last trick up his sleeve. In a tweet last Wednesday morning, he petitioned Abbott to call a special June session to pass those priorities.

Things got even muddier late Sunday night after Democrats walked off the House floorto block the passage ofSB 7, the "election integrity" bill.The move may have stalled that issue for now,but Gov. Abbott plans to add it to the special session agenda.

By and large, though, legislators like Holland are pleased even if critics arent. Soon, some lawmakers will ask voters to reelect them in November 2022. I cant wait to go and brag on what a session we had, Holland said. And people that dont think we did enough, well just have to work on that next time for them.

If they didnt think we did a good job, he continued, then we dont get to go back.

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Simone Carter, a staff news reporter at the Dallas Observer, graduated from the University of North Texas' Mayborn School of Journalism. Her favorite color is red, but she digs Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.

Read more:
Conservative Lawmakers Ran Roughshod Over Dems, but Some in the GOP Wanted More - Dallas Observer

Will a new movement steer the Republican party away from Donald Trump?

Frustrated by the direction the Republican party has taken since nominating Donald Trump as its presidential candidate, a group of Republican leaders is pushing to "rededicate" the GOP to its founding ideals. Led by Republican and independent leaders, the group put out a public declaration titled A Call for American Renewal. More than 150 leaders have joined.

"We will not wait forever for the GOP to clean up its act," Miles Taylor, a founder of the movement, tweeted after releasing the five-page document outlining the group's concerns and goals. "If we cannot save the Republican Party from itself, we will help save America from extremist elements in the Republican Party."

Here's what the group hopes to accomplish and who is in it. For more on what Washington is doing now, here is when you can expect to start receiving your first child tax credit payment, what is happening with the federal unemployment payments and what the chances are of a fourth stimulus check.

Now playing: Watch this: Child tax credit: Everything we know

3:56

The movement describes itself as consisting of local, state and national leaders. The group says its members seek to form a "common-sense coalition" that will work to overcome the "division and political extremism" of the current political system.

"There is a cohort of people who want [an] 'I'm not crazy' coalition that they can join," according to Taylor, who is also the author of a New York Times op-ed that criticized the Trump administration during the middle of the 45th president's term. The piece was attributed to Anonymous, described at the time as a senior administration official.

Concern among some Republicans about their party's direction isn't new. Trump's 2016 candidacy prompted a small, loosely knit group often referred to asNever Trumpers that spanned from party leaders to newspaper columnists and fought to keep the property magnate and reality television star from being nominated.

A group of Republicans is looking for another path for their party.

The Republican and independent political leaders who signed the declaration include former members of Congress (such as Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock), former governors (former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, for example), members of the Trump administration (former Trump White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci, among others) and political commentators (including Bill O'Reilly).

Dissatisfaction within a political party is nothing new. The Tea Party movement that started around 2009, for example, called for the Republican party to embrace more fiscally conservative policies. On the left, supporters of the Green New Deal since 2019 have pushed the Democratic party to focus on climate change.

At the national level, a new third party would face an uphill battle to become viable. The grip the Democratic and Republican parties have on the national political structure and the winner-take-all nature of the Electoral College work to keep a third party from gaining a foothold.

For more on what's happening at the national level, here's how to check on the status of your income tax refund, how much you could expect to receive from the advance child tax creditand what President Joe Biden is considering putting in his next two stimulus proposals.

Learn smart gadget and internet tips and tricks with our entertaining and ingenious how-tos.

See the original post here:
New party for anti-Trump Republicans? Here's what is happening - CNET

Todays topic is hypocrisy in our liberal local elected officials and in the progressive local, state and national Democratic Party.

Hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have a character, beliefs or principles that one does not possess, a pretense of virtue or piety, false goodness.

Human nature and our culture are full of hypocrisy from George Orwells doublespeak to local candidates not being completely honest with voters. Your husband could be hypocritical when he says he cant watch the kids because he has an important errand to run for the family, and then he goes fishing. A state governor shows hypocrisy when she ridicules constituents on a certain behavior, like wearing a mask, and then is caught in a social group without her mask. Hypocrisies can be harmless or dangerous depending on motive, intent and desired outcome.

While candidates last year, the Summit School District Board of Education members glossed over their desire to implement a sweeping program of social justice policies. Then once they were safely elected, every white person in Summit County was immediately a racist in their view. Everything was fine until they actually got into office, at which point they imposed the most racist policy by accusing everyone who disagreed with them of being a racist.

Town council candidates in Breckenridge and Frisco talked about a vague unthreatening future for our towns with words like livability. It sounds nice enough, but nobody knows what it means. As it turns out, livability is a buzzword for allowing socialist governments to implement restrictive public policies that can limit the number and kinds of people who can visit, and how residents can use their private property. If the local governments dont like you or your behavior, then livability is a ubiquitous term that gives them carte blanche to treat you as they see fit (e.g., climate change mandates).

