Abbott (kinda sorta) Declares (half-assed) War

"The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge,
But the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.
Proverbs 15:14

Abbott makes it official:

Gov. Greg Abbott was on the receiving end recently of some jokes about his use of a wheelchair — and his alleged kowtowing to liberal Texas cities on COVID-19.

Now, he’s going on offense.

In a two-week early voting period for the July GOP runoffs beginning Monday, Abbott’s using his broad popularity among Republican voters, lists of likely voters and elaborate campaign organization to try to propel three state or county-level candidates past rivals associated with Empower Texans.

And?!?

This is expected.

Greg Abbott has been taking on water because of his own indecisive, weak, "leadership." Greg Abbott, and Greg Abbott alone, made the decision to hire Mike Toomey. Greg Abbott, and Greg Abbott alone, made the decision to giveaway a no-bid contract...allegedly for so-called "contract tracing." Greg Abbott, and Greg Abbott alone, did these things.

But Greg Abbott, being notoriously thin-skinned, can't abide discussion of Greg Abbott's job performance.  Greg Abbott has to play Mr. Burns to a revolving cast of legislative Smithers'.  The Empower Texas kerfuffle just gave Greg Abbott a pretext to do what Greg Abbott always wanted to do.

But here's the thing: Abbott's not actually doing much.

(Which is, of course, typical for Abbott.)

Last three paragraphs of the DMN piece:

The governor’s political operation, conceded “endorsements are not the silver bullet or anything.”

In all of the races, Texans for Greg Abbott will deploy “digital advertising to our universe, texting to our folks and emails” — but not radio or cable-TV ads, Carney said. Turnout is likely to be low, he added.

“Hopefully, they’ll get out there and vote and support the governor’s candidates,” Carney said.

Soo...they're going to send a bunch of spam text messages. People hate those.  But keep on keeping on Dave Carney.

Speaking of Dave Carney, that quote is astonishingly weak. "Hopefully?!?"   Hopefully, lots of stuff happens.  But it usually helps to have a plan beyond spam text messages.

Then there's this: Why run your mouth in the first place?!?

A mob boss who knows how to keep his mouth shut only needs to whack one enemy from time to time to be feared.  But a mob boss who says he's going to whack four specific people on a specific timeline...better whack all four (on time).   Anything less looks weak.

In other words, Abbott better run the table.

Anything short of that is a loss.

A bad one.

Bottom Line: This is an awfully high-stakes fight to pick to not have a plan beyond Dave Carney, spam text messages, and the word "hopefully."

"You're going to be disappointed": An open letter to Peter Rex about Austin Texas

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me:
Ezekiel 3:17

Dear Mr. Rex,

I read, with great interest, your Wall St. Journal op-ed "I’m Leaving Seattle for Texas So My Employees Can Be Free." You sound like me a decade ago. The only difference is that I moved to Austin from New York City, not Seattle.

Allow me to break some news you need to hear: If perceived differences in public policy are your primary reason for relocation to Austin, you're going to be disappointed. VERY disappointed. It's not 2006 anymore. Dazed and Confused was a quarter century ago.

I understand the urge to flee the Seattle city council. Unfortunately, Austin's city council is no better. Where Seattle has Kshama Sawant and her allies, Austin has Greg Casar. Austin today is Seattle five years ago.

And the trend lines are, unfortunately, identical.

Allow me to illustrate: In 2019, the Austin city council passed an ordinance to encourage camping by the homeless. Homelessness predictably skyrocketed. Sound familiar?!?

Unfortunately, homeless encampments are just the most tangible, visible, manifestation of misgovernance in Austin. They're hardly alone. Over the past decade, Austin has been a laboratory in how to NOT run a city.

Off the top of my head, within recent memory Austin has seen:

• The Uber debacle.

• The assault on short-term rentals.

• Entitlement programs at the municipal level...funded by employers.

• Multiple attempts at rewriting our land use development code that, while laudable in intent, have descended into lawless farce in practice.

• A coordinated assault on the integrity of police chief Brian Manley, the only remotely competent official in the entire city government.

But at least they got their boondoggle soccer stadium...and they want to spend $10 Billion on some trains.

Again, you're from Seattle, does any of this sound familiar?!?

-------

But a ha, you say, Texas is a Republican state. And surely the Republicans at the state level will protect me from Democrats at the local level!!!  Right?!?

LOL.

The only difference between the Travis County Democrats and the Texas GOP is that the former will stab you in the front.

When you observe it up close, you will rapidly discover that the Texas legislature is a uniquely wretched collection of cowards, drunks, imbeciles, and perverts. Far too many Texas legislators are more interested in sexually harassing young women than in protecting entrepreneurs and taxpayers. To be fair, there are also plenty of run of the mill financial criminals. Carlos Uresti was all of the above.

