Headlines / Quote of the Week
Fri., Nov. 1, 2024
Normalizing Insanity: In the final week of this election cycle, the Republican Party is running two campaigns, as The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum put it Monday. One campaign is for Trump, and the other to prepare Americans for an assault on the electoral system if he loses. As Tucker Carlson joked to a crowd Oct. 27 before Trump came out, “It’s going to be pretty hard to look at us and say, 'You know what? Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s so impressive as the first Samoan Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.’” Later, Trump was saying the U.S. “is now an occupied country, but it will soon be an occupied country no longer.” Applebaum wrote that the urge to downplay these threats is natural, but that’s also the point. “You are meant to accept this language and behavior.”
Talking the Talk: Dog whistles are so 2010s. Today, it’s bullhorns. Carlson’s weird whatever-that-was joke was just the start at the rally. Austin comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and joked that he and a Black audience member had carved watermelons together. Grant Cardone implied that Kamala Harris is a prostitute, saying “her pimp handlers” will destroy the US. And Trump reiterated once more that he will initiate the biggest deportation program in American history, The New York Times reports.
Trump Supporter Booted from Voter Roll: In August, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the state had removed thousands of noncitizens from its voter rolls. The Texas Tribune has since reported that the number of noncitizen voters was likely inflated. Now, the Tribune has identified a Trump supporter (and citizen) who was erroneously removed in the process. She’s bought into the immigrants-flooding-the-polls narrative, and she hated that anyone would question her citizenship when she has the “whitest name you could have.”
Gaming Democracy: While we’re all considering how stable our democracy is or isn’t, The New York Times Magazine took a close look at the “game theory” presented by Adam Przeworski, a political scientist. He says democracy is best understood as a game – a set of rules allows players to seek power and resolve conflicts through elections rather than violence. Przeworski once believed that it would be pretty much impossible for a democracy like the United States to collapse. Now he’s worried. There are coups, and then there’s erosion. He says democratic erosion happens when political leaders gain enough power over institutions that they can’t be effectively restrained, while leaving just enough power to keep the opposition playing by the rules.
Musk Wants GOP Judges: Elon Musk has made a $2 million donation to a Texas PAC backing Republican judicial candidates, KUT reported Wednesday. A spokesperson for the PAC says they’re opposing “soft-on-crime Democrat judges.”
We’re Definitely Voting: With early voting underway, Home Slice offered free slices to people who presented their “I Voted” sticker. Now a window at the location on 53rd is completely blacked out by hundreds of “I Voted” and “Yo Voté” stickers.
MAGA Hat Addict Attacks Elderly Person: Meanwhile, a Trump supporter allegedly assaulted an election clerk in San Antonio last week and has been charged with injuring an elderly person, a felony. The Texas Tribune reports that Jesse Lutzenberger entered a polling place with a Trump hat on, was asked to remove the hat because it is prohibited in voting places, and did so. After voting, Lutzenberger put the hat back on before he had exited the polling place and was again asked to remove it. As a 69-year-old poll worker attempted to escort him out, Lutzenberger allegedly turned and punched him several times in the face.
Time to Get Health care: Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act begins Nov. 1 and runs until Jan. 15. Experts recommend considering what kinds of health care you expect to need in the coming year in deciding which plan to join, Time magazine reports. High-deductible plans are better for those with fewer health care needs. If you plan to have surgery or expect other big-ticket expenses, choose a plan with a higher monthly premium but lower deductible.
Republican for Roberson: One of the many astounding things to come out of last week’s House Jurisprudence Committee meeting on the Robert Roberson case was co-chair Jeff Leach’s unequivocal assertion that Roberson is “fully innocent.” Leach is a hardcore Republican who recently said Greg Abbott is the best governor in the nation. But his conviction about Roberson was strong enough that last week he texted Judge Michelle Slaughter, a friend who sits on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, asking her to consider whether Roberson deserves a new trial, an apparent violation of Texas’ disciplinary rules of professional conduct. Leach apologized for the mistake on Monday. Slaughter was part of the CCA’s 5-4 majority rejecting Roberson’s appeal hours before he was nearly executed.
San Marcos River Halved: In the 1800s, before large-scale farming and urbanization, the spring flow at the headwaters of the San Marcos River was so strong that fountains rose in Spring Lake. Now, after years of drought, one of Texas’ most beautiful rivers is running at only half its normal rate. Virginia Parker, executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation, told KUT News that even a year of average rainfall won’t be enough to bring the flow rate back where it should be.
Student Fights Palestine-Related Suspension: UT student Ammer Qaddumi is asking District Judge Robert Pitman to overturn a three-semester suspension that university officials imposed on him last week related to his pro-Palestine activism. Qaddumi, a senior this year, was one of 57 demonstrators arrested during a peaceful demonstration in April protesting Israel’s bombing in Gaza. Travis County District Attorney Delia Garza dismissed the charges. Qaddumi has also filed a lawsuit against UT president Jay Hartzell, alleging his arrest violated his First Amendment rights.
Money For Schools, or Money for the State: As voters decide whether to increase property taxes to better fund Austin ISD (with the caveat that most of the new taxes raised will go to the state instead of the district), a group of 10 former school board members signed on to a letter last week opposing the tax increase. “The state is getting the majority of the money,” Cheryl Bradley, one of the former trustees, told KUT. “That makes no sense.”
Double Them Tracks: CapMetro is planning to build a second set of train tracks along the Red Line in East Austin, after the transit agency’s board of directors voted to approve a deal with the city this week. The expansion comes with new sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, and another platform at Plaza Saltillo Station, KUT reports.
Slashing SPED Funding: Of all the ways that the State of Texas shortchanges its public schools, the most egregious, in many educators’ eyes, is its refusal to adequately fund special education services. Now, the state has found a new way to hurt SPED students’ education. The Texas Tribune reports last year the Texas Health and Human Services Commission began limiting the services that school districts can request reimbursement for under the federal School Health and Related Services program, which schools use to offset SPED expenses. School districts can expect to receive $607 million less per year, thanks to the state’s actions.
Paxton Does Not Like Mussels: Ken Paxton is a man of many grievances (we have a list with the Halloween Mask) but this week he added one more to the list: freshwater mussels. The attorney general announced Tuesday that he’s suing the Biden administration over its recent placement of six types of freshwater mussel on the endangered species list. The mussels have charming names – the Guadalupe fatmucket, Texas fatmucket, Guadalupe orb, Texas pimpleback, Balcones spike, and false spike – and their listing will help keep 1,577 miles of rivers and creeks in the Colorado, Guadalupe, Brazos, and Trinity river sheds clean, according to reporting in The Texas Tribune.
Quote of the Week
“Make the margin of victory so big that you-know-what can’t happen.”
– Elon Musk at a Trump rally suggesting the election could be stolen, after discussing a future federal agency Trump has proposed Musk run
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