Texas education: Looking at Bibles, books and more

The Texas Education Agency's offer to bribe local school districts to use "Bible-infused" curriculum is troubling indeed. And, it is surely unconstitutional. The bribery part makes clear this is the promotion of religion. And, the means by which it was done is one of Strangeabbott's most vile acts in his gubernatorial tenure, using a recess appointment to the State Board of Education.

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That said, the recess appointment vote was unnecessary for the SBOE to say it wants more control over local school district libraries. The hypocrisy of another tenet of modern conservativism is pretty glaring.

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Strangeabbott has said he will keep in place for another two years a tuition freeze at state universities. Places like Texas Woman's University, especially if they're not "flagships" like the Tea-Sippers or the Aggies having faced the state making up a smaller portion of their budget for several years, wonder if Strange is going to get the Lege to offer them more aid, and if not, where do they cut?

That’s because they have smaller budgets and endowments, fewer research grants and fewer deep-pocketed donors to make massive gifts. Faculty and higher education experts say they’re worried the state won’t step up to make up the difference.

There you are.

For details? Austin gets just 18 percent of its budget from the state. UNT, up here, it's 40 percent or more. Satellite schools like UT-Arlington, it's at least that high.

That said, the UT System is expanding the cutoff on its free tuition program to up to $100,000.

Texas Progressives: What's next on border, immigrants, more?

The General Land Office is offering Trump land for a concentration camp on the border even as Strangeabbott puts up more floating barriers in the Rio Grande. The land was bought from a private owner who had opposed a state border wall in the area. I guess the state's dinero was too much to resist.

The Observer looks at what it was like a century ago when Texas jails served as immigrant detention centers, and again, during the "Operation Wetback" 1950s, including a comment by ConservaDem then-Congresscritter Lloyd Bentsen.

Strangeabbott has also ordered hospitals in the state that get Medicaid or CHIP money to start asking citizenship questions. You don't have to answer, but how many patients will know that?

Strangeabbott likes to thing he's part of the federal government when Washington makes a decision under international law over which he has no power, but that he doesn't like. The sensical amendment to the 1944 US-Mexico water treaty is the latest. Let's add in, which the Trib doesn't, that Mexican President Lopez Obrador, beyond the drought hitting both sides of the river, had cited Strange's floating border barriers as part of why water was being held up. Big John Cornyn and Havana Ted Cruz, per the story, also didn't talk about that.

Off the Kuff analyzes the question of undervoting in judicial races to see if it tells us anything about what happened in this election.

Kenny Boy Paxton has put Dallas in his gunsights as the latest city to be sued over marijuana decriminalization. He's lost so far on cities large enough with the money and legal manpower and willpower to stand up to him. (Denton has the first two, but not the third.)

SocraticGadfly offered up some snark on the JFK assassination anniversary.

Horse torture at A&M's Veterinary School. Will it crack down even more than it already has, as necessary?

RIP Fred Harris, better than Bernie Sanders long before Bernie.

Lone Star Left urges the passage of a bill to require air conditioning in Texas' prisons.  

Steve Vladeck describes getting ambushed at a legal forum. 

 Law Dork calls on President Biden to commute all of the remaining federal death sentences. I've already said, in my own Tweeting about this, that A. it won't happen, and B. Why didn't Geidner ask for Biden to free Leonard Peltier? 

Mean Green Cougar Red mourns the closing of a longtime Houston restaurant, which fell victim to the I-45 expansion. 

Reform Austin looks at the connection between vouchers and educational re-segregation.  

The Eyewall declares an end to the 2024 hurricane season and turns its attention to those big storms in the Pacific.

Reframing the possibility of Trump snooping on citizens

Could Trump, in his second term, spy on American journalists as has  happened in other countries? Ronan Farrow investigates. Let's start with the name that Farrow doesn't mention, though — Joe Biden, whose administration bought the Paragon software from Israel, though Biden's ICE is mentioned with his name halfway through. It's also dated because Farrow talks about AG Matt Gaetz.

It also ignores the confirmed reports that Snoopmaster Joe bought Israel's Pegasus snooping software for Columbia's national police. There, too, left-of-center politicos believe it was really bought for snooping on general citizens, not just drug traffickers.

Censorship at Facebook runs rampant

Let's document all the ways in the past two months. (And yes, constitutionally, only governments censor but I'm using it in an everyday sense.)

First, I tried to post Ken Klippenstein's JD Vance dossier piece. Taken down.

Then, my blog post about that piece. Yanked.

Then, after that, Ken's May piece about Genocide Joe trying to get Hucksterman et al to censor pro-Palestinian activists. Gone but reposted by me when I saw the notification.

After that, not censored, but Hucksterman blocked the "captcha" of the photo going with this piece from Mondoweiss exposing the lies about an alleged antisemitic pogrom in Amsterdam, when it was really Israeli soccer hooligans accompanied by Mossad.

Then, last week? It kept calling this blog post, my riff via Bob Marley about this year's JFK assassination anniversary, spam and taking it down. Multiple times.

I don't know if it was idiotic bots, Hucksterman's humans in the Philippines not understanding snark, Hucksterman bots or humans thinking I was violating Bob Marley copyright, or bots or humans thinking I was inciting violence myself.

In any case, compared to the comment that Substack is full of Nazis (and setting aside that Beehiiv or Ghost might be easier to use), they're not Fuckbook. OTOH, Substack is still free. (When it stops being that, I stop posting there.)

Counterpunch cried wolf, donor dollars didn't show up

Jeff St. Clair talked about "the wolf at our door" two weeks ago. I was going to write about that then, but now?

They're $5,000 short of their goal as of the end of last week. And, that was announced with another existential title, "the threats ahead." So, they're going to accept the fundraising results as is. Interesting is that more people donated, but fewer dinero per person.

Well, if you had a more coherent editorial philosophy, were less BlueAnon-leaning on U.S. electoral politics coverage, including knowing reality vs memes, only talking about GOP election subversion, not that of Democrats, and other things, like putting Eve Ottenberg's "Biden as Lame Duck" behind your paywall (really? yes, really), and, even if it's not me, find a better "Counterpunch poet laureate" than your current contender, and maybe other things, like be on the better lookout for occasional antisemitism from a regular contributor? (And, yes, it's antisemitism, not anti-Zionism.)

Or beyond that? Better analysis from this Ottenberg piece. Uhh, Eve, Russia doesn't get the resale price on its oil, only the original price. Corporate insolvencies? That's as much or more a failure to pivot to keep up with China on EVs and other things than it is Russia. Or this piece about BRICS. Dearie, "dedollarization" is happening no time soon.

Or, when one of your editorial staff has a mendacious — and ironically mendacious — bio of Dear Old Dad?

 

I wrote a year ago about why I don't give you money. Everything there, plus the additional stuff above, all still holds true.