The Texas to which you think you are moving is a figment of the collective imaginations of Fox News, Political consultants, and the self-serving politicians who hire them.

Speaking of self-serving politicians, Governor Greg Abbott is worthless and weak.  He has no core convictions beyond Dave Carney's tracking poll. There is a lot that could be said on this topic, although the fact that Greg Abbott put a lobbyist named Mike Toomey in charge of Texas' COVID policy encapsulates it all.

While Greg Abbott's poll driven COVID dithering brought his fecklessness into public view, it's hardly the only example. When Austin passed the afore mentioned homeless camping ordinance, Greg Abbott vowed swift and decisive action. Unfortunately, by Greg Abbott's standards, swift and decisive action means nothing more than running his mouth on Fox News. Greg Abbott could have called a special legislative session to override the Austin ordinance. But Greg Abbott didn't. And Greg Abbott won't. Because Greg Abbott is worthless and weak.

If you're looking for a visual manifestation of Greg Abbott's callow failure, check out the intersection of Burnet Rd. and U.S. Hwy 183...and understand that the state of Texas has 100% jurisdiction over this right of way:

Burnet and 183 - Aweek ago vs. Today.

(But @GregAbbott_TX sez he wants to help w/ #AustinHomless)#TXLEGE #atxcouncil pic.twitter.com/Uw4bZartWD

— cahnman (@cahnman) February 7, 2020

In terms of grandiose rhetoric accompanied by meager results, Greg Abbott is the right-wing Bill DiBlasio.

The less said about Lt. Gov Dan Patrick and house speaker Dennis Bonnen, the better.

-------

There you have it.

That's not to say that everything is bad in Austin anno 2020. Longhorn baseball looks solid. One of these years, the football team is going to click.  Evil MoPac has his moments.

Then again, for one of the highlights to be a parody Twitter account that was founded to ridicule our leaders' inability to fix Austin's endemic traffic speaks volumes.

I wish I had better news to report. I really do. But that's reality. And that's what you're getting yourself into if you relocate here.

Consider yourself warned.

Sincerely, 

Adam Cahn

East Riverside

Austin, TX

P.S. Do feel free to forward this letter to Elon Musk and Joe Rogan.

Abbott/Dead Armadillos: An Ongoing Series (Part 3 of ?!?)

"So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
Revelation 3:16

PushJunction this morning:

GOVERNOR ABBOTT, continuing on a theme, moved yesterday to limit elective medical procedures in four large counties, and pause reopening at current levels.

Today, the governor is closing bars, rolling back restaurant capacity, and over-regulating public gatherings.

At least one doctor in the DFW area is calling the governor's latest maneuvering a needless reaction and political posturing, and he's not alone "harshing the narrative."

Following dire reporting and handwriting about hospital capacity in Houston, leaders of the sprawling Texas Medical Center said the COVID surge is manageable.

As has been the case for the past week, cases continue to increase, but deaths are not keeping pace. This under-reported good news gets in the way of Abbott's reaction to fear porn habit.

While the governor has encouraged the use of face masks, he's stopped short of mandating use (more on this below). Tarrant County, after promising not to force masks wearing, has forced mask use.

It’s rumored that law enforcement isn’t interested in enforcing the nanny state mandate.

Honestly, it's not even his position on the issue (does he really have one?!?).  It's that he can't stick with one once he takes it.   He's indecisive and weak.

The worst part, unfortunately, is that the uncertainty this sort of political dithering creates is the worst of all possible worlds for a business.  It's challenging enough to navigate the virus.  Adding politicians' mood swings complicates things further.

In the first entry in this series, we wrote:

Abbott's already pissed off the stay-home-forever crowd. Now, he's pissing of a not-insignificant part of his base. He's creating a rather difficult needle to thread for himself.

We could have understood the case for a longer original lockdown.  We could have understood the case for a much more decisive reopening.  Lukewarm piles of suck, however, help nobody.

Then again, what would you expect when you don't understand your own data and put lobbyists in charge?!?

But...but...keep Texas red (and send the GOP money)...otherwise...something, something, Alexandra Occasio-Cortez!!!

Bottom Line: We're not going to insult dumpster fires by comparing them to Greg Abbott, but sheesh....

Apparently, Abbott doesn't even know his data

"The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge,

But the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.
Proverbs 15:14

Apparently, the Governor was on (where else?!?) Fox News yesterday.  Due to formatting issues, we can't embed the video.  But you can watch it for yourself here.

