Good morning –

I wonder if people know they can neither catch nor spread the Chinese coronavirus through a social media profile picture?

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, October 8, 2020
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• All week Gov. Greg Abbott teased a big announcement – implying nightclubs, bars, and other businesses would finally be reopened. Instead, the governor revealed yesterday that beginning Oct. 14, those businesses can reopen but only with their county judge’s permission... and only at 50 percent.
       
• Practically, this means those small business owners in Texas’ most populous counties will have to hope for this waiver of Abbott’s order to come from a left-wing Democrat. As if to make that point, no sooner had Abbott’s announcement ended than the Democrat county judges of Dallas and Harris counties announced they won’t allow any openings.
       
• While other Republican states – like Florida, Tennessee, and Indiana – are moving to reopen their economies, Gov. Greg Abbott seems more interested in appeasing Democrats by tracking behind California and New York

• The Texas Supreme Court struck down a lawsuit brought by prominent Republicans seeking to overturn Gov. Greg Abbott’s extension of early voting in the November election. The court found the lawsuit came too late, with early voting by mail already underway in parts of the state. Brandon Waltens has details on the ruling.
     
• Justice John Devine offered the only dissenting opinion, arguing the Court was doing a “disservice to the citizens of the State of Texas and the Texas Constitution.”
     
• The action was brought by Republican Party of Texas Chairman Allen West, the Texas GOP, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and others against Abbott’s Secretary of State, Ruth Hughes, arguing Abbott could not unilaterally alter constitutional provisions.

• Also yesterday, and also at the Supreme Court of Texas...
   
• Harris County’s Democrat Clerk, Chris Hollins, was expressly forbidden from sending vote by mail applications to all the county’s voters, whether they asked for one or not. SCOTX found Hollins’ scheme exceeded his authority under the state’s election laws. (This ruling was not unexpected; they had previously issued a temporary injunction and this action made it permanent.)
   
• “The Harris County Clerk proposes to mail unsolicited ballot applications to all registered voters under 65 years of age, only a fraction of whom are eligible to vote by mail. Because no other election official in Texas is doing or has ever done what the Clerk proposes, his plan threatens to undermine the statutorily required uniform operation of election laws across the state.” – Supreme Court of Texas
   
• Democrats around the state and nation have been trying to vastly expand vote by mail, knowing it is the weakest form of voting and most vulnerable to fraud.
   
• An Obama-appointed federal judge wrote in 2017 that the problem with Voter ID was that it “did nothing to address mail-in balloting, which is much more vulnerable to fraud.”

• Special thanks to State Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg) for highlighting this comparison between the Republican and Democrat platforms, created by FRC Action.
      
• Speaking of Fredericksburg... I’ll be speaking at the Fredericksburg Tea Party tonight. We’d love the chance to meet with your group, club, or organization, here’s how to get us scheduled.

• Citizens again confronted board members of a North Texas school district over their controversial “Cultural Competence Action Plan” that would advance leftism in the school, this time calling out the district for seeking a grant meant for abuse victims to help fund the plan. Robert Montoya has the details.
     
• The controversial “Cultural Competence Action Plan” (CCAP) would, among other things, create a system to track and record students who commit “microaggressions” and establish an LGBTQ+ student focus group.
      
• The school district attempted to get funding for their pro-LGBTQ plan by applying for a grant from the Victims Of Crimes Act. The governor’s office denied the grant application, but Carroll ISD residents are outraged the district tried in the first place.
   
• “How could CISD even consider taking funds from suffering victims to fund a CCAP agenda?” asked JoLynn Potenza.

• If you haven’t listened to it yet, check out this week’s edition of the Luke Macias Show. 
   
• As you might recall, Gov. Abbott recently proposed anti-riot legislation, essentially watering down the bold initiative of Florida’s governor, Ron Desantis. In this week’s episode, Luke chats with conservative legal experts Matt Rinaldi and Warren Norred to compare the two plans, and discuss the legal battles Abbott is in regarding the unilateral authority he has attempted to grab during the pandemic.
   
• You can catch the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or get it directly from our website.

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