Apocalyptic Times

Last spring we were reading and trying to understand Daniel, of the Old Testament, an ongoing challenge. Much of Daniel is prophetic. Some is of times near his day, some is of times in centuries near his day or around the time of Christ. Some is of our day. And it’s not always clear which is which.

There’s this verse in chapter 12 that we might be seeing in our day:

11 And from the time that the daily ^asacrifice shall be taken away, and the ^babomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.—Daniel 12:11

photo used from New York Times, found here

There was a day, back in 2020, just as the pandemic shutdown got underway, that might be meaningful here. I am talking from a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint perspective (opinions are mine, however; I do not represent the Church). We have temples, where we do ordinances (rites, practices, covenants) daily—except Sundays, when we hold our regular worship in church buildings. Temples are opt-in places. Meetings aren’t called for you to attend; you schedule yourself to go when you want to do temple worship.

We don’t do animal/blood sacrifice, as in ancient temples, although there are some other similarities to the temples from Moses’s day and Christ’s day. We do commit to sacrifice, but after Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, we are required to offer up a “broken heart and a contrite spirit.” We are asked to be humble and submissive to our Lord and Savior. So, it looks different, but we do offer up sacrifice daily in our temples.

On March 25, 2020, our prophet announced the closing of temples worldwide for a time, because of the pandemic. This was a week or two after church services were shut down (we were authorized to hold services in our homes), and a few days after missionaries serving all over the world were called home—either cutting their missions short, or changing to online missionary work, sometimes with hope of returning to their mission place later.

So, earlier this year we were looking at that verse in Daniel and thinking, what if it referred to that day—the day the temples were closed?

Almost since that day in 2020 we’d heard speculation about it, but back then the speculation went something like, “Well, if the temples stay closed for 3 ½ years [1290 days is a bit over 3 ½ years], then we’ll know that’s what it meant.”

But the temples opened back up. In some places within a couple of months. By August in our area. Only for what we call “live endowments,” not proxy work for the dead. We believe certain ordinances must be done for the living; if a person doesn’t get the opportunity in this life, then we living members can do that work as proxies for them. This provides them the opportunity to accept or reject it in the next life; we don’t start calling people members of the Church just because they have passed away but have had their work done in temples. Proxy work is a fairly unique practice in our religion, but it was understood by the early saints: read 1 Corinthians15:29, which talks of doing proxy baptisms for the dead. Anyway, back in 2020 we had limited use of our temples, adding a little more in phases, until we reopened with caution in June 2021, and we’ve remained open since.

So, it took us longer than maybe it needed to, but this past April, 2023, we were looking at this again and thinking, what if the verse wasn’t saying the temples would stay closed for 1290 days, but if it was just pointing to a starting point for that countdown? When would 1290 days later be?

We calculated, the long hard way, going month-by-month until we got to 1290 days. It turns out there’s an online calculator for such calculations. But we were right. It put us at October 6, 2023. Just days later I came across a video on the Christian Fire Poppy channel where she talked about this very thing. She calculated to October 7, 2023. The difference of a day was, we had calculated from the day of the announcement of the closing of temples, but, as she noted, the first day they were actually closed was the following day. So we made that adjustment.

The other part of the verse, “the abomination that maketh desolate set up,” adds meaning to the 1290 countdown. The temple shutdown happened because of the worldwide pandemic—a plague. As apocalyptic plagues go, it was actually rather mild, causing many deaths but not a third of the planet as such predictions make us envision. But our lives changed, literally and permanently, in March of 2020, because of a desolating sickness type of plague.

There are people who look at the words “abomination” and “desolation” and picture something specific that I am not persuaded is accurate. They picture a person—the anti-Christ—going into a temple, preferably a third temple in Jerusalem, and desecrating it. But when I read those words, I almost always see something more like the bad stuff to be poured out on the wicked world in the last days. If I’m right, then COVID-19 was one of the early plagues, and it was the cause of the temples being shut down in March 2020.

So what was going to happen on October 7, 2023? We didn’t know. There were a lot of other portentous things around that time. It was at the end of Sukkot, the Jewish feast of tabernacles, and a lot of things seem to line up on feast days. It was after the feast of trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) and the day of atonement (Yom Kippur). For our Church, it was week after our semi-annual worldwide General Conference (20 new temples were announced, to be built as soon as land is purchased and plans are drawn up). It would be a week before an eclipse crosses over the US, ending at Corpus Christi (meaning “body of Christ) in Texas. And there’s more about that eclipse, which happens this Saturday, being part of three eclipses that form the letter A, or aleph in Hebrew.

three eclipses over the US,
screenshot from this Christian Fire Poppy video

Also, there was a sign in the heavens—significantly full of imagery found in Revelation 12—in September 2017 right after the first of the three eclipses, and notably for us right after the Hurricane Harvey flood.  Jupiter was in the “womb” area of the constellation Virgo, where it had been in retrograde for 42 weeks (a gestation period), and then was “birthed” from the virgin. Anyway, a similar woman-in-the-sky sign reappeared this September, 2023, with various named asteroids playing a significant role. [You can see for yourself on Stellarium. I have tried, but I have needed the guidance of Christian Fire Poppy, who did additional videos on this in the last couple of months.]

woman-in-the-sky sign constellation, as shown by Christian Fire Poppy,
screenshot from here

So, things were looking portentous, but we didn’t know what to expect—anything from The Savior Appears to maybe an unnoticed hinge point that we would look back on later and see its importance. But we were watching, and curious.

I woke up Saturday, and my husband said Israel had been attacked by Hamas. I asked about the seriousness, because it seems that attacks are happening there all the time. This was different, he said. Much bigger. And later in the day Netanyahu announced that they were at war—the first time since the Yom Kippur War of 1973, October 6-25 of that year. Coincidentally.

Google Earth image of Israel,
screenshot from this Christian Homestead video

I don’t know what we’re seeing—in the apocalyptic sense. Is this the beginning of Armageddon? I don’t know.

I know it is horrible. The current count is around 1200 dead Israelis, which include a couple dozen American citizens. I’m praying for the people of Israel, and I support their right to self-defense.

People are wondering at the intelligence failures both of Israel and the United States; so am I. People are horrified at the brutality and savagery. Hamas has aimed at civilians, going house to house and kidnapping, raping, and murdering innocent people. The brutality has included beheading babies. The pagan god Moloch, the destroyer, reigns among the terrorists; although that is not the name they use, that is the character of their behavior. (See Jonathan Cahn’s Return of the Gods, mentioned here. Also this.) Horrifying images abound online. I have mostly avoided seeing them. I avoid violence even in movies—where you know it’s only make believe. Seeing real murder is traumatizing.