More from PushJunction:

After his hollow flex, Abbott went on Fox News and biffed. When asked for specifics about the virus spread in Texas, Abbott, like a kid called on unexpectedly in class, told the anchor he left his stats at home.

And this:

How can @GregAbbott_TX not be able to answer basic questions about hospitalizations on @marthamaccallum? “I did not check with the data before I came on your show.” What kind of an answer is that? If you choose to control the lives of millions by edict, know the data.

— Matt Rinaldi (@MattRinaldiTX) June 23, 2020

Didn’t know basic questions about hospitalization data on a national news appearance. But you can always be confident he knows the poll numbers like the back of his hand. https://t.co/85gSporDPd

— Matt Rinaldi (@MattRinaldiTX) June 23, 2020

Bottom Line: When your decisions impact the economy and public health for 29 million people, you need to know this stuff...unless you want to admit that lobbyists are running everything.

#TXLEGE: Abbott facing first Sustained Revolt Re: "Contact Tracing" Boondoggle

"David said furthermore, 'As the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish.' "
1 Samuel 26:10

Tony Tinderholt:

I would like to make one final point which concerns contract tracing. The MTX contract must end promptly. It is a gross invasion of personal liberty and privacy. I also have serious concerns it violates HIPPA and other medical privacy laws. Why is Texas spending nearly $300 million of taxpayer money on tracking Texans for two years over this? Though it may be federally funded, every dollar spent by local, state, or the federal government either comes from current taxpayers or the children or grandchildren of taxpayers through debt service. Therefore, we could have forgone the federal funds, saved taxpayer dollars, and not conducted privacy-infringing tracing.

[Note: While the scope of this blog post is limited to the so-called "contact tracing" boondoggle, Tinderholt's full letter is brutal.]

Bob Hall:

“Contact tracing is technically wrong, as it may be an effective tool to trace slow moving deadly viruses such as Ebola or Tuberculosis, but not for a fast-moving virus with a low death rate that is primarily spread by asymptomatic people.

“Contact tracing, for COVID-19, is a colossal waste of money which could be better spent on resources to protect the elderly and immune-compromised populations that are the most affected. Contact tracing will shred our constitutional rights to privacy.

“Texas must stop contact tracing and change course by adopting new policies consistent with the facts as we now know them...."

Matt Krause: 

James White:

State Reps @RepMattKrause and @James_E_White have called for termination of @MTX_Inc’s $295m contract for contact tracing. Anyone else out there doing same? My DMs are open https://t.co/K1mzSZto2r

— Jay Root (@byjayroot) June 1, 2020

It's not a full statement, but this retweet from Donna Howard's certainly suggests discomfort with the contract.

All of which is really, really, interesting.

Obviously, we've been around the block several times.  We know that the legislature often talks a big game during the interim, then fails to follow through once they get the chance.  Still, this is not a good place for a Governor to be heading into the most difficult session in awhile.

If Abbott's smart, he'll cancel the contract (and fire Mike Toomey).  Whether or not he is smart remains to be seen.  That being said, it wouldn't surprise us to see that announcement as a Friday afternoon document dump this week or next.

Bottom Line: The long term fallout remains to be seen, but the bloom is certainly off the rose in a way it hasn't been previously.

#TXLEGE: No, really, who hired the right lobbyists re: "reopening?!?"

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

PushJunction yesterday:

Obviously, PushJunction is tracking reopening in the macro sense. Equally obvious, in that macro sense, is that Texas' alleged "reopening" falls far short of claims made by politicians. We noticed something else.

That chart is a guide for how Mike Toomey, using the authority Greg Abbott delegated to him, is picking winners and losers.

It's tough to know exactly what  to make of this.  It's a snapshot in time.  Except that this is what happens when you put lobbyists in charge of the 11th largest economy in the world.

Equally obvious, the path of least resistance for Abbott is to fire Mike Toomey and lift the remaining restrictions.

Bottom Line:  Next round of campaign finance and lobby reports gonna be fascinating....

#TXLEGE: This is what happens when you put Lobbyists in Charge

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

Meh:

Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said he will let the state’s stay-at-home order expire at the end of the month, and allow businesses to begin opening in phases in May.

First to open on Friday: Retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls. But they will only be allowed to operate at 25% capacity. Museums and libraries will also be allowed to open at 25% capacity, but hands-on exhibits must remain closed.

Abbott's order supersedes local orders saying those businesses must remain closed. But the reopenings are optional. Businesses can stay closed if they wish, Abbott said.

At the same time, Abbott said he is holding off on reopening certain businesses for the time being, including barbershops, hair salons, bars and gyms. He said he hopes those businesses can open "on or no later than mid-May."

Blah, blah, blah.

