It's unfreaking believable, the level of corruption in Texas politics. The elections are rigged resulting in the eternal hellish landscape of right wing greed, racism & suppression. Paxton is the worst and one wonders how he sleeps at night.
Paxton is re-elected because he does exactly what the angry white racists of Texass want him to do - he files lawsuit after lawsuit against DC Democrats in front of right wing hack judges to win nationwide injunctions against laws that the angry white racists don't like. And no one owns the lib better than this corrupt thug. What surprises me is that assholes like Paxton (and Abbott and Patrick) don't think that they will ever be held to account. When the backlash comes, and it will come, they will never see it coming.
Thank you for this excellent account of the criminally corrupt antics of the dishonorable Ken Paxton, every word of it is as accurate as it is appalling.
It is incredulous that not only Paxton but also the equally abhorrent Dan Patrick and Greg Abbott were re-elected this past November. These three amigos are a disgrace and do not represent what the majority of Texans want to see in our state leadership. As a voting rights activist in Texas, I must share with you a few clarifications about Texas voting.
Just under 25% of registered voters in Texas actually cast a ballot for Paxton, Patrick, or Abbott. Three out of four registered voters in Texas either did not vote for them or did not vote at all (they each received about 54% of the vote of the 45.7 % of registered voters who voted). Abysmal as this participation is, it was enough to get them elected but not necessarily as a mandate of what most Texans want.
The combination of severely gerrymandered districts with unbearably comprehensive voter suppression efforts delivered the results we saw. Even if you registered to vote in the midterm election, if you had not submitted your registration at least 30 days prior to the election you could not vote — Texas is one of only 15 states that imposes this burden, an embarrassment for a state that prides itself on being number one in so many areas. Rejected mail ballots are an entirely other issue that disenfranchised many Texans.
The reality is that even though Paxton, Patrick, and Abbott won their races, Texans of all political persuasions are the losers. I say this because there are many areas of widespread agreement among Texans throughout the state on critical issues that affect our daily lives, yet are being neglected by our state leaders and the legislature. For example:
- Gun safety: 70% support raising the age to buy an assault weapon from 18 to 21, yet it’s ignored by most in the legislature who fear reprisal by the NRA
- School vouchers: 89% of Texas parents are satisfied with their child’s public school education, yet Abbott and Patrick are steadfast on taking away public school dollars (taxpayer money) and giving them to private and faith based schools (how is this remotely viable with separation of church and state); a direct attack on one of the most fundamental parts of Texas communities
- Medicaid expansion: 67% of Texans support this and it’s repeatedly denied by the legislature even though Texas has one of the country’s highest rates of uninsured, not to mention maternal mortality and teen (and repeat teen) pregnancy rates, both of which could be helped with better healthcare access through Medicaid expansion.
Bottom line, our state leaders and legislature are out of sync with what the majority of Texans want; they’re ignoring the will of the people, creating more of an autocratic state than a representative democracy.
A glimmer of good news, however, is sparkling in the 88th Texas legislature: Sen. Nathan Johnson filed SJR 25, a joint resolution that, if passed, will enact statewide citizen ballot initiatives— giving Texans themselves the right to put an issue directly on the ballot and vote on it! Twenty six other states already allow these types of ballot measures, Texas should be #27.
As head of the Texas Senate, Lt Gov Patrick should not suppress issues with widespread public support because of his personal preferences - this filing must be sent to committee for review and public discussion. Statewide Citizen Ballot Initiatives will provide Texans with a real chance to have their voice heard and begin to shape the state into a place where the majority of Texans want to live and prosper.
Excellent expose. The criminal dipshits (Paxton, Trump et al) are taking advantage of the slow grind of our system of justice, the very system they don’t believe in. Garland and the entire DOJ have prosecutorial discretion with respect to bringing an indictment and consider the “political implications”, for instance of indicting a former President, but that’s the wrong side of the concern. The primary concern should be the political implications of law abiding citizens watching Paxton and especially Trump not paying for the crimes that they rub in everyone’s face - that would be far worse then indicting, convicting and imprisoning a former President and in this case, a state AG. No hope for Texas but the Fed’s had better take down Trump and his friends. Ok if justice is slowly grinding but eventually the sausage has to be made!