Ben Shapiro talks about the war against Israel,
clip on a Glenn Beck video, screenshot from here

Ben Shapiro makes a case for viewing the images, so you will know and not forget. He says,

Here’s the point. Nothing anyone has ever done to you or could ever do to you would cause you to do these things.

No territorial dispute would cause you to butcher babies. No squabble over territory would cause you to rape and abduct women. No so-called “occupation” would cause you to kidnap entire families or burn them alive in their homes.

I listened (but did not watch up close to my computer) his video Monday, October 9, “The Face of Absolute Evil,” which I recommend, as well as his written statement, which I quoted from above: “Why I Show The Horrific Images Of Hamas’ Atrocities.” [These may be behind a paywall, but you might search for the titles and find them elsewhere.]

There are plenty of sources to get news. I’ve also turned to Erick Stakelbeck,   who gives news of Israel all the time, but particularly now. And several YouTubers are passing along what they’ve found on X (formerly Twitter) and elsewhere. Troy Abels on The Last Dispensation channel has been passing along a lot of raw, up-to-the-minute information since La Haina. And for more professional opinions, I go to The Epoch Times, including EpochTV, and The Blaze.

Even mainstream sources are covering it—although they can’t seem to help but try to make a moral equivalency between these savage terrorists and Israel defending its right to exist. Note that Hamas is located in Gaza, southwest of Israel, along the coast. Since Israel turned that area over to Hamas in 2005 there are no Jewish settlements—indeed, no Jewish people—living there. They elect their own failed leaders, who keep the people ground down in poverty with the purpose, it seems to me, of keeping the people frustrated and angry so they can blame Israel for their hardships and inspire their people to hate and fight them.

There is no moral equivalency.

Ben Shapiro added that, while there is never a reason to praise the German Nazis, who murdered six million Jews in the last century, at least the Germans had the sense of shame about what they had done to try to hide it. These savages are recording their atrocities and posting them online, bragging to the world to see. They are proud of beheading babies and murdering families in front of each other, shooting them, beheading them, or dragging them behind vehicles. It is unspeakably evil.

Meanwhile, there are enclaves of supporters, in Europe, even in the US, who support these beasts for no other reason than they hate the Jews. Black Lives Matter in Chicago danced with joy in the streets. Similar celebrations took place in New York. Representative Ilhan Omar supports them. Representative AOC can’t bring herself to condemn the atrocities; she’d rather not give a statement.

The Biden administration has given lip service to support Israel. And it has moved ships in and around Israel—for support, for warning against Iran and others. Possibly also to warn Israel against too harsh a response. Note: there cannot be too harsh a response. But Israel has warned citizens of Gaza to evacuate, and have given specific 10-minute warnings to evacuate buildings used by Hamas officials. Hamas locates itself near hospitals, schools, and other innocents—and pressures its people to stay and get killed—so that the more civilized Israel can be painted as wicked killers of innocents. This has always been part of their fight against Israel. This is only an escalation now. But Netanyahu has vowed to wipe out Hamas entirely. There is no living with enemies who do such atrocities as part of their vow to wipe you off the face of the earth.

The Biden administration gave $6 billion to Iran a month or so ago, with a warning, “Now, don’t go using that for anything but humanitarian purposes, OK?” This is part of resurrecting the Obama deal, which was, let us give you money, and then you postpone your nuclear weapons pursuits for a decade. Trump reversed the deal; Biden is reinstating it. Meanwhile, most of that decade of postponement is already past, not that Iran was actually postponing anything. But this $6 billion appears to have made its way to Hamas. There have been reports of Farsi being spoken among the invaders; Farsi is spoken in Iran, while a Palestinian Arabic dialect is spoken in Gaza.

Another odd detail: the Taliban, in Afghanistan, have been requesting passage through various Muslim countries, to get where they could support Hamas. Meanwhile, also on Saturday, October 7, there was an earthquake in Afghanistan, killing 2000 people, with additional aftershock quakes since then. Coincidentally.

What happens next? I don’t know.

The next verse in Daniel says this:

12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.—Daniel 12:12

Is that starting after the 1290 days, or counting from the same starting place? Many people consider them consecutive. But if they have the same starting date, then it’s just 45 days longer than the 1290 days, which takes us to November 21, 2023. What might we see then? I don’t know. Maybe the end of this war, this siege. Maybe an escalation. Maybe we’ll recognize the two witnesses, from Revelation 11:3-11, prophesied to protect Jerusalem for 3 ½ years. I don’t know.

I only know that, when I saw war in Israel on the 50-year anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, 1290 days after the closing of the temples because of a plague of sickness, things that were unclear and scary are now very real. And still scary. But we know the end of the story—and it’s a glorious happy day for those who turn to God.

Today is the day to do any turning back to God that you need to do.

We should pray for the suffering in Israel, and wherever there is suffering, but particularly there right now. We should pray for peace, but do not expect it to come until the end of the Biblical story that we’re living in.

meme found on Facebook, here

 

Acting Locally Against Worldwide Evil

We live in troubled times. If you read Revelation (which I do), you might think, you haven’t seen anything yet. Just wait. But, while we face a mostly non-kinetic war, it is a war nevertheless. It is raging in our country and worldwide. We know how it turns out in the long run; that’s the point of Revelation. But it’s how to live now, and what to expend our energy doing, that is the question—or at least the question I’m looking at today.

This isn’t really a post about election integrity; that is just the story behind the point. So, here we go.

On Monday nights I frequently listen to Catherine Engelbrecht’s podcast on Locals.com (also found a couple of other places). Election integrity has been a big issue of mine since at least 2010. That was when her organization True the Vote started—locally, here in Houston, Texas. This week she told her story of how they got started.

Catherine Engelbrecht on her weekly podcast.
screenshot from here

She and a handful of friends (I don’t know all the names, but I have gotten to know some of them) met at a pub and talked about what they could do to make things better in the community. This was around 2008. One of the first things they decided to do was work an election, something she and others hadn’t done before. Then they got back together and talked about their experiences. Some of them had had a good experience, doing their civic duty, in and around people of different political beliefs, but all trying to do a good job.

But others had a different experience. This was a primary election (so I’m assuming around March 2008, a presidential election year). Our friends were working the Republican polls right next to the Democrat polls. Often such places are separated, placed in different rooms, or maybe different hallways of a school. But sometimes circumstances put them in the same room; I’ve experienced both.

