Good morning,

Yes, there’s a lot outside our control – but one thing we alone absolutely decide is our attitude.

Before I get to that, here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, March 12, 2021
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• Texas’ Attorney General is vowing to fight a federal takeover of state elections being pushed by Democrats in a massive anti-election integrity bill now moving through Congress. Erin Anderson reports congressional House Resolution 1 would seize power from state legislatures to set their own election laws and lock into law the voting rules that created chaos in 2020.
      
• “As a matter of election administration policy, it is difficult to imagine a legislative proposal more threatening to election integrity and voter confidence,” wrote Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 19 other Republican state attorneys general in a letter to congressional leaders following H.R. 1’s passage out of the U.S. House.
      
• “Should it become law, I will use every possible resource to protect our elections, state sovereignty, and the rights of all Texans.” – Attorney General Ken Paxton

• Texas GOP chairman Allen West minced no words in his opposition to House Bill 3, legislation that would consolidate powers in the office of the governor to shutter the economy and issue mandates without oversight from the entire legislature. “The Texas legislature should be assessing how to curb executive overreach and power, not enable it, nor abdicate their constitutional duty,” said West.
         
• “HB 3 will codify unconstitutional actions by an executive into law. No emergency is grounds for the suspension of the rule of law. And no executive — at any level of government — is above the rule of law. HB 3 will elevate the state executive over the rule of law and make orders, mandates, decrees, and edicts equal to law. HB 3 relegates the legislative branch irrelevant and no longer a co-equal branch of government. Only the legislative branch has the enumerated power to make or amend the law.” – Lt. Col. Allen West
     
• As Joshua Pierce reports, West urged House members to vote against HB 3 and instead produce companion legislation to State Sen. Brian Birdwell’s (R–Fort Worth) Senate Bill 1025 and Senate Joint Resolution 45, which he said “ensures no Texas State executive, current or future, can define an emergency and suspend our rule of law, and individual rights, freedoms, and liberty.” 

PROGRAMMING NOTE: At 11 a.m. this morning join Brandon Waltens on The Headline. He has exclusive footage from the HB 3 hearing, including a brief interview with Lt. Col. West.

• Legislation filed this week by State Rep. Jeff Cason (R–Bedford) would require that every child aborted in Texas be recorded and documented with a fetal death certificate, regardless of the weight or time of gestation. Iris Poole has the details.

• In a video posted to Twitter, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and State Reps. Craig Goldman (R-Fort Worth) and Phil King (R-Weatherford) took aim this week at the Gab social media platform. The site is known for its commitment to First Amendment principles. Abbott borrowed a slur from the leftists, calling the site owners and users “antisemitic.” As Robert Montoya reports, Abbott offered no evidence or justification for his use of the slur.
      
• Gab and other “alternative” social media platforms rose to prominence last year as tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon began actively censoring and “deplatforming” conservatives.
    
• The company quickly responded to Abbott: “We protect the political speech of all Americans, regardless of viewpoint, because in this age of cancel culture nobody else will.” Conservative activists and thought-leaders from around the country took Abbott to task for his attack, including The Federalist magazine and the Republican Party of Texas.
       
• It is interesting that even as Abbott, Goldman, and King employ the slurs of the left to attack a First Amendment friendly conservative website, they have been funneling millions of taxpayer dollars in the form of corporate welfare to the highly censorious Amazon and Facebook.

• In a new commentary, Cisco businessman Jon Francis describes Texas politics as Three-Card Monte – a scam that works only until the victims wise up. In this case, he writes, politicians are the scammers and citizens are the victims.
     

• “It is time to put our individual time, talent, and treasure where our mouth is. Take personal responsibility, stop playing the game, and start sounding the alarm.” – Jon Francis

• As homeowners continue to struggle with rising property tax bills, two Republican state representatives – Matt Krause (R–Haslet) and Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City) – have announced legislation to reform the governing body that decides the taxable value of your home: the local appraisal district. Robert Montoya has the details.

• Yesterday we asked if Texas lawmakers should cut taxes, keep tax burdens flat, or raise taxes. Readers responded: 94 percent want their taxes cut in 2021, leaving 4 percent and 2 percent wanting taxes to be level or raised respectively.
   
• “Being a member of the Galveston County Tax Appraisal Review Board, I guess I will have to work harder this year to help taxpayers get their property taxes reduced! The irregularities and cronyisms I see on a daily basis makes me sick.” – Carol Dean
   
• “The focus should be on cutting spending. That is the only real way to have any real tax cut.” – Frank Genco
   
• “The problem is legislators, Republican or Democrat, federal, state, and local, do not know how to make a budget and live by it like the rest of us.  They keep coming to the trough of public wealth and stealing our hard earned money, so they can waste it on frivolous spending.” – Gregory Reinhart
   
• “How can TX cut taxes when the AG is constantly spending tax dollars suing TX municipalities?” – Cynthia Wilcox

Friday Reflection

As a kid, I loved the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series of novels. As the story progressed, you’d make decisions for the characters that affected the outcome. In the daily adventure of life, we have an even more important choice: choosing our attitude toward the events around us.

In the Gospel of St. John, right before being betrayed, Jesus tells his disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” This comes shortly after telling them they’d always have the poor among them, would be persecuted for him, and the like. Sounds like trouble, right?

“Let not your hearts be troubled,” He could tell them, because He gave them something better to focus on. Just after saying that, of course, Jesus goes on to say he’s going to prepare a place for them in heaven – that God the Father loves them, and that He is with them.

In other words, they could choose to be depressed by the goings on of the sinful and fallen world around them – or focus on the reality of the world ahead. They could choose to be troubled, or choose to be joyful about their calling. 

This wasn’t just a choice for those disciples, but for each of us. There is a lot we cannot control. There is a lot of trouble around us. But we choose our perspective. We choose our reaction.

In the Book of Joshua, two simple phrases are repeated: “Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve” and “be strong and courageous.”

Will we focus on the ills, or will we look for solutions? Will we dwell on our present troubles, or press on joyfully to a glorious reward?

Today, and every day in our glorious adventure through life and liberty, we get to choose if we will be strong and courageous.  We get to choose if we will serve the God of Creation.

So choose to let your heart not be troubled—be strong and courageous in the service of a mighty God who loves us.