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87th Texas Legislature


StassneyHorn

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  On 6/11/2021 at 2:20 PM, kevwun said:
They are also going to require all elections offices to record and save surveillance video of all voting and ballot processing rooms during the election process.  That's weeks of video and going to cost counties millions upon millions of dollars.
Thankfully briscoe cain's cousin runs a security firm and can get a complete system installed at each location for $59,995
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  On 6/11/2021 at 2:20 PM, kevwun said:

They are also going to require all elections offices to record and save surveillance video of all voting and ballot processing rooms during the election process.  That's weeks of video and going to cost counties millions upon millions of dollars.

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This sounds like one of those laws that will only be applied to counties with over 1m in population. "It's important that we only pass laws that apply to Democrats"

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  On 6/15/2021 at 8:19 PM, Js1 said:

Awesome for Jimmy Talarico. 

LOL at Briscoe Cain and Dan Patrick.  And yes, Senate Dems deserve the worst.   Harold Dutton too - that dude needs a primary challenge. 

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Talarico is my rep. I've been really happy with him. Seems like a guy with ambitions for higher office. 

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Let me take a guess

1. Decree for the Protection of People and State 

2. Democratic American Crisis Homeland Austerity Units (D.A.C.H.A.U.)

3. The Enabling Act 

4.  Law for the Protection of American Blood and Honor 

Edited by Neonmoon
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  • 3 weeks later...

A few days ago the Comptroller raised the revenue estimate by $7.4 billion. I'm not sure if that's just for the next year, or the full biennium, but either way it's a tidy sum that could be used for any number of good and necessary causes. In any case, is the Lege going to do anything in the special session(s) to put that money to use for the betterment of all Texans (hah) or are they just going to use it as a pretext for tax cuts for fat cats and favored industries in the next session?

 

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  On 7/10/2021 at 12:36 AM, StassneyHorn said:

Not sure if it’s related but Texas got the final 4.1 billion in Covid relief to public schools earlier this week

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Saw that - https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/us-department-education-texas-plan-remaining-41-billion-school-funds-dollars-covid/287-593b0fa3-fe6e-4609-8b28-1db1d3fbd510

Abbott probably argued against it.

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  On 7/11/2021 at 5:19 PM, tx 3 putt said:

So 24 hr voting ban and drive thru voting ban will be challenged ?

What’s stopping them from banning non English ballots ?

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I'm no lawyer but I'm pretty sure that alternate language ballots are federally required in areas with a significant number of  citizens that speak a non-English language as their first language. 

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Well, he's hemorrhaging suburban women voters.  They care about schools probably more than mean brown people and stolen elections.  Publicly flaunting his new cash for a pet wall project that, while they love, will be a serious financial blow to a public school system that literally cannot afford one more belt-tightening round.  It's not his best course of action.  He's not that insane.  Then again, who the fuck knows. 

But you can tease out a wall project to the true rubes and get away with only building a small portion of it (see, Trump, Donald J.).  But the millions of some college/college educated women voters in urban and suburban areas are gonna notice when their booster club calls again with this year's massive classroom shortfall.  Only people my wife and I hear from more than Gov. Abbott's fundraising team is our local booster club.  Even my Qanon neighbor has publicly stated that our ISD foundation may have to make up a bigger shortfall than usual because so many people cut off donations last year as a protest to remote learning.  Add to that this year's Wall Shortfall, even the crazy ones are warning Abbott.  

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  On 7/12/2021 at 6:03 PM, Lobo said:

  It's not his best course of action.  He's not that insane.  Then again, who the fuck knows.

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Your last sentence. That's what I'm going with.

He has slow rolled the grid issues with a nothing to see here, and I'm not convinced that the steps he did take were in any way wise (long term). He's playing the odds that it won't happen for another 5 to 10 years and it will be someone else's problem.

Same thing with schools. He'll figure out a distraction and delay delay delay.

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  On 7/12/2021 at 5:33 PM, Mrs Whiggins said:

Oh? What is anyone going to do about it?

