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Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Plano, Arlington, Waco, Denton, and other cities that were represented by the International Municipal Lawyers Association, the non-profit Local Progress, and the League of Independent Voters (LIV) challenged the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act -- HB 2127 – the super-preemption bill, aka the “Death Star” bill. We – the plaintiffs and friends -- won a big first round in court. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of the 459th Civil District Court ruled from the bench, immediately ruling HB 2127 unconstitutional. She stated in her order: “ the Court Declares House Bill 2127 in its entirety is unconstitutional facially, and as applied to Houston as a constitutional home rule city and to local laws that are not already preempted under article XI, section 5 of the Texas Constitution…” See the order here . Don't be a Fool for HB 2127 Attack on Home Rule The case was immediately appealed by the State of Texas to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. It is expected to go to the Texas Supreme Court. Your tax dollars at work, NOT! LIV joined hands with those defending local control, which is supported by most Texans regardless of party or political ideology. See our amicus letter h ere. The immediate response from the disagreeable Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) was not surprisingly insulting to the judicial process: "The judgment today by a Democrat Travis County District Judge is not worth the paper it’s printed on." (Sidenote: wait, who's jackass here?) If your state representative or senator is a Republican, they likely voted for the turkey HB 2127 out of party loyalty. See the Record Vote here in the Texas House and here in the Texas Senate. Thanks to East Texas Republican Senator Robert Nichols, who was the lone Republican Senator who voted no, for some common sense. Note: The filing deadline for candidates to run for office in 2024 is December 11. There are many open seats, folks. We need some people with common sense, who refuse to be a fool for one-party rule, to run for office.

Update • 8/15/23 : You may have missed this last week . The Biden Administration is placing the wrong people in charge of our foreign policy. Take note of this name -- Victoria Nuland. She is now our Deputy Secretary of State serving under Antony Blinken. In 2014, Nuland was in Ukraine with top US officials, Senators John McCain and Chris Murphy. She was on the ground encouraging a rally of protestors in front of the Presidential Palace in Kyiv. The protest turned violent with a coup to overturn the pro-Russian, but duly elected, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. How would you have felt if Putin's foreign policy advisors were present on January 6th egging on the rioters? Honest people put themselves in the chair of their opponents to prevent wars, not make them. (Watch this incredible footage from the documentary, starting at 44:01 through 49:17 with journalist Robert Perry's insights about this US interference from Nuland and others --" Ukraine on Fire ." Our point is we are being badly informed and letting these people get away with it when we don't have to. LIV Main Article: LIV thinks it might be fine for political parties to make their own decisions about debates, but not if they are receiving public dollars for their primaries. Both parties certainly do have government-subsidized primaries. The RNC (Republican National Committee) has a crowded presidential primary. Their first debate is scheduled for August 23. So far, five candidates -- DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Burgum , and Scott -- have qualified and indicated they will engage in the debate. Donald Trump will say next week if he's in or not. The RNC's criteria for participation were reasonable, though difficult. Details here . The DNC (Democratic National Committee) is, so far, sticking to their guns that they are supporting President Biden and there will be no debate . Given what is happening with all the "war talk" and war funding without accountability thanks to the vote of Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin (who both know better), we believe there is nothing more important than a debate in both primaries. Sorry, DNC, you have to let Robert F. Kennedy, Jr . and Marianne Williamson in the debates with polls indicating they represent millions of voters. Why a primary debate on both sides is SO necessary! Hold on to your wallets and your hindquarters. This NY Times opinion article, " America is Living on Borrowed Time , " correctly insists on dealing with America's out-of-control debt, but check out their framing: "Republicans must accept the necessity of collecting what the government is owed, and of imposing taxes on the wealthy. Democrats must recognize that changes to Social Security and Medicare, the major drivers of federal spending growth going forward, should be on the table. Anything less will prove fiscally unsustainable." NY Times Opinion, July 5, 2023 Pop Quiz: What is glaringly missing from this statement?: If you guessed it's the bloated beached whale of Pentagon spending, you would be right. We Americans are seen to be chumps. We're supposed to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block, but we cannot touch the Pentagon's historically well-known wallet pillaging ! ACTION, PLEASE! Head off the No Debate DNC at the pass! Call your Member of the US House of Representatives. Find them here . Ask them where they stand TODAY on getting the US to move towards diplomacy to end the conflict in Ukraine and to stop the escalation of spending and weapons. If your member is a Democrat, ask him or her to urge the Democratic National Committee to hold primary debates. Then, let us at LIV what you learned from reaching your Congressional Representative. Send us a note about who you spoke with and what they said. Email us here: contact@livtx.org . Thank you! ______________________ Recommended : Read this article, The Intercept, August 2, 2023, " Senate Democrats Blocked Watchdog for Ukraine Aid , Ignoring Lessons from Afghanistan ." Watch the entire " Ukraine on Fire " a documentary by Oliver Stone.

