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May 27

Domestic Terrorism Hits Portland — 2 Killed In Anti-Muslim Hate Crime.

Terror struck Portland, Oregon last night when two young women riding a MAX train came under verbal assault by a man making anti-Muslim slurs. Passengers attempted to intervene to protect the teenage Muslim girls.

In the end, two passengers were stabbed to death trying to lend protection to the teenagers, and another was left wounded. 35-year old Jeremy Joseph Christian is in custody. We know from reporting done by The Portland Mercury that Christian is an active white supremacist. The two young Muslim passengers were unharmed because of the heroic acts of those who stood up to bigotry.

As a minister in the United Church of Christ living just blocks from the incident, I am left sickened. Portlanders of all backgrounds are trying to make sense of the violence. Sadly, attacks such as these have become too routine, as politicians, starting with Donald Trump, have engaged in the vilification of Muslims. The United States is being torn apart across religious and cultural lines for political gain. The reality is that those who are Muslim are my brothers and sisters.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which studies hate crimes, reported tracking 1,372 reported bias incidents between the day after the election and the start of February and an astounding “197 percent increase in total number of anti-Muslim hate groups up from 2015.”

Helping Mr. Trump and others spread anti-Muslim bigotry are Christian leaders such as Franklin Graham, a close ally of the president. This week, following the devastating attacks in Manchester, Graham wrote:

“Islam is a threat to our very way of life. There will be more stabbings, more shootings, more bombings, and more killing. Our U.S. politicians need to wake up and see the dangers,” he declared.

“We need to find ways to make our border secure so that we can know who is coming into this country and make sure they support the freedoms and liberties we hold dear.”

Islam is not evil or a dangerous religion. Fundamentalism, however, can turn any faith tradition into a violent movement. Consider the number of terrorist bombings at women’s health clinics in the United States by so-called Christians over the last several decades, and the link between white nationalist domestic terrorist groups that identify as part of a fringe movement within Christianity.

Trump, Graham, and others have helped to incite violence at their rallies and in the streets. This new normal can only be called sinful. The attack in Portland can only be called domestic terrorism.

My prayer is that every Christian body speaks out against hate crimes such as the one that occurred in Portland last night. It is vital that the interfaith movement in the United States continues to stand-up as a counterweight to those who would use religion as a tool of division. All our faith traditions, at their core, are about building just societies and freeing people from oppression. We must be about the work of bringing people together; not building walls to keep one another apart.

No child should fear for their life riding mass transportation because of their faith.

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May 27

Portland Hate Killer Ranted About Stabbings And Muslims On Facebook Amid Rising U.S. Hate Crime

Posted in: Today's Chili

A Horrific Attack

Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, a longtime criminal who apparently posted hateful rhetoric on Facebook, is the suspect detained in Friday’s horrific Portland knife killings of two good samaritans as well for the injury of another. All intervened in response to a hate speech tirade against a Muslim train passenger.

On Facebook, a “Jeremey Christian” from Portland praised comic books, pot, and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. He wrote: “May all the Gods Bless Timothy McVeigh a TRUE PATRIOT!!!” while introducing a poem on his page. Mr. Chritian also denigrated Muslims and violently referred to Antifa supporters. Among the photo memes he shared, shown below, was one stating, “If We’re Removing Statues because of the Civil War, We Should Be Removing Mosques because of 9/11.” Portland media reports him to be a known white supremacist who participated in public events.

The horrific killings occurred on a train near Portland’s Hollywood Station during a rush hour barrage of “hate speech” about against Muslims and others that was reportedly directed at a woman wearing a hijab. The Muslim Holy month of Ramadan, one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith, starts this weekend.

In 2015, anti-Muslim hate crime rose 67 percent to 257, the highest level since 2001, according to the FBI, and various cities like New York and San Jose saw an additional increase in anti-Muslim hate crime in 2016. Spikes in hate crime sometimes occur following catalytic incidents like terror attacks like the one in Manchester this past week.