Local employee workforce housing is another hypocritical pretense to allow our government to subsidize the lifestyle that socialist mayors like Hunter Mortensen dream of. When he ran for mayor of Frisco, he never mentioned implementing a state of emergency because his precious lifestyle was being threatened by the realities of our real estate supply/demand curve. Id like to live in La Jolla, California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, but I dont expect the government to pay for it.

When the builders of our community came here in the 1960s and 1970s, we never had any government subsidies for housing. Jeff Bergeron should know. It was as cost-prohibitive then as now. We lived in condominium basement boiler rooms, restaurant kitchen storage rooms, second home garages and in our vans parked anywhere five or six of us in a space just to live in paradise for a while. It wasnt a right; it was a privilege.

I was encouraged this week to meet four guys from the University of Alabama, all of whom came to Summit County and found work and housing. So I know it can be done the old-fashioned way without Mortensens emergency powers. Pretense of virtue, false goodness.

Hypocrisy has been very apparent in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots last year as Democratic district attorneys have chosen not to prosecute violent rioters yet went all in to prosecute and detain protesters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Say one thing, do another.

Todays local, state and national liberal progressives are the most hypocritical political party. They preach tolerance, fairness and individual caring. Yet one look at the Summit Daily News letters to the editor shows the local Summit Haters Club lashing out full of venom demanding that the editor cancel any dissenting opinions. Hardly tolerant.

Local liberals on our town councils and school board dont want to liberate us. They want to control our lives with draconian policies in which we have no input. Hardly fair.

Liberal progressives nationwide want to tear down our society that has been the most benevolent civilization in human history to raise the standard of living for all individuals and replace it with monolithic, communist central planning. Hardly caring for the individual.

Just tell us the truth without hypocrisy. Then we the people can decide what is right.

Kim McGaheys column Conservative Common Sense publishes Tuesdays in the Summit Daily News. McGahey is a real estate broker, tea party activist and former Republican candidate. He has lived in Breckenridge since 1978. Contact him at kimmcgahey@gmail.com.

Link:
Opinion | Kim McGahey: Enough of the hypocrisy already - Summit Daily News

In the USA, laws are a response to a generally felt need. The anti-riot law does not meet this criterion, because current laws cover riotous behavior. Instead, it seems aimed at certain kinds of behavior, which gives the enforcer (the cops) the job of interpreting the law, which is the courts duty.

After hearing about the posters for hiring instigators and the piles of bricks stashed along the protest route beforehand, one can assume that a peaceful protest will become unruly.

Inflammatory speech or a thrown brick can change a peaceful crowd into an angry mob. Surely, law enforcement in Florida is aware of this.

The pics of white murderers completely unscathed juxtaposed with those of unarmed, Black, battered and bruised traffic violators leave little doubt about who would be arrested.

The phrases ... different levels of punishment and ... threaten people ... alone are an invitation to subjective and selective enforcement.

Since the civil rights movement of the 60s, cops have gained raises and political power by painting Blacks as people to be feared. This law is merely a codification of that sentiment. Im not sure about anti-American, though!

I was taught about King George and the Boston Tea Party. Didnt people get mad about taxes and rebel? Wasnt that the violent protest on which America arose? And wasnt that destroying others property?

Was that a peaceful protest at Fort Sumter? Based on our history, that sure seems American to me.

Despite this real history, a recent letter-writer to The Beacon wrote ... destruction of property is not the way to protest Though he didnt mention these rioters, that writer surely is receptive to tracking down, arresting and prosecuting those violent rioters at the nations Capitol.

From a historic perspective, Black people who dared protest will be punished by this law.

I guess the letter-writer agrees with that SCOTUS judge who said a Black person has no rights a white man should respect. Because he completely ignores the damage done daily to the minds of Black Americans.

Read this article:
Letter to the Editor: 'Anti-riot law' clearly directed at certain people - The West Volusia Beacon

Its a Gateway to confusion.

Just as the federal government finally approved the environmental impact statement for the multi-billion-dollar construction of two new cross-Hudson train tubes followed by the rehab of the existing century-old tubes, Gov. Cuomo suggested last week that he wont pay New Yorks share of the project. Not to worry though, said representatives for Amtrak and the Gateway development team itself, Cuomos threat to tank the project just shows he cares.

At a press conference on Thursday, Cuomo said that Amtrak has already benefitted so much from the work New York did on Moynihan Station and on a key rail junction in the Sunnyside train yards that New York State shouldnt have to pay 25 percent of the $13-billion Gateway project. The funding agreement for the plan, which was agreed to by all parties, was designed to have the federal government cover half of the project, with the Empire and Garden states splitting the rest.

All those renovations at Harold Interlocking, you know who that helped? Amtrak, Cuomo said. You know who paid? We did. Now who owns Amtrak? The federal government. And Im telling Amtrak today, and Im telling our federal officials today: we expect a fair deal from the federal government and Amtrak. Dont expect New Yorkers to have fixed Harold Interlocking, pay for Moynihan, invest heavily in rebuilding Penn [Station], which is owned by Amtrak, and build [Penn South] without them actually stepping up and fulfilling what has been their delinquent role in New York.

