How much is your life worth?
Over the weekend, the Dallas Morning News published a story about how more than half of Greg Abbott’s Coronavirus Strike-Force is His Campaign Donors.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Greg Abbott, after pressure from Trump and the extreme-right to open, made a task force to help decide when it would open. And the people he picked for this task force paid him millions of dollars.
Last Friday, Greg Abbott gave another one of his press conferences, where he said a bunch of bullshit lies. You know, the usual.
After he thanks Texans for all of their hard work stopping the coronavirus and said how grateful he was for Trump, he then said we’re now seeing signs that the worst of COVID-19 is behind us and the number of new infections is beginning to level off.
The numbers don’t lie, but Greg Abbott does.
When he gave this press conference Friday, our total infected count was 17,371. As of 1:00 pm today (4/20/2020), our total is 19,458. That’s according to the Texas DSHS. This chart below is from the same website, showing that our infections HAVE NOT leveled off.
It’s funny that whoever made this graph started it a month after our actual infections started, so they could spread the days out. Even though we all clearly see it hasn’t leveled out, it’s almost like the person who made the graph intentionally made the graph longer, so maybe it wouldn’t look so bad.
Here is the graph from the John Hopkins website, (the numbers are nearly similar every single day):
See the difference?
Regardless, both graphs show that our new infections are NOT leveling off, they are still steadily increasing. (Even though Texas tried to make the same numbers look better by taking out the entire month of February).
So, of course, Abbott said based on Texas’ numbers he decided to reopen the economy. He said we have to be guided by data and doctors and put Texans’ health and safety first. Which is why he started a statewide strike force to guide us in this effort.
The Strike-force?
This strike-force has several different committees, for reopening things like education and making sure that hospitals are getting PPE.
This includes:
- The Chair of the strike-force, James Huffines is a Dallas banker with deep Republican ties.
- Mike Toomy, COO of the strike-force, a former Texas House member and current Republican Lobbyist, who has given Abbott $130,000 over the years.
- Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who recently said old people should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the economy.
- Texas Speaker of the House, Republican Dennis Bonnen, who recently announced his retirement after a scandal.
- Texas Attorney General, Republican Ken Paxton. He’s still an asshole.
- Texas Comptroller, Republican Glenn Hegar.
If that wasn’t hyper-partisan red enough for you, there’s more.
Special Advisory Council
According to Abbott’s website, these are business leaders representing the state’s regions and industries will provide advice and counsel.
- Arcilia Acosta, CEO of CARCON Industries. She’s also a Republican.
- Paul Andrews JR, CEO of TTI. He’s has a net worth of $400 million and has donated THOUSANDS to Republicans and Republican causes all over Texas.
- Mark Bivins, former commissioner of Parks and Wildlife, and huge Republican donor.
- Kathy Britton, CEO of Perry Homes. Yep, you guessed it, she gives lots of money to Texas Republicans all of the time.
- Brad Brookshire, CEO of Brookshire Grocery. His family is worth a billion dollars, he’s also a Republican. Brookshire Grocery has been in trouble for OSHA violations which resulted in death, racial discrimination, and pay their employees low wages.
- J. Bruce Bugg, Jr., another banker, another Republican. He was the Chair of Abbott’s 2019 Inaugural Committee…you know, the one that was in charge of that mysteriously disappeared $5 million last year.
- Elaine Mendoza, CEO of Conceptual MindWorks. Her hands may be clean, not much is known about her.
Oh yes, there’s more.
- Alonzon Cantu, CEO of Cantu Construction. Cantu has been very open with letting people know he gives money to Republican politicians to get what he wants. He gives money to Dems and leans left, but he openly brags about buying politicians off.
- Bobby Cox, owner Rosas Cafe, and other food-chains. Another rich Republican who donates to Republican causes.
- Adriana Cruz, Executive Director of Texas’ Economic Development & Tourism. Yes, she’s a Republican.
- Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies. He gave Greg Abbott $250,000.
- Scott Dueser, yet, ANOTHER banker. He has a net worth of $25 million. It might surprise you to know, he’s also a Republican.
Could it get any worse?
You bet it can.
- Don Evans, a long time friend of Dubya Bush and worked in the Bush Administration.
- Tilman Fertitta, CEO of one of the largest restaurant chains in America and Houston Rockets owner. He’s given Abbott $500,000 over the years.
- Richard Fisher, ex-CEO of Federal Reserve Bank.