Attack Comes Amid 6 Percent Rise In Hate Crime in 2016 in U.S. Cities and a National Rise in 2015

The latest data for 25 large U.S. cities and counties showed overall hate crimes reported to police rose 6 percent in 2016, according to the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University San Bernardino. Increases were highest in California and in the nation’s most populous cities. Of the 25 localities surveyed, 14 hit or tied multi-year highs in 2016. Of those cities and counties reporting increases and multi-year highs, four of them were among the five largest cities, where increases were far higher than the overall average.

In 2016, hate crime in Chicago rose 20 percent, 24 percent in New York City, 15 percent in Los Angeles, and 50 percent in Philadelphia. The largest increase, 62 percent, was in Washington, D.C., while Seattle ― with only a 6 percent increase ― and Columbus, Ohio ― with a 9.8 percent rise ― were the only jurisdictions where percentage increases fell below double digits. Boston; Suffolk County, New York; and Houston, however, had significant overall drops, although Boston experienced an increase in anti-Muslim hate crime.

The FBI found a 6.7 percent increase in hate crime in 2015, with 5,850 criminal incidents. If the national increases in the Cal State University municipal survey holds across the entire country, it would be the first consecutive annual increases since 2004, when there were 7,462, and the highest level since 2011. Still, even a 6 percent increase in 2016 would still be far below the levels of 2001, when there was a severe hate crime spike following 9/11.

Recently, ProPublica and Buzzfeed found Oregon had the highest per capita number of hate incidents collected in a non-governmental national data collection effort. The FBI indicated Oregon had 65 hate crimes in 2015. The states with the largest number of hate crimes overall in 2015 were California, 837; New York, 500; Ohio, 416; Massachusetts, 411; New Jersey, 330; and Michigan, 309. Maryland, whose separate 2015 state hate crime report released in September showed 203 hate crimes in the state, only showed 41 in the FBI figures. Many areas do not adequately report hate crime, however.

Religious Crimes Rose As Anti-Muslim Prejudice Hits Disturbing Levels

Religiously motivated hate crime rose dramatically in 2015 to 1,244 incidents, according to the FBI, an increase of 22.7 percent over 2014, where there were 1,014 incidents. The proportion of religion-based hate crime also increased to its highest level since modern reporting commenced in the early 1990s, constituting 21.3 percent of hate crime in 2015 compared to 18.5 percent in 2014. The 2015 religion hate crime FBI totals were also the highest numerically since 2010.

Similarly, the Bureau of Justice Statistics relying on annualized datasets from residential phone surveys found an even higher proportion of religiously motivated hate crime:

The percentage of hate crimes motivated by religious bias was nearly three times higher in 2012 (28 percent) than in 2004 (10 percent), but did not have a statistically significant change from 2011 to 2012.

In New York City in 2017, hate crimes through May 14 were up, at 178, compared to 114 for the same period in 2016, with anti-Semitic crimes up from 47 to 87 and anti-Muslim crimes up from 9 to 12.

In 2001, the year of the 9/11 attacks, anti-Muslim hate crime peaked at 481 and had been in a range of 105 to 160 until 2015’s breakout. Anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2015 showed a significant increase in the proportion of hate crimes from the previous year as well. Anti-Muslim hate crimes accounted for 4.4 percent of all hate crimes in 2015, up from 2.8 percent for 2014.

In the month of the election, through Dec. 12, 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) counted 1,094 incidents nationally, with 315 directed at immigrants, 221 at African-Americans, and 112 at Muslims, along with 26 anti-Trump incidents. California, with 125 incidents, led the nation.

SPLC also found direct references to President Trump or the election in over one-third of the national incidents right after the election. In addition, while the SPLC found only a 3 percent rise in hate groups, they found a tripling in anti-Muslim groups. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported 2,213 bias “incidents” in 2016 and a 57 percent increase and 260 crimes and a 44 percent increase. Election time spikes were confirmed in many, but not all cities in the Cal State Study.

