As courses resume of for the 2022-2023 faculty yr, the Texas state authorities despatched menacing letters to public faculty districts all through the state final week threatening to prosecute any faculty officers who try and mitigate the unfold of infectious ailments like COVID and monkeypox.
Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton [Photo by Twitter / @KenPaxtonTX]
With the Democratic Get together and the academics’ unions absolutely backing the murderous “let it rip” COVID coverage of the Biden administration, essentially the most far-right and fascistic forces within the nation, amongst them Texas governor Greg Abbott and his accomplices, really feel they now have a free hand to hold out essentially the most deranged and murderous provocations with impunity.
Texas legal professional common Ken Paxton’s letter cites an govt order signed by Abbott in July of final yr. Amongst different provisions, the order said: “No governmental entity, together with a county, metropolis, faculty district, and public well being authority, and no authorities official might require any particular person to put on a face protecting or to mandate that one other particular person put on a face protecting.”
The order additionally mandated that no enterprise might place restrictions on anybody associated to COVID. The order additional prevented any public or non-public entity receiving funds from the state to require a COVID vaccination, or to require documentation of vaccination standing. Anybody not complying with the order is topic to a $1,000 fantastic.
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The order was initially in response to efforts by native officers in city areas in Texas, the second most populous US state, to impose restricted mitigation measures in defiance of the state authorities within the early phases of the pandemic. Lina Hidalgo, County Decide for Harris County, the place Houston is situated, had insisted on restricted mitigation efforts, for which she was focused by right-wing extremists. (In Texas, a county choose is the elected chief govt of a county.)
Paxton’s letter is undisguised in its adversarial hostility in direction of public faculties basically. Citing Abbott’s govt orders, Paxton warns towards any efforts to problem state coverage in courtroom, gloating that “all courtroom orders purporting to cease the Governor’s orders have been blocked.” He states that Abbott’s govt orders have “the total power and impact of regulation, and supersede native laws.” He ends the letter with the assertion that “mother and father can ship their kids to public faculties with out worrying about new masks mandates.”
Within the face of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, now compounded with the unchecked unfold of monkeypox, Paxton and Abbott are doing their greatest to make sure that extra individuals, together with kids, will develop into contaminated.
On the similar time that they work to make sure that infectious ailments unfold unchecked in faculties, the Texas state authorities is actively dismantling any infrastructure for monitoring COVID infections, in keeping with nationwide efforts by the Biden administration and Democratic and Republican state governments across the nation. At this level it’s inconceivable to find out what number of kids have been contaminated with COVID in Texas this yr, as public faculties are now not required to report that info. There might be no new information for the 2022-2023 faculty yr.
Paxton has already filed lawsuits towards faculty districts that require college students to put on masks. This consists of districts serving college students in Richardson, Spherical Rock, Galveston, Elgin, Spring, Sherman, Waco, and Paris.
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As of August 25, 118 instances of monkeypox have been confirmed in Travis County, which accommodates the capital of Austin. As of August 26, 427 instances have been confirmed in Houston, whereas Dallas County has 476 instances.
Abbott and Paxton are fascistic figures, aligned with Trump’s January 6 coup try, who vie with different right-wing extremists equivalent to Florida’s Ron Desantis for the nationwide highlight as they implement essentially the most reactionary measures. These measures are geared toward dragging official discourse as far to the precise as potential, whereas demonstrating to the monetary oligarchy their readiness to hold out essentially the most excessive measures, as much as and together with mass homicide, in protection of company pursuits.
Amongst Abbott’s different govt orders was his vicious July 7 govt order purporting to authorize state authorities to maneuver undocumented migrants to the US-Mexico border, which overtly defied federal regulation and the authority of the Biden administration.
The Texas Republicans have additionally seized on the Supreme Court docket’s ruling abolishing the federal proper to abortion in June to implement essentially the most aggressive, brutal restrictions. In July, a gaggle of Texas legislators went as far as to ship a threatening letter to a regulation agency that deliberate to reimburse journey prices for workers who obtained abortions out of state, claiming that it will be unlawful to take action.
Abbot was a featured speaker on the overtly fascistic CPAC convention in August, which gave a standing ovation to an anti-Semitic, violent, authoritarian speech by Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban, who denounced “race-mixing” and declared that the “globalist” left couldn’t be fought by “liberal means.”
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Paxton himself, who has been state Lawyer Basic since 2015, has been underneath indictment for many of his time in workplace on state securities fraud fees. Paxton has additionally been accused of bribery and abuse of workplace by high-ranking members of the Lawyer Basic’s workplace.
