What is Texas Fights Outloud?

 

Texas Fights Outloud is a new weekly feature Mondays at 9 am on the Bob Jones Show. Each week we’ll choose one burning issue with a “Texcentric” focus, discuss its ins and outs, and give you the tools you need to make your voice heard, whether that’s phone numbers, website addresses, scripts for emails or talking points for phone calls.

 

We’ve realized that the only antidote for frustration and despair is activism. Being informed is essential, but can leave us in a morass of bad news. The energy to pull us out of that downward spiral comes from taking action. We must make our voices heard, and we recognize that our base of power is in this proud state of Texas—in our municipalities, counties and statewide. This is where our voice can be the loudest. We are the immediate stakeholders.

 

So we’ll be choosing issues that impact at all those levels of governance, including the hyper local.

 

 

            Why Texas Fights Outloud?

 

There is a very real thing called learned helplessness. I think we can see it in overdrive right now as the left, the elites drive us to the edge of what we can stand. On every front—cultural, economic, geopolitical—their agenda is barreling forward at mach speed, with all the levers of power which are our usual recourse ripped from our hands. The judicial branch betrays us, law enforcement at every level has betrayed us, our elected officials betray us, and the electoral system itself betrays us.

 

This overwhelm and impotence is a psychological recipe for learned helplessness which is the behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversive stimuli beyond their control. This is what happens when people or animals become conditioned to believe that a bad situation is unchangeable or inescapable. They give up. They submit. The clinical view of this condition is that it leads to depression and mental illness.

 

It should be obvious to our listeners that this is a big part of the psychological operation being waged against us relentlessly. Because what is the desired outcome? Precisely that we give up, we submit. And our silence, our inaction will be construed as consent. These are the rules of engagement.

 

This is a vital concept for us to be aware of and on the lookout for in the days to come, because it can only get more challenging from here and we have to be on top of our game. In this spirit we offer Texas Fights Outloud as an embattled but unyielding outpost on the psychological front of this war in which we are all engaged, like it or not.

 

Return here weekly to listen to our Texas Fights Outloud podcasts, read our blogs, and find the resources you need to take action on the issues that matter to you as an American and a Texan.

The Gun Grab, Part 2

TEXAS BIG CITY MAYORS

 

 

After our very own Senator John Cornyn aided and abetted the U.S. Senate in passing the gun control legislation called the “Safer Communities Act,” Texas mayors immediately jumped on the bandwagon. These “Big City Mayors” from our state’s 13 largest cities, penned a letter asking Gov. Abbott to call a special session of the legislature.

 

Claiming that “most Texans want common sense reform,” they proscribe the people’s will with the following list of demands, the very ones cited in the Federal bill:

 

• Require universal background checks for gun purchases
• Increase the age to purchase assault weapons in Texas to 21
• Pass Red Flag laws to identify threats before shootings
• Significant increase in mental health support funding
• Train and properly resource school safety officers

 

That these proposals merely parrot federal legislation is suspect in itself. It sets us up to take federal funding for programs that will bind us to federal policies, whether they are a fit for our communities or not.

 

Specifically, red flag laws have no place in a state that intends to abide by the Constitution. You cannot subvert due process and still color within the lines of our founding document.

 

Further, if 18 year olds can vote and go to war to die for this country, they can buy assault weapons. The same standards of accountability and responsibility apply. If we do not think these standards well reasoned, then we should be consistent and raise the voting age and age of military service. You are either an adult at 18 or you are not. It is not a matter of expediency for the purpose of building a Democratic voting bloc.

 

Finally, the increase in mental health support funding is entirely likely to be a further boon to the pharmaceutical companies, whose psychiatric drugs have long been their bread and butter, at least til COVID came along to overflow their coffers. These drugs have been implicated in over 98% of mass shootings. What we call mental health services in this country are a joke perpetrated upon us by these companies, whose SSRI’s are known to induce aggression and violence. What I find likely to happen is that this funding will open the floodgates to subsidized medication for our school aged children. I cannot imagine a worse outcome in the name of protecting them.

 

The anti-gun reaction of the Big City Mayors is just that—a reaction, rather than a reasoned response. Responsiveness might include actually looking at the role psychiatric drugs are documented as playing in these shooting events, and redefining how we address mental health issues in our youth.  And certainly, “hardening” our schools against violence by providing training and effective security, and an end to the “gun free zone,” another word for shooting gallery.

 

Yes, Mayors, I do believe we can address these difficult issues, but it will take the very difficult work of research, debate, critical thinking, creative problem solving and true bi-partisan cooperation. Railroading your constituents with the posture of bi-partisanship will not solve the problem, but merely contribute to the further shredding of the Constitution which not only enshrines the right to due process, but whose Second Amendment clearly and unequivocally states, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The Founders meant it, and so do we.

