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Today in Texas History – March 22

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From the Annals of Reconstruction – In 1866, the Texas State Central Committee of Colored Men met for the first time in Austin.  The group was founded to address the concerns  of African Americans arising after the conclusion of the Civil War.  The group was one of the first to focus on the social, economic and political problems facing freed former slaves and free blacks.  Jacob Fontaine, a Baptist minister, presided over the convention. Fontaine was also the publisher of The Gold Dollar, said to be the first black newspaper published in Austin and the greater Travis County area. The promise of real freedom was short-lived in Texas as successive Republican administrations abandoned efforts to fully integrate African Americans into American social and political institutions.  It would be another hundred years before minorities in Texas would obtain full federal protection for their rights.  Ironically, it would be a president from Texas who shepherd through the required legislation.

Beto O’Rourke to Take on “Lying Ted”?

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The Austin American-Statesman reports that Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso may take on Senator “Lying” Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) in 2018 – that is assuming LTC survives a likely Republican primary challenge.  O’Rourke, little known outside of far west Texas, raised his profile by taking a road trip with Republican Congressman Will Hurd when neither could get a flight back to DC due to weather.

Beto O’Rourke had, it seemed, already made up his mind he was going to run for Ted Cruz’s U.S. Senate seat next year.

But among the many hurdles the three-term Democratic congressman from El Paso would face, semiobscurity seemed hard to crack. He was little known outside of his hometown — no El Paso native has ever won statewide office — despite recent trips to virtually every corner of the state to raise his profile.

That changed Tuesday, when O’Rourke and his colleague, Will Hurd, a second-term Republican from Helotes, found themselves unable to fly from San Antonio into snowbound Washington in time for some House votes Wednesday. Instead, at O’Rourke’s instigation, they rented a Chevy Impala and hit the road for the nation’s capital.

Thus was born a 30-hour bipartisan road trip (plus four hours sleeping at a Nashville, Tenn., hotel), much of it streamed on Periscope and Facebook Live, that O’Rourke from the outset described as the “longest cross-country livestream town hall in the history of the world,” and which over the course of their 1,600-mile journey garnered encouragement from politicians of both parties, 2.6 million views online and the kind of avalanche of positive media coverage that most politicians will never see in a lifetime.

Today in Texas History – March 21

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From the Annals of the Losing Litigators –  In 2010, then Texas Attorney General (and now Poor Idiot Governor) Greg Abbott made the following statement regarding the passage of the Affordable Care Act: “The federal health care legislation passed tonight violates the United States Constitution and unconstitutionally infringes upon Texans’ individual liberties. To protect all Texans’ constitutional rights, preserve the constitutional framework intended by our nation’s founders, and defend our state from further infringement by the federal government, the State of Texas and other states will legally challenge the federal health care legislation.”

Abbott  completely failed in his attempt (and wasted a bunch of Texas tax dollars) to have the ACA overturned in federal court.   In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the Unitied States Supreme Court upheld Congress’ power to enact most provisions of the ACA and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act including the individual mandate requiring most Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty.  The Court upheld the mandate as a constitutional exercise of Congress’s taxing power.

How Low Can He Go?

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Donald Trump’s latest approval rating has him at 37% favorable.   Trump has ranged from a high of 46% right after taking office to his current low in the Gallup Daily Tracking Poll.   Even more troubling for Trump should be the steady rise in his disapproval rating which is now at an all time high of 58% up 13 points from January.

For comparison, only Bill Clinton and Bush I were in the 50’s at this point in their presidencies and most presidents have been above 60% with Carter, Kennedy and Eisenhower in the 70’s.

Not that you asked, but Red thinks the current approval floor is a bit above the pathetic 25% W. Bush hit at the end of his disastrous second term.  Red reckons that about 29% of Americans will approve of Trump no matter what he says or does.   But even the 30’s are troubling  – with such lows having been hit by embattled and impeached Nixon and incompetent and overwhelmed W. Bush in their second terms as well as by one-termers Carter and Bush I.

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Kenneth Threadgill and Janice Joplin

From the Annals of the Troubadours – In 1987, legendary Austin country singer and tavern owner Kenneth Threadgill passed away.  Threadgill was instrumental in creating the Austin music scene.  Born in Peniel, he moved to Austin in 1933 and began working at an old service station on North Lamar across from the DPS Headquarters. Threadgill had been performing on and off for years and was legendary for his yodeling prowess which he learned from imitating Jimmie Rodgers.   He soon bought the service station and renamed it Threadgill’s Tavern.  He still sold gas and food but cleverly obtained the first beer license in Austin after the repeal of Prohibition. Threadgill’s became known for its Wednesday night hootenannies, at which university students and local residents congregated for beer, country music, yodeling, and the “Alabama Jubilee,” the song that would usually get Kenneth to dance his patented shuffle. Bill Neely and Janis Joplin were among the many performers who began their careers performing at Threadgill’s.  Threadgill gained some measure of national celebrity himself when he acted and sang in the Willie Nelson movie Honeysuckle Rose (1980). He sold the tavern in the early eighties and it was taken over by Eddie Wilson.  After being closed for quite some time, the original Threadgill’s Old No. 1 on North Lamar is back and Threadgill’s World  HQ on Barton Springs remains an Austin institution – complete with live music.

