Category Archives: Texas News

Texit?

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The UK’s Brexit vote is stoking the fires of secession in Texas and making Red think seriously about relocating Paradise in Hell to New Mexico.  The one salvation may be a Trump victory in November.  Trump claims that if he became president, Texas would never secede “because Texas loves me.”  Yep, they loved him so much that they gave Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) a resounding victory in the GOP primary in March and kept the Cubo-Canadian’s campaign afloat for another couple of months.

Well, if Texas secedes, Red will probably not head west.  He will maintain the fight for truth, freedom and the American  –  errr  – make that Texas way of life.  You can’t let the Tea Party run everything.

Nonetheless, Brexit has secession fever running high in Texas with new claims about how great, free and successful an independent Texas would be.  Larry Secede Kilgore, a leading secession proponent has been quoted by the New York Times as saying:

“I think the people of Texas will look at that and say: ‘Man, we can have freedom; we can make our own decisions. We don’t have to have the U.S. empire tell us what to do.’ ”

Supreme Court Upholds UT-Austin’s Admission Standars

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The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the University of Texas at Austin’s admissions process which gives a small advantage to black and Hispanic applicants.  The decision yet again allows US colleges to use of affirmative action in their admissions procedures.   The 4-3 vote was a defeat for Sugar Land’s favorite litigant Abigail Fisher who has repeatedly claimed that she was unfairly denied admission because of her whiteness.  After being denied admission into UT-Austin in 2008, she has been relentless in her campaign to end even the slight hint of affirmative action that UT-Austin uses in an attempt to preserve some diversity on the 40 Acres.  Fisher – who did not qualify for automatic admission – claimed that black and Hispanic students who were less qualified got in over her.  But Thursday’s decision brings her case to a close. The ruling will likely have national implications in that the Court has again reaffirmed that colleges have some leeway to use affirmative action in picking their students.

What’s in a Name?

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The 93 year old South Texas College of Law has decided to change its name.  The only independent law school in Texas will soon be known as the Houston College of Law.  The STCOL board apparently believed that the school needed an even closer association with its home city.  Board Chairman J. Ken Johnson commented on the change

The law school has been an integral part of downtown Houston for almost a century. Our students are within walking distance of some of the nation’s biggest law firms and the city’s courthouses are in our back yard. With our diverse student body that mirrors Houston’s population, we will remain dedicated to educating future generations of attorneys.

Red for one does not really view Houston as being in South Texas.  Houston falls into its own category.  Will this require a lot of resume changing?

Secessionists Take Heart from Brexit Movement

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Secession fever never completely cools among certain Texans.  And the Texas Nationalist Movement in particular is taking advantage of the impending Brexit vote to pump for a similar vote on Texas secession.  The Guardian has the story from Daniel Miller, the leader of TNM, and his group’s plan to create an independent Texas – one suspects with him at the helm.

How closely is Daniel Miller tracking the news ahead of the referendum about whether Britain should leave the European Union? “Hourly!” he grins. The Sun’s recent editorial calling for the UK’s departure got him quite excited.

Miller, though, is not from London or Liverpool. He hails from Longview, Texas, and we are talking in a cafe in the bleakly industrial Gulf coast town of Port Arthur, some 5,000 miles from Westminster.

Culturally, too, we are a long way from Europe. Heck, we are even a long way from Dallas. But the referendum matters deeply to Miller and like-minded Texans. As the president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, which wants Texas to secede from the United States, he is hoping for a Leave vote that he believes will ripple all the way from Austria to Austin.

“There are a lot of people asking, if Brexit why not Texit?” he says. “I do talk with some folks over there on a pretty regular basis that are involved in Ukip and the Conservative party.”

Ken Paxton – Vexatious Litigant (cont.)

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Texas Attorney General and Tea Party favorite Ken Paxton has failed in another frivolous lawsuit.  Paxton sued the federal government seeking to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Texas.  Yes, that’s what it has come down to for the Tea Party fanatics – let’s keep refugees out of our state because . . . well, just because.

Paxton’s suit claimed the Obama administration had not adequately consulted with states before placing refugees in Texas.   Not surprisingly, U.S. District Judge David Godbey ruled that the state has no role in the resettlement of refugees handled by the federal government which has authority over immigration policy. And in a dope slap to Paxton, Godbey also found the state had failed to present plausible evidence that Syrian refugees pose an imminent risk.   Paxton apparently forgot about something called the Supremacy Clause and another detail of the Constitution which vests authority over foreign affairs largely in the hands of the Executive.  But the Constitution is only important when it supposedly supports Paxton’s Tea Party agenda.