Excellent essay Greg. Hold on though, Ohio says hold my beer! We’re going through the biggest corruption scandal of my lifetime right now! First Energy gave Larry Householder 500,000 dollars to help him get the votes to become SOH in Ohio. One of the lobbyists involved died by suicide, 2 admitted to the scheme, are testifying against LH. Remember when Obama talked about Citizens United and how it would further undermine politics and that 🖕er Alito shook his head as if to call Obama a liar??!! Anyway FE got the deal they wanted only to have it all rescinded shortly after the story broke! Keep writing about the corruption.
I’m down here in Austin kicking my way through yet another pile of devastating storm debris and living with the most corrupt state in America. As you point out, it’s effing unbelievable. The majority of Texans apparently think government is a joke and unimportant, or they approve. Either way, all 34 million of them are indicted for irresponsibility and stupidity.
Having grown up in New Orleans when the likes of Huey Long and his family were still in power, nothing about corruption surprises me. My closest brush with these thugs was when Larry Chehardy, the long time tax assessor in Jefferson Parish, successfully campaigned for re-election to his post on the platform of 'as long as you have a mortgage, you don't have to pay any property tax.' I was a very young teacher in the pathetic public schools that were so-called funded by the property tax that wasn't collected from very many people. Only the poorest people sent their kids to public school, so you can guess how popular Larry was. And that was just one small part of the corruption there. Laissez le bon temps rouler.
Since we are not on twitter, I’d like to say that Paxton should either be drawn & quartered (maybe just metaphorically), or tarred & feathered (literally). Paxton (what an oxymoron) is the only person on Twitter who blocked me when I posted an article referencing a murder he was involved in down in EL Paso. Now I’m unblocked bcs you’re right; when the constituents keep voting you in; it doesn’t matter. Maybe he is a direct descendant, at least politically, of LBJ, another Texan dictator whose own personal history is another catalogue of odious actions.
More pond scum in Texas, what a surprise! The succession of Texas I had high hopes for, never happened sadly!
Paxton has been criminally corrupt for years, thanks for spelling it out using Ruth’s definition. Today she wrote of Erdogan’s authoritarian rule, and specifically corruption, I made mention of similar failures to prosecute criminals of similarly corruption here in America. The insane pursuit of wealth and power are destroying this spinning rock! Excellent piece Greg!!
Ken Paxton is WAY down the list of people who have been exposed as, so far, above the law. "Investigating" seems to have become the new fig leaf for doing little and hoping that people will just forget and move on. I am sick to death of hearing that someone or something is being "investigated." At some point, and I used to think it would be a matter of months, the investigation has to get to a point that the subject can and SHOULD be indicted. But no. Not anymore.
We all used to think that Trump supporters, for example, walked around all day, every day, with a constant nagging cognitive dissonance between what they professed to believe and what they did, say, collecting government money because they were poor, and at the same time, RAILING against the "thugs" and their "baby-mommas" who also collected welfare money or food stamps. I'm having somewhat that same dissonance in my head. I keep hearing from what are normally reliable sources, like Nancy Pelosi, and Merrick Garland, that "NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW." Yet here we are. Ken Paxton is re-elected. Donald Trump is running for president again. Jared Kushner is collecting $2B from the Saudis for an investment firm that he will likely crater before long. Traitorous Republicans show up at the Capitol every day, knowing that absolutely nothing is likely to happen to them for helping plot an insurrection on the government to keep the Man Baby from tweeting about them. Everyone just goes on with their business without fear of indictment or arrest. So, "no one is above the law," is becoming as meaningless as "thoughts and prayers." It's a platitude that costs nothing and means nothing. Jack Smith, Merrick Garland -- prove me wrong. Surprise me and I'll be more than happy to eat these words with a side of crow.
Every word is true, Texas is proof that cheating works, along with the most egregious lies and propaganda. I donated til my bank account squealed. Beto ran an honest campaign as did other Dems. The Texas trio of evil has made Texas into a laughingstock. And the repubs in the state have zero integrity, just evil to the core. But with the support of the “Christian” community. There is no justice here…
GREED is truly the most terrible challenge of our times, and capitalism is its tool, its means to power and more greed.
Greed is a (contagious) mental illness, an unfillable hole, a hunger that denies justice, a brutal expression of broken egos.
Greed is having a million times as much as the poor and still feeling you don't have enough.
Greed consumes the earth without respite, and is a cancer on humanity.
Greed destroys us and our children and their future.
Greed is death.