There were a number of people who came in and confided to their Democrat clerk or judge, “I don’t remember who I’m supposed to vote for,” and the Democrat poll worker would tell them. In the open. Clearly illegal.

This would affect the Democrat voters, but not the Republicans, so why worry? Because, if that is what they were doing while they were being watched, who knows what they were doing where they weren’t being watched.

Anyway, by 2010 Engelbrecht and friends had formed True the Vote, a 501(c)3, to recruit and train poll watchers—not workers, but observers. I think it was within their first year, 2010, the first time I was a poll watcher, trained by True the Vote. 

True the Vote flyer, from 2011. Image first used here.

I had previously worked as a clerk at the polls a couple of times. I had also been a delegate to the district and state conventions multiple times by then—in multiple states I had lived in. I had taken my homeschooled kids to the state capitol to do citizen lobbying many times. I had been an active citizen. But clearly the election integrity problems needed to be addressed. They were serious. So I stepped up, with an army of volunteers.

I was a poll watcher for several elections. Then, in 2014 I became a precinct chair and have worked the polls ever since. Typically I have someone else (lately it has been my husband) be the Presiding Judge, and I am a clerk, because I can’t handle the 17-hour day arriving at 5:30 AM to get the polls open at 7:00, so I come in later and stay through take-down and return of equipment and ballots.

Since the Democrats took over Harris County elections in 2018, we have had one disastrous election after another. After their elected county clerk stepped down in 2020 (worries about COVID, she claimed, but there was a lot of suspicion of fraud), the county commissioners court (democrat majority) took elections out of the hands of the elected county clerk and gave it to an appointed elections administrator. The ones they chose were disastrously awful—incompetent to the point of it looking deliberate. As Alan Vera used to say, “Incompetence is the perfect camouflage for malfeasance.” In our 2022 election they failed to provide ballot paper to a number of polling locations—coincidentally in high Republican areas. Ours would have run out of paper along with the many others, but our tech support happened to have an extra couple of boxes in his vehicle, and he gave us one. Without it, we would have run out long before the county elections people delivered another box just an hour before closing. 

The map, built by Russ Long, showing that polls without
enough paper coincided with Republican voting locations. 
Screenshot from here. 

from an HCRP meeting February 13, 2023, showing where voters were
turned away from polling places for lack of ballot paper

The state legislature got rid of the elections administrator for counties of our size (specifically, really, just our county) and returned our elections to the county clerk this year. The clerk is still a Democrat, because we haven’t won a county-wide election since they took over the elections, coincidentally. For this November’s election, we got notified that my husband is assigned as the AJ (alternate judge) at our usual polling location. We have always been the PJ (presiding judge). This privilege is based on who the precinct voted for as governor; my precinct voted for Governor Abbott, the Republican, so we are entitled to be the PJ, which means running the polling location and hiring the workers. The AJ is there to provide oversight from the opposing party, and typically gets to bring along a clerk if we are allowed to hire enough people. This privilege is according to state law, so the County is breaking the law. By depriving us of our entitled PJ status, it means I and the others who regularly run our polls—and we do it better than most, because of our experience—will not get hired. I gather we’re not the only precinct they’ve done this to.

There’s an HCRP (Harris County Republican Party) meeting on Monday; I’m hoping they’re going to deal with this problem, which I and others have reported. Who knows what other fires need to be put out, a mere month before election day.

This is a long way of saying—after a couple of decades of doing my civic duty—and more than a decade of doing a whole lot more than most—our situation is still dire, probably worse than when we started. This is even though we, as the public, are more aware than we have ever been. We can be censored and labeled as domestic terrorists for saying so, however. The Biden administration is pushing for even more censorship of messages they do not approve of.

Engelbrecht was telling her story Monday to get people to see that they don’t need to set out to create a national organization or movement. They just need to act locally. That is what she did. And the Lord led her and others, one step after another, to do more—until they became a target on the national stage in this fight for free and fair elections.

Yes, act locally. Do what you can.

But we are in the midst of the book of Revelation. Do not expect that your efforts will be what it takes to bring back our constitutional republic, as much as we want that.

La Bête de la Mer, a medieval tapestry depicting John the Revelator
seeing the dragon and the sea beast from Rev. 13,
used previously in this post

My purpose in this post today is to encourage—myself and others—to do what we can, regardless. We’re not living in times that allow us to be comfortable. But we also do not live in times where our all-out effort will win the day. The Savior alone will win the day. Our part is to make sure we are fighting the war on His side. We do not want to be on the wrong side, nor can we be on the sidelines, as though we don’t care which side wins.

We’re not talking about political sides here. We are talking about choosing good over evil.

Election illegalities are a small part—with sometimes a large outcome, as we saw in the 2020 presidential election—of the overall war against evil. We’re seeing unprecedented things: the indictment on specious charges of a former president/current presidential candidate. The current office holder shows obvious signs of dementia but is insisting he’s running again, while an impeachment inquiry is open—because of the obvious, large, tangled web of influence peddling, which I would term treason, if I had a say.

The UN just met this past month, attempting to give large and sweeping powers—giving up our sovereignty—to the very World Health Organization that lied and failed us (purposely?) during the COVID pandemic. Who in their right might would think it’s a good idea to give more power to a worldwide entity that has already proven themselves untrustworthy?

These issues are all national or global. We can give our opinions to lawmakers, but that’s about the limit of our power on that level. So, locally is where we can have the biggest impact. And there’s plenty to deal with at the state and local level. Besides election integrity, there’s:

·        Education

·        Parental rights

·        Child trafficking

·        Drug trafficking

·        Border security (in a border state where the federal government has purposely failed us)

·        Crime and punishment

There’s plenty more. Very locally, there’s the school board and the HOA board. I talked about our school board race in my last post. Tonight was a work session of the school board, ahead of Monday’s official public meeting. I tuned into the livestream for a while, but my attention wandered. (This post wasn’t done, for one thing.) Paying the needed attention to school issues could be a full-time endeavor.