We just returned from the highly successful Southern Family Farmers Conference in San Marcos. Our LIV table was a big hit, especially with our new "Climate Hawk and Peace Dove" buttons. Thanks to Ron Choi for pitching in with LIV's Linda Curtis . We learned lots of things about soil regeneration and successful sustainable farm and ranch practices. Most important was what we learned about the Farm Bill, something that is addressed every five years by Congress. We are asking you to join us and the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance to get a message to Congress to focus now on how to get our priorities straight. We must weather multiple food, water, and weather crises from Maui to right here in Texas. Meanwhile, President Biden is asking for an additional $24B for the war in Ukraine, to which more and more Americans are left scratching their heads as we scratch for a living. It's really a simple message. It's food, not bombs. Here's what LIV asks you to do: Call and meet your member of Congress about the Farm Bill in the month of August, when they are home. Make plain you support food, not bombs -- urge a negotiated peace now in Ukraine and their support for the following pieces of legislation: Meat Processing Reforms Addressing Corporate Consolidation and Abuses Supporting Regenerative Agriculture Read this for the details : from Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance to prepare yourself and call us at LIV to assist you.) Find your representatives here , but make sure to call your member of the US House of Representatives. Attend this LIV meeting either in person (in Bastrop) or on Zoom, this Saturday, 3 to 4:30 pm . ( RSVP here and follow the instructions on our Event page for this event. ) Share this article and call us to volunteer! ________________ A Little More Homework! Read this August 10th article in the Austin Business Journal, Not Your Father's Farm . We will discuss this more at Saturday's meeting at the Bastrop Library or on Zoom.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Martin Luther King, Jr. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and longtime leading Texas Democrat, wound up in this Forbes article positioning well to the right of Forbes on the group, "Food Not Bombs" (FNB). FNB has wracked up $25,000 in tickets issued by the city of Houston for their dastardly insistence on feeding the homeless. Food Not Bombs has a praiseworthy history of serving the homeless since the 1980s without remuneration. They are, in fact, self-funded. They are kind "peace-nicks" of the best kind. LIV Board Member, Debbie Russell , spoke to Mayor Turner along with scores of others, during "Citizen's Communication" on Tuesday, reporting this to us: "I worked many years with Turner while he was at the Texas legislature. He was on the right side of criminal justice. But when he became Mayor, he was overwhelmed with competing factions and his flailing is embarrassingly evident now as he just can't fathom the national uproar against his unconstitutional attack on food Samaritans. I was sick I had to rebuke him at the city council meeting this week, but he brought it on himself." What happened to the Democratic Party, the Party of Peace, the American working class, and the downtrodden? The story of what happened to the Democratic Party is a long one we will save for another day. But here's a recent and alarming story. On July 29, 2023, Victoria Nuland , former Dick Cheney advisor, and one of the key architects of the Iraq War based on falsified intelligence of weapons of mass destruction, was made Acting Deputy Secretary of State by President Joe Biden . Nuland's direct boss is now Anthony Blinken . Blinken and Nuland directly serve the President. Two days before Nuland's appointment, here's what went down in the US Senate: "Senate Democrats banded together Wednesday night to oppose the creation of a new office to audit US military assistance for Ukraine as part of a provision in the annual defense spending bill." (LIV Note: Bernie Sanders was one of the opposition votes and he knows better.) NY Post, July 27, 2023 Food Not Bombs Action Please! We think the City of Houston should dismiss Food Not Bomb's tickets and instead, give them a medal. If you live in Houston, we suggest you reach out to the Mayor and tell him so . What else can you do? Share this article and get involved in LIV in your area . Contact LIV today!

