Tom Knighton has been around the internet longer than most and he opens his article with this story to illustrate his warning about what is going on with Texans for Lawsuit Reform in Texas politics now. This outdated group that helped Texans by getting critical legal reforms passed in years past is now betraying those same Texans.
The first site I ever wrote politics for was one I co-owned with a friend who founded it. He turned it into a partnership and, in hindsight, I kind of wish that didn’t happen.
See, he wrote a story about a gubernatorial candidate he’d learned had what we would consider an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old girl. We had ample reason to believe the report, but he screwed up by referring to him as a “child molester” when the girl was above the age of consent in Georgia.
We got sued, and let me tell you, lawsuits aren’t fun. Especially when your attorney goes on a year-long mission trip out of the country and hands your case off to another who really wants nothing to do with it, so she says you either have to settle or find another attorney, and pay the retainer all over again.
Knighton goes on to quote conservative attorney James Bopp at RedState.com.
TLR is leading the charge at the Texas Legislature to weaken the Texas Citizens Participation Act, a 13-year-old law designed to stop frivolous SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). SLAPPs are often baseless defamation suits filed to punish individuals or organizations for speaking out on matters of public concern. The TCPA provides a critical safeguard by allowing defendants to seek early dismissal of these lawsuits and to appeal immediately if a judge refuses to dismiss the case. That’s precisely the protection TLR wants to eliminate through Senate Bill 336 and its companion House Bill 2459.
Why would an organization that claims to fight frivolous lawsuits want to gut a law that does exactly that? Their position is hypocritical. TLR’s millionaire backers are all for reforms that prevent ordinary Texans from suing them, but they’re happy to dismantle protections that stop them from using lawsuits to silence their critics.
and,
Similarly, Texas Right to Life, Texas’s leading pro-life organization, has repeatedly relied on the TCPA to fend off lawsuits designed to silence its advocacy. In 2021, Planned Parenthood sued TRTL for publicizing the availability of private enforcement lawsuits under Senate Bill 8. TRTL used the TCPA to defend its constitutional rights, ensuring that advocacy on abortion policy remains protected.
Another case illustrating the importance of the TCPA involved Mark Lee Dickson, a pro-life activist known for his work advocating for “Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.” In 2020, Dickson was sued for defamation because he claimed that abortion is murder and that organizations funding abortion are criminals.
Texas Scorecard in May, 2024 wrote the following.
As of May 10, 2024, Transparency USA reported that TLR has more than $29 million in the bank. TLR has become one of the most well-funded PACs in Texas, doling out millions each election cycle, mostly to protect incumbent legislators in the name of being pro-business.
They also have deployed lobbyists to do their bidding. Same-day reporting by Transparency USA showed they’ve spent between $1 million to more than $2 million on lobbyists. Those who crossed TLR, even Republicans who were once allies and voted lock-step with the organization on sound tort legislation, found themselves in the group’s crosshairs.
“A high percentage of House members depend on TLR for most of their money, they don’t depend on their constituents,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Texas Scorecard. “They don’t depend on the people who elect them, and so they don’t listen to them. They listen to TLR.”
It would be constructive if everyone would call and write their state representatives and senators in Austin and tell them to vote this wretched bill down. This attempt by TLR is really disgusting. Tell them to vote NO on Senate Bill 336 and its companion House Bill 2459.
Streaming ABC is reporting that Chris van Hollan (POS-MD) has met with the illegal alien invader Abrego Garcia, citizen of El Salvador. I hope they both stay there.
If they actually chose to make this and price it under $50K, they would sell hundreds of thousands of them quickly. It would be hard to keep them on the lot.
Cactus flowers are cool. I done grewed these in my backyard. Fortunately, cactus thrives on neglect.
On extremely short notice this morning, I had to take daughter to orthopedic surgeon visit in College Station.
Complete shoulder joint replacement is in order because ball is broken off top of humerus and is in four pieces.
