Abbott Carries Through With Threat, Vetoes Slew Of Bills

June 17th, 2023

If you’ve read BattleSwarm long enough, you know I view Texas Governor Greg Abbott as a cautious, careful politician. He generally pursues conservative policies, but not with the drive and fervor of, say, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The bussing illegal aliens to blue cities ploy was a welcome departure from Abbott’s caution, but here too his sentiment trailed rather than lead conservative consensus.

But it appears that Abbott has finally found the issue he’s willing to play hardball on: Property tax reform.

fter Gov. Greg Abbott indicated Wednesday he could veto a large number of bills if no compromise is reached between the House and Senate on property tax relief, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Abbott is threatening to destroy the work of the legislature.

Abbott made his comments during a bill signing ceremony on Wednesday, with just days left until Sunday, June 18—the last day he can sign bills into law or veto them. In Texas, any legislation not specifically vetoed by the governor becomes law.

There were 4,550 pieces of legislation passed by the Texas House and Senate and sent to the governor as part of the 88th Session of the Legislature. As of Wednesday night, Abbott had signed 873 pieces of legislation into law and vetoed five.

“As we get closer and closer to this Sunday, all of these bills that have yet to be signed face the possibility, if not the probability, that they’re going to be vetoed,” said Abbott.

Abbott has called for all of the $12 billion currently allocated to property tax relief to be used for compression—or buying down local school property taxes. While the House approved this plan on the first day of the current special session, Patrick and the Senate have stood firm in their desire for some of the money to be used to increase the homestead exemption. According to Patrick, this is a way to prioritize relief for homeowners over businesses.

“In a ploy to apparently get his way, Governor Abbott suggests he is threatening to destroy the work of the entire 88th Legislative Session – hundreds of thousands of hours by lawmakers doing the work the people sent us to do,” wrote Patrick on Twitter.

I usually back Patrick over Abbott, but looking at the list of bills he’s vetoed, I can’t say I’m broken up over them. (Some snippage for brevity.)

SB 2613
Author: Sen. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound)
Sponsor: Rep. Lynn Stucky (R-Denton)
Caption: Relating to the creation of the Tabor Ranch Municipal Management District; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes; granting a limited power of eminent domain.
Veto Date: June 16
Abbott’s statement: “While Senate Bill No. 2613 is important, it is simply not as important as cutting property taxes. At this time, the legislature must concentrate on delivering
property tax cuts to Texans. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.” [Most of Abbott’s veto statements for subsequent bills are of the “X is important, but not as important as cutting property taxes” formulation, so I’ve snipped those.-LP]

