Sunday, June 13, 2021
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Lone Star Social Justice Round-up
It's on us to enforce it. And we will.
A small cookie biz in Lufkin, Tx created a rainbow cookie to celebrate #pride. The local backlash was immediate. Orders cancelled, hateful messages, and more. The owner thought this might be the end of her biz. She posted how heavy her heart was. Today, this. #Texas pic.twitter.com/SlAGd1k90E
— Joel Montfort 🌊 (@jmontforttx) June 5, 2021
When a batch of rainbow cookies led to a canceled order, people opened their wallets to support the East Texas bakery.https://t.co/K57jm5cdnY
— Texas Monthly (@TexasMonthly) June 9, 2021
(More PRIDE at the end. Criminal justice and women's rights posts along with racial, healthcare, and other inequality-related social justice items follow.)
Congress isn't going to help, and certainly if you were still under the impression that the Texas Legislature or any of our elected leaders, Republican or Democrat, were capable of making the changes we so desperately need ... you can stop thinking that now.
Greg Abbott and his fellow Neanderthals under the Pink Dome want your children to learn the most whitewashed version of Texas history they can paint.
Texans went into more detail than most rebel states to explain their reasons for seceding from the United States. It was to keep their slaves.
— Jon Spaihts (@jonspaihts) June 7, 2021
If you want Texas to be the best state in the nation, you need to have the courage to look honestly at your history. pic.twitter.com/n5LltTHE6E
The version of Texas history taught in school is often anglicized and sanitized. In this three-part series, we examine how one textbook falls short.https://t.co/8j7jwUtawO
— Texas Monthly (@TexasMonthly) June 8, 2021
Yes, it's true: the Constitution of the Republic of Texas enshrined slavery, banned the manumission of those enslaved, and barred Black people and Native Americans from citizenship. One could not work any harder to make the 1619 Project's argument for them. Congratulations, gentlemen; I look forward to this law's fate in the courts.
Let's be sure that we don't let our old Democratic friends off the hook here, either.
Harris County Democratic Party precinct chair resigns after racist email https://t.co/coyB0u9y5c #HouNews #HTX
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) June 9, 2021
You might be familiar with J.R. Behrman, his writing having appeared in these pages a few times under the nom de plume "Open Source Dem". During my days as an active Harris County Democrat, I served with him on the Harris County Ballot Board, verifying signatures on mailed ballots, and he served SD-13 on the SDEC for a period of time about ten years ago. We also worked together on the Progressive Populist Caucus beginning in 2006, with David Van Os' run for Texas AG against Abbott, alongside Stan Merriman and others. My defection to the Texas Greens made our friendship one of many casualties, but I knew John to be an antagonist to the establishment (read: neoliberals) and while he voiced discomfort working with Black people and women in quiet conversation then -- an acknowledgement I found self-effacing at the time he made it -- here, in his dotage, he has let his worst instincts get the better of him.
Behrman is a sample of a certain generation of white man who simply cannot overcome their ingrained biases, no matter how hard he may try. I'd like to feel sorry for him, but as a Rice-educated economist, he's very much smart enough to have known better and done better. Enjoy your retirement from politics, John.
Moving on ...
Paul Fell, Artizans Syndicate pic.twitter.com/1fUiHkdlMb
— Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) June 6, 2021
Perhaps the most thoughtful review of #ForgettheAlamo yet? Thank you @MaggieGalehouse! https://t.co/6HXDUEXRS2 @BryanBurrough @JasStanford @penguinpress
— ChrisTomlinson (@cltomlinson) June 4, 2021
As cities and counties across the state try to take down their Confederate memorials, the Texas Historical Commission keeps making their job harder. https://t.co/3T6GoXtzt0
— Texas Observer (@TexasObserver) June 9, 2021
In Texas, a struggle to memorialize a brutal lynching as resistance grows to teaching historical racism https://t.co/7G5td8Vulo
— RWLatstetter (@latstetter) June 3, 2021
The 80th Anniversary of the Murder of Bob White And Racial Justice In Polk County https://t.co/HI4Z69tit3
— Shell_Seas (@LivingBlueTX) June 3, 2021
Woolworth Building, site of San Antonio sit-ins, celebrates 100 years https://t.co/naYJMq8JoA
— Laredo Morning Times (@lmtnews) June 2, 2021
Galveston, birthplace of Juneteenth, to honor day as official city holiday 156 years later > #hounewshttps://t.co/3epWeg2ug9
— KPRC 2 Houston (@KPRC2) June 7, 2021
Women will fight back against the encroachment of their liberties. And they will fight on behalf of others when threatened.
