Jay Dean, a popular former Longview mayor and Republican member of the Texas House since 2017, is under fire from the fringy Harrison County (County seat: Marshall) Republican Party, which gave him a vote of “no confidence” because he didn’t vote the way they wanted.
I couldn’t find a copy of the actual resolution against Dean but a conservative website, “House of Bad Cards” cited five reasons they put Dean on the list as a “Four of Donkeys.”
Dean’s so-called transgressions, if all completely factual, show him to be a thinking member of the House. That’s not what the Harrison County Republican Party wants.
He did indeed vote to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton with most other representatives, no doubt there. Other sins include that he voted for a taxpayer-funded study of a mileage tax, voted to reconsider a pro-life amendment that had been adopted, voted to let San Antonio use state funds to pay for local projects, and approved legislation that “buys into the notion of carbon credits.”
One has to wonder what their position would have been on sleazy Bryan Slayton of House Dist. 2, that staunch conservative who talked his teen-age intern into some late-night “briefing” at his apartment.
But he would have voted the right way!
Chair of the county party is Lee Lester, who recently posted on the party’s Facebook page “proof” that Michelle Obama is a man. That’s enough to show you where Lester’s head is at.
Dean appears to not be all that concerned and says that someone in the group that voted no confidence has ties to “Neo-Nazis.” That’s far more possible than Michelle Obama being a man, so it at least has a chance of being accurate.
I’ve written several times about dysfunction in the Smith County Democratic Party but the Republicans show they can take the circus to an entirely different level.
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It should be painfully clear by now that no amount of suffering of any kind up to and including death is going to free Gov. Greg Abbott’s doubtful mind and melt his cold, cold heart.
Hank Williams and the Drifting Cowboy Band couldn’t sing it any better.
I don’t know exactly all the details — they are in dispute — but the tiff between Texas and the federal government over who does what in immigration control surely did not help prevent a woman and two girls from drowning near Eagle Pass over the weekend.
Yes, the woman and girls were migrants and were trying to get into the state in violation of a new state law (which itself might be deemed illegal) when they drowned. No matter what law that might have been broken, though, it certainly was not punishable by death in the Rio Grande.
Is this where we have come to? The answer to that is a resounding, “Yes.” The real question we should ask ourselves, though, is this sort of treatment of migrants — legal or illegal — how we really want to operate?
Abbott and his cadre of humanitarians in Austin obviously see that as the proper course, but Abbott seems to be running for vice president, so all his actions are tainted by pure politics. I can’t believe that real, normal Texas feel this way.
I’d say most Texans want to see better control of the border and that’s understandable. The immigration system is broken, and it is up to Congress to forge a solution. Neither party wants to do that because it is more politically expedient to be able to blame someone else.
But I digress.
The Texas Military Department (yes, we have one of those) says by the time they were contacted by the Border Patrol the two children, ages 8 and 10, and mother, age 33. Were already in a watery grave.
Before that, the crack leadership of the TMD said they didn’t see nuttin’ going on and were ready act if something popped up out of the Rio Grande. The TMD did see red when the Border Patrol tried to get through their barbed wire, saying they had orders to keep the feds out of a city park in Eagle Pass.
(I swear that Abbott or someone in Texas government has stock in a barbed wire company. Russia, if you’re listening, check that out, will you?)
The Mexican government recovered the bodies of their own citizens and, we can hope, found a way to alert any next of kin.
There are no heroes to be found in any government office regarding immigration. The champions are private organizations, church groups and even individuals, who go about trying to save lives.
Go ahead and give money to politicians if you want, but it is as good as throwing it away. If you want to make an impact, find those working at the border to do good. There are plenty of them.
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The drownings come on the heels of an appearance by Abbott on the Dana Loesch radio program. It was friendly territory for Abbott to speak his mind with the right-wing talk show host.
When Loesch asked if there was anything else the state could do to prevent migrants from crossing the border, Abbott said:
“We are deploying every tool and strategy that we possibly can. The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border because, of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”
The most generous explanation I can think up for that quote is that Abbott was making a funny, which tells you a great deal about the governor’s sense of humor, mostly that he lacks one.
True, some Texans behind the Pine Curtain and elsewhere really would not condemn shooting migrants for violating a federal misdemeanor. These people are Abbott supporters, no doubt.
Talk such as this is utterly irresponsible and is all the encouragement some people need to blast away at Latinx who just happen to be shopping at a Wal Mart, much as what happened in El Paso a few years ago.
Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke lost badly to Abbott in the last gubernatorial election, and it is tough to see him as a viable contender in the next election, but I have to wonder: In a state as big and diverse as Texas, can’t we do better than this to lead our state? I’ve asked that very question half a dozen times and keep getting the same answer.
I’ll keep on hoping for a different one.
Phil, you mentioned the delusional lawmaker who believes Michelle Obama is a man. A local singer agrees. What's her source? Fox News? No. Newsmax? No. It is Rumble, a right-wing alternative to You Tube.
Never stay silent, Phil.