SB 2605
Author: Sen. Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton)
Sponsor: Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Killeen)
Caption: Relating to the creation of the Knob Creek Municipal Utility District of Bell County; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 2598
Author: Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney)
Sponsor: Rep. Frederick Frazier (R-McKinney)
Caption: Relating to the creation of the Honey Creek Improvement District No. 1; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments and fees.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 2597
Author: Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe)
Sponsor: Rep. Cecil Bell Jr. (R-Magnolia)
Caption: Relating to the creation of the Montgomery County Municipal Utility District No. 237; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 1979
Author: Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola)
Sponsor: Rep. Caroline Harris (R-Round Rock)
Caption: Relating to an annual study by the Texas A&M University Texas Real Estate Research Center of the purchase and sale of single-family homes by certain institutional buyers.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 2616
Author: Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Brownsville)
Sponsor: Rep. Maria Luisa Flores (D-Austin)
Caption: Relating to the creation of the Travis County Municipal Utility District No. 27; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 2604
Author: Sen. Boris Miles (D-Houston)
Sponsor: Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston)
Caption: Relating to the creation of the Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 589; granting a limited power of eminent domain; providing authority to issue bonds; providing authority to impose assessments, fees, and taxes.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 2453
Author: Sen. Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio)
Sponsor: Ana Hernandez (D-Houston)
Caption: Relating to certain regulations adopted by governmental entities for the building products, materials, or methods used in the construction of residential or commercial buildings.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 2379
Author: Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown)
Sponsor: Caroline Harris (R-Round Rock)
Caption: Relating to aquifer storage and recovery projects that transect a portion of the Edwards Aquifer.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 2260
Author: Sen. Cesar Blanco (D-El Paso)
Sponsor: Rep. Toni Rose (D-Dallas)
Caption: Relating to management review of certain investigations conducted by the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 2052
Author: Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville)
Sponsor: Rep. Trent Ashby (R-Lufkin)
Caption: Relating to permit fees for groundwater wells imposed by the Southeast Texas Groundwater Conservation District.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 1712
Author: Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock)
Sponsor: Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo)
Caption: Relating to the purchase, sale, or lease of real property on behalf of a limited partnership or a limited liability company.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 1568
Author: Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels)
Sponsor: Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano)
Caption: Relating to the persons authorized or appointed to exercise the power of sale under the terms of a contract lien on real property.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 1431
Author: Sen. Chuy Hinojosa (D-McAllen)
Sponsor: Rep. Bobby Guerra (D-Mission)
Caption: Relating to the confidentiality of certain information for a current or former administrative law judge for the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 526
Author: Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas)
Sponsor: Rep. David Cook (R-Mansfield)
Caption: Relating to requiring prior approval by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to offer a degree or certificate program to certain persons who are incarcerated or subject to involuntary civil commitment.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 485
Author: Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas)
Sponsor: Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress)
Caption: Relating to designating the second Saturday in October as Hospice and Palliative Care Day.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 361
Author: Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (D-Austin)
Sponsor: Rep. Hugh Shine (R-Temple)
Caption: Relating to the eligibility of a person employed by a school district as a teacher to serve on the appraisal review board of an appraisal district.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 348
Author: Sen. Drew Springer (R-Muenster)
Sponsor: Rep. Morgan Meyer (R-Dallas)
Caption: Relating to the prohibition on posting on the Internet information held by an appraisal district regarding certain residential property.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 315
Author: Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood)
Sponsor: Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos (D-Richardson)
Caption: Relating to the definition of telephone call for purposes of regulating telephone solicitations.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 267
Author: Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford)
Sponsor: Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock)
Caption: Relating to law enforcement agency accreditation, including a grant program to assist agencies in becoming accredited.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 247
Author: Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston)
Sponsor: Rep. Mary Ann Perez (D-Houston)
Caption: Relating to specialty license plates issued for honorary consuls.
Veto Date: June 16

SB 1080
Author: Sen. Lois Kolhorst (R-Brenham)
Sponsor: Rep. Stan Gerdes (R-Smithville)
Caption: Relating to a mitigation program and fees for the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District.
Veto Date: June 15

SB 2493
Author: Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston)
Sponsor: Rep. John Bryant (D-Dallas)
Caption: Relating to repairs made pursuant to a tenant’s notice of intent to repair and the refund of a tenant’s security deposit.
Veto Date: June 15

SB 1998
Author: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
Sponsor: Rep. Hugh Shine (R-Temple)
Caption: Relating to the calculation of certain ad valorem tax rates.
Veto Date: June 15
Abbott’s statement: “Senate Bill No. 1998 requires data reporting on property taxes, but does nothing to cut property taxes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

HB 2879
Author: Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress)
Sponsor: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
Caption: Relating to venue in certain actions involving a contract for an improvement to real property.
Veto Date: June 15
Abbott’s statement: “House Bill No. 2879 would insert the government into private negotiations involving the work of contractors, subcontractors, and materialmen. Laws about venue selection are simply not as important as cutting property taxes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

HB 2138
Author: Rep. Kyle Kacal (R-College Station)
Sponsor: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
Caption: Relating to the sale of charitable raffle tickets by certain nonprofit wildlife conservation associations.
Veto Date: June 15
Abbott’s statement: “Though House Bill No. 2138 would expand gambling for a worthy cause, our oath obliges us to take a second look at statewide sales of online raffle tickets so that they do not run afoul of Article III, Section 47(d) of the Texas Constitution. Laws authorizing online raffle ticket sales are simply not as important as cutting property taxes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