However within the closing evaluation, Paxton’s gloating, threatening, menacing letter wouldn’t have been potential with out the total embrace by the Democratic Get together and the academics’ unions of Trump’s “let it rip” COVID coverage, from Biden on down.
On the nationwide degree, the Biden administration has reneged on all of Biden’s election guarantees to “observe the science” with regard to the pandemic, as an alternative doubling down on Trump’s coverage of permitting the virus to rampage unhindered by the inhabitants. The Texas Democrats have adopted go well with, dropping their token help for restricted mitigation measures and supporting the murderous “again to highschool” drive. In the meantime, the academics’ unions in Texas and all through the nation, removed from combating towards the unfold of COVID, have led the cost for “faculty reopening.”
Thus far, no outstanding Democrat or union official in Texas has made any public statements opposing Paxton’s deranged letter.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Monday, directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to target and arrest people trying to execute influence operations on behalf of the Chinese government to return dissidents to China.
Abbott’s action is in response to “Operation Fox Hunt,” a Chinese government initiative that is intended to root out corruption in that country but in practice has also been used to intimidate Chinese citizens living abroad, harass Chinese pro-democracy activists and even forcibly repatriate dissidents and government officials in some cases. The U.S. justice department has successfully prosecuted individuals in connection to the Chinese initiative.
“The Chinese Communist Party has engaged in a worldwide harassment campaign against Chinese dissidents in attempts to forcibly return them to China,” Abbott said in a news release. “Texas will not tolerate the harassment or coercion of the more than 250,000 individuals of Chinese descent who legally call Texas home by the Chinese Communist Party or its heinous proxies.”
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Conor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI office in Houston, said the agency has pushed a public campaign since January to stop the harassment, intimidation and assault of people in the United States by foreign governments. The FBI is looking for potential victims in the Houston area who have been harassed by agents of the Chinese government.
Hagan said the Chinese government has targeted its own citizens living within the United States as well as naturalized and U.S.-born citizens who have family overseas.
“Their actions violate U.S. law and our treasured American individual rights and freedoms,” Hagan wrote in an email.
The FBI office in Houston has set up a hotline for people who believe they are victims of these types of actions by the Chinese Communist Party: (713) 693-5000..
State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, who was born in China and immigrated to the United States applauded Abbott’s move Tuesday.
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“The ability to speak your mind and live freely are the core promises of the American Dream; and any who seek to take that away stand against Texas values,” Wu said.
Last year, Wu criticized Texas Republicans for pushing legislation that would ban citizens and foreign entities from countries including China from buying land in Texas. He urged Abbott to also support Chinese immigrants by opposing such legislation.
The Chinese government has set up “police service stations” across the world, according to Abbott’s executive order, and one such station was rumored to be in Houston.
“We will continue to do everything we can to protect Texans from the unlawful and repressive actions of the Chinese Communist Party,” Abbott said.
Abbott charged DPS with identifying and charging people suspected of crimes related to Operation Fox Hunt; work with local and federal authorities to assess incidents where foreign governments are harassing Texans; provide policy recommendations on how to counter these threats and set up a hotline to reported suspected acts of coercion related to “Operation Fox Hunt.”
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On Thursday, Abbott issued a second executive order aimed at hardening the systems of state agencies and public higher education institutions from being accessed by hostile foreign nations.
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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Texas Tribune.
WATCH: Cedric Golden on how Texas football left Arkansas with a win
The No. 3 Longhorns took a 20-10 win in Fayetteville.
If Texas and Texas A&M win out, the winner of the Nov. 30 game will automatically advance to the SEC championship game Dec. 7 in Atlanta.
Texas and Texas A&M are are tied atop the SEC standings at 5-1 with four teams behind them with two losses each.
Only two teams control their destiny when it comes to winning the Southeastern Conference. And they play another.
But not this weekend.
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Texas football and Texas A&M football are on a collision course to play for a spot in the conference title game, but that hype won’t reach a fevered pitch until Thanksgiving weekend.
The path is open but the winning still must happen to get there. Either say, the Horns and Aggies can’t assume wins are coming against either Kentucky or Auburn. Too many upsets have already happened to buy into point spreads or an opponent’s recent struggles.
When the No. 3 Longhorns take the field for Senior Day against the unranked Wildcats, they will apparently walk into Royal-Memorial with no thoughts of the Aggies and the resumption of a football rivalry that’s been lying dormant for the last 14 years.
