President Trump: Why Are You Silent on Sex Mutilation of Minors in Texas?

Dear President Trump:

We understand that you are getting more involved in the local and state politics of the several states throughout the United States.

Good for you! I definitely see you as a qualified, unabashed king-maker in these very trying and tiresome times. We need leaders who will call out other leaders who refuse to lead.

It's time that conservatives and constitutionalists starting thinking bigger and making major gains at the local and state level, not just focus on winning at the federal level. Most reforms that capture the country start at the local and state level, anyway. Right To Try legislation passed in Congress because over 25 states had enacted state versions of this legislation, for example, and you signed off on that signature reform in 2017!

Constitutional Carry has become the law of the land in 21 states, and is heading perhaps to one or two more this year, and three more next year. The United States Supreme Court is ready to step in and assure that the right to keep and bear arms is not just a right to exercise inside one's home, but outside in one's country. We are glad to see gun freedoms become commonplace in the United States, while in other countries more citizens realize the essential necessity of defending oneself from a tyrannical government.

And now Election Integrity has taken on new momentum, although the changes and reforms needed to clean up voter rolls and ensure that only citizens vote should have taken place decades ago. Thank you for taking the lead on this.

Thank you, more importantly, for calling out RINO Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan on the issues of Election Integrity:

Indeed, Speaker Dade Phelan is another Mitch McConnell, a weak leader who wants to make nice rather than make a difference. Phelan is indeed a despicable RINO. He has allowed Democrats to retain key leadership positions in the state house, even though they vote against the agendas that Texans care about. He allows them key chairmanships on committees, even though they often frustrate the Republican caucus agenda time and again.

And for all those arrest warrants issued for the runaway Democrats who frustrated two special sessions earlier this year, not one of those despicable Democrats have been formally charged or sanctioned in the Texas State Legislature. In fact, Phelan allowed them to retain key leadership positions and their salaries, despite the fact that they refused to work for the people of the state of Texas.

Phelan delayed constitutional carry until it was too politically damaging to his power to continue to do so, and he finally caved to allow the immensely popular heartbill to pass, too.

However, the Texas Republican Party has established 8 legislative priorities, and Phelan only approved two of them. Two key priorities which Phelan killed? One is school choice. Texans have wanted to break up the Big Government "public" school cabal for decades. And yet, even though Republicans have dominated the state legislature for over 20 years, they have not gotten this reform accomplished?

Why? Because weak RINOs like Phelan get big money from Big Labor, specifically the different teachers unions and associations throughout the state. He is a union whore who will do the bidding of union bosses, while kicking parents and children in the teeth.

But there is another legislative priority that the Texas GOP has fought for for the last four year, and which RINOs like Phelan have put off and killed over and over again: 

a ban on sexual mutilation/modification of minors.

RINO Speaker Dade Phelan not only gets big money from Big Labor, but he gets big backing from the Big LGBT Hate Machine. He has a 43% rating from the major sexual perversion hate group in Texas called "Texas Equality," which ironically enough is obsessed with pushing LGBT privilege.

Phelan is a big part of this deviant, destructive scheme.

Since the regular legislative session opened in January 2021, MassResistance and other pro-family forces have been pushing hard to ban this horrific, terrible, torturous practice in the state of Texas. Different bills were introduced, and many of them passed in the state senate. They faced nothing but delays and filibusters in the House of Representatives.

This is unconscionable.

Children should not be butchered or mutilated. They should not be subject to gruesome experiments in perverse attempts to change their sex. The parents who push these practices are committing child abuse. The Texas Department of Children and Families declared this ruling unequivocally.

There is a major reform that is moving across the country little by little, in which we need you to take a firm stance to support this reform, not just voter integrity, not just constitutional carry, and not just school choice.

We need you to come out strong against RINO Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and DEMAND that he take action to end sexual mutilation and gender modification of minors. There is no excuse for this barbaric practice to continue anywhere in the fifty states of the United States, and certainly not in the United States of America.

President Trump, we are so grateful that you fought and are continuing to fight the Build The Wall to protect our country. We are glad that you are fighting for the Second Amendment, for unborn babies, and for voter integrity.