HB 4158
Author: Rep. Mike Schofield (R-Katy)
Sponsor: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
Caption: Relating to the determination and reporting of the number of residence homesteads of elderly or disabled persons that are subject to the limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed on the properties by school districts.
Veto Date: June 14
Abbott’s statement: “House Bill No. 4158 appears to require more paperwork about property taxes, but does nothing to cut property taxes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

SB 467
Author: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
Sponsor: Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano)
Caption: Relating to increasing the criminal penalty for the offense of criminal mischief involving impairment of a motor fuel pump.
Veto Date: June 14
Abbott’s statement: “Senate Bill No. 467 would impose a harsher sentence for tampering with a gas pump than for damaging the electric grid or cutting a livestock fence. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

SB 2035
Author: Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston)
Sponsor: Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake)
Caption: Relating to the issuance of certain anticipation notes and certificates of obligation.
Veto Date: June 13
Abbott’s statement: “Senate Bill 2035 has too many loopholes. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

(My apologies for your eyes glazing over skimming reading that.)

I’m split between my admiration for Abbott having the balls to veto these bills, and the lazy and generally false statement of saying “X is important, but not as important as property tax relief,” given that most of these bill are not very important at all, save to a few special interests. Some of them, such as SB 2453, should have been vetoed on its merits for the government sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong. Without reading the full texts of each and every bill (not my job, because I’m not Governor of Texas), almost all the one with Democratic sponsors seem like they should be vetoed on the merits, and the rest seem pretty special-interest geared. At a glance, the only veto I actually disagree with is SB 467, because gas pump skimmers have recently become a big fraud vector.

But Abbott is right on one big issue: The 88th Texas Legislative Session should have spent the time to pass property tax relief, an issue that directly impacts the pocket books of millions of Texas homeowners. I have not researched the issue enough to determine whether compression or a raising the homestead exemption are more desirable. Abbott and the Texas Public Policy Foundation favor compression, while Patrick favors raising the homestead exemption. Though I can well understand his rejecting House Speaker Dade Phelan’s “let’s pass this and adjourn so you have to accept our bill without negotiation” tactic.

But I’m not upset with Abbott’s vetoes. He should have done a lot more of them, a lot earlier on, to cut down on the growth of government spending and regulation.

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Posted in Budget, Communism, Regulation | 6 Comments »

LinkSwarm for June 16, 2023

June 16th, 2023

More Biden corruption comes to light, California gets even more crazy, and two former European Prime Ministers step out of the spotlight in different ways.

  • “House Oversight Chairman Says There Is Evidence Of $20-$30 Million Of Illegal Payments To Bidens.”

    House Oversight Chairman James Comer revealed Thursday that he expects there is evidence of at least $20-$30 million being made in illegal payments by foreign nationals to the Biden family.

    Appearing on Fox Business, Comer stated “We have more bank records coming in but we’re gonna exceed $10 million this week but I think we’ll get up to $20-$30 million.”

    He further noted that it is becoming clear that the Bidens potentially engaged in bribery, influence peddling, and money laundering.

    “This is going to be hard for Biden to explain, this is not going to go away, and I think eventually the mainstream media is going to start asking the real questions,” Comer added.

    “They know there’s something wrong here. They know all the allegations have merit, because of where Joe Biden was, because of what we’ve seen on tape before, where Joe Biden bragged about firing that prosecutor,” he added,

    “They know that this family created these shell companies. They know this family was money-laundering, they were profiting off Joe Biden’s influence,” Comer asserted, adding “The media knows that – they’re just not covering it.”

    “I can assure you: there is more money that we’re going to be able to identify, that was transferred between foreign nationals in other countries and the Biden family,” Comer further emphasized, adding “I think, eventually, the mainstream media will turn on Joe Biden and start asking the real questions: ‘What did your family do to receive all this money?’”

