Today in Texas History – December 8

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From the Annals of WWII –  In 1941, Captain John A.E. Bergstrom was killed in the Japanese raid on Clark Field in the Philippines. He was the first casualty from Austin.   He was honored by his home town in renaming Del Valle Army Air Base after him.  DVAAB was constructed in the summer of 1942 on 3,000 acres leased from the city of Austin and activated in September. The base was renamed Bergstrom Field on November 11, 1943, and later Bergstrom Air Force Base.  The base was converted to civilian use in the 1990’s and now serves as Austin’s airport.  It retains the name of  Austin Bergstrom International Airport in honor of his sacrifice. 

Texas GOP Leaders Take a Step Back from Crazy

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State GOP leaders have denied GOP primary voters a chance to decide if they favor secession from the USA.   The Tea Party wing had requested that the GOP put the following  question on the primary ballot in March:

“If the Federal Government continues to disregard the Constitution and the sovereignty of the State of Texas, the State of Texas should reassert its prior status as an independent nation.”

The State Republican Executive Committee rejected the proposal which would have been a non-binding referendum.

The defeat was not unexpected, as the saner powers-that-be did not want this to become an issue in November’s election.   The SREC clearly disagreed with Tanya Robertson, the SREC member who introduced the proposal and argued that the measure would have been “harmless,” allowing voters to register an “opinion only.” She also suggested the ballot language would have helped “get out the vote” among some Texas Republicans who have been sitting out recent elections. “The goal of these is to take a thermometer of how Texans feels about an issue, and what better issue for Texans to do that with?” she asked.

Indeed, what better way?  Red thinks it is unfortunate  that the rest of Texas will be denied an opportunity to see exactly how crazy the Republican base in Texas really is.

 

Texas Bowl Games or More Correctly, Bowl Games to be Played in Texas

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The College football Bowl schedule for Texas is now set.  In addition to the national semi-final playoff game between Alabama and Michigan State at JerryWorld in Arlington (aka the Goodyear Cotton Bowl) on December 31, the overcrowded Bowl schedule includes the following soon to be classics:

December 26 –

Hyundai Sun Bowl at the Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso: Miami vs. Washington State  – featuring the return of former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach to Texas with the resurgent Cougars. 1 pm on CBS.

Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl at the Cotton Bowl Stadim in Dallas: Washington vs. Southern Miss  – just to make sure that all major college teams from Washington get to play in Texas this year. 1:20 pm on ESPN.  They didn’t want anyone to miss the kickoff at the Sun Bowl.

December 29

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth: California vs. Air Force – a game sure to draw in thousands of fans, as in about 2000.  1 pm on ESPN

AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl at NRG Stadium in Houston: LSU vs. Texas Tech –  just to disappoint those looking for a Texas Tech/Texas A&M matchup. 8 p.m. on ESPN.

January 2

Valero Alamo Bowl at the AlamoDome in San Antonio: Oregon vs. TCU – which actually looks to be one of the more entertaining games on the undercard. 5:45 p.m. on ESPN.

In addition, several Texas teams will travel outside of the great state to end their seasons:

 Baylor will face North Carolina in the Russell Athletic Bowl at the Orlando Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida on Dec. 29 (4:30 p.m. on ESPN)

Texas A&M will match up against Louisville in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee on December 30 (6:00 pm on ESPN).

Houston will try to finish 13-1 against Florida State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia on December 31 (11:00 a.m. on ESPN).

All time CST of course.  Red will have his predictions later.

 

 

 

 

Quote for the Day

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“The scum of creation has been dumped on us.  Some of our principal cities are more foreign than American. The most dangerous and corrupting hordes of the Old World have invaded us.  The vice and crime which they have planted in our midst are sickening and terrifying.  What brought these Goths and Visigoths to our shores? The manufacturers are mainly to blame.  They wanted cheap labor: and they didn’t care a curse how much harm to our future might be the consequence of their heartless policy.”

Thomas E. Watson, 1910.

The tune changes, but the lyrics are basically the same.  Red wonders how many of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the “scum of creation” are now Tea Party supporters of  Donald Trump’s updated version of Watson’s errant nativism.

For more on the curious political career of Tom Watson see the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Today in Texas History – December 7

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From the Annals of the Colonists – In 1830, Texas pioneer and memoir writer Noah Smithwick was banished from Texas as “a bad citizen.” Smithwick came to Texas in 1827 as a young man settling in San Felipe. He came to the aid of a friend who was accused of murder and chained in leg irons.  Being a blacksmith, Smithwick furnished the prisoner with a file and a gun so he might escape.  Smithwick was tried and declared and banished from the colony. Smithwick returned to Matagorda in the fall of 1835 and reached Gonzales the day after the opening battle of the Revolution.  He served in the Texas Army and after the Revolution, tried cattle ranching before establishing a mill near Marble Falls.