 

We call on Mayor Guajardo to reconsider her signature on this Big City Mayors document, no doubt made in the heat of the moment, and to walk back her decision in the cooler light of reason. We invite you, rather, to engage with citizens to solve the many problems that beset us, including those of gang activity, crime, drugs, and domestic violence.

 

We seek substantive solutions rather than those born of expedient political posturing. It is not, Madame Mayor, about catching the nearest way. It is about the very difficult but noble work of thoughtful governance within the framework of the Constitution.

 

CALLS TO ACTION:

 

Call, email or write a letter and drop it off at the Mayor’s office. Let her know that what works in Dallas or Austin will not work here. We do not want Federal money that subsidizes the subversion of our Constitution. We want substantive solutions to the problems that face us. That is the true meaning of bipartisanship. We can do better than Texas’ big cities, and that is the beauty of Corpus Christi, a city that can think for itself.

 

Email: paulette.guajardo@cctexas.com

 

Phone: 361.826.3105

 

City Hall

1201 Leopard St.

 P.O. Box 9277

Corpus Christi, TX 78401

 

Attend City Council Meetings

 

Attend a City Council meeting and sign up to speak for 3 minutes about this issue. Let our City Council members and the Mayor know that we are not Dallas, Austin or Houston, and that Corpus Christians insist that the letter and law of the Constitution be honored in our city. Assert that we can do better than the big cities that simply follow the Federal playbook. We can think for ourselves and solve our own problems, without relying on the federal funds that will dictate the outcomes of this debate and undermine the very foundations of our freedoms.

 

CITY COUNCIL MEETING SCHEDULE:

(All meetings held at City Hall)

 

JUNE 28TH   11:30

 

JULY 19TH   11:30

 

JULY 26TH   11:30

GOP Convention Resolution against the Gang of 20 Gun Control bill:

 

Whereas those under 21 are most likely to be victims of violent crime and thus most likely to need to defend themselves.

 

Whereas “red flag laws” violate one’s right to due process and are a pre-crime punishment of people not adjudicated guilty.

 

Whereas waiting periods on gun purchases harm those who need to acquire the means of self defense in emergencies such as riots.

 

Whereas all gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God given rights.

 

We reject the so called “bipartisan gun agreement”, and we rebuke Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

The Gun Grab, pt. 1

Posted by HM

TEXAS FIGHTS OUTLOUD

        Action item for week June 20, 2022:

       

“Protecting our Children” and “Extreme Risk Protection Orders”

H.R. 7910 and H.R. 2377

 

“Protecting Our Children”: The House passed H.R.7910 (223-204), which would make various changes to federal firearms laws, including to establish new criminal offenses and to expand the types of weapons and devices that are subject to regulation.

 

“Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order”: The House passed H.R.2377 (224-202), which allows courts to issue "extreme risk protection orders" that bar particular individuals from possessing firearms based on a showing of imminent danger or a risk of misuse, and it creates a new grant program to assist states and local governments to implement and carry out similar legislation, known as "red flag laws.”

 

 

TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD ON THIS VITAL ISSUE, HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

 

* WRITE, EMAIL, AND CALL YOUR U.S. SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE

 

SAMPLE CALL SCRIPT

I’m calling to categorically voice my opposition to Senator Cornyn’s “compromise” on gun control. There is no “compromise” on the Second Amendment, which plainly states that the right to bear arms will not be infringed upon. Several  bills have now passed the House which do just that. No one in his constituency, even in Uvalde, asked him for this—a direct threat to our Second Amendment and the right of private citizens to defend themselves. Texas is a solidly pro 2A state and his actions have betrayed us. Shame on him for putting his political ambitions ahead of his constituents.

 

SAMPLE LETTERS

 

Dear Senator Cornyn:

Texans are proud supporters of our Constitution’s Second Amendment which states that the right of citizens to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. What else can we call the steady erosion of gun owners’ rights but infringement? A journalist for The Washington Times stated the matter concisely: “To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless.”

This exact inversion of logic has led to the most damning example of the uselessness of gun control laws in our country, Chicago, where the strictest of gun control laws have done nothing to curtail gun violence.

As law enforcement budgets are cut across our nation, and officers passively stand by witnessing riots and violence, citizens understand that government is no longer accountable for our safety, we are. We get it. And responsible citizens use firearms responsibly; criminals do not and never will, regardless of any legislation you may pass.

The issue lies with lawlessness and the proliferation of mental health issues in this country. But your “collaboration” with Senate Democrats looks less like problem solving and more like political theater, virtue signaling all the way down the slippery hill to gun confiscation and the repeal of the Second Amendment.

We the people of Texas say a resounding “no!” We do not consent, will not consent to further infringement. Shame on you for implicating our great State in this sham.

 

Senator John Cornyn

United States Senate

120 Constitution Avenue, NE

Washington, DC 20510-4305

(512) 469-6034

(202) 224-2934

https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/contact

 

 

Dear Senator Cruz:

Your constituents have been handed a disgraceful drubbing at the hands of your colleague, Sen. Cornyn. His “collaboration” with Senate Democrats on the issue of gun control, capitalized on a tragic event in Texas to further political agendas on the other side of the aisle.

