Daily Archives: May 27, 2022

This year, the American Conservative Union decided to hold one of its Conservative Political Action Conference gatherings in Hungary. The group met last week in Budapest, guests of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who since winning back office in 2010 has led the country away from liberal democracy toward a system he proudly calls illiberal democracy.

Of course, with its endemic corruption, repression of sexual minorities, de facto state control of media, constitutional manipulation and an electoral system designed to give supermajorities to the ruling party whether the votes are there or not, there is little that is democratic about Orbans democracy.

For American conservatives, however, the degradation of Hungarian democracy is a feature, not a bug, of Orbans rule.

Hungary isnt a particularly large country (by population, its about the size of Michigan) or a particularly rich one (its gross domestic product puts it somewhere between Nebraska and Kansas), but it is a showcase for how a reactionary movement in an ostensibly free society might seize control of the state to reshape society in its own image. And the goal, for both Orban and his American admirers, is the suppression of wokeness, a pejorative term for a broad range of progressive ideas about race, gender and sexuality. This includes, for some, the mere existence of L.G.B.T. people on an equal basis.

That shared goal of suppressing wokeness is why Tucker Carlson, one of the most prominent conservatives in the United States, hosted his show from Hungary for a week last year. If you care about Western civilization and democracy and families and the ferocious assault on all three of those things by the leaders of our global institutions, Carlson told his audience at the time, you should know what is happening here right now. Its also why Rod Dreher, a popular conservative blogger and author, wrote that his readers ought to be beating a path to Hungary. And its why Donald Trump endorsed Orbans re-election campaign not once but twice.

Which is to say that this CPAC session may have been held in Hungary so that conservatives can learn a little more about how they might unravel American democracy in order to impose their cultural and ideological vision on the country. They even got a little encouragement from Orban himself. We need to take back the institutions in Washington and Brussels, he said in opening remarks on Thursday. We need to find friends, and we need to find allies. We need to coordinate the movement of our troops, because we have a big challenge ahead of us. Attendees heard from Trump, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and Carlson himself, whom Orban singled out for praise: His program is the most watched. What does it mean? It means programs like his should be broadcast day and night. Or as you say, 24/7.

Whats striking about this display of longing and affection for Orbans regime beyond the obvious spectacle of people who are ostensibly American nationalists working in concert with a foreign autocrat is how it underscores a defining trait of conservative populists, if not conservative populism itself. For all the talk of America First, there is a deep disdain among members of this group for both Americans and the American political tradition.

This disdain is evident in how they talk about their political opponents. They routinely place entire groups of citizens outside of the political community. Carlson, for example, said on a recent episode of his show that pro-choice Democrats are totalitarians who hope to destroy religious belief in the United States.

As president, Trump routinely held out his opposition as a threat to the very integrity of the United States. Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children, he said in a speech on July 4, 2020. The culprits? Angry mobs and radicals he identified with liberal Democrats. Less high-profile but still telling was the assertion from a writer at the Claremont Institute, an influential pro-Trump think tank in Southern California, that most people living in the United States today certainly more than half are not Americans in any meaningful sense of the term.

To all of this add the fact that so many populist and Trump-aligned conservatives have embraced the great replacement conspiracy theory, which treats American pluralism and diversity as an existential challenge to the nation itself.

As for conservative populist disdain for the American political tradition? Thats evident in the way conservatives have turned to Hungary for guidance in the first place, praising a minor strongman as if he were a figure of world historical significance.

That said, you can almost forgive conservatives for looking to Europe for intellectual inspiration. As the historian Barbara Fields observed in a 1990 essay for New Left Review, the only historical ground that might have nourished a tradition of thorough, consistent and honest political conservatism in the United States was the slave society of the South. But that society, she wrote, was contaminated by the need to humor the democratic aspirations of a propertied, enfranchised and armed white majority. This contradiction has left us with a world in which only a few conservatives are willing to argue on principle that hereditary inequality and subordination should be the lot of the majority, even if thats where their politics ultimately lead.

It makes sense, then, that authoritarian-minded conservatives would try to import or imitate a politics and ideology like this one rather than root it in the soil from which it actually grew. As explicitly autocratic as Orbanism is, aping it still affords a level of plausible deniability that a more homegrown politics of reaction might lack.

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Opinion | Viktor Orban, Tucker Carlson and Some Conservatives Went to a Conference - The New York Times

From left: Dem. Jay Kleberg, George P. Bush, and Rep. Dawn Buckingham (Jay4TX.com, Twitter/DrBuckinghamTX, Gage Skidmore/via Wikimedia Commons, iStock)

The next battle for control of the Alamo isnt between Davy Crockett and Santa Anna, but between a conservationist and a MAGA firebrand.

The race has gone from 12 candidates eight Republicans and four Democrats to two Austin natives. Come November, either Democrat Jay Kleberg or Republican Dawn Buckingham will be elected the next Land Commissioner of Texas.

In Texas, land is everything. The state accounted for 14.6 percent of total U.S. land sales in 2021, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. The Texas General Land Office (GLO) manages about 13 million acres of state land and the preservation of the Alamo. Its commissioner will oversee state veterans programs, the distribution of disaster relief funds, and the leases and sales of publicly owned land, which are used to fund Texas public schools.

Kleberg, the former associate director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, wants to utilize state land leases to store carbon emissions and develop renewable forms of energy like wind and solar. Kleberg is closely tied to conservation, as he not only serves on the boards of a number of environmental non-profits but his family owns the sprawling King Ranch in Kingsville a longstanding bastion of conservation. He also promises to strengthen the Permanent School Fund, provide low-interest land loans and housing to veterans, and ensure Houston and Harris County receive their proper share of disaster relief funds.

