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Texas Tag

Texas' Congressional and state legislative district maps have been bouncing around the federal court system for months. Tuesday, the Supreme Court blocked an order from the lower court that required new maps redrawn. Redrawing maps would create new districts and ultimately favor Democrats in upcoming elections. At the heart of the district maps battle are allegations that maps drawn after the 2010 census were essentially racist and thus unconstitutional and contradictory to the Voting Rights Act.

Houstonians grappling with Harvey damage are not pleased with Mayor Turner's latest proposal -- a 8.9% property tax rate hike to pay for the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. Turner's rate hike request is temporary (supposedly) and would generate an estimated $113M for the city. But it has to pass city counsel scrutiny first.

Congress has returned to work and have started to ponder two important tasks at hand: Hurricane Harvey relief bill and the debt ceiling. One option leaders have leaned towards is attaching the two into one bill, thus killing two birds with one stone. The House could pass the Harvey relief bill on Wednesday and send it to the Senate, who could attach the debt ceiling bill to it. Then the Senate would send it back to the House for another vote.

Though Israel is a small country, when disaster strikes it is among the first countries and most involved in rescue and recovery efforts. (I blogged about this nearly four years ago. The IDF published an updated article on Israel's aid in emergency situations last month.) While Israeli volunteers often go to places Nepal, Haiti, or the Philippines, Israel was again at the forefront of international rescue and recovery efforts in Houston.

A few nights ago on The Five, Greg Gutfeld delivered a monologue that you really need to watch. Greg does an excellent job of reminding us that the real America isn't the one we see portrayed in liberal media or on Twitter. Real America is the one we have seen played out over the last week in Texas, where Americans of all kinds have come together to help each other in a time of need.

The Houston area is filled with heavy industry, including numerous chemical manufacturing and processing plants. In the wake of flooding from the rains of Hurricane Harvey, one of the plants in Crosby (about 25 miles from the city) burned when trailers holding highly unstable chemicals used in the production of plastics and paint exploded, burning the flood-damaged plant. While initial fire was quenched, the containers are continuing to rupture and ignite, and responders have had to fight a series of release incidents at this facility.

If you hadn't heard of them before Hurricane Harvey, you certainly have now -- the Cajun Navy as they call themselves, is a band of rugged Louisiana outdoorsman (and women) who load up their boats and caravan into flooded areas, performing rescues. They've been a tremendous asset in rescuing folks flooded out by Harvey in the Houston area, the Gold Triangle, and even down towards Port Aransas.

I live in Houston where we've just experienced the worst natural disaster in the city's long history. Harvey caused inestimable damage and left thousands without shelter and earthly possession. There is not one person in the Greater Houston Area, in Rockport, Port Aransas, or surrounding counties that hasn't been adversely affected by this storm. Naturally, the national media, like Politico are using Harvey as an opportunity to malign everything great about the Lone Star State. Essentially legitimizing criticism of coastal-centric political media -- they have no idea how real America works.

Despite predictions of economic doom and gloom in the wake of Donald Trump's presidential election win, things are actually looking quite sunny. A revised estimate showed gross domestic product had climbed at an annualized rate of 3 per cent, showing more growth than the professionals projected. Part of the reason for this new trajectory is President Trump's war on excessive regulation. For instance, in response to the impact of Hurricane Harvey on the region's fuel industry, Environmental Protection Agency is temporarily suspending some rules about gasoline production in an effort to minimize shortages around the southeast.
States from Maryland to Texas can sell winter-grade gasoline held in storage now, even though normally that type of fuel wouldn’t become available until fall, according to a federal waiver issued Wednesday. Refineries that continue to operate can also start churning out winter-grade gasoline, which emits more pollution than summer-grade gasoline when combusted in engines.

One of things that used to flummox me about the left is their sophomoric insistence on "all or nothing." Children love the false dichotomy: either you buy me this iPhone, prom dress, car, or you hate me and wish I'd never been born. For Democrats and the left, this puerile insistence that there are only two answers (theirs and the wrong, wildly-extreme answer) manifests as, for example, you're either against President Trump or you're a white supremacist/Nazi/etc. This all-or-nothing fallacy is at the root of the outrage concerning a Politico cartoon about Texans and Hurricane Harvey.

It is scary how quickly media eco-activists have unleashed torrents of climate change pseudo-science on the American public since Hurricane Harvey hit. There are many articles now making the rounds on social media asserting that this deadly storm proves "climate change is real". Perhaps the most dramatic comes from the Godfather of Climate Change, Dr. Michael Mann, who penned the following analysis -- It's a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly:
Harvey was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming, which means stronger winds, more wind damage and a larger storm surge.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump boarded Air Force One this morning (yes, I covered the left losing its mind over her freaking shoes) to survey the damage and speak to Texas officials about recovery. From Fox News:
“We want to do it better than ever before,” Trump said of the recovery. “We want to be looked at in five years or ten years from now as this is the way to do it.”

STOP THE PRESSES!!!! First Lady Melania Trump had the NERVE to wear stilettos as she boarded Air Force One to head to Texas with President Donald Trump. The way people acted you'd think she's the one who ordered Hurricane Harvey to devastate the Gulf Coast of Texas.

By some miracle (and I truly believe that's what it is), we're still high and dry and abundantly thankful to be so. My husband and I are heartbroken for our home town and frustrated that there is nothing we can do to help those in need right now. While areas that typically flood have done so, Harvey has flooded neighborhoods that have never flooded, meaning their residents are likely without flood insurance. My in-laws who've lived in their house for more than 40 years with no issue watched their house flood. And at least a dozen other individuals we know personally have a similar story.