"I cannot give up this platform to promote complacency and peace when there is a war on my body and a war on my rights," she told her class. https://t.co/Ho95rhrnO3
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) June 3, 2021
D Magazine was first to report on Lake Highlands HS valedictorian Paxton Smith and her amazing pro-reproductive rights graduation speech. In addition to all the other harm they have done, the Lege would rather fund dubious anti-choice programs than Medicaid.
#1 recommendation to help address maternal mortality was 12 months continuous coverage for Medicaid moms.
— Bill Kelly (@billkellytexas) June 8, 2021
It was cut in half for costs.
But we have $100m laying around for this?!
No metrics. No public hearings. No testimony. Just $100m and go sit down. #txlege https://t.co/RvNgNSRiAV
New blog post from Cover Texas Now: progress on health coverage, the #txlege failure on #MedicaidExpansion, and how you can fight for Medicaid expansion by the June 28th deadline. https://t.co/PaQa81YdlJ
— CTD (@TxDisabilities) June 7, 2021
In terms of police behaving badly over the past couple of weeks, the news has been heavy and lousy.
CW: VIOLENCE
— Reveal (@reveal) June 9, 2021
The @BexarCoSheriff's deputy was told the asylum-seeking boy spoke Spanish. The boy didn’t resist arrest or touch anyone.
The deputy tased him for 35 seconds.
(This video was produced by @adrianaheldiz.) pic.twitter.com/kNOhwf432n
“The lawsuit alleges that … their superiors used this as an opportunity to exploit these women, like telling them how to dress and then saying, 'Oh, well, this is all undercover, but you have to let me kiss you and grope you.'" https://t.co/lFNekzltFR
— Texas Standard (@TexasStandard) June 1, 2021
This scandal follows the one last month of the the deputy constable in the same precinct (Pct. 1, led by chief constable Alan Rosen, Democrat) who killed himself after a standoff with police in which he confessed to sexually abusing several minors.
Houston cops -- and their friends -- have been having a really bad month. Poor them.
A Texas woman was sentenced to 40 months in prison for making false 911 calls that her neighbors were drug dealers, sparking a drug raid that killed 2 people.
— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 9, 2021
2 officers face murder charges, 1 of whom allegedly bought heroin to frame the couple and then lied to obtain a warrant. pic.twitter.com/ncQbQDmu4f
28 months ago, narcotics officers stormed into a home in south Houston and killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. Today, the woman whose false 911 calls led police to their door was sentenced to 40 months in prison.https://t.co/8unAxaXd5t
— St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ (@stjbs) June 8, 2021
Former Houston police officer to plead guilty today for role in botched drug raid https://t.co/VByIfRq3CF #hounews
— Matt Schwartz (@SchwartzChron) June 1, 2021
Facts have never influenced Abbott and the Lege, however.
Spoiler from the quiz but can’t be said enough: “Places that increased their police budgets were just about as likely to see a rise in murder as places that decreased them.” #txlege https://t.co/Da57bqgftC
— Jolie McCullough (@jsmccullou) June 2, 2021
New research looking at data from millions of stops made by police in Texas in 2020 found that officers search Latino people more than any other racial or ethnic group. | via @keranews https://t.co/atPRV2SS8E
— KUT Austin (@KUT) June 3, 2021
NEW LAW: #Texas governor @GregAbbott_TX signs bills to ‘back the blue,’ increase criminal penalties for protesters. It also restricts cities’ abilities to reduce police budgets. https://t.co/dwNaba47ou #TXlege pic.twitter.com/MNedHalU5L
— Lane Luckie (@LaneLuckie) June 2, 2021
To say that Austin's city government and Travis County in particular has taken a turn to the right is becoming an understatement.
MUST READ book from @Grits4Breakfast for why a new Travis County women's jail is a bad idea 👇
— TFDP (@FairDefense) June 9, 2021
1/ "We don't need it. The jail is less than half full. New construction is not needed & is fiscally irresponsible. Nobody builds jails when they don't need to!" https://t.co/rpWrCm4Ycg
And to conclude this CJ update, some news from the courtroom and the penal system.
