TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalWebb Democratic Chair: RNC Hispanic Community Center, a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?
by Sylvia Bruni, Webb County Democratic Party ChairI read your recent front page story, spotlighting the opening of the RNC’s very first Texas Hispanic Community Center right here in Laredo, our community of special interest to the Republicans because of their “….big victory with the mayor winning a county where Joe Biden won by 17%. Your story goes on to relate how this Hispanic Community Center will serve as the GOP’s base for telling their story, the one that proves that they are ‘….the party of freedom, prosperity, and opportunity, and the Democrats are the party of socialism and government control.”
The local Republican Party Chair then goes on to emphasize how this Center will serve as the base for their “ambassadors” of Republican “values and family values “that they share with our community, especially our Hispanic Community, values which include “…opportunity, right to life, freedom…” vs. what the Democratic Party has been doing for the “past eight months, i.e. “government control and socialism…” He reminisces about how “…..just six to seven months ago, we were a prosperous nation where everything was moving forward economically and less unemployment and no inflation….” He complains about now having to “put up with inflation,” of an “unheard of tax and unspoken tax that is given to the humble hard workers that we are here in South Texas.”
I realize that my response is lengthy BUT it is factual and true, and I would ask that since you were willing to give their inaugural event front page optimal coverage, you will grant me the courtesy of printing my full response, and here it is:
Economy
From Washington D.C. to Austin, the Republican Party peddles threats of violence, conspiracy theories, racism, misogyny, and corruption. Texans are fed up. Trump has spent the past four years dividing our country and inciting violence. During his presidency, hate crimes increased and hate groups were emboldened. Trump and the Republicans’ failure to take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously also meant that Trump left office with the worst jobs record since 1933.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19 because the Republican Party failed to take this pandemic seriously -- or worse, decided to play politics with the CDC, WHO and issues of public safety.
Read more: https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Webb-Democratic-Chair-RNC-Hispanic-Community-16413269.php
(Laredo Morning Times)
First Phelan Failed, Now He Has Lost Control
Now that enough lawmakers have returned to conduct House business, it appears that Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan has once again lost control on the issue that caused all the problems in the first place.
Phelan’s plea: Don’t call our racist actions racism.
House Speaker Dade Phelan made it clear that he knowingly signed off on a racist election bill earlier today when he asked House members to not use the word “racism” when speaking against the legislation. It was a pathetic display that insults every Texan. Racists aren’t often exposed by the words they use these days. They are exposed by their actions. The actions Dade is taking today are overtly racist.
Broken Quorum Phelan’s Fault
When Democrats left the House floor last month, the resulting lack of a quorum to do business was Speaker Dade Phelan’s failure. The responsibility to form a quorum always falls on the majority party; it’s not the responsibility of the minority to participate in one. In Texas, every member of the minority party is the candidate of choice of minority voters. When Phelan allowed decorum, respect, and civility to break down so badly that enough left to deny a quorum, it wasn’t a Democratic walkout — it was members who represent minority Texans being pushed out.
After publicly pledging many times that he would work cooperatively with absent members upon their return, and after securing his speakership through trust and past relationships, Phelan has either blatantly betrayed House colleagues and publicly lied, lost control of the House to forces aligned with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, or both.
Read more: https://lonestarproject.net/2021/08/26/first-phelan-failed-now-lost-control/
Colorado ISD closes school through the end of August due to 'student absences'
COLORADO CITY -- The Colorado Independent School District is shutting down through the rest of the month - which is three school days.
According to a message posted to the district's official Twitter account, the entire district will be closed due to the number of students who are absent from school.
The shutdown includes all athletic activities. The Colorado Wolves were scheduled to play the Albany Lions on Friday. The contest has been canceled.
"Colorado ISD will be closing until September 1, 2021 including cancelling all athletic activities," the tweet says. "This is due to the high number of student absences the last few days. During this time we hope everyone finds the time to rest, feel better or remain healthy! Stay strong Wolf Nation."
Read more: https://www.reporternews.com/story/news/education/2021/08/26/colorado-isd-closes-school-through-end-august/5608210001
(Abilene Reporter-News)
Northern Minnesota bean field collapses, falls 25 feet
POLK COUNTY, Minn. — It is still hard for Wayne Erickson to make sense of what happened on his farm. Simply put, a section of his black bean field fell two stories.
“When I drove out here, it looked like the Grand Canyon. We didn’t have all that slumping going on, it was just straight down. Straight up and down,” Erickson said.
Wayne and Erllene Erickson are the fourth generation on the family farm in Polk County in northwestern Minnesota, and they’ve never seen anything like this. Nobody is sure what caused the huge slide.
“(It’s) kind of scary. It is sad, sad to see it,” Erllene said as she surveyed the fallen field. “Mother Nature does what she wants.”
Read more: https://www.twincities.com/2021/08/26/northern-mn-bean-field-collapses-falls-25-feet/
A farmer’s field near Climax, Minnesota, has some new contours after a portion of the field fell 25 feet. (Kevin Wallevand / Forum News Service)
Footage from a drone camera shows the sheer size of the fallen field. The blue speck near the lower-right edge of the ravine is actually a person. (Courtesy of Brad Thoreson)
Families of some victims outraged over leaked Santa Fe shooting details to film director
SANTA FE, Texas — Families of some of the Santa Fe shooting victims are frustrated over information being leaked to a documentary filmmaker. Now they’re calling for the Galveston County Medical Examiner to resign.
“We were notified by the District Attorney’s Office that there was a potential leak of information," said John Conard, Jared Black's uncle. Black was one of the 10 people killed at Santa Fe High School in 2018.
