Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas, is taking one step closer to being the CIS lord.
At least, that's the way they're dubbing this bill.
It's called the Death Star.
It's a bill that Abbot signed into law that would crush the power of local
governments to do what they're supposed to want to do,
because he'll be the one telling them what the hell to do.
Sounds crazy, let me tell you the details.
It's House Bill 2127, and it was pushed by corporate lobbyists,
surprisingly, and signed into law on Wednesday.
And it prohibits a city or a county from enacting laws that contradict anything in
Texas state code in nine areas.
Really fast, agriculture, business and commerce, finance, insurance, labor,
local government, natural resources, occupations, and property.
Sounds like a lot of things are taken over.
The new law doesn't just prevent localities from implementing fresh
regulations.
Even worse, it even overturns existing measures that exceed state rules governing
agricultural business, commerce, finance, insurance, labor,
local government, natural resources, occupations, and property.
Oddly, those same things that they were just talking about.
Pull the legislation back on ones that are already there, because they're like, yo,
we're gonna take over here.
We're doing whatever the hell we want.
So the reason they're calling it the Death Star is because I don't know how many of
you guys are the Star Wars, World Wars type of nerds.
But it's the Death Star, which would take out other galaxies or planets
within the same galaxy in those old movies that I haven't seen since I was 13.
But still, here's how Republicans are trying to push this bill as something
that's decent.
Proponents say that the law, which is set to take effect on September 1st,
helps business owners to avoid having to navigate different regulations in
different localities.
This is what it's actually gonna do.
In practice, as The Texas Tribune notes, this law would block local ordinances
providing benefits to workers like mandatory paid sick leave or
water breaks for construction workers.
Meanwhile, though, heat related deaths on construction sites have doubled already in
the past ten years compared to the previous decade.
So they're like, yo, something's really bad, let's make it much worse, why not?
We're Republicans, and then we'll tell them that it's the Democrats fault,
even though we're running things.
At a Harris County, Texas,
there's one regulation that requires construction companies to keep records on
safety at which bars unsafe companies from being considered for certain projects.
That would be on the chopping block, is what critics of law have also noted.
So do bad things, and then maybe you'll get more contracts.
That's just how Republicans work these days.
A little bit more.
The law would also ban cities from passing new rules against predatory lending
without first getting approval from Texas legislator.
That's a problem when predatory lending, like other capital driven interests,
is always innovating in how it can screw the everyday person.
And the new law even has the potential to affect how governments can react to
natural disasters, including hurricanes that hit coastal areas of the state.
So critics have also pointed out what's good about this again?
And again, I'm gonna point out at the top.
It was written by corporations and people with all this money that paid off
these legislators to do so and then screw over workers.
So the next time you're complaining about things that are happening with your work,
your job, your pay and how these either some minority or
immigrant is destroying it because they came and are trying to live.
Remember this one bill cuz they're trying to make it much, much worse.
When your family member gets sick on a construction site, maybe even dies,
whatever, it's someone else's fault.
One more, here's the worst part.
The bill is so
broadly written as we're going through all these very minute details.
No one knows exactly how much it would ultimately limit local government's power
to make rules.
>> So first let's talk about the hypocrisy,
then let's talk about why they're doing it.
The hypocrisy is that the right wing has said my whole life,
like local government is better than the bigger, faraway governments, okay?
You need states rights, okay,
like the right to make sure that black people can't vote.
I mean, other states rights, very important states rights.
If we wanna pass legislation, making sure marijuana is legal.
Well, no, okay, we don't mean that either.
We mean other states rights, other states rights, right?
But now the problem they have is that even in red states,
the cities are oftentimes progressive.
So now, why is that a big problem for Conservatives?
It's actually not that big a deal cuz at the state level,
they can still get outvoted, right?
The left wing gets outvoted in Texas, for example,
no matter how liberal Houston might be or Austin might be, okay?
So where's the problem?
Well, the problem is if Houston passes a higher minimum wage than the state
of Texas, well, then those beloved corporate donors are miffed and
Abbott and the Republicans can't have their donors miffed.
So that's why they're passing this law saying, local government,
the one we told you was awesome this whole time for
hundreds of years because we were using as an excuse to keep down black people.
Now, local government sucks.
They don't know anything in their cities, okay?
We need to deregulate from way hundreds of miles away from them,
even though we don't know their current situation at all.
But we're gonna interfere with that to protect our donors and
make sure that they could hurt you through lack of safety regulations,
lower wages and all those things.
It's super obvious.
It's totally transparent.
This is exactly what corruption looks like, Mark.
>> Yeah, there's no sleight of hand here.
It's true, the reality is that Texas is a state of great size.
So the immensity of Texas is relevant here because you have a lot of localities
that are responding to various concerns that may relate to problems on the job.
Construction was the one that was noted, but it could also relate to pollution,
environmental pollutions of one sort or another.
There are water supplies that can become contaminated, soil can be contaminated.
And these are things that happen to localities that may not happen statewide.
But the line of money between business and the governor's office is direct.
And the line of money to all those legislators and all those smaller city
councils in the state of Texas because of its immensity, it's not as direct.
So buy and pay for Greg Abbott and then don't worry about the rest.
It's pretty disgusting.
>> Yep, it's almost a sign for
what they were also talking nationally versus states rights as well, too.
I mean, even we just talked a minute ago on the last block about abortion access
and rights and they were like, you guys, calm down.
Once the SCOTUS decision was leaked, they were like, yo,
this isn't gonna be nationwide.
We're just giving the rights back to the states.
Ever since then you've been hearing about how they keep saying and then they ask
some of these national politicians, well, would you make it a national rule?
Well, I mean,
wait, cuz I wanna make sure I talk to the people that I think I'm kind of convinced
of this rather than the lies I was just telling maybe a couple of months ago.
>> Voter suppression and women's reproductive rights are classic
examples of them not being so keen on states rights.
It is a crazy irony.
But as I say, there is no sleight of hand here.
There is a direct line between, in this case, Texas and
the governor's office and a corporate ownership.
>> Yeah, so the last thing I was gonna say, so
you know they had huge problems with their energy grid in Texas and it got so
cold and people froze to death and it didn't work.
And those are all privatized.
And so if a local municipality wants to look out for
the citizens of Texas, make sure the energy grid works or
the pipes don't freeze or anything along those lines.
Or the water doesn't get polluted so that they have a drinking water problem, right?
All those things that they would normally do to make sure that their community is
safe, this says you're not allowed to do any of those because corporate
profits are more important than the safety of those local communities.
And that right there is the defining feature of the Republican Party.
And if we had a fair and honest press, they would all tell you that 24/7.
But unfortunately, a lot of that corruption in money and
politics goes to Republicans and some Democrats and
then right back to that corporate media in the form of ads.
>> It's not even limitless capitalism, it's limitless corporate capitalism.