Now is the time to fight to protect the children once they are born and raised. We need your help to call out the Texas legislature, and demand that they pass legislation that bans

1. sex reassignment surgeries on minors.

2. chemical castration of minors

3. social sex transitioning of minors

4. males in female sports (and vice versa) for all ages.

President Trump, you cannot Make America Great Again if you do not Make Male and Female Great Again. We cannot delay on this issue. You cannot remain silent in the face of the systematic maiming and butchering of innocent boys and girls outside of the womb!

Stand for Truth! Stop being silent! Speak out and Demand that the Texas State Legislature pass a bill to end sex mutilation/modification of minors!

The Texas Minute: Only Fighters Win

The Texas Minute has been keeping an eye on the Austin-based state legislature for years. Like Texas MassResistance, they have been calling out the feckless cowardice of Governor Abbott and the Republican leaders, all of whom are bought by Big Pharma and pushing away from conservative priorities while placating Democrats.

This is truly disgusting. The Lone Star State does not have real leadership right now, and Greg Abbott's Special Session political theater has all be designed to stop the real reforms that the vast majority of Texans want.

Check out their latest report, especially the very important quote from Margaret Thatcher at the end of the eblast:

Good morning!

The historical context of a recent ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is a reminder that it is never a good idea to back down from a principled fight. There will always be self-proclaimed “experts” telling us to stand down and avoid a loss, but I end the week reflecting on the simple fact that only fighters win fights.

First, here is today's Texas Minute.

 

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, August 27, 2021
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Election Integrity Bill Advances

• Late last night, the Texas House gave preliminary approval to Republicans’ top-priority election reform legislation (Senate Bill 1), despite continuing opposition from Democrats. This is the legislative issue that led to Democrats walking out of the regular session May, and then stalling the special sessions for 37 days this summer.
      
• Erin Anderson reports the version passed by the House is different from that passed several weeks ago by the Senate. And both differ from the major election reform bills proposed during the regular session, which the Republican-controlled Legislature failed to pass.
      
• The House sponsor of the legislation was Andrew Murr (R-Junction), who calmly withstood hours of verbal lashings from Democrats.
     
• Once SB 1 passes a final House vote, the measure goes back to the Senate. There, senators can either concur with the House’s changes or request a conference committee that would hammer out a compromise version. That compromise version would then require the approval of both chambers.

 

Session Clock is Ticking

• The current 30-day special session expires on Sept. 5.
   
• While Senate has passed all of the items on Gov. Abbott’s special session agenda (twice), SB1 is the first measure passed by the House since the regular legislative session ended in May.

 

Get The Latest Today at 11 a.m.

• At 11 a.m. today, join Brandon Waltens for a live edition of The Headline. He’ll be joined by Texas Scorecard Senior Correspondent Jeramy Kitchen to talk about the sudden flurry of activity in the Texas Capitol. (The video archive and podcast will be available shortly after.)

 

Abbott Won’t Address Employer Vax Mandates

• While Gov. Greg Abbott has doubled down on his previous executive orders aimed at preventing governmental entities in Texas from requiring COVID-19 vaccines, he isn’t going to be taking action against such requirements from private employers. Brandon Waltens has the details.
     
• A spokesman for the governor has said employers should be able to mandate COVID-19 vaccines on their employees: “Private businesses don’t need government running their business.”
     
• During the regular legislative session earlier this year, the Legislature passed (and the governor signed) legislation prohibiting governments from issuing vaccine passports and businesses from requiring COVID vaccines from their customers. The new law does not address employer-employee relationships, however.
     
• Despite the issue of employer-mandated vaccines not currently being on the call for the special session, two measures have been filed to prevent the mandates: House Bill 24 by State Rep. Candy Noble (R–Lucas) and House Bill 125 by State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington). 

 

DEMs Push Further Left

• In what they call a “response to increasingly radical, right-wing laws that hurt Texans, coupled with a rapidly growing progressive movement in Texas,” 20 House Democrat lawmakers created the new Texas House Progressive Caucus on Thursday. Jeramy Kitchen has the story.
   
