James Talarico has potential to create a fresh outlook about how democracy can work for the common good

James Talarico for Senate: Texas deserve better than Ken Paxton's moral rot | Endorsement

The choice is obvious.👀  Both Republicans and Democrats should prefer a servant leader over a self-serving crook.

By The Editorial Board,  Opinions from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board

The political contest is set. The storyline, straight out of Hollywood. It’s as if, as Donald Trump likes to say, the candidates came from central casting.

An avowed ill mannered lout (Paxton) versus a man who doesn’t just resemble a Sunday school teacher, but who practices politics like the seminarian he is.  

Ask Ken Paxton’s own supporters about his selfish moral infidelities and indictments. Ask about that stolen $1,000 pen. Or how he fired his employees after they reported him to the FBI for corruption, prompting a whistleblower lawsuit that stuck taxpayers with a $6.6 million bill. Oh, and ask about that impeachment that, though it did not end in conviction, was led by members of his own party.

Paxton voters know their guy reeks of moral rot. That he somehow earned millions while in public office. That his office delivered sweetheart deals in cases of child sexual abuse. 

Paxton's supporters know all that because his runoff opponent, Senator John Cornyn, just spent tens of millions of dollars making sure that they know.

Paxton won anyway. As one man at a Paxton rally told a reporter, “We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

The fish to be fried aren’t just Democrats but anyone who shows the slightest disloyalty to Donald Trump. Or even a hint of bipartisan pragmatism.

This one’s an easy call. The Houston Chronicle editorial board rejects Paxton’s self-serving depravity and his loyalty to Washington politics at the expense of everyday Texans. And we enthusiastically endorse his Democratic opponent, James Talarico.

Talarico, 37, is a former middle school teacher from Central Texas. In 2018, he flipped a Republican state House seat. While serving in the House, he studied for a master’s degree in divinity from a Presbyterian seminary. He looks like a grown-up Opie from the Andy Griffith Show. If his vibe were any more retro — any more earnest, any more squeaky-clean — he’d be in black-and-white, filmed at Desilu Studios.

Mr. Talarico is exactly what our state and our country need right now.

Optimism for a purple future: By tossing aside Cornyn, Trump and Republican primary voters have given Democrats a path out of the wilderness. Locked out of statewide office for over 30 years, they are eager to blockwalk the toss-up suburbs and open their pocketbooks. Talarico has already set an all-time record for fundraising for the first quarter of any U.S. Senate campaign ever — and that was before he faced such a slimy opponent, and before it seemed that Texas could possibly elect a Democrat to the Senate.

Now, some Democrats believe with Talarico at the top of the midterm ticket, they have begun an inexorable march to take back the state, to turn Texas blue. We hope that’s not the future of Texas. In our view, no party should have a lock on power. General elections should be an opportunity to hold our leaders accountable.

Surprisingly, Talarico agrees. Texas, he told us recently, “would look great in purple, because that's when you keep all politicians on their toes, right❓”

Forcing Republicans to compete — really compete — with Democrats, he said, would “force people to focus again on that 50-yard line of common-sense policies.”

In his appearances, his biggest applause line is still one he used when launching his campaign: “The biggest divide in our politics isn’t left versus right, it's top versus bottom.”

Those at the top, he says, too often abuse their power. That’s why he aims to ban congressional stock trading. To stop billionaires’ PAC money from having an outsized effect on our elections. 

And to end gerrymandering that lets politicians pick their voters rather than the other way around.

The Democrat freely criticizes his own party for the “utter chaos” along the border “because the Biden administration, despite some good accomplishments, failed us when it came to border security.”

On education, he calls for an ambitious agenda, citing President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. That effort, he says, had obvious drawbacks but Democrats made a mistake when “we really stopped shooting for the moon.” His solution isn’t simply to throw more money at teachers. “We have a crisis of discipline issues in our schools,” he said, and addressing it requires better classroom management training. Spoken from a guy who himself faced a room full of unruly kids. No surprise then that he co-authored the bipartisan bill banning mobile phones in Texas public schools.

There was a time when Republicans and Democrats were united behind the push to improve our schools. Now both parties have retreated to their own comfortable positions of supporting teachers’ unions or pushing for vouchers. Talarico embodies a return to national ambition.

On energy, Talarico is an all-of-the-above guy. “I believe in protecting oil and gas jobs here in Texas, in addition to investing in renewables, keeping our edge in wind and solar and geothermal.”

And at a time when the Wall Street Journal editorial board has called out Paxton for “anti-business” lawsuits designed more to get headlines than protect consumers, Talarico is helping Democrats take back the middle ground. He wants to take on billionaires while also calling for pro-growth, free market policies. Overall he talks like a pro-business Democrat — one who wants to see economic growth and good-paying jobs.

“When Texas businesses succeed, Texas workers succeed.”

The anti-Paxton:  These days we hear a lot of claims that the system is rigged against us, and we hear them from both parties. 

Talarico said it to us and Paxton, we figure, is just as likely to claim that the fix is in. Paxton, 63, has been the Texas attorney general since 2015, and we have credited him for a few big victories, including his 💲1.4 billion settlement with Meta over alleged violations of privacy laws. Too often, however, the private lawyers hired by Paxton get rich while consumers end up with nothing.

