Texas Outlaw Writers Newsletter: We Don't Need No Steenkin' Badges Edition
Being Outlaws and all, we were worried when we heard that there was a new sheriff in town. And then we heard it was Herschel Walker, so we laughed and went back to watching "Blazing Saddles." *
The midterms are fast approaching. Mail-in voting is happening, and early voting is less than a week away. The Outlaws hope you registered and are looking for your sample ballot. Vote!
A little housekeeping for the Outlaws... we're growing and going all the time. This week you've surely noticed that the newsletter is hitting your inbox on Tuesday. And hopefully, you got notice late last week that we'd released another podcast! What we're going to try to do is put out our newsletter on Wednesday (at the latest,) and get our main podcast out either Friday afternoon or by Saturday morning. (This may depend on the availability of our guests.) Some of our writers are including audio versions of their stories on their pages, and we'll post those as "Bonus" podcasts, again, on your favorite podcast provider.
On to this week's stories...
Even Gillespie Country isn't immune from election deniers and conspiracy crazies. Gillespie carried Trump with 79% of the vote in 2020, and the wackos still screamed foul! This is the home of Fredericksburg and Luckenbach for God's sake! Waylon and Jerry Jeff and Willie! "Out in Luckenbach, Texas, ain't nobody feelin' no pain!" But those pain-free days are long gone.
Election officials are being harassed, intimidated, and threatened, just like in so many other places. Looks like the place once known for Waylon and Willie and the Boys are now "Fuedin' like the Hatfields and McCoys." DeeceX explains -
The GOP is becoming more brazen about slashing government services and social programs. Everything from the Post Office to public education is under constant attack. They are no longer shy about slicing into Social Security and Medicare, either. The fierce tribalism of the party even has Granny and Uncle Bubba thinking that their own earned Social Security might just be "socialism."
The best-selling book of a few years ago, "What's the Matter with Kansas" asked why people vote against their own best interests. Now, it seems Dorothy was wrong. We are all in Kansas now. From Roger Gray -
How does a ten-year-old child understand "Mutually Assured Destruction"? It was sixty years ago that the Cuban Missile Crisis began. Those famous 13 days of October, when the U.S.S.R. delivered Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles on Cuba. Only 90 miles from Florida, they were pointed at the USA. JFK addressed the nation on Outlaw Jim Moore's 10th birthday. (Audio version included.)
The plunder of cultural heritage artifacts, artwork, and other antiquities gets filed under 'white-collar crime.' It's looting, pure and simple. (And profitable AF.) There is plenty of violence in this criminal trade as well as economic loss. Myra Jolivet is unhappy with the view that this kind of thievery gets treated as if it were some exotic and legitimate market.
*There's less to Herschel Walker than meets the eye." And like moths to a flame, we can't resist the snark and the memes and the actual WTF attitude. What allows this ( and other ) grotesquely unqualified candidates to run and hold office? It has a lot to do with the GOP brand. A brand more powerful than the sub-par product it represents. That "Christian, Patriotic, family values" brand got Trump elected. You remember Donald Trump, right? The most non-Christian, unpatriotic, untraditional family man ever to hold the presidency.
But Chris Newlin worries that there's something else that the brand stands for. And while we focus daily outrage (and snark) on the hypocrisies of the GOP "values," they're focussed on the only thing that counts.
DeeceX shoots for 2! He has a couple of submissions this week. Dan Patrick continues to piss him (and the rest of us) off. We often forget that his office is, by design, one of the most powerful in the state.
The Lieutenant Governor is the apex predator of Texas politics, with whom lobbyists, trade associations, businesses and individuals must deal if they wish to accomplish their priorities. And that's the problem with Lieutenant Dan.
Don't forget to subscribe to our podcasts, too! The Texas Outlaw Writers' podcasts are available wherever fine podcasts are served. We are hoping to have a feature podcast weekly, and there may be Bonus audio versions of some of our stories. The link directly below has a player built in and a full (but very rough AI) transcript of our podcast this week. We had a great talk with Harvey Kronberg, the legendary Texas political insider's insider and publisher of the Texas Quorum Report. He shared the latest buzz around the midterms.