• Notably, all of the members of this new, far-left caucus were participants in the quorum bust that paralyzed the House for 37 days; three of the Democrats serve as chairmen and six serve as vice chairmen of standing House committees – all appointed by Republican Speaker Dade Phelan.

 

New Series Premiere!

 

• Later today we will premiere the first in a new podcast series: The Autopsy Files, documenting the biggest issues from the 87th Texas legislative Session.
        
• The first episode will premiere at 2 p.m. Find it at texasscorecard.com/podcasts/ or wherever you listen to podcasts!

 

Scorecard Store Opening: 15% Off!

• The Texas Scorecard Store is now open! To celebrate, everything is 15% off today and through Sunday when you use the discount code SCORECARD at check out. (Hey – this is actually a bigger discount than the ‘employee’ discount we give the staff!)
     
• Right now, you’ll find mugs, hats, sweatshirts, and t-shirts in a variety of colors and sizes. And we’ll be regularly adding more items - so stop in often.
      
• Let everyone know you are a citizen who is keeping score and taking action!

 

 

Friday Reflection:
Only Fighters Win Fights

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

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Listen to the Reflections Podcast

 

When the Texas Legislature was considering a ban on dismemberment abortions back in 2017, lawmakers were urged to oppose the legislation by all the usual suspects – but also by a “pro-life” group. Their excuse was that they didn’t think it was a fight Texas could win. They were inexcusably wrong.

In a hyperbolic memo sent to legislators on March 31, 2017, the executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, Joe Pojman, declared with absolute certainty that the bills “Will Not Survive a Federal Court Challenge” (his capitalization).

Pojman explained that his lawyer, Paul Linton, had written two legal memoranda concluding that “unquestionably” the courts would strike down any ban on dismemberment abortions.

Wow, TWO whole legal memoranda. And… “unquestionably,” he said.

A month before that memo, Pojman gave condescending testimony to the Senate that year – testifying “on” the dismemberment ban rather than “for” or “against” it. But no one was fooled; he was arguing from a positions of cowardice, waving a “white flag” on the very issue his organization claimed to champion.

Maybe Pojman really believed his faulty prognostications, or maybe he just didn’t want Texas being too bold in pro-life advocacy. Either way, he lacked the courage of the convictions for which his organization ostensibly believes.

As it turned out, the Texas Legislature ignored both. Pojman and Linton, listening to the state’s bold, pro-life majority. The language of the “dismemberment” ban was amended to 2017’s omnibus prolife measure Senate Bill 8, setting it to take effect on Sept. 1 of that year.

For a time, the Pojman plea for legislative cowardice seemed prudent. A leftwing federal judge in Austin blocked implementation of the law – specifically the portion banning dismemberment abortions. That case has been quietly winding its way through the federal judicial labyrinth.

Late last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals gave the law its approval, clearing the way for it to finally take full effect in the Lone Star State. Babies will no longer be brutally torn to pieces by profit-hungry doctors serving the genocidal agenda of Planned Parenthood.

Now, it is entirely possible the U.S. Supreme Court might eventually decide differently. But it is also entirely possible the Supreme Court will side with the Fifth Circuit, the Texas Legislature, Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Paxton, real pro-life Texans, and the moral righteousness of the law’s intent.

All of that is good news on its face. But this incident should serve as a broader reminder about the importance of ignoring the “pleas” for reasonableness from the bought-and-paid-for shills of the crony establishment.

All too often in the legislative process people with Ph.D.’s and J.D.’s will waive around white papers, condescendingly urge the conservative rabble to stand down on an issue. They will make expert-sounding claims about judicial survivability, legislative processes, and other governing complexities to inspire cowardice or sow confusion. And, all too often, activists get suckered in. We let good public policy be sacrificed on the altar of legal reasonableness built by our opponents in service to a decidedly unholy god.

The fear of losing can be paralyzing. But here is the good news: none of us are called to be “successful,” we are called to be faithful.

You may not win every fight you enter, but you lose every fight from which you run. Fights are won only by those who are fighting. In pursuing good public policy, the fight is always worth it. 