Dr. Buckingham, the first Travis County Republican elected to the Texas State Senate, prides herself on being a conservative fighter against the liberal Austin and Washington, DC elite, per her website. The few items of the Trump-endorsed candidates platform that actually fall under GLOs purview include historical preservation of the Alamo and strengthening the border.

The previous commissioner, George P. Bush son of Jeb Bush vacated the office to challenge scandal-ridden incumbent Ken Paxton for state Attorney General. He lost the runoff on Tuesday.

Bushs 2015 Alamo preservation plans were plagued with accusations of mismanagement and sparked intense Republican infighting. But that saga pales in comparison to the former commissioners 2021 scandal surrounding federal disaster relief funds. Houston and Harris County were oddly excluded from the list of 81 communities receiving $4.3 billion intended for Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts.

Earlier this month, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development deemed the exclusion of those majority Black and Hispanic urban communities to be discriminatory, concluding that the state shifted money away from the areas and people that needed it the most, disproportionately benefiting White residents living in smaller towns.

Contact Maddy Sperling

Original post:

Stakes are high in race for Texas Land Commissioner - The Real Deal

CAWKER CITY, Kansas One day in 1973, The Wall Street Journal published a review of Kansas tourist attractions.

It was not kind.

Kansas is trying to promote tourism, the Journal noted, but it really doesnt have a heck of a lot to promote.

The column singled out the godfathers of Kansas roadside tourism the Worlds Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, the Worlds Largest Hand-Dug Well in Greensburg and the folk art town of Lucas for particular ridicule, with pause breaks in the spots where the Journal expected its audience to chuckle at Kansas expense.

Local newspapers from Salina to Lawrence to Atchison responded swiftly and defensively, standing up for the states quirky attractions and the simpler-times spirit they represent.

If modern Kansas only had some outdoor privies, the Atchison Daily Globe quipped, we would recommend a use for this Wall Street Journal.

As it happens, the town of Elk Falls in southeast Kansas bills itself as the states outhouse capital and celebrates its collection of privies with an annual festival.

No matter how kitschy, these offbeat attractions can offer a boost to rural economies. Dozens of Kansas towns take advantage of their locations to tempt travelers to spend a few dollars while driving through flyover country, often on their way to somewhere more glamorous.

Just as importantly, the sites give communities something to rally around and a feeling that their hometown no matter how overlooked deserves a nod from the outside world.

We hear that, Oh, its just a hole in the ground, said Stacy Barnes with a laugh. Shes the city administrator for the town with the Worlds Largest Hand-Dug Well. Well, its true. But it is ours.

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

For rural areas that have seen a steady exodus of residents since their populations peaked more than a century ago, finding some way to bring in more revenue is a matter of survival. And for better or worse, Kansas isnt blessed with the mountains or beaches that seem to effortlessly lure crowds of tourists to other places.

So if small towns around here want to stand out, theyve had to come up with their own larger-than-life wonders to put themselves on the map.

Like a cowboy boot spur big enough to drive a semi-truck through (Abilene). An easel taller than an eight-story building (Goodland). A souvenir travel plate made from a 14-foot satellite dish (Lucas).

Or a ball of farmers twine the size of a shuttle bus.

You do what you can with what you have, ball caretaker Linda Clover said. And we have a ball of twine.

Going big

Despite decades of doubters and the Wall Street Journals best efforts, the quirky attractions dotting Kansas roadsides may still have the last laugh.

A sign next to the Ball of Twine today credits that Journal article with single-handedly elevating the sites fame nationwide, setting off waves of out-of-state visitors that now stream through this tiny north-central Kansas town by the thousands each year.

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

Along the side of the highway that leads into Cawker Citys three-block downtown, the giant ball is impossible to miss. From its hilltop shrine next to an auto repair shop, it glows in the afternoon sun like an oatmeal-colored lighthouse beam beckoning travelers to drop anchor.

A retired school librarian who grew up in the next town, Clover took on the mantle of caring for Cawker Citys pride and joy more than two decades ago. She now lives close enough to the ball that, when she sees people stop by, she usually pops over with one of her twine spools and shows the visitors how to tie on their own piece.

I call myself the crazy twine lady, Clover said. Im the belle of the ball.

This ball got rolling back in 1953 when a local farmer, Frank Stoeber, became sick of tripping over extra bits of twine leftover from tying up his hay bales. So he began winding those scraps into a ball. Soon, that ball grew big enough to fill a barn door.

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

A few years later, Cawker City invited Stoeber to haul the ball into town to show it off in a parade celebrating Kansas centennial. And thus, one of the most famous tourist attractions in Kansas was born.

While the population of Cawker City has shrunk by more than one-third since that ridicule from The Wall Street Journal, the Ball of Twines size has ballooned along with its fame.

It now weighs north of 27,000 pounds, more than five Ford F-150 pickup trucks. And if you unraveled its 8.5 million feet of coiled twine, it would stretch from Cawker City, past New Yorks Wall Street and all the way to the eastern tip of Long Island.

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

A glance through the balls guestbook (yes, the Ball of Twine has its own guestbook) shows dozens of visitors from as far away as Oregon, Florida and Italy. In just a few days.

During the peak summer season, Clover said, it brings in around 200 travelers a day in a town of only 457 residents.

I have had people so excited they could hardly wait for the car to stop so they could come and see it, Clover said. And they keep coming.

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

Its a similar story at the Worlds Largest Hand-Dug Well, which last year drew 10,455 visitors from all 50 states and 14 countries to Greensburg, a town of just 740 people east of Dodge City. Out-of-state visitors far outnumber Kansans.

