Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas transplant Elon Musk, already leading Donald Trump by the nose, has waded into German politics to back the extreme right-wing party AfD: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/world/europe/elon-musk-afd-germany.html The AfD, similar to American MAGA elements, is supported mainly by lower-income and disillusioned Germans: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-23/what-s-afd-the-far-right-german-party-elon-musk-embraced They're in ...
Dec 27, 2024•7 min
Representative Donna Howard has represented Austin in the Texas House since her initial win in 2006 - for almost two decades, she's been a stalwart progressive standard-bearer across every issue imaginable, but in recent years has been notable as a fierce fighter for our reproductive rights, bolstered by her own professional background in nursing and healthcare. Thanks for listening! Learn more about how you can support our important work as this pivotal session approaches at https://progresstex...
Dec 23, 2024•36 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Republican Fort Worth U.S. Congresswoman Kay Granger, missing from her post in D.C. since the early summer, has been located under the care of a memory care facility - a situation that her staff appears to have concealed: https://www.wfaa.com/video/news/politics/questions-swirl-after-congresswoman-kay-granger-misses-votes-lives-in-senior-facility/287-08b68494-e13d-47dd-a988-4554e1f8a9fe Smarting from defeat in the recent government funding ...
Dec 23, 2024•9 min
This is one of several episodes in a pod series previewing the upcoming 2025 Texas Legislative Session with a range of Democratic lawmakers. Texas State Senator and Senate Minority Leader Carol Alvarado has served in that body since 2018, following a decade of service in the Texas House representing the southeast Houston area. Senator Alvarado is known for her hard work and advocacy in public health, public education, economic development, voting rights (for which she engaged in a 15-hour filibu...
Dec 21, 2024•22 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: With each passing hour, a partial shutdown of the federal government during the busy Christmas travel season thanks to Elon Musk and Donald Trump's interference is looking more likely: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-congress-has-two-days-avert-shutdown-after-trump-rejects-spending-bill-2024-12-19/ ...Seven Texas Republicans joined the Democrats in voting the hastily-drafted Trump replacement bill down: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202...
Dec 20, 2024•8 min
Great fun at The Finch in Mockingbird Station in Dallas earlier this week for the second of our two holiday parties for 2024! Like our first pod from the Austin shindig, settle in and meet our Dallas guests, who had great things to say about determination and courage for Texas progressives as a challenging new chapter begins next month. Our holiday fundraiser was very successful, and we are grateful for ALL of our supporters, including you. Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas a...
Dec 19, 2024•23 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas transplant Elon Musk, apparently running things for Donald Trump, is pressing Republican members of Congress hard to strike down a stopgap measure that would keep the federal government running over the holidays: https://www.axios.com/2024/12/18/elon-musk-government-shutdown-bill-doge ...Texas Congressman Chip Roy is totally down for a government shutdown for Christmas - he's been gunning for it for years: https://www.houstonchronicle...
Dec 19, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas transplant Elon Musk has come under scrutiny by multiple federal agencies for his failure to properly disclose his interactions with foreign governments: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/technology/elon-musk-spacex-national-security-reporting.html ...Musk is suspected of having failed to provide required information on his meetings with foriegn leaders - and on his own drug use - since at least 2021: https://newrepublic.com/post/189...
Dec 18, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Ken Paxton's lawsuit against a doctor based in New York who prescribed and delivered abortion-inducing drugs to a Texas woman may lead to consequential decisions about how U.S. states regard the laws of other states: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/texas-new-york-doctor-abortion-lawsuit-civil-war.html ...New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemns Ken Paxton for attempting to impose Texas' policies on New York's medical professional...
Dec 17, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Republican House Rep. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City in Starr County is excited that a new concentration facility for migrants rounded up by Donald Trump's deportation operation will provide economic opportunities for his county: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2024/12/16/potential-trump-texas-deportation-partnership-puts-spotlight-on-rural-starr-county/ Ken Paxton has sued a doctor in New York for providing abortion medication to a woman ...
