There is a turf war taking place over cannabis, but it’s not between drug cartels, but rather the Texas republican party.

Gov. Gregg Abbott vetoed Senate Bill 3 which have banned consumable hemp products that contained any THC, including delta-8 and delta-9. The bill was championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick who accused Abbott of wanting to “legalize marijuana” by regulating hemp products. Abbott contends the bill would have faced “valid constitutional challenges” and would have kept it tied up in court for years. He called the legislature back to Austin for a special session next month to pass stricter rules for products that contain THC.

Patrick has dug his heels in saying he was “staying with a ban,” and continues to insist that there are not enough law enforcement to regulate Texas’ more than 8,000 THC retailers and has even dared Texans to vote him out over THC ban.

It is worth going back to the 2019 legislative session when House Bill 1325 was passed into law which related to the production and regulation of hemp; requiring occupational licenses; authorizing fees; creating criminal offenses and providing civil and administrative penalties.

The so-called “Hemp Bill” took the drug off the list of controlled substances in Texas, as long as products such as CBD oil contain no more than 0.3 percent THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gives users their buzz. It is important to note that while legally manufactured and distributed in Texas, the processing and manufacturing of smokable hemp products is prohibited in the state.

So, what happened? It seems measuring the difference between legal THC (0.3 percent) and illegal THC (0.4 percent) requires very special equipment which is not readily available and expensive. Some estimates at the time projected the equipment and training for 25 new employees to be around $5.5 million annually.

Since no funding was provided to help local law enforcement, many district attorneys delayed, or even dropped low-level marijuana cases leading Abbott to proclaim, “Marijuana has not been decriminalized in Texas”.

SB3 would have banned most consumable hemp-derived products, allowing only those with zero or near-zero THC to remain on the market.

The Texas Department of Public Safety testified to state budget officials that the bill would need to be funded to work and were told before they voted that H.B. 1325 was going to make prosecuting marijuana a lot tougher. Democratic state Rep. Tracy King’s office was told that, without funds for new lab testing, the legislation would “essentially legalize marijuana.”

Patrick claims THC retailers are exploiting a loophole in the law, but who wrote and voted to pass the law in the first place? Much like approving ERCOT to purchase millions of dollars in back-up generator equipment that was basically useless during Hurricane Beryl (even though there was plenty of public testimony saying that was not a good idea) and allowing the Texas lottery to operate with no real over-sight (until the fake news Houston Chronicle brought it to their attention how they got played) it seems the Texas legislature is good at pointing the finger at everyone but themselves.

A newly released economic report from Whitney Economics, “Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids in the Lone Star State: A Revisit of the Economic Impact Analysis of Cannabinoid Retail in Texas”, reports the hemp industry is a major contributor to the Texas economy, generating $5.5 billion in annual sales with an estimated tax revenue of $268 million. In addition, the report estimated total employment in the hemp industry grew to 53,300 jobs in 2025, an increase of 3,200 from 50,100 in 2023.

 Abbott has called lawmakers back to Austin for a special session beginning July 21 with consumable hemp regulation at the top of the agenda. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out once the smoke clears.

The world of education is, once again, being tested by forces outside the school hallways. The most recent skirmish is President Donald Trump’s administration cutting another $450 million in grants to Harvard University after the Ivy League school pushed back against government allegations that it’s a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism.

In a letter to Harvard, a federal antisemitism task force said the school will lose grants from eight federal agencies in addition to $2.2 billion that was previously frozen by the Trump administration. The letter said Harvard has become a “breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination” and faces a “steep, uphill battle” to reclaim its legacy as a place of academic excellence.

This isn’t just taking place nationally, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is taking state universities to task. He recently threatened that institutions of higher education would get less funding if they don’t “kick DEI out of their schools.” Both the House and the Senate shared their state budget proposals, with both versions eliminating the institutional enhancement fund that provided $423 million to Texas universities in the last budget cycle to provide the proverbial “slap upside the head” for universities to pay attention.

Patrick has long embraced conservative dissatisfaction in higher education, accusing universities of indoctrinating students with leftist beliefs. Texas was one of the first states to ban DEI offices and programs in public universities, all with Patrick’s full support.

It’s not the first-time higher education has butted heads with authorities who tried to dictate what is being taught. The Condemnations at the medieval University of Paris in 1201 were put in place by the Bishop of Paris to curb certain teachings as being heretical by the church, who at the time could be considered as powerful as any government.