Jack Benigno, from Californias San Joaquin Valley, already visited the well six years ago. But when he planned this road trip through southwest Kansas which included another quirky stop at Liberals Land of Oz he purposefully made time to descend into Greensburgs hole in the ground once more.

I love it, Benigno said. And I love Kansas.

The well also has the distinction of being the oldest worlds largest thing in Kansas.

It dates back to the 1880s when Greensburgs founders sought a way to attract more people to their new town. So they carved out the type of sensational water source thatd be something to write home about.

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

And as the name suggests, the massive well 109 feet deep by 32 feet wide was hand-dug. That meant teams of men shoveling out and carting up countless loads of dirt until they reached the Ogallala aquifer.

Visitors who come to the Big Well today follow in those footsteps, down a 120-step staircase that spirals its way toward the water table.

Barnes, who directed the well museum for 10 years before becoming Greensburgs city administrator, has walked up and down these steps countless times.

Its just mind-blowing, Barnes said, gazing up from the final step near the bottom of the well, how they would have done it with nothing but hand tools and oxen.

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

The well didnt last too long as a water source for Greensburgs residents. But in 1939, it got a second chance at life as a tourist attraction.

By 1956, the well had welcomed 1 million visitors.

In 2021, the museums admission fees and gift shop sales brought in more than $215,000 to this tiny community. And that doesnt count the money tourists inevitably spent at nearby restaurants, hotels and gas stations before or after their stop at the well.

It still keeps our community viable, just in a different way, Barnes said. Not for water, but for tourism.

Kansas Tourism spokesperson Colby Sharples-Terry said these types of oddball attractions can translate into real economic benefits for small towns.

And shes glad to see so many rural Kansas communities get serious about finding unique ways to stand out, even if those ways might seem unorthodox.

They know that without change, Sharples-Terry said, the towns gonna die.

According to the states most recent data, tourisms per capita economic impact in Kiowa County home to the Big Well is $1,651 a year. Thats more than three times the $544 per capita tourism impact in Edwards County next door. And that far surpasses other nearby counties in rural southwest Kansas like Comanche ($913) and Clark ($337).

Its the same story for Cawker City. Tourisms annual per capita economic impact in Mitchell County home to the Ball of Twine is $1,425. Thats way more than neighboring counties Jewell ($655), Lincoln ($520) and Ottawa ($422).

And even though the tourism dollars Cawker City and Greensburg generate may pale in comparison to bigger cities, Sharples-Terry said that revenue adds up here in ways that it wouldnt elsewhere.

If you go to Los Angeles, they wont know that youre there, Sharples-Terry said. But if you go to Lucas and visit these sites and eat lunch, that is directly impacting that community so much more.

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

Small town superlatives

So what is it about these worlds largest attractions that has kept them relevant and profitable for so many years?

And why is Kansas and the middle of the country, more broadly such a hot spot for them?

Thats something Erika Nelson has pondered quite a bit during her time as a rural artist and worlds-largest-things aficionado.

Kansans will try the craziest ideas in a very serious way, Nelson said. The naysayers get shut down pretty quickly.

She would know.

Nelsons not only a fan of the worlds largest stuff. She also created one of the quirkiest giants in Kansas: the Worlds Largest Souvenir Travel Plate that greets travelers from the side of the highway as they drive into Lucas (population 394).

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

With an old phone company satellite dish as her canvas, Nelson painted it in the style of the gift shop tchotchkes tourists have taken home to their curio cabinets for decades.

True to form, she decorated it with a collage of illustrations that tell the story of Lucas from the towns over-the-top public restroom in the shape of a giant toilet (Bowl Plaza) to a mini Mount Rushmore replica a local artist built in her backyard to the Garden of Edens psychedelic-populist concrete sculptures, which put Lucas on the folk art map more than a century ago.

On Main Street, stands Nelsons other Kansas landmark: a very meta shrine to oversized kitsch called the Worlds Largest Collection of Worlds Smallest Versions of Worlds Largest Things.

Inside, a wall-sized U.S. map marks each worlds largest things location with a red dot. Kansas has a lot of red.

The Northeast doesnt have that same sort of need to prove themselves in a big manner, Nelson said. But theres this line from Texas up through Minnesota that is just littered with worlds largest things.

Nelson said these colossal creations particularly resonate with people in Kansas and other parts of Middle America because they elevate the ordinary.

In a region perceived as reserved and understated, she said, putting up the Worlds Largest Baseball (Muscotah) or Liberty Bell Made of Wheat (Goessel) offers a subtle way to show pride in accomplishing something extraordinary and unexpected in an often-overlooked place.

Its almost like a humblebrag, Nelson said. Its a lot of normal people living their lives who suddenly have this spark and say, Hey, you know what would make this really great? Put an -est on it."

David Condos

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Kansas News Service

Nelsons fascination with superlatives things bestowed with the title of worlds largest, smallest, tallest, etc. began as a kid.

She learned to navigate her small hometown in central Missouri based on the towns water tower, which had been painted by a local billiards factory into the worlds largest 8-ball. Then when she visited her grandparents in Minnesota, catching her first glimpse of the worlds largest Paul Bunyon statue let her know her destination grew near.

As a grad student studying art, Nelson began crafting her own diminutive versions of the worlds largest things as keepsakes from her travels starting with the one thats less than an hour from her home: Cawker Citys Ball of Twine.

That was more than two decades ago. She has now created close to 250 of these miniature replicas.