S cott Braddock , Editor of Quorum Repor t, hits the nail on the head in this KSAT-12 interview. He explains how the big loser of the "big three property tax dispute" between Gov. Greg Abbott , Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick , and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan was the "all or nothing" Greg Abbott. The Governor has set the stage for yet another special session -- not yet called, but likely to happen after AG Ken Paxton's impeachment trial starting on September 5. In the upcoming special session, it appears that the Governor intends to ram school vouchers on rural members of his own party. Yes, Texas GOP politics is going off the rails. Braddock also shares an interesting assessment of Sen. Roland Gutierrez's chances to win the contested Democratic primary and in the race against US Senator Ted Cruz in November 2024.

So there I was minding my own business doing what the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) asked of me. I called my two US Senators, Cornyn and Cruz, and my Congressman, Michael McCall , to ask them to support local meat production by small producers by sponsoring the Prime Act as part of the Farm Bill, H.R. 2814/S.907 . Hint: Please make your own calls or send your own email asap! Anyway, I got a nice staffer in Rep. McCall's office, who took my request. McCall chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs . So I asked her what he was doing about cluster bombs being sent to Ukraine and the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to stop them. She didn't wait to hear where I stood on it and blurted how supportive Rep. McCall is of sending the banned bombs -- by most NATO countries. In fact, they're already on their way. Sen. Cornyn's office's very nice staffer also took down my request for support of the Prime Act . But, on military spending, his take was that we needed to tackle "entitlements", Social Security, and Medicare. No mention of the well-known and documented bloated unaccountable Pentagon spending. :( Is the US Congress Even Thinking About Guns or Butter? The good news is that members of Congress on the right and left -- still a minority -- surprisingly worked together. The amendments to stop the shipments of cluster bombs to any country or just to Ukraine failed but the votes were substantial . There is also ample time to amend the National Defense Authorization Act. We link to this just published article by independent journalist, Lee Fang , that explains how partisan division was manipulated to stop this left-right coalition, for now . The kicker on cluster munitions, blurted by the President President Biden also blurted the truth. The reason these munitions are being sent to Ukraine is "we're running out of ammunition." Remember, Professor John Mearsheimer warned us about this in his paper we released last week . The professor believes it will take years for the US to catch up to Russia's stockpile of weapons used in "wars of attrition." This Wall Street Journal article criticizing Biden's blurt shows you where the big money behind the throne wants Biden to go. Will any of these people have to worry about their social security checks or stepping on a cluster bomb? This is a bonafide escalation, folks with this year's military budget approaching $1 trillion. Call your member of Congress and Senators. Find all your reps here . Tell them the jig is up on guns or butter. Tell them you want butter not bombs and don't forget to ask them to sponsor the Prime Act. ____________________ Deep dive reading: We sent you Professor Mearsheimer's paper last week, "Darkness Ahead in Ukraine." The professor mentions that US and Brittain cannot easily "catch up," to Russia, which is well set for a war of attrition. Question for our comments section below: Did any member of Congress as you how they should vote on continued spending on the war in Ukraine? Join LIV at the 2023 Southern Family Farmers and Food Systems Conference! Click on the logo below to be taken to our special page for this event. Note: We can use volunteers at this event to staff our booth. We've laid some heavy articles on you in our last two email alerts. We hope you can get back to them in our LIV News Section, especially our article, " Climate Hawks and Peace Doves ."

