Fierce Patriots

Conservative Political News

  • Subscribe

<![CDATA[Texas]]>

Austin's Dem Mayor B*tches and Moans About Gov. Greg Abbott’s COVID Executive Order

by Leave a Comment

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed an executive order prohibiting cities from imposing certain COVID-19 measures, and Austin Mayor Steve Adler is not very happy about it. In fact, the news upset him so much that he spent an interview whining about it on Friday.

“What’s happening with COVID right now in our community is pretty darn scary,” Adler said during a conversation with CBS Austin. The Democrat mayor also said, “it’s just fundamentally wrong for the governor to ignore the science and the data.”

Abbott’s executive order places a ban on vaccine passports and mask mandates. The measure supersedes any local laws that would conflict with the governor’s order.

The mayor insinuated that he might use legal action to circumvent Abbott’s executive order. He said:

“Twice the district court allowed the local health authority and local elected officials to move forward with orders that were not consistent with the governor’s order. We can certainly go there and do it a third time.”

CBS Austin pointed out that “numbers in Travis County are nearing the level to propel [the city] into Stage 5,” and that in July, Austin Public Health reported over 4,150 new COVID-19 cases with 19 deaths due to the coronavirus. Adler seemed to imply that the lack of vaccine mandates could be causing more deaths. He said:

“Everyone on ventilators are the people that are not vaccinated, and the fact that we have so many people that are unvaccinated, means we have a very fertile ground for the virus to expand in our community.”

The mayor also stated that businesses should be requiring their customers and employees to wear masks until the uptick of coronavirus cases is back at controllable levels. He said:

“The more places that are requiring masks, the better off we are so, [sic] I think it would be great if people running large venues required masks.”

He also expressed support for children wearing masks when they return to school.

I can tell you right now that Austinites are not on board with what Adler is proposing. As I’m writing in this article at a Golden Corral, none of the customers are masked up. Employees are wearing masks, just as they are in most food service establishments in Austin – but that’s about it.

Even in grocery stores, most are not bothering to wear a face covering, including employees. Despite being a left-leaning city, people are still trying to get back to normal — despite the local government’s attempt to push us into living as we did in 2020.

Indeed, last week, Austinites, including myself, received a slew of text messages from Austin Public Health urging us to wear masks indoors – even at home – and to wear them in stores even if we are vaccinated. Those messages were followed up with automated phone calls trying to scare us into complying with their suggestions.

Fortunately, Abbott’s executive order will ensure that these “recommendations” remain as such. People like Adler and his ilk on the City Council would love to impose more restrictions despite what residents think. So far, they are being held at bay.

Chip Roy Goes Nuclear on Nancy Pelosi's Mask Obsession in Scorching House Floor Speech

by Leave a Comment

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to reimplement mask mandates for the House – including among those who are fully vaccinated – not to mention arrest anyone who dares to defy it, has understandably sparked fury among Republicans who are fed up with the game playing and hypocrisy that is on full display by Democrats on this issue.

Not surprisingly, there’s been a lot of pushback from those same Republican members of Congress to Pelosi’s edict, among them Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who gave one of the more notable and impassioned speeches on the House floor Wednesday, saying some things that needed to be said, blasting Pelosi’s mask mandate as well as the skewed priorities of Democrats at this stage in the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have a crisis at our border, and we’re playing footsie with mask mandates in the people’s House,” Roy stated during his speech. “I mean it’s absolutely absurd what this body is doing. It’s an embarrassment, it’s a mockery.”

Roy went on to note that “the American people are fed up. They want to go back to life. They want to go back to business. They want to go back to school without their children being forced to wear masks, being put in the corner and have mental health issues.”

Visibly upset, Roy ripped Pelosi for making the announcement yesterday “while we’ve got thousands of people going across our border and Democrats don’t do a darn thing about it, heavily infected with COVID.”

“This sham of an institution is doing nothing for the American people,” Roy said. “Nothing for the betterment of the people that send their representatives here.”

Rep. Roy then talked about how he had met just that morning with an organization that works to help victims of human trafficking as well as an “elected official from Mexico,” all while “cartels are raping and pillaging and killing, and we have people who infected with COVID coming across our southern border into Texas, and you all put masks upfront here?”

His anger building, Roy then railed about how “we can’t come to the floor, I can’t execute my constitutional duty unless I wear a mask.” The question remains, he continued: “Which is it, vaccines or masks? Do the vaccines work or they don’t work? Do the masks work or they don’t work? I’d like to know which it is.”

