The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - November 24, 2023

Episode Date: November 24, 2023

Get an annual subscription to The Texan half off for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Weekend ONLY: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/black-friday-cyber-monday/Get a gift subscription: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/gift/gift-purchase.htmlThe Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast. This week, the team discusses:Gov. Greg Abbott endorsing former President Donald Trump for 2024Abbott jumping in to Texas House primaries after school choice was defeated on the floorTexas State University in San Marcos hosting the first 2024 presidential debateThe State Board of Education debating the presence of climate change and evolution in Texas textbooksRep. Andrew Murr, leader of the Paxton impeachment, announcing he won’t run for re-electionTexas DPS seizing firearms and ammunition from four suspected human smugglers arrested near El PasoERCOT canceling its request for an additional 3,000 MW of power for the upcoming winterThe Texas Office of the Attorney General suing Pfizer and Tris Pharma over the ADHD drug QuillivantThe assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963Texas claiming the title of first Thanksgiving for a Spanish colonist in 1598

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLula here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup Podcast. This week, the team discusses Governor Greg Abbott endorsing former President Donald Trump for 2024. Abbott jumping into the Texas House primaries after school choice was defeated. Texas State University hosting the first 2024 presidential debate. The State Board of Education debating the presence of climate change and evolution in Texas textbooks. Representative Andrew Murr, leader of the Paxton impeachment, announcing he won't run for re-election. Texas DPS seizing firearms and ammunition from four suspected human smugglers arrested near El Paso. ERCOT canceling its request for an additional 3,000

megawatts of power for the upcoming winter, the Office of the Attorney General suing pharmaceutical companies over the ADHD drug Quilivant, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and Texas claiming the title of First Thanksgiving in 1598. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Brad, Cameron, Matt, and Hayden. Happy Thanksgiving. It's Thanksgiving week here. We're recording a little early this week to make sure that we have time with our families and get our content out for you this week. So we hope everyone's enjoying a week with their family. Yeah, Thanksgiving's an incredible holiday. I'm so glad that it's finally here. And after this, I will not get any more grief for wanting to celebrate Christmas. So don't come

at me about it. My husband and I got our Christmas tree last night. We're very excited. And by we, I mean me. So we're getting in the spirit. But it's not going up before Thanksgiving. I gotta dig around in boxes and find my Charlie Brown tree. I would really like to see your Charlie Brown tree. I will send you a picture of my Charlie Brown tree.

Are you setting it up out in West Texas? At the Fort Davis? Yeah. It's just going to be one of those little Charlie Brown trees that sits on the table and that's it. Well, I will say when this comes out as well, it will be after Thanksgiving. So it'll be a little bit more appropriate that we're talking about this for those who care about the order of operations here. But we definitely have some news to jump into today. So we're going to start off with Hayden, who was very much in the middle of a lot of big news happening this week. Is it true, Hayden, that Abbott and Trump worked the lunch line for

hundreds of state troopers and National Guardsmen? Yes, they did. They served a Thanksgiving lunch to hundreds of service members serving on Operation Lone Star, which is the state's effort against illegal immigration. and other law enforcement officials there to take a breather and enjoy some lunch amid the border crisis as they have arrested almost half of a million illegal immigrants since the operation's launch in March of 2021. President Trump and Governor Abbott helped to serve lunch to the service members. And many service members there got to take a picture with President Trump. A lot of them were grinning ear to ear after they walked off, having gotten to meet the former president. He is, of course, in the middle of his campaign for a second term in the White House. This was a more intimate event than many of his other events, but he visited with service members

and then took off for a rally right outside an airplane hangar at South Texas International Airport. We were in the press pool for this event, so we were able to go inside the airplane hangar for this exclusive event, then cover the rally outside as well. President Trump and Governor Abbott made remarks as well as Brandon Judd, the president of the Border Patrol Council. Did Abbott and Trump make any remarks after they served lunch? They did. They spoke about the state's border security efforts. President Trump touted the efforts that Texas has undergone to deter illegal immigration. He commended Governor Abbott

and Trump even joked that lunch looked good, but they didn't have enough left for him. And he might not have been joking there because they served hundreds of people and they were obviously out of food by the time everyone came through the line. But Trump said that he appreciated Texas's efforts. And this is on the heels, just to put this in context, of the passage of a controversial border security law, probably one of the most aggressive measures the state of Texas has ever passed. Governor Abbott has pledged to sign it. Senate Bill 4 would criminalize illegal immigration at the state level. It would set up misdemeanor or even felony criminal penalties, depending on the severity of the offense of crossing the border illegally. It also has a novel enforcement mechanism that Texas has not used in the past.

