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Pierce writes: "The Texas legislature needs to take a long nap. [...] They’re still actively moving to barber their state’s history in distressing ways."

Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, strikes his gavel as he opens the special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott, Thursday, July 8, 2021, in Austin, Texas. (photo: Eric Gay/AP)
Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, strikes his gavel as he opens the special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott, Thursday, July 8, 2021, in Austin, Texas. (photo: Eric Gay/AP)


The Texas Legislature Needs to Take a Nap

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

29 August 21


In which House Speaker Dade Phelan bans mentioning “racism” in the chamber.

ou’ll excuse me, but I’d like to begin with a bit of personal business that’s been nagging at the tattered remnants of my conscience for a few days. On August 20, here in the shebeen, I quoted from a really good piece of reporting at the website 100 Days In Appalachia about how West Virginia has become a popular spot to site prisons, because there’s plenty of land and plenty of desperate people out of work. As is customary in the shebeen, I cited the publication, and not the reporter who wrote the story, an obviously talented woman named Emma Kelly. This is just the way we’ve done things since we opened the door almost 10 years ago and I didn’t think much about it. But Ms. Kelly took to the electric Twitter machine to ask why I hadn’t cited her by name. At first, I felt like blowing off her complaint. But some shebeen regulars thought she had a point and that was what put Jiminy Cricket in my ear.

I back up from nobody in my respect for non-profit, independent news sites like 100 Days In Appalachia. The people who work in them are generally young and they work incredibly hard. Many of them are under the tutelage of my man Charlie Sennott, who founded Report4America, and nobody ever had a better mentor. I pray that all those sites live long and prosper because I think they just might save real journalism in this country. They remind me of the function that the alternative press once served, including my own beloved Boston Phoenix, which is where I was working when I was around Ms. Kelly’s age.
Which brings me to my final point. As I thought more and more about it, I remembered what it was like to do good work and wondering if anyone had read it. It’s a terrible period through which most reporters pass. And in going back to those days, I saw that Ms. Kelly’s point was extraordinarily well-taken. It’s one thing to cite The New York Times or the Washington Post institutionally. It’s quite another to miss a chance to point people not only toward a good source for news, but also toward the people working to bring it to them.

Here is the website.

Her name is Emma Kelly. She is a reporter.

Remember her name.

The Texas legislature needs to take a long nap. And it’s not just that the voter-suppression law, either. They’re still actively moving to barber their state’s history in distressing ways. And, on Thursday, it moved into that territory that would have seemed ridiculous five years ago. From Channel 13 in Houston:

Before debates began, House Speaker Dade Phelan asked lawmakers, and people in the gallery, to behave. "While we may have strong disagreements on the legislation and policy that will be debated, our rules require that we conduct ourselves in a civil manner and treat our colleagues with respect," said Phelan. While debating SB-1, the word "racism" came into play. That sparked a reaction by Phelan who told lawmakers the word was banned from the chamber. "We can talk about racial impacts with this legislation without accusing members of this body of being racist," Phelan said.

Thus do we have the 21st Century equivalent of the “gag rule” automatic tabling of all anti-slavery petitions that prevailed in the House of Representatives from 1836 until Rep. John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts finally beat it into the ground in 1844. In Texas, you can’t even mention “racism” in the legislature because someone might take it for a personal insult. Of course, that person probably should be concerned about why that was the case, but probably won’t because this isn’t about race, because nothing is ever about race.

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: “Stop And Listen” (Erin Harpe and the Delta Swingers): Yeah, I still love New Orleans. And please, all of you down there, batten down and be safe, and know that prayers are going up.

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here, from 1955, we have the late Prince Philip as assistant to a magician in a fez. This is because you can’t do it without the fez on. Phil seems like he was a good sport. History is so cool.

The Supreme Court’s shadow docket has put some more already struggling people deeper into the shadows. From CNN:

"Congress was on notice that a further extension would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium's expiration," the court wrote in an unsigned, eight-page opinion. "If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it," the court said.

The necessity of Stephen Breyer’s retirement is growing by the hour. It’s either that or blowing up the filibuster and expanding the Court. Or both. The blinking red light is in severe danger of burning out.

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, SciNews? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news.

“One reason is that Laramidia’s geographic conditions were more conducive to the formation of sediment-rich fossil beds than Appalachia’s,” said Brownstein, author of a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. The specimens he examined were collected in the 1970s from the Late Cretaceous Merchantville Formation in New Jersey and Delaware. “These specimens illuminate certain mysteries in the fossil record of eastern North America and help us better understand how geographic isolation affected the evolution of dinosaurs,” Brownstein said.

Joisey dinos! Do not tell them, “Hey, bite me.” Also, it’s nice to have old bodies resurface in New Jersey without benefit of indictments. But, of course, in this case, the deceased lived then to make us happy now.

The shebeen is going dark next week as the company takes a break. As we get closer to our 10th anniversary, I want to thank you all for your patronage and support. It means the world to us here. Meanwhile, we see you a week from Monday with whatever happened in the meantime. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Wear the damn mask, take the damn shots, and don’t eat the fcking horse paste, OK?

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