Today, while I was walking my dog, I had a conversation with an HOA board member, about the two board races up for election this year. She’s a nice, retired lady, a year into being on the board, willing to hear what neighbors have to say, but also a bit frustrated that more people don’t step up to make things better in our very local community. I live in a “newer” section of the neighborhood, where we’ve been for 24 years. She is in an older section, been there 32 years. While I feel safe walking our streets, even in the dark, she no longer feels that way at her end of the subdivision. There’s a house on her street where they’re pretty sure drug deals are going on. People are wondering if not just drug trafficking, but also human trafficking is happening there. We’ve heard about a lot of catalytic converter thefts in the neighborhood, as well as tire thefts. As the neighborhood ages, more of it turns into rentals, with less upkeep of the property and, unfortunately, more propensity for crime. Homeownership doesn’t always prevent crime, but it’s a signal of more care for the property, and a lot of good goes along with that (which is just one reason the idea that by 2030 you will own nothing is disturbing). There are discussions between the HOA and the MUD (municipal utilities district) about whose money should be used for what projects. Money is involved—our very local money.

But there is only so much a person can give their attention to. The more local, the more it is likely to affect your daily life, so you might want to focus there. But, as Catherine Engelbrecht was suggesting, you probably do need to look around and ask God, “What would you have me do?” Then take a step, connect with others, inform others, work together for the good of the community. If you accomplish something good in your community, it might stave off the influx of evil from a less local source.

In the community circles where I’ve served, I’ve met a lot of really good, committed Christians, giving tirelessly to make things better. They are an example and inspiration to me. I am “not weary in well doing” (Galatians 6:9), but I am often physically weary, facing limitations of age and health. So I have to ask more judiciously what the Lord would have me do. Writing and sharing information here is just one thing, and it’s very small. I’m continuing to participate in various ways when I can, within my limits.

I trust that, while what I do will never be enough to change the world, it makes me a little better. And all of us making ourselves a little better—that will sustain enough good in the world to help us survive until Babylon falls and our Savior reigns.

Our tools of defense during that great fall will be faith, patience, and courage[i]. That is what we are strengthening in ourselves during this time when doing our little part is never enough to bring Babylon down. That will happen. What we’re doing is protecting ourselves from falling with those evil forces.

Simply, look around you and do daily the good the Lord leads you to do.

 

---

[i] Richard Draper and Michael D. Rhodes, The Revelation of John the Apostle, © 2016, p. 941. This is an excellent commentary on Revelation, carefully explaining translation from the Greek, done by Brigham Young University professors, with added insight from other Latter-day Saint scriptures and writings. It is nevertheless their opinion and not necessarily the views of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The book is long and detailed, and I do not understand the Greek, but the commentary is enjoyable to read, and I would appreciate such a commentary on a great many other books of the Bible.

This Year’s School Board Races

It used to be that school board races were not that significant. But the enemy of civilization has found schools to be a prime place for indoctrination and control of the populous. I’m not really talking about a conspiracy theory, more of an alignment.

If you’re a would-be tyrant, what you need is a people that are relatively easy to rule. You want them to be compliant and to not be deep, independent thinkers. The best place to create such a people is the schools. You do it with the cloak of good intentions. You convince people you care so very much about the children—and therefore the people should trust you. And then they leave you alone to do whatever it is you’re planning.

This has been a long-term plan, starting in the 1800s. The frog has been brought to a boil slowly.

But lately things have gotten so obviously out of line with what sensible people want, we are realizing that anything related to educating our next generation is serious and requires our attention.

School board races in our district are theoretically non-partisan. There’s no primary, in which parties choose their candidates. There are just people who sign up to run and then try to convince people to vote for them. Multiple candidates can run for any given race, and the one getting the most votes wins. No runoff.

These are the four school board candidates I'm endorsing:
from left, Todd LeCompte, George Edwards, Justin Ray, and Christine Kalmbach.
Image from a candidate meet and greet in Jersey Village this week, 
found here on Christine Kalmbach's Facebook page

That doesn’t mean that the candidates don’t align with one party or the other—even if they say they don’t.

In this northwest corner of Harris County, outside Houston, Texas, we have a generally conservative, Republican-voting population. But a few years ago we found our school district run by all non-conservatives (not necessarily registered Democrats, but aligning that way). Of the seven trustees on the board, not a one could be considered more aligned with parents and the community than a center-left-voting Democrat. And the schools were suffering in ways that showed. Lower academic abilities, higher debt, unhappy teachers, and very unsatisfied parents.

Add to the academic dissatisfaction, a quick look under the surface revealed an agenda—being pushed by teachers’ unions, international NGOs, and others “wretched hive of scum and villainy” types you might not have expected to find in a public school—carrying out an agenda of critical race theory, pro-LGBTQ, pro-transgenderism, and anti-parental responsibility.

Two years ago, as Republican precinct chairs in the district, we identified three candidates we could get behind for the three open seats that year. We won all three. They’ve been excellent. But they’re still a minority. So, to make the changes we need, we need a majority. We need to win at least one—preferably all four—of the races this year.

You’ll note that this is an off-year election. That means low voter turnout. That means, for someone in a position of control, if they can target certain demographics, such as teachers, whom they have cheap and easy access to, then they can win. Unless—like last time—precinct chairs, candidates, and volunteers knock on tens of thousands of doors and talk to voters personally about what’s happening in our schools and what these candidates can do about it.

So this year we started our efforts back in January, and went through a process to identify the best conservative candidates. We actually had eight applicants go through our vetting process, which consisted of several candidate forums, of varying formats, where they could introduce themselves and answer our questions. Of the eight, I thought seven were both conservative and capable of doing the job. So it came down to who we precinct chairs thought would be most electable.

fFyer for the four endorsed candidates for Cy-Fair school district board. 

Those four candidates—one for each of the seats—have since gotten the endorsement of the Harris County Republican Party and the Republican Party of Texas.

I attended a conservative candidate forum last Friday, which included these four, plus the one who came in fifth place in our process but decided to run anyway. So I’m going to share a bit of what they offered. The order is the order in which they gave their opening statement.

 

Who Are the Candidates

Justin Ray is running for position 3. He has maybe the best name recognition. He spent four years as mayor of Jersey Village (a suburb of Houston, toward the east end of the district, where Jersey Village High School is). After that he ran for state rep, challenging the very leftist Rep. Rosenthal of HD 135, and lost to the incumbent by only 300 votes, the closest race in the state. (We could insert an entire post here about Harris County election problems, but that’s a post for another day.)

He grew up there and has three kids in the district. In his intro he talked about the Teas economic miracle—and how that depends on our educating the next generation. He would push the basics, which are building blocks for other learning. He talked about school safety (a common thread among candidates) and pointed out that safety is not just about some angry guy with a gun; it’s also about discipline in the classroom. He said, since we’re all taxpayers, we need to make sure Cy-Fair ISD gives us a return on our investment. He would work with parents, not against them. He would get teachers and parents together, with an open conversation.

