From the Right 01 May 2022
Just a few days ago, Elon Musk closed on his deal to acquire Twitter in an effort to protect Free Speech. Anyone familiar with social media should be familiar with Fact Checkers, having post deleted or restricted, the closing of accounts or even the dreaded Facebook Jail. All forms of punishment from the liberal left for anyone who fails to tow the liberal line and talk the liberal talk.
Only a short week later Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the formation of the Disinformation Governance Board, an agency Mayorkas claims will not spy on or censure American citizens but rather drug cartels, Russians and the Chinese. The newly appointed Czar is Nina Jankowicz who is a faithful and loyal liberal who supports Democrats, and has praised efforts to crackdown on her idea of Corona virus misinformation on social media while also proclaiming the Hunter Biden's laptop was nothing more than a made up Russian story. We now know that much of the government corona virus propaganda was highly inaccurate and nothing short of confusing. We also know that Hunters laptop was entirely real, Hunter was on the take with our foreign enemies and Hunter is under a number of Federal investigations. Upon the announcement of this new bureaucracy and it's new Czar, Elon Musk proclaimed it was “messed up”. Many likened this new agency to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwells book “1984” and Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo) said, ”Rather than policing our border, Homeland Security has decided to make policing Americans speech it's top priority”.
Concerning the Disinformation Board, a recent report in the Western Journal said, “ it is difficult to know whether to laugh or cry when you realize the person chosen to lead this group labeled Hunter Biden's laptop as Disinformation”. The Washington Examiner reported that Ms. Jankowicz praised Christopher Steele's fake dossier, funded by the Clinton Foundation claiming collusion between Trump and the Russians often reported as Russia Russia Russia.
On a different note, in recent days many if not all property owners have received their new property appraisal notices. It has been reported by multiple media sources across the state that proposed values have increase as much as 30% in many areas. Finding ways to end or greatly reduce the property tax burden was a 2020 Legislative Priority of the Republican Party yet largely ignored by Texas highest elected officials along with the Republican controlled legislature. One of the big taxpayer complaints is “Corporate Welfare”. While property owner taxes continue to increase, all levels of government make economic incentive deals with big business. These deals are made under Chapter 313 of the Tax Code and Chapter 380/381 of the Local Government Code. A recent example of the tax giveaways occurred in Williamson County just North of Austin where tech giant Apple was given 65% off their building property taxes for a period of 15 years amounting to more than a $16 million break for Apple who has a revenue of over $265 billion annually. Government officials using the 20 year old Texas Enterprise Fund have now given away over $650 million in tax breaks to huge corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Emerson and IKEA while continually increasing taxes on Texas homeowners. Market Watch magazine reported on May 1, 2022 that foreclosure fillings on homes is up 132% over last year. This is the first increase in more than 10 years with more than 7000 filings in March 2022 and more than 78,000 in the first quarter of 2022.
With the current Biden induced inflation, the higher prices of fuel, groceries, credit interest rates and taxes along with the taxpayer burden of supporting millions of illegal aliens, one could rightly expect the foreclosure rates to continue skyrocketing. Returning government to the control of fiscally conservative Republicans is the only solution to the impending economic collapse. We can not continue to give away more than we have.
Terry Harper, State Republican Executive Committee Chairman for Senate District 21