Millions of Americans would like to know, too. Watch Roy go nuclear in the clip below:

It’s hard to argue against what Roy is saying there. COVID-infected illegal immigrants are crossing the border into Texas and here’s Pelosi telling members of Congress – even the vaccinated ones – that they can’t go onto the floor without masks? Further, what message does it send for the CDC, Pelosi, and Biden to tell even vaccinated people now that they have to be masked?

For months now, we’ve been hearing how we need to get vaccinated in order for America to begin returning back to normal, and yet now even vaccinated people are now being told they should mask up. It’s not going to make sense to a lot of people, even those who are generally inclined to do whatever the government says concerning masks and other COVID-related guidlines.

This is just a gut feeling but I predict vaccination rates will fall after this. As Roy correctly pointed out, people are simply fed up at this point and are trying to go about their daily lives the best way they can.

Flashback: Chip Roy Blasts ‘Dishonest’ Media Attacks on Mike Lee After out of Context Quote Circulates

President Trump's Team Claims He Was Snookered Into Getting Involved in a Texas Primary Election

by Leave a Comment

Yesterday, a special runoff election was held in Texas’ 6th Congressional District to fill the seat of Ron Wright, who died of Wuhan virus in February. Twenty-three candidates filed to win the seat that Wright had won by nine points in November 2020. The May 1 primary election didn’t produce an outright winner, so the top two vote-getters faced off last night. They were Texas state representative and former Navy fighter pilot Jake Elzey and Wright’s widow, Susan.

When the votes were counted, Elzey had won 53-47. To a great extent, this was not a shock. Elzey was already well known in the district. He’d run against Ron Wright in 2018 and lost the primary. In this campaign, Elzey hustled and showed that he wanted the job. Nothing, however, is normal when President Trump is involved.

President Trump endorsed Susan Wright (those familiar with RedState history will note some irony here) on April 26, just days before the primary election.

Trump — who endorsed Wright’s widow, conservative activist Susan Wright, for the seat on Monday — is hosting a tele-town hall for her on Thursday night, The Texas Tribune has learned. The town hall is being put on by the Club for Growth, the national conservative group that endorsed Susan Wright on Wednesday.

The Club for Growth has also launched an 11th-hour radio ad to spread the word about Trump’s endorsement, which came on the second-to-last day of early voting. The minute-long spot warns that “out-of-state anti-Trump forces” are working against Susan Wright and says the race “may be a key test of Trump’s continuing power in the party.”

So Elzey’s victory last night was painted as a sign that President Trump’s influence in the GOP was over.

For more, read Bonchie’s Trump Endorsed Candidate Loses, Leaving Some Celebrating and Others Asking Questions:

As Bonchie says, there is a real leap of faith to make the conclusion this guy makes. The “low turnout” seems to me to be dishonest. Some 78,374 votes were cast in the May primary. Compare that to 45,785 votes cast in the 2018 primary. 39,116 votes were cast in the runoff, vice 24,433 in the 2018 runoff. So more interest was shown yesterday than in the last comparable election. Wright came out of the primary election in first place. So you can hardly say that Trump couldn’t get Republicans to back Wright or people to the polls. I suspect that a lot of people stayed home for the runoff because they were happy with either candidate. Rick Perry and Dan Crenshaw stumping for Elzey overpowered a single endorsement and long-distance presence by Trump.

That said, this was a needless own-goal. Wright was not a qualitatively better candidate than Elzey; in fact, just the opposite. There is nothing about Elzey that indicates he will be anything other than a conservative member of Congress. President Trump’s staff are not happy with the loss, though, for now, President Trump is being philosophical about it all. Yes, I said that.

Donald Trump’s advisers are angry at David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, for persuading the former president to endorse a losing candidate in the special election for Texas’ 6th District.

Why it matters: Susan Wright’s defeat Tuesday in a Republican runoff with Navy veteran Jake Ellzey dealt a blow to Trump’s aura of invincibility as a Republican kingmaker. It’s critical to his 2022 midterm endorsements and continued hold on the GOP.

  • Trump advisers and allies have been ambivalent about the Club’s advice and thought he should stay out of this Republican-on-Republican contest.
  • They take the long view and are protective of his successful record — so far — in GOP primary endorsements.
  • McIntosh did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Axios.

What is significant about this is that Elzey’s backers were also Trump supporters, and they are also blaming Club for Growth for the needless drama.

What we’re hearing: Trump advisers and allies, including former Texas governor and Trump administration Energy secretary Rick Perry, remain furious at McIntosh.