Cuomo also suggested that New York would not chip in for the just-approved planto build new tunnels under the Hudson and then shut down one existing tube at a time for repairs because it was a stupid way of doing things.

My advice to the feds: Im not going to spend New Yorkers money in a way that is not the most cost-effective, cost-efficient way. Im not gonna pay unless it is a smart, efficient, effective process, period. And if the federal government wants to do stupid, they can do stupid with their money. But were not going to do stupid with our money, the governor said.

Thursdays comments were were another recent salvo in a tiff over the direction of the Gateway project, which seeks to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy. Previously, the governor spent the last few years fighting the Trump administration to advance and fund the project, but Cuomo made a sudden turn in late 2020 and demanded that Amtrak fix the two existing tubes inside the century-old tunnel in a similar fashion to the repairs the MTA used for the L-train tunnel. The governor specifically pointed to a report from consultants London Bridge Associates, which said that the tunnels could remain in service even while undergoing repairs.

That push went over like a turd in a punch bowl with New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and the leadership of New Jersey Transit and Amtrak because Gateway supporters feared that the suggestion the trains could run through the tubes during repairs may blow up the political will for the project and even require another environmental impact statement.

Cuomos repair-in-place proposal was looked at in the NJ Transit- and Port Authority-authored EIS. But the Cuomo plan racking cables the same way the MTA did inside the L trains Canarsie Tube so that the tunnels would not have to be completely closed during the repairs was deemed infeasible because of the differences between the Hudson and East River tunnels. The EIS also determined that there wasnt enough service redundancy in case something went wrong in one tunnel while the other was closed for repairs, meaning that an unforeseen disaster could cripple service all along the Northeast Corridor.

Even though Cuomo seemed to be threatening to pull New Yorks funding from the project if his desired fix wasnt adopted, New Yorks representative on the Gateway Project said such threats are good, actually.

Theres a reason why Andrew Cuomo is the greatest infrastructure governor in the country perhaps, in the last 75 years, said Gateway Program Development Chairman Steven Cohen, who also serves as the projects New York trustee. Its because hes blunt, hes direct. He wants to get things done, and he wants to do them efficiently. He wants to embrace new technologies and new techniques, and he doesnt believe that the process of building is a static process where you are beholden and embedded in a design that may be stuck in time and couldnt be improved.

Gateway Program Development Corporation Vice Chairman Anthony Coscia (who is also Amtraks chairman) said the federal rail operator was still focused on the existing plan: new tunnels before fixing the old tunnel.

The analysis did examine a number of different options, said Coscia. We believe the strongest option is to build a new tunnel. Once the new tunnels are built, there are two tubes in existing tunnel, one of them can be taken out of service at a time which would leave us with a three-tube capacity between New York and New Jersey, which is a very robust capacity and doesnt require taking the risk of putting tons of commuters every day at risk that an overnight construction project wont be able to happen. Because of all of the pushing that was done by all the parties, we came up with the best possible option, which is how this project will proceed. So there are very strong facts that support the position that weve taken, and in fact those facts were arrived at, because of all the pushing the topic, because of all the debate thats taking place.

Cohen immediately threw his deputy under the bus.

I wouldnt be properly serving in the role Im supposed to serve as an appointee by the Cuomo administration if I didnt highlight one point: If there is a way to do this project that does not put the morning commute at risk, and to do it simultaneously and save the kind of time and therefore money that would be say, Of course were going to do it that way,' Cohen said.

Outside supporters of the project said that it was time for things to get moving, especially as federal support has finally come through.

This is not the time to slow down our progress with more studies and tinkering on the margins, said Felicia Park-Rogers, the director of Regional Infrastructure Projects for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. We have a good plan to dramatically improve safety and reliability of workers into New York City. We have a transit and rail friendly administration in Washington. Now is the time to move forward with what we know needs to be done to repair these tunnels correctly. Its in the best interests of New York for Gov. Cuomo to move forward quickly and efficiently with this urgently needed project. We can do this.

Cuomos threat, or possible extremely public highwire negotiation tactic, is just the latest snafu for Gateway, the effort to build a capacity and redundancy-boosting rail tunnel underneath the Hudson River in order to provide better service for Amtrak and New Jersey Transits pre-pandemic 200,000 daily riders. The project, which is the latest version of a decades-long attempt to increase capacity across the Hudson River, is on its third presidential administration at this point. Then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who once thought he would be president killed an earlier version of it as a nod to the anti-Obama Tea Party. The Trump Administration held the project up during its four years in charge, but President Biden was a champion of Gateway even before he started living at the White House.

Representatives for Gov. Cuomos office did not respond to a request for further clarification on his Gateway funding stance.

Read more:
Amtrak And Gateway Leaders: We Love That Andrew Cuomo Hates This Project Now - Streetsblog New York