Shell_Seas
Shell_Seas's JournalOperation Lone Star Needs To Be Audited
Billions of taxpayer dollars have been thrown at the border, and immigration is at an all-time high. Where did all of that money go?
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/operation-lone-star-needs-to-be-audited
Over the last week, the Texas House and the Texas Senate held hearings regarding giving Greg Abbott another $1.5 billion for “border security.” Some startling revelations came up during these hearings.
Here’s what we learned:
Billions of dollars have been given to Greg Abbott’s office without accounting or transparency.
Texas taxpayers have already footed a $10 billion bill for border security.
Only 12 miles of border wall has been built.
Abbott spent $125 million on bussing asylum seekers out of Texas.
We’ve given out construction contracts, but no one knows what has already been done.
The Texas Senate Schedules A Hearing On Colony Ridge
Although the House hearing and several media outlets determined that right-wing media fabricated all of the stories about Colony Ridge, Senator Bettencourt schedules a new hearing without public input.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/the-texas-senate-schedules-a-hearing
Why? Moreso, why are they refusing to take public testimony?
While the House hearing regarding Colony Ridge was happening, Attorney General Ken Paxton put out a letter blaming the development on his enemies (legislators who voted to impeach). Bettencourt is one of the senators who voted to acquit Paxton despite his corruption and the mountains of evidence against him. This gave the appearance of Bettencourt also being corrupt.
Is Bettencourt looking to take aim at Paxton’s enemies on his behalf?
What does Bettencourt believe he’ll uncover that wasn’t already discovered at the House hearings or by the media?
If you are not already aware, Bettencourt has a decades-long history of attacking Hispanic voters and communities. Knowing that the House Committee already debunked all of the right-wing lies about Colony Ridge and the recent anti-immigrant legislation that passed in the House, you can’t help but think about the motivations behind this hearing being something sinister.
Injustice In The Lone Star State: GOP's Bills Called Unconstitutional And Racist
The battle against white supremacy and unjust laws is ongoing in Texas.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/injustice-in-the-lone-star-state
Yesterday, the Texas House held its day of harm. It lasted for 18 hours. Emotions were high, and the worst legislation was voted on and passed to the next stage.
It’s hard to describe how vile and hateful the legislation passed yesterday and early this morning is. Texas Republicans have put a target on every brown person and every immigrant in this state. And they did it with big ass smiles on their face, like this:
All four bills passed were outrageous and likely will be declared unconstitutional in the courts unless they get a Trump judge.
HB4 - the “Show Me Your Papers” bill proves to be the white supremacist garbage we all thought it was.
Texas House GOP Schedules A Day Of Harm
Tomorrow, 10/25, House Republicans will take to the floor to advance the Nazi-aligned Defend Texas Liberty PAC and Texas for Strong Border's agenda.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/house-gop-schedules-a-day-of-harm
Fucking Republicans. Yes, that’s how we’re starting this. There are 15 days left of the Special Session in the Texas Legislature and tomorrow, the Texas House will take up some of the worst bills imaginable. Democrats may be able to kill one or two of these, but with the time we have left, Republicans would likely just rework them and bring them back in a few days.
The House is set to gavel in tomorrow at 10 am, and here are the bills they will be debating:
SB7 and SB4 are Senate bills that have already passed the Senate. If they pass the House tomorrow, they’ll get sent to the Senate for a third reading on the floor.
HB6 and HB4 are House bills. If they pass the House tomorrow, they must go through the Senate Committees before being heard on the Senate floor.
Everything Republicans Said About Colony Ridge Was A Lie
Colony Ridge is no more than Jade Helm 2.0. A lie started from a hate group and ended up as political hype.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/everything-republicans-said-about
As part of their xenophobic perpetuation toward asylum seekers, if you’ve listened to anything Republicans have said in the last few months, you might have heard about Colony Ridge. Right-wing media and GOP politicians have been shouting about the “undocumented safe haven” in Liberty County known as Colony Ridge.
During the last few months, I’ve read all the right-wing articles and watched all the alt-right YouTube videos. None points to evidence or proof that undocumented people are headed for Colony Ridge to set up cartel operations. When I’ve asked Republicans on social media for proof, they’ve only shown me the same articles and videos that make accusations without evidence. But I’ve held off commenting until there was a legislative hearing on the topic. That happened yesterday.
Republicans Are In Complete Chaos
In both Washington DC, and Austin, Texas, the GOP seems incapable of running their own party, let alone the government.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/republicans-are-in-complete-chaos
After 14 days of waiting for Congress to vote for the Speaker of the House, they finally held a losing vote for Jim Jordan. There are 30 days left until the government shuts down again. Congress still doesn’t have a speaker and cannot move forward with anything until they do.