From 2002 to 2014, the number of respondents who state that Islam is more likely to encourage violence doubled from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to Pew research. A June 2016 Reuters/Ipsos online poll found that 37 percent of Americans had a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Islam, compared to 38 percent for Atheism, 21 percent for Hinduism, 16 percent for Judaism and 8 percent for Christianity. Those results are not just recent developments. A 2009 Gallup poll showed 43 percent of Americans admitting to prejudice against Muslims, with 9 percent saying they had a great deal of prejudice toward them. Compared to the 43 percent of respondents admitting prejudice against Muslims, only 18 percent said the same for Christians, 15 percent for Jews and 14 percent for Buddhists. A recent 2016 Pew Research results show a significant proportion of non-Muslim Americans view Muslims negatively.

Erratic Homicidal Lone Extremists

The Portland attack is just the latest homicide in which race or religion appear to have been a contributing factor in 2017 and part of a disturbing trend of rising hate homicides, particularly by individuals with extremist proclivities or apparent mental illness in multi-fatality incidents or with knives. A Maryland white supremacist is facing trial for the random racial knife attack against an elderly African-American man in New York, while an African-American man is in jail after randomly killing three white people, days after killing a security guard in Fresno in April.

Also this month, an African-America soldier visiting the University of Maryland was stabbed in a random knife attack that is being investigated as a possible hate crime, but it has not been charged as such.

In Florida last week, a former white supremacist and newly converted violent Salafist Jihadist killed two of his neo-Nazi roommates in yet another bizarre attack after stating they degraded his faith.

2015 also had the highest number of hate homicides ― 18, according to the FBI ― going back to the beginning of the century, and the Pulse night club murders that killed 49 in Orlando last June were the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

Mr. Christian, following an emerging trend of possible mental distress combined with “blended extremism,” called himself an “Anarcho-Nihilist and registered Libertarian, who happened to vote for only Bernie in the primary then switched back.” He further wrote of anti-Semitism as well, “In short I sympathize with both Commies and Nazis because of Semitic Patriarchal Monethesism.”

Some violent homicidal extremists construct ad hoc idiosyncratic amalgams of hatred in part from a buffet found on social media, while others, like the recent Florida convert, skip from one extremism to another. These prejudices and stereotypes then direct where their violent sociopathic tendencies are targeted. Mr. Christian further wrote Antifa would “be X’d out of Portland soon” and stated, “I’m gonna stab some masked up bitches.”

Christian faces a judge Tuesday in connection with the killings amid a national outcry about rising hate crime and incivility.

U.S. Demographics-Religion: Pew Research Center

Christian: 70.6%; Evangelical Protestant 25.4% ; Catholic 20.1% 5.9%

Non-Christian: 5.9%; Jewish 1.9%; Muslim 1%; Buddhist 0.9%

Unaff.: 22.8%: Agnostic 4%; Atheist 3%

FBI Hate Hate Crime By Faith 1996-2015

From Jeremy Christian’s apparent Facebook Page

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May 27

9 Things Smart People Won't Do

Posted in: Today's Chili

My recent post, “10 Ways Smart People Stay Calm,” really struck a nerve. The trick is that managing your emotions is as much about what you won’t do as it is about what you will do.

TalentSmart has tested more than a million people and found that the upper echelons of top performance are filled with people who are high in emotional intelligence (90 percent of top performers, to be exact). So, I went back to the data to uncover the kinds of things that emotionally intelligent people are careful to avoid in order to keep themselves calm, content, and in control. They consciously avoid these behaviors because they are tempting and easy to fall into if one isn’t careful.

While the list that follows isn’t exhaustive, it presents nine key things that you can avoid in order to increase your emotional intelligence and performance.

1. They Won’t Let Anyone Limit Their Joy

When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. When emotionally intelligent people feel good about something that they’ve done, they won’t let anyone’s opinions or accomplishments take that away from them.

While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to compare yourself to others, and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within. Regardless of what people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain—you’re never as good or bad as they say you are.