Todd LeCompte is running for position 1. He ran two years ago, and then stepped down from a race where there was already a good conservative candidate, to avoid taking votes from her. He has been preparing to run now ever since. His message and everything about him is more refined now. He has kids in the district, and he volunteers in the mentorship program.

Big issues for him are academics—getting back to basics; school safety (he talked a bit about HB 13, which would train, test, and vet teachers who would like to concealed carry firearms in schools); giving power back to parents; and supporting teachers.

Christine Kalmbach is running for position 4. She worked with me on the Education Committee for our District Platform in 2022. She grew up in this district (graduated 1985), and so did her kids. She has volunteered here for 26 years. She says she feels called to make a difference in Cy-Fair ISD.

She also talked about improving basic academics in the district. Our scores have been going down recently. When 55% of third graders are reading at expected level for their grade (third grade is a critical point in testing for the districts, because it’s a critical point by which kids need to learn how to read), that means 45% are not reading at grade level. The district has utterly failed 45% of students. And stats show that, if a kid read and do basic math by third grade, they’re on a pipeline to prison.

She quoted the current (retiring) board chair as saying things are OK in Cy-Fair. But they’re not OK. Three classes in a CFISD high school have no teacher—no adult, not even a substitute in the room. That’s not acceptable. We have a teacher shortage. We also need bus drivers, but she knows several people who have applied and can’t get so much as a response saying their application was received. She is a real estate agent, and had more to say about changing demographics in the district (later, in answer to a question about school boundaries), which she is very clear on. She does say we have a great opportunity here, to make important changes, if we have seven of seven school board positions held by people like we had in that room, representing the community.

Ayse Indemaio is running for position 2. (You pronounce her name I-shay In-de-mayo.) She’s been a fixture at school board meetings for several years now—essentially since the COVID shutdown. She has called our attention to a lot of the problems in the district. She has three kids in the district. And she says she’s determined to put parents in charge. She has done FOIA requests, and helped get HB 18 passed in the 2023 legislative regular session, which, if I understand correctly, is intended to keep people (schools, tech companies, anyone) from using and storing data on students based on the use of their school-issued devices. She called to the school board’s attention the possibility of accessing the dark web from the chrome books the students were issued—which were then changed to be unable to access the internet.

She has done a lot of verifiable good. That said, you might note she is not one of the four endorsed candidates. As you’ll recall, we had more than enough candidates who had the right beliefs and skills to do the job, so the precinct chairs were making decisions about electability. She has created a fair amount of opposition from, well, the opposition. They label her, and apply whatever labels to everyone else who is among us. Personally, I found that, as the process went along, her message was less about angrily attacking the school district and more about what she has successfully done. As that happened, she moved from a lower tier of candidates up closer to the top tier. She never quite got there. But she had worked to put together $25,000 of her own money to put into a campaign and decided to run anyway. There had been an understanding (an agreement going in) that any candidate who wasn’t among the top four choices of the precinct chairs would drop out—so that we did not split the conservative vote, giving an advantage to the “liberal/progressive” candidate.

In this case, the “liberal/progressive” candidate is the only incumbent. Julie Hinaman is deceptively harmless looking. She’s small, cute, claims to be conservative (came to our Tea Party some years ago to claim that), but has been pro-LGBTQ and pro-transgenderism, and pro-porn in the libraries, and pro-social engineering without telling the parents. She has been very aligned with the now-outgoing superintendent, whom they’re trying to replace before the new board can be elected. She has been terse and unkind to community that speaks out about issues at meetings, while appearing to be sympathetic, especially to teachers and kids. She is going to be a formidable opponent.

There were a handful of precinct chairs who insisted on supporting Ayse in running, despite her failure to reach the top four in any of multiple polls. She’s a force to be reckoned with. But the fact is, we have another conservative candidate in that race, so she is indeed going to split the conservative vote.

George Edwards is also running for position 2. George has been one of our Cypress Texas Tea Party board members, so I’ve known him a while. [Note: I recently stepped down from the board, and stopped writing the weekly newsletter, but I still attend and support the group.] He has an impressive resume. He was a CFISD school board member from 1995-1998. A couple of his accomplishments during that time were getting rid of year-round school and writing the document Portrait of a Cy-Fair Graduate. He spoke at a school board meeting on this last spring, because the current school board has been rewriting it—watering it down, he would say. Instead of emphasizing academic excellence, they think all graduates should show “curiosity.” Whatever they mean by that, it’s no replacement for actual standards.

The original Portrait of a CFISD Graduate,
from George's 1990s time on the board.

If you’ve read here much, then you know we had our three kids in Cy-Fair schools from 1998-2000; then we pulled them out to homeschool. This district failed us academically and otherwise. There were a lot of improvements that needed to be made, in my opinion, even back then. But the scores were high. We moved to this district because all the reports showed it to be the best district around. Twenty-some years later, it’s not a matter of failing my gifted students; it’s a matter of massive failures to a near majority of students and force-feeding them propaganda—in classrooms without discipline, and with frustrated teachers who aren’t free to just teach. I’ve compared the two “Portrait of a Cy-Fair Graduate” documents, and I was quite impressed with the original (which aligns surprisingly well with what I wrote about here on the mission of schools). George recently retired and feels like he has the time to try to bring back some success to this district.

He has a number of other boards on his resume. Besides Cy-Fair ISD’s board, he has chaired the board of Energy Capital Credit Union, been a board member and Investment Committee Chair of the Texas Bar Foundation, and was given the Patron Award by the Texas Bar Foundation. He has also received a Leadership Houston Award. And he was given an Exxon Mobile national leadership award. He is a CPA, which means he also has the financial skills the board needs. He’s soft-spoken and unassuming, but his experience shows he’s pretty high-powered and certainly knows how to get a school board on the right track.

 

What Would They Do on Issues

The Q&A was taking a few questions from the audience and letting any or all of the candidates answer. My guess is, if these are issues here in Texas, chances are there are similar issues in your school district.

The first was, acknowledging that teaching CRT (critical race theory) in Texas is against the law, what is the plan for making sure it doesn’t get taught? And similar questions would apply to the LGBTQ agenda as well.