And here’s the thing: We’ve got plenty of evidence that Paxton himself has been rigging the system. As Texas attorney general, Paxton used his office to help Nate Paul, an Austin developer and campaign donor, hide business shenanigans and fend off foreclosures. Paul returned the favor by remodeling Paxton’s house and employing a woman who Paxton, a married man, visited in late-night trysts. (His lawyers disputed the remodeling part.)

Paul eventually pleaded guilty to a felony. But somehow Paxton not only avoided removal following impeachment but emerged at the top of Texas’ Republican ticket, claiming to fight for ordinary folks. But what, besides MAGA and Trump, is Paxton fighting for❓

It’s hard to tell. While Talarico’s campaign talks about Texas, Team Paxton talks about Talarico.

Donald Trump is testing out nicknames to brand Talarico as un-Texan: “Tala-freak-o” the “weird vegan” who talks about “six genders.” These epithets twist real quotes from the Democrat’s past to maximum effect. Last week, Republicans ridiculed Talarico’s potato and egg taco order as proof of his low-testosterone, anti-meat agenda.

Mr/ Talarico’s response❓ “Our campaign basically runs on barbecue these days,” he told us. “But if these beef prices keep going up, we’re probably all going to be vegans at some point.”


That’s a good line. And it gets to a serious issue in Texas: Added costs of Trump’s tariffs, and labor shortages made worse by deportations, have BBQ joints shutting their doors. 

Talarico is running a campaign for any Texan who bristles at $40-per-pound brisket. Meanwhile Paxton’s the guy who regularly takes globe-trotting junkets with a taxpayer-funded security detail.

What Paxton’s party says: While Talarico runs to build a coalition beyond Democrats, Paxton struggles to get support even from his fellow Republicans. They’re openly sick of him.

Here’s Derrick Wilson, chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation, on social media: “He doesn’t fight for our priorities. He fights for his own ambition and desires. We’ll be fortunate so long as those things continue to overlap. But he is not a man of good moral fiber, he’s not a trustworthy man, and he’s not a man that would put the cause above himself.”

Here’s what Thom Tillis, senator of North Carolina, said on CNN, "To call Paxton 'ethically challenged' is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder."

Here’s Jeff Leach, a state representative from Paxton’s own home base of Collin County, on the attorney general’s bungled prosecution of admitted child abuser Adam Hoffman: “A real and dangerous predator — a present threat to Texas children — will be as free as you and me.”

Leach even said he might summon Paxton before the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence to ask how Hoffman received “this kind of royal treatment” from the attorney general’s office.

Paxton’s dismal ethics are only surpassed by his rank incompetence. His office has a track record of fumbling on sex-trafficking cases. And while other Republicans join the bipartisan movement to tackle unaffordable health care, Paxton works to fire "woke doctors."

Last week Americans saw a flash of the genius that animates our constitution when Republicans in the Senate deep-sixed the president’s most outrageous requests. Should Paxton win, you can kiss that kind of independence goodbye.

So if you are the sort of person who truly cares about Trump getting taxpayer money for his ballroom and $1.8 billion to pay people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, go ahead and vote for the president’s errand boy.

But if your standard is fidelity to the MAGA movement itself, and not to Trump, we suspect that if elected, Paxton will disappoint you. Look at his track record of self-enrichment and paramours. Don’t be surprised if today’s Paxton voters find themselves yearning for a political divorce in the near future — perhaps on biblical grounds.

Clean-cut, fresh-faced Talarico has a better shot at delivering for everyday people. Talarico aspires to “servant leadership,” a phrase Christians and others of faith know well.

“I may look like a choir boy,” he told us, “but I have no problem fighting when I need to, especially fighting for my constituents.”

Preach, brother, preach❗ We Texans need someone in the Senate who’ll stand up for us, who’ll fight corruption, and who’ll bring us together to get our country back on track. We need James Talarico.

The Editorial Board
Opinions from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board
The Editorial Board is made up of opinion journalists with wide-ranging expertise.

Donald Trump cannot respond to "truth" so on national TV Meet the Press he behaved like a spoiled toddler

Echo editorial board opinion published in the Dallas Texas News:

Our expectations for Donald Trump’s sense of decorum have never been high, but even by his standard, he’s outdone himself  by hitting even a new low in his public persona. 

In an interview with NBC journalist Ms. Kristen Welker on Meet the Press that aired June 7, 2026, the Trump managed to distort the facts of record, sling insults and throw a spectacular temper tantrum unfitting of his office.

Much of the first half of the interview danced as reasonably close to the edge of normal as Trump is likely to get, with Ms. Welker pressing the president on the Iran war. As politicians are likely to do, he dodged around and only sometimes answered questions directly, infusing his responses with his trademark, pugnacious style.

As the interview progressed, though, thinks went thoroughly off rail.

Trump defended his 💲1.8 billion slush fund intended to cover legal costs for people deemed victims of "weaponization of lawfare" and said he wanted to get it approved. 

That led to a conversation about rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and whether Trump thought they should be able to get a tax payer funded payout, which he seemed totally open to.

Trump went on to claim how, "People were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated". 😡

Trump claimed those who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers only did so because they were frightened into it.

To pretend that the violence at the Capitol was a figment of the national imagination and that those who perpetrated it were, in fact, the real victims, is as insulting as it is insane. Sadly, it's not an unusual line to take in today's GOP (a.k.a. "Growing Old Party").

Later in the interview, Trump claimed the currently ongoing California elections were "rigged". Ms. Welker then asked Trump if he had proof❓ "All I have to do is to look and listen," Trump responded.