It would authorize magistrates to initiate quasi-deportation procedures for illegal immigrants, which is sure to set up Texas for a massive legal battle against progressive interest groups, the federal government, or even conservatives who view this as an unconstitutional impingement on the vertical separation of powers, which is the way Senator Brian Birdwell characterized it when it passed the Senate. This controversial law was passed during a special session of the legislature. This was the backdrop for this event in which President Trump and Governor Abbott were in lockstep on border security measures. And of course, at this event, Governor Abbott officially put his support behind Trump for his 2024

presidential campaign. Very notable, of course. And this was not just a lunch event. There was also a rally that Trump made sure to show up to in the midst of his visit to Texas. How would you characterize the rally itself compared to other Trump events? This was a Sunday morning slash Sunday afternoon event. It was much more intimate than Trump's other events. It was almost more like a cowboy church service than it was a massive rally that Trump, for instance, held in Conroe a couple of years ago. He spoke to only a few hundred supporters. A lot of them are wearing Hidalgo County GOP garb.

It was a very intimate, small event by invitation only right outside an airplane hangar at a very small airport. What is notable about the endorsement that Abbott gave Trump? President Trump endorsed Abbott early for Abbott's reelection bid in 2021. He backed the governor in the Republican primary as early as June or July of 2021. So they have had a good relationship for many years, Trump having endorsed Abbott well in advance of the 2022 primary for governor. Trump now is the clear front runner for this race.

For president, Abbott seems to be foreclosing any possibility that one of Trump's opponents could overtake him in the polls. All of his opponents have had difficulty gaining traction. He still has double-digit leads over Ron DeSantis and any other opponent in the early voting states, such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. All indications point to Trump being the 2024 nominee. Of course, we're still a few weeks out from the first votes being cast in the primary. Anything can happen in that time. As of this time, however, Trump is the front runner in the race. Absolutely. And Hayden, real fast, I just want you to give our listeners, I mean, you were there, it was a behind the scenes, you know, moment where you got to watch so much of what was

going down. What was the atmosphere like? And is there anything else that stood out to you being there in such close quarters with the former president and the governor? It is interesting to see Trump interact with people on an interpersonal level. Brandon Judd, the president of the Border Patrol Council, said that Trump's staff advised him not to take pictures with each individual person. The Secret Service agent behind Trump looked really anxious as he was taking pictures and hugging and shaking hands with virtually every person who came through the line.

Trump's personal style was on display here. It's hard to reconcile that as well with the fact that he is under dozens of criminal indictments in multiple states. He is a criminal defendant. He is someone who was accused of mounting an insurrection. It's hard to reconcile that with the person standing there handing out tacos or tamales to service members. The contrast between what he was in that moment and what he has been accused of being in the past and what prosecutors say he did in these criminal cases is a stark contrast. Thank you, Hayden, for being there for us. And on a Sunday, too, we so appreciate the firsthand reporting. Brad, let's talk about the governor now. Just a few

days after losing the school choice vote in the Texas House, Governor Abbott began his primary election response. What did he do? Abbott endorsed each of the 58 Republicans that voted to preserve the school choice provision in HB1 who are also running for re-election. The five others who voted to keep ESAs are either not seeking re-election through retirement or running for a higher office. Abbott said in the release, our work for Texas parents and students is not done. Each of these House Republicans are proven fighters, and I'm proud to endorse every one of these strong conservatives who are seeking re-election. I encourage Texans to join me in supporting them for re-election so we can pass school choice for all Texas families and continue to build a safer, brighter, and more prosperous Texas of tomorrow.

Among those were four members who voted for the Herrero Amendment back during the budget debate in April. That was basically a test vote on school choice. Voting for the amendment was against school choice votes, and then voting against that amendment was a for school choice vote, similar to the Rainey Amendment that officially stripped the ESA provision from HB1 last week. One notable omission from the list is Speaker Dade Phelan, who voted present not voting on the amendment that stripped ESAs. It's common for the Speaker to white light or vote present not voting on most business other than issues of highest importance. And this was an amendment to the bill. This wasn't the bill. Who knows if we had actually

gotten past that point, would the Speaker have voted on the bill itself, but he did not vote one way or the other on this Rainey amendment. Some examples of things that the Speaker has voted on this year are the property tax bill, a couple different versions of it, including the final one, and to recommend articles of impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton. Abbott's team added that the endorsements will not stop there, foreshadowing involvement against the 21 House Republicans who joined the chamber's Democrats to strip ESAs. He's got more than $20 million in the bank to spend if he so

chooses. The question is, will he and how much, how many members will he go after? Will he just issue endorsements against them or will he actually spend that money? A lot up in the air, but the governor is getting out to an early start. Certainly, and I think we're all waiting with bated breath for the moment that he does endorse against an incumbent Republican in the House. That would be such a departure from his previous strategies in primaries. And so if he is, I think we're all waiting to see. He's proven to be very serious about the school choice issue, but how serious, like you're saying, in terms of money endorsements will be very interesting to watch, particularly those 21 that he has refused and neglected to

