Random thoughts on a chilly night

I was about to start this post with the unoriginal observation that Texas is at it again—unpredictable weather. Yesterday and apparently overnight we enjoyed some much-needed rain of the moderately gentle variety rather than the heavy downpours that run off before they can soak into the ground. I was especially pleased because I thought the newly exposed roots for my two huge trees must be grateful. But then the phrase “Texas is at it again” struck me in a whole different way.

This week showed us Texas, Greg Abbott, at the behest of his oil-rich billionaire sponsors, shoving Texas ever farther to the right. What kind of a governor indulges in revenge politics, deliberately challenging state politicians who opposed him, in this case on the infernal question of school vouchers? Unfortunately, money talks and Abbott’s challengers beat out several of the more moderate Republicans on the down-ballot. It looks like we are doomed to have school vouchers, which will further weaken our already pitiful public school system. Texas needs to put that money into teacher raises, classroom equipment, etc. In short, it needs to strengthen public education, not siphon off possible funding. The irony is that the voucher amount is not enough for many low-income families to send their kids to private school so who benefits? The rich who are already sending their kids to private schools and now get some money for doing so. It’s a rotten system.

Ken Paxton was not quite as successful in avenging himself against those who voted to impeach him, and there’s now a glimmer of hope because he is finally going to go to trial later this spring on fraud charges he’s delayed for years. But right now he’s busy suing everyone in sight—an El Paso faith-based organization that helps immigrant (of course Paxton hates them), several school districts for electioneering (but has he looked at private schools who push petitions for vouchers on their parents). Today it was announced he is suing several entertainment and/or food venues for not allowing police officers on their premises if they carry guns. Ah yes, Texas is the state where guns are more important than human life. His targets include the State Fair of Texas of all things. Also the popular Meow Wolf in Grapevine, a restaurant in Deep Ellum, a theatre in Grand Prairie, and a bar/restaurant in San Antonio. Must keep the poor guy busy finding his targets. But it costs money to mount these lawsuits, taxpayer money, and we never hear about the outcome. Except today I did hear that a judge quashed the suit against the El Paso immigration charity.

But if you look at it, Abbott and Paxton are spending Texas taxpayer money without our consent for extravagant, cruel and illegal means at the border (a judge gave Biden a big victory on that today) and to sue business which are adding to the Texas economy and quality of life. For this, Abbott and Paxton get big bucks from those oil men who think they can run Texas, and what do we, the taxpayers get? An inferior education system that consistently ranks in the middle to lower grouping nationally. Good going guys.

On the national scene, it is redundant to say that President Joe Biden hit it out of the ballpark last night with an energetic, challenging, comprehensive State of the Union message that exposed all of the Republican lies and sent the orange former guy to tweeting out no less than seventy-five angry posts. I had thought with the primaries behind us, the volume of emails and texts would diminish but no such luck. My email was a mess this morning with politicians from all states wanting to ride Biden’s coattails. Many of them are candidates I would support were I a wealthy woman, but I’m not. All this deluge of messages does is a) make me feel guilty, and b) make me want to explain my support but straightened circumstances. I am tempted to say I’ll vote for the candidate—oops, specify progressive candidate (I’m not ruling out a Republican, though I don’t think I’ll find a progressive one) who sends me the fewest emails. But then again, who’s counting.

Here we go again into a frenetic cycle of fund-raising. I’d love to turn off my computer, but I won’t because I think we each have a civic duty to be well informed and because, politics aside, I enjoy my online life. November seems a long time away. Also it really bothers me, and has for years, that money determines election outcomes. I realize it’s true, but I resent it. I want us to elect politicians because they will run the country with knowledge and wisdom, they will try to protect America, keep it strong, protect democracy, and improve life for the average American, not because they have the biggest war chest (Abbott wins that one in Texas and looks what it gets us—a fiefdom). 

Just call me Pollyanna, the idealist.