Once Nelson had enough fun-sized water towers and Paul Bunyans to start sharing her collection, she packed them up as a traveling roadshow. Sometimes she displayed them at official superlative events, like the giant ketchup bottle festival in Illinois, or at pop-up shows she held out of the bus that doubled as her living quarters.

David Condos

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'A hole in the ground' and other quirky curiosities mean money and pride for small Kansas towns - KCUR

After voters in Douglas and Josephine counties rejected the idea of joining Idaho last week, a group trying to change Oregons eastern boundary is giving up on extending the Gem State to the Pacific Ocean.

Votes for the Greater Idaho movement in nine counties, including Klamath County last week, cant actually change Oregons borders. That would take the Oregon and Idaho legislatures and an act of Congress. But supporters of creating a sprawling, conservative and mostly rural Idaho and a compact, more urban, liberal Oregon say each vote sends a message to legislators to act.

A new proposal from Citizens for Greater Idaho in response to last weeks election results would leave the Cascade Mountains and all the land to the west with Oregon. Bend and Sisters would also remain with Oregon despite being on the east side of the mountains, and Jefferson and Wasco counties would be divided. In all, about 386,000 of Oregons 4.1 million people and 63% of the states land would become part of Idaho.

Mike McCarter, president of Citizens for Greater Idaho, said hes looking for Oregon legislators to sponsor a resolution next spring to begin talks with Idaho about moving the border. State Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, last year told constituents he would introduce such a resolution if county commissioners asked, though he doesnt personally support the idea of moving the states borders.

McCarter said southern Oregon was welcome to join if voters change their minds, but he wants to focus on the eastern Oregon counties that have already indicated interest.

Eastern Oregon has consistently voted in favor and so we want eastern Oregons request to join Idaho to be heard, he said. Theres only a few counties left in eastern Oregon that havent gotten a chance to vote on Greater Idaho yet.

So far, voters in Baker, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Sherman and Union counties have voted to require county commissioners to regularly discuss changing state borders.

Douglas County voters last week voted against a measure that would have authorized the county to spend money lobbying the state and federal governments to change the boundaries. Josephine County residents voted no to a question poised by county commissioners, who asked whether Josephine County and other rural counties should separate from Oregon.

McCarter plans to submit signatures this week to put the question on Morrow Countys ballot. Hes close to having enough signatures to ask Wallowa voters, who rejected the idea once, to reconsider.

The Oregon Capital Chronicle, like the Idaho Capital Sun, is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Les Zaitz for questions: [emailprotected] Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.

Original post:

After Election Day defeats, 'Greater Idaho' backers done trying to reach Oregon coast - Idaho Capital Sun

The final Republican and Democratic primary contests in Texas were decided on Tuesday, rounding out the general election ballot for both major parties.

Republicans are aiming to further cement their control of state politics and fend off challenges from Democrats, who are seeking to win a statewide election for the first time in nearly three decadesand make gains in the Legislature after Republicans redrew political maps last year to createfewer competitive statehouse districts.

Here's a look at the statewide match-ups Texas voters will see on their ballots in November:

The marquee race is at the top of the ticket. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is seeking athird termand is facing a challenge from Democrat Beto ORourke, a former El Paso congressman who lost a U.S. Senate bid and bowed out of the 2020 presidential race.

Both candidates are political heavyweights in their own right, with reputations as prolific fundraisers who can mobilize their respective bases.

Republicans are eager to deny ORourke a victory for the third time in as many election cycles, while Democrats are betting on ORourke to close the gap and prove the party still has a fighting chance at winninga statewide election.

In March, Abbotts team promised a high-dollar campaign and a tough-fought election.In the months since, both Abbott and ORourke have been on the attack.

Abbotts campaign has worked to paint ORourke as a radical liberal who is out of touch with the needs of everyday Texans. The governor has attacked ORourkes stance on the border and gun control frequently reminding voters of a now infamous remark ORourke made at a debate during his short-lived campaign for president.

Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47," ORourke said during the debate. We're not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore."

For his part, ORourke has oscillated his focus on different issues in the race, looking to turn outrage into mobilization overlast years deadly winter storms, reports of abuse atstate facilities charged with caring for foster children, andAbbotts actions at the border.

His latest focus has been abortion, in light of a recent leak of a draft majority opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court indicating that justices are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.

ORourke has criticized Abbott for signing into law one of the nations strictest abortion laws, which prohibits the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.

Embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton cruised to victory over Land Commissioner George P. Bush during their closely watched runoff election for attorney general.

Paxton, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, will face Rochelle Garza, a former ACLU of Texas lawyer, in November.

Garza easily defeated Joe Jaworski, formerGalveston mayor andgrandson of Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, in the Democratic runoff.

Paxton who has been charged withtwo counts of securities fraud and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators based on private business deals from 2010 and 2011 emphasized his lawsuits against the Biden administration during the campaign and said Tuesday that hes locked into the fight to save our country.

"I had the chance to again travel the state and just connect to people who realize this country is in trouble, Paxton said during a victory celebration in Cedar Park. We're in trouble but we have hope. We have a state that will fight and who will elect leaders who will go fight, and the entire reason I decidedto run for another term was so we could go fight together."

Garza focused her election night remarks on Paxton, stating that the incumbent is corrupt and unfit to hold public office and cares more about lobbyists and donors than the lives of our children.

He has abused the AG office for political gain and forgotten the struggles of everyday Texans, she said in a statement. That changes once we vote him out in November.

The race for lieutenant governor will be a rematch between Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Democrat Mike Collier, who first challenged the Republican incumbent in 2018.

Patrick won his primary outright, and Collier secured the Democratic Party nomination during a runoff Tuesday.

