Good morning!

Our deep dive into the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration into Texas continues this week, examining their manipulation of our eagerness for trade and commerce. (And next week, we will launch our third season of EXPOSED, bringing all these weeks of research together!)

Also, we have the results from yesterday’s One Click Survey, asking about the “war” on conservatives…

All that and a lot more in today’s Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 
Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022

Texas House Committee Will Consider Reviving Corporate Welfare Program

• As Texas businesses and consumers struggle with the rising costs of inflation, the Texas House Committee on Ways and Means is set to consider reviving a corporate welfare program that diverts tax dollars to “incentivize” select businesses. Sydnie Henry previews Thursday’s meeting.
   
• Under a widely criticized program that expires at the end of this year, called Chapter 313 (its place in the state tax code), local school districts have been incentivized to give big property tax breaks to politically connected businesses. The districts are able to offer the tax breaks without any “cost” to themselves, because state tax dollars were used to replace the funds.
     
• The program has largely served to subsidize unreliable wind and solar farms, which cannot compete in the marketplace or be counted on to provide the energy necessary to power the state.
   
• Although the program has faced criticism from both sides of the aisle, with the Republican and Democrat Party platforms calling for an end to corporate welfare, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R–Beaumont) has confirmed his support for Chapter 313 multiple times.
      
• State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R–Brenham) has blasted the program, saying it had “run amok.”
     
• “Texas taxpayers shouldn’t be stuck with increased tax bills in order to carry the cost of well-connected businesses,” said Tim Hardin, president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. “Instead, they should demand the Texas Legislature let these programs expire and encourage local governments to compete for business by cutting taxes and red tape rather than picking winners and losers.”

H-E-B Pushes More LGBTQ Agenda On Kids

• H-E-B, the previously beloved Texas grocery chain, continues to sponsor organizations that support barbaric “gender transitions” on young children. Adam Cahn reports that H-E-B is sponsoring “Out Youth,” which promotes LGBTQ events for children.
      
• The organization, with H-E-B’s support, also provides “LGBTQIA+” counseling for children as young as 9 years old.
      

• In an article exposing the liberal activism of H-E-B CEO Charles Butt earlier this summer, Texas Scorecard reported that the San Antonio-based grocery chain was listed as a sponsor of an LGBT “pride” event in downtown Austin in June. Despite the event having taken place more than two months ago, H-E-B’s sponsorship no longer appears on the website for Rainbow on the Creek. Internet archives reveal the change happened sometime between July 16 (three days after the original article was published) and August 24.
      

• H-E-B’s customer services hotline is (210) 938-8357.

Central Texas Restaurant Hosts ‘All-Ages’ Drag Show 

• Hanovers Draught Haus in Pflugerville, north of Austin, will host a “drag brunch” on September 18. Katy Drollinger has the details.
   
• Over the past few months, citizens across the state have sounded the alarm over children attending drag shows, which often feature scantily clad men cross-dressing and dancing provocatively.
     
• Citizens have been calling on Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar to designate venues hosting drag queen shows as “sexually oriented businesses” under Chapter 102 of the Texas Business Code, which would legally prohibit minors from attending such events. Texas Family Project President Chris Hopper doubts politicians will end drag shows for children and instead calls for Texans to take action against the “subversive” events.
      
• “Parents who say, ‘This will never happen in my small town,’ are turning a blind eye.” – Chris Hopper

🇨🇳 Tracking the CCP’s Cash In Texas

• In recent investigative reporting, Texas Scorecard has examined the length and breadth of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) infiltration into Texas at multiple levels: education, land, and politics. This week, the series focuses on commerce and business.
      
• Over the past decade and beyond, the Chinese government and its corporate partners have made significant inroads in Texas commerce, creating partnerships with Texas companies and establishing a U.S. base of operations for Chinese corporations inside the Lone Star State. This behavior has been marketed as a sign of improving foreign trade relations with China, but the history of these partnerships reveal an age-old truth: Doing business with Chinese Communists is always more dangerous than it appears.
      

• As Kristen Stanciu explains, many claim that suspicions surrounding foreign investments coming from China are unfounded. After all, isn’t it reasonable to assume that these companies are only seeking to make sound financial investments? The answer is no.

Fort Worth Superintendent Pushes ‘Social Justice Agenda’

• Following a months-long search, Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD), which serves 76,000 students, is facing backlash from parents after naming a lone finalist superintendent candidate who supports the imposition of critical race theory in the classroom.
      
• Currently the superintendent in Midland, Angélica Ramsey has promoted her doctoral research as “championing the causes of equity and student success for all with a social justice agenda.”
     
• After a mandatory 21-day waiting period, FWISD’s school board will hold a final vote to select Ramsey during their September meeting.