The writings of several medieval scholars were condemned, apparently for pantheism (the belief that reality, the universe, and nature are identical to divinity or a supreme entity). It also stated that: “neither the books of Aristotle on natural philosophy nor their commentaries are to be read in Paris in public or secret, and this we forbid under penalty of excommunication.”

The debate on what should be taught is not only taking place in higher education, but also in grades K-12. What books are appropriate to be used and including a poster of the Ten Commandments to be included in every classroom are just some of the key issues teachers and students face.

Texas recently enacted a new law allowing public funds to be used for private school tuition through education savings accounts, commonly known as school vouchers. Senate Bill 2 will begin with the 2026-27 school year and will initially have a $1 billion cap but could potentially grow to $4.5 billion per year by 2030.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (who is now running for U.S. Senate attempting to unseat Texas Senator John Cornyn) said in a statement “this universal school choice bill is a historic step in ensuring that students will have the freedom to seek the educational option that is right for them, not be trapped in schools that fail to meet their academic needs.”

The question that begs to be raised is why the state is not meeting students’ academic needs in the first place. Texas, which is led by the Republican party, does not seem to be interested in taking responsibility for poor performance grades but rather point the finger toward woke agendas and democratic cities.

According to the Nation’s Report Card, a resource offering a common measure of student achievement, the average reading score for Texas eighth graders was significantly lower than the national average in 2024. The nation’s average reading scores also declined for both fourth and eighth grade, with only three states scoring lower than Texas in both grades.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has long supported using tax-payer vouchers to help families place their children in private schools saying “gone are the days that families are limited to only the schools assigned by government. The day has arrived that empowers parents to choose the school that is best for their child.”

You really don’t have to wonder why people don’t have confidence in Texas teaching their children. The track record of the Texas legislature has in dealing with power grid outages and lottery shenanigans have left many of us wondering who is minding the store.

And, if all that isn’t enough, Rep. Stan Gerdes introduced a bill known as the Furriers Act (with the support of the governor and speaker of the house), which would ban non-human behaviors in public schools, including the use of litter boxes. Never mind the fact that he could not prove or point to a single incident of this occurring anywhere.

The tide of attacking education may be turning (at least in some parts of Texas). Several local independent school districts recently held board of trustees’ election with many conservatives losing their seats and the public calling for the removal of policies regarding book bans and transgender students that were once championed.

Society can be like a pendulum that swings back and forth. For the last several years, that pendulum has swung to the far right but maybe it’s time for it to come back to the middle and not focus on politically motivated policies such as book banning or litter boxes but focus on policies that directly help students.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – Albert Einstein

The city of Houston took it on the proverbial chin once again when Hurricane Beryl struck the Texas gulf coast. Although only a Category 1 storm, Beryl’s impact left more than 2.2 million customers without electricity and damaged countless homes and automobiles. The death toll continues to grow with at least 23 people having died due to various storm related causes as of this post.

The finger pointing began even before recovery efforts started with CenterPoint being the main target of people’s anger. Politicians have been holding press conferences and updates demanding answers on why the energy giant was not ready to deal with what was supposed to be a minor storm.

“Power companies along the Gulf Coast must be prepared to deal with hurricanes, to state the obvious,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Now to be fair, building an electrical grid that can withstand hurricane force winds is not easy. Houston’s geography makes putting lines underground problematic and very expensive (guess who would pick the check on that, it ain’t the power company ). Heavy vegetation (aka The Livable Forest) in many communities also make restoring power a nightmare for power companies. People love living among the tall trees until they fall on a power line, or worse a roof.

It is also a big task to coordinate line men and women to come from other states to help repair the grid. Each grid is different and requires workers are trained so they can safely make the necessary repairs. Plus you have to provide housing, food and other resources all to a moving target. Remember weather forecasters predicted the storm was first supposed to hit Brownsville, then they said Corpus Christi and then maybe Matagorda Bay. Again, it’s not easy.

But, to also be fair, one of the key components of a crisis is effective communication and that’s where CenterPoint clearly fell flat. Non-working outage maps, lack of emails/texts to customers and inconsistent messaging with the media threw fuel on a fire that was already raging. And why on earth would media tell its audience to go to the CenterPoint Outage map knowing it did not work.

It also did not help their messaging when the CEO was interviewed next to a thermostat showing the room at a comfortable 70 degrees. Where were the public relations people? They should have had him on-site where repairs were taking place. That photo would have helped demonstrate his commitment to working toward restoring power.