Dec 16, 2024•8 min
U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett has been an elected fighter for Texas progressive people and causes for almost five decades, having become a member of the Texas Senate in 1973, an Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court in 1989, and a member of the U.S. House in 1994. Most recently, he's been notable as the first sitting federal official to have called for President Joe Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee, and has fought against H.R. 9495, a new piece of Republican legislation t...
Dec 15, 2024•23 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas transplant Elon Musk, hard at work trying to slash federal jobs and your Social Security benefits, is also keeping hundreds of millions of dollars that his Musk Foundation is required by law to convert to charitable donations: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/us/politics/musk-foundation-taxes-donations.html ...Musk's efforts at DOGE jeopardize the careers of hundreds of thousands of federal workers in Texas, a great many of whom cer...
Dec 13, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A new academic study shows that Republicans are much more likely to spread information that they know to be false than Democrats are: https://www.ama.org/2024/12/09/study-republicans-respond-to-political-polarization-by-spreading-misinformation-democrats-dont/ A judgement of over $14 million against ExxonMobil for violations of the federal Clean Air Act at their Baytown facilities is upheld: https://environmentamerica.org/texas/media-center...
Dec 12, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas GOP machine choice David Cook and establishment-defying Dustin Burrows both claim to have enough votes to become Speaker of the Texas House - Burrows in particular is flirting with disaster: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/dustin-burrows-david-cook-texas-house-speaker-19971639.php ...Burrows has started calling himself "Speaker-elect", drawing legal scrutiny from his opponents: https://www.statesman.com/sto...
Dec 11, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The struggle within the Texas Republican Party has become a contest of "Trumpier than thou": https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5030621-texas-house-speaker-race-republican-divisions/ The 2025 Legislature is certain to face a renewed push for book-banning by pearl-clutching Republicans: https://www.expressnews.com/opinion/editorial/article/texas-book-review-bill-19969058.php Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett puts on yet another mas...
Dec 10, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Lubbock State Rep. Dustin Burrows has defied the House GOP Caucus, announcing that he has enough votes from both parties to win the race for Speaker - despite the Republicans officially nominating Mansfield Rep. David Cook: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/07/texas-house-speaker-david-cook-dustin-burrows/ Austin U.S. Rep. Greg Casar has been elected to lead the Congressional Progressive Caucus: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/u-...
Dec 09, 2024•9 min
We enjoyed being back with our friends at Antone's in downtown Austin last week for the first of our two holiday parties this year! This pod features short conversations with a bunch of our guests, offering words of wisdom and encouragement for all of us as we get ready for the fight ahead. THANKS to everyone who came out! And, we'll do it again at our second holiday party in Dallas on Monday, December 16! Sponsorships and individual tickets are available here: https://act.progresstexas.org/a/pr...
Dec 08, 2024•24 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: New figures reveal that Texas transplant Elon Musk spent over $250 million - over a quarter-billion dollars - to help put Donald Trump back in office: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/us/politics/elon-musk-trump-rbg-election.html ...Musk's Twitter has harbored four virulent and influential literal Nazi accounts, three of which are revealed to have Texas ties - one of them is a VP for J.P. Morgan Chase in Plano: https://www.texasobserver.o...
Dec 06, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Congratulations to State Rep. Gene Wu, who has been chosen as the new leader of the Democratic minority in the Texas House: https://www.expressnews.com/politics/texas/article/gene-wu-texas-house-democrats-19960489.php Not only is an extreme weather event in Texas more likely than usual this winter, but if it happens, there's an 80% chance of blackouts: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/weather/article/texas-winter-snow-storm-blackouts-19959...
Dec 05, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Both the Texas House Democratic Caucus and their Republican counterparts meet late this week to discuss who the 2025 Speaker will be - the Democrats hold the key, as neither Republican candidate has a clear majority: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texas-house-speaker-race-19953807.php Expect the continued and escalating assault on the rights of transgender Texans to be the central social issue of the session for Republican...