It was shortly after that Trump went into his immature temper  tantrum by railing against the "crooked" press and all the negative treatment he gets from it.

Trump went on to make wild claims accusing Ms. Welker's network knows all about the election rigging and he insulted her straight out.

"You're either crooked or stupid," Trump said. 

He cut the interview off shortly thereafter.  In a sarcastic tone, he said "Thank you darling," and walked off the set.  

In delusional Trump's cult world, everyone is wrong if they do not agree with him and corrupt if they do not coddle him. Facts are irrelevant to him, truth is a profanity in his mind and history is how he tells it.

Somehow, we have reached a point where it is not unreasonable to expect a toddler to behave with more decorum than the leader of the free world.  From the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

Donald Trump's slush fund, "like breaking into Fort Knox and driving off with a truckload of bullion", editorial

Sun Sentinel: Slush fund is the biggest heist in history | Editorial

The man who boasted that he could get away with murder on Fifth Avenue is pulling off something just as brazen. 

The $1.8 billion slush fund from which corrupt Donald Trump intends to reward people who tried to steal the 2020, election for him is the biggest heist in our history. (Maine Writer- he will also grift that money to use against Republicans who he declares are "unloyal", because his use of the tax money would be unrestricted.)

It’s like breaking into Fort Knox and driving off with a truckload of bullion.

Todd Blanche, his obsequious unethical acting attorney general, also agreed to immunize America’s real-life Goldfinger, his entire family and their business from IRS audits, fines and penalties or prosecution for whatever tax violations they may have committed.

That corrupt bargain may save the Trumps $100 million, by some estimates. Al Capone’s ghost must be green with envy.

Trump was already by far the most corrupt American president. But his grifting had been largely at the expense of foreign governments and other interests.

No more. His “anti-weaponization fund” is a new frontier in graft, a direct theft from taxpayers. The most corrupt act in presidential history lacks even the pretense of the lawsuit that Trump withdrew when a federal judge saw it for a sham.

The Big Steal-  Trump deserves a third impeachment — another reason to elect a Democratic Congress in November — and one more indictment when his term ends, as this Big Steal has nothing to do with any official duty.

As for unethical Todd Blanche, he should be disbarred as fast as New York authorities can manage it. Trump is his former personal client as well as his present boss; there couldn’t be a more glaring conflict of interest for any lawyer.

Of note: Blanche’s Department of Justice is suing the District of Columbia Bar to thwart discipline of two other Trump stooges. And it proposes a regulation to suppress bar proceedings anywhere, against any present or former DOJ lawyer such as Blanche himself.

A federal court has, thankfully, already put a temporary hold on the fund until a June 12, hearing. The courts are Americans’ only hope of stopping this theft; Trump owns Congress through his control of MAGA voters who decide Republican primaries.

He’s been on a roll on that front, gloating over the defeat of such principled politicians as Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who voted to remove him from office in 2021; Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who fought to publish the Epstein files; and Brad Raffensberger in Georgia, who as Secretary of State refused to “find” phony votes for Trump in 2021, and who just ran for governor.

The coup de grace: Texas- The climax came Tuesday in Texas with Senator John Cornyn’s defeat by criminal Ken Paxton, the sleazy state attorney general, a leading election denier for Trump who had been impeached by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature over allegations of bribery and obstruction.

Trump’s revenge tour also took down five Indiana state senators who had voted against the midterm gerrymandering to which Florida’s gutless Republicans have agreed. South Carolina’s GOP legislators deserve a special medal of courage for refusing to redistrict Jim Clyburn, a widely respected senior Black Democrat, out of his seat, too.

Belatedly, some GOP senators seem to have finally had it with Trump. They were shouting at Blanche behind closed doors last week when he refused to rule out payments to the hoodlums who tried to kill police officers protecting them on January 6, 2021.

Republican Thom Tillis, who is not running for re-election in North Carolina, called the slush fund “stupid on stilts.” He and others see the GOP losing the midterms on Trump’s account, as they should, for indulging him.

Scandals, incorporated- There’s no short list of Trump’s corruption scandals; more than 100 by one count. Some of the most glaring:

• Crippling the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to lay off the prediction markets and the cryptocurrency industry in which the Trumps are deeply involved;
• Easing AI chip sale restrictions for the United Arab Emirates after it invested 💲2 billion in World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto business;
• Accepting a 💲400 million luxury jet from Qatar, a foreign government, and promising to defend it from attacks (Yet, Trump did nothing when Qatar was attacked by Iran during the launch of the Trump world war of choice❗); and
• Pardoning Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, who had been in prison for serious banking law violations. The pardon lets him run Binance again and benefit the Trumps’ crypto business.

An honest president and a responsible Congress would put a quick stop to the corruption. (Where is Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins❓) Repairing Trump’s vandalism of the economy, the treasury, almost every agency and institution of the government, our foreign relations and our national reputation and, not least, our national self-respect, will take much longer.

None of it — not even the slush fund — is as dangerous as the political legacy Trump has created by cultivating MAGA into a cancer on the Republican Party and on the country.

Trump saw and exploited a significant bloc of voters who do not care about democracy the way Americans are supposed to. They will still be there when Trump is gone, ready for the next man on horseback to point them in the direction of their bigotries and fears.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans want to control the 2026 elections because voters are finally fed up with chaos!