You're welcome to read the Trib's write up in full. There's more discussion on Twitter. But the TL,DR version is that Abbott's so-called "reopening Texas" order is a confused muddle.

Some businesses will be allowed to open under one set of standards this weekend.  Others will be allowed to open in two weeks under another set of standards.  Some businesses that were allowed to open last Friday under one set of standards, will have to adopt another set of standards this coming Friday, and might have to adopt a third set at some point in the coming weeks.  It's all quite confusing.

Of course, this is what happens when you put lobbyists in charge.  Some industries benefit.  Others, not so much.

On a very practical note: We pity anyone in the hospitality industry who has to navigate the line between "bar" and "restaurant."

But hey, as long as it props up the Governor's poll numbers.

Bottom Line: Chronic underperformance cannot continue indefinitely....

Speaking of Abbott playing games...let's not overlook James Huffines

"Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Matthew 7:20

Yesterday, we wrote about Governor Abbott appointing Mike Toomey to his so-called "strike force" to guide re-opening the state.  Considering his history and his lobbying connections to industries receiving preferential treatment, Mike Toomey is a particularly egregious appointment.  That one needed to stand by itself.

But Toomey's hardly the only problematic appointment.

From the same announcement:

Abbott also named a "statewide strike force" devoted to developing reopening procedures. Austin banker James Huffines will chair the task force, while veteran lobbyist Mike Toomey will be its chief operating officer. The group will oversee what Abbott described as a phased reopening.

Now who, pray tell, is James Huffines?!?

You can learn about James Huffines' various activities here.  The TL,DR version is that he has a wide variety of business and philanthropic interests.  For our purposes, however, the relevant detail is that former Texas Senator Don Huffines is his brother.

Why is Don Huffines important?!?

Texas Scorecard (Tuesday):

Austin American Statesman (Wednesday):

DON Huffines has been one of Abbott's more outspoken critics for awhile.  In recent weeks, DON Huffines' criticism has become more pointed.  While not directly relevant to the current crisis, if you have 20 minutes we strongly recommend Huffines' full presentation.

In response, Abbott appoints James Huffines to his "reopen Texas" board.

Which means DON Huffines can't go after Abbott without going after James Huffines.

To be fair, James Huffines isn't an inherently terrible selection.  In isolation, there's not necessarily anything wrong with an elected officials consulting with someone with a wide array of business and philanthropic interests.  FWIW, James Huffines has struck this author as a perfectly capable individual on the couple of occasions when we've met.

(Certainily better than Mike Toomey.)

In context, however, this appointment means one thing: An attempt to shut DON Huffines up by making it socially awkward for him to criticize Abbott.

Only time will tell if it works.

Bottom Line: Kinda brilliant (in a dastardly kind of way).

Abbott appoints Perry's ex-Gardasil Lobbyist ex-Chief of Staff

Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
1 Corinthians 15:33

In our post from a couple hours ago, we said that our expectations for the Governor's widely hyped announcement this afternoon were low.

But we weren't expecting this:

Abbott also named a "statewide strike force" devoted to developing reopening procedures. Austin banker James Huffines will chair the task force, while veteran lobbyist Mike Toomey will be its chief operating officer. The group will oversee what Abbott described as a phased reopening.

Mike Toomey, for those who don't remember, was this guy:

The most dramatic moment of the GOP debate in Florida last Monday revolved around Gov. Rick Perry and his 2007 executive order mandating that all 11- and 12-year-old girls in Texas get the HPV vaccine. The human papillomavirus vaccine protects women and teens against a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer.

During the debate, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann called Perry's executive order an example of crony capitalism.

"The governor's chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company," Bachmann said. "The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor. This is flat-out wrong. Was this about life, or was it billions of dollars for a drug company?"

Back in 2007, the first reaction to Perry's executive order was mystification on both sides of the political aisle.

....

It emerged that Merck's political action committee had donated $5,000 to the governor's campaign at the same moment their executives were negotiating with the governor's staff. Merck would eventually donate nearly $30,000 to Perry and more than $377,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which Perry chaired.

Yeah, same guy.

A quick perusal of Mike Toomey's recent lobby clients reveals:

It goes on.

Keep in mind, this only covers recent time periods.  This doesn't say anything about lobby clients further in the past.  Or, potentially, future lobby clients (wink, nod).

Even so, you have insurance companies, grocery stores, construction interests, local governments, medical device companies, and (imagine that) Merck.

Basically, every industry that's been getting special treatment this entire time.

Also, while we have no specific knowledge, it wouldn't surprise us if deeper direct conflicts of interest exist.

But that's speculative.

Bottom Line: Revolving door gonna keep revolving....