2. They Won’t Forget

Emotionally intelligent people are quick to forgive, but that doesn’t mean that they forget. Forgiveness requires letting go of what’s happened so that you can move on. It doesn’t mean you’ll give a wrongdoer another chance. Emotionally intelligent people are unwilling to be bogged down unnecessarily by others’ mistakes, so they let them go quickly and are assertive in protecting themselves from future harm.

3. They Won’t Die in the Fight

Emotionally intelligent people know how important it is to live to fight another day. In conflict, unchecked emotion makes you dig your heels in and fight the kind of battle that can leave you severely damaged. When you read and respond to your emotions, you’re able to choose your battles wisely and only stand your ground when the time is right.

4. They Won’t Prioritize Perfection

Emotionally intelligent people won’t set perfection as their target because they know it doesn’t exist. Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When perfection is your goal, you’re always left with a nagging sense of failure, and you end up spending your time lamenting what you failed to accomplish and what you should have done differently instead of enjoying what you were able to achieve.

5. They Won’t Live in the Past

Failure can erode your self-confidence and make it hard to believe you’ll achieve a better outcome in the future. Most of the time, failure results from taking risks and trying to achieve something that isn’t easy. Emotionally intelligent people know that success lies in their ability to rise in the face of failure, and they can’t do this when they’re living in the past. Anything worth achieving is going to require you to take some risks, and you can’t allow failure to stop you from believing in your ability to succeed. When you live in the past, that is exactly what happens, and your past becomes your present, preventing you from moving forward.

6. They Won’t Dwell on Problems

Where you focus your attention determines your emotional state. When you fixate on the problems that you’re facing, you create and prolong negative emotions and stress, which hinders performance. When you focus on actions to better yourself and your circumstances, you create a sense of personal efficacy that produces positive emotions and improves performance. Emotionally intelligent people won’t dwell on problems because they know they’re most effective when they focus on solutions.

7. They Won’t Hang Around Negative People

Complainers are bad news because they wallow in their problems and fail to focus on solutions. They want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. People often feel pressure to listen to complainers because they don’t want to be seen as callous or rude, but there’s a fine line between lending a sympathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spiral. You can avoid getting drawn in only by setting limits and distancing yourself when necessary. Think of it this way: if a person were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke? You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with complainers. A great way to set limits is to ask complainers how they intend to fix a problem. The complainer will then either quiet down or redirect the conversation in a productive direction.

8. They Won’t Hold Grudges

The negative emotions that come with holding onto a grudge are actually a stress response. Just thinking about the event involved sends your body into fight-or-flight mode. When a threat is imminent, this reaction is essential to your survival, but when a threat is ancient history, holding onto that stress wreaks havoc on your body and can have devastating health consequences over time. In fact, researchers at Emory University have shown that holding onto stress contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease. Holding onto a grudge means you’re holding onto stress, and emotionally intelligent people know to avoid this at all costs. Learning to let go of a grudge will not only make you feel better now but can also improve your health.

9. They Won’t Say Yes Unless They Really Want To

Research conducted at the University of California in Berkeley shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression. Saying no is indeed a major challenge for most people. “No” is a powerful word that you should not be afraid to wield. When it’s time to say no, emotionally intelligent people avoid phrases like “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them.

Want to learn more from me? Check out my book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0.

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May 27

A Memorial Day Of Patriotic Resistance

Posted in: Today's Chili

We’re getting ready for Memorial Day at our house. Like patriotic Americans all around the nation, we are looking forward to the weekend marking the “official beginning of summer” and to giving thanks for the freedoms we have because of those who were willing to sacrifice their lives defending the Constitution “against all enemies — foreign and domestic.”

The fixings for the barbecue are in the fridge. The flag is flying on the lawn. And the #Resist bumper sticker is on the car.

Tomorrow in church we will pray the prayer we pray every Memorial Day:

God of love and mercy, receive our thanks this day for the men and women who have given their lives in service to our country. Help us to honor them in our work for peace through justice, that people across the globe may live abundant lives freed from the threat of war and violence. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.