Echo essay published in the Los Angeles Times by Jackie Calmes:

I hope Maine's Senator Susan Collins 👀reads the Los Angeles Times.

If you wake each morning already angry at news of some latest outrage from Donald Trump, or some unhinged, malevolent message he posted online overnight and if you then go to bed already burdened by nightmares from the headlines of the day, there’s good news: You’re not alone.

Being social animals, humans find comfort in company. Except, in this case, for Republicans nationwide who will face voters in November. And that’s another thought that should be comforting: that those Trump-enabling Republicans are discomfited.

Those were my reflections this week as I read the Wall Street Journal’s report on a Texas Democrat’s 14-point victory on Saturday in a special state Senate election to represent a Fort Worth-area district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024. That’s a 31-point swing from red to blue. So sure, consider all the caveats about special elections being low-turnout affairs that aren’t exactly representative of the larger electorate that comes out in a general November election. But 31 points❓😃

What struck me even more, however, was independent voter Shanna Abbott’s explanation to the Journal for why she supported Democrat Taylor Rehmet in that race:

“Every day there’s something insane happening.”

See❓ You’re not alone in thinking that same thing. Misery loves company: an adage for our Trumpian times. And from solidarity comes action.

That’s what has Republicans quaking in this midterm election year. They’re especially unnerved because they also know that every day Trump will say something, do something or do nothing — say, to rein in the brutal, even murderous thugs masquerading as federal law enforcement agents on U.S. streets or to lower prices as he promised (instead of ultimately raising them with tariffs) — and keep alive the disgust that so many Americans share. It’s a growing majority, polls show.

For more than a decade this “flood[ing] the zone with s—,” as Trump high priest Stephen K. Bannon put it years ago, has been not just Trump’s innate proclivity but also a purposeful strategy to disorient and overwhelm the media as well as the public. 

Trump’s fire hose ❗was the weaponry of his superpower. No sooner did he say or do something that in past times would have undone another president — or at least provoked a consuming controversy — then Trump would spawn another rhubarb, and then another.

Discombobulated, Trump’s political foes as well as Americans generally just threw up their collective arms in surrender: It’s just Trump being Trump.

What’s more, at Trump’s debut on the national political stage, back when then-rival Jeb Bush presciently predicted during the 2016 campaign that Trump would be “a chaos president,” many Americans heard those words with welcoming ears and not as the warning that Bush intended.

Many voters wanted a chaos agent to shake up Washington, a disruptor to “drain the swamp” and to stick it to the elites. (Never mind that billionaire Trump was one of those elites, as he’s lately illustrating in spades with word of every self-enriching crypto deal and each new black redaction from the tranche of criminality known as the Epstein files that might be protecting him or his predatory pals from infamy.)

Yet, in his second term, with Trump unrestrained by the kind of normie advisors who checked him in his first term, and, in fact, encouraged in his worst authoritarian instincts by current aides (looking at you, Stephen Miller), the president has surpassed the limits of Americans’ appetites for his rhubarbs. They’re choking on his chaos, a revulsion that’s exacerbated when they see every day that Trump isn’t making their lives more affordable — he rejects the very word “affordability” as a Democratic “con job.” 

Instead, Trump is preoccupied with erecting gold and marble monuments to himself in Washington and partying at his sumptuous Mar-a-Lago with, yes, the elites IOW "The Jeffrey Epstein class".

Even some elites are hedging. A headline in the Washington Post: “Trump’s chaotic governing style is hurting the value of the U.S. dollar.” A weaker dollar, in turn, further raises ordinary Americans’ costs for imports including autos, electronics, clothes, food and more.

The year 2026, is only five weeks old and already Americans have stomached a lot.

They watched witness video of armed immigration agents shooting to death two citizens protesting in Minneapolis, only to hear Trump and his mooks slime and blame the victims. Americans saw 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and 2-year-old Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis taken by agents and sent 1,300 miles from Minneapolis to a detention center in Texas — just two among the thousands of children nabbed by immigration agents nationwide during Trump 2.0, independent studies and data show. (Reminder: Nearly a third of the estimated 4,600 children victimized by first-term Trump’s abhorrent family separation policy still had not been reunited with their families when he regained office.)

Local news carries horror stories in other cities coast-to-coast about the abuses of Trump’s mass deportation operations. Beyond U.S. borders, Trump took over a country, Venezuela, after the U.S. military abducted its leader without notice to Congress, then threatened to take Greenland from longtime ally Denmark, alienating Europe and threatening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s continued existence.

And, Measles infections are back❗ On Sunday night, Trump announced he would close the Kennedy Center two years for reconstruction. (Just like his failed casino bankruptcies, he has closed yet another entertainment venue.)

Trump's administration’s cover-up of the Epstein files continues. And the Wall Street Journal reported a blockbuster on yet another Mideast deal benefiting the Trump family.

Americans raise their kids to be good losers, and tell them that elections are the foundation of democracy. Yet Trump continues to insist the 2020 election was stolen from him, last week had federal agents seize ballots from Fulton County, Georgia, to try to make his case, yet again, and twice this week said Republicans should nationalize voting in at least 15 states. (You can guess which ones, starting with California.)