Using dubious evidence, Texas condemned Clinton Young to death. The prosecutor in the case served simultaneously as his accuser as well as a clerk for the judge who condemned him. Not kidding. https://t.co/CLZCtdoWid
— David Menschel (@davidminpdx) June 8, 2021
Threatening Texas with legal action: Biden administration to pursue court action if Texas @GovAbbott doesn’t rescind order shutting down federally funded shelters housing migrant kids who cross U.S.-Mexico #border without their parents. #txlege #migrants https://t.co/0XM0aAVW5X
— John Gravois (@Grav1) June 8, 2021
Texas’s prison system from the end of the Civil War to the 1980s used perhaps one of the clearest continuances of slavery, the prison plantation system. https://t.co/QaWdUTsfVd
— The Real News (@TheRealNews) June 3, 2021
Protests and anniversaries:
A year ago today, the Dallas Police Department and Texas State Troopers kettled, ambushed, tear-gassed, detained and traumatized some 700 Dallas police brutality protesters on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. https://t.co/oR5H7Y93HE pic.twitter.com/Xv3NVBjVBd
— Central Track (@Central_Track) June 1, 2021
New for @TexasObserver: Palestinian activists in Texas mobilized huge crowds last month at protests. But when it comes to convincing lawmakers to support the cause, it might be an uphill battle.
— Amal Ahmed (@amalahmed214) June 4, 2021
https://t.co/ZQrW5aVndg
The Slocum Massacre in Anderson County in 1910, predated the Tulsa Wall Street massacre by over a decade. It resulted in at least 8 African American deaths & the loss of property by those families, Pretty sure we don’t teach that in Texas history #txlege https://t.co/pfLLZvHMvD
— Retro Snacking (@Retrosnacking) June 2, 2021
Wrapping it up with some more Pride.
Few publications covered Black trans communities like @TransGriot.
— Texas Observer (@TexasObserver) May 31, 2021
Following the death of award-winning trans activist Monica Roberts, @capaciousmood writes about how the people she empowered grieve and begin to chart a new era. https://t.co/W25vpqUyN8
.@dallasnews: The baseball calendar in June is populated annually by game promotions to celebrate pride month and welcome the LGBTQ portion of an MLB team’s fan base. The Rangers are the only team that doesn’t have a pride game promotion of any kind. https://t.co/0ZBgqD2icD
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) June 1, 2021
In celebration of Pride Month, here's a throwback to our story on the Texas Gay Rodeo Association. The nonprofit organization was founded in 1985 and has donated nearly $3 million to charity, mostly to nonprofits that support people with HIV/AIDS.https://t.co/quDImEhaVG
— Texas Observer (@TexasObserver) June 2, 2021
Some updates on everything I've already blogged about this week coming tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 08, 2021
Texas Environmental Wrangle
Try not to be surprised that you're being deceived again.
Good background here via @erinmdouglas23, @MitchellFerman on #SB2 & #SB3: https://t.co/WypkSKmsMG #txlege
— Cassi Pollock (@cassi_pollock) June 7, 2021
As time ran out in the legislative session, the Texas House and Senate made last-minute changes to the bills. State lawmakers responded to February’s deadly winter storm with a few key changes to the state’s power grid that would address some issues exposed by the storm -- such as requiring power plants to upgrade for more extreme weather -- but did not make the sweeping structural changes to Texas’ electricity market that some experts have called for in the aftermath of the power crisis.
[...]
The House's version of Senate Bill 3 had an amendment to create a grant program for projects that improve the resiliency of water, electric and health care infrastructure, including hospitals, nursing homes, and dialysis centers. But the amendment was taken out during the two chamber's negotiations. [...] Most Texans will have higher charges on their power bills for years to come to cover gas utilities', electric cooperatives' and electric companies' financial losses from the storm and prevent customers from having to pay huge bills in a short time, under plans approved by both the Texas House and Senate.
Lawmakers approved bills that would allow companies to seek billions of dollars in state-approved bonds backed by charges on customers’ bills to stabilize the state’s distressed energy market.
[...]
The Senate, which has pushed hard for a financial remedy to the infamous 32-hour period during the week of the storm when regulators kept wholesale power prices at the $9,000 cap after more electric generation came online, passed HB 4492 Sunday night (May 30) about five minutes before the midnight deadline. Multiple senators complained that the House removed provisions to provide direct credits to consumers and left little time to negotiate.
"The Texas Senate made it very clear that we wanted to have some direct relief to ratepayers, and that was stripped out by the House of Representatives," said Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio. "Last night we were told to accept what they had sent us — or else."
Last, this.
