#TXLEGE: Insufferable Senate Solipsists Waste Everybody's Time

"Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord;
Though they join forces, none will go unpunished."
Proverbs 16:5

[Note: If you care about the details, Lauren McGaughy of the DMN live tweeted the early part of the hearing here.  Her thread contains links to coverage of later parts.  Masochists can watch the full hearing here.]

[Note II: The definition for 'solipsism' is available here (see definition #2); the definition for 'pompous' is available here.]

It's mercifully over.

Today's initial hearing of the Texas Senate's interim committee on so-called "Mass Violence Prevention & Community Safety" accomplished nothing.  Unless you consider an unintentional case study in ego and political grandstanding an accomplishment.  It delivered on that count.

DPS chief Steve McCraw was the hearing's primary witness.  This would be the same Steve McCraw who, earlier this year, bungled the state's voter roll eligibility review.  Honestly, that tells you everything you need to know.  Only in government could someone with Steve McCraw's recent record of grotesque incompetence not get fired.

A vignette: During his testimony, McCraw prattled on for several minutes about the alleged threat posed by incels.  Seriously, frickin' incels.  Obviously, incels are a demented sex cult.  But they're completely irrelevant.  Yet one of the top law enforcement officials in the state of Texas actually jabbered at the Texas Senate about this topic.  Even worse, the Senate took it seriously.  It was embarrassing (or should have been).

Also, this happened:

. @SenJaneNelson just said there are privacy concerns with checking social media, says she doesn't want law enforcement to be reading all her tweets. 🤔#txlege

— Lauren McGaughy (@lmcgaughy) September 26, 2019

Apparently, Senator Nelson is unaware that Twitter is already a public forum.

Bottom Line: Obviously, recent events in El Paso and Odessa sucked.  That goes without saying.  Nevertheless, today's Texas Senate hearing was a reminder that showboating politicians rarely make things better after a tragedy.