All candidates acknowledge that it exists in our schools. They all would emphasize teaching basics, instead of those things. But there’s also setting the standard and agenda for a board-led district, in which the superintendent follows their direction. And they would have accountability checks to make sure that was happening. George was especially emphatic about this; if they don’t like the newly hired superintendent, they don’t have to keep him. There would also be plenty of transparency and conversation with parents and community members. Ayse asserted that shedding light on the problems is the right thing to do—as a parent, and as a school board member.

Another question related to the closing of schools, the masks, and the vaccine mandates. What guarantees do we have that those things will never happen again?

All agree that we definitely know better now. Justin called the damage done to our kids almost insurmountable. That’s why we have to emphasize teaching the basics to catch kids up. Todd mentioned that, one of his sons couldn’t breathe in the masks, so Todd went to the superintendent to ask for an exemption, which he was denied—even though it was only a couple of months before a scheduled removal of the masking policy. What difference would it make to wear masks in April but not in June? So much nonsense from this district. Todd pulled his sons out for that time period, because doing what’s right for your child is the priority.

In a follow-up question, someone mentioned that County Judge Hidalgo is trying to bring vaccines into school clinics. Justin pointed out that, anything Hidalgo recommends, he’s probably going to do the opposite. There was strong agreement that health and mental health clinics do not belong in schools. And they acknowledged this has been a way of getting to children behind their parents’ backs. George added that absolutely anything that tries to keep information from parents will be against policy in this district. Christine and Ayse both mentioned that they have signed the Texans for Vaccine Choice pledge.

One questioner brought up the need for more trade classes. And the candidates agree. Christine gave herself as an example of benefiting from those classes. The questioner told his story that it was in shop class that he came to understand fractions. He’d been failing math, but he totally understood it once he had to physically measure things. Those classes put the basics to use. We need them.

One issue in our district has been contentious this year: rezoning. The western part of the district is growing, although Christine points out that the rate of growth even in that area has slowed. The eastern end of the district is shrinking. We actually have schools not being fully utilized, while we’re building new schools elsewhere in the district—based on outdated assumptions of a growing tax base. That can’t continue. What especially bothers families is changing schools, sometimes multiple times. One family complained about having had six school changes imposed on them. That sounds like the result of bad planning. Christine suggests a better demographic study, keeping in mind that we have $4 billion in bonds outstanding.

One suggestion got huge cheers and applause: renaming the Mark Henry Administration Building. Mark Henry (no relation to board member Scott Henry, one of our three elected last time) is the retiring superintendent, who has pushed so many of the bad policies in the district. The new administration building must have been budgeted several board cycles ago, so we can’t blame the current board—just those who have been there too long. It’s a huge, extravagant place, with a big electronic sign along the freeway for everyone to notice. We were told that Mark Henry (I don’t know if it’s his fault) had the wrong kind of glass installed, which had to all be removed and replaced—at our expense, of course, not his.

The huge building can hold more employees—that do not work in schools—than I can imagine any district ever needing. And the very month they opened up this building, they worked on the budget, with the same old complaint that they don’t have enough money for decent teacher raises.

Yard signs are showing up,
image found here on Christine Kalmbach's Facebook page.

 

Conclusion

The four candidates chosen by the precinct chairs get my endorsement. That is not to say Ayse couldn’t do the job. But she is young, and is likely to have a future opportunity. I really hope she keeps doing the work she’s been doing, finding out what needs to change in the district. The difficulty right now is that we are likely to get more conservative votes for position 2 than the incumbent we most want to remove (and yes, I would say Hinaman needs to be gone even more than the 3 who are retiring), and could still lose, since the conservative vote will be split. The purpose of going through the process was to prevent this very scenario. George, by the way, was well up in the top 3; the candidates then chose which race to run in.

I haven’t said anything here about the non-conservatives in the race, other than the one incumbent. I only know that, if they aligned with our pro-parent, pro-family conservatism, we would know that. They’ll say they’re for the teachers, and the children. And they’ll say our side is some extremist group of religious bigots (Christian nationalists I think is the term one candidate has labeled us).

So the school board races are the most important thing on the ballot this November, here and all over the country. We have an actual opportunity to improve our schools, or to allow them to sink further into the mire.

After hearing our candidates, I felt hopeful for the first time in a very long time that there might be actual, real improvement in our schools. But it will take the votes of every good community member we know. Spread the word. (Use the QR code in the image below to get more information about these candidates and how you can help.)

Image found here on Christine Kalmbach's Facebook page,
use the QR code to get more information and learn how you can help.

Not Exactly a Jury of Peers

I’ve spent the last two weeks listening in on the Texas Senate impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

To review, at the tail end of the legislative session in May 2023, the House suddenly, without warning, held a four-hour hearing in which they heard allegations and then voted to impeach on 20 counts. No witnesses were heard. No hard evidence was presented. No interviews leading up to that point had been under oath. We were told this was like a grand jury; they just have to decide whether there is enough there to hold a trial.

So that is what the Texas House did; they passed off any actual trial work to the Senate, where all the evidence would be presented.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick presides as judge in the Paxton Impeachment Trial.
screenshot from here

The Senate Impeachment Trial Process

This is similar to a court trial, but with significant differences. The jurors are the Senate members. They do not have to reach consensus, but must have 21 of 31 voting members vote to remove the Attorney General from his duly elected position. In this case, it will be 21 of 30, because one of the state senators is Angela Paxton, wife of the attorney general, who has been attending all the sessions but is recused from voting. We should note that one of the charges, bribery, reflects on her as well. The accusers claimed the Paxtons had received home renovations as a bribe to do political favors.

Earlier in the week a friend of mine commented on social media that what he’s observing is, whatever anyone believed going into this trial, they still believe. That’s probably accurate.

There are plenty of sources for information and commentary. I’ll list some of those below. But for this piece, I’m just giving my impressions—having listened to almost every part of the two weeks, including closing arguments this morning. This isn’t intended to persuade either side. There’s no time to do that. The Senate is now deliberating, and they could come up with a decision by tonight—likely before you could read this—or in a few days, depending on how long they take.

I won’t go through each of the 20 charges. But I’ll note, the case offered somewhere around 15 hours per side to present their case. That is less than an hour per charge. Cross-examination of the other side’s witnesses counted as time on the countdown clock. [Note that, as of today they are dealing only with 16 of the charges. The four related to securities fraud are pending in courts, I believe. They can deal with those later, depending on other outcomes. If they remove Paxton permanently from office, those charges won’t need to be dealt with. If they do not remove him, they could either dismiss those charges or deal with them separately.]