endorse here. So what's this mean for the coming primary fight at large, Brad? Yeah, so you mentioned previous actions by the governor on this issue. And, you know, last year, he endorsed eight of the 21 Republicans who voted to strip ESAs were endorsed by Abbott in their primaries last year. And for at least a few of them, they were vocally opposed to school choice, yet he still endorsed them. Obviously, school choice is not the only factor when choosing an endorsement, but now the governor seems to be making that, if not the only factor, certainly by a mile, the biggest factor. The endorsements will create an interesting dynamic between top state leaders. Speaker Phelan will want to protect his majority, just like he did last cycle, jumping in on behalf of loyal Republican too, so he can't spend all of his money helping his membership. He's going to have to spend some on himself.

Throw in, in addition to that, the PACs that are friendly to the Speaker, like Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Associated Republicans of Texas. And there's tens of millions of dollars to defend the GOP membership. ART is also targeting some Democrat-held seats to try and flip them, but I think we'll probably see them jump in on behalf of some members as well. But TLR, they've got like $35 million in the bank, and they've already been commissioning mailers to help incumbent Republicans with fallout from the Paxton votes or what they expected, the coming school choice issue. So they're already active there and I assume will continue to be. Then on top of that, you have Paxton on his revenge tour against the 60 Republicans who voted to impeach. Many of those members are on Abbott's endorsement list, and with Paxton's set of a couple dozen

endorsements so far, some of them incumbents, some of them challengers to incumbents, the governor, Paxton and the governor are directly opposite in 11 races so far, with Abbott backing the GOP incumbents who voted to impeach Paxton and Paxton opposing that member. so many different factors driving this internal intra-party struggle that is really going to culminate in election night in March next spring. And let's say a group like TLR decides to endorse an incumbent that Abbott has either refused to endorse or has actively campaigned against and either endorsing their opponent or giving the opponent money that would place TLR and Abbott at odds and that has been historically not a case we've seen very often in primaries so it could get very interesting just in terms of the cross-pollination of endorsements and support so particularly with statewide elected officials Paxton and Abbott among those as well of course so lots to look to. And we're like 100 and I think when this comes out,

we'll be right around 100 days away from the primary. So it's coming up quick. Is this thing working? Is the transmission live? Okay, great. Hello, this is Daniel Friend. I'm the marketing manager for the Texan. I am using advanced AI technology to transmit this message back in time from November 2024.

Now, of course, time travel 101, I can't spill the beans on everything that happens here without unraveling the quantum fabric of time, or something like that. But what I can tell you, well, if you thought COVID, nationwide government lockdowns, Texas freezing over, and the whole impeachment thing were wild rides in Texas politics, you better buckle up. In hindsight, it's amazing we didn't see the writing on the wall more clearly. All of the local drama, international conflicts, and the 2024 election, oh my goodness. The things that happened this year, well, they were inevitable. Let's just say, if you care about Texas politics, you're going to want to be informed over the next year.

And you'll need to be informed with quality reporting you can trust, which is why the Texan exists. Now, if my calculations are correct, this transmission should go live on Black Friday, and the Texans' half-off sale will be live through Cyber Monday. That means you can get access not just for the regular $90, not for $75, but a mere $45 for a year's worth of content. Oh my, what a year's worth of content that's gonna be. Now that's not all. Maybe you already have a subscription, but have some friends and family who would appreciate one as well. Right now the tech thing is offering annual gift subscriptions at the same half-price discount. And the best part? You don't need a DeLorean, flux capacitor, or even a fancy coupon code.

Just click the link in the podcast description, choose when you want the subscription to be emailed to your friend, proceed to the checkout, and voila. So if you want to stay informed with news you can trust... Hold on, I have to go. It sounds like Arizona might have their votes counted before Harris County this time. Okay, Matt, let's go to you here. Talk about federal politics here, but it's coming right back down to Texas. The national spotlight will turn to Texas State University in San Marcos next year after that college was selected to host the first presidential debate for the 2024 general election, give us the details. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the selection of three locations to hold the presidential debates for the 2024 general

election. The first location being Texas State University in San Marcos. The commission, which is a nonpartisan nonprofit that has handled the difficult task of scheduling, hosting, and setting the rules for presidential debates for decades, set the first debate for September 16th, 2024. To qualify, a candidate must be on the general election ballot in enough states to win a majority of the electoral college and have five separate major national polling firms show that they have the support of at least 15% of the natural electorate. Usually, because of these standards, only the Democratic and Republican nominees qualify for the debate. This year, I should mention, we have the potential for potentially a strong third-party candidate or independent candidate in RFK Jr. We'll look and see what the polls show as far as him being a viable third candidate as time goes by. But right now, it looks like President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to take the

Democratic nominations for their re-election office, and the Republicans are still in the process of selecting their nominee. As Hayden discussed earlier, polls have shown former President Donald Trump favored, once again, to take the GOP nomination, setting the stage for a rematch. Some of the other major contenders that we noted in the article include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former North Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. There you go. Well, we will certainly be at that debate and we're excited to see what happens there. Thank you, Matt, for your coverage. Cameron, the Texas State Board of Education has rejected multiple publishers' textbooks because of ideological differences concerning the effects of climate change on the environment and the theory of evolution. Tell us what happened.