Donald Trump is fearful, as he should be, about the midterm elections. Company’s coming. #VoteBlue

Bluesky: @jackiecalmes Threads: @jkcalmes
X: @jackiekcalmes

Donald Trump and maga Republicans in denail about failed executive leadership

Where is Republican Senator Susan Collins💢❓❓

White House fiascos: Regarding “Europe warns of 'dangerous downward spiral' after Trump threatens tariffs over Greenland,” (Jan. 18): Maine Writer preface here.....Donald Trump is a serial criminal and a constant liar.  He never testifies about anything "under oath".  Europeans know Donald Trump is crazy, so are his cult followers....as per this opinion published in the Houston Chronicle.

Donald Trump informed Norway’s prime minister

Jonas Gahr Støre in a text — that because he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, he plans to seize Greenland❓ Without a doubt, it is obvious that the golden escalator does not go to the top floor.  Donald Trump has lost his freaking mind. Every news organization in America should be screaming about this❗😱

At this point, Trump could bite the head off a live rat, and it might earn a page 10 mention in major metro papers. As pundits debate the strategic significance of rat eating, MSNBC would run live coverage with commentary. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz would appear on Fox News, decrying the radical left conspiracy to advance its woke, pro-rat agenda. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt would praise the selfless courage of Trump confronting the rat head-on and, much like Jesus, eating it for our sins. Rats 🐀would be, like, “These guys are nuts. Just sit tight for a few months, and we’ll be running the place.”

This isn’t about eating rats. It’s not even about Greenland. Rather, it’s about the elephant in the room: We are in a Freddy Krueger-level national nightmare, and it’s time to wake up. The Cabinet needs to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. The House needs to impeach. The Senate must to convict❗

From Robert Campbell, in Katy Texas

Donald Trump and maga Republicans continue to allow evil ICE to use authoritarian cruelty against American citizens

Regarding “Houston protests over deadly ICE shooting will continue Friday,” (January 9, 2026) An unarmed American citizen, a mother, was shot four times and murdered. Her name is Renee Good.

In her death by an ICE agent, when her van was driving away from the shooter, America was shot in the heart by the cruelty, hate and evil congressional support of an authoritarian Donald Trump, who failed to support and uphold the Constitution and our citizens' right to peacefully protest.

Echo opinion letter published in the Houston Chronicle:
What will our elected representatives do❓

Like Senator Ted Cruz (who was born in Canada) they are more afraid of an elderly man who is obviously unhinged. They are afraid of losing their job where they are paid to pledge unconstitutional loyalty to the leader they fear.

When faced with the evidence of this murder, our Republican leaders try to rationalize it with flat-out lies. Are we going to continue to go along with this lying until someone we love is shot and killed by an untrained, unnecessary member of the "immigration militia❓”

What are we willing to do to preserve our democracy❓ Even people in Poland, Iran and Russia were willing to stand up for their rights.

If we don't wake up, our democracy will be put to death, and it will not rise again. Not for me, you, our children or grandchildren.

I am very afraid that we are like the frog that is being slowly boiled to death in a heated lab beaker. (Let's just call it what it is. The evil Trump administration declared war on innocent U.S. citizens.)

From Patricia Garris, in Spring, Texas (Harris County) 

Donald Trump and maga Republicans talk the talk but failed administration's fuel and energy policies are a mess!

 A New Year’s resolution for Donald Trump: Stop🛑 ❗hurting Texas oil producers | Editorial published by the Houston Chronicle editorial board:  

If you tuned in to Donald Trump’s "yelling fest", he called it his "address to the nation" on Wednesday night highlighting his economic policies, you may have noticed a significant omission: nary a mention of oil and gas production. 

(The date of the Donald Trump address to the nation during which he was noted for yelling was December 17, 2025.)

Yes, Donald Trump, is the same president who promised during his re-election campaign to make the U.S. rich by drilling for “liquid gold”, but he could only muster a brief, tepid and inaccurate boast about his energy policy in the first year of his second term. 

Rather, he highlighted growth in power generation — though much of that came from wind and solar projects subsidized by federal programs, and Trump just slashed these funds — and claimed raises for coal miners. And prices at the gas pump continue to fall “now under 💲2.50 a gallon in much of the country,” he said.

But, what Trump didn’t mention is that the cheap gasoline is largely a result of the lowest crude oil prices in four years: 💲56 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate, according to recent data, a 20% decline from last year.

Texas’ flagship industry was already having a brutal year before the latest drop in oil prices. Tariffs left many companies, including majors, reeling. Thousands of workers have been laid off. 

With many expecting the pain to continue into the first quarter of next year, it's high time that Texas’ political leaders start pushing back against Trump’s incoherent and damaging energy policy.

For a time, it seemed oil and gas executives had already reached that breaking point. Some were openly critical of Trump and his advisers for cheering on oil prices as low as 💲50 a barrel and imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum that hiked the cost of drilling. These folks aren’t California environmentalists. They supported and bankrolled Donald Trump's re-election. Trump’s peeling back of environmental regulations and doling out billions in tax breaks could pay off for them in the long run, but right now they’re getting a lousy return on their investment.

Even so, the Big Oil C-suite hasn’t yet raided the Oval Office with pitchforks. Instead, there appears to be a numbing acceptance in the industry that the sluggish market will persist,😞  at least through the beginning of next year. The latest Dallas Fed survey of oil and gas firms in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico struck a😒 pessimistic tone on the short-term outlook. If there’s a silver lining on the horizon for producers, it’s that global liquefied natural gas prices are perking up, positioning the U.S. to be a major player in that market.

“The supply-demand issues for natural gas are finally heading into a bull phase,” wrote one Fed survey participant from an exploration and production firm. “The administration’s trade policy is forcing balancing and many countries have to buy LNG to offset their trade deficits with America.”