Texas Public Policy Foundation Joins Call For ‘Invasion’ Declaration

• The CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based think tank, has joined the call for Gov. Greg Abbott to declare the crisis at the border an “invasion” as defined by the U.S. Constitution.
     
• Greg Sindelar made those comments yesterday in a speech delivered in Mexico City to the American Society of Mexico. 
     
• TPPF’s position comes after 18 counties in Texas have called on Gov. Abbott to declare an invasion.

Quote-Unquote

“To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.”

– Ella Wheeler Wilcox​

Y’All Answered

Following a nationally televised speech in which Joe Biden radically villainized his political opponents, liberal political commentators immediately began referring to it as a “wartime address.” We asked readers if they believe the left see themselves actually at war with the rest of America.

There were 95.1 percent of the readers who responded yes, while 4.9 percent disagreed.

Here’s a sampling of the replies I received in my inbox…

• “Credit the Left, warped as they are, with being true to their nature. The error is on the Right which has yet to acknowledge the war they are in. The Left wants to destroy the country more than the Right wants to save it.” – Michael Geller
      

• “I do think they have declared war on the Constitution, morality, religion, and everything else that once made America an exception in the world.” – Lloyd Smith
      

• “Better said is the deep state is and has been trying to destroy America. There is deep state on the right also.” – Melissa Oldham
     

• “Yes, the progressives are at war with America. Just listen to their words and observe their actions. I liken them to the colonists that wanted to remain loyal to Britain during the Revolutionary War; they wanted no part of this new country and new form of government.” – E. T. Page
      

• “The left is definitely trying to destroy America as we know it, from within, so they can rebuild it as a socialist country.” – Cathy Blake
      

• “Our nation is in great danger today unless we, by elections not actual war, put a stop to the left.” – Ken Hodges
     

• “I don't know how you could watch Biden's last speech and come to ANY other conclusion.” – Melynda Caudle
     

• “Biden’s speech sounded as if he was calling for a civil war between the far-left Democratic entities and the MAGA Republicans!! How else can one see this?” – Greg Burr
     

• “The facts speak for themselves: there are attacks on every entity in our society.” – Gay Armstrong
     

• “The Democrats/Marxists have moved their agenda into overdrive.  They have been emboldened and are trying to enact their radical agendas before the rest of America wakes up.” – Randy Hartman
     

• “This is spiritual warfare. This is good against evil.” – Sharon Loveall
     

• “The war by the Marxist elite began in the 60s, intensified in the 70s and 80s, came to fruition in the 90s, and here we are in a new century and they have gone for the jugular.  The fact that there is collusion with Big Tech, major corporations, the media, and all aspects of government means we have little recourse.  Their attack is on our founding, the Constitution, Christianity, the family, just about everything our country stands for.” – Carl Justice
     

• “I do believe, based on the actions of the left, there is an effort to destroy America. The weaponization of the federal government against citizens will only continue until patriots stand together and say, ‘No more.’” – Pamela Millisor
     

• “I have never heard a president of the US give a speech so filled with vitriol and hate in my 8 decades as an American.  We can't say we didn't see this coming.” – Alan Smith
     

• “Sadly, the left appears to believe this unique country has had it all wrong for 245 years and that it’s time to get to the right way of running a country – all government control and two classes, elite and serf.” – Ellen Leyrer
     

• “I think that since Joe Biden is Xi Jingping’s lapdog, we can be sure he a communist in collusion with the CCP. China MUST NOT be allowed to by ANY properties or businesses in Texas and we must purge Chinese infiltrators from Texas schools.” – William Hill
     

• “We’re currently in a cold war with the left, but a flash point is all it would take for the war to go hot, and that could happen almost anytime. I don’t expect that we will have a United States of America five years from now.” – Matthew Thibeault
     

• “They are trying to incite a civil war to call in martial law.” – Kim Moore
     

• “The insanity of the unhinged left continues ‘regressively’ with their motto of ‘Rule or Ruin.’” – Randy Miller
      

• “Many want to believe that Democrats are still reasonable and believe in the Constitution as the founding generation did.  Unfortunately, they are wrong.” – Roger Taylor
    

• “If the Democrats are not at war with the rest of America, it certainly feels and looks that way.” – Joseph Hunt
     

• “It's kind of irrelevant whether or not they're destroying the country intentionally or not. What matters is that they ARE destroying it.” – Chris Schrum
     

• “Yes, but ‘At War’ in Snowflake lingo. Lies, innuendo, verbal assault and challenges.” – Reid Davidson

Your Federal & State Lawmakers

The districts displayed here should reflect those recently redrawn by the Legislature. Though the new lines do not take representational effect until 2023, they will appear on the 2022 ballot. Please note that your incumbent legislator and/or district numbers may have changed.