I cannot explain this, just as I cannot explain why virtually every mass shooter is found to be on an F.B.I. watch list, but not restrained from criminal action. What I can say is that the problem does not lie with guns and their restrictions. It is systemic and cultural and will not be abated by infringing upon the rights of those who obey laws.

A journalist for The Washington Times stated the matter concisely: “To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless.”

The issue lies with lawlessness and the proliferation of mental health issues in this country, but we in the U.S. have become expert at getting things entirely backwards.

Cornyn’s “collaboration” with Senate Democrats looks less like problem solving and more like political theater, virtue signaling all the way down the slippery hill to outright gun confiscation and the repeal of the Second Amendment.

We the people of Texas say a resounding “no!” We do not consent, will not consent to further infringement. That our great State has been used to further this sham is a disgrace. We would ask that you stand up proudly for your constituents and voice your support for the Second Amendment, uninfringed, as it was meant to be and precisely penned.

 

Senator Ted Cruz

United States Senate

2 Constitution Avenue, NE

Washington, DC 20510-4306

(512) 916-5834

(202) 224-5922

https://www.cruz.senate.gov/contact/write-ted

TEXAS FIGHTS OUTLOUD

        Action item for week June13, 2022:

       

“Securing Our Border States Act”

H.R. 4593

 

Congress has introduced legislation to establish a block grant program to financially assist southwest border states in constructing barriers along their borders with Mexico.

 

The Securing Our Border States Act, H.R. 4593, provides $22 billion of funding for this grant program, rescinding and repurposing $22 billion from funds for various COVID related assistance programs. It requires the Treasury Department to provide grants to states for building barriers and related infrastructure along the U.S.-Mexico border within 30 days of receiving notification of that state’s intention. The money flows directly to the individual state from the “Empowering States to Build the Wall Fund,” eliminating the necessity for Presidential approval.

 

 

TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD ON THIS VITAL ISSUE, HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

 

* WRITE, EMAIL, AND CALL YOUR U.S. SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE

 

SAMPLE CALL SCRIPT

 

I’m calling to voice my support for H.R. 4593, the Securing Our Border States Act. I want Representative Cloud to know that as his constituent, I’m counting on him to support this legislation and to make our case on the House floor. Texas is ground zero for this tsunami of illegal immigration. We need unapologetic advocacy, and we count on Representative Cloud to be that for us.

 

I’m calling to voice my support for H.R. 4593, the Securing Our Border States Act. I want my U.S. Senators giving their vocal support to this legislation, even if it never reaches the Senate floor. Texas is ground zero for this tsunami of illegal immigration. We need unapologetic advocacy, and we count on our Senators to be that for us. What they say matters as much as what they vote. Say it loud: Texas will protect its borders.

 

 

SAMPLE LETTERS

 

Dear Representative Cloud:

As a resident of Texas and your constituent, I am asking you to support H.R. 4593. We cannot rely upon the same Federal government that has created our border crisis to solve it. Thus, it falls into the hands of each state directly impacted by this invasion to do all it can to stop it. Absent the cooperation of this administration, we need legislation that will side step it. H.R. 4593 offers us this option, to finance unbuilt portions of a border wall with our own tax dollars without the need for federal approval of funds.

 

Nothing could be more just than to allow our citizenry to spend our money as we will. And it is clear that the will of the people of Texas is to stem the tide of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug smuggling that is overwhelming our border.

 

Please throw your support behind H.R. 4593 with not only your vote, but vocally. Texans need a voice in this fight, and we depend upon you to provide it.

 

Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Dear Senator:

As a resident of Texas and your constituent, I ask for your vocal support for H.R. 4593. The border states are in a unique position in this fight against the flood of illegal immigration, and we need our leaders’ voices to rise above the fray, for it is our neighborhoods and communities, our law enforcement and border patrol that are on the front lines.

 

Won’t you speak out in support of H.R. 4593 to help ensure it gets a proper hearing in the House? And should the bill make the Senate floor, assure your constituents that you will vote in favor?

 

Nothing could be more just than to allow our citizenry to spend our money as we will. And it is clear that the will of the people of Texas is to stem the tide of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug smuggling that is overwhelming our border.

 

Texans need a voice in this fight, and we depend upon you to provide it

 

The Honorable John Cornyn

United States Senate

120 Constitution Avenue, NE

Washington, DC 20510-4305

(512) 469-6034

(202) 224-2934

https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/contact

 

 

The Honorable Ted Cruz

United States Senate

2 Constitution Avenue, NE

Washington, DC 20510-4306

(512) 916-5834

(202) 224-5922

https://www.cruz.senate.gov/contact/write-ted

 

 

The Honorable Michael Cloud

United States House

25 Independence Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20515-4327

(361) 884-2222

(202) 225-7742

https://cloud.house.gov/contact