  • Speaking of Biden family corruption: “House Oversight Panel Subpoenas Former Hunter Biden Associate Devon Archer…[The committee] is particularly interested in Archer’s involvement in the family’s international business deals, which included countries like China, Russia, and Ukraine.” Archer was in Global Seneca Partners with Hunter Biden and John Kerry’s stepson.
  • Meanwhile, Robert Hur, the special council charged with investigating Biden, seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.
  • Biden recession update: Average real weekly earnings have dropped for the 26th consecutive month. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • California advances bill to help shoplifters steal.
  • “Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison stepped down this week as the progressive-run city struggles with homicides, a drug crisis, and a troubling rise in violence involving teenagers.” Time to pull this out again:

  • Illegal aliens try to hijack merchant ship with knives. Italian commandos demonstrate that’s a bad idea.
  • Jihadis kill nine in Congo.
  • The Netherlands are closing the largest natural gas field in Europe.
  • Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s longest-serving prime minister, dead at 86. Berlusconi revived Italy’s economy, but then couldn’t keep it out of the PIIGS. But for a whilehe kept the wolves at bay.
  • Also stepping out of the spotlight this week: Former UK Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned from Parliment. Other than getting Brexit accomplished, Johnson’s tenure seemed all sizzle and no steak.
  • California’s unrealistic environmental policies are creating a trucking nightmare.

    In April 2023, an unelected Board in California voted to force trucking companies to buy zero-emission trucks. This technology is at early-stage adoption in limited segments, and infrastructure buildout is lagging behind what is required to support electrification in our industry. The Board unanimously advanced the Advanced Clean Fleet rule to accompany California’s equally tough electric vehicle sales mandate regulation, the Advanced Clean Truck rule, that would require truck manufacturers to sell zero-emission vehicles. These two regulations together are designed to create an artificial electric vehicle market sooner rather than later.

    This new rule was made at the behest of the environmental lobby, which pushed for unrealistic targets and unachievable timelines that will undoubtedly lead to higher prices for goods delivered to the state and fewer options for consumers. ATA has strongly opposed this rule from the outset and testified at a hearing in Sacramento to express the trucking industry’s concerns directly to the Board.

    Snip.

    Today’s clean diesel trucks can spend 15 minutes fueling anywhere in the country and then travel about 1,200 miles before fueling again. In contrast, today’s zero-emission trucks:

    • Have significantly less range of about 150-330 miles between charging or refueling;
    • Need to be charged or refueled more often and for longer periods of time leading to unproductive downtime;
    • Cost two to three times more than a comparable clean-diesel truck; and
    • Weigh thousands of pounds more, reducing payload capacity and requiring more trucks and drivers to move the same amount of freight.

    Also: “The California Energy Commission estimates that 157,000 chargers will need to be installed by 2030 to support California’s heavy-duty vehicle electrification goals.” Assuming there’s enough Lithium in the world for the batteries… (Hat tip: TPPF.)

  • Hope for San Francisco? Residents replace drug-addicted transients on their local sidewalks with large planters.
  • Two Russian oil tanks collide for exactly the reasons you would expect.
  • “DNC Generously Offers To Host Rally For Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By Grassy Knoll.”
  • “Satan Asks LGBTQ Community To Please Tone It Down A Bit.”

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors, video, Waste and Fraud | 4 Comments »

    Federal Court To Biden: “No, You Can’t Have A National Guard Vax Mandate. Not Yours.”

    June 15th, 2023

    Slowly but surely the relics of governmental overreach in the name of containing Flu Manchu are being rolled back. Texas Governor Greg Abbott finally announced he was letting his three year old emergency declaration lapse. (Are you sure you’re not rushing there, governor?)

    Now a federal court has slapped down Biden’s vaccine mandate on the National Guard.

    Just hours after Gov. Greg Abbott finally ended the COVID-19 disaster declaration, he announced that he won an appeals case against the Biden administration for attempting to enforce vaccine mandates on the Texas National Guard.

    In January 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden to stop him from forcing the Texas Army National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard to get coronavirus vaccinations.

    Over a year later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued its ruling that the Constitution and laws of the United States deny Biden the power to punish members of the Texas National Guard if they refused to get injected with the vaccine.

    Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham stated in his opinion that he rejects the president’s assertion of power over the members because they were not called into national service.

    In this case, President Biden imposed and then repealed a mandate requiring State militiamen to take the COVID-19 vaccine. And now that the President has rescinded the vaccine requirement, he wants to retain the power to punish militia members who refused to get the shots while the mandate was in effect—all without calling them into national service. We reject the President’s assertion of power because it would undermine one of the most important compromises in the Constitution. If the Constitution’s text, history, and tradition make anything clear, it’s that the President can punish members of the Texas militia only after calling them into federal service.

    In Paxton’s lawsuit, he argued that neither the president nor federal military officials can force the state’s National Guard to comply with vaccination mandates.

    “Neither the President nor federal military officials can order the Governor of Texas and non-federalized National Guardsmen to comply with a vaccination mandate or to direct a particular disciplinary action for failure to comply,” Paxton’s office wrote in a press release. “President Biden is not those troops’ commander-in-chief; Governor Abbott is.”

    There seems to be no constitutional limit statists won’t override in their eternal, all-encompassing quest for dominion over others. Eternal vigilance is still the price of freedom.

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    Posted in Regulation, Texas | 1 Comment »

    I’m Really Satisfied With My Maytag MVWP575GW Washer

    June 14th, 2023

    Here’s a bit of appliance review that, alas, I probably can’t profit from in any way, since Amazon doesn’t seem to sell the model.

    My old Whirpool washer died in December, so I did some research as to what washer I should be. And most of my research was watching this video:

    And the two brands he recommended were:

  • The Speed Queen TC5000, for which I was quoted delivery times of 6-8 weeks, and
  • The Maytag MVWP575GW, which I could order directly from Maytag in about a week for around a grand, plus shipping and install. So that’s what I did.

    • That’s more than you’re going to pay for an average washer these days. I’ve been using it for six months now, and I’m pretty satisfied.

    What’s so special about it? It uses commercial grade mechanical parts instead of cheap plastic parts and fragile electronics.

    It’s a dumb washer rather than a smart one. This has many benefits:

  • Once you press Start, instead of spending 20 or 30 seconds with the “Sensing” LED lit up, it simply starts filing the tub with water.
  • If you forget to add something you meant to wash, you press the same Start button, lift the lid, put it back down, and press it again, and the washer simply starts washing where it left off. It doesn’t blink lights at you accusingly and refuse to run until you unplug and replug the machine.
  • So far it’s never stopped mid-cycle for no discernible reason.
  • It finishes washing quicker, even with a presoak and extra spin.

    • America’s misguided energy- and water-saving regulations have left us with an array of devices that inferior to earlier generations of dumb devices at the main job they were designed for.

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    Posted in Regulation, Uncategorized, video | 12 Comments »

    Why Disney Fails: Their Blindness To Real Geek Culture

    June 13th, 2023

    Here’s a nice, short rant from Paul Chato (who I’d not heard of before) on why Disney’s social justice re-imagining of classic franchises fail: It’s not just their woeful ignorance of their own franchise, it’s the woeful ignorance of the vaster connected universe of fandom/geekdom/nerdom.

  • “The thing that really ties those of us who grew up reading comic books together is not the primary properties like Superman, Batman, Spider-man, or even Lord of the Rings, but the peripheral stuff or peripheral interests. When we talk to each other, we’ll also reference video games, anime, manga, computers, astronomy, network protocols, synthesizers, cars.”

  • Put a bunch of us nerds together, even complete strangers, into a room, well, Heaven help you, and soon we’ll be talking about Cowboy Bebop or Akira Kurosawa, or NES, Atari, ColecoVision, Ultraman, Kirby, Adams, McFarland, Studio Ghibli, second breakfasts, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Fireball XL5, Scooby-Doo, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Matrix (only the first one), Terminator, Blade Runner, Aliens, Herge, Miller, Robert E. Howard, Harryhausen, Lasseter, good scotch. Has anyone heard Kathleen Kennedy talk about any of those things? Of course not, and I can hear you laughing.