Our Monday night forum on July 10th, with super lawyer, Susan Hays was spectacular! We're not blowing smoke here. Susan's thorough review of good, bad, and ugly election bills passed in the 88th Texas Legislative Session was very instructive as a way forward for LIV's efforts to unify voters across the partisan divide. As well, Hays' focus on HB 2127 , the "super-preemption" or "Death Star" bill attack on Texans local control was of great importance to us. She especially covered the recently filed litigation against HB 2127 by the City of Houston. We also continued with our discussion after we turned off the video, so we suggest you attend our next meeting. Plans are developing. Hint: LIV dues start as low as $10 . If you are already a member and want to watch the video, send us a note and we'll send you a private link.

Thanks to you not-so-easily-herded independent-minded voter cats who filled out our latest Texas Independent voter survey, we now have a Semi-Final Texas Independent Voter Survey . Your input was very helpful. We need you and others to take the new version. LIV is testing questions, tweaking questions, and adding and subtracting questions, based on your responses. We are preparing for a final rollout to reach thousands of independent Texas voters. The LIV survey is for the many independents who vote in either party primary, vote Libertarian or Green, are helping new parties get established (like the Forward and.Solidarity parties), and/or are independent voters who do not party salute. In this way, we are building a fusion movement -- bringing together voters across all parties and ideologies to address the issues covered in the survey. LIV expanded the survey to twenty questions and has added references, so take your time. We promise, there is an end in sight! Please take the latest survey and ask your friends and family to take it. Take the Semi-Final Texas Independent Voter Survey Here. Please note : Your input at the end of the survey helps us sharpen our questions for the final survey. Also, friends across the nation are welcome to take the survey too. Thank you!

John Mearsheimer , the esteemed Political Science Professor at the University of Chicago, is one of the leading scholars in the world who shaped the school of " offensive realism . " It's complicated, nonpartisan, and blunt. Essentially, he believes that states aim for regional dominance over one another for hegemony. Offensive realism has significantly influenced both Barack Obama and Donald Trump . As we here at LIV celebrated Independence Day, we were looking at how the war in Ukraine impacts our mission at LIV, to protect natural resources and to foster competitive elections. We got the idea for this article from reading former Congressman, Ron Paul's , recent article, " We need a Peace President ," referencing JFK and the Cuban missile crisis, connecting war and environmental destruction today with this statement: " The Biden Administration announced last week that it would send depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine, which poisons the earth for millennia to come." We are concerned that we are not hearing well-informed opposition voices to US involvement in Ukraine. We urge you to read Mearsheimer's full paper linked below and work with LIV to find cross-partisan solutions. Mearsheimer's Dark Conclusions and Silver Lining Access Professor Mearsheimer's paper, Darkness Ahead: Where The Ukraine War is Headed here on Substack . We're cheating on the professor by giving you his conclusions below. Read the full article, folks, or LIV will give you an F-! :) Mearsheimer's Conclusions : "While there is no question Russia invaded Ukraine, the ultimate cause of the war was the West’s decision – and here we are talking mainly about the United States – to make Ukraine a Western bulwark on Russia’s border. The key element in that strategy was bringing Ukraine into NATO, a move that not only Putin, but the entire Russian foreign policy establishment, saw as an existential threat that had to be eliminated. It is often forgotten that numerous American and European policymakers and strategists opposed NATO expansion from the start because they understood that the Russians would see it as a threat and that the policy would eventually lead to disaster. The list of opponents includes George Kennan , both President Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, William Perry , and his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General J ohn Shalikashvili, Paul Nitze, Robert Gates, Robert McNamara, Richard Pipes , and Jack Matlock , just to name a few. I believe Russia will win the war, which means it will end up conquering and annexing substantial Ukrainian territory, leaving Ukraine as a dysfunctional rump state. If I am correct, this will be a grievous defeat for Ukraine and the