We honor them in our work for peace through justice. We honor them in the flags we fly and in the prayers we pray. And we honor them with the #Resist bumper stickers on our cars and hashtags in our tweets — outward and visible signs of our commitment to resist the forces working to dismantle the democracy they died to defend.

What are we resisting? Nobody explains it with more devastating clarity than author, theologian and thought leader Diana Butler Bass who writes:

“Politics seems confusing right now, but it really isn’t. There is one simple, constant truth at the center of it all: The goal is to take everything away from our democratic inheritance — wealth, services, parks and museums, education, social care, clean air and water, checks and balances, a free media, voting rights and voice, our relationships with global democratic societies — to pay for massive tax cuts for the super wealthy and transfer even more resources to enrich the few and give them overt political control of the planet. None of us, none of our lives, none of our loves or loved ones, none of our hopes or dreams matter in this quest. That’s the whole story. Tell yourself this each day. And tell it to everyone you know in any way you can.”

Tell it by flying the flag on your lawn and by saying your prayers in church and by the #Resist bumper sticker on your car.

Tell it by marches in the streets and letters to Congress; by supporting a free media and by not confusing actual data with alternative facts; by standing with those on the margins and by speaking truth to those in power.

And on this Memorial Day, tell it by claiming resistance as the most tangible way we honor the sacrifice of those who have fallen defending the noble-if-still-aspirational ideal of liberty and justice for all. Tell it to everyone you know in any way you can.

Resist. Persist. Repeat.

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May 27

New Orleans Principal Fired After Video Captures Him Wearing Nazi-Associated Rings

Posted in: Today's Chili

A charter school principal in New Orleans has lost his job after video surfaced of him appearing to wear Nazi-associated rings.

The video, which appeared Thursday, shows then-Principal Nicholas Dean of Crescent Leadership Academy holding an American flag and a shield as he discusses talking to six journalists who “appeared to me completely soulless.”

Dean, who identifies himself in the video as Nick Andrews, is also seen wearing a helmet, goggles, and two rings closely associated with Nazism. One appears to be of the German Iron Cross and another a skull ring that was awarded to leading members of the Nazi party, according to the local Times-Picayune.

“If foreigners come here with Marxist ideas and Marxist tactics … it’s my duty to be here,” Dean can be heard saying in the video.

Crescent Leadership Academy said Dean was terminated Thursday.

“Educators are role models, and they should prioritize this sacred role above all else,” Superintendent Kunjan Narechania said in a statement. “While the circumstances surrounding this decision are regrettable and damaging, I appreciate the board making a swift decision so that school can move forward and so that our community can continue to heal.”

Dean’s firing came as he was already being investigated after photos emerged of the principal standing next to a Confederate flag and a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee prior to its removal earlier this month.

“I didn’t go to protest for either side,” Dean told the Times-Picayune at the time. “I went because I am a historian, educator and New Orleans resident who wanted to observe this monumental event,” he said. “People who know me know that I am a crusader for children and I fight tirelessly on their behalf.”

But an investigation by the Times-Picayune also turned up a podcast that Dean was featured on ― under the alias Nick Andrews ― where he discusses his work in predominately black schools.

“I started seeing how the black community looked at each other and how race and tribe is so powerful for them, and I really respected that,” Dean says in the podcast. “Even though they fight a lot, kind of tribally, there’s a sense of unity among blacks that’s just understood. That was when I began my own kind of identity, if you will, quest.”

In the podcast, Dean refers to Take ‘Em Down NOLA ― a group that has advocated for removing Confederate monuments ― as a “black supremacy movement.”

Dean says in the podcast that he is not a white supremacist, but that by other people’s definition of one, he “most certainly” is. He adds that going to graduate school with “radical leftists” changed his worldview.

“If these people get their way, I don’t exist,” Dean says.

New Orleans has recently made a massive push to remove Confederate monuments in the city. After Robert E. Lee’s statue was taken down, Mayor Mitch Landrieu made an impassioned speech celebrating the removal.

