Tag: Gov. Greg Abbott

…meanwhile…

TUESDAY 8/5/25

House Arrest for Bolsonaro – Brazil’s supreme court has ordered house arrest for the country’s Trumpy ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for an alleged coup plot to remain in office after his 2022 re-election defeat, The Associated Press reports. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, said Bolsonaro had spread content through his three lawmaker sons, thus violating precautionary measures imposed on the former president.

Coffee talk … Thanks to the simpatico between President Trump and Bolsonaro, Trump has set the tariff on Brazil – which imports most of the coffee beans the US consumes – at 50%. The US already has a trade surplus with Brazil.

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Will Israel Annex Parts of Gaza? – As Canada, the UK and France prepare to recognize a Palestinian state in September amidst piling evidence that the Israeli Defense Force is starving citizens in Gaza in its fight against Hamas, the Israeli government has “floated” the possibility of extending its military offensive and annexing parts of the strip, The Guardian reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene Israel’s security cabinet in the coming days to discuss options.

This follows collapse of indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas led by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff last Saturday.

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Harm Reduction Redacted – The Trump administration is quickly phasing out “harm reduction,” the key method for states, localities and communities to respond to the drug overdose epidemic, according to Roll Call. In the past week, the administration began removing educational materials from government websites, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration told states that harm reduction is used to “advocate for policies that are incompatible with federal laws and inconsistent with this administration’s policies.”

Trump in July issued an executive order targeting homeless people that criticizes “harm reduction” and “safe consumption” efforts. --TL

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MONDAY 8/4/25

Messing With Texas – President Trump called on the Texas legislature, which consists of 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats, to redraw US House districts in order to add five Republicans to the House of Representatives after the 2026 midterms. State House Republicans obeyed and were to begin voting on a new map Monday in a special session that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called in order to take up measures regarding the deadly Independence Day Hill Country floods, stiffer regulations for hemp and other GOP-leaning issues. 

On Sunday, at least 51 of those 62 state House Democrats fled Texas, mostly for Chicago (where Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has been one of the more effective Democrats pushing back against Trump’s politics and policies), as well as New York, NPR and Houston Public Media reports on Morning Edition. 

The Texas House does not have a quorum and thus cannot conduct business if fewer than 100 of its members are present, according to The Texas Tribune. 

“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus said in a statement. Wu, according to the Tribune, accused Abbott of “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voice of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.”

Abbott issued an ominous statement of his own.

“The truancy ends now,” the Texas governor said. “The derelict Democratic House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House.”

Abbott would then appoint his own Republican replacements for the missing Democrats, HPM reports.

As of Monday, two weeks remain in Abbott’s special session.

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Drowning the Numbers – The Trump Camp including such supporters as our own right-column contributing pundit Rich Corbett were caught in celebration over a “booming” economy unhurt by White House tariff negotiations when, inconveniently, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest numbers showing just 73,000 jobs added to the economy in July. What’s worse, the BLS revised heavily downward by 258,000 jobs combined its earlier reports for May and June, to just 19,000 and 14,000 jobs added, respectively.

The unemployment rate remains low, at 4.2%.

It must be noted here that the BLS often makes such revisions upward as well as downward. The May and June revisions indicate a lag in counting the effects of the “Liberation Day” tariffs, April 2, which Trump delayed numerous times as he reportedly negotiated deals. These are ongoing. 

Trump took it out on BLS administrator Erika McEntarfer, a Biden appointee.

“I believe the numbers were phony, just like before the election. And there were other times” President Trump Truth Socialed Friday, according to RealClear Politics.

The BLS reported the US economy added just 114,000 jobs in July 2024 and a healthier 142,000 for that August. September 2024’s job report was stronger, with 254,000 added, but for October 2024, the US economy added just 12,000 jobs according to a report issued that November 4 – the day before election day.

“So you know what I did?” Trump continued on Truth Social. “I fired her. And you know what? I did the right thing.

“She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, and they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,” Trump said.

Ironically … These poor employment growth numbers would have given Trump appointees to the Federal Open Market Committee, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, a better argument for lowering interest rates at the Federal Reserve’s regular confab two days earlier. Both dissented against the 10 others on the FOMC by calling for a quarter-point cut in interest rates, in line with Trump’s criticism of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s reluctance to do so.

Waller, who has made clear his interest in replacing Powell as Fed chair when Powell’s term ends next May said on July 17, according to the New York Post, “the economy is still growing, but its momentum has slowed significantly, and the risks to the FOMC’s employment market have increased.”  --Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 8/4/25

Texas Goes Off-Grid

By David Amaya

Amid President Biden’s plan to boost America's dependence on renewable energy, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a retaliatory executive order. It directs “every state agency to use all lawful powers and tools to challenge any federal action that threatens” natural gas in the state. Only three weeks after Abbott’s attempt to strengthen the natural gas industry’s defenses against federal oversight, the state’s entire energy grid nearly collapsed. Sources reveal that Texas was minutes and seconds away from a complete shutdown that would have lasted for months. 

Several state leaders gave excuses as to why the state’s vulnerable power system failed millions of Texans. Gov. Abbott blamed non-renewables for the outage though 26 of the total 30 gigawatts lost in the blackout were traced back to natural gas. Former Republican Gov. Rick Perry stated that Texans would rather lose power than be part of the national grid system, as the state recorded several fatalities from hypothermia, including the death of 11-year-old Cristian Pavon. Despite being warned of the grid’s vulnerability in 2011, Texas took no action to weatherize the equipment. Texan leadership, in private and public sectors, failed us. 

It is time Texas reframe climate change policy as infrastructure policy. Infrastructure policy includes more than merely weatherizing energy equipment; It calls for the mitigation of the severity a polar vortex has on roads and property by reducing carbon emissions. Texas has its energy grid system to show off its exceptionalism, but those days are now over. Think of millions of Texans observing how the free-market failed them. Depending on what Texas does next, the federal government may need to intrude and be part of the solution that regulates the industry. 

Texas may well have looked at California to develop a Plan B for its constituents in the event of a blackout. California forces its energy providers to have a reserve of electricity for this exact reason. Not only that, but California is also part of a broader national energy-grid that allows them to borrow energy from other states. Texas has no such security. It relies on free-market competition to resolve these changes in energy demand. Texas, like California, must force the energy sector to come up with safeguards; the state has enforcement power for a reason. 

Texans survived nature’s cold shoulder and the folly of Texas leadership. Despite the differences in each state’s party politics, California and Texas both have experience with large-scale energy blackouts, which feel like the beginning of a new era of energy security for the entire country. When reality transcends the need for performative politics (i.e., focusing on the national anthem in football games instead of urgent issues), nature’s forces remind us that party ID alone won’t help us adapt to changing climate. Informed and responsible leadership will. A reconciliation between energy practices that sets aside cynicism for uniting cooperation is desperately needed. As Texas has come to understand, electricity is as important to our society’s foundation as democracy.

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•Read Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on President Biden’s supply chain review — Click on Forum above.