Still the politicians continue their media circus, grandstanding and acting surprised, very much like Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca who is shocked that gambling is taking place at Rick’s Café while collecting his winnings. One has to wonder how much the politicians collect from their winnings, I mean campaign contributions from CenterPoint.

“The Demon of Unrest” by Erik Larson delves into the events leading up to the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. It’s a fascinating look at how two very separate ideologies put the country at odds with each other leading to what would become the American Civil War.

It was during this time that Abraham Lincoln would become the 16^th president and was tasked with figuring out a way to keep both sides happy and keep the south from seceding from the Union.

How precarious was his position? Lincoln refused to go to Washington until the final vote was certified by both houses of congress. Complicating matters even more was that John C. Breckinridge, the current vice president was responsible for over-seeing the certification. Breckinridge, a slave owner from Kentucky lost to Lincoln in the 1860 election causing many to fear the country would not be able transition to the new administration and be thrown into chaos.

The election was officially certified, and Lincoln eventually made his way to Washington, D.C. albeit undercover as numerous death threats were made. There Lincoln struggled to understand what was really taking place in the south and was forced to face the war where an estimated 650,000 – 1,000,000 died was inevitable.

While “The Demon of Unrest” focused on the two very different principles between the north and south in the mid-1800’s, it’s hard not think of today’s America. While not geographically divided, America seems to appear to be moving toward going into two distinct camps; the far-left and the far-right, splitting the country into two very separate alliances.

One only has to look back at the events of Jan. 6, 2021 when the United States Capitol Building came under attack and was stormed by an angry mob who were upset by the election results and tried to stop certifying the results of the presidential election of 2020. Similar to Lincoln and northerners not understanding the mentality of people from the south and their believe in slavery as an honest and noble way of life, democrats have a hard time understanding the appeal of people like Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The Civil War did not happen overnight. It took decades of distrust from both sides to reach the point where confederate rebels attacked Fort Sumter, looking to be free to live in a country that shared their values and beliefs. Are we at that point? That will be for historians to decide, but in the meantime, there are valuable lessons to be learned from what took place in the past, and what is taking place now.

It was Karl Marx who said, “history repeats itself”, but perhaps a more appropriate quote would be from George Santayana who poignantly said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

It isn’t easy being a Republican these days. First it was the crazy liberals on the left, followed by the biased media that were the problem. Now there is another opponent taking aim at the GOP and it’s coming from an unlikely source; big business.

It all started in Georgia (where the devil looks for souls to steal) when the state Legislature decided that they needed to tackle voter fraud (and free water/pizza) at the polls. Atlanta, home to Delta Airlines and Coca Cola took notice and issued statements opposing the legislation.

Ed Bastian, Delta chief executive officer wrote an internal memo saying “I need to make it crystal clear that the final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta’s values”.  Not to be outdone, Coca Cola also joined with James Quincey, Coca-Cola’s chief executive saying “I want to be crystal clear the Coca-Cola Co. does not support this legislation, as it makes it harder for people to vote, not easier.” (Are we clear? Crystal clear.)

The response from the leaders of the Republican party was swift. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order. Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box.”

What stands out is to me is the word “disinformation”. I am reminded of a line from Jesus Christ Super Star where Pontius Pilate asks Jesus “we both have truths, are mine the same as yours?”. I guess McConnell forgot about the “Big Lie” which resulted in attacks on the Capitol in January, or maybe he still believes it.

I also have to think this really stings for many Republicans after passing the “Trump Tax Act” in 2017 cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% (et tu Brutus?).

McConnell is walking a very small tight rope these days trying to balance between the right and the money. Do you risk shutting off campaign contributions (some being very large) by telling corporations to mind their own business? Let’s not forget it was Mitt Romney who quipped “corporations are people my friends” after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United allowing unlimited corporate and union spending on political issues back in 2010.

It also leaves many Republicans in the lurch on deciding if they need to boycott Delta, Coca Cola, AT&T, American Express, Merck, Major League Baseball, Aflac, Dell and Amazon. Even Houston Texans owner Janice McNair has joined in to oppose laws that are designed to restrict voting rights (but nobody is really interested in seeing them play anyways so is that really a big deal?).

Elected officials are free to pass laws they feel are in the best interest of their constituents, but people and big business are also free to speak their mind when they disagree. It seems many people still wants us ‘to shut-up and dribble’ when it comes to public discourse.