After the losing vote today, it’s rumored that Jordan will lose support. But maybe they’ll go back to the floor tomorrow and try again. It’s remarkable that the GOP in our nation’s capitol is so divided and can’t come together even to pick a leader. It mirrors the chaos we’ve been seeing in Texas this year.
Four Texas House members have banded together to cause chaos within the House Republican Caucus. Those members are Tony Tinderholt, Steve Toth, Nate Schatzline, and Brian Harrison. (I wanted to call them the carpetbagger caucus, but Harrison is from Dallas.)
Yesterday, Tinderholt, Toth, and Harrison banded together to call for the suspension of the House Parliamentarian Hugh Brady.
57 Days Until The Filing Deadline - How Many Republicans Are Still Unopposed?
Countdown to 2024: Identifying Opportunities for Democratic Candidates in Texas.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/57-days-until-the-filing-deadline
Around the country, there have been 31 elections this year, and 25 of them have swung toward Democrats. Not only that, Democrats are massively overperforming their baseline. Now, we have 400 days left until the 2024 election, which is a long time for Democrats to screw things up, but based on the momentum we’re seeing around the country, things are looking good for Texas.
On top of that, the GOP Civil War is depressing its base, causing moderate Republicans to swear off the GOP once and for all.
If all of the current trends hold through the year, in 2024, we will see a massive underperformance from Texas Republicans and an overperformance from Texas Democrats. This is excellent news!
But we have to have candidates on the ballot for Democratic voters to vote for. Not all of these seats will be flippable, but the more Democrats on the ticket, the more motivated the voters will be.
The filing deadline for the November 2024 election is on December 11.
Political Theater In The Republican Party Of Texas May Cause Popcorn Shortage
The Texas Republican Party is at a crossroads. Their growing divide has long-term implications and consequences in Texas politics.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/political-theater-in-the-republican
There isn’t enough popcorn in the world to process the levels of depravity that the GOP Civil War has sunk to. Have you enjoyed watching the trainwreck that the Republican Party of Texas has become? I know I sure have, and there is no indication of it letting up anytime soon. They’re killing their party, depressing their base, and will ultimately push the state further left. This is great for us!
Yesterday, we saw a bitchslap of epic proportions when Tony Tinderholt took to the back mic to use the parliamentary inquiry process to ask Dade Phelan when he plans on apologizing to Ken Paxton for impeaching the crook.
Phelan *basically* said, “Bitch, quit asking stupid fucking questions and go sit your stupid ass down.” It was amazing. You can watch that exchange here:
Nazigate Has Taken Over Texas Politics By Storm
Updates on the Nazigate fallout and the voucher scam being pushed by the recipients of the neo-Nazi money.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/nazigate-has-taken-over-texas-politics
Yesterday, I spent all day watching the school voucher hearings. I posted testimony clips to Twitter X if you follow me there. However, everything you want to know about the Senate’s voucher scam can be summed up in this video:
Here is the quick run-down. This program is only for about 60,000 kids. It gives them an allotment of $8,000, nearly $2,000 over the basic allotment for public schools. The bill has a cap on how many low-income and disabled students can use the program, and the GOP is back at it with their “blind to race” bullshit. The Senate’s bill is terrible, racist, and a handout for the wealthy. I doubt the House bill will differ significantly, but we must wait and see.
The Senate Committee on Border Security met yesterday as well. I’m planning on catching up on that video today. Nothing else is scheduled in Austin until tomorrow when the House gavels back in for the first reading of bills. There may or may not be drama, looking at where the House is in cohesiveness. I’m hoping for it, though. The more drama there is in Austin, the less chance they have of getting things done.
House committee hearings for vouchers and other GOP priorities will likely occur next week.
The Republican Party Of Texas Falls Off The Rails As Nazigate Explodes
The line in the sand has been drawn. Team colors have been picked. It's going to get ugly.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/the-republican-party-of-texas-falls
The House and Senate both gaveled in today. Nothing exciting happened on the Senate side. They held a hearing on teacher pay raises. That passed and was voted out to the full Senate. The bill offers several things. It’s better than nothing, but nowhere near what Democrats were asking for.
In the House, they gaveled in and passed a bipartisan resolution about Texas standing with Israel. It passed 147-0. They were wrapping up and scheduling to meet on Thursday for the first reading of bills (which will probably be heard in committee next week) when ol’ Mr. Tony Tinderholt made his way to the back mic to ask Speaker Phelan some questions. Check it out:
Tinderholt’s parliamentary inquiries concerned an audit for Ken Paxton’s impeachment cost, which Tinderholt and some others on the far-right requested a few weeks back. The Speaker was having none of it. In Tinderholt’s last inquiry, he asked, “Is the House dragging its feet because they’re afraid that the impeachment may exceed the $3 million that allegedly started the sham impeachment in motion?”
Immediately, you can hear the gasps in the “ooos” of the other House members.
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Member since: Thu Aug 11, 2016, 03:03 PMNumber of posts: 3,384