  • “He [Trump] totally was taken to the cleaners by the Club for Growth,” said Perry, who has a long and close relationship with Ellzey. “There has to be a reckoning for the Club for Growth. …This whole debacle for the president can be centered on the Club for Growth and David McIntosh.”
  • Perry said he called Trump a few months ago — before he’d endorsed Wright — and told him to stay out of the race because he had a great candidate called Ellzey down in Texas. Trump ignored his advice.
  • “For the Club for Growth to have actively tried to destroyed this guy’s reputation, …you’ve gotta be shi—ing me,” said Perry, who called Ellzey an “American hero.”
  • “That’s what I’ve come to understand about David McIntosh and the Club for Growth,” Perry said. “They will say anything, do anything. And they put Donald J. Trump in jeopardy.”
  • “In the state of Texas, Mr. McIntosh, we care about character and we care about the truth,” Perry added, “and we would just as soon the Club for Growth never darken the state of Texas again.”

According to Axios, Club for Grown President David McIntosh has several private conversations with President Trump and made the case that Wright deserved President Trump’s support. McIntosh allegedly told President Trump that Bill Kristo had donated to Elzey ($250 in 2018); that Elzey would not join the Freedom Caucus (I have no way of evaluating the truthfulness of that claim yet), that Elzey was a NeverTrumper, and Wright was Ron Wright’s widow because nothing says populism like inherited offices. McIntosh purportedly told President Trump that internal polling had Wright up by 15 points and was a sure winner.

None of this story is implausible. In fact, it is all too plausible.

To me, Rick Perry’s reaction carries more weight than the damage control by Team Trump, and that tends to back up their side of the story. Whoever let McIntosh talk Trump into this fiasco should be fired. Trump is hard to manage, but this is really sh** staff work. If the story is true, Trump’s advisers need to make Club for Growth persona non grata until the 2022 campaign begins. President Trump should not weigh in on Republican primary candidates unless they are hopelessly compromised. Anything he says to support one GOP candidate in a race where there are two acceptable candidates runs the risk of backfiring in the general election.

Still, defending your boss by claiming he was taken to the cleaners does little to make him look savvy or to make you look competent. We can’t afford the famous indiscipline that characterized the 2016 Trump campaign again. If President Trump is going to continue as a force in Republican politics, he needs as better staff and the self-discipline to listen to the advice they give him and not be made a fool of by outside actors.

Dusty Hill of ZZ Top Passes Away

by Leave a Comment

Dusty Hill, the long-bearded bassist of Texas blues/rock band ZZ Top for more than fifty years, has died. Hill was 72. He passed away in his sleep Monday night. The cause of death is not yet known.

The band issued the following statement:

“We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX. We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top’. We will forever be connected to that “Blues Shuffle in C.”

You will be missed greatly, amigo.

Frank & Billy

Hill, along with bandmates guitarist/vocalist Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard, first came to national attention in 1974, when the song “La Grange” from the band’s third album Tres Hombres barely missed entering the Top 40 while the album itself reached number eight on the Billboard charts. ZZ Top’s most successful period came in the 1980s, fueled by adding synthesized beats underneath the band’s blues riffs and a slew of videos featuring as many scantily-clad women as could be assembled. The band’s image as the kings of ribald rock star cool was now forever established, and while the band’s commercial fortunes waxed and waned over the years it remained an unstoppable top dollar concert draw for the duration. The band was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Hill had several health misadventures during his career. In 1984 he accidentally shot himself with his own derringer. In recent years, he battled hepatitis, and at the time of his death, was receiving treatment for a hip condition.

Hill’s passing is a sobering reminder of how the blues foundation of rock’n’roll is rapidly fading. He came from a generation that rejected race-based sanitation of popular music, instead fully embracing the earthy electric blues of pioneers such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, who the band slyly name-checked in “Waiting For The Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago.”

Although ZZ Top were not blues purists, the blues were always at the heart of everything they did, mixing in influences such as Tex-Mex, raw 1950s country, and full-tilt boogie. ZZ Top had an image to be sure, but the image did not define the band. Rather, it was the music that defined the image. ZZ Top made sultry, sexy, stripped down to its essentials blues-infused rock. It was, is, and always will be music for working people looking for an outlet when cutting loose after the week’s work is done.

Hill is survived by his wife and a daughter from a previous relationship.

We’ll hear you on the X, Dusty.

America's Most Innovative University Hires Music Teacher Who Mixes in Critical Race Theory

by Leave a Comment

Is something missing from your music?

Perhaps it’s Critical Race Theory.

If that sounds right, this’ll be music to your ears.