the doc says the supreme kangaroos will rule in favor of the illegal aliens that cross the border just to drop a baby and receive mountains of freebies. all courtesy of the U S taxpayer whether we want to contribute or not. the kangaroos dressed as crazy penguins know the 14th amendment was never intended to be a come into the country illegally amendment , drop a kid, then pass go and collect 1000s of dollars of freebies forever. it will be 6-3 or 7-2 in favor of illegal aliens with Amy phony Barrett and Roberts the compromised bush boy… Read more »
Spotted on Linked In; This The Wall Street Journal story examines a fascinating and fundamental question: Why is there such a mismatch in the U.S. between job seekers and employers?It turns out that a big reason is that most of us don’t even know that many careers even exist — or what skills we would need to do them. We tend to pursue jobs we see around us or rely on advice from family and friends.Lauren Weber explores the issue by looking at middle-skills roles — those that don’t require a college degree but require some tech-infused skills. Think of… Read more »
Next C&C: Remember our ongoing theme of a twenty-five year “Great Freeze” in science, arts, and culture? Apparently, we aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed. Fortune ran the story yesterday headlined, “Trump’s tech and science policy chief says Biden led with ‘spirit of fear’ and that today’s progress lags 20th century innovation.” /snipI don’t want to ruffle any feathers, but does the new Trump Team project a certain masculine energy that was invisible for the last four years?…Either way, whatever it is, it’s a very welcome change. It *is* good to see some testosterone for a change, and in humans mostly directed in… Read more »
More on Kennedy’s presser on autism: Secretary Kennedy offered reporters an intriguing clue. “There’s a timeline,” he said. “Something happened. … The EPA scientists came back and said it happened in 1989. So you have to find a toxin that became ubiquitous around that time period and that affected every demographic.” It only took fifteen years to report the findings. Would it have ever been released had Kennedy not taken the high seat at HHS? /spits/ But yesterday, urgency became the word of the day. “We don’t wait two years to react to … any kind of infectious disease. We… Read more »
Next, HHS: It might have been the single most important HHS press conference ever, and it was one of the best chances to learn media’s reprehensible narrative tricks in years. Yesterday, CNN ran the story headlined, “In first news conference as HHS secretary, Kennedy says autism is an epidemic in the US.” Specifically, Kennedy persuasively argued that autism must be caused by an “environmental toxin,” and he announced an urgent series of new studies to get to the bottom of it. Media instantly deployed its secret soldiers to discredit him. To begin, they badly misquoted the new HHS Secretary. …In other words, the… Read more »
Re the Leticia James story, Mr. C. says this: You would think that any puffed-up prosecutor with two brain cells to rub together who was thinking about suing one of the most popular former presidents in history, would make absolutely sure her own record was completely spotless and unassailable, especially for the exact same thing she was thinking about prosecuting the former president for.You would think, wouldn’t you? Hubby used to regale me with the daily “Stupid Criminals” story on his radio station. Criminals are not known, generally, for their superior cognitive abilities. Her mortgage information was worse than I originally thought: Anyway, this week,… Read more »
Today’s C&C: “Hypersonic”
Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Your roundup today includes: Nemesis comes for one of the most puffed-up and arrogant prosecutors in the whole Trump-hating deck; Kennedy’s autism conference shatters American health records, stands up for the voiceless, and reveals the media’s worst fake-news narrative spinning since they reported that General Custer attacked innocent civilians; Secretary Kennedy joins Indiana governor in putting jet fuel into national MAHA; and our new Director of Science Policy describes America’s looming golden age of innovation and the end of Biden’s war on civilization.
Alighting briefly – enjoyed a delicious ribeye with Hubby, then some grocery shopping, and then I cooked up a whole package of fajita chicken thighs for Hubby for the weekend. I may not have time to cook much over the next day or two. While in the kitchen, I ended up decluttering and cleaning a couple of drawers while the chicken cooked. I remembered to water my garden and I need to get some exercise in before heading back to church for Holy Thursday mass and (hopefully) the 7 Churches Devotion with my Marian sisters. So, while I’m sitting here… Read more »
This is one of the best X/Twitter threads I’ve ever read. A woman going by the name of Alexandria Brown, obviously an attorney, has posted what amounts to a short essay on due process. It is written for everyone, not in legalese. Here are three examples out of 19, I believe. I state, routinely, that due process is nigh to a miracle which has taken centuries for mankind to even approach respecting as it flies in the face of human nature. I also state, routinely, that people should stop running around waving lit flares in rooms full of kerosene. and,… Read more »
On Wednesday, DHS released a court filing revealing that Abrego Garcia’s wife sought a restraining order for domestic violence a year before the traffic stop Turns out the deported ms-13 ‘Maryland man’ was an alleged wife beater too. great lesson in propaganda 101 from the perpetual lying media labeling him a Maryland man. makes sense the propagandist media and the totalitariancrats would be beating themselves on their backs with chains over this because they hate women. And way to go senator dip$hit of Maryland on your wasted taxpayer funded trip to El Salvador. Make sure you bring him back to stay… Read more »
1) I now dub pam blondie, kash and bongino the Milk Carton gang of 3.
2) fire Powell. Abolish the fed.
