Good morning,

There is nothing mainstream about the establishment shills in the legacy media. So I close out the week reflecting on why that is, and what it means for citizens needing to be informed and engaged.

First, here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, November 12, 2021
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Join Brandon Waltens and Jacob Asmussen live at 11 a.m. this morning for The Headline, where they will discuss the week’s news and focus on the launch of a new organization fighting on behalf of Texas families.

Lawmakers Want Abbott To Set A Special Session

• Even though the most recent special legislative session concluded just three weeks ago, a growing number of lawmakers want a special session to address vaccine mandates. Jeramy Kitchen has the details.
   
• The Republican Party of Texas came out in support of calling yet another special session on multiple issues, including a prohibition on employer vaccine mandates. The party chairman, Matt Rinaldi, has specifically cited the rapid speed at which other states are tackling the issue.
   
• “Tennessee has already completed a three-day session to address mandates, and Florida is calling a five-day session later this month. Texas must help lead the way.” – Matt Rinaldi
   
• The list of Texas lawmakers calling for a special session includes: State Sen. Bob Hall (R–Edgewood), and State Reps. Kyle Biedermann (R–Fredericksburg), Briscoe Cain (R–Deer Park), Jeff Cason (R–Bedford), Brian Harrison (R–Waxahachie), Matt Krause (R–Haslet), Jeff Leach (R–Allen), Mayes Middleton (R–Wallisville), Matt Schaefer (R–Tyler), Matt Shaheen (R–Plano), Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City), Valoree Swanson (R–Spring), Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington),  Steve Toth (R–The Woodlands), Cody Vasut (R–Angleton), and James White (R–Hillister).

Waller ISD Takes Action When Parents Find School Porn

• In what has become an all too common scenario, parents in a Texas school district discovered explicit materials in the school libraries and demanded action. But, unlike the response in other places, Waller Independent School District’s superintendent responded – and took action. Sydnie Henry has the story.
   
• At a Waller ISD school board meeting held November 8, a father read explicitly pornographic passages from books found in Waller ISD libraries. Two days later, Waller ISD Superintendent Kevin Moran responded to parents and laid out a plan of action that includes removing the books in question from the library shelves. Moran noted those books were approved by the Texas Education Agency. He added that Waller ISD is now implementing a more rigorous reviewing process to ensure the library books are appropriate for the students’ age groups.
   
• “While we do not condone censorship, we do believe that books should be placed in school libraries appropriate to the ages and maturities of the children served.” – Waller ISD Superintendent Kevin Moran

Should ‘Green New Deal’ Oversee Texas’ Energy Industry?

• With the Democratic Party promoting the “Green New Deal,” their candidate for the energy-regulating Texas Railroad Commission will have to convince Texans it is a good idea to punish the oil and gas industry.
   
• Griffin White explains the Democrats’ plan in the context of Luke Warford’s candidacy.
   
• The Republican incumbent, Wayne Christian, has already drawn two GOP primary challengers: Tom Slocum Jr. of Houston and Dwayne Tipton of Killeen.

Denton Library To Host Transgender Storytime

• A planned transgender storytime for families at the Denton Public Library on November 20 is raising concerns among residents. Kim Roberts at The Texan reports the event coincides with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s Transgender Remembrance Day. 
   
• When a parent expressed concerns, a library official responded: “Denton Public Library serves all community members. The Uniquely You! A Transgender StoryTime features books about families, friendship, and self-expression.”

NAACP to Athletes: Boycott Texas Over Pro-Life Laws

• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People wants professional athletes to avoid signing with Texas teams, due to the implementation of the Heartbeat Law. 
   
• “According to one of the nation’s oldest civil rights organizations protecting the lives of preborn babies is unacceptable.” – Texas Right to Life

Time Is Running Out!

Friday Reflection 
Nothing ‘Mainstream’ About Crony Media

We often hear people refer to the “mainstream” media, meaning the collection of leftist newspapers and television networks that once held sway over the dissemination of facts and opinions. In fact, there is nothing “mainstream” about them.

By definition, these legacy outlets are not mainstream – as evidenced by their declining sales, diminishing market penetration, and nonexistent viability. If the newspapers and networks that get so casually labeled “mainstream” actually were, they wouldn’t be laying off reporters or seeing their circulations and viewerships diminish.

Texas newspapers, for example, have fewer readers than ever before, despite the massive surge in population. They will snivel about “online” readership, but the paywalls they established haven’t made any of them profitable. After all, no one wanted to read the drivel posing as content when it was free.

Newspapers in Texas and around the nation are dying precisely because they are not in the mainstream. You might be able to say they were once mainstream, but they are not anymore. The legacy media does not sit in the “mainstream” of political or cultural thought, but on the far-left bank.

Pretending they are “mainstream” is to legitimize the illegitimate. The establishment media operations are little more than shills for the anti-American progressives.

The state of the media has caused handwringing about the downfall of democracy and other such blather. 

The rapid decline of the crony-establishment media might just be what saves our republic.

Despite what a couple of generations of newspaper and TV network reporters claim, the First Amendment to the Constitution has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the flailing corporate media. The First Amendment did not create a special class – what some self-righteously describe as the “Fourth Estate,” as if it were some branch of government. 

No, the First Amendment enshrines the right of the people, as individuals, to run printing presses, to publish, to speak, to broadcast. Every single one of us has the right to be the media, to be journalists.

Our republic sprang to life in part because our Founding Fathers formed committees of correspondence in each of the colonies – subverting the loyalist media and keeping each other apprised of what was really happening in the colonies.

In the 21st century, citizens have stopped outsourcing their personal responsibility as journalists to the establishment hacks and are looking to each other for news, information, and opinions. It’s driving the establishment berserk.

Technology has freed citizens from the tyranny of the establishment media, which is why the statists are seeking to place a stranglehold on actual mainstream voices in social media. All that means is that each of us must speak louder.

Someone is always keeping score in politics and government; we think it ought to be the citizens. But that only happens when we know what is really going on. As a self-governing people, it is up to each of us to keep each other informed and engaged – so we can save the republic.