Yeah, so the SVOE, or the Texas State Board of Education, approved multiple textbooks, but it was not without a significant amount of debate about things like you mentioned, evolution and climate change. The board was voting on their updates for textbooks for this upcoming school year. The board comprises of 15 members and as we've reported on here at the Texan, there was a big push for many conservative candidates that eventually did win seats on that board. And it's important to mention as well, in 2021, the State Board of Education made updates to the TEKS, which is the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which are the state standards for school curricula. And included in those changes in 2021 was language that includes, quote, knows that natural and human activity can impact global climate.

So that is in the updated TEKS. And so they are updating some of the textbooks that will be recommended to school districts. And a lot of the conversation surrounding things like evolution was particularly interesting as one board member had said he received emails from people in his district insisting on, quote, no monkey pushing, and that they said, this board member had said they wanted ample clarification that that is not what is being taught in Texas schools. In regard to the climate change discussion, there were many on the board that were objecting to some of the textbooks treatment of climate change, particularly in how the oil and gas industry was being portrayed. One thing I will close on in mentioning is that although the State Board of Education endorses the use of certain textbooks and instructional materials,

which they were debating. Senate Bill 6, which was passed in 2011, allows local school districts the ability to receive state funding for textbooks, even if they do not purchase SBOE-approved textbooks. So these textbooks are essentially recommended and approved, but the individual ISDs in Texas are not required to purchase them. So just an interesting tidbit for all our listeners there. Absolutely. Thank you, Cameron. Brad, Andrew Murr, who became kind of the face of the Paxton impeachment effort, made a very big announcement this week. Give us the rundown. After a year in the brightest of spotlights, Murr announced that he would not seek a sixth term in

the Texas House. He's a Republican from Junction. His district stretches from, it's got like 16 counties, stretches from I think as far east as Llano and pretty far west too. I think Picos is the furthest west. It's a heavily Republican district and he up until this point, was assumed and hinted at running for re-election. But he said in a pretty lengthy statement, in part, some may ask me why I retire now. The answer is clear. Public service requires sacrifices that too often affect those you love the most. He said in it that, yes, Matt, you want to correct me on the pronunciation of

that county Pecos County Pecos County there you go he like I said is the 15th house member to forego re-election at least at moment. We've had some say they're moving elsewhere and then come back. to opponent Wesley Verdell, this time with Paxton backing Murr as the junction Republican fell into the attorney general's crosshairs. Other than the Speaker of the House, Murr was the biggest target for Paxton and now no longer is running for re-election.

Paxton said in response, one down and many more to go. Murr, in a statement, did not shy away from the impeachment efforts, which obviously resulted in full acquittal of the Attorney General after a trial in the Senate. Murr insinuated and has stated as such elsewhere that the Senate got it wrong and that the Attorney General should have been removed from office permanently. Obviously, we won't have that debated, at least with Murr in the race in this primary. Paxton is taking home his scalp, essentially, that he got with this and seems pretty happy with it. So now he can move his attention and his financial oomph elsewhere. Yeah, absolutely.

Brad, thanks for your coverage there. Matt, we're coming to you. Texas law enforcement conducted an investigation as part of Operation Lone Star near El Paso that resulted in multiple arrests for human smuggling and weapons-related charges. Give us the details. DPS described how a traffic stop in October led agents to find a man suspected of providing security to a human smuggling operation in possession of a short-barreled rifle. Teaming up with U.S. Border Patrol agents, law enforcement was able to identify multiple members of the smuggling ring operating out of the El Paso area as well as Sun, and the New Mexico State Police to execute search warrants, leading to the arrest of four men and the seizure of 10 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition,

and body armor. Notably, two of the men who were arrested were citizens of Mexico, including one who was not lawfully present in the United States and was recently employed as a state police officer in Mexico. Law enforcement was able to find ties between the men and two different major drug cartels based in Mexico. This case highlights a flow of crime going both directions in the ongoing crisis at the southern border. Illegal immigration and narcotics coming north, while weapons being supplied to the drug cartels are going south. Both the U.S. and Mexican governments estimate some 200,000 guns are being smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. each year, and account for approximately 70% of the guns used in crimes in Mexico. I should mention that we regularly do report on border crimes and interdiction operations along the border. And we frequently see

instances in which weapons are seized in these operations that are suspected to be, you know, we're suspected to be in the process of being smuggled into Mexico. So it's interesting to see the reports on these incidences. And it almost reminds me of some of these movies like Sicario, where literally there was corrupt Mexican state police officers helping the cartels, etc. It's just, it's really surreal reading some of these reports. Absolutely. Well, Matt, thanks so much for your coverage. Brad, you and The Grid are, you know, simpatico at this point.