This editorial board has supported LNG exports alongside sensible regulations that curtail methane leaks and protect fence-line communities. When done right, LNG can benefit our economy and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in countries that burn coal.

Kirk Edwards, the CEO of Latigo Petroleum, an Odessa-based oil and gas production company, told the Houston Chronicle's editorial board that the explosion of data centers and AI companies in Texas also bodes well for natural gas production.

“The only way to get that sustainable power is going to be through natural gas turbine-driven electricity,” Edwards said.

Of course, that would be a lot easier if Trump eased up on tariffs. There are more than 100 new natural gas plants planned to go online by 2030, but tariffs on materials used to build the plants, combined with supply chain shortages, are jacking up the costs of construction. It’s also an open question whether the glut of future data center projects in the ERCOT interconnection queue will actually be built, adding to the uncertainty for natural gas developers.

While the spike in natural gas prices eases the pain for the industry, it’s hurting consumers’ bank accounts. (Yes❗💢) Americans paid $12 billion more for natural gas this year, owing to a 22% increase in LNG exports. The European Union’s recent decision to ban LNG imports from Russia next year because of the ongoing war in Ukraine, could boost U.S. exports – and our utility bills – even higher.

In fact, the Donald Trump administration's fixation on driving down the price of oil, while waging a trade war, simply isn’t sustainable. 

If there’s a New Year’s resolution we’d recommend for Trump when it comes to energy, it’s to do everything within his power to restore some semblance of balance to the market.

Oil and gas executives still want to believe in Trump. But, nevertheless, the instability and lack of policy discipline that has defined his presidency is trying their patience. And even worse, it’s undermining the workers.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans have a model for immigration reform but refuse to be create humane changes

Stop treating Houston immigrant families like criminals | Opinion
Echo opinion letter published in the Houston Chronicle

Immigration inequity:  Regarding “He is a handyman, not a criminal. Houston must face our immigration reality. | Editorial,” (Dec. 16)- a very sad 😟 report: This story highlights the inequities of current immigration enforcement — inequities most Americans already recognize as wrong. Houston Chronicle captured the issue perfectly when quoting the ICE spokesman: “ICE is targeting the worst of the worst criminal aliens, but all individuals who are in the country illegally are subject to arrest and removal.”

That single sentence reduces the complexity of our broken system to a cruel reality: a caring father of U.S. citizens is treated no differently than the “worst of the worst.😟” 

Such indiscriminate enforcement does not make Houston safer; rather, it destabilizes our community. Luis is not a hardened criminal. For his family’s sake, and for the good of our city, he deserves a path to legal residency.

For decades, both political parties failed to deliver humane immigration reforms. Yet the solution is not new. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, introduced nearly 20 years ago by Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy, 

this bill passed in the Senate in 2006, with bipartisan support and the backing from President George W. Bush. 

Sadly, it was defeated in the House, dismissed as “amnesty.”

After twenty years of stalemate, perhaps the moment has finally arrived for leaders from both political sides to revive that legislation and work together, instead of tearing the country apart. 

If today’s misguided policies ultimately force lawmakers to act, then maybe something good can come from this failure.

From Derris Murphy, in Houston, Texas

Donald Trump and maga Republicans must end illegal deportations going against court orders- Trump pledged to evict ciminals NOT students

College freshman is deported flying home for Thanksgiving surprise, despite court order- AP by Holly Ramer (Associated Press)

Echo published in the Houston Chronicle in Texas: Why is the US deporting college students❓ | Opinion

College student deported:  Concord, N.H. (AP) — A college freshman trying to fly from Boston to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving was instead deported to Honduras in violation of a court order, according to her attorney.  Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, 19, had already passed through security at Boston Logan International Airport on Nov. 20 when she was told there was an issue with her boarding pass, said attorney Todd Pomerleau. The Babson College student was then detained by immigration officials and within two days, sent to Texas and then Honduras, the country she left at age 7.
Regarding “College freshman is deported flying home for Thanksgiving surprise, despite court order,”(Nov. 28): When will the madness stop? A college student in Boston coming to Austin for Thanksgiving is handcuffed and shackled by immigration officials at the airport and immediately deported to Honduras, a country she hasn't been in since she was seven.

I thought criminals and felons were the targets❓❗ People, please rise up and help our politicians get the courage to stop the unlawful treatment of our people who are supposedly not the target for deportation.

From Ahronda James, in Cypress, Texas

Donald Trump and maga Republicans support giving child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell preferential treatment in Federal prison

The Epstein scandal has landed in Texas. It’s time for answers. 

Echo Editorial published in the Houston Chronicle.

Texas lawmakers love to talk about being tough on crime. (Obviously not true when it comes down to sexual trafficking crimes❗) So why won’t they demand answers about Epstein’s accomplice — or sign on to release the files❓

Typically when someone is happy to move to Texas, it's because they landed a good-paying job in an affordable city, not because they’re a step closer to getting out of a prison sentence for child sex trafficking. 

Nevertheless, the weird machinations of the Trump administration, has caused the Lone Star State to become ground zero for the latest rage-inducing development in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Republicans and Democrats alike should be demanding answers about Ghislaine Maxwell’s presence at a minimum security prison facility in our state — and demanding that Congress vote to release the Epstein files.

Here’s the rundown of what’s happening.