It's unfreaking believable, the level of corruption in Texas politics. The elections are rigged resulting in the eternal hellish landscape of right wing greed, racism & suppression. Paxton is the worst and one wonders how he sleeps at night.
Paxton is re-elected because he does exactly what the angry white racists of Texass want him to do - he files lawsuit after lawsuit against DC Democrats in front of right wing hack judges to win nationwide injunctions against laws that the angry white racists don't like. And no one owns the lib better than this corrupt thug. What surprises me is that assholes like Paxton (and Abbott and Patrick) don't think that they will ever be held to account. When the backlash comes, and it will come, they will never see it coming.
Thank you for this excellent account of the criminally corrupt antics of the dishonorable Ken Paxton, every word of it is as accurate as it is appalling.
It is incredulous that not only Paxton but also the equally abhorrent Dan Patrick and Greg Abbott were re-elected this past November. These three amigos are a disgrace and do not represent what the majority of Texans want to see in our state leadership. As a voting rights activist in Texas, I must share with you a few clarifications about Texas voting.
Just under 25% of registered voters in Texas actually cast a ballot for Paxton, Patrick, or Abbott. Three out of four registered voters in Texas either did not vote for them or did not vote at all (they each received about 54% of the vote of the 45.7 % of registered voters who voted). Abysmal as this participation is, it was enough to get them elected but not necessarily as a mandate of what most Texans want.
The combination of severely gerrymandered districts with unbearably comprehensive voter suppression efforts delivered the results we saw. Even if you registered to vote in the midterm election, if you had not submitted your registration at least 30 days prior to the election you could not vote — Texas is one of only 15 states that imposes this burden, an embarrassment for a state that prides itself on being number one in so many areas. Rejected mail ballots are an entirely other issue that disenfranchised many Texans.
The reality is that even though Paxton, Patrick, and Abbott won their races, Texans of all political persuasions are the losers. I say this because there are many areas of widespread agreement among Texans throughout the state on critical issues that affect our daily lives, yet are being neglected by our state leaders and the legislature. For example:
- Gun safety: 70% support raising the age to buy an assault weapon from 18 to 21, yet it’s ignored by most in the legislature who fear reprisal by the NRA
- School vouchers: 89% of Texas parents are satisfied with their child’s public school education, yet Abbott and Patrick are steadfast on taking away public school dollars (taxpayer money) and giving them to private and faith based schools (how is this remotely viable with separation of church and state); a direct attack on one of the most fundamental parts of Texas communities
- Medicaid expansion: 67% of Texans support this and it’s repeatedly denied by the legislature even though Texas has one of the country’s highest rates of uninsured, not to mention maternal mortality and teen (and repeat teen) pregnancy rates, both of which could be helped with better healthcare access through Medicaid expansion.
Bottom line, our state leaders and legislature are out of sync with what the majority of Texans want; they’re ignoring the will of the people, creating more of an autocratic state than a representative democracy.
A glimmer of good news, however, is sparkling in the 88th Texas legislature: Sen. Nathan Johnson filed SJR 25, a joint resolution that, if passed, will enact statewide citizen ballot initiatives— giving Texans themselves the right to put an issue directly on the ballot and vote on it! Twenty six other states already allow these types of ballot measures, Texas should be #27.
As head of the Texas Senate, Lt Gov Patrick should not suppress issues with widespread public support because of his personal preferences - this filing must be sent to committee for review and public discussion. Statewide Citizen Ballot Initiatives will provide Texans with a real chance to have their voice heard and begin to shape the state into a place where the majority of Texans want to live and prosper.
Excellent expose. The criminal dipshits (Paxton, Trump et al) are taking advantage of the slow grind of our system of justice, the very system they don’t believe in. Garland and the entire DOJ have prosecutorial discretion with respect to bringing an indictment and consider the “political implications”, for instance of indicting a former President, but that’s the wrong side of the concern. The primary concern should be the political implications of law abiding citizens watching Paxton and especially Trump not paying for the crimes that they rub in everyone’s face - that would be far worse then indicting, convicting and imprisoning a former President and in this case, a state AG. No hope for Texas but the Fed’s had better take down Trump and his friends. Ok if justice is slowly grinding but eventually the sausage has to be made!