Dec 04, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: As the nation prepares for Trump 2.0, in Texas we're bracing for another nutty Texas Legislative session, where Republicans will be pressing the crazy on a variety of issues, including immigration: https://www.npr.org/2024/12/01/nx-s1-5203015/immigration-will-be-under-the-spotlight-in-the-upcoming-legislative-session-in-texas ...And reproductive freedom and maternity care: https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/texas-bill-wants-to-make-abortio...
Dec 03, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas Maternal Morbidity Committee has announced that they will skip the data from the first two years of Texas' near-complete abortion ban, ignoring the effect of that ban on pregnant women in Texas: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texas-maternal-mortality-committee-to-skip-over-full-reviews-in-years-after-abortion-ban/ ...Any other deaths directly attributable to the denial of emergency medical care in Texas are now likely to remain u...
Dec 02, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Donald Trump's new threat of a 25% tariff on Mexican imports have consumers and business owners in South Texas concerned for the future: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/26/donald-trump-tariffs-texas-border-economy/ ...Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum doesn't appear ready to give in to Trump, threatening tariffs of her own: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-tariffs-trump-retaliate-sheinbaum-fac0b0c6ee8c425a928418de7332b74a Texas Agri...
Nov 27, 2024•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Propublica is reporting on a third Texas woman who died needlessly after being denied abortion care in the midst of a problem miscarriage: https://www.propublica.org/article/porsha-ngumezi-miscarriage-death-texas-abortion-ban ...Domestic violence shelters are reporting an uptick in pregnant women arriving at their facilities seeking refuge from abusive partners: https://www.tpr.org/public-health/2024-11-25/domestic-violence-shelters-in-texa...
Nov 26, 2024•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Leaders of the Texas construction industry - who are curiously mostly left out of right-wing panic over immigration - say their sector is existentially threatened by Donald Trump's mass deportation plan: https://www.tpr.org/economy-and-labor/2024-11-23/trumps-deportation-vow-alarms-texas-construction-industry The Texas State Board of Education approved the adoption of Bluebonnet Learning, the state-crafted elementary school curriculum that ...
Nov 25, 2024•10 min
Coming off this year's election, if you're a progressive voter who's now dreading having to interact with your MAGA relatives back home this holiday season, you're far from alone - "mixed" families such as these are probably more common in Texas than in most parts of the country. Peace and family harmony is important - but, so are the positions we believe in and advocate for year-round. So, how to manage? We've invited a couple of our favorite recurring guests for a fun exchange of strategies on...
Nov 24, 2024•45 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: H.R. 9495, narrowly defeated in the U.S. House last week, passed in that body on a second try yesterday largely on partisan lines: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/11/21/treasury-secretary-house-bill-nonprofit-organization/76468156007/ ...Crossing the partisan line to support the undermining of non-profits like Progress Texas were once again three Texas House Reps: Colin Allred, Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar: https://n...
Nov 22, 2024•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan expresses glee that he'll have over a thousand acres in Texas upon which to crowd the detainees he plans to round up in the "biggest mass deportation in history": https://thehill.com/regulation/national-security/5001566-tom-homan-says-trump-admin-will-absolutely-use-gifted-texas-land-for-deportation-program/ ...The resistance of Democratically-led states and cities to Trump's roundup may lead to the "concentr...
Nov 21, 2024•9 min
David Pepper is a renowned political writer and the former Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party. He's written several books that are highly instructive for the current political moment as we prepare for Trump 2.0 - and Ohio has a lot in common with Texas when it comes to being overrun by opportunistic Republicans. How both of our states have fallen victim to GOP gerrymandering, how Donald Trump will try to use the same tactics to entrench his power and enrich his friends, and what we can do about ...
Nov 20, 2024•32 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas General Land Office has offered up a 1,400 acre Starr County ranch to the Trump administration for the building of a huge detention facility for undocumented immigrants rounded up in the planned "largest mass deportation in American history": https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/19/texas-border-starr-county-ranch-trump-deportation/ ...Will this facility match the formal definition of a "concentration camp"? https://en.wikipedia.or...
Nov 20, 2024•8 min