Collier, an accountant and former chief financial officer of an oil company, came within 4.9 points of unseating Patrick in 2018 and has been itching for a rematch in the years since.

This November, Texans will have to answer one simple question: are they better off now than they were eight years ago? Collier said in a statement. With exploding property taxes, chaos at the border, a rickety power grid, our public schools suffering, and our constitutional rights under assault, the fact is Texas cannot bear four more years of Dan Patrick. And after the tragic events of today, we are reminded once again we can and must do better for the people of Texas.

Wayne Christian fended off a challenge from Sarah Stogner in the Republican runoff Tuesday, clearing the path for him to continue his bid for reelection to the Railroad Commission,which regulatesthe states oil and gas industry.

Christian will face Democrat Luke Warford, who has worked in energy consulting, technology and politics.

Christian has served for more than five years on the three-person panel.

Christian and the other commissioners have faced searing criticism over the past year for the role natural gas producers played in widespread blackouts during the deadly February 2021 freeze.

"It's been the honor of my life to serve as our states 50th Railroad Commissioner," Christian said in a tweet. "I look forward to continue fighting for cheap, plentiful, reliable energy, as we stand up to the Bidens radical liberal agenda."

Warford, who worked as an organizer with the Obama campaign in Ohio and for the Clinton campaign in 2016, said the freeze that crippledmuch of Texasinspired him to run for office.

Two-term incumbent Sid Miller will face Democrat Susan Hays in November, after he fendedoff a primary challenge from state Rep. James White, R-Hillister, earlier this year.

Miller, who has been endorsed by Trump, is known for his inflammatory remarks and social media posts. The dominant issue of his primary campaign was the indictment of Miller's longtime political adviser amidallegations of soliciting bribesin exchange for hemp licenses from the state agency.

Hays is an attorneywhose recent focus includes cannabis. She was a key force in drafting a 2019 state law authorizing the production, manufacture and retail sale of hemp crops and products.

Republican Dawn Buckingham and Democrat Jay Kleberg secured their respective parties nominations for Texas land commissioner on Tuesday and will go head-to-head in November.

The Texas land commissioner heads the General Land Office, which is tasked with stewarding public lands and related efforts such as distributing disaster relief funds, state veteran programs and public school funding from the lease of state lands.

In recent years, the General Land Office has gained attention for its role in the management of the Alamo as some questionedredevelopment plans for the tourist attraction and the framing of the historic site in Texas history.

Buckingham is a state senator fromLakeway, and Kleberg isa conservationist and filmmaker who is part of thefamily that hasowned the famous King Ranch in South Texas for generations. He lives in Austin.

Democrat Janet Dudding won Tuesdays runoff for Texas comptroller of public accounts and will face-off against incumbent Republican Glenn Hegar in November.

The comptroller is responsible for tax collection and produces revenue projections for state lawmakers as they craft the states biennial budget.

REPUBLICAN RUNOFF

Attorney General

Ken Paxton:1,389

George P. Bush:644

Commissioner of General Land Office

Dawn Buckingham:1,415

Tim Westley: 455

Railroad Commissioner

Wayne Christian: 1,190

Sarah Stogner 734

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2

David Martin: 413

Chris Evans: 228

DEMOCRATIC RUNOFF

Lieutenant Governor

Mike Collier: 91

Michelle Beckley: 49

Attorney General

Rochelle Mercedes Garza: 71

Loe Jaworski: 69

Comptroller of Public Accounts

Janet T. Dudding: 100

Angel Luis Vega: 39

Commissioner of General Land Office

Jay Kleberg: 80

Sandragrace Martinez: 59

Continue reading here:

With the runoffs decided, stage is set for the November election in Texas - Stephenville Empire-Tribune

I have immense respect for Jim Allan not least because hes one of the board members to whom I answer in my role at The Samuel Griffith Society but I disagree with his and others prescription that the well-off rich now vote solidly Leftand the Liberal Party should give up on trying to win back its traditional well-heeled metropolitan heartland.

In Kooyong, 42 per cent of voters at this election remained loyal to the Liberal Party despite huge national and state-wide swings against the government and a zealous and well-funded, multi-million-dollar Teal campaign. Five in six votes for newly elected Teal MP Monique Ryan came at the expense of Labor and the Greens. Labors primary plummeted to less than 6.5 per cent and the Greens were all but wiped out to less than 6 per cent.

The same is true in the Sydney seat of Mackellar, where 42 per cent of voters stuck with the Liberal Party, while Labor and the Greens both lost more than half their vote to finish on a combined 13 per cent primary. Nowhere in the country does the Coalition poll so low.

Even in Greens Leader Adam Bandts seat of Melbourne the Liberal Party managed more than 14 per cent. It managed almost 16 per cent in the Prime Ministers inner Sydney seat of Grayndler. That Labor the party of government both nationally and in Victoria managed only a smidge over 6 per cent in Kooyong with two local state MPs in Paul Hamer and John Kennedy cannot be overlooked.

The same is true in the newly-Teal seats of Curtin, Goldstein, and Wentworth, where there are still 23 Liberal voters for every 10 Labor/Greens loyalists. While the loss of these seats is an undeniably bad result for the Liberal Party, to write off these seats is to misunderstand the message voters in these communities have sent at the ballot box.

At least four in ten voters in traditional Liberal heartland seats clearly no longer identify with either major party. And the Liberal Party must change in response. But do the maths. To reclaim seats like Kooyong and Mackellar, the Liberal Party needs to win back only one in four of these swinging voters. Liberals in these seats still outnumber Labor/Greens voters more than three to one. Its premature to concede that these seats are gone for good.

