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Good morning,

The crony insiders don’t like it when us peasants and the peons speak up. I end the week reflecting on our constitutional obligation to do so anyway.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

Attorney General Sues Harris County Over its New Basic Income Program Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is again suing Harris County to stop the implementation of a guaranteed basic income program. As Charles Blain reports [[link removed]], the first version of the program—Uplift—was stopped by the Texas Supreme Court.

The original program intended to give nearly 2,000 Harris County recipients— selected through a lottery-style process—$500 monthly for 18 months. Following a lawsuit from Paxton, SCOTX ordered Harris County to stop before the first disbursements were issued.

The Harris County commissioners retooled the program (now styled as Uplight 2.0), making changes such as requiring funds to be disbursed on prepaid debit cards and restricting what the funds can be spent on.

During the vote on the revised handout program, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo acknowledged that the state might deem it illegal again, yet they wanted to try it anyway.

"Harris County acts as though the Texas Constitution does not apply to them and as though they do not have to abide by the Texas Supreme Court’s rulings. Using public funds in this way directly violates the law. Harris County is willing to undermine the legal process out of apparent desperation to push this money into certain hands as quickly as possible." – Ken Paxton [[link removed]] Texas A&M Textbook Pushes 'Transgender' Bathrooms A political science textbook published by Texas A&M promotes the LGBT ideology around allowing males into female spaces. Robert Montoya has the details [[link removed]].

Titled Comparing the States and Communities, it is the textbook for the undergraduate State & Local Government course at the Texas A&M Bush School of Government & Public Service. Written by Dr. Harvey J. Tucker, professor emeritus at the Texas A&M Bush School, the textbook promotes the idea that allowing biological males into female spaces protects "transgender people."

While extolling the virtues of transgender policies, the author takes aim at Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for trying to protect female spaces.

Texas A&M publishing a textbook that adopts the LGBT framing of this issue is in contrast to the university’s marketing and image. Texas A&M presents itself as a conservative institution and unique from other universities.

"This is an absolute attack on women’s ability to engage in society. If we cannot trust that bathrooms are safe, then women are on a urinary leash, unable [to] leave our homes for very long because we may need a restroom," said Tracy Shannon [[link removed]], a graduate of Texas A&M. "TAMU and any university promoting this type of policy is advocating for the erasure of women’s rights in a covert manner. Shame on TAMU." South Texas Teacher Arrested for Possession of Child Pornography A Texas teacher has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, according to the superintendent of Freer Independent School District. Emily Medeiros has the story [[link removed]].

David Scott Hunter has been a fourth-grade teacher in Freer ISD, which is located between Laredo and Corpus Christi. He has been booked into the Duval County jail and placed on administrative leave by district officials.

The Freer ISD superintendent said the "allegations stem from alleged actions that took place away from school." Travis County Countersues AG Paxton on Mass Voter Registration Mailings Ian Camacho reports [[link removed]] Travis County officials have countersued Attorney General Ken Paxton and Secretary of State Jane Nelson, claiming Paxton’s attempt to stop an unlawful mass mailing of voter registration forms violated the National Voter Registration Act.

Paxton has asserted counties do not have the authority to engage in such programs. Travis and Bexar counties used a firm tied to Democrats to "target" unregistered voters.

In the case of Bexar County, the Democrat firm sent mail under the return address of "Election Mail Service" at "Bexar County Voter Registration Division" with an Austin post office box. Huffines: Government Indoctrinating Students With 'Secular, Atheist Education' Former State Sen. Don Huffines is urging lawmakers to pass universal school choice, accusing government schools of indoctrinating students with a "secular, atheist education." Luca Cacciatore reports [[link removed]] on a paper produced by the senator's Huffines Liberty Foundation detailing the deficiencies of the current education system.

The paper argues that, despite receiving billions of dollars since 2012, less than half of Texas’ government school students exhibited grade-level English, math, science, and social studies proficiency in 2024. Harlingen School Board Paid Superintendent $250K to Resign A South Texas school superintendent who recently resigned under mysterious circumstances after just one year on the job was paid a quarter-million taxpayer dollars to buy out the remainder of his contract. As Erin Anderson reports [[link removed]], the payout comes despite Harlingen ISD claiming serious financial challenges.