West." Mearsheimer's Silver Lining : "There is a silver lining in this outcome, however: a Russian victory markedly reduces the threat of nuclear war, as nuclear escalation is most likely to occur if Ukrainian forces are winning victories on the battlefield and threatening to take back all or most of the territories Kyiv has lost to Moscow. Russian leaders would surely think seriously about using nuclear weapons to rescue the situation. Of course, if I am wrong about where the war is headed and the Ukrainian military gains the upper hand and begins pushing Russian forces eastward, the likelihood of nuclear use would increase significantly, which is not to say it would be a certainty." Neo-Con War Pushers Left the GOP for the Democratic Party, says Greenwald Independent journalist attorney , Glenn Greenwald , in his June 19th show , The Singular Evil of Bill Kristol launched his own verbal assault on the "neo-cons" who lied, getting the US into Iraq. Greenwald explains how Bill Kristol and other neo-cons left the Republican Party and ensconced themselves in the Democratic Party. Climate Hawks and Peace Doves Fusion In today's derelict two-party system, the "climate hawks and peace doves" are on the endangered species list if not extinct. Though there are plenty of Democrats today who consider themselves climate hawks, they have failed to pressure President Biden to stay out or get out of the quagmire -- Mearsheimer calls a "frozen conflict" -- in Ukraine. Though there are some populist Republicans who have questioned funding the Ukraine war, the GOP is as much pro-war as the Democrats. And, of course, Republicans who support decisive, or any action on the climate crisis are extinct. The anti-war wing of the Democratic Party began to wither after Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), left Congress in 2013, having been gerrymandered out of his district. The anti-war, anti-interventionist Republican Ron Paul of Texas retired from Congress at the same time. Today, Kucinich and Paul are taking action as "fusionists" working together across party and ideology on war and the growing climate crises overwhelming life on our little green and blue planet. We'll write more about this soon. Happy After Independence Day to you fusionists! Please, y'all, take our latest survey in test-mode Texas Independent Voter survey H ERE. Want to do more? We hope so. Visit our Action page and contact LIV today! _________________ More reading for you deep divers: * We refer you again to the Quincy Institute's , " More Money, Less Security: Pentagon Spending and Strategy in the Biden Administration ." * It might surprise you that the US military has been concerned about climate change since long before the non-profit Center for Climate & Security Council on Strategic Risks was founded in 2010. * This Wikipedia page on Climate Change Policy in the US is helpful. • Lee Drutman , political scientist and author of the book, " Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop , " persuasively argued in his 2021 Time Magazine article , about the dangers of a small faction within the GOP taking over one of the two major parties in our anti-competitive two-party system. * We believe the last time Mearsheimer was on PBS was in 2018 in this fascinating point-counter-point with war hawk, Victoria Nuland . Check out what the professor says about the bat Trump took to NATO . Correct us if we're wrong, but this might have been around the time PBS stopped doing point-counter-point coverage.

Houston knows we have a problem. One of our great Texas cities, the fourth largest city in the US, stepped up to the plate to defend every Texan's local control. Houston is suing the State of Texas for enacting HB 2127, the "super preemption" bill. The suit alleges the new law is a violation of the Texas Constitution. Click on the picture to watch Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner's press conference or to read the article. Take note in the article of a quote from HB 2127's author, Rep. Dustin Burrow s (R-Lubbock). Predictably, Burrows wields his partisan axe, avoiding addressing why Houston sues to defend local control. We care not to print his deceptive words here. We believe that Burrows misled the Republican majority in the Lege on his partisan crusade. The result caught every Texan, including Republican voters, in his crossfire. The lawsuit is posted here . Stay tuned, y'all, and be sure to fill out our Test Survey -- Texas Independent Voter Survey . There's a question about local control. We may also have more discussion at our next online forum. Sign up to join us with Super Lawyer Susan Hays on Monday, July 10th here . ______________ For you deep dive readers: LIV published our own in-depth article about HB 2127 on June 8th, " How the Texas GOP lit its hair, and every Texan's local control on fire ."