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The Department of Treasury is not writing a $4.1 billion check to Abbott to deposit in some general fund.  It has been allocated by Congress and the Departments of Education and Treasury.  If he starts fucking with that and trying to interfere with it, he's breaking multiple federal laws.

I know Trump tried to turn us into a banana republic, but we aren't - if Abbott could legally take every federal dollar coming into Texas and throw it at whatever he needs to escape the Republican primary and win the general, he would have already done so, but he can't, and he hasn't. 

That money has already started being allocated by the TEA to the school districts/projects.

And like Lobo said, Abbott is keenly aware that women vote in large numbers, and a shitload of women are already unhappy with the state of things.

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  On 7/12/2021 at 5:58 PM, SydneyCarton said:
It's been an hour or two since this broke. I'm waiting to hear about Bergstrom being shut down and the state guard being sent in by Abbot to apprehend these "criminals" fleeing. 

The House doesn’t gavel back in until 10am tomorrow so they technically haven’t broken quorum yet and thus can’t be held. But they’re already in the air now anyway.
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They should have gone to Cancun.  

In all seriousness, if you live in a heavily blue district...expect ERCOT to issue rolling blackouts in your area as a precaution so they can make a spectacle of these legislators abandoning their constituents during a time of need of A/C

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  On 7/12/2021 at 6:17 PM, atomheartbevo said:

The Department of Treasury is not writing a $4.1 billion check to Abbott to deposit in some general fund.  It has been allocated by Congress and the Departments of Education and Treasury.  If he starts fucking with that and trying to interfere with it, he's breaking multiple federal laws.

I know Trump tried to turn us into a banana republic, but we aren't - if Abbott could legally take every federal dollar coming into Texas and throw it at whatever he needs to escape the Republican primary and win the general, he would have already done so, but he can't, and he hasn't. 

That money has already started being allocated by the TEA to the school districts/projects.

And like Lobo said, Abbott is keenly aware that women vote in large numbers, and a shitload of women are already unhappy with the state of things.

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At this stage, I'd like to believe the governor wouldn't be that crazy, but what was said earlier about him coming off poorly in a comparison to former governor Perry is on the mark. Perry, while self serving, did have some semblance of well-intentioned humanity toward others.

 

I admit that the voter side of things would complicate swiping the money from schools as opposed to when he took from the prison budget, but in the coming year, things are going to get interesting.

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  On 7/12/2021 at 6:42 PM, Mrs Whiggins said:

At this stage, I'd like to believe the governor wouldn't be that crazy, but what was said earlier about him coming off poorly in a comparison to former governor Perry is on the mark. Perry, while self serving, did have some semblance of well-intentioned humanity toward others.

 

I admit that the voter side of things would complicate swiping the money from schools as opposed to when he took from the prison budget, but in the coming year, things are going to get interesting.

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Perry made the permanent shit list for fucking with UT funding. 

I realize all these assholes have gigantic egos but I don't know why someone like Abbott thinks of himself as a great candidate for national office.  His campaign war chest is brimming; he can take chances on expanding the GOP base that no one else could (echoing GWB).  

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  On 7/12/2021 at 6:42 PM, Mrs Whiggins said:

At this stage, I'd like to believe the governor wouldn't be that crazy, but what was said earlier about him coming off poorly in a comparison to former governor Perry is on the mark. Perry, while self serving, did have some semblance of well-intentioned humanity toward others.

I admit that the voter side of things would complicate swiping the money from schools as opposed to when he took from the prison budget, but in the coming year, things are going to get interesting.

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Abbott has a law degree.  For all his being a dumbass on a lot of things to get reelected, he knows it is seriously a fuck around and find out moment if he tried to take the Constitutionally-granted power of the purse away from the US Congress.  

This isn't Donald Trump shifting some money around in the DOD (which, by the way, the money had to be returned).

This would be Greg Abbott, a governor, not the President of the US, a mere governor, trying to take monies from one federal department's allocation and shifting them to something entirely different at the state level.