The same goes for the guys in College Station (wink, wink).
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Horns face a Kentucky team that’s struggled lately
Since losing 13-12 against Georgia on Sept. 14, the 4-6 Wildcats have gone 1-4 in conference play. But that win was a 20-17 doozy at Ole Miss, which is currently playing as well as anyone in the country.
The league has been all over the place in 2024 from that UK upset in Oxford to Vanderbilt posting wins over Alabama and at Kentucky one season after the Commodores went 2-10 overall and 0-8 in conference play.
“That’s obviously the craziness of the SEC,” UT tight end Gunnar Helm said. “Everybody’s good and everybody’s beating everybody. There’s not one team that’s sticking out that’s beating everybody like there’s been in years past. So everybody’s good. Every road win in the SEC is huge, and we know that, but obviously, we’ve got to move forward and get ready for a great Kentucky team coming in here.”
The Longhorns avoided the upset bug in a real dogfight over the weekend, and the 20-10 decision over Arkansas was rightfully celebrated by a locker room that’s won 10 straight road games dating back to the 2022 season. Six of those victories have come by double digits.
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One thing is for certain. If I’m either one of those teams from Texas that sit atop the conference with 5-1 records, the last thing I’d want would be to be stuck in a quagmire of programs that could all finish the regular season at 6-2 and be at the mercy the tiebreaker gods. That should go double for Texas which lost to Georgia, one of those that’s desperate to remain inside the top 12 of the College Football Playoff rankings.
Texas is no stranger to scoreboard watching
Coach Steve Sarkisian said the Horns can take a lesson from the 2023 team that was scoreboard-watching as it fought to secure a spot in the playoff, which was just four teams at the time.
“We were at the mercy of other teams dictating our fate and our future,” Sarkisian said. “Last year, we said, ‘Hey, we’re going to control what we do’ and we’ve kind of continued to sing that same song this year with what we’re doing. I think our players, in a weird way, they see all that.”
The big difference is the comfort in them knowing that two wins and another in Atlanta will get them a first-round bye and a spot in the national quarterfinals.
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“They recognize that, but they’re so focused on what’s happening right now and what’s right in front oft hem, that I don’t know if they’re that concerned about that,” Sarkisian said. “But they’re so focused on ‘Man, I just want to play good this week,’ and that for a coach… that’s a really good place to be.”
As for Saturday, expect to see a lot of pregame pageantry as locker room veterans like Helm, Jahdae Barron, Barryn Sorrell, Alfred Collins, Jake Majors, left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. and yes, quarterback Quinn Ewers — who was mum on the possibility of coming back for a fourth season — will take center stage. But the goal is the goal.
The Horns aren’t winning with style, but they’re winning behind a defense that’s on pace to be the best in school history and an offense that has made the right plays at the right time to keep its conference title dreams on the right track.
Three seasons after a 5-7 nightmare that was its head coach’s first season, the Horns are so close to making SEC history, which would come with beating their heated rival when a whole nation will be watching.
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LUBBOCK — Darrion Williams scored 19 points, Elijah Hawkins and JT Toppin posted double-doubles, and Texas Tech breezed to a 98-64 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Monday night.
Williams made 8 of 11 shots with two 3-pointers, adding four rebounds and four assists for the Red Raiders (4-0). Hawkins finished with 10 points and 11 assists, while Toppin pitched in with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Kevin Overton came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers and score 17. Chance McMillian pitched in with 11 points and six assists. Reserve Devan Cambridge scored 10.
Christian Moore scored 21 points to lead the Golden Lions (1-5), who have lost all five of their games on the road. Moore hit 9 of 15 shots with two 3-pointers and handed out five assists. Dante Sawyer scored 13 off the bench on 5-for-10 shooting.
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Williams had 14 points by halftime and Toppin scored eight with seven rebounds to guide Texas Tech to a 47-28 advantage. Sawyer had nine first-half points to lead UAPB. The Red Raiders shot 52.9% from the floor in the first 20 minutes with six 3-pointers. The Golden Lions shot 52.2% overall but they took 20 fewer shots and made just 1 of 7 from beyond the arc.
Kerwin Walton hit a 3-pointer with 7:15 left to play to give the Red Raiders their largest lead at 88-46.
Texas Tech will play Saint Joseph’s in the UKG Legends Classic on Thursday.
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Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire looking for offensive spark against Oklahoma State
Best in Texas poll (Nov. 18): Top 5 remains intact; North Texas slides
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