While we wait to learn more about a possible budget deal under which Republicans would agree to raise the debt ceiling before June 5, the date Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says will see the U.S. run out of funds, there is an interesting story coming out of Texas that might well shed light on the current dynamics in the Republican Party.
That Paxton has long been blatantly corrupt with no consequences could not possibly surprise any sane person. What is so devastating to our democracy is his playbook is used by Republicans everywhere. And I wish media would stop distinguishing "extremist" Republicans from "moderate" Republicans. Those who remained and remain silent while Paxton's corruption increased are enablers and just as guilty.
I wanted to highlight HCR's paragraph (below) and underline that it was not until 1965 that the Voting Rights Act broke that one-party region (the entire South) dominated by white men. This is exactly what white supremacists are using the Supreme Court and red state legislatures to do, taking the South back to the repression that settled in after a few brief years of Reconstruction. It's happening so fast it's hard to keep up. This time they're trying to make it federal. And I am sick with anxiety that the vast majority of the US is so ignorant of history that they don't even know it's happening. We didn't get it it right when we had a chance to after the Civil War. Will we ever?
"Both Paxton’s actions and his attempt to dismiss his Republican accusers as working for Biden appear to be a classic example of the behavior of political leaders in a one-party state. He has allegedly used his office to reward friends, retaliate against enemies, and avoid accountability for apparent lawbreaking. This pattern is common in authoritarian governmental systems; it was also common in the American South from about 1874 to 1965, when the Voting Rights Act that protected Black voting finally broke the one-party region dominated by white men."
'Today the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), thus bringing an end to a half century of the unconstitutional and unconscionable national “right” to abortion. Attorney General Paxton also released an official advisory setting forth Texas law in light of the Supreme Court’s decision. Additionally, he announced the statewide closure of his agency’s offices today in honor of the nearly 70 million unborn babies killed in the womb since 1973. June 24th will be an annual Office of the Attorney General holiday in recognition of this momentous decision—and the many lives lost before it. ' (Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas) See link below.
I'm shocked, I tell you - shocked! Isn't such corruption de rigeur in red states? This stuff makes me so happy I no longer live in Texas! California has its problems, but Republican-style grift isn't one of them (at least at the state level).
I lived in Texas from the 1960s to near the end of the 1980s. I graduated from Texas A&M University. When I drink, my Southern accent comes out. I know my silverware patterns and how to properly use "bless his heart". And I'm betting Paxton is toast.
He has zero chance for higher office. He'll never be Governor, nor will he ever win statewide election to Congress.
In Texas there's a saying - "never bullshit a bullshitter". Paxton's bullshit has become offensive to the rest of the bullshitters in the Texas Republican party. They know two things about him: 1) he's more interested in helping himself and his buddies than he is in helping the Party, and 2) his peccadilloes and his commitment to Trump are increasingly likely to hurt Republicans at the polls. Together these are fatal.
I predict nobody shows up to protest his impeachment. I'm less sure he's going to end up in jail, but I still think the odds are 40/60 at least. Paxton is corrupt, and he's an asshole that even other corrupt Texas Republicans (ahem...Abbott) want to distance themselves from.
Yesterday, SCOTUS gutted the power of the EPA. But it is analogous to the book banning in Florida et al. If ONE person complains about a boik, it gets pulked from the shelf and here, ONE property owner went all the way to SCOTUS because hexwas told he couldn't build his mega mansion in a protected wetland. My guess is he probably owned enough property so he didn't have to do that but ONE wealthy person has potentially taken protection of the environment back almost 80 years. One wonders how much certain justices profited from this unwarranted and unnecessary decision.
Very interesting indeed inasmuch as Republican Members of the TX House have instigated the impeachment so their Party must be split? There are only glimmers of open splits in various other Southern states such as in SC where all five women Senators (one Democrat) bonded together to oppose draconian abortion bans but lost to the male majority. As trump gets indicted more than one or even two times, will such fissures erupt all across the South and Mid West?
Btw, I called my library and school department and requested they remove a book filled with violence, prostitutes, constant references to sex and supernatural pundits. The book? The Holy Bible
Republicans suddenly finding ethics and morals? There must be something more to the story that hasn't yet come to light. After all, Paxton has been blatantly corrupt for years. As Sally Camp points out in her post, where's the legendary Texas journalist Molly Ivins when we need her most. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/molly-ivins-matters-more-than-ever/
I’ve been curious about this development actually. So far the Republicans across the board have gone along with the extremists for the most part as they still advocate policies they prefer albeit it often comes with corruption and unseemly behavior. It’s made me wonder what else Paxton has done to cause this effort to impeach him. Perhaps something political the rest of us can’t see. Because it hardly seems unethical behavior and committing crimes is sufficient these days for Republicans to oust a leader. Hmmm...
Abbott isn't usually silent, so I'm wondering what his not taking sides in Paxton's possible impeachment means. I thought that they were united in their culture wars agenda, so it will be interesting to see how the voting turns out and what Abbott will say if/when he decides to get involved.