Traditionally Liberal seats in places like Melbournes inner East, Sydneys North Shore, and Perths Golden Triangle are unlikely to be safe again for the foreseeable future. That doesnt mean that they should be written off and abandoned to Teal MPs for a generation.

Instead, the message for remaining and aspiring Liberal MPs in these areas is that they must be more attentive to their communities. They must expect to work as hard as any other marginal seat MP to engage with their constituents not just in the weeks leading up to an election, but for their full terms. This may be a hard pill to swallow for some, but gone are the days of MPs swanning about taking Liberal voters in safe seats for granted.

Its true that voters in these areas have not suffered as much during successive lockdowns as blue-collar workers in the outer suburbs, but that doesnt mean that they arent concerned about rapidly increasing Labor taxes like Daniel Andrews latest land tax hike or the threat of an Albanese government introducing death duties and rampant inflation.

Those calling for the Liberal Party to shift out to the outer suburbs and regions are ignoring reality. With two in three Australians living in the nations capital cities, there just arent enough votes in these areas for the Coalition to reliably win government into the future.

Its even worse in Victoria, with three in four Victorians living in Melbourne. The Coalition could win all eight of Labors outer suburban seats in which there was even a modest swing against Labor on Saturday (an outcome about as likely as Anthony Albanese bringing in a flat income tax, given the partys 26.6 per cent average primary in these areas) and still hold fewer than half of federal seats in Victoria if it fails to win back the seats it lost in the inner Eastern suburbs.

The reality is that its easy to blame-shifting demographics for the Liberal Partys current woes, but this wont help it return to government. Its clear that the Coalition must become more competitive in traditionally Labor outer suburban and regional areas, but this shouldnt be framed as needing to come at the expense of traditionally Liberal areas. Instead, Liberal candidates need to accept that they must be more responsive to their communities and must work harder to sell real Liberal values in their electorates.

Xavier Boffa is the Executive Director of The Samuel Griffith Society and a former national president of the Australian Liberal Students Federation.

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Recapturing the Liberal heartland - The Spectator Australia

Outgoing Liberal MP Tim Wilson has urged his party not to go backwards on climate change, arguing the Coalition must remain relevant to the debate on how best to hit Australias emissions targets.

Wilson, a moderate Liberal who lost his affluent bayside seat of Goldstein to teal independent Zoe Daniel, told the National Energy Efficiency Conference on Thursday that his party must not water down its promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero in net terms by 2050.

The outgoing Federal Member for Goldstein Tim Wilson with husband Ryan Bolger at Green Point in Brighton after conceding to independent Zoe DanielCredit:PENNY STEPHENS

I dont think we should go backwards on our position, he said. I dont think anyone serious is entertaining that.

He warned the Coalitions stance on climate change would be informed by what the new government does and how it seeks to be implemented it.

I think what our role has to be is really to give the communities that are left represented by the Coalition a voice in the conversation, to make sure that theyre not lost because thats always been my fear.

Wilson, who said he was coming to terms with his election loss, said corporate Australia had been moving ahead anyway on climate change, warning the Coalition must not be left behind.

He said people had underestimated the achievement of getting a firm commitment to net-zero emissions.

One of the achievements of our net-zero target was ... not just that we got it, we got everybody on the same page, but unlike other countries, we then were we werent in looking to backslide.

So I think weve kind of underestimated how powerful that is, and about how also important its going to be continuing to build the structures to actually achieve it now.

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As it happened: Anthony Albanese back in Australia as Penny Wong jets off to Fiji; Peter Dutton to run unopposed for Liberal leadership - Brisbane...

By Jessica R. Durling-Local Journalism Initiative reporter May 27, 2022 - Brampton, Mississauga

In an effort to provide voters with the information they need to know about incumbents and new candidates this election, The Pointer will be looking at Peels 12 ridings and how candidates in Ontarios four big parties plan to help their future constituents.

Gurratan Singh has held a strong social media and public presence, being the brother of federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, he won his big brothers old riding in 2018, also representing the NDP, with 47 percent of the votes cast.

There were a total of 38,495 valid votes cast, just over half of the registered voting population of 71,695.

Brampton East has a rapidly growing population, with many new voters likely to cast ballots on June 2. Census data showed that the population grew by 22.4 percent from 2011 to 2016, from 99,712 residents to 122,000.

While Gurratan Singh is returning to the ballot, his will be the only name from 2018, with the other three parties introducing new candidates: Hardeep Grewal for the Conservatives, Jannat Garewal for the Liberals and Jamaal Blackwood for the Greens.

The highly contentious Highway 413 project is a top-line election issue.

(MapEnvironmental Defence)

It is one of three 400-series highways being planned by the PCs that will run partially through Ontarios protected Greenbelt.

The proposed route is expected to cause significant environmental destruction in the headwaters of key watersheds that support much of the biodiversity in southern Ontario.

Research spearheaded by the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition shows the highway alone would pave over 2,200 acres of Greenbelt land.

The project has been condemned by environmentalist groups, including Environmental Defence and climate law group Ecojustice, who have argued it would have sweeping consequences on everything from federally protected at-risk species to the health of ecologically vital lands that are also safeguarded from human activity.

Polling by EKOS for the David Suzuki Foundation found 65 percent of respondents across Ontario said Doug Ford has done a poor job of protecting the environment; 76 percent said the Greenbelt is no place for a new four-to-six-lane highway; and 69 percent said the Greenbelt needs more protection.

Both the NDP and Green Party have vowed to cancel the project.