District trustees agreed earlier this month to let Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez "resign and pursue other interests," citing unexplained "serious issues."

In April, he was given a $10,000 raise. Recently, the school board's Finance and Planning Committee reviewed expenditures made during the past year and found expenditures that were "beyond the approved budget and occurred without adequate communication."

Don't tell us government schools need money when they can hand out quarter-million-dollar "go away" money... Dallas City Council Stifles Residents' Speech Going forward, residents of Dallas might only be able to address the city council once every 30 days [[link removed]]. According to the city's rules, no person may register to speak during an open microphone period more than once within 30 days.

The rule was quietly implemented in October 2019, but the city council has only recently begun to enforce it against citizens seeking municipal reforms.

The nonprofit organization Dallas HERO, which has had other run-ins with the city, described the council as "arrogant and unprepared." Friday Reflection

Insiders Are Out of Touch [[link removed]]

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

The Reflections Podcast [[link removed]]

Around politics, everyone wants to be considered an “insider.” While they might have the inside track on the gossip in the Austin sewer or D.C. swamp, they are—usually—woefully out of touch with reality.

This point was driven home recently when I came upon a reference to a series of surveys conducted more than a decade ago by the George Soros-funded Texas Tribune. They once had a bipartisan collection of lobbyists, campaign consultants, Capitol staffers, washed-up politicians, and news reporters who would be surveyed on various topics. They called it “Inside Intelligence.”

It should have been titled “Insider Delusions.”

When asked who these consummate political gatekeepers said would emerge victorious in the 2014 race for Lieutenant Governor, they were confident Todd Staples would prevail. Who is he? He was a moderate Republican lawmaker who is now an Austin lobbyist. In that 2014 GOP contest, he didn’t make the runoff.

Two years earlier, the insiders were confident that David Dewhurst would be promoted to the U.S. Senate and Warren Chisum would be a member of the Texas Railroad Commission. Neither happened. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of either man; Texans went with Ted Cruz and Christi Craddick.

The same group was certain that Jeb “Please Clap” Bush would be the GOP presidential standard bearer in 2016. They loved ObamaCare, were soft on illegal aliens, and consistently gave high marks to leftwing House Speaker Joe Straus.

It is not so much that they were wrong but that the insiders were always so completely off-kilter from the clearly divined wishes and wisdom of real Texans.

After several years’ worth of embarrassingly bad takes from their stable of “insiders,” the Soros media group put the feature out to pasture.

Armed with the latest gossip from the Capitol echo chamber, political insiders then and now exude a hubris that comes from listening to a very narrow group of people. The professional sycophants remain purposefully disconnected from the people of Texas. They presume to know what is best for the rest of us.

Take the lobby group Texans for Lawsuit Reform. They are the chief proponents of keeping Democrats chairing committees in the Texas House, lecturing both lawmakers and their donors that real Texans don’t care that a GOP-dominated chamber isn’t delivering on the priorities of the GOP-dominated state.

Sadly, too many right-thinking lawmakers—once elected—stick their heads in the echo chamber of their legislative body only to emerge with muddled minds.

Years ago, an influential (and now former) Republican member of the Texas Senate was furious that citizens were speaking out against his budget schemes. He derisively called the taxpayers of Texas “outside forces” and bemoaned the fact that his colleagues were paying attention to them.

The insiders don’t like it when the peasants and the peons start speaking up.

The challenge for us in the rabble is to ensure our voices are heard over the din of their self-serving echo chamber. While an entire industry in our state and federal capitals is dedicated to divorcing elected officials from reality, those of us on the outside must not let them get comfortable.

As a self-governing people, we must not let politicians and their insider cronies live under the delusion that they possess the moral or intellectual capacity to do what is “good” for us. As citizens, we must remind them—daily, if necessary—that they were hired to do what we want under the Constitution.

Quote-Unquote

"The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments."

– Ludwig von Mises

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