If we can't mention one without mentioning the other, let's talk about ERCOT making an announcement this week. What did The Grid operator say? That is indeed my lot in life. ERCOT made the announcement that its request for an additional 3,000 megawatts of generation ahead of this winter would be canceled. The request for Montbald power plants to reboot ahead of what's expected to be a cold spell obviously it generated a lackluster response of the 3k requested and in their original listing they named each of the power plants they hoped to get online for this so it wasn't just hey anyone bit into this it was naming specific places.

But of that 3K megawatts requested, only 11.1 megawatts answered the call, a very, very tidy amount. of the issue. The request for additional capacity was an extra layer of precaution to mitigate higher risk during extreme weather this winter. ERCOT is not projecting emergency conditions this winter and expects to have adequate resources to meet demand. Basically what they've said every season since the blackouts. And you know what? They've been right. We've not had any rotating outages and certainly nothing even

close to as severe as February 2021, unlike what some reporters at Legacy Media Outlets have suggested. In its monthly assessments, ERCOT projects a low likelihood of issues under similar conditions to last year's December cold front. There is about a close to 20% chance that some emergency conditions could be triggered at like earlier in the morning around eight o'clock if a storm front like that comes in um that was enough obviously for them to be concerned and request this 3k megawatt cushion essentially but it was clear that the economics of it the financial realities of rebooting these power plants for a winter spell was not enough to get these generators to bite. Running a power plant is incredibly costly. And if you can't make up the money in operating, just like any business, you're not going to do that.

Especially in the ERCOT system, which is built on financial incentives. So right now they're moving on to other options they have other tools in their tool belt if you want to read the article I list out various other things and methods that ERCOT deploys whenever they're trying to ensure the power stays on but you know, ultimately, unless we get a storm like we did in 2021, we're not going to have issues even close to that, even if we do get, you know, controlled outages. Normally, those are pretty easy, 15 minutes on, 45, 15 minutes off, 45 minutes on, and moving the outage from different areas of the state. 2021 was a different situation, a far worse one. It is very unlikely that we get that again. Got it. Well, Brad, thanks so much for your coverage. Matt, we're coming to you. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he is suing several major pharmaceutical companies for defrauding Medicaid.

Give us the details. Yeah, that's right, Mackenzie. So this story, news of this lawsuit just broke out yesterday, and we're working on the story today. But in short, the Office of the Attorney General Civil Medicaid Fraud Division announced they have sued Pfizer, Tris Pharma, and Trice CEO Ketan Mita on Monday for defrauding the Texas Medicaid program by providing adulterated pharmaceutical drugs to Texas children in violation of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act, now known as the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act. Specifically, or in short, the Office of the Attorney General contends the pharma companies distributed a child pediatric attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medication called

equivalent in violation of the law. Some of the issues that they cited were that they were ignoring statutory quality control standards in the manufacturing process and concealed those violations from regulators. Now, keep your eyes on out. We'll have a story out later today on the Texan and absolutely it will be out by the time this podcast is published. Absolutely. Well, Matt, thank you so much. Hey, folks, if you haven't seen it already, we're having a limited time Black Friday sale that you will not want to miss. Get an annual subscription half off. That's right. Half off. Regularly $90. If you click the subscription link

in this podcast, you can get a year's worth of content for $45. And there's more. Looking for the perfect gift for your politically savvy friend? You can also get an annual gift subscription half off, and it's really easy to use. Just click the link in the description, put in your email address and the email address for the recipient. Choose when you want the subscription delivered to their inbox and then check out. An email will be sent to them on the day you selected with a link they can use to redeem the subscription. Cameron, now let's go to some Texas history here. We are coming up on the 60th anniversary of President JFK's assassination. Tell us about that fateful day. On November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy's motorcade in Dallas, Texas ended in tragedy when gunshots

rang out in Dealey Plaza. The assassination of the young president shook the nation, and it's left lasting questions with a lot of conspiracy theories and a legacy that continues to endure today. His presidency lasted from 1961 to 1963, and he had planned an agenda called the New Frontier. And during his presidency, there was the heightened tensions due to the Cold War. There was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, escalating involvement in the Vietnam War. And then domestically, we had civil rights struggles were intensifying with Martin Luther King Jr.'s campaign in Birmingham and the March on Washington. So there were many things going on during his presidency leading up to that fateful day. And it was not until the famous Zapruder film was released that captured the sequence of events that took place,