In 2021, Maxwell, a Jeffrey Epstein consigliere, was found guilty of child sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Earlier this year, for reasons that still haven’t been fully explained, the Federal Bureau of Prisons moved Maxwell from a facility in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Bryan, Texas — just a two-hour drive north of Houston. 

In fact, the Texas camp is a veritable “Club Fed,” with no perimeter fencing, dorm-style housing, and a reputation as one of the most comfortable federal prisons.

While the Trump administration hasn’t disclosed why they moved Maxwell, it is worth noting that this decision followed the White House’s refusal to release documents about the Epstein case and a meeting between Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal defense attorney.

It also follows revelations by the Wall Street Journal that Donald Trump once sent a personal birthday card to Epstein that included an outline of a naked woman around bizarre lines like: “We have certain things on common, Jeffrey,” “Enigmas never age,” and “may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denies writing such a letter.

Now a whistleblower has apparently told House Democrats that Maxwell is being waited on “hand and foot” by staff, receiving special meals delivered directly to her cell, private meetings with visitors who have unmonitored computers, and other privileges not allowed for other inmates.

“The deference and servility to Ms. Maxwell have reached such preposterous levels that one of the top officials at the facility has complained that he is ‘sick of having to be Maxwell’s b____,’” according to a letter from Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

That whistleblower also reportedly says that Maxwell is seeking a commutation from President Trump himself and warns of a quid pro quo arrangement.

The mere possibility of Trump reducing Maxwell’s time behind bars should have Texas’ tough-on-crime crowd frothing at the mouth in anger — and we’ll be joining them! In what world is Texas content to play handmaiden to this miscarriage of justice? Anyone who cares about holding child sex traffickers accountable should be outraged that a secretive scheme to let Epstein’s right-hand woman off the hook may be unfolding right here in Texas.

The questions keep piling up about what is actually going on behind the scenes. Why would Trump go out of his way to help Maxwell❓ Why are most Republicans in the House of Representatives refusing to support a motion that will compel the U.S. Department of Justice to disclose all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials in its possession that relate to Epstein or Maxwell. So far, not a single Texas Republican has signed on to that petition. Every Texas Democrat has.

The lack of answers only further feeds conspiracies and speculation that Trump’s name will appear somewhere in those files.

The American people deserve the truth. Texans specifically deserve to know why a child sex trafficker like Maxwell is getting the kid-glove treatment in our state.
We all deserve answers. Release the Epstein files. Now❗

Donald Trump failed to intimidate California Gavin Newsom and now Democrats can carve a highway to the White House (if it still exists after Trump demolishes the place)

Thank you 🙏Governor Gavin Newsom of California:

Opinion letters published in the Los Angeles Times: 

Prop 50 support even did better than Kamala Harris in certain California counties. 

Congressional Redistricting won with 6,550,062 votes- 64.1%❗✅

To the editor: I’m pleased that Proposition 50 passed in California by a wide margin, although it was a case where I had to hold my nose as I voted to support the ballot measure (“California voters pass anti-Trump, pro-Democrat Prop. 50,” Nov. 4). The manipulation of congressional district boundaries for purely partisan reasons is anti-democratic and ultimately harmful to a free system of government. On the other hand, no democracy can long survive if all constituents aren’t playing by the same rules.

When Texas Republicans kowtowed to Donald Trump’s demands and obediently gerrymandered their state to gain five partisan seats, they left California and other left-leaning states with no choice but to respond in kind.

I am at least comforted that California followed the democratic process and put the proposed changes to the state’s congressional maps to a public vote. In Texas, the partisan gerrymandering was done behind closed doors and without a vote of the people.

Gary Vogt, in Menifee, California

To the editor: What could have been the cost if California did not respond to Trump’s effort to manipulate voting, enabling him and the Republicans to maintain control of the country❓

Meanwhile, (apparantly tone deaf❗) Califrnia Republicans are suing to challenge Proposition 50. But wait❗Where was the outrage and legal action when Trump induced Texas and other states to redistrict as a power grab without voter approval❓ If California did not act, does anyone question whether anyone would stand in Trump’s way of further redistricting to add to the Republican advantage, giving him even more power❓

From Sidney Pelston, Marina del Rey, California

..

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are using SNAP money for political purposes: Middle Class are worried about hunger

The Human Toll of the Suspension of SNAP (Suplemental Nutrition): The food-assistance program serves around forty-two million Americans. In Texas, even people with decent jobs are feeling the pain.  Echo report published in The New Yorker Magazine, by Rachel Monroe.

Angel Goodwin used to work remotely, processing applications for Medicaid and for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. People would sometimes yell at her over the phone—“I’ve been called every name but a child of God,” she said—but it was worse when they cried. 

“Especially the elderly. They would be approved for, like, thirty dollars a month, and they’re getting Social Security for, like, nine hundred and forty-three dollars. They’d be, like, ‘Honey, I can’t—I don’t know what I’m going to do, I don’t have anybody.’ ” Goodwin, a single mother with an eleven-year-old son, also received SNAP benefits. “Little do they know I’m in the same boat,” she said.

Earlier this year, Goodwin began to feel pain shooting down from her shoulder, most likely a consequence of repetitive computer work. At the beginning of October, she took a short-term disability leave. Then, toward the end of the month, she logged in to her SNAP account and saw an alarming notification: November benefits weren’t coming. She and her son had already scaled back to subsist on the short-term disability benefits, which were “not very much at all,” she said. Now they’d have to make do with less, even as food prices seemed to get higher every week. “Personally, my faith will always outweigh my fear,” she said. “But it’s at a scary point now.”