“These statues are not just stone and metal,” Landrieu told a crowd at Gallier Hall. “They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement and the terror that it actually stood for.”

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May 27

The search for a habitable second Earth

Posted in: Today's Chili

Contact with extraterrestrial life would be an epochal event. Even the discovery of a simple alien organism would be transformative, giving us unprecedented insight into how life forms on Earth and other planets. Yet, there’s exactly zero proof that…

May 27

Google Photo Books can now be designed and ordered on iOS & Android

Posted in: Today's Chili

Google Photos was one of the big tentpole features to be highlighted at the company’s I/O 2017 keynote last week, and Photo Books were one of the neat new additions to the service. It basically allows users to browse their photo collections and select images to be added to a physical picture album that will be printed and mailed to … Continue reading

May 27

Texas Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill May Force A Special Session

Posted in: Today's Chili

AUSTIN, Texas ― A potential compromise to avoid a full-blown set of bathroom restrictions keeping trans Texans from using the facilities that most closely match their gender fell apart Friday night, as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) once again implied that he’d force legislators to return for a special session if the measure doesn’t pass.

Patrick has made the issue a priority since the beginning of the regular session, which started in January. But the bill he backed in the state Senate, which would have required trans Texans to use public bathrooms of the sex listed on their birth certificates, failed to gain traction in the state House of Representatives.

Instead, House Speaker Joe Straus blocked the measure and threw his support behind an amendment to a separate bill last week as his watered-down alternative. The amendment would have required public and charter K-12 schools ― but not government buildings ― to provide single-use bathrooms to those uncomfortable using facilities of their “biological sex.” The amendment wouldn’t have overturned more inclusive local policies, which Patrick wanted.

Friday night, both Straus and Patrick called press conferences to tell reporters neither one intended to budge. Patrick once again threatened to push legislators into a special session over the issue.

“They’re definitely playing a game of chicken,” Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston, told HuffPost. “Straus has effectively told Patrick, take it or leave it.”

Straus is an establishment Republican who opposes the bill and fears it will drag the state through the same negative publicity and boycotts that North Carolina faced last year when it restricted bathroom use for trans people. He’d spoken publicly against the idea, but backed the amendment last week after Patrick threatened to hold up must-pass legislation if the House didn’t approve some version of the bathroom restrictions.

“He said he has compromised enough, but in fact, he has not compromised at all,” Patrick said, according to the Texas Tribune.

It communicates to transgender people that they don’t belong. Quite literally, this bill is killing my patients.
Colt Keo-Meier, a clinical psychologist

The state legislature meets once every two years for five months. But Patrick, a staunch conservative who presides over the Texas Senate, once again raised the possibility of pulling lawmakers back to Austin for the express purpose of considering the bathroom bill.

“We are representing the people of Texas,” Patrick said, according to the Texas Observer. “Women want to be protected in bathrooms, government bathrooms, across this state… Every poll clearly says that.”

During debates at the legislature, supporters of the Republican-backed bill did little to show that the state faces a public safety problem if people use public bathrooms that correspond with their gender identification. Assaulting women or men in a public bathroom or anywhere else is already illegal. Trans bathroom use is not associated with crime.

Hundreds of people, however, told legislators at a committee hearing in March that the bill would needlessly stigmatize and harm trans Texans. Only 9 percent of trans Americans have successfully altered the markers on their birth certificates, according to a 2015 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality. The study cited bureaucratic hurdles and associated costs as obstacles.

Colt Keo-Meier, a clinical psychologist who specializes in serving transgender clients and has transitioned himself, told Senators in March that his clients routinely suffer from suicidal thoughts and other mental health problems provoked by the harsh way they are treated.

“It communicates to transgender people that they don’t belong,” Keo-Meier said of the measures Patrick supports. “Quite literally, this bill is killing my patients.”

The compromise amendment backed by Straus didn’t satisfy LGBTQ advocates, who likened it to segregation. But in a legislative session dominated by hardline conservatives, Straus hoped it would at least limit the bad press and economic consequences that the original bill threatened to unleash.