 

The virtues of Texas, some book news, and a new word for the day

 

Downtown Fort Worth, taken from a country road about twenty-two miles away.
Photo by Mason Scott

 
Texas has been getting a bad rap lately, thanks to Ken Paxton and his barbaric handling of the case of Kate Cox, the young Dallas mother of two who was pregnant with a fetus that would not live and would endanger her future fertility and possibly her life. Paxton ruled that she had not shown sufficient evidence of danger to her life to warrant an abortion and threatened any hospitals and physicians who performed the procedure. His horrific judgment, which he was in no way qualified to make, was backed up by the Texas Supreme Court. All this is known not only to most Texans but across the country, where Texas is being scorned as the armpit of the world, a place most would never move, etc.

As someone whose whole career has revolved around the history and literature of Texas, I feel compelled to jump to my state’s defense. Yes, I’m a transplant, but I’ve lived here over fifty-five years and feel pretty much at home, have no desire to go elsewhere. The picture above shows just one fascinating aspect of the Texas landscape—the flat open space. But I thought it spoke of Texas as a special place. Texas people are friendly and good, the history is rich, the landscape varied and sometimes spectacular, and the food terrific, whether you want beans and barbecue or a Michelin-rated upscale experience

We have several new high-end restaurants in Fort Worth, from French to Italian to seafood, and yet we treasure our hole-in-the-wall places where you can get the best chicken-fried steak or chili in the world. Our Stockyards National Historic District attracts tourists from all over the world, and it’s not unusual to hear the babble of foreign voices on the brick-paved streets.

What’s not to love about Texas? The politicians, and we’re working on that.

Kate Cox’s tragic circumstances have held much of my attention in the last days, but today a new bookish threat grabbed my mind. It’s called review-bombing. A debut author, first book, a sci-fi novel, scheduled for release next spring, began leaving one-star reviews of competitors on Goodreads, Amazon’s book review web site. Not only did this author trash other debut others, particularly people of color, but in each review, she praised her own forthcoming book. Dumb, dumber, and dumbest. What a giveaway. The guilty author was found out, of course, and her contract with Penguin/Random House cancelled. So her book will not be coming out in the spring. She did apologize, blaming it all on addiction and now declaring she is sober. I’m not sure that’s enough.

Do you check reviews when considering a book? If you do, I’d advise ignoring one-star reviews. They are most often revenge-motivated or written by someone who has not read the book. Some people delight in being negative and destructive. My philosophy is that if I can’t leave at least three stars, I simply don’t review. Why ruin an author’s hopes? On Goodreads daily emails, I’ve noticed one author who gets on a run of reading a particular author’s works—recently, it was Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries—but she almost never gives more than three stars. And I want to scream, “If you don’t like the books any better than that, quit reading them. Choose a new author. Quit damaging this author, though Rex Stout probably won’t suffer much from his posthumous reviews.

Still I wish readers would be a bit more sensitive to the author’s feelings and reputations. If you like a book, say so on Amazon.com or Goodreads.com. A review doesn’t have to be long and deep. Two or three sentences that say, “I liked this book” will thrill most authors. And it doesn’t take that many positive reviews to boost an author’s ratings. If you can’t find much good to say about it, leave it alone. Readers will assess their own and reach their own ratings.

And my new word for the day: elitch, which means ghostly or weird. I read it in a review of a WWI novel titled, The Warm Hands of Ghosts—a very favorable review, by the bye. But I thought it an odd word. It doesn’t even sound like an adjective.

Okay. Lesson over for the day!

In the aftermath of the Paxton travesty

 

Sophie being cute. Photo by Jordan Burton.

But I also hope that folks across the country — even in “safe” blue geographies — are finally, finally, after years and years of ignoring the folks who’ve been making the argument, starting to understand that Texas isn’t an outlier, it’s a bellwether. It’s a miniature funhouse mirror showing us a terrible preview of what’s to come for our national political situation if we don’t course-correct (or, more terrifying but possible, can’t course-correct).—Andrea Grimes, Home with the Armadillo (Substack)

Sorry, but this is another political post. The dangers of too much power in any man’s hands has been on my mind for a while. As far back as Harry Truman, conservatives found the word “socialism” an enormous threat; for progressives today, the fear-laden word is authoritarianism: power in the hands of one person. Authoritarianism vs. democracy.