    • That’s a pretty good name check list, though I’d add Robert A. Heinlein and H. P. Lovecraft (among others).

    But it’s an interesting point: Social justice showrunners are woefully ignorant of vast swathes of knowledge held by the fandoms they hold in such withering contempt.

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    Posted in Media Watch, video | 27 Comments »

    This Is Your City On Democrats: Philadelphia

    June 12th, 2023

    Evidently it is the deepest desire of Democratic Party activists to turn the streets of American cities into needle-strewn wastelands of drug addicts openly shooting up and shitting on the street. Because that’s the results that the Democratic Party drug- and crime-tolerant policies create time and time again.

    Here’s a video of the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

  • “This is Kensington Philadelphia the center of America’s drug epidemic overrun with a drug known as tranq, a mixture of horse tranquilizer and Fentanyl that’s turning people there into real life zombies.”
  • Needles are everywhere on the streets, despite the remaining law-abiding occupants and shop owners sweeping them up in the morning.
  • “People come here from all over. They drive here and then they never leave. So everyone comes out here to get drugs. This is the hub, and you can shoot them up and cops wouldn’t do anything about it.”
  • “It’s crazy. You’ll see one block that looked clean, and then you go to the next block over: feces.”
  • “A new problem 24/7 gambling [machines]…they’re in every store.”
  • “Everyone’s using tranq.”
  • Even the drug addicts call frforom bringing the military in to clean up the place.
  • Unmentioned: Philadelphia’s DA is Larry Krasner, another George Soros-backed stooge. Vote for a Soros stooge, get 24/7 open air drug markets in your city, absolutely free!

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    Posted in Crime, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, video | 7 Comments »

    Even The Unibomber Couldn’t Stand College Lefties

    June 11th, 2023

    I assume you saw that Unibomber Ted Kaczynski died in federal prison. Serial murder of strangers in the name of destroying modern civilization is no laughing matter, but this was too funny not to point out:

    Evidence that college leftists are so annoying that even serial murdering environmental lunatics can’t stand them…

    (Hat tip: Dwight.)

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    Posted in Crime, Social Justice Warriors | 2 Comments »

    Abbott Gets His Slush Fund Back

    June 10th, 2023

    Remember the old Chapter 313 program Texas used to dole out incentives to favored companies to relocate to Texas? It’s back under a new name.

    House Bill 5, which author State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi) calls the “Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation Act,” would create a new statewide economic incentive program to replace the state’s controversial Chapter 313 program, which ended after lawmakers declined to renew it during the 2021 legislative session.

    Although both the Republican Party of Texas and the Democrat Party of Texas oppose corporate handouts in their platforms, State Sen. Charles Schwertner (R–Georgetown), has said “the majority of the Legislature does see value in a job-creating, economy-growing incentive program.”

    HB 5 was a priority of House Speaker Dade Phelan (R–Beaumont) and approved by a vote of 120-24 in the House and 27-4 in the Senate.

    However, Jeramy Kitchen, executive director of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility told Texas Scorecard the new law is a “contradiction and nothing more.”

    “On one hand, he is telling Texans that he wants to see historic property tax relief and the elimination of the property tax, or more specifically the school M&O portion of the property tax,” explained Kitchen. “Both of those are things that TFR supports and encourages the legislature to take action on.”

    “His signing of House Bill 5 however, points to a contradiction, as it ultimately will do nothing more than burden those same individual property taxpayers he purports to provide historic relief to, as large qualifying corporations receive a property tax abatement under the guise of economic development,” said Kitchen.

    Like Chapter 313, HB 5 allows businesses to apply for a 10-year abatement—or reduction—of school district property taxes, which the state pays instead. To receive an abatement, the business would have to show it plans to hire a certain number of employees earning above-average wages for its particular industry.

    Unlike the previous incentive program, HB 5 requires not just the applicant and school district to agree to the abatement, but also the comptroller, governor, and a seven-member legislative oversight committee composed of lawmakers from the state House and Senate.

    This committee would have the final say on approving proposed projects and would provide periodic recommendations to the Legislature regarding which types of projects should be considered.