“For many of us — and especially for me — this was a compromise,” Straus told reporters Friday, according to the Texas Tribune. “As far as I’m concerned, it was enough. We will go no further. This is the right thing to do in order to protect our economy from billions of dollars in losses and more importantly to protect the safety of some very vulnerable young Texans.”

If Patrick refuses to back down, the pressure to raise the bill will fall on Gov. Greg Abbott. He alone has the authority to call a special legislative session, and he picks which bills state lawmakers may consider when taking that measure. Abbott has said he supports some measure restricting bathroom use.

But forcing a special session over the issue would put an even greater spotlight on the controversial bill, which worries some business-minded Republicans. Two studies showed the state would lose billions of dollars due to boycotts and lost tourism if the measure passes.

“If it passes during the regular session, it appears like a priority,” said Jones, the political scientist from Rice University. “But if you call a special session to pass the bathroom legislation, you’re essentially saying this is such a priority we’re willing to pay approximately $1 million to hold a special session and make 181 legislators return to Austin to debate it and pass it.”

If Abbott were to call a special session and place bathroom restrictions on the agenda, they’d have a higher likelihood of passing because Straus would have less room to use procedural tools to block the measure.

“The Texas economy is sliding backwards. Healthcare for millions of Texans could be ripped away. Our students pay the price for a broken school finance system. Higher education is out of reach for working families. And Texas workers still need a damn raise,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement in response to the controversy.

“We are facing a Texas with less opportunity, and Republicans have been debating bathrooms for months,” he added. “Texas Republicans have failed us all.”

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May 27

GOP Congressman Declines To Say Whether Every American Is Entitled To Eat

Posted in: Today's Chili

Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) refused to say whether “every American is entitled to eat” and the food stamps program is the best way to ensure that they have the food they need.

NPR’s Scott Simon interviewed Smith on Saturday about the farm bill and President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. In the president’s budget, the White House is seeking $193 billion in cuts to SNAP over 10 years, an amount equal to more than one-quarter of the program’s cost over that period.

There is room for “very minor shifts” in SNAP that “make sure we do not harm the most vulnerable among us,” according to Smith.

“Especially for people in need we do not want to leave our most vulnerable without nutrition,” he said. “Looking at that, we always want to keep that in mind.”

But Simon pressed Smith on his views about the program’s underlying philosophy.

“Let me ask you this bluntly: Is every American entitled to eat?” he asked.

“Well, nutrition obviously we know is very important and I would hope that we can look to ―” Smith began.

“Well, not just important, it’s essential for life,” Simon interjected.

Smith conceded that nutrition is essential to life.

“So is every American entitled to eat and is food stamps something that ought to be that ultimate guarantor?” Simon persisted.

“I think we know that given the necessity of nutrition, there could be a number of ways that we could address that,” Smith answered.

As Smith later observed, a president’s budget is merely a set of suggestions that reflect the president’s fiscal priorities. It is up to Congress to allot the funds for federal programs. The president can then sign or veto budget legislation they craft.

Smith refused to rule out reductions in SNAP spending as part of that process, however.

“I want to look at our entire budget, look at all of the details,” he said.

Roughly 43 million low-income Americans receive SNAP benefits, which are vouchers to buy food. Enrollment has dropped significantly since 2014 due to improvement in the economy.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, by claiming there are people receiving benefits who do not need them given how long ago the recession was.

The administration has not been clear about its intentions for the means-tested aid program though. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, whose department oversees SNAP, has defended SNAP’s performance and claimed that it will be up to Congress to decide how much it wants to reduce the program’s spending.

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May 27

British Airways IT failure cancels many flights out of London

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Airline glitches and the ensuing pandemonium are nothing new, but they’ve just hit one of the world’s largest travel hubs. British Airways has suffered a global IT system failure so serious that it cancelled all its flights out of London’s Heathrow a…

Hasta La Gadget!

Domestic Terrorism Hits Portland — 2 Killed In Anti-Muslim Hate Crime.