Amid the prolonged government shutdown, which is now the longest in American history, SNAP benefits have (sadly 😯😥) become a political football. 

Although in previous shutdowns, emergency funds were used to cover the SNAP program, which serves around forty-two million Americans, but the cruel Trump Administration has declined NOT to do so. A number of states stepped in to cover the gap, or to provide additional money to food banks; Texas, which has a multibillion-dollar rainy-day fund, has done neither. (H-E-B, the grocery-store chain which arguably serves as a second layer of social services in the state, has donated six million dollars to food banks.) At the end of October, a federal judge ordered the Administration to continue SNAP payments. But, several days later, there was nothing in Goodwin’s SNAP account; the Administration has said that November payments will be only partial, and it’s unclear when the funds will arrive.

Goodwin, who grew up in South Carolina, had what she describes as “a pretty rough childhood.” In her early twenties, she cut ties with her family, and found herself with a young child and no real support system. She slept on friends’ couches and then, when she felt her welcome wearing out, in her car.


Being homeless was tolerable—“You meet cool people on the streets, people with wisdom,” she said—but she wanted her son to have a more stable life. She got a job working the night shift at a gas station, and earned enough money to move into a hotel where she paid by the week. It took two years to save up enough to cover a deposit to rent a small apartment. “I didn’t have any furniture—no couch or anything like that, just a couple of pans that I’d had in the hotel,” she said.

“We pretty much slept on the floor. We literally started from zero.” When she felt overwhelmed, she prayed to God for guidance. She began having dreams about Texas, the state’s outline popping up in unexpected places. In her journal, she asked God if this was really what he wanted her to do— she’d never left South Carolina before. Yes, was the answer she received, so she began researching apartments online. 

By now, she was working remotely as a customer-service representative for a bank, but she’d need more money to fund the move. On YouTube, she learned about retail arbitrage—essentially, buying discounted items in bulk and then reselling them on Amazon at a markup. The scheme eventually stopped working, but by then she’d saved up enough money to cover the deposit on an apartment in Houston.

Two years ago, she moved into a renovated two-bedroom with pale-gray walls and a bright, narrow kitchen. Her days were taken up with work and with homeschooling her son.

On the morning of November 3rd, day three of no SNAP, Goodwin put her son in the car and drove twenty-five minutes to the West Houston Assistance Ministries, a nonprofit social-services organization, which was hosting a special food-distribution event for SNAP recipients. When she arrived, at around 9 A.M., a line of cars snaked down the block, and volunteers in neon vests directed traffic. Nationwide, fourteen per cent of households are considered food-insecure. In Harris County, which comprises Houston, the figure is close to forty per cent. 

WHAM had seen a notable uptick in need since the shutdown began, on October 1st. “We’ve been focussed on food, but we’ve also seen an increase in evictions—it’s a crisis on top of a crisis,” Neysa Gavion, a social worker and a senior case manager at WHAM, told me. “And the interesting thing is, while we’ve always had people at the poverty line or below, this is the middle class.” 

Recently, the organization had provided assistance to an I.R.S. employee and single mother who was days from being evicted. “People that weren’t impacted before are being impacted now,” Gavion said. A retired woman waiting in line told me that she had contemplated growing her own food. “I got a little balcony. Maybe I can grow some beans?” she said.

A sound system played nineties country and sixties pop, while another group of volunteers carried crates of milk out of the sun. Under a blue shade tent, a woman named Destaney handed out information about food banks and assistance programs. Destaney works at WHAM a few days a week as part of her coursework at community college, where she’s studying to be a paralegal. 

In class, all anyone wanted to talk about was politics, ICE apprehensions, and the shutdown. “At first it didn’t affect me directly, but I get food stamps, too,” she said. “Today, when I woke up and I didn’t get them, I’m, like, O.K., this is really real.”

Goodwin’s car inched forward until she reached the front of the line. She popped her trunk and a volunteer placed a box inside. Another volunteer offered Goodwin a bouquet of flowers that still had a day or two of life in them. Goodwin, surprised, thanked her effusively. When she got back to her apartment, she sent her son into the other room to resume his lesson—he was learning about phytoplankton—as she surveyed the box’s contents: a bag of grapes, some chicken, a can of SpaghettiOs, a gallon of milk. “He loves SpaghettiOs, so that will be his school lunch,” Goodwin said. She had a small stockpile of dried beans, rice, and canned vegetables, some of it from other food banks. “I’ll make it work. There are recipes on YouTube. Or you just put random ingredients into ChatGPT,” she said. The other day she’d made a slow-cooked stew with green beans and turkey legs which she’d served over rice. It had looked (and tasted) good enough that she’d taken a video of it bubbling on the stove. “Everything but the turkey legs came from the food bank,” she said.

Online, people were saying that a judge had told Donald Trump that he’d have to release SNAP funds, but Goodwin wasn’t putting too much stock into that. “It’s just so hard to tell. I think it may start up again in December, or maybe something supplemental will happen. Honestly, to be completely transparent with you, I try not to put my faith in the system,” she said. 

In the meantime, when she got overwhelmed, she asked ChatGPT for help. “I just say, ‘I’m feeling really frustrated now. Please give me some tools to calm my mind.’ ”