As a proud Left Coast long haired lefty, I have on occasion or two, derided a Texas based institution or two. For instance, "America's Team". Only in Tejas could a perpetually inept football team owned by a crass Croesus who built a Babylon-meets-Vegas-in- Wal-Mart-garb monstrosity to showcase that team's annual late season collapse, giddily describe itself as "America's team".
The Perils of Paxton, however delicious they may be to observe, are also a benchmark in how far Texas has fallen in political culture over the years. This is the State that gave us one of the most powerful and influential Speakers of the House in Sam Rayburn, and a legendary Senate majority leader turned Shakespearean tragedy President in Lyndon Johnson. Texas has produced many important and interesting politicos, such as Bill Moyers, Molly Ivins, Jack Brooks, Barbara Jordan, John Tower, Henry Cisneros, and Jim Hightower. Even the likable yet over caffeinated Beto O'Rourke has spark. Oh, and lest I forget, John "Cactus Jack" Garner, FDR's first VP, credited with the perpetually rib tickling line, "The vice presidency isn't worth a barrel of warm spit".
But now, it's the bottom of the spittoon types like Paxton and Cancun Cruz that serve as the political face of Texas to the rest of the Country, along with Gregg Abbott, the god-awful immigrant bashing, gun loving governor. As a boy, I watched the TV show "The Wild, Wild West". Abbott is so creepy he reminds me of the compellingly chilling bad guy in that show, played by the late Michael Dunn, rolling in on his wheelchair to gleefully put Robert Conrad's James West in some sort of peril.
This means that law is objective, based on logic, rather than driven by desires and emotions.
Fortunately this country is large enough, with enough blue strongholds, that while the law can be flouted with outright contempt and passion, we have not yet become an authoritarian state through and through. I hope the law can hold the line, under tremendous pressure from a culture that will break it repeatedly and openly in a lustful quest for power.
The law is reason free from passion. They teach that on day one at Harvard Law School. Or at least that’s what I learned watching Legally Blonde tonight with my daughter! 😆
I went to med school where they teach Hippocrates’ “First do no harm.”
We’re well beyond that.
I would have long ago lost my license to practice medicine if I acted like these subversives.
That Paxton has long been blatantly corrupt with no consequences could not possibly surprise any sane person. What is so devastating to our democracy is his playbook is used by Republicans everywhere. And I wish media would stop distinguishing "extremist" Republicans from "moderate" Republicans. Those who remained and remain silent while Paxton's corruption increased are enablers and just as guilty.
This story caught my eye in September 2022 about what an unscrupulous man Paxton is. His wife, who helped him evade the process server, is in the Texas State Senate. So hand in glove corruption. Here’s the link https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/26/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-subpoena-abortion-lawsuit/?utm_source=articleshare&utm_medium=social
I hope they fry his ass in the impeachment hearings. He deserves no less. Thank you, Heather, as always for shining the light on darkness.
I wanted to highlight HCR's paragraph (below) and underline that it was not until 1965 that the Voting Rights Act broke that one-party region (the entire South) dominated by white men. This is exactly what white supremacists are using the Supreme Court and red state legislatures to do, taking the South back to the repression that settled in after a few brief years of Reconstruction. It's happening so fast it's hard to keep up. This time they're trying to make it federal. And I am sick with anxiety that the vast majority of the US is so ignorant of history that they don't even know it's happening. We didn't get it it right when we had a chance to after the Civil War. Will we ever?
"Both Paxton’s actions and his attempt to dismiss his Republican accusers as working for Biden appear to be a classic example of the behavior of political leaders in a one-party state. He has allegedly used his office to reward friends, retaliate against enemies, and avoid accountability for apparent lawbreaking. This pattern is common in authoritarian governmental systems; it was also common in the American South from about 1874 to 1965, when the Voting Rights Act that protected Black voting finally broke the one-party region dominated by white men."
'Today the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), thus bringing an end to a half century of the unconstitutional and unconscionable national “right” to abortion. Attorney General Paxton also released an official advisory setting forth Texas law in light of the Supreme Court’s decision. Additionally, he announced the statewide closure of his agency’s offices today in honor of the nearly 70 million unborn babies killed in the womb since 1973. June 24th will be an annual Office of the Attorney General holiday in recognition of this momentous decision—and the many lives lost before it. ' (Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas) See link below.
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/ag-paxton-celebrates-end-roe-v-wade-announces-abortion-now-illegal-texas
“I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil. Government belongs wherever evil needs an adversary and there are people in distress.”
― Robert F. Kennedy
Where is Molly Ivins when we need her?
I'm shocked, I tell you - shocked! Isn't such corruption de rigeur in red states? This stuff makes me so happy I no longer live in Texas! California has its problems, but Republican-style grift isn't one of them (at least at the state level).
I lived in Texas from the 1960s to near the end of the 1980s. I graduated from Texas A&M University. When I drink, my Southern accent comes out. I know my silverware patterns and how to properly use "bless his heart". And I'm betting Paxton is toast.