The fight is all that matters. We cannot be faithful to that fight when we allow our hands to be tied to our ankles. In public policy, the grassroots can have political agendas imposed upon them – or the grassroots can be the ones imposing the agenda.

Yes, there will always be “reasonable” men who consider invitations to haughty cocktail parties more important than fighting for principles. They should be called out, and then ignored.

There will always be people with pedigrees who will push the grassroots to stand down from a fight today in exchange for the ill-defined promise of “future success.” Those people should be mocked and tossed aside.

Rather than be shackled to the political expectations of the establishment cronies, grassroots activists should disrupt the status quo by forcing all three branches of government, and culture at large, into the fight for a better Texas.

Cowardice is always a killer. Victory is found only in boldly fighting forward.

 

 

Quote-Unquote “I fight on, I fight to win.” – Margaret Thatcher​​

 

Hard Truth: Texas House Democrats Fled to Kill Conservative Priorities ... AND Texas Republicans Let Them!

 In California, true-red conservatives would be happy to have a governor like Greg Abbott. What we have here, what we have now with Gavin Newsom is the absolute pits. He is one of the worst governors, if not the worst governor, in the United States of America.

However, the people in Texas do not like Governor Greg Abbott.

For all the fawning and frolic of the Texas Legislators, with a GOP trifecta at their disposal, Texas Republicans elected to the Austin state legislature have NOT taken the necessary steps to enact the 8 key legislative priorities of the Texas GOP.

In fact, only two passed this past legislative session: constitutional carry and religious liberty protections. The Texas GOP has been fighting to abolish, not just limit, abortion for years. They wanted legislation to enact school choice. They also wanted to ban sex mutilation of minors.

Instead of pressing forward on enacting these priorities, Texas Republicans waste time, enacted long adjournment periods. The Speaker pandered to Democrats so that he could be elected Speaker of the House. Since then, he has let Democrats get away with slow-walking every conservative priority in Austin.

Here's the full report from Texas Scorecard:

While it’s unknown how this saga will end, the record shows House Republicans enabled the Democrat walkout that has paralyzed the Legislature.

By Brandon Waltens|July 14, 2021

After House Democrats left Austin for Washington, D.C., this week in order to break quorum and halt consideration of conservative priorities, Republicans in the chamber continue to beat their chests, calling for Democrats to return and do the work they are paid to do.

And while that argument is certainly true (after all, House Democrats who have left will continue to be entitled to receive their pay and per diem), there is one key fact that has largely been ignored: House Republicans allowed this to happen.

And though it was only this past Monday that Democrats packed up their bags (and beer) to jet off to the nation’s Capitol, Republicans prepared the path for them before the session began.

It started in November when now-Speaker Dade Phelan courted Democrat lawmakers in his quest to wield the gavel. Having served since 2015, Phelan’s record was no secret. In fact, he was one of only three Texas House Republicans to receive a positive grade from Equality Texas, a pro-LGBT advocacy organization that has heavily opposed legislation to protect children from gender modification procedures.

But despite knowing these facts, the House Republican Caucus voted to give him their seal of approval.

On January 11, the day before the regular 87th Legislative Session was slated to begin, Phelan went on record saying he would appoint Democrats to chair committees, a practice not even done in Washington, D.C. Instead, Phelan called the House’s “bipartisan” model one that “worked pretty darn well,” adding that it was not always about “Republican versus Democrat” or “left versus right.”

Despite this assertion, Phelan was overwhelmingly elected speaker of the House on January 12, with only two freshman voting against him: State Reps. Jeff Cason (R–Bedford) and Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City).

The next day, when the House had the opportunity to pass the rules that governed how they would operate for the session, Slaton offered an amendment to bar Democrats from chairing committees in the Texas House. 

The opposition brought up State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R–Deer Park), who read a prepared statement opposing Slaton’s amendment, and the effort was soundly defeated.

Several weeks later, true to his word, Phelan announced his committee appointments with Democrats chairing several key committees, including Education and Business & Industry. Appointed as his speaker pro tempore was Democrat State Rep. Joe Moody (El Paso), who hangs a banner in his office accusing Republicans of racist intent for passing Senate Bill 4—the ban on sanctuary cities that passed during the 2017 regular session. Moody said he was grateful to be appointed to the “No. 2 spot in the chamber.”