Excellent essay Greg. Hold on though, Ohio says hold my beer! We’re going through the biggest corruption scandal of my lifetime right now! First Energy gave Larry Householder 500,000 dollars to help him get the votes to become SOH in Ohio. One of the lobbyists involved died by suicide, 2 admitted to the scheme, are testifying against LH. Remember when Obama talked about Citizens United and how it would further undermine politics and that 🖕er Alito shook his head as if to call Obama a liar??!! Anyway FE got the deal they wanted only to have it all rescinded shortly after the story broke! Keep writing about the corruption.
I’m down here in Austin kicking my way through yet another pile of devastating storm debris and living with the most corrupt state in America. As you point out, it’s effing unbelievable. The majority of Texans apparently think government is a joke and unimportant, or they approve. Either way, all 34 million of them are indicted for irresponsibility and stupidity.
Having grown up in New Orleans when the likes of Huey Long and his family were still in power, nothing about corruption surprises me. My closest brush with these thugs was when Larry Chehardy, the long time tax assessor in Jefferson Parish, successfully campaigned for re-election to his post on the platform of 'as long as you have a mortgage, you don't have to pay any property tax.' I was a very young teacher in the pathetic public schools that were so-called funded by the property tax that wasn't collected from very many people. Only the poorest people sent their kids to public school, so you can guess how popular Larry was. And that was just one small part of the corruption there. Laissez le bon temps rouler.
Thank you for writing about this. It has gone on far too long and I have never understood why.
Something aggravating about Texas politics is that so many elected aren't even from Texas.
Some of those on the list... Ted Cruz, Ken Paxton, Dan Patrick, Matt Ranaldi, Pat Fallon... (the Bush family-sorry)
Do people from the Lone Star State know this?
Come on down to Texas as a GOP candidate and get yourself elected!!
Since we are not on twitter, I’d like to say that Paxton should either be drawn & quartered (maybe just metaphorically), or tarred & feathered (literally). Paxton (what an oxymoron) is the only person on Twitter who blocked me when I posted an article referencing a murder he was involved in down in EL Paso. Now I’m unblocked bcs you’re right; when the constituents keep voting you in; it doesn’t matter. Maybe he is a direct descendant, at least politically, of LBJ, another Texan dictator whose own personal history is another catalogue of odious actions.
Tough to 'like' but thanks for the info
I’ve been scratching my head about this guy -- and his boss the governor -- for a long time. Thanks Greg!!
More pond scum in Texas, what a surprise! The succession of Texas I had high hopes for, never happened sadly!
Paxton has been criminally corrupt for years, thanks for spelling it out using Ruth’s definition. Today she wrote of Erdogan’s authoritarian rule, and specifically corruption, I made mention of similar failures to prosecute criminals of similarly corruption here in America. The insane pursuit of wealth and power are destroying this spinning rock! Excellent piece Greg!!
Ken Paxton is WAY down the list of people who have been exposed as, so far, above the law. "Investigating" seems to have become the new fig leaf for doing little and hoping that people will just forget and move on. I am sick to death of hearing that someone or something is being "investigated." At some point, and I used to think it would be a matter of months, the investigation has to get to a point that the subject can and SHOULD be indicted. But no. Not anymore.
We all used to think that Trump supporters, for example, walked around all day, every day, with a constant nagging cognitive dissonance between what they professed to believe and what they did, say, collecting government money because they were poor, and at the same time, RAILING against the "thugs" and their "baby-mommas" who also collected welfare money or food stamps. I'm having somewhat that same dissonance in my head. I keep hearing from what are normally reliable sources, like Nancy Pelosi, and Merrick Garland, that "NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW." Yet here we are. Ken Paxton is re-elected. Donald Trump is running for president again. Jared Kushner is collecting $2B from the Saudis for an investment firm that he will likely crater before long. Traitorous Republicans show up at the Capitol every day, knowing that absolutely nothing is likely to happen to them for helping plot an insurrection on the government to keep the Man Baby from tweeting about them. Everyone just goes on with their business without fear of indictment or arrest. So, "no one is above the law," is becoming as meaningless as "thoughts and prayers." It's a platitude that costs nothing and means nothing. Jack Smith, Merrick Garland -- prove me wrong. Surprise me and I'll be more than happy to eat these words with a side of crow.
Every word is true, Texas is proof that cheating works, along with the most egregious lies and propaganda. I donated til my bank account squealed. Beto ran an honest campaign as did other Dems. The Texas trio of evil has made Texas into a laughingstock. And the repubs in the state have zero integrity, just evil to the core. But with the support of the “Christian” community. There is no justice here…