Singh has condemned both the project, and the connection between Doug Ford and the developers pushing the planwho have donated $700,000 to the Progressive Conservatives who promise to build it.

So lets get this straight. As of now we dont know how much this proposed highway is going to cost, we dont know how much its going to cost, we also dont know how long its going to take to build it, Singh said on a video posted on May 5. The only thing we do know is developer friends are pushing as hard as they can to make it happen.

Its a particularly divisive issue in the riding because of the large number of residents who work in the transportation and logistics sector including many Punjabi-Canadian truck drivers that want to see the highway built.

The NDP vows instead to remove all tolls on Highway 407 for truckers, which the Party says will immediately end gridlock by reducing traffic on all 400 series highways in the area.

Gurratan Singh promises to remove Highway 407 tolls for truckers as their answer to the 400-seriesgridlock issue.

(Gurratan Singh/Twitter)

Representing the Conservatives is Hardeep Grewal.

Many of Grewals recent social media posts are direct retweets from Prabmeet Sarkaria, Conservative incumbent in Brampton South, and Doug Ford.

Grewal has also been an advocate for Highway 413, sharing promises that a PC government will make it a reality.

Hardeep Grewal tweeted out part of the PC commuter-driven agenda.

(Hardeep Grewal/ Twitter)

Brampton is always on the go and we need the roads, the highways, to keep Brampton moving, Sarkaria said in a video Grewal recently tweeted. Doug Ford and the Ontario PCs are saying yes. Yes to Highway 413 for Brampton, this means saying yes to saving commuters up to 30 minutes per trip, yes to creating 3,500 local jobs each year and generating over $350 million in GDP annually.

With the Liberal Party, things are a bit more complicated. While the Party itself has said it is against the project, its Brampton East candidate Jannat Garewal has vocalized her support for it, going against the platform of Steven Del Duca and the Liberals.

In a Punjabi language interview on May 11, she claimed there is no harm in building the highway.

We will definitely build this highway, but we need to focus on education first, Garewal said. Kids are our future, they will fulfill our workforce. So we want to invest in them at this time, we can build this highway later.

On May 16, Garewal tweeted, condemning the Highway 413 as wasteful, days after promising to definitely build this highway.

(Jannat Grewal/Twitter)

After public backlash, on May 16 she contradicted her earlier statements saying she fully supports the plan to scrap Highway 413. Complicating her flip-flopping, in a debate posted May 18, she returned to her earlier support, suggesting the Liberals want to construct Highway 413 after first investing in education.

I think the Liberal Party of Ontario and the Liberal leader Steven Del Duca knows that we need a university before we can start digging up a highway, then that way people can actually use the 413 and everyone can use it, not just for truckers.

The Tweet on May 16 was her first since 2018.

A previous request from The Pointer to the Ontario Liberal Party to find out why Garewal had contradicted the Party was not responded to.

Representing the Green Party this election is Jamaal Blackwood. He is a 28-year-old Toronto Metropolitan University student who believes in the ability of young people to solve todays most pressing issues, like the climate emergency and the housing affordability crisis.

(Green Party of Ontario)

The Green Party has been outspoken in its opposition to Highway 413, their website containing a petition for residents to sign to oppose the project.

Highway 413 was irresponsible the first time it was proposed under the Liberals and its no different now. But Doug Ford is all too eager to pave over the places we love, it reads.

Email: [emailprotected]

Twitter: @JessicaRDurling

COVID-19 is impacting all Canadians. At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories relating to the pandemic and those of public interestto ensure every resident of Brampton and Mississauga has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trialHERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you

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Brampton East: A riding split over a highway - The Pointer

Fashioned by Russian political theorist Alexander Dugin, Neo-Eurasianism is a rabidly anti-liberal geostrategic ideology that seeks to turn Russia into a hegemon of the new multipolar world. So just how much influence does it wield in the Kremlin?

The short answer, lots.

What is Neo-Eurasianism?

Eurasianism first came to prominence in the 1920s. As a political theory, Eurasianism posits that the Eurasian civilisation is unique from both Western European and Eastern Asian cultures, with each civilisation unique and incompatible influenced by centuries of linguistic idiosyncrasy, geography, history, and interaction of peoples.

At the time, the theory contended that the Bolshevik Revolution was a response to the Westernisation of Imperial Russia and the Tsardom, with many proponents of the theory syncretising support for the newly formed Soviet government with previous imperial ambition to advocate for a greater Russia. This support among early Eurasianist thinkers such as Nikolai Trubetzkoy later washed away as the Soviets dismantled historical elements of Russian tradition and culture such as the Russian Orthodox Church.

Though, the ideology continued during the USSR through Lev Gumilev who fostered a narrative shift among proponents of Eurasianism and Russian nationalism. According to Tristan Kenderdines review essay Lev Gumilevs Eurasianism and ethnonationalist misappropriation of historical geography, the anthropologist changed the shape of the historical geography of Russia. His work forced a paradigm shift from the orthodox historiography of Russian survival of the Mongol invasions, to a view of Russian history that better reflected the institutional interactions between Russia and Turkic and Mongol peoples on the Eurasian landmass.

As such, under Gumilevs academic leadership, the narrative of Russian nationalism shifted from ethno-centric Russianism through to the broader concept that Eurasia has been shaped by interaction of a number of local ethnographies.

This brings us to modern Neo-Eurasianist thought, fashioned by Alexander Dugin.

Dugin has a checkered political background. Kicked out of the Moscow Aviation Institute in the early 1980s for translating the works of far-right Western thinkers such as Julius Evola, Dugin later joined underground right-wing movements including the Iuzhinskii Circle and Pamiat the latter of which he was expelled from due to his tendency toward Nazism.

