Texas Republicans are one week away from holding a 5,000-plus person indoor convention in Houston, where COVID cases are spiking dramatically. vice.com/en_us/article/…
Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey: "We can’t live in a world where there’s never again a live in-person concert or convention... That would be anti-American and I am proud and pleased to be part of a group trying to make sure that dystopian future never becomes a reality."
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) is threatening to try to cancel the convention, but it's unclear if he has the legal authority to do so. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has been radio silent about whether he might step in, basically deferring to the state committee.
Some Texas Republicans admit they're concerned — and that this foreshadows what the Republican National Convention could look like next month. @MattMackowiak: "The risk associated with the event is considerable."
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I spent the last few months trying to get my head around Tommy Tuberville for @RollingStone. Talked to him multiple times, chatted with former players and a bunch of senators.
Claremont recently opened its first state-based office in its history in FL, and DeSantis rolled out the red carpet.
He's involved them in his hostile takeover of New College, his push to end DEI programs and a K-12 civics program.
They're involved in his nascent campaign too.
“On a whole range of issues where wokeness is a threat he has risen to the occasion—rhetorically, but he’s also trying to do something about it legislatively," Claremont Institute senior fellow Charles Kesler, who DeSantis appointed at New College, told me.
Trump and his allies have spent two-plus years plotting to turn states with slower vote counts into scenes of chaotic protest, last-minute lawsuits and outright rejections of the democratic process.
“I'm very concerned about the possibility of violence in the post-election period incited by losing candidates."
The two swing states where conditions are most ripe for chaos:
Arizona (mail-heavy state, vigilante voter intimidation, a slate of election-denying candidates)
Pennsylvania (slow mail ballot counting caused by intentional GOP intransigence, focus from Trump folks)
“After I pulled an all nighter watching The Fall of the Cabal, I was wrecked. Between the compelling evidence indicating that the migrant caravan in 2018 was totally staged, to the bone chilling saga of Pizzagate..."
"..., to the idea that JFK Jr. could still be alive (which I believe is completely false), my world was rocked."
Shuppe repeatedly used the QAnon hashtag WWG1WGA and referenced "the storm," and seemed particularly alarmed by pedophilia conspiracies (Pizzagate/Wayfair).