Lots of focus on Gov. Abbott vetoing funding for the legislative branch, but that was just one of 21 vetoes this session, including for several bills with broad bipartisan support. This one would have required Texas students get lessons on preventing domestic violence.
This one would have prohibited criminal courts from relying on statements obtained via *hypnosis*. You read that right: Hypnotizing people is still an acceptable investigative technique in Texas. (Be sure to read @lmcgaughy’s work on this interactives.dallasnews.com/2020/memory-ro… )
This one would have made it easier for people convicted of crimes when they were teenagers to be released on parole.
This one would have made it illegal to leave a dog chained up without adequate water, shade or shelter. It also would have banned the use of heavy chains.
This one, aimed at saving bees, would have created a program to encourage solar farms to *voluntarily* create bee-friendly natural habitats.
J.D. Vance is linking up with Lance Wallanu, the man who popularized the Seven Mountain Mandate that says conservative Christians are called to rule society, and who has been warning that Kamala Harris is possessed by demons.
Want a flavor of what Vance is mainstreaming? Read my story from May about FlashPoint, the Christian TV program blending Newsmax-style political commentary with prophetic warnings about the coming end times.
A Texas megachurch pastor who advised Donald Trump — and who has repeatedly warned his congregation that Satan is at work inside public school libraries — has confessed to “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a child four decades ago. christianpost.com/news/pastor-ro…
The name of the pastor, Robert Morris, will be familiar to readers of “They Came for the Schools.”
Want to understand how the mainstream GOP has changed in the era of Trump? Watch this video of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk in 2018: “We do have a separation of church and state, and we should support that.”
Kirk in 2022: “There is no separation of church and state. It’s a fabrication.”
New this morning with @akarl_smith:
How Charlie Kirk came to embrace the Seven Mountains Mandate, and what his political and religious transformation tells us about the future of right-wing politics in America. nbcnews.com/politics/2024-…
@akarl_smith “He’s pitching his message to people who do believe that we’re in the end-times, and that if we don’t seize the Seven Mountains of cultural influence, then the other side, the satanic side, will,” @PMatzko said. nbcnews.com/politics/2024-…
The Carroll school board in Southlake, Texas — the district at the center of my new book, “They Came for the Schools” — voted last night to authorize the Alliance Defending Freedom to sue on its behalf to stop the Biden Administration from extending federal civil rights protections under Title IX to LGBTQ students.
You’ve likely heard of ADF, the powerful Christian conservative legal fund that helped overturn Roe v Wade and has fought laws granting civil rights to LGBTQ people. newyorker.com/magazine/2023/…
ADF has been leading the charge to stop the Biden Education Department from extending civil rights protections to transgender and other LGBTQ children. @mattlavietes has been on the story for @NBCNews 👇 nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna1…
My book "They Came for the Schools" is out today.
It tries to make sense of America's school board wars by showing how & why that fight exploded in one Texas suburb.
To really understand the anti-DEI backlash, I needed to uncover a much longer history.
Here's what I found🧵
First, some context: In 2021, Southlake, Texas, became a poster child — or cautionary tale — of the right’s new war on “woke.” The strategy pioneered there would be copied in towns across the nation — quietly shaping what untold numbers of children learn. chalkbeat.org/2024/05/10/the…
You’ve probably heard about some of this. The Southlake story went international after an admin, attempting to comply with new restrictions, told teachers to present both sides of the Holocaust. (The book reveals what happened *after* we broke that story) nbcnews.com/news/us-news/s…