Update from -
"Tom G Glass
shared a post.
The more I think about the martial display at the Texas State Capitol, today, the more perturbed I become.
The first question that any good journalist should ask the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the outgoing speaker who are the mainstays on the Preservation Board is: "What is the threat that was contemplated by this display?"
In other words, "Who were you trying to intimidate?" And why would you think they need intimidating?"
Was the display meant to indimidate Antifa, who invaded the Capitol Grounds and destroyed property on the Capitol grounds during the summer?
Or did the big three mean to intimidate conservatives? Was it meant to be a statement of solidarity with the Deep State propagandists who wished to tar Trump and all his supporters with the smear of violent insurrectionists?
Patrick Henry asked a similar question on March 23, 1775 about the occupation of the colonies with government troops, and came up with his own answer:
"I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging."
The governor and the lieutenant governor owe the people of Texas an explanation of why they feel the need to indimidate people coming to the People's House to exercise multiple rights guaranteed in the Texas Bill of Rights."
Original post of -
"Tom G Glass
Texas Constitutional Enforcement
I drove to the Texas State Capitol to start working during this legislative session on the many threats to our liberty and unconstitutional acts by all levels of government.
When I arrived, I was greeted with a State Capitol that looked like it was at war. The tactically clad men at all the entrances were DPS officers.
For citizens, entry to the People's House was denied at all entrances, except the north entrance. And then, only if the citizen would submit to a rapid COVID test and wear a mask.
I asked Daniel Warner, the civilian tasked as the gatekeeper to the military semicircular tents that because of barriers were the only gateway into the Capitol what the drill was.
He did not know what law or rule authorized the restrictions on citizens exercising their right to petition in the People's House for redress of grievance. He was a new employee of the presumptive Speaker of the House, having served on the staffs of four Republican Senators in the past.
He assumed that the State Preservation Board was the source of the edicts. I informed him that no rule, normal or emergency - had been promulgated by the Board as required by the Texas Administrative Procedure Act. He was just doing what his boss told him to do.
Being one that likes to exercise his right guaranteed both in the Texas and U.S. Constitutions against self incrimination, and one that does not appreciate being presumed guilty of being a threat to others without any probable cause, I declined to jump through their hoops.
The Speaker's employee did not know for sure whether COVID testing would be a condition of talking to my legislators tomorrow. He said he thought that requirement might not be in place, and left to individual legislators from here forward.
For a man working in a state that has abandoned rule of law, Daniel was doing the best he could do."