For his part, Paxton said that he was “disappointed with the court’s determination that Texas cannot hold the federal government accountable to consult with us before resettling refugees here.” He said he is considering options to “guarantee the safety of Texans from domestic and foreign threats.”  Yes, Ken will protect us from the predatory families that are being resettled in Texas. Good luck with that Ken.

Did Greg Abbott Kill Lawsuit Against Trump U?

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After documents were released pursuant to a open records request, it was revealed that the Texas Attorney General’s office had determined that Trump University was a scam worthy of pursuit under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.  But now the Dallas Morning News reveals that a potential lawsuit against good ol’ Trump U was scuttled by none other than Our Poor Idiot Governor Greg Abbott.  Did Abbott – who was not shy about suing the federal government when he was AG – stop action against Donald Trump?  And did he get his reward in the form of campaign contributions from the self-proclaimed billionaire?

According to a DMN investigation, plans for the lawsuit and settlement negotiations had been carefully prepared; the AG’s office was ready to take action  and was looking at damages of at least $5.4 million for the violations – at least until the plan was killed by Abbott.

John Owens, the former deputy chief of the AG’s consumer protection division smells something rotten in the decision to let Trump skate after fleecing Texas consumers for millions of dollars.

“It was swept under the rug, and the consumers were left with no one to go to bat for them,” according to Owens who also claimed that the decision to not sue Trump was clearly political.  His consumer protection division routinely got approval to sue schools who offered bogus diplomas.  The only difference in this case was Trump’s status as a political player.

And what was the payoff for Greg Abbott?  A few years later, Trump donated $35,000 to Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign.  Other sources are reporting that Florida AG Pam Bondi dropped her office’s investigation and refused to join in a lawsuit against Trump just days after receiving a $25,000 campaign contribution from Trump.

So now we know just about exactly how much Texas consumers can be bought and sold for.  It’s a little more expensive than in Florida, but not much.

What Greg Abbott’s Office Had to Say about Trump University

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Our Poor Idiot Governor Greg Abbott has resoundingly endorsed Donald Trump for President of these United States.  But when his office investigated good ol’ Trump U back in 2010, it reached the conclusion that the whole scheme was a scam designed to fleece the gullible.   The Texas Attorney General Office’s investigation of deceptive trade practices at Trump University determined that the promises made to students were “virtually impossible to achieve.”

In the documents unearthed by a Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, Assistant Attorney General Rick Berlin stated that Trump University seminars  targeted real estate novices and promised “to teach these novices everything they need to know to be a successful residential real estate broker — in 3 days.”  But Berlin also noted, that in Texas, “to become licensed as a real estate broker you must have 900 hours of classroom instruction and 2 years selling experience.” Berlin also concluded that the information provided to students by Trump University “is essentially unusable,” and students “will be unable to recoup their investment in the course, much less make a profit, as promised by Trump U.  .  . . In addition to encouraging unlicensed activity (which is a misdemeanor in Texas), the course materials in a number of respects are simply wrong under Texas law.”

Apparently the AG’s investigation was enough to drive the Trump U hucksters out of Texas as the “University” stopped doing business in Texas shortly afterwards.

So kudos to OPIG for having driven a con man out of the state.  So exactly why does he want to bring him back now?  Does Red smell a vice-presidential hope in the air?

Hillary Claims She Can Win Texas

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Politico reports that Hillary Clinton thinks that Texas is in play in the November general election.   According to  interview with Rebecca Traister of New York Magazine, Clinton has indicated that “If black and Latino voters come out and vote, we could win Texas.”

Here is a list of ten Texas things that Red thinks are more likely to happen than Hillary winning ultra-Red Texas in November:

  1. LBJ rises from the dead to reclaim control of the Democratic party.
  2. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wears make-up and dress -insists on using Ladies room.
  3. The Texas Supreme Court rules against an insurance company.
  4. Mary Lou Bruner commits herself to lunatic asylum.
  5. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller gives up cupcakes – loses 75 lbs.
  6. Land Commissioner George P. Bush figures out that the laws apply to him too.
  7. The Rio Grande reverses course – flows backwards to Colorado.
  8. Trump builds wall – Mexico pays.
  9. Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) decides to not run for President in 2020.
  10. Brownsville freezes over.