After a bipartisan group of lawmakers made changes to Senate Bill 2 behind closed doors, the legislation unveiled late Saturday (May 29) would shrink the number of seats on ERCOT's board of directors from 16 to 11, and the state's top politicians would have strong influence over the board. Both chambers approved the bill Sunday evening (May 30).
A selection committee would appoint eight of the 11 board members. The selection committee would be made up of three people -- one appointed by the governor, one appointed by the lieutenant governor and one by the speaker of the House. The committee would use an "outside consulting firm" to select the eight members.
Nine of the 11 ERCOT board seats under SB 2 would be voting members, handing politicians significant power over the ERCOT board. Already, the governor appoints the board members of the Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT.
Politicians previously have not had such involvement in choosing the ERCOT board, whose members are currently selected in a variety of ways; some are chosen by ERCOT’s own nominating committee while others are appointed by companies and consumers participating in the electricity market, with members representing various power sources.
"I am pretty upset by this massive change," Cyrus Reed, president of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club, tweeted early Sunday. "This should be debated in public not snuck in a bill in the dead of night!"
The changes to ERCOT's governance captures the essence of what lawmakers have tried to do in recent weeks: Replace experts on the ERCOT board with political appointees — a change energy experts said would do little to improve the power grid.
Apologies for the Kuffner-oversized excerpt. It's also worth mentioning that the Lege was unable to keep the penalty on renewables in this bill. So ... progress.
I prefer the kind of headway made over the course of the past two weeks against Exxon Mobil, Shell, and a few other of the world's largest polluters.
Activist firm Engine No. 1 won at least two board seats at Exxon following a historic battle over the oil giant’s board of directors, signaling investors’ support for greater disclosure from the company as the world shifts away from fossil fuels. https://t.co/QBizs1lHxM
— Defend Our Future | #TimeToAct 🌎✊🏿✊ (@DefendOurFuture) May 26, 2021
Bad Day for Big Oil: Landmark decisions in courtroom and boardroom hit Exxon, Chevron, and Shell Oil; Fossil fuel industry PR has shifted from outright denying climate change to blaming consumers, new study shows... in our latest @GreenNewsReport LISTEN: https://t.co/QZ5Q3FOLXl pic.twitter.com/OZ60pjs0Tv
— Brad Friedman (@TheBradBlog) June 2, 2021
Maybe you knew this -- I did not -- but in their quest to go "green" by selling off their dirtiest assets ... it turns out that those don't actually clean anything up.
Big #Oil & gas companies are selling off their most-polluting operations to small private firms. Five of the top ten #methane emitters are small companies that are escaping scrutiny. Great reporting @HirokoTabuchi @nytclimate @sejorg @jswatz #ClimateAction https://t.co/wA0k3fdAqj
— Susan Hassol, Climate Communication (@ClimateComms) June 2, 2021
Hilcorp is owned by former @utsystem Regent Jeffery Hildebrand. Maybe this explains their reluctance to seriously tackle the major methane pollution coming from their oil fields. #txenergy https://t.co/ELReD4xOle
— Luke Metzger (@lukemetzger) June 3, 2021
Let me note this spot of good news from Austin: Chapter 313's expiration flew under the radar.
wow. this is big. Corporate subsidy quietly dies in Texas — topping off bad week for Big Oil https://t.co/37QvDUXvHy by @AlleenBrown
— Antonia Juhasz (@AntoniaJuhasz) June 3, 2021
And the previously unthinkable gets spoken and written.
The case for nationalizing #oilandgas.
— TXsharon (@TXsharon) June 7, 2021
Failing, heavily subsidized private oil companies enjoy the profits of oil extraction while the rest of us pay in tax dollars, #HumanRights abuses, and an unlivable #climate. https://t.co/oFwz8bfZeg
I like the sound of that. It's probably the only way we can overcome the climate denialism. But we'll need to elect a different president and Congress, of course.
And a new Lege.
At the start of the #TXLege session, @ErinForYall said she was "optimistic that the body [would] openly take up climate change." Has that been the case? "Not at all. In fact, that's a huge disappointment for me this session."https://t.co/bqsSsIOhuw
— One Breath Partnership (@OneBreathHOU) June 3, 2021
Returning to the Speaker, highlighting another of his failures is necessary.