 

Impressions on the Various Counts

one of a series of texts pushing 
the anti-Paxton agenda

As long as the trial was, some of the issues were barely touched on. For example, as per the texts I keep getting from some entity unknown to me, they’re pushing two main things: an affair Ken Paxton has admitted to, but they claim he got the woman a job at Paxton’s friend Nate Paul’s company as a political favor; and the renovation of Ken Paxton’s house after water damage, which had upgrades they claim were provided by Nate Paul in exchange for favors.

We learned that the investigative team presenting the case to the House back in May made these allegations based on suspicions of the so-called whistleblowers. They did not interview Nate Paul, nor the woman who was hired by his company, nor the contractor who did work on the Paxtons’ home. In the intervening months they still didn’t do those things. There was nearly an opportunity to hear from “the other woman,” but, rather than subpoena her and schedule her testimony, the prosecution noticed her presence and thought they could call her, but couldn’t give the 24-hour notice that was required, before their time was running out. Seems kind of too little too late. They couldn’t have deposed her in June, July, or August?

Here’s what they missed, which was provided to us by the Paxton defense team: the woman in question applied and was hired according to normal process, continues to work there, pays for her own apartment in Austin, has not continued a relationship with Paxton, nor is there any evidence of this hiring being a cover for a favor to Paxton in exchange for—something unnamed.

The Paxtons had a general contractor to do the remediation work. He wasn’t contacted. The only connection made to Nate Paul was the mention of the name Nate during a discussion about possible upgrades, overheard by Paxton’s aide, who was concerned about it but was relieved, visibly, on the stand, to be convinced his concerns were unfounded. There is no evidence Nate Paul paid for anything; the receipts and bank records are in hand, showing Paxton paid for the renovation work. And the defense provided photo evidence (it was in the news weeks ago, so the prosecution could have verified at any time) showing that the Paxtons never upgraded to granite countertops and new cabinets as alleged. They still have the same kitchen witnesses recognized from before the repairs.

What the prosecution did was to bring in the people who reported the claims initially. They laid out their suspicions—and they did this well. What they saw, if you make assumptions about motive, looked like possible favoritism toward a particular client.

But repeatedly their claims fell apart on the stand. Under oath, one after another, the first few days admitted that, when they went to the FBI to report their boss, Attorney General Ken Paxton, they brought no evidence with them. By the second week they thought they had remedied this. Their reports, they claimed, were evidence. They brought their observations and beliefs and interpretations. So there!

Their stories might have been corroborating evidence, had there been any material evidence. There wasn’t. There was only these persons’ interpretation of Paxton’s motivations, missing quite often a fuller picture that they hadn’t sought. And neither had any other investigators.

Another oddity was that, when they went together, as a group, to the FBI on October 1, 2020, they sat around a table, together, recounting their observations. Had the FBI assumed their testimony validated any actual crime, the witnesses would have been interviewed separately, so that they did not know what the others were saying, thus coloring each others’ stories. Also note that the FBI, with all the “evidence” these five brought to them, in the ensuing three years have brought no charges.

This is not to say the FBI is spotless—although they may be in relation to this case. But it was suspicion about the FBI that led to some of the allegations. Nate Paul had had his home and storage unit searched. He believed that the original search warrant, of his home, was for drugs and guns, I think was the story. But when they of course didn’t find anything, they changed the search warrant to look for some kind of white collar crime, which entailed going through the storage unit for records. Nate Paul and his counsel, Wynne, believed they had metadata evidence showing that had happened. Note: eventual forensic work showed this to be inconclusive—not disproven.

The whistleblowers and others involved thought this was baseless, because the FBI and other federal officials never do anything wrong. Ken Paxton, however, asked for a fuller investigation. There’s more to recognize here. Paxton had been hounded and, he believed, badly dealt with by federal investigators, so he didn’t have blanket trust of them. Add to that, there were, at the time (and more since) multiple instances of federal officials playing fast and loose with citizen rights.

Former Travis County DA Margaret Moore testifies Monday.
screenshot from here

It was a rather satisfying moment in the trial when the defense Tony Buzbee was cross-examining the former Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore, who claimed the state could never so much as suspect a federal investigator. The defense listed one after another of FBI crimes. Here’s some of that exchange:

Buzbee: I mean, there’s a lot of them. But, did you hear about the FBI admitted fraud forensic testimony in 32 death penalty cases?

Moore: No.

Buzbee: How about when the FBI conducted improper searches of US officials using a foreign database?

Moore: I don’t know about that.

Buzbee: How about when the FBI improperly spied on activists?

Moore: I don’t recall reading about that either.

Buzbee: How about when the FBI misused an intelligence database and performed 278,000 searches?

Moore: I didn’t hear about that.

Buzbee: And the reason I keep asking you about these repeated alleged FBI abuses is because, when you first heard about this alleged FBI abuse, the first thing you thought was, “Ridiculous.” Correct?

Moore: No. That’s not correct. That’s not what I said.

Buzbee: You knew that a federal judge had ruled that FBI agents had conducted illegal searches of businesses?

Moore: I don’t know what you’re alluding to.

Buzbee: How the FBI violated the privacy rights of tens of thousands of Americans?

Moore: Mr. Buzbee, I’m not aware of that article.

This lifetime law enforcement expert had never heard of any of them. Her claim to know the Nate Paul claim was false, without investigating it, rang hollow. My personal suspicion is that she didn’t want to investigate federal agencies she had to maintain a good working relationship with. That does not bode well for the people subject to the violations, though.

A similar line of questioning happened with the former Texas Ranger near-superhero David Maxwell, in the OAG, who was handed that case by Moore. He did a quick Google search on Nate Paul, concluded that he was a crook. So when he heard out Nate Paul and his counsel, with this suspicion they had about the search warrant, he thought it was ludicrous. He didn’t say so to them, but he never intended to do any investigation whatsoever.

 

The Whistleblowers

Paxton’s difficulty was that, despite his assignment to his subordinates to do an investigation, they admitted they “slow-walked” it, and in essence refused to do the investigation. When he followed up, they said they would get on it, but they didn’t. They didn’t so much as open a file on it.

Finally, Paxton hired outside counsel. He signed a contract with a young lawyer named Cammack, who was interested and willing in doing the investigation. Cammack said Paxton instructed him to just find out the truth.