    The problem with the old program was that it let government use taxpayer money to pick winners from the politically connected. Abbott has wanted the restoration of his economic incentive “carrot” ever since it expired. The new law even creates another level of politicos for businesses to suck up to get tax rebate goodies, and I bet competition to get assigned to that new “oversite committee” will be fierce.

    The old program probably did incentivize a few edge-case businesses to move to Texas who wouldn’t otherwise, but Texas’ low-tax, low-cost and business-friendly regulatory environment already provides plenty of incentives to move here, as evidenced by the fact that businesses kept relocating here even in their absence.

    At least there’s one improvement in the new version: “After Chapter 313 received much criticism for its funding of “renewable energy” projects, which Texas Scorecard previously examined in an extensive investigation, lawmakers also blocked such industries from receiving taxpayer funding through HB 5.”

    Taxpayers are better served by keeping their own money than theoretically enjoying the down-the-line economic benefits of government functionaries showering their money on corporate welfare for businesses willing to do the requisite sucking-up to political figures in order to get paid to move here.

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Republicans, Texas, Welfare State | 2 Comments »

    LinkSwarm for June 9, 2023

    June 9th, 2023

    Welcome to the Friday LinkSwarm! This week: Too much Facebook/Instagram/pedophile news, and not enough songs about buildings and food.

    

  • Funny how the indictment against Trump dropped just as evidence surfaced that Biden had taken $5 million in bribes from Bursima. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
    

  • Thanks to “green energy,” there’s a good chance that more energy blackouts are coming this summer.

    Summer’s coming. That means sunshine, swimming, cookouts — and blackouts.

    That’s the warning from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.

    According to NERC, at least two-thirds of the country is at risk for major power outages this summer.

    This extends to most everyone west of the Mississippi except for Texas.

    Texas and much of the Midwest will be fine, the report says, so long as we don’t experience hot, windless summer days.

    Well, that’s a relief. When do we ever get hot, windless summer days in Texas and the Midwest?

    Part of the problem is the steady removal of fossil-fuel plants from the grid.

    These plants are supposed to be replaced by renewables — wind and solar — but wind doesn’t work on windless days, and solar doesn’t keep your air conditioning running on steamy nights.

    The Wall Street Journal reports the Environmental Protection Agency has made things worse with new nitrogen-oxides rules from its recently finalized “Good Neighbor Plan, which requires fossil-fuel power plants in 22 states to reduce NOx emissions. NERC predicts power plants will comply by limiting hours of operation but warns they may need regulatory waivers in the event of a power crunch.”

  • Institute for the Study of War: “Ukrainian forces conducted a limited but still significant attack in western Zaporizhia Oblast on the night of June 7 to 8. Russian forces apparently defended against this attack in a doctrinally sound manner and had reportedly regained their initial positions as of June 8.” Other sources are reporting modest Ukrainian gains.
  • Instagram is evidently home of a giant pedophile network.

    A comprehensive investigation by the Wall Street Journal and the Stanford Internet Observatory reveals that Meta-owned Instagram has been home to an organized and massive network of pedophiles.

    But what separates this case from most is that Instagram’s own algorithms were promoting pedophile content to other pedophiles, while the pedos themselves used coded emojis, such as a picture of a map, or a slice of cheese pizza.

    Instagram connects pedophiles and guides them to content sellers via recommendation systems that excel at linking those who share niche interests, the Journal and the academic researchers found.

    The pedophilic accounts on Instagram mix brazenness with superficial efforts to veil their activity, researchers found. Certain emojis function as a kind of code, such as an image of a map—shorthand for “minor-attracted person”—or one of “cheese pizza,” which shares its initials with “child pornography,” according to Levine of UMass. Many declare themselves “lovers of the little things in life.” -WSJ

    According to the researchers, Instagram allowed pedophiles to search for content with explicit hashtags such as #pedowhore and #preteensex, which were then used to connect them to accounts that advertise child-sex material for sale from users going under names such as “little slut for you.”