Actor, comedian, and supreme ad-libber, Alan Arkin died last week. Some of us took the opportunity to celebrate his life by watching the film released during the Cold War in 1966 that jettisoned Arkin's career. The hilarious "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming," was a smash hit. It also hit a nail in these times. Besides the performances of the legendary cast -- almost all of them long gone from this world -- is the comic relief in America's conflicted relationship with the "Ruskies." In the film, the Russians came and went, peacefully. Click on the picture to watch the 4-minute trailer. The full film can be viewed on Tubi. Farewell and sail on, Alan Arkin .

It is a great irony that George Beebe , former Advisor to Dick Cheney , serves as the Director of Grand Strategy at the cross-partisan think tank founded in 2019 by billionaires George Soros and Charles Koch . The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft appears to be the adult in the room on US foreign policy, advocating diplomacy before military interventions in service of ending endless war. Regardless of who is responsible for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, the Texas oil and gas is the main source of energy (LNG -- liquified natural gas) for Europe at a great price to Europeans and Texans. Revisit Part 4 of Paul Robbins ' series Come This Winter , for which LIV gave our Energy Series of the Year recognition. Texas is not only exporting LNG out the yin-yang to Europe, oil and gas operations are also destroying and polluting land and precious water resources in the Permian Basin in Texas. This is an incalculable cost that Texas lobby King -- the Texas Oil and Gas Association -- does not us Texans to consider as a subsidy for their profit. This inconvenient truth explains to us why oil and gas attorney, Sarah Stogner , was so desperate to blow the whistle about it she stripped down to pasties to ride a pump jack to advertise her campaign for Railroad Commission in the 2022 Republican primary. What Beebe Said in Service of Ending Endless War Watch the video starting at 37:38 for the two-minute segment. Beebe Excerpt : "Now whether the US did that or not, I think is very much an open question but the old question of who benefits from something like this, there’s no question, the Ukrainians benefited from the destruction of Nord Stream. And the US did as well. We’re now the primary supplier of natural gas to Europe through our own Liquid Natural Gas capabilities at much higher prices to the Europeans and to considerable benefit to the US Energy sector." Note : Few, including Beebe, believe Russia would blow up its own pipeline. Ukraine, according to Beebe, did not have the ability to pull off such an operation. Apparently, Beebe did not buy the leak by the CIA that it was a Ukrainian General who acted without Zelensky's knowledge. Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, wrote an extensive article with information from an anonymous source, claiming it was the US. The iconic journalist was forced to publish the article on Substack. Most Important: Beebe lays out that both the US and Russia have missed key opportunities to engage in the fundamentals required in peaceful international conflict resolution -- diplomacy. We suggest you read Beebe's June 28 article, " Beware a Wounded Putin ." Don't Miss This Report on Pentagon Spending from the Quincy Institute: More Money, Less Security: Pentagon Spending and Strategy in the Biden Administration From the Report : " The United States could mount a robust defense for far less money if it pursued a more restrained strategy that takes a more realistic view of the military challenges posed by Russia and China, relies more heavily on allies to provide for the defense of their own regions, shifts to a deterrence–only nuclear strategy, and emphasizes diplomacy over force or threats of force to curb nuclear proliferation. This approach could save at least $1.3 trillion over the next decade, funds that could be invested in other areas of urgent national need. But making a shift of this magnitude will require political and budgetary reforms to reduce the immense power of the arms lobby. " Quincy Institute Update, June 29 : Pentagon Authorization Bill Deserves to be Defeated Ending Endless War in Texas From the LIV Texas Independent Voter Survey : "On a 1 to 5 scale, 5 is the most agreement, how much do you agree with this statement: If we're serious about ending endless war, Americans must have more political options to vote for that can compete with our two corporate-dominated major parties." Access the Texas Independent Voter Survey here.