Good morning,

Politicians promise to meet our needs, but what they want is acquiescence to their self-serving agendas. I end the week looking at the temptation to give in.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, June 7, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Government Policies Are Behind Push for ESG

• A new report from the American Institute for Economic Research finds governmental policies—not private investor preferences—are primarily responsible for fueling the push for “environmental, social, and governance” investing. Will Biagini has details on the leftist agenda driving corporate behavior. Under ESG, investments are prioritized based on social or political reasons rather than being profit-based.
    
• With governments around the world pushing forward ESG-related policies, the AIER report finds investors are simply trying to stay ahead of the curve by divesting from “soon-to-be penalized” fields like oil and gas.
       
• Texas has fought to block efforts to permeate the state’s economy with ESG. Earlier this year, Texas pulled $8.5 billion from the financial behemoth BlackRock. The company has allegedly violated a new state law by using Texas funds to push ESG investments and boycotting energy companies.
      
• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has signaled that new legislation could be put forward in 2025 to further curtail the effects of ESG.

Law Enforcement Reports No Change in Illegal Crossings Following Biden’s Order

• State and federal law enforcement officials have indicated no change yet in the number of illegal border crossings, despite President Joe Biden’s recent executive action. As Luca Cacciatore reports, the temporary White House policy permits law enforcement to arrest and deport all foreign nationals who illegally cross the border but only takes effect when encounters exceed 2,500 per day for one week.

    
• Law enforcement officials are not impressed with the policy. Gov. Greg Abbott has been critical of Biden’s order, saying it does “nothing to secure the border.”
      
• “There should not be any threshold that would continue to encourage illegal immigrants to cross a dangerous river or desert to gain unlawful entry into the United States – the number should be ZERO,” said Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. 
      
• Texas' border crossings have gone down compared to other border states. DPS has attributed this to the success of state-level policies implemented by the governor and legislature.

Sheriff's Deputy Fired for Attending Jan. 6 Trump Rally Wins $395,000 Settlement

• A Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy who was fired for attending the January 6, 2021 rally in Washington, D.C. has received a $395,000 settlement from the county. Emily Medeiros has the story. 
    
• Former Lieutenant Roxanne Mathai sued the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office for wrongful termination after she attended the January 6 rally. While she had posted photographs of the rally, she did not enter the Capitol and has not been charged with any crimes. In fact, she left the rally at 3 p.m. that day.
      
• Reportedly, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, a Democrat, was made aware of her support for Trump and vowed to never let her enter the department again.
       
• Despite the settlement, Sheriff Salazar maintains that there was no wrongdoing in Mathai’s termination.
      
• “For people like Sheriff Salazar and Joe Biden, they want to silence our freedom of speech only when it is speech that goes against their agenda or their own political beliefs. Free speech is a human right, and it’s a right to free speech without interference,” said Mathai. “Javier Salazar chose to interfere so I chose to protect my voice and my First Amendment right by fighting him in court.” 

Texas Doctor Indicted By DOJ for Exposing Child Gender Mutilation Procedures

• A doctor at Texas Children’s Hospital has been indicted for allegedly violating federal rules after he exposed the brutal reality of gender mutilating procedures. Eithan Haim is set to appear in court on Monday. He is facing four felony counts for revealing that the institution was still performing sterilizing and mutilating procedures after it had pledged to stop.
    
• Several years ago, Texas Children’s Hospital began promoting its support for transgenderism, with medical professionals blatantly administering cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to gender-confused minors. Facing a backlash of negative public opinion, CEO Mark Wallace announced the program would be shut down.
       
• According to Dr. Haim, that was not true, and the hospital continued to perform physically mutilating interventions to alter children's gender appearance.

Friday Reflection
Tempting us in our Needs...

It’s terrifying what we are capable of doing, of what we will agree to, when we are trying to meet our most basic needs.

A common method of torture and manipulation is literal starvation. From sadists terrorizing a single prisoner to dictators exercising control over a country, history has shown that when people are starving, they will cast aside reason and morals to stave off hunger.

This is why that very first temptation that Satan dangled before Jesus in the wilderness was so important. He had been without food for 40 days, the Bible tells us, when Satan appeared to remind Him of His own power. The tempter said “...tell these stones to become bread.”

What an easy choice that would have been, right? Jesus did not take the bait, quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, “...man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

In the United States, we’re not so easily tempted out of the scarcity of food. Even the poorest of Americans are obese. The free market has removed the most basic of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from the grip of politicians seeking to manipulate the citizenry. Until now.

Washington’s corrupt spending practices have gamed our fiat currency to the extent that rampant inflation has made a casual trip to the grocery store an exercise in fiscal terror. How long until, in exchange for a little more obedience from the population, the government promises a program to lower those prices by dictate? Some fresh government eggs? A nice slice of government cheese?

But that’s still to come if we allow it. If we give in to it.

We certainly have indicated a willingness to give in to that temptation. Politicians got us hooked on the allure of a tax-subsidized retirement and now regularly manufacture reasons to take it away.

Government retirement plans. Government health care. Government housing. So, why not government food?

Yes, sure, man does not live on bread alone. But, if some politician will stick someone else with my tab…?

The problem is that we are allowing ourselves to be tempted into bad behaviors by corrupt individuals who steal from others.

The government only has to give us what it first took from us. Satan did not want Jesus fed any more than the politicians want your retirement or housing secured. The goal is our acquiescence to their agenda by appealing to our “needs.”

Let us instead follow Jesus. We must have the faithful fortitude to reject manipulated pleas to our needs, knowing God will provide for us.

Quote-Unquote

"It's always so attractive to be able to do good at somebody else's expense."

– Milton Friedman