If he could do something like this, he and many other governors would have been doing it for years.  Trump would have been taking money from unrelated departments and funneling it into his wall, but instead he had to resort to fucking with the DOD's budget.

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  On 7/12/2021 at 7:05 PM, atomheartbevo said:

Abbott has a law degree.  For all his being a dumbass on a lot of things to get reelected, he knows it is seriously a fuck around and find out moment if he tried to take the Constitutionally-granted power of the purse away from the US Congress.  

This isn't Donald Trump shifting some money around in the DOD (which, by the way, the money had to be returned).

This would be Greg Abbott, a governor, not the President of the US, a mere governor, trying to take monies from one federal department's allocation and shifting them to something entirely different at the state level.

If he could do something like this, he and many other governors would have been doing it for years.  Trump would have been taking money from unrelated departments and funneling it into his wall, but instead he had to resort to fucking with the DOD's budget.

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Counterpoint, Rudy Guiliani has a law degree and was mayor of the largest city in the United States. How's Rudy doing these days?

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Whenever I wanna know how Rudy Guiliani is doing, I drive to my nearest forest preserve and wait for Andrew to emerge from the woods and hold a press conference shouting out his father's updates and status.  

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  On 7/12/2021 at 7:12 PM, atomheartbevo said:

If Abbott could fuck with Congress/Treasury, he would have already done it.

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That's not the point. Even close. You cite Abbot having a law degree as proof he's not a fucking dumbass. I disagree at this qualification being proof that someone isn't a fucking dumbass. I've met a few attorneys with degrees from Texas I wouldn't trust to watch my kid for 20 minutes. 

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anyone care to forecast how this plays out?

 

Texas R's will just make news headlines. 

Texas D's staying in D.C. until end of this special session.  Do the Texas D's have the fortitude for such an undertaking? Then does Abbot just call another special session and we start all over?

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  On 6/15/2021 at 8:14 PM, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

 

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Jesus, the write-up about Cain is hilarious.

  Quote

Representative Briscoe Cain

R–Deer Park

When Dade Phelan tapped Cain to chair the House Elections Committee, some speculated that the Speaker must have been trying to sink the politically charged “election integrity” legislation. After all, in his first two terms, Cain showed an aptitude for little more than getting dunked on by his colleagues. Last session, he was relegated to the chairmanship of the backwater Select Committee on Driver’s License Issuance and Renewal. So why would Phelan give the Legislature’s chief bumbler such a delicate assignment, under a harsh national spotlight?

As it turned out, Republican leaders didn’t need a dealmaker to push through one of their top priorities; they just needed someone who’d eat dirt for them. And, boy, did Cain eat dirt. In committee, this small-government crusader seemed unable to describe his own bill, refused to take questions from the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, and got into a tussle for the gavel with his vice chair, Democrat Jessica González. Then he abruptly recessed the committee, violating House rules and robbing hundreds of witnesses, some of whom traveled long distances, of the opportunity to testify that day. One Republican member began referring to himself as “Briscoe’s babysitter.” For his part, Cain blamed the committee kerfuffle on COVID-19 protocols that kept him from getting to know González. “I do wonder if things would have been different,” he said.

Things got even worse when his bill reached the floor. One of the viral moments of the session came when Representative Rafael Anchía, a Dallas Democrat, explained that language in Cain’s legislation regarding the “purity of the ballot box” was a Reconstruction-era phrase used to justify the disenfranchisement of Black Texans. Cain suddenly looked like a panicked Boys State participant. That day, he was locked out of negotiations over his own bill.

Cain was unchastened: he continued to insist he was defending the state against the specter of voter fraud. But he also seemed to be enjoying it. At a House football game, he tried to reprise his glory days as a high school cheerleader by doing a cartwheel. The next day, he arrived at the House on a crutch.

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Any more fun rumors of Briscoe hanging out in Houston gay bars? NTTIAWWT

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