Photo of Threadgill and Janis Joplin from http://austinot.com/threadgills-Austin 

Is Paul Ryan Stupid or a Liar?

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Taking off his coat, rolling up his sleeves and getting down to work trying to sell the America people a bill of goods, Paul Ryan revealed that he either has no clue how insurance actually works or he is willing to say anything to make a case for  TRUMPcare in the post-fact era in which we live.

The fatal conceit of Obamacare is that ‘We’re just going to make everybody buy our health insurance at the federal government level; young and healthy people are going to go into the market and pay for the older, sicker people.’ So the young healthy person is going to be made to buy health care, and they’re going to pay for the person, you know, who gets breast cancer in her 40s. Or who gets heart disease in his 50s.

So take a look at this chart. The red slice here are what I would call people with preexisting conditions. People who have real health-care problems. The blue is the rest of the people in the individual market — that’s the market where people don’t get health insurance at their jobs where they buy it themselves. The whole idea of Obamacare is the people on the blue side pay for the people on the red side. The people who are healthy pay for the people who are sick.

It’s not working, and that’s why it’s in a death spiral.

Pay attention Mr. Speaker – that is exactly how all forms of insurance work.  Everyone covered pays premiums to spread out the risk and benefits are paid out to those who are unfortunate enough to be injured, lose property, get flooded or need medical care.  You can’t possibly be that stupid, so the only alternative is that you are following the leader of your party and have become willing to say anything with the expectation that there are no consequences for lying through your teeth.

Today in Texas History – March 10

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From the Annals of Medicine  –  In 1890, the John Sealy Training School for Nurses opened with eighteen students.  The first formal training program for nurses was housed in Galveston’s brand new John Sealy Hospital. The school was initially independent of the hospital, but was incorporated into the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1896.

TrumpCare Shows Trump Cares Not for Most of His Voters

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The TrumpCare bill currently being floated is not a healthcare bill at all.  It is a tax cut for the wealthiest of the wealthy being disguised as healthcare reform.  The estimates are that the top 1/10th of 1 percent of taxpayers will see about a $200,000 tax cut.  Those poor souls earning only a mere million a year will see about a $50,000 tax cut.  Meanwhile, those at the bottom and many persons over 50 will see large increases in premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket expense.  And they will get a largely worthless tax credit to help them out.   All those old angry white voters who voted for Trump thinking they were finally going to get some attention from D.C. will be left holding the bag so that Trump’s real constituency (read other wealthy folks like Trump) can get a big-ass tax cut.  Did any of you who voted for Trump really think that it would be otherwise?   Is it possible that you were that stupid?

Red’s absolute favorite part of TrumpCare is the tax break for the big bonuses paid to insurance company executives.  Red can’t imagine why that was put into the bill.  It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with trying to line up insurance industry support for TrumpCare, could it?  Nah!

Red fully supports TrumpCare with its tax cuts for the wealthiest and plan to hammer the poor and working class on health care costs-  because that is what America deserves to get for voting Trump into office.  Don’t come crying to Red when you are paying through the nose.  He has coverage.

No Mo’ Romo

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ESPN is reporting that the Dallas Cowboys (meaning Jerry Jones) will release veteran quarterback Tony Romo on Thursday.  The move will save the Cowboys some money against the 2017 salary cap although they will still take a major hit for a quarterback that has played in a handful of games over the last two seasons.  Red does not pretend to understand the intricacies of the NFL’s salary cap rules, but apparently if Romo is a June 1 designation (whatever the hell that means), the  Cowboys would take a $10.7 million hit on the 2017 cap and $8.9 million on the 2018 cap.   If released without the designation, the Cowboys will save $5.1 million against the salary cap but will carry $19.6 million in dead money (again whatever that means) for 2017.

Romo who was undrafted signed as a free agent with the Cowboys in 2003, but did not see the field until the 2006 season when he replaced Drew Bledsoe at halftime of the Giants game.  He never again left the field that season and led the Cowboys to a 9-7 record and a playoff spot.  His most infamous moment came in his first playoff game (against the Seahawks) when he botched the snap on a field goal attempt that would have secured the Cowboys first playoff win in almost a decade.  Red still remembers laughing uncontrollably for several minutes.

Romo finishes his career with the Cowboys with a record 78-49 as a starter.  His 34,183 passing yards and 248 touchdown passes are the most in team history.  Romo holds team records for most 300-yard passing games (46), multiple touchdown pass games (79) and consecutive games with a touchdown pass (38). He also holds the Cowboys records for most yards in a season (4,903 yards in 2012)  and in a game (506 against the Broncos in 2013), and the NFL record with a touchdown pass in 41 straight road games.

All of that is well and good, but Romo was 2-4 in the playoffs and never played in a conference championship game.  Thus, by Cowboys standards, he was a miserable failure as a quarterback.  Red dearly hopes that the Texans do not fall for a 37 year-old often injured quarterback with a track record of playoff failure.

Today in Texas History – March 8

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From the Annals of the War Slogans –  In 1836, Col. James W. Fannin raised a flag over the La Bahia mission at Goliad with the words “Liberty or Death”.   Fannin and his followers got death at the hands of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and against the express wishes of Gen. Jose de Urrea who pleaded for clemency and was outraged at the massacre.  Some Texans ultimately got Liberty.  Others remained slaves as one major focus of the Revolution was to protect the institution of slavery in Texas.