While being an anti-Communist (while simultaneously an avowed Stalinist), Dugin was quoted in the University of California Press as suggesting that Stalin expresses the spirit of Soviet society and the Soviet people, and was the greatest personality in Russian history.

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Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dugin turned toward political activism.

Following the creation of Dugins National Bolshevik Front in the early 1990s (NazBols), Dugin aligned his nationalist-cum-Stalinist political party with the National Salvation Front in the 1990s (a coalition of communist and nationalist groups).

While this may appear philosophically incoherent, and it is, Dugins patchwork of philosophies represent a nostalgia toward Russian strength and the belief that Eurasia should play a critical role at the centre of a new multipolar world.

This patchwork of tangential political theories and the embrace of multipolarity is tied together by the rejection of Western liberalism.

According to Andrey Tolstoy and Edmund McCaffray in the World Affairs journal, liberalism is morally wrong because it dissolves social bonds and obligations and devalues cultural legacy.

The pair notes that Neo-Eurasianism is best viewed through the lens of Dugins Fourth Political Theory which creates a new political theory alongside Marxism, fascism and liberalism upon which the ideal basis for individuals and societies is tradition, so history must therefore be the history of traditions, with politics in a secondary role. Ipso facto, this means that conflict between Atlanticism and Eurasianism can be understood as the conflict between individualistic societies and societies of tradition.

Such emphasis on this evolutionary tradition is referent on the 1920s concept of Eurasianism as noted:

As a political theory, Eurasianism posits that the Eurasian civilisation is unique from both Western European and Eastern Asian cultures, with each civilisation unique and incompatible influenced by centuries of linguistic idiosyncrasy, geography, history, and interaction of peoples.

Though, Dugins concept of the competition between Eurasianists and Atlanticists goes deeper than the battle between traditionalism and liberalism.

Those in the Atlanticist pole, including the UK and the United States, fomented a culture based on trade, liberalism and extreme commercialisation which are incongruent with Eurasian values systems which prioritise community and strong leadership.

Indeed, Neo-Eurasianists go as far as to suggest that the sea trading lineage of the Atlanticist countries and land-based cultures in Eurasia have had an impact on the evolutionary psychology of their peoples.

According to Richard Arnold and Ekaterina Romanova in theJournal for the Study of Radicalism, Neo-Eurasianists argue that the concepts of geopolitics, land and sea, have a lasting effect on the psychological constitution of a people.

Such that continental powers tend to authoritarianism and the trading naval power to democracy.

Beyond broad laudations for a new multipolar in which the United States can no longer unilaterally intervene in other nations affairs, some Neo-Eurasianists have insidiously argued that conflict between the West and Russia is a predetermined civilisational confrontation necessitated for Eurasia to be in control of its own destiny without intervention from the United States.

It is interesting that the growth of this ideology in post-Soviet Russia, which places such great emphasis on predestined conflict between Eurasia and the West, has reflexively added more fuel to Sam Huntingtons concept of the clash of civilisations.

Just how many people subscribe to this ideology?

While Neo-Eurasianisms philosophical incoherence, pseudo-evolutionary psychology and embrace for genocidal dictators may lead many to assume that this geopolitical ideology is fringe and broadly denounced, it isnt.

In fact, so much so have Dugins concepts been embraced that his 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics is being taught at government institutions the entire country over.

Tolstoy and McCaffray continue, Dugin also lectures at the countrys Interior Ministry (i.e. police) academies, military schools, and other law enforcement institutions. These lectures are available online. In them, he presents an Atlanticist versus Eurasianist perspective, instructing Russias guardians of public order about the nature of the liberal-Atlanticist propaganda against which they must be immunised.

Nor have the countrys top lawmakers distanced themselves from him.

Tolstoy and McCaffray note that he further worked as an advisor to Sergei Naryshkin, chairman of the State Duma and ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Naryshkin now serves as the head of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service.

These concepts are also not only isolated to those more radical among Russias nationalists. Even other Eurasian states have come on board looking toward further integration with their former Soviet bedfellows. This is particularly evidenced through Kazakh Eurasianism, albeit a more moderated application of Dugins Neo-Eurasianism, which has seen support from the Kazakh government.

What does this mean for the West?

Dugin has been influential in helping the Kremlin build networks of partners beyond Russias borders. Though, such partners are not unified by common ideology rather a common grievance with the US-led international order.

From left-wing populists in Latin America, through to right-wing populists in Europe. From authoritarian regimes to disadvantaged nations.

In Dugins world of multipolarity, he provides these nations and political ideologues with a vision that they will be able to function alone outside of a world dominated by the US-led global order.

This is an essential part of Putins asymmetric warfare strategy, and will be a thorn in the United States side for decades to come.

Get involved with the discussion and let us know your thoughts on Australias future role and position in the Indo-Pacific region and what you would like to see from Australia's political leaders in terms of partisan and bipartisan agenda setting in the comments section below, or get in touch withThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Editor Defence andSecurity, Momentum Media

Liam began his career as a speech writer at New South Wales Parliament before working for world leading campaigns and research agencies in Sydney and Auckland. Throughout his career, Liam has managed and executed a range of international media and communications campaigns spanning politics, business, industrial relations and infrastructure. Hes since shifted his attention to researching and writing extensively on geopolitics and defence, specifically in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney and is undertaking a Masters in Strategy and Security from UNSW Canberra.

Neo-Eurasianism placing Russia on a path of collision with the West

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Neo-Eurasianism placing Russia on a path of collision with the West - Defence Connect