and it became a crucial piece of evidence later in the investigation. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was quickly sworn in as the president, 36th president of the United States while aboard Air Force One. And Lee Harvey Oswald, who was identified as the alleged assassin, was apprehended, but initially denied involvement. And it was two days later as he was being transferred, he was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, which added just another layer of mystery to this whole series of events. And some of the conspiracies that continue to swirl despite investigations like the Warren unravel. Some stats right now, 60 years later, 65% of Americans maintain the belief

that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in killing the president. And there's been countless series, TV series and movies released about President Kennedy's assassination. And but there has been changes in the fallout of that event, things like increased security protocols for presidents. And it's been something that continues to capture the American consciousness with conspiracies and something that was really fun to dig into and write about for this week. Absolutely. Well, Cameron, thank you. And folks, if you've not checked out our thanksgiving content from the last couple of days here certainly worth going and checking out our team has worked very hard to provide that for y'all so cameron thank you speaking of which matt the state of texas

says that the first thanksgiving should be properly attributed to a spanish explorer who held a feast of thanksgiving in tex Texas years before the Mayflower Pilgrims are said to have held theirs. Give us the rundown. Not so fast, Pilgrim. The state of Texas is long maintained. The first feast of Thanksgiving should be properly attributed not to the Mayflower Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock and joined the Wappanoag Indians to celebrate their survival and give thanks, but rather to the Spanish explorer colonist and known by some as the last conquistador, Don Juan de Onete. Anyway, I think that's how you pronounce it. I'm just going to go with that. The story goes that Onete received a contract from King Philip II of Spain

to settle modern-day New Mexico. So he loaded up some 400 men and their families on wooden wheel carts and went on a not-so-pleasant journey from Santa Barbara, Mexico, and arrived at the banks of the Rio Grande four months later on April 20, 1598, near what is now modern-day El Paso. Legend has it that Onete and his men spent 10 days enjoying the cool river waters, hunting, fishing, and relaxing before Onete called for everyone to dress in their best and hold a feast of Thanksgiving. The Texas legislature has recognized this event with the passage of resolutions. They even forwarded their resolutions to the Massachusetts legislature, asking them to recognize our event as the first Thanksgiving.

I did some research, and I could not find any sign that Massachusetts obliged Texas's request. Anyway, for decades, the El Paso Mission Trail Association has held a celebration of the first Thanksgiving with a several day festival. And this festival was even in their efforts to recognize and honor this event was was recognized by a proclamation by former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who noted it is important to honor those who played such an important role in the early Texas and American history. So there you go. That's such a great story. Now, Brad, did you want to come in now and correct Matt's spelling? Or excuse me, pronunciation, not spelling. What am I talking about?

Yes, the Indian tribe you mentioned is the Wampanoag tribe. Wampanoag. Not whatever you said, so take that. Well, in my defense, I feel like it's easier to get Pecos right than Wampanoag, so there you go it literally is not because you have to know the strange pronunciation of texas which you know what that's the way you pronounce it fair enough but don't act like you can just get that out of hooked on phonics and that reminds me uh there is this hilarious article i'll have to find uh that talks about uh the spelling and then pronunciation of the names of Texas cities. And it is absolutely hilarious.

As a matter of fact, I think they even did a little video that's on YouTube where they showed people from other states the name of a Texas city and said, how do you pronounce this? And let people try it. And then they go to a Texan and and have the Texan pronounce it and it doesn't sound any any way similar to how it's written it was pretty funny I'll have to find that video proving my case thank you oh my Atlanta okay well I'm interrupting here I do want to say also folks that we have a podcast that's already out by the time you're listening to this with Justice Ken

Wise who hosts a podcast, Wise About Texas, detailing all sorts of awesome Texas history events. And he goes through this story that Matt wrote for us and kind of gives some background on it. And it's a great episode of the podcast. So I recommend anybody go and listen to that with Justice Ken Wise. He also serves on the 14th Court of Appeals here in Texas. So definitely worth going and checking that out as another Thanksgiving piece of content that we have for y'all. And Cameron, we won't go into this entirely, but I do want to tease a piece that you're working on. There's a small town of Turkey, Texas, and you're doing a write up about it. I'm excited

for this piece. Just tease something for our listeners. Yeah, so it is a teeny tiny town, less than 500 people. But Turkey, Texas, I will give one fun fact that I found. They have a monument within the city that honors the former musician Bob Willis, who was considered by authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing. So if that doesn't entice people, I don't know what will. I love it. That's going to be such a fun piece. I'm so excited about this. Thanks for working on that for us, Cameron. Let's move on to the tweeter-y section of the pod here. Hayden, we're going to start with you. What did you find this week that caught your eye?