Arizona State University’s ASU News rings in a rhythm ‘n’ race combo courtesy of Joyce McCall, “assistant professor of music learning and teaching.”

“Critical Race Theory Scholar,” the outlet announces, “Joins ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre.”

Joyce is one of a mere few:

McCall is one of the few scholars whose music education research focuses on race and racism through Critical Race Theory and Double Consciousness Theory, as well as culturally relevant pedagogy.

And what is CRT? Consider Texas’s classroom ban of the doctrine, which prohibits all of the below from being taught:

  • One race or sex was inherently superior to another race or sex
  • An individual by virtue of the individual’s race or sex was inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously
  • An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual’s race or sex
  • Members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex
  • An individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by the individual’s race or sex
  • An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bore responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex
  • An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual’s race or sex
  • Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race.

The professor professed she’s psyched:

“This is my dream job in a sense, because this is an opportunity to do the work that I do and also be able to do it in a place that provides me with a space where I can thrive. I have yet to find that any place else, and I believe that Arizona State University and the School of Music, Dance and Theatre might be it.”

Makes sense — the 100,000+ enrollment school’s been ranked #1 in innovation.

So how exactly does music — a science of sound — connect to anti-blackness and its effects?

To be clear, Joyce deals in “educational equity”:

McCall’s research centers on how race, class and culture impact educational equity in music education. She said she also examines how certain pedagogies such as culturally relevant teaching influence possibilities to engage minoritized racial populations in the music classroom and beyond.

According to school director Heather Landes, ASU’s delighted.

“We are delighted to have attracted Dr. McCall to the ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre. Dr. McCall brings expertise and research interests that are critical to our path forward as a school focused on access, inclusion and excellence. We look forward to welcoming Dr. McCall, who earned her PhD in music education from ASU in 2015, back to our community as a faculty member.”

America’s certainly searching sectors for skin-related sinisterness, and it appears all stones will be turned.

A few of what the rocks have so far revealed:

Professor: #BlueLivesMatter Is Racist, so Is Society, and Loving Freckles May Be White Pride

College Symposium Razes the Anti-Black Racism of ‘Good’ Grammar

Ever Had a Hard Time Understanding Someone’s Accent? A Professor Says You’re Guilty of ‘Linguistic Racism’

Viral Video Rips the Racist Roots of ‘Fatphobia’

Nickelodeon Schools Kids on the ‘Environmental Racism’ of Pig Farming

And perhaps the most disturbing of all:

Science Journal Decries Racism in Geology, Claims Black People Are Too Scared to Hold Hammers

As for Arizona State University, it’s going against the “R” word with a full-court press.

As I covered in March, the school’s associate dean penned a 358-page book on wiping out white supremacy.

Its title: “Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom.”

Here’s how Professor/Associate Dean Asao Inoue put it:

The traditional purposes and methods used for grading writing turn out to be de facto racist and White supremacist. Grading by a standard, thus, is how White language supremacy is perpetuated in schools.

Maybe the same goes for music research.

And now the university’s got a scholar on the case.

From Joyce’s official ASU bio:

Her latest book chapter, “Speak No Evil: Talking Race as an African American in Music Education,” has served as a critical tool in music toward empowering scholars of color and inspiring antiracist work.

As a reminder, per CNN, “antiracism” aims to undermine microagressions such as “I’m colorblind; I don’t care if you’re white, black, yellow, green or purple.”

We’re living in a new world. Not being racist is no longer enough. “Antiracism” is what the doctor ordered.

The same goes for the professor.

And, by extension, the school.

As noted by Campus Reform, one recent ASU communications class assignment read as follows:

For the next 7 days, you need to commit do [sic] at least one practice or idea around doing the inner work of antiracism.

How far will our antiracist audit go? What amount of Critical Race Theory will be enough, as we analyze every element of society?

That remains to be seen, but ASU is doing its part.

Hopefully, they’ll still be able to teach music — in a non-divisive way that all races can enjoy.

But that may not happen across every course.

Here’s the definition of Joyce’s aforementioned “Double Consciousness Theory,” as provided by Cambridge.org:

The theory argues that in a racialized society there is no true communication or recognition between the racializing and the racialized.

Yeah, unity might take a while.

-ALEX

See more pieces from me:

University Aims for Utopia, Launches Doctoral Program in ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’

ACLU Discovers Another Racist Realm: the Second Amendment

School District Hosts Year-Long Anti-Whiteness Training to Fight ‘Curricular Violence’ in Math

Find all my RedState work here.

Thank you for reading! Please sound off in the Comments section below.