3) the republicant’s in congress all awol on all matters of importance.
as usual.
Hubby and I have an early lunch date. We’re trying to have more of these. Since I may be going to church early this evening for Holy Thursday services, I opted for an early time instead of our usual after the lunch crowd times.
The movie “Amateur” last night was very good. I enjoyed it.
Will try to check in later.
I saw this on The Five last night. Greg Gutfeld puts the best stomp down on the Dems that I’ve seen in sometime. Wish I had this kind of recall.
https://twitchy.com/dougp/2025/04/17/greg-gutfeld-rattles-off-laundry-list-of-demmedia-priorities-and-they-arent-law-abiding-citizens-n2411517
😀
https://twitchy.com/samj/2025/04/17/jeremy-london-astronauts-n2411498
This is a huge event in Texas history. In a historic move, the Texas House gave initial approval today to Senate Bill 2, a school choice proposal backed by Gov. Greg Abbott.The vote marks the first time a school choice bill has cleared the Texas House—a major shift from just last session when a similar proposal was voted down. The change comes after Abbott made the issue a defining battle in last year’s Republican primaries, endorsing challengers against GOP incumbents who had opposed school choice. Many of those incumbents were ousted, clearing the way for today’s vote.Ahead of the floor… Read more »
I don’t understand this 288 toll road situation and why did Texas have to cough up $1.7 billion to get out of this deal. I do understand Mayor Whitmire’s anger over the city’s share of tollway funds, but the writer provides no stats for the reader other than gross income. I wish he would have elaborated more on the details. Houston Mayor John Whitmire has voiced frustration over the lack of funding the City of Houston receives from toll revenue, saying, “60% of the toll road miles are in the City of Houston. Over 60% of the revenue is generated inside the… Read more »
I don’t know how the Texans for Lawsuit Reform got to Elon Musk before honest advisors did, but this depressing news I found last night was nothing good to sleep on. If the right people had reached Musk’s attention before TLR, I think he would have chosen differently. Elon Musk gave $1 million last month to a powerful tort reform group that is one of the main political forces backing Republicans in battleground legislative races this fall, marking the tech mogul’s deepest foray yet into Texas politics.Musk, the billionaire chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, has emerged recently as a… Read more »
Watching the local news, a fire broke out at the brand new VA Home near Enterprise and one Fisherman is dead after a boat crash at a Bass Tournament on Smith Lake Alabama?! Two separate events I’d not expect to hear about. Just Bizarre. The fire started in the attic of one of the building so maybe it was an electrical fire? Or maybe the furnace? The VA Home opened only last year. They didn’t give any details about the Bass Boat wreck but it was in the morning and i”m guess it was at take-off when the idiots take… Read more »
The great Michael Walsh opens his commentary on the judiciary and the law in the Age of Kilmar Abrego Garcia with an observation by Lewis Carroll. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’” Alice said.Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’”“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,’” Alice objected.“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”“The question is,”… Read more »
I think that it’s been discussed here before but the nurse that was fired from Texas Children’s Hospital for not administering testosterone to a 14 year old girl was on Fox news. They had a video clip (ring camera?) of the FBI showing up at her house!?!?! I guess that the EVIL Biden administration sicked the FBI on her??
BTW; No matter what you think of the Turtle, (and I’m NOT real fond of him) he did keep that EVIL, SLIMY, LAWLESS Merrick Garland off the Supreme Court.
From the good news front:
One way or the other, Fay’s fourth great-grandchild will be here by next Wednesday.
(He’s a boy.)
And a Mother’s Day baptism.
From wretchardthecat on X aka Richard Fernandez, one of the amazingly smart people in the universe.
wretchardthecat
@wretchardthecat
From a certain POV the tariff war is madness. From another it’s the tactic of prematurely triggering an economic ambush before the West is in the kill zone.
6:01 PM · Apr 15, 2025
·5,091
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After taking a week to get from Helena Montana to Nashville my package finally made it to Atlanta about noon yesterday, left there 30 minutes later and arrived in Enterprise (about 20 miles away) about 3:30 this morning and is already on the truck and out for delivery! This after spending +/-23 hours in Omaha?! UPS will be taking it to Farm Systems Inc, just up the road and I gave Jeff a Heads-Up to be on the Look-Out.
So Mornin’ Gang
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/20250330-7631743297568.jpg
A-10 humor
Good morning.
Great find, Texpat.
It has been decades since Texans for Lawsuit Reform held any resemblance to the original organization founded by the late Houston nurseryman Sterling Cornelius and friends in 1994.
They are of the same putred slime as Karl Rove.