It was a little bit of a throwback this week on Twitter. I'm not sure how high profile Kyle Rittenhouse still is, but he's been in the news a bit with his involvement in politics here in Texas. He recently published a book about his experience being on trial for murder or on suspicion of murder. For those who are unfamiliar with him, he is a 20-year-old originally from Antioch, Illinois, who went to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and he was accused of, I'm sorry, folks, we've got a group chat that's blowing up, so that's why I'm giggling if anyone was curious. Rittenhouse was put on trial on many charges. He was acquitted of all charges, but there were a lot of political messages

projected onto that case from all sides. So it became a representation of many things that were happening in 2020. Lots of people were very passionate about the case and felt one way or the other about him being convicted. But on the two-year anniversary of his acquittal, which was Sunday, he announced that he is publishing a book about his experience. So much anticipated by his supporters, much reviled by those who believe that he is a murderer who somehow finagled his way out of being convicted. Absolutely. Well, that's fascinating and certainly something to keep an eye on. Bradley, what do you have for us this week? Also, I would like folks just like to address the elephant in the room. We're all recording remotely.

We have a group chat that's going crazy. I have three dogs in my house who decided that the mailman is the devil. We have Brad whose computer sounds like it's about to take off and fly out of his room that he was recording in. We have a lot of things that we're battling against. And I think so far we've done a good job. But whatever makes it in the final cut of this episode that seems out of place I just want to apologize in advance happy Thanksgiving happy Black Friday thank you for bearing with us and Brad's about to unmute himself and sound like a spaceship is taking

off from his room so Brad why don't you go ahead and go I've already been unmuted so apparently it wasn't sounding that bad. Wow, it actually doesn't. I still heard the spaceship just then, so. Yeah, I don't know. I'll make it quick. So last week there was a funeral held for an Austin police officer, Jorge Pastore. He died in the line of duty uh a week or so before and the entire city was kind of shut down at least for a bit i think it was friday morning to um to allow that funeral to go on in the procession to the, to the, uh, the cemetery.

But the funeral was held and there was quite a stir cause by one person who showed up. That was, um, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza. And, um, he of course is at odds to put it lightly with the police in Texas's capital city he made it his mission to prosecute police for alleged misconduct and during his campaign and has really ramped that up since he took office. And currently, just recently, there was a mistrial in the the prosecution, the case against Christopher Taylor, another Austin police officer. Garza, it seems, is going to retry that case. And who knows if it'll end up with

a different verdict? Sounds like most most expected probably won't because of some testimony from two female officers who were there on the scene that felt like they were about to get run over by a car by the, the, the individual who ended up dying in that situation. But Garza has put the pedal to the metal on these prosecutions and has really caused more issues, even more issues than already were

with Austin police. And he went to the funeral and comments were made multiple times about why are you here? What are you doing here? This is, quote, a slap in the face based on someone I talked to was there he got ended up you walked to the back room where they had it was kind of like a VIP room only it was for the people

who were setting up and running the funeral for them to get coffee and food and he walked right in there and started helping himself to get coffee and food and he walked right in there and um started helping himself to the coffee and and uh whatever food they had eventually he was moved to an isolated room to watch the procession on tv and after a little bit more a few more comments made and, and, um, uh, you know, abrasions with other people, he eventually left the facility. Um, but it was, it really made the rounds on Twitter and, you know, the people in the Austin police department really do not like Jose Garza.

And for, you and for very good reason in their minds there were about 18 to 20 or so officers that have been indicted by his office for actions taken during the 2020 protest term riots so this is just another example of the way the relationship between,

especially certain officials in Travis County and the city of Austin, the deteriorated relationship between them and the Austin Police Department. It's, yeah, everyone's really wondering why he showed up in the first place, although you could argue he was damned if he did, damned if he didn't. But regardless, this happened and caused a lot of hurt feelings, which is pretty understandable. Yeah, absolutely. Very notable, and it's been making its rounds all over social media.

I do also want to say that Brad's spaceship sounds are not nearly as bad as another time. I believe it was also for a holiday when Brad decided that he was driving home and a rainstorm hit the car and he decided it would be the right time to record the podcast while he was driving. And this rainstorm hit the car and he decided that it would be the right time to record the podcast while he was driving and this rainstorm hit and it sounded hold on it sounded like brad was under fire like it sounded like hail was it sounded like i don't know the artillery was all of a sudden there it was wild and brad you say that it wasn't as bad no there were still a lot of

road noise you should just never record a podcast in the back of a moving vehicle that's that was the option that i had at the time you should have told me no don't worry about the podcast this week yeah but i also did not know you were going to be driving i did not know or else i would have said that to you so i don't think that's true so this is like small potatoes no big deal I did think that one of your family members was vacuuming in your house but it's not a big deal sorry let me just take

apart my computer mid podcast oh it's so good thank you Bradley okay Matt let's come to you a little Thanksgiving news here tell us what you got so I saw a tweet that cracked me up um the uh pita the uh trying to think what the acronym stands for people for the ethical treatment of animals i guess uh tweeted out turkeys don't want to be eaten turkeys don't want to be eaten. Turkeys don't want to be eaten. And they repeated this multiple times, that turkeys do not want to be eaten.

