Buoyed by new polling, Texas organizations seek to lift the ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion
Though access to abortion is a perennial target for ultra-conservative Republicans in the state legislature, new data indicates that a majority of Texans are not supportive of the restrictive anti-choice laws that have come to define the state. Earlier this week, a...
Musings: Long Division
Dear readers, if you’re anything like me you are forgiven if for a few hours on Wednesday you thought you slipped into an alternate timeline. In remarks opposing the second impeachment (hey, he finally broke a record!) of Donald J Trump, Republican after Republican...
Dan ‘Georgia Reloaded’ Crenshaw says country must deescalate
One month after starring in a political ad where he jumps out of a plane to beat the shit out of Antifa (other Americans), Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston says the country "must tone down the rhetoric and calm tensions.” Crenshaw’s plea for cooler heads came as part of a...
Texas lawmakers vote on impeaching Trump for inciting insurrection
The Democrat-controlled House on Wednesday voted to impeach the president on charges of incitement of insurrection relating to the attack on the Capitol last week. It is the first time in history a president has been impeached twice. The 232-197 vote to impeach...
Texas can mitigate budget pain by ending corporate handouts
State lawmakers entered session on Tuesday facing a $1 billion revenue shortfall inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. One place the legislature could look to begin balancing the budget is the Texas Economic Development Act, better known as Texas Tax Code Chapter...
Texas Democrats blast Trump on his visit to the Rio Grande Valley
With less than nine days left in his presidency (unless he is removed from office or resigns), President Trump is making one last trip to Texas, prompting outcry from Texas Democrats. It will mark the first time Trump has left Washington D.C. since the insurrection at...
Texas faces almost $1 billion budget shortfall
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar released the biennial revenue estimate on Monday, informing lawmakers the state is projected to have $112.5 billion in revenue for the 2022-23 budget. That’s a 0.4 percent decrease from 2020-21 biennium, which Hegar is projecting...
Where is Greg Abbott? His Silence is Dangerous.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s silence on the siege of the U.S. Capitol is shameful and weak. Sen. Ted Cruz, Congressman Louie Gohmert, indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton and state Party Chair Allen West all played prominent roles in pushing unsubstantiated claims of election...
Musings: The Bigger the Lie
The fifth and final season of The Wire, the deeply textured drama created by former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon that finds a way to explore every facet of an ailing city across five epic seasons, begins with a scene born from Baltimore police legend in which a...
New Democrat-led Senate could save Texas from its own gerrymandering
Democrats scooped two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia on Tuesday, giving them a small majority in the upper chamber. That means the legislative blockade by Sen. Mitch McConnell is gone, and the bills he once scuttled upon arrival in the Senate have a real chance of...
More Texas Democrats line up for impeachment
Texas Democrats are making it clear that President Trump, after stoking and inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, will face consequences. Yesterday, several Texas Democrats announced they were supportive of removing President Trump from office either through...
COVID-19 is No Excuse to Keep Texans Out of the Legislative Process
Access to the Capitol will be quite limited for the general public this upcoming legislative session. If it's true that democracy dies in the dark it’s especially at risk in a redistricting year when crowds of concerned citizens are not allowed to gather, while their...
AOC calls on Ted Cruz to resign — or face expulsion
New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined Texas Democrats this morning in calling for Sen. Ted Cruz to resign for his role in helping inspire a pro-Trump attack on the nation’s Capitol on Wednesday. “Sen. Cruz, you must accept responsibility for how...
Several Texas Democrats call for the removal of President Trump
In the aftermath of rioters breaching the Capitol, incited by the rhetoric of President Trump, several Texas Democrats are joining a chorus of calls for Vice President Pence and the U.S. Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment against the President. All the Democrats on...
Musings: Requiem for Patriotism
What were they thinking? Like many of you, I settled into a chair yesterday afternoon knowing that I was about to watch something that is ordinarily perfunctory and ceremonial perverted into political theater aimed at the lowest common denominator, but nothing could...