Smithwick was an ardent Unionist and after receive receiving threats from secessionists he left Texas with a number of friends and moved to  southern California in 1861.  He dictated his memoirs to his daughter. After his death in 1899, she had the manuscript published by Karl H. P. N. Gammel as The Evolution of a State, or Recollections of Old Texas Days.

Message From Loving Christians Who Want to Kill a Lot of People

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Jerry Falwell, Jr. really preaches the essential message of Jesus of love and forgiveness by advocating slaughter of Muslims.

“I always  thought that if more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could in those Muslims before they walk in and kill.”  Falwell also confirmed that he was packing heat while speaking at a religious  based institution of higher learning.

Falwell’s remarks drew wild applause from Liberty University’s students at the weekly convocation.  Meanwhile, Jesus wept.

Red’s Texas College Football Game of the Week

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Until bowling season begins, this will be the last of Red’s TCFGOTW.  But this one may be a doozy.  The UT Longhorns travel up I-35 to the unfriendly confines of McClain Stadium on the banks of the Brazos to face the Baylor Bears in the last Big 12 game of the year.  Texas is a huge 21 point road dog coming off of what was their second best performance of the year in a losing effort to Texas Tech.  Of course, the best performance was the butt-whipping they laid on the eventual national champion OU Sooners.  Yep, Red is calling that one right now before the final 4 field is even set. Amazing to think that OU’s only loss of the year might be to the lowly Horns.

Baylor is coming off its own disappointing loss to TCU on Thanksgiving weekend which shattered what dreams it had left of making the final four playoff.  Red is tired of the Bears already.

Baylor has nothing to play for except a possible New Year’s Bowl bid, but even that is looking unlikely and a trip to San Antonio seems almost inevitable now.  UT has absolutely nothing left to play for but pride and possibly salvaging head coach Charlie Strong’s job.  Red thinks the players really like Strong and are not about to let the first African-American head coach in UT history go down the tubes without a fight.  Red’s key to the game is freshman running back Chris Warren.  His incredible 276 yard, 4 touchdown performance in the loss to Tech on Thanksgiving had longtime Longhorn fans reminiscing about past greats such as Jim Bertelsen, Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams – none of whom ever had a breakout performance like Warren.  Red thinks Warren is the real deal and a mere 150 yard, 2 touchdown performance may be enough to beat the despondent Bears.

Red calls it UT 29 Baylor 28.  Take the Horns and the points.

 

 

Texas Takes Step Back in Syrian Refugee Litigation

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Texas will no longer seek a temporary restraining order preventing resettlement of Syrian refugees scheduled for next week in Dallas and Houston.  Texas is apparently going forward with a request for a preliminary injunction, but that will come too late to stop the current refugees from joining their families in Texas.  The step backwards by Texas came after the Justice Department and the ACLU filed lengthy briefs on behalf of the embattled relief agency establishing that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission sought “unwarranted veto power over individual federal refugee resettlement decisions.”

The Dallas Morning News has the full scoop.

Today in Texas History – December 4

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From the Annals of the Ships of the Line –  In 2010, the USS Fort Worth was launched.  The FW is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship.  She is the first ship to be named after Fort Worth, the 16th-largest city in the United States.   The FW is currently on a 16-month rotational deployment to Singapore in support of the U.S. Navy’s “strategic rebalance” to the Pacific. She is first LCS to use the “3-2-1” manning concept, swapping fully trained crews roughly every four months.  FW also deploys with an aviation detachment from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 35 (HSM-35) “Magicians”, the U.S. Navy’s first composite expeditionary helicopter squadron.

Photo from en.Wikipedia.org

Texas Sues the Federal Government to Stop Syrian Refugee Resettlement

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Gov. Greg Abbott (TP-Texas) has authorized the Texas Dep’t of Health and Human Services to sue the US, Sec. of State John Kerry and others to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees into Texas.  The suit seeks to immediately stop any such resettlement efforts and claims, as legally required, that Texas will suffer irreparable harm if a couple of Syrian families (who already have relatives in Texas) are placed in the Dallas area.  The suit quotes the FBI Director and others who have expressed some concerns about the ability to vet the Syrian refugees who are applying for status in the U.S.  The suit also quotes the Director National Intelligence as saying, “We don’t put it past the likes of ISIL to infiltrate operatives among these refugees.”

Whether those concerns create the prospect of irreparable harm (a required showing for the temporary relief sought) is perhaps questionable.  What is not questionable is the complete and total authority of the federal government over immigration including matters relating to resettlement of refugees.  There is no likelihood of success on the merits (another required showing to obtain temporary relief) here because Texas cannot and will never have any authority over immigration matters.

This lawsuit is a complete waste of time and taxpayer resources and clearly does nothing other than to burnish Abbott’s already glowing Tea Party credentials.  The Dallas Morning News has the petition filed by the State for your reading pleasure.