- Rick Francis, he’s the CEO of another bank. His banks’ Board of Directors gave Abbott $1.8 million.
- Printice Gary. He’s an investment professional, however, I could find very little out about him.
- Brad Heffington, a farmer, and Texas Republican.
- Jeffery D. Hildebrand, he’s a Texas oil-man worth $2.5 billion.
- Carla Moran, one more Republican.
- Nancy Kinder, she also gave Abbott $250,000 and is a big GOP donor.
- Tom Luce, Texas Republican (who may be one of the few on this list who’s hands are clean)
- Marc McDougal, former mayor of Lubbock. He was once sued by his own brother and once threatened to quit if an ethics oversight bill was passed.
Even more rich Republicans who will decide our fates:
- Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, his net worth is $300 million.
- Drayton McLane, net-worth $2.5 billion.
- Balous Miller, Trump supporter and worth $500 million.
- Dennis Nixon, he’s also got a stack of millions.
- David Oliveria, another banker and Texas attorney who’s done a good job of keeping his name out of the papers.
- Ross Perot, Jr., mega-billionaire son of Ross Perot.
- Kevin D. Roberts, Ph.D., he’s a Texas Republican and opinion writer for The Hill. He recently wrote about more tax cuts for employers and less bail-out money for the American people.
- Robert B. Rowling, he’s worth $3.2 billion.
Surely, there is someone that represents actual small businesses or the everyday Texan?
Nope.
- Kendra Scott, CEO of Kendra Scott, net-worth of $500 million.
- Sam L. Susser, yet another Oil fat-cat who has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into electing Republicans over the years.
- Massey Villareal, he was that one guy holding a “Latinos for Trump” sign. He’s also stupid rich.
- Marc Watts, yep another rich CEO and Republican.
- Graham Weston, he’s got a billion dollars.
- Sanjiv Yajnik, millionaire President of Capital One. Yes, he’s a Republican.
Whew! That sure is a long list of rich Republican donors. That has to be all, right?
Wrong. That was just the advisory council who will decide if it’s time to open businesses all over Texas and send back the millions of workers that will never likely even see a million dollars in their life.
So who else is there?
Economic Development
- Robert Allen, CEO of the Texas Economic Development Corporation, used to be Greg Abbott’s deputy chief of staff.
- Ruth Hughs, Texas’ current Secretary of State.
Infrastructure
- Kirk Watson, Democratic Texas State Senator, District 14. If they have one blue state senator, they can call themselves bipartisan, right?
Energy
- Julia Rathgeber, previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Greg Abbott. She’s also a lobbyist for the electric industry.
- Todd Staples, oil and gas lobbyist.
Arts, Culture, and Entertainment
- Brendon Anthony, apparently he’s Greg Abbott’s personal violinist.
Chief Medical Advisers
- John Hellerstedt, M.D., was the quack who came up with demanding doctors to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles from an abortion clinic. It closed most clinics in Texas and lost in the Supreme Court.
- Parker Hudson, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of internal medicine and infectious diseases at Dell Medical School. Actual doctor.
- Mark McClellan, M.D., PhD, he’s a Republican that used to be in the Dubya Bush administration.
- John Zerwas, M.D., Republican, cancer doctor.
Emergency Management and Supply Chain
- Nim Kidd, he’s the dummy that was talking about taking hospital beds away from Dallas a few weeks ago.
Pre-K – 12 Education
- Mike Morath, Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency. He might not be a bad guy, but he is literally the only ONE person in charge of opening schools. (Compared to the 40 CEOs tasked with opening businesses)
Higher Education
- Harrison Keller, PhD, Commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Like the other education guy, he likely has clean hands.
Fiscal Accountability
- Billy Hamilton, served as Deputy Comptroller of Public Accounts for the State of Texas, maybe non-partisan.
Abbott’s Strike-force Scoreboard
| Republicans: 49 | Total People in the Strike-force: 57 | CEOs in the Strike-force: 40 |
| Democrats: 2 | Total People in the Strike-force that are likely corrupt: 49 | Actual Doctors in the Strike-force: 3 |
| Party Affiliation Unknown: 6 | Billionaires on the Strike-force: 11 | Quacks in the Strike-force: 1 |
There you have it.
Governor Greg Abbott doesn’t only bathe in blood, he also washes in money.
This group of billionaires and corrupt Texas Republicans have been tasked to decide which will come first the livelihood of Texas businesses or Texas lives.
What do you think they’ll decide?
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