He has zero chance for higher office. He'll never be Governor, nor will he ever win statewide election to Congress.
In Texas there's a saying - "never bullshit a bullshitter". Paxton's bullshit has become offensive to the rest of the bullshitters in the Texas Republican party. They know two things about him: 1) he's more interested in helping himself and his buddies than he is in helping the Party, and 2) his peccadilloes and his commitment to Trump are increasingly likely to hurt Republicans at the polls. Together these are fatal.
I predict nobody shows up to protest his impeachment. I'm less sure he's going to end up in jail, but I still think the odds are 40/60 at least. Paxton is corrupt, and he's an asshole that even other corrupt Texas Republicans (ahem...Abbott) want to distance themselves from.
Yesterday, SCOTUS gutted the power of the EPA. But it is analogous to the book banning in Florida et al. If ONE person complains about a boik, it gets pulked from the shelf and here, ONE property owner went all the way to SCOTUS because hexwas told he couldn't build his mega mansion in a protected wetland. My guess is he probably owned enough property so he didn't have to do that but ONE wealthy person has potentially taken protection of the environment back almost 80 years. One wonders how much certain justices profited from this unwarranted and unnecessary decision.
Very interesting indeed inasmuch as Republican Members of the TX House have instigated the impeachment so their Party must be split? There are only glimmers of open splits in various other Southern states such as in SC where all five women Senators (one Democrat) bonded together to oppose draconian abortion bans but lost to the male majority. As trump gets indicted more than one or even two times, will such fissures erupt all across the South and Mid West?
Btw, I called my library and school department and requested they remove a book filled with violence, prostitutes, constant references to sex and supernatural pundits. The book? The Holy Bible
Republicans suddenly finding ethics and morals? There must be something more to the story that hasn't yet come to light. After all, Paxton has been blatantly corrupt for years. As Sally Camp points out in her post, where's the legendary Texas journalist Molly Ivins when we need her most. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/molly-ivins-matters-more-than-ever/
I’ve been curious about this development actually. So far the Republicans across the board have gone along with the extremists for the most part as they still advocate policies they prefer albeit it often comes with corruption and unseemly behavior. It’s made me wonder what else Paxton has done to cause this effort to impeach him. Perhaps something political the rest of us can’t see. Because it hardly seems unethical behavior and committing crimes is sufficient these days for Republicans to oust a leader. Hmmm...
Please, don’t take tomorrow off. If Texas Republicans actually show up for work on a holiday weekend, it’s important.
On this grand occasion, I’ll be wearing my “God Bless America, Except Texas, Eff Texas” t-shirt.
Abbott isn't usually silent, so I'm wondering what his not taking sides in Paxton's possible impeachment means. I thought that they were united in their culture wars agenda, so it will be interesting to see how the voting turns out and what Abbott will say if/when he decides to get involved.
As a proud Left Coast long haired lefty, I have on occasion or two, derided a Texas based institution or two. For instance, "America's Team". Only in Tejas could a perpetually inept football team owned by a crass Croesus who built a Babylon-meets-Vegas-in- Wal-Mart-garb monstrosity to showcase that team's annual late season collapse, giddily describe itself as "America's team".
The Perils of Paxton, however delicious they may be to observe, are also a benchmark in how far Texas has fallen in political culture over the years. This is the State that gave us one of the most powerful and influential Speakers of the House in Sam Rayburn, and a legendary Senate majority leader turned Shakespearean tragedy President in Lyndon Johnson. Texas has produced many important and interesting politicos, such as Bill Moyers, Molly Ivins, Jack Brooks, Barbara Jordan, John Tower, Henry Cisneros, and Jim Hightower. Even the likable yet over caffeinated Beto O'Rourke has spark. Oh, and lest I forget, John "Cactus Jack" Garner, FDR's first VP, credited with the perpetually rib tickling line, "The vice presidency isn't worth a barrel of warm spit".
But now, it's the bottom of the spittoon types like Paxton and Cancun Cruz that serve as the political face of Texas to the rest of the Country, along with Gregg Abbott, the god-awful immigrant bashing, gun loving governor. As a boy, I watched the TV show "The Wild, Wild West". Abbott is so creepy he reminds me of the compellingly chilling bad guy in that show, played by the late Michael Dunn, rolling in on his wheelchair to gleefully put Robert Conrad's James West in some sort of peril.
“The law is reason free from passion.”
-Aristotle
This means that law is objective, based on logic, rather than driven by desires and emotions.
Fortunately this country is large enough, with enough blue strongholds, that while the law can be flouted with outright contempt and passion, we have not yet become an authoritarian state through and through. I hope the law can hold the line, under tremendous pressure from a culture that will break it repeatedly and openly in a lustful quest for power.
The law is reason free from passion. They teach that on day one at Harvard Law School. Or at least that’s what I learned watching Legally Blonde tonight with my daughter! 😆
I went to med school where they teach Hippocrates’ “First do no harm.”
We’re well beyond that.
I would have long ago lost my license to practice medicine if I acted like these subversives.