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Good morning,

Socialism always breeds misery, while liberty is a critical component of our general prosperity. Below, I reflect on what that should mean for us on Thanksgiving.

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

PROGRAMMING NOTE...

The Texas Minute will resume on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024.

Paxton Sues Investment Giants Over Their Costly 'Green' Policies Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing three major investment firms, accusing them of conspiring to “artificially constrict the market for coal through anticompetitive trade practices.” Brandon Waltens reports [[link removed]] that BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street are named defendants in the lawsuit.

Paxton alleges the companies have leveraged their shares in coal companies to push “green energy” initiatives, which he argues has led to higher electricity costs for consumers. The lawsuit accuses the firms of violating both federal laws and Texas’ antitrust and deceptive trade practices statutes by reducing competition in the coal market.

Ten other states have joined Texas in pursuing the lawsuit.

“Texas will not tolerate the illegal weaponization of the financial industry in service of a destructive, politicized ‘environmental’ agenda. BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street formed a cartel to rig the coal market, artificially reduce the energy supply, and raise prices.” – Ken Paxton [[link removed]]

CBS Uses Abortion All-Star to Peddle False Texas Information Daniel Greer exposes [[link removed]] the players in a stunning case of leftwing disinformation perpetrated three weeks ago by CBS' 60 Minutes feature on abortion policies in Texas.

The broadcast's point was to say pro-life laws are scaring doctors and jeopardizing the well-being of pregnant women in Texas. To do so, they enlisted a New Mexico doctor without revealing her award-winning work with far-left causes and a radical pro-abortion organization.

Without providing a correction, the program allowed the doctor to claim Texas is not allowing physicians to learn about miscarriages and ectopic pregnancy. Included in the segment was the false claim that mortality rates skyrocketed in Texas after its abortion ban was implemented. None of that was true.

CBS has a long history of presenting misinformation as fact. In 2004, CBS' Dan Rather relied on forged documents as part of an effort to discredit President George W. Bush. Rather resigned in disgrace. Illegal Alien Released in El Paso Accused of Sexual Assault on a Child An illegal alien charged with sexual assault of a child entered the U.S. near El Paso. Emily Medeiros has the details [[link removed]].

Jesus Alberto Pereira Castillo, 20, was arrested last week in Colorado for assaulting his employer's 14-year-old daughter.

According to records from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Castillo entered the country illegally in 2023 from Venezuela. He was detained, issued a notice to appear before a judge, and then released into the country. Parents Back Plans for Public Education Inspector General Parent advocates are pleased that lawmakers are proposing one of their top policy priorities: authorizing an inspector general to hold the state’s public education system accountable to Texas families and taxpayers. Erin Anderson has the details [[link removed]].

The idea originated with Texas Education 911, a grassroots group that advocates for parental rights, transparency, and accountability in government education.

“With more than 50 percent of the state budget spent on public education, Texas needs an inspector general for education to report fraud, waste, and abuse—especially abuses of parental rights and school employees who physically or sexually harm a child.” – Aileen Blachowski Lawmakers File Legislation to Protect Female-Only Spaces Valerie Muñoz reports [[link removed]] on legislative proposals to protect women from men entering single-sex facilities.

For example, a proposed measure by State Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) would require school districts to enforce “single-sex” bathrooms and other facilities based on biological sex. The legislation includes locker rooms and shower rooms, regardless of whether curtains or walls separate each stall.

Some school districts, like Keller ISD in Tarrant County, have already instituted similar policies to prevent gender-confused students from using the bathroom of the opposite sex.

Toth's measure also has teeth. If enacted, school districts that do not enforce the law would be liable for any personal injury of a student or faculty member and would be subject to a civil penalty of $100,000 for each violation. Criminal Out on Bond in Houston Charged With Murder After Road Rage Incident Carlos Chavez was already out on bond for four separate felonies—including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon—when he was arrested in connection with the murder of 23-year-old Jadrian Edwards in Houston. Michael Wilson reports [[link removed]] Chavez' case is just one example of issues within Houston’s bail system.

REMINDER

The Texas Minute will resume on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024.

Reflection

Thanksgiving’s Rejection of Socialism [[link removed]]

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

We think we know the story of Thanksgiving: the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, faced a harsh winter, famine, and disease, and then only with the help of friendly natives learned how to survive. It’s nice for bedtime stories and feel-good paintings, but it ignores the most important lessons of our early history.

The pilgrims weren’t city slickers ill-prepared for wilderness life, nor were they misguided about the challenges facing them in the New World. Sadly, the travails and trials of those pilgrims weren’t merely the result of recklessness, ignorance, or chance.

No, the problems the pilgrims faced—and overcame—were of their very own making through a well-intentioned, though misguided, governing ideology.

William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony, explains what happened in his History of the Plymouth Settlement [[link removed]]. Even before arriving in the New World, they imposed on themselves what he called “communal service”—what we today would recognize as socialism.

Everything—the land, the work, the crops, everything—was held communally. Everyone was expected to work hard and receive only what they truly needed. As a result, Bradford wrote, many would simply “allege weakness and inability.”

You won’t be surprised that Bradford reported “the young men who were most able and fit for service objected to being forced to spend their time and strength in working for other men’s wives and children, without any recompense.”

At the same time, “The strong man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could.”

Bradford would note: “Community of property was found to breed much confusion and discontent.” No one had an incentive to work, so no one produced, and everyone was miserable.

Remember, this was a small group of people who shared common values, cared for each other, and willingly agreed to the colony’s philosophical arrangements. It’s just that socialism fails in practice whenever it is tried; sometimes, it limps along, but ultimately, the results are always the same.

Socialism—no matter what one calls it—always produces human misery.

After three years, the colony abandoned its “communal” life. Bradford wrote that colony leaders divided the land among the families and “allowed each man to plant corn for his own household, and to trust to themselves for that.”

As a result, Bradford added, “It made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could devise, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better satisfaction.”

Private property rights and a free market carried the day. Labor was naturally divided—not politically imposed—and everyone utilized their skills to their own benefit, thereby increasing the productivity and happiness of the colony as a whole.

In the newly free society, where the local knowledge of Native Americans was combined with the techniques of Europe, the pilgrims had a harvest bountiful beyond comparison.

The very first days of the American experience demonstrated what world history repeatedly proves: socialism fails and fails miserably. Bounty is produced by liberty driven by self-governance, not central planning – even if it's well-intentioned.

We must remember that individual liberty is in the 21st Century, as it was in the 17th, a necessary and integral component of our general prosperity. Let us be thankful to God daily not only for the material things we have but for the liberty of which He is the author.

Quote-Unquote

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

– Winston Churchill

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