The opening bell and Day One for the #txlege

1. Supposedly, at the first convenient break time, Speaker of the House Joe Straus found himself alone in a men's room with Lite Guv Danny Goeb and said, under his breath, "Maybe we DO need a bathroom bill!"

I have vowed to call him Danny Goeb for the entire session of the Lege. See friend Brains for a roundup of crappy nicknames!

2. Dawnna Dukes found out that "privilege" has an expiration date if you're a Democrat.

3. Greg Abbott reportedly got some foreign countries screwed up again.

4. Straus elected without opposition for the first time. What, did former fetus Jonathan Stickland crawl back into his womb? Maybe he was afraid somebody would force him to be buried along with other fetal tissue.

6. Glenn Hegar told the 181 zoo animals, plus Goeb and Gov. Strangeabbott, they had less money to spend than 2 years ago. Actually, no he didn't, contra narratives. With various federal money that Texas gets, it has MORE to spend than 2 years ago, total. Even factoring the $5 billion the previous Lege set aside as dedicated to transportation, the current Lege STILL has $5 billion more than it actually budgeted two years ago.

That's about 2.5 percent more, or 1.2 percent per annum for each of the two years of the biennium. That's less than inflation rate multiplied by population growth, yes, but, this isn't a catastrophe. And, IIRC, the transportation amendment was supposed to have some loopholes and flexibility as part of it, too.

Moral? Don't believe the lies the Texas GOP is already spouting about what needs to be cut next. Whether Hegar is coordinating any messaging with the Danny Goeb wing of the party or not, I don't know, but you and I will get more messages in the days about "we have to cut X" because "Hegar said we have no money.

7. Texas Democrats pretended they would have power to do something.

8. The Big 12 Conference made some noises about that bathroom bill. I'm sure Kansas City would love to host the return of the Big 12 football championship.