    Sellers of child porn often convey the child’s purported age, saying they are “on chapter 14,” or “age 31,” with an emoji of a reverse arrow.

  • Instagram can’t block pedophiles, but it can block the account of Democratic Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Remember: Opposing the corrupt Biden Cabal is a worse crime than pedophilia for vast swathes of our media elites… (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • Speaking of Meta, they’re threatening to “pull news feeds on its platforms for California residents if the state legislature passes the Journalism Preservation Act.” That act “requires big tech companies to pay news outlets a journalism usage fee.” For once the pedo-coddlers are right: No one should be forced to subsidize failing social justice-infected newsrooms.
  • Speaking of pedophiles: “Itasca ISD Superintendent Michael Stevens arrested, charged with online solicitation of a minor.” Maybe parents wouldn’t worry so much about educators trying to screw their children if educators didn’t keep trying to screw their children.
  • This week in Democrats passing unconstitutional laws that strip citizens of rights: “llinois’s Gov. J. B. “Jumbo Burger” Pritzker signed himself a whale of a state law yesterday that went into effect IMMEDIATELY. And, immediately, restricted Illinois citizens from pursuing constitutional claims against their state government unless they filed the lawsuits in one of two, Democratic approved, state sanctioned, Democratic counties – Cook or Sangamon.” That’s a prima facie violation of the First Amendment “right of the people…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
  • Free New York City crack pipe vending machine cleaned out overnight. “Free crack pipe vending machine” sounds like the punchline to a Norm MacDonald joke from the 1990s, but it’s now evidently the policy of New York Democrats.
  • North Dakota’s Republican Governor is running for President. Burgum is evidently a billionaire after being an early investor in Great Plains Software, which was sold to Microsoft in 2001. The fact he’s close to Bill Gates doesn’t give me a lot of warm fuzzies, and Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg proved that rich-but-unknown outsiders shoveling money into a Presidential campaign costs you a lot of jack and earn you boatloads of squat. He’s a pretty decent public speaker, but in a blow-dried 80’s executive sense, and he sort of looks like if Richard Belzer had played the Michael Douglas role in Falling Down.
  • By contrast, Chris Sununu realized he had no business running for President. Good.
  • American Airlines has to ground more than 150 regional jets due to a pilot shortage.
  • I know nothing more than this. Evidently local media have ignored it as well:

  • Pitch Meeting for 2023 The Little Mermaid. “Life being better down where it’s wetter is tight!”
  • U.S. women’s soccer team loses 12-0 to fourth tier Welsh soccer club.
  • When life imitates Mythbusters.
  • “Due To High Crime, Mafia Closes Its Chicago Office.” “How are we supposed to conduct respectable business — loan sharking, bribery, racketeering, illegal gambling — with so much crime going on? It’s insane!”

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    Posted in Austin, Budget, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Media Watch, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 4 Comments »

    Looks Like The Ukrainian Counteroffensive Has Officially Begun

    June 8th, 2023

    So says the tea leaves MSM.

    The Ukrainian military has launched a long-anticipated counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces, opening a crucial phase in the war aimed at restoring Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty and preserving Western support in its fight against domination by Moscow.

    Ukrainian troops, including specialized attack units armed with Western weapons and trained in NATO tactics, intensified their strikes on front-line positions in the country’s southeast on Wednesday night, according to four people in the country’s armed forces, beginning a significant push into Russian-occupied territory.

    By “southeast” they mean “Zaporizhzhia,” where most observers have expected the main counteroffensive operational push to come.

    Reasons for expressing some skepticism is the MSM source, but everyone has been expecting the counteroffensive to kick off for months. Another reason to assume the counter-offensive is real: Western armor has finally been definitively spotted among Ukrainian forces, including Leopard 2s, Bradleys and French AMX-10s.

    “More worryingly was what we saw with the tactics of the armored group. Grouping vehicles closer together like that is just asking for trouble.” But Suchomimus notes we saw some stumbles like trhis at the beginning of the very successful Kherson offensive as well.

    Developing…

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    Posted in Media Watch, unions, video | 9 Comments »

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