And this guy that is a hunter responds to their tweet with a picture of a turkey that he just shot and said, well, yeah, that's why you have to shoot them first i got a kick out of that oh man such a mad tweet too of course they don't want to be shot that's why you have to shoot them first it reminds me of the white house turkey pardoning that happens every year where the president pardons a turkey and there was some oh my gosh i can't remember how it went but there was a an episode of the west wing where i believe they brought the organization that brings in the turkeys brought two turkeys to the white house and the white house staff was in charge of watching

them like keeping track of them in some room of the west wing and the staff started to feel really bad that only one of them was going to get pardoned and they were trying to circumvent the process to pardon both turkeys and it was just such it's such a good episode i don't know have any of y'all watched the west wing it's i haven't it's my favorite tv drama it's so good oh my gosh well all of y'all are politicos you guys would love it but it's just so good it reminds me of that of all the animals for pita to defend and go to the mat for i don't get the turkey because they will literally drown themselves in standing

water. They're that dumb. Is it really something worth protecting? I, I don't get, I don't get it. I just, it's just the,

the tweet is just priceless with him repeating that phrase over and over. And the guy's like, well, of course they don't want to be eaten.'s why you have to shoot them first nobody wants to be eaten i'm sorry maybe it's my dark hunter humor or something i don't know matt's been out in west texas shooting some things lately um okay Cameron what do you have for us here so for everyone who was looking at Twitter over the weekend it seemed to be dominated with the chat UPT Sam Altman saga that was going down I'm not sure were you guys paying attention to that at all or maybe it's just me i have no clue maybe that's that's just my algorithm i follow those types of people but um so chat gpt um everyone knows that

now but it's uh they have a board, just like any company. But they had their founder, Sam Altman. They decided to oust him just out of the blue. It kind of shocked everyone online. But there was this huge backlash, not just from people in the Twitter sphere, but a lot of the employees. And so they ousted him. Then like 500 employees said, you get rid of Sam, you get rid of us too. We're leaving.

And so the board changes course. And they're like, no, Sam, come back. And so they set up a meeting, they bring them back. And then again, they set Sam Altman, he sets a deadline, they keep pushing the deadline to rehire him. And they gone, he's coming back. Maybe he's not. Now he's not. And I guess right now, because Microsoft has a huge investment in ChatGPT, that Sam and a bunch of those employees are going to, former employees are going to go to Microsoft. And so ChatGPT, which was just leading the way in these large language model AI technologies, well, the founder and a huge contingency of their employees are going to another company now. So there's lots of competitors out there, but if you have the founder and you have all these employees now, you know, Microsoft could be the next AI leader, but it was just a whole deal. Everyone, at least people I was following were talking about it all weekend. So

well, now that you mentioned it, I remember seeing a meme online that said, I don't even know if it was a meme or just a tweet, but basically took a photo of the cast from the social network that was put out years ago about Facebook. And it was like, a movie like this is going to be made about the chat GPT that's going on right now. And I guess that's probably exactly what Netflix probably already has the rights wrapped up. Let's be real. Yeah. Well, a lot of people who had built separate software systems on the chat GPT technology were kind of freaking out because if ChatGPT isn't able to function and then all these people have their technologies wrapped around that AI software and then ChatGPT flutters and disappears, they have to rebuild everything.

So there was all this hubbub going on online about people wondering what they were going to do. So I just thought it was interesting. I like following this stuff. I like using it. So. Yeah, that's your guy. Again, ask Cameron if he's heard about something that's going on online, and the answer will inevitably be yes. It's i i i really don't spend all that much time just scrolling twitter no but your algorithm is like a very finely tuned it's very fine i just i i thought i only follow certain people because i know they talk about uh things that are going to be important and And then I try, I just try and remember the important things, you know, you can scroll at a time.

Exactly. Whenever I say Cameron's online, what I'm talking about, because Cameron is by far the most disciplined person in our office. So Cameron's not sitting there scrolling on social media eight hours a day. That's just not how it is. But but you just he knows what's going on he's got the scuttlebutt so yeah i'm just i'm just tuned in me and the algorithm i like this that's right that's right uh gentlemen well thank you for bearing with me and this remote podcast platform to get this all recorded today despite the bumps in the road and the spaceships and the dogs and everything else y'all are awesome folks we hope you have such a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones and are able to enjoy the weekend. Still hopefully celebrating with all

the people you love closest around you. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast in the midst of all of that. And we'll catch you next week. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics

and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting an email to editor at the texan.news. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you. So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.