"As the most powerful member of the Texas House, @DadePhelan not only failed to take that action this session, he effectively torpedoed the most consequential piece of legislation aimed at doing so," writes John Beard in the @beaumontenterprise. #txlege https://t.co/w5Tn6eRTsZ
— Public Citizen Texas (@PublicCitizenTX) June 7, 2021
It doesn't have to be like this in Texas. Months after explosions at TPC Group's Port Neches plant injured workers and illegally leaked cancer-causing 1,3-butadiene into the air, @DadePhelan said the #txlege must act.
— One Breath Partnership (@OneBreathHOU) June 7, 2021
But he didn't.https://t.co/xG96g9W5M6
Maybe Phelan will hear about that in the interim.
Along the Coastal Bend, a story I also did not get to was activist Diane Wilson and her compadres and comadres fighting Formosa Plastics and others along Matagorda and Lavaca Bay.
TIRN recently stood in solidarity with @unreasonabledw to urge USACE to rescind its permit for Max Midstream, a new oil company, to dredge a channel in Matagorda and Lavaca Bays, Texas. #StopTheDredging #StopOilExports pic.twitter.com/uP0w7YDLSg
— TIRN (@SeaTurtles_org) May 20, 2021
Activists in Port Aransas also took on a water desalination facility in Corpus Christi. And it's always nice to to have the national spotlight shine on the small towns and the intractable problems they suffer from under the yoke of Big Oil.
Because Port Isabel, TX is mostly poor, and mostly Brown, he said, “they think they can get away with more here than in other parts of the country.” - Jared Hockema, City Manager of Port Isabel https://t.co/31R0HjmgLZ
— Bekah Hinojosa (@beksbot) June 7, 2021
Since I'm down at the beach, I better talk about hurricanes.
Today is the 1st day of hurricane season. If you're in #Houston, remember:
— Zach Despart (@zachdespart) June 1, 2021
- Almost 75% of 🏘️ Harvey flooded here were outside the 100yr floodplain
- Our floodplain maps are being re-drawn & are currently outdated
Check out @HoustonChron's flood risk map⬇️https://t.co/qT7hBsWJxA
Hurricanes can also be major pollution events, as plants shut down, break down and start up again, @PublicCitizenTX's @michaelcoleman writes: "Imagine being advised to shelter in place when the refinery next door starts flaring."https://t.co/XkiRJNQTU1 https://t.co/LNHjMwjthb
— One Breath Partnership (@OneBreathHOU) June 2, 2021
And a little history.
OTD 20 years ago, Tropical Storm Allison formed off the upper-Texas coast. It would make landfall shortly there after and become the only tropical storm on record to be retired after devastating Houston with flooding--that would pale in comparison to Harvey 16 yrs later. #KHOU11 pic.twitter.com/9iD1nkkUdC
— Houston Weather (@KHOUweather) June 4, 2021
From @TracesofTexas, an image of Galveston raising their elevation after the deadly 1900 hurricane.https://t.co/ihbFNI0PW2
— Texas Highways Magazine (@TexasHighways) June 4, 2021
I'll finish with the latest on fracking and the Permian Basin.
There’s a ticking #climate time bomb in West Texas https://t.co/5h5uD70YTY #Permian
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) June 1, 2021
A month-long airborne study by @NASAJPL, @uarizona, and @ASU found that fixing the most persistent leaks in the Permian Basin oilfield’s infrastructure could cut methane emissions by 55 tons an hour. Read the full story below: https://t.co/1BSIWSt2Px
— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) June 2, 2021
Cleaning up methane pollution from the #Permian's super emitters is "low-hanging fruit" that the @TxRRC still won't touch https://t.co/7nzDe9phOF #TXLege
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) June 4, 2021
What if Joe Biden -- as part of a green infrastructure jobs program -- hired all of the oilfield and refinery workers who are scared about losing their jobs to cap all of the abandoned oil wells across the country? Just a thought. I'm sure I'm not the first one to think it.
Denton and its anti-fracking activists celebrate a five-year anniversary.
https://t.co/Q87OePkOKz
— DelilahForTexas💚☮🌻🌎 (@DelilahforTexas) June 7, 2021
"A system is corrupt when it is strictly profit-driven, not driven to serve the best interests of its people."
-Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun
Let me close out with this story of rejuvenation in East Texas and the Alabama Coushatta Nation doing their part for the pines.
In an ecosystem that needs fire to flourish, the actions of the tribe could decide the future of the longleaf pine. https://t.co/8qvCxpMo70
— Texas Observer (@TexasObserver) June 4, 2021
Did I miss something? Post it in the comments.