“It’s insulting. We’ve been asking for this information for three years. My sister has personally called the medical examiner shortly after we lost Jared asking for this information," Conard said.
Information they learned was now in the hands of a documentary filmmaker.
“Information regarding the nature of the injuries, named the people, where they were shot, where their bodies were," he said.
Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/santa-fe-shootings/families-victims-outraged-over-leaked-santa-fe-shooting-details-film-director/285-e123cbe5-b3d9-4084-8adb-16f3dc03d696
Minnesota releases test results showing steep drop in math, reading
Dramatic drops in proficiency on statewide math and reading tests are the latest evidence that school disruptions related to the coronavirus have set students back in their learning.
Proficiency rates fell 11 percentage points in math, to 44 percent, according to Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments results released Friday by the state education department. Reading proficiency is down 7 points in reading, to 53 percent, since 2019.
“The statewide assessment results confirm what we already knew — that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our students’ learning and they need our help to recover,” Education Commissioner Heather Mueller said.
The Trump administration let states cancel their spring 2020 tests as the pandemic began to take hold and schools transitioned to distance learning. This year, some school districts and states got partial waivers from the Biden administration, but Minnesota largely tried to administer its tests as usual.
Read more: https://www.twincities.com/2021/08/27/mn-releases-test-results-showing-steep-drop-in-math-reading/
Guilty plea from Owatonna man who allegedly threatened to kill police at pro-Trump rally at
U.S. DISTRICT COURT RECORDS
One of Dayton Sauke’s social media postings.
Guilty plea from Owatonna man who allegedly threatened to kill police at pro-Trump rally at Minnesota Capitol
A southern Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to a federal weapons violation after being accused of bragging about his illegal shotgun and plans to kill a law enforcement officer at a rally in support of former President Donald Trump at the Minnesota Capitol in January.
Dayton C. Sauke, 22, of Owatonna, on Wednesday admitted in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to illegal possession of an unregistered firearm following his arrest after he allegedly sold an illegal firearm to two undercover agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Many of Sauke's social media posts reflected antigovernment sentiments similar to the Boogaloo Bois, according to court records. One social media photo showed Sauke carrying a gun along with the caption "Sic Semper Tyrannis," a Latin phrase co-opted by the Boogaloo movement meaning justice will befall tyrants. The same words were uttered by Abraham Lincoln's assassin and appeared on Timothy McVeigh's T-shirt the day he killed 168 people in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.
On Snapchat and his public-facing Instagram page, Sauke posted photos of himself holding guns alongside far-right sentiments and expressions of a desire to kill someone, namely a police officer or politician, according to court records. One post shows him burning an American flag with a blue stripe — a symbol of the pro-law enforcement Blue Lives Matter movement — alongside the caption: "Police lives don't matter."
Read more: https://www.startribune.com/guilty-plea-from-owatonna-man-who-allegedly-threatened-to-kill-police-at-pro-trump-rally-at-minnesot/600091206/
Minnesota sees dramatic differences in acceptance of workers' comp claims under state's COVID-19
Minnesota sees dramatic differences in acceptance of workers’ comp claims under state’s COVID-19 ‘presumption’ lawIf you think you were infected with COVID-19 in a Minnesota workplace, you were better off being a nurse than a meatpacker.
Because of an emergency law adopted at the beginning of the pandemic, certain workers had an easier path to winning claims under Minnesota’s workers’ compensation law than others. That law said that certain workers who became infected were presumed to have been exposed to the virus on the job. Everyone else had to prove that the exposure was at work versus in the community.
A recent report from the state Department of Labor and Industry shows how important that law turned out to be for those who qualified: health care workers, first responders, police officers and corrections staff. In her report to the Legislature’s Frontline Worker Pay Working Group, DLI Commissioner and working group member Roslyn Robertson said that 96 percent of infected workers covered by the presumption law had their claims accepted. Workers who had the burden of proving they were exposed to COVID-19 at their place of employment, however, saw their claims denied 72 percent of the time.
And one group of workers who faced high infection rates in the early months of the pandemic in 2020 — beef, pork and poultry processors — have not had a single claim for compensation due to COVID-19 accepted. That’s despite the fact that COVID-19 infections closed several large meat processing plants and led to fears of supply shortages across the U.S. The federal government quickly ordered the plants to reopen.
After inquiries from the state about the lack of claims among meat processing workers, some were made by processors on behalf of employees. But all were denied by the companies’ insurers or claims administrators. “Some employers have taken the position that at the time when the largest number of meatpacking workers were diagnosed and reported to the Department of Health, there was broad community spread of COVID,” Robertson said. “They took the position that an individual worker could have come in contact with COVID outside the workplace.”
Read more: https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2021/08/minnesota-sees-dramatic-differences-in-acceptance-of-workers-comp-claims-under-states-covid-19-presumption-law/
Lindell's dangerous fellow travelers among Minnesota GOP elected officials
Jennifer Carnahan’s spectacular implosion as chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota is not even the most concerning recent event for Republicans or — more importantly — the rest of us.
Yes, her close ties to indicted donor and party operative Anton Lazzaro — followed by a cascade of stories of her bullying behavior — are tawdry and dispiriting to those of us who would hope Minnesota’s best would volunteer for public life.
The more important event, however, took place recently in South Dakota, where the frenetic pillow mogul Mike Lindell held a three-day conference in which he purported to offer proof that the 2020 election was stolen.
Which, OK, fine. The man with the colorful past of cocaine, champagne and what he called a “fake” bankruptcy wants to stay famous and sell more pillows. Who cares, right?
Read more:
https://minnesotareformer.com/2021/08/26/lindells-dangerous-fellow-travelers-among-minnesota-gop-elected-officials-column/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 112,118