Cammack was derisively dubbed "the kid" by the whistleblowers.
screenshot from here

Cammack started that investigation, and he also started another referral given to him, which the prosecutors had been unaware of and had assumed he was issuing grand jury subpoenas related to the Paul case, which he was not doing. He was thwarted at every turn by the “whistleblowers.” They derisively called him “the kid” in their conversations and correspondence. And they took it upon themselves to deny his contract, give him a cease and desist letter, and left him unpaid—claiming the Attorney General didn’t have the rights of the office given to him by the voters, which he could delegate to them but still held.

And these whistleblowers did worse. They got or made (it was disputed) official OAG stationery without the Attorney General’s name on it, and they hired, without permission, outside counsel for $50,000 to investigate/prosecute/persecute Attorney General Paxton. And then they claimed the AG was out of line in firing them.

It may be hard to know exactly what was in AG Paxton’s mind at every turn. But his communications show interest in the people of the state in general, not the single friend they insisted he was working for. He had worked hard to stop foreclosures from going through—before the first Tuesday of the month, during this time of COVID when a stay on foreclosures was about to end. This ended up having no affect on Nate Paul, as they insisted it did. But what AG Paxton had expressed to his team was that they may have kept some elderly grandmother from losing her home. And his policy became national policy by executive order a couple of weeks later.

There’s a question about whether the whistleblower laws affected these high-level appointees in the Office of Attorney General. Courts have ruled that it does, but that is pending appeal. What we might be seeing is something of a mutiny—and then, because of bad feelings, jumping to conclusions and accusations to convince themselves and others that their failure to do the work assigned to them was not what led to the loss of their jobs.

One of them, Brickman, I think it was, insisted that he was not interested and would never take the settlement—the $3 million that was brought to the legislature, which supposedly triggered the investigation during the legislative session last March. Except, when the settlement was finally agreed upon, he took it. He testified that he required the AG to apologize to them for calling them rogue employees (which, obviously, they were). He didn’t get that. So far the money hasn’t been appropriated to pay them, but when it does, it’s because he signed on to receive it. Hmm.

In closing arguments, the prosecutors urged the jury (the Senate) to believe that they didn’t have to remove all doubt. They just needed to do what they thought was right. Isn’t that convenient—when the rules and the law say they must acquit if the evidence hasn’t taken them beyond a reasonable doubt standard.

The biggest difference between this and a regular case is that it is political. Sad to say, it is highly unlikely that any of the eleven Democrats in the Senate will vote to acquit. It’s a team sport. They’re not really on either team in this one; they’re the handicap. The two teams are: the ones trying to oust the duly elected Republican official and the ones trying to restore him to his office to do the people’s work. There are 18 total Republicans allowed to vote (excluding Senator Angela Paxton).

We can identify the ones very likely to acquit. These are the ones who voted to dismiss before the trial: Bettencourt (my state senator), Campbell, Creighton, Hall, Kolkhorst, Parker, Perry, Schwertner, and Sparks. However, Sparks, Schwertner, and Perry did not vote to dismiss on all counts. So there are a solid six. If as many as ten senators vote to acquit after hearing the case, then Paxton is acquitted and returns to work.

There are six identified as pushing to convict: Huffman, Hughes, Hancock, Middleton, Birdwell, Nichols. With the eleven Democrats, that puts their count at 17. They would need four more to convict.

There are several considered “swing” voters on this issue: besides possibly Perry, Schwertner, and Sparks, who were willing to dismiss on several counts, there are unknowns Springer, Flores, and King. So the question is, where will four of them go?

 

The Senate Trial Players

Unlike other Senate votes, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick does not cast a tiebreaking vote. He was the judge. And I have to say, I appreciated his work. It was done with humility, good humor, and professional respect. I do not know what his opinion is. There were times when the defense seemed to be saying “Objection. Hearsay” every other sentence. I didn’t keep track, but as the umpire I couldn’t see that he gave more to one team than another. He had some expertise on hand to help him answer questions he had about it. And generally he seemed fair.

I had definite responses to the two legal teams. There’s a particular style of Texas lawyer, where he talks with a slow drawl and doesn’t appear too bright—but that is an act that surprises the opposition when the bite happens. The slow Texas drawl and fumbling described the prosecution team, particularly their lead lawyer. But there was no bite. It was fumbling to the end—including when Rusty Hardin rested his case before cross-examine and redirect of the last witness. Not knowing page numbers was a problem. Not putting exhibits into evidence was another.

The defense, on the other hand, was quick, organized, strategic. Tony Buzbee is probably an acquired taste, but he was passionate and capable, as were the others on his team.

 

My Conclusion

As my friend said, you probably saw what you expected from the trial. I had been appalled at the lack of evidence presented at the House hearing, and the last-minute push to do that dirty deed. But people kept saying the evidence would come with the real trial in the Senate. I was open to that. I’ve been disappointed by way too many politicians in the past. I’m disappointed that Ken Paxton was guilty of the affair. Where can public virtue be found where there is not private virtue? Or, as John Adams put it: "Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.” I am willing to accept that he is repentant; his wife has accepted that. And, as they quipped during trial, if we impeached for infidelity in Austin, we’d be holding impeachments for a long long time.

I was willing to see the evidence. Each time the prosecution laid out the things that looked bad, I could see why a person might have thought that. But then, each time, the defense got up and displayed how flimsy that was. Innuendo. Suspicion. Hearsay. Assumption. No proof. Not any.

I believe I know what should happen. Whether I am right or not, I pray that the Lord, who knows all, will grant our state what is right for the people of Texas, that justice may be done.

 

Resources

Texas Senate provided livestreaming and archived recordings. The archived segments were not always up the same day, but I believe there are all up now. When the Senate convenes to vote, that should be livestreamed as well. (If you search YouTube you will also find some livestreaming by various local news outlets, which was helpful when the Senate website delayed posting after livestreaming ended.)

Texas Scorecard has several resources, in addition to daily news coverage.

·        Luke Macias, daily emails up through day five and weekly podcast. 

·        Brandon Waltens, daily headlines.  You can also look for Brandon Waltens on X (Twitter).

·        The Texas Heist documentary 

 

Houston Conservative Forum—Don Hooper. This source was new to me. As with Texas Scorecard, there is a bias toward defending AG Paxton. Know that going in, but the coverage is good, and squares with what I saw in the hearings, but adding some inside baseball I didn’t know. Video clips are sourced from Brandon Waltens.

·        Day 1 Prior Election Doctrine (vote on whether to dismiss each count) 

·        Day 2—Beginning of Trial 

·        Day 3 

·        Day 4 

·        Day 5 

·        Day 6 

·        Day 7 

·        Day 8 

·        Elements of Articles of Impeachment