Then, the long adjournments began.

During January, February, and into March, the House would often adjourn for many days at a time. Eventually, some conservative lawmakers—like Slaton and State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington)—began to question leadership about why they were being asked to leave town while conservative priorities were not being addressed. They were told there was plenty of time by Republican lawmakers close to Phelan, such as State Reps. Will Metcalf (Conroe) and Cole Hefner (Mt. Pleasant).

But while there was indeed plenty of time, the Republican-led House continued to slow-walk the rest of the session to the detriment of many conservative priorities. 

In the final weeks of the session, numerous Republican priorities—such as banning child gender modification, protecting monuments, and abolishing abortion—were killed.

And on the penultimate night of the session, when an omnibus election integrity bill was up for final consideration on the floor of the House, Democrats were told by Speaker Phelan that if they left the chamber, he would not lock the doors or send for them.

So, that’s exactly what they did. And the bill died.

Almost immediately, however, it became clear that Gov. Greg Abbott would call a special 30-day session so lawmakers could have a mulligan on some of the legislation, like election integrity, that didn’t make it past the finish line during the regular session. 

At the same time, Democrats went on national media, forecasting their plans to leave the Capitol and break the quorum. Democrat State Rep. Rafael Anchia (Dallas) recently called the tactic “effective,” during an interview, adding that he “would be willing to” leave the state to break quorum.

While Republicans could argue they were caught off guard when Democrats broke quorum in May to kill the election integrity bill, with Democrats laying the groundwork early for their departure again during the special session, one would hope leadership would be prepared to address the issue this time around. 

Instead, when the special session kicked off on July 8, it was business as usual. No one motioned to lock the doors or otherwise keep the Democrats from fleeing.

State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington) filed a resolution that would punish lawmakers who shirked their responsibilities by stripping them of committee chairmanships, committee memberships, and seniority privileges. 

But Speaker Phelan ignored the resolution and then recessed the House for a long weekend, until Tuesday, July 13.

In other words, Democrats were given a window of opportunity. And, unsurprisingly, they took it.

On Monday, July 12, reports began to swirl that Democrats were indeed imminently planning on leaving the state. But in the several hours after those reports were first made public and when the Democrats’ two private planes took off from Austin-Bergstrom Airport, there was silence from Abbott, Phelan, and Republican leadership at large. Bragging on social media, Democrats were allowed to load up on a bus and fly to D.C. in broad daylight as Texans watched it all unfold.

In fact, it was only after they were officially “wheels up” that Abbott and Phelan issued statements on the matter.

But while Abbott has been publicly calling for punitive measures to punish Democrats—such as stripping their committee chairmanships and even suggesting he could declare their seats vacant and hold special elections to replace them—Phelan’s response has been tame in comparison.

After it was made official on Tuesday morning that the House lacked a quorum, Phelan finally entertained a motion for a “call of the House,” locking the doors and directing the sergeant-at-arms to send for absent members “under warrant for arrest if necessary.”

So far, however, that appears to be all Phelan is willing to do. He has so far claimed that he does not have the power to remove members from their committee positions. And he has stated that the only business the House can do while they wait is the daily pledges and prayer. 

Some, however, have disagreed with Phelan’s assertion. Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi, who himself is a former state lawmaker, took to Twitter to say the speaker explicitly does have the power to remove any committee chair he has appointed and that the House can compel attendance “under such penalties as each House may provide.”

Yet day two of the standoff came to a close with no such motions even attempted. (Phelan has, however, requested that Democrats return their $221 daily per diem.)

Meanwhile, Democrats have held multiple press conferences and media appearances in the past couple of days, railing against Republican efforts to safeguard the integrity of the ballot box. 

And what about State Rep. Joe Moody, Phelan’s “No. 2” guy? He is among those leading the movement. 

There are currently 25 days left in the 30-day special session. And when this one ends, Gov. Abbott can call repeated sessions until the Democrats eventually decide to return home. But while it may not be clear how this saga will conclude, the record shows it began with enablement from Republicans and the leadership they have—so far—been slow to criticize.