The facts are a bit scrambled, but in 2022 Elon Musk refused to let Ukraine use his Starlink communications system to coordinate a drone attack on a Russian fleet in the Black Sea. Ukraine and its allies were “concerned.” Musk claimed he averted a much bigger catastrophe—read a hint of nuclear revenge. Whichever side is right, the fact is that one man, holding the power of communication, may have changed the course of the war. And that one man was not a military specialist, not a government representative. Just a man who is incredibly rich and controls a major communications network.

We see these one-man power struggles all around us. Ron DeSantis has come close to devastating Florida with his strict laws enforcing what history is taught, what books students can read, who can vote, what rights women have, what medicine trained physicians can practice, who you can love and who you cannot, who can play what sports. Strangely enough, he has not carried his extreme control into the area of gun safety, and there are few restrictions on gun ownership. His never-ending grasp reaches into every aspect of every Floridian’s life--and he’s probably not done yet. Florida is suffering because of it—citizens, particularly physicians and college faculty, are leaving the state in droves. But so are LGBTQ citizens, parents of trans children, probably Black citizens. Economic results are also being felt, with DeSantis biting the hand that feeds him—the enormous Disney complex that hires thousands of Floridians and brings millions of tourists to the state. What advantage DeSantis sees in creating this 1984-ish society I can’t see, except that it outdoes trump and appeals to a narrow segment of ultra-conservative voters. Perhaps—oh, make that probably, there’s a whole lot of personal ego involved too. There’s been so much pushback out of Florida that I’m not sure how big his base in his own state is.

Greg Abbott of Texas is of course another example of a leader gone power-mad. Abbott came to prominence as the Attorney General who sued the federal government every day, a clear sign that he was not into supporting democracy. He has not only passed draconian laws concerning guns—no license, no training, young age limit for ownership, any kind of gun is fine, including concealed—but he too has unrealistic laws concerning abortion, voting, gay and trans students, book bans, etc. His inhumane and devious tricks at the southern border have brought him clashes with the federal government, but he remains defiant—while even young children die.

Texas and Florida have earned contempt from much of the nation. One could say they are laughingstocks, but there is nothing funny about the disregard for the individual human life. That disregard negates everything this country was founded on: the principle that all men are created equal. Those regimes definitely move us toward authoritarianism.

One can’t quite say that Paxton has that much power, but what his acquittal shows us if that if you are a useful tool to powers with money, you can grab onto power and hold it. Corruption, in favor of the moneyed few, gives Paxton his power, and in many ways, it’s as scary as the domination of authoritarians. Anyone with half a brain, watching even a portion of the impeachment proceedings, knows that Paxton was guilty. His own attitude and absence from the proceedings seem to indicate that he knew it didn’t matter. He was confident and, to our detriment, it turns out he was right. Corruption won out.

The former guy, as Joe Biden calls him, has long been a known admirer of authoritarian leaders, from Hitler and Mussolini to Putin and Kim Jong Un. What semi-saved us from some of his worst ideas was that he had a minority in the House. Democracy worked, to some extent. Trump is already spouting his plans for a revenge reign, should he return to the White House in 2024. And he has famously said that he listens to no one but himself. Scary words from an overweight man of questionable mental stability who has surrounded himself with corrupt advisors. What Joe Biden did when he first came into office was to surround himself with experts in many fields.

I watched a video recently by a reporter who toured Kevin McCarthy’s district, the farming heartland of California. It was scary. Almost to a person, voters said Biden was too old and they were thinking they would support trump again. The word authoritarianism means nothing to them. I won’t use Hilary’s term deplorables, but I will say they are among the uninformed who believe every bit of disinformation handed to them. Without questioning it.

I leave you with a scary thought: does the Paxton acquittal presage an acquittal for trump? I would hope not. Trump will be tried n a courtroom by a jury of his peers, not by politicians with political loyalty to blind their judgement. But in this day, no one can predict anything. I for one want to fight hard—against authoritarianism, against corruption, for democracy. Hope you’ll help. There’s no room for complacency now.