Adam Cahn Reports on Bloated State Salaries

Adam Cahn Reports on Bloated State Salaries

Jun 12, 2020 | GAWTP Blog

Conservative grassroots activist extraordinaire
& TX Conservative Grassroots Coalition leader
Adam Cahn Spots Yet Another
Vulgar Example of:

The Texas Elite Ruling Class
vs
 The Rest of Us


Adam Cahn’s witty blogs are often joltingly revelatory, but this one made me mad enough to spit railroad spikes. I’ll wager you won’t find it amusing either.

Thanks, Adam, for shining light on yet another example of how the Austin political elites roll with this June 9, 2020 post in Cahnman’s Musings. (If you don’t follow Adam’s blog, you really should!)

Appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott – this year (on March 13, 2020 at the beginning of the Wuhan Virus Debacle), Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Phil Wilson was allowed to also continue his regular job as the General Manager of the quasi-state agency – The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA).

Since Wilson’s $636,694 salary at the LCRA happens to be double the salary and benefits of the Texas HHSC Executive Commissioner job, it was conveniently lucrative for the path to be cleared for him to keep that salary and forgo the lower HHSC salary.

Mr. Cahn’s blog got us thinking about the timing of Mr. Wilson’s hire and Abbott’s contact tracing contract. Here’s our list of unanswered questions:

1. Why is a quasi-state agency “river authority” paying over $636,000 per year for a General Manager?
2. Why is Gov. Abbott entrusting the state agency charged with leading the COVID-19 response to a part-time commissioner?
3. Why did HHSC Executive Commissioner Phil Wilson sign the $295 million contract with MTX Group for contact tracing – approving it in two days – apparently without running due diligence backgrounds on MTX and the CEO?
(Note: As we’ve reported, grassroots leaders have uncovered plenty of questionable information about the contract, MTX Group and its CEO that Mr. Wilson apparently overlooked.)
4. How long can anyone hold two high level demanding jobs before mistakes become deadly – especially since HHSC regulates nursing homes, operates nearly two dozen state hospitals and state-supported living facilities, and is one of the largest state bureaucracies with 36,600 employees?
5. Why is this double posting considered constitutional, legal, or even ethical and how long will the Abbott-ignored legislature allow this kind of elite nest-feathering to go on without question?

Could the answer be found in this Texas Tribune quote which Cahn refers to as “this gem”?

“(Phil) Wilson has had a long career in and around state government, at least once making news for out-earning predecessors in the same positions. As executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), his starting salary was $100,000 more, 50% higher, than the previous head. Wilson was also deputy chief of staff to Gov. Rick Perry, who appointed him secretary of state, and worked as a lobbyist and corporate officer for Irving-based Luminant, an electricity generator.”

Read Adam Cahn’s Full Blog here

Read the referenced Texas Tribune Article here


Digging, watching, and reporting with help from great grassroots patriots like Adam,

What You Can Do to Stop Election Fraud

What You Can Do to Stop Election Fraud

Nov 13, 2021 | TCGC Posts

By Beth Biesel

  • Sign up to work as Election Judge, Clerk, Poll Watcher – leave no vacancies
  • Canvas your Precincts to purge voter rolls of illegitimate voters
  • Know the Texas Election Code, especially as a Poll Watcher
  • Get extra Poll Watcher training – work in pairs
  • Know and exercise your power as an Election Judge – same as District Court Judge
  • Press hard on local elections: City, County, School Board
  • Make the County Republican Party Chair do their job to protect elections for Republicans!
  • Bring Resolutions to your County Party Executive Meetings for

-sequentially numbered ballots

-voiding mail ballots properly

-printing vote result tapes at Early Voting closing

-handing over true audit logs

-new and improved training by County GOPs

-demand to see lease agreements with Election Management System Vendors

-no joint initiatives with Democrats

  • Ask your County Elections Department how many computer experts they have on staff – dig deeper to find out just who is running your elections
  • Raise questions about the credibility of the SOS audit/fraudit
  • Pressure Legislature to reinstate Felony charges in SB1
  • Attend SOS hearings on SB1 and submit comments on the rule making process
  • Demand that we get our original wish list –
  • Voter Registration database with restricted input/output access
  • Precinct only voting
  • Paper Ballots, sequentially numbered, hand marked, watermarked
  • Paper Poll Books for voters to sign
  • Basic Optical Scanner/Vote Counter only to tally vote results
  • Printed Vote Result Tapes – EV and ED
  • Limited Early Voting with no gap between EV and Election Day
  • Hand Counts allowed
  • NO WIRELESS, NO LAN, NO CELLULAR, NO COMPUTERS
  • 3rd Party Verification and Audit
  • Unique identifiable seals on ballot boxes
  • Vote Results delivered to Central Count on paper
  • Vote Results tabulated from paper record with calculator
  • Chain of Custody from start to finish
  • Unofficial Results called into SOS and Media
  • Poll Watcher protection:  standing to sue, ability to use video surveillance, no oath requirement, no requirement to be trained by SOS
  • Lawsuits can be filed in adjacent counties
  • Ask AG Paxton and Division Chief for Election Integrity, Jonathan White, to prosecute high profile cases. Putting a few folks in jail will be a good deterrent for other potential bad actors. Did you know Jonathan White told the House Elections committee that he did not need more $$, more staff, or more jurisdiction?
  • Elect candidates you trust
Printable Pdf
Liberty in Crisis

Liberty in Crisis

May 2, 2020 | GAWTP Blog

Socialist State Rising in the West?
The prolonged government reaction to the Chinese virus has done more to turn the US toward socialist state status and has done it faster than Bernie Sanders or AOC could have ever envisioned. 

Democrats, poised to exploit the economic wreckage long after the Chinese virus has gone, intend to make the crisis payouts permanent. Hear the clamor rising for a taxpayer-funded guaranteed “living” salary? 

In Texas, we are well on our way with the waiving of “looking for work” requirements in state unemployment benefits.  Not only are the unemployed no longer required to look for work, but they can refuse to go back when their employer calls them back. Owners of businesses are contacting us with the predictable news that some workers will make more on unemployment and do not wish to return to work.

Friday, May 2, 2020 State of the Lone Star facts that hurt:

  • More than 75% of Texas businesses remain shut down.
  • There are more than 1.94 MILLION Texans out of work.
  • Sales tax collections are down 9.3 percent from April 2019, the steepest decline since January 2010. Other state revenue declines are steep…
  • Motor vehicle sales & rental taxes — $164 million, down 45 percent from April 2019, the largest monthly drop on record in data going back to 1983;
  • Motor fuel taxes — $284 million, down 12 percent from April 2019, the steepest drop since 1991;
  • Natural gas production tax — $67 million, down 48 percent from April 2019;
  • Oil production tax — $191 million, down 45 percent from April 2019;
  • Hotel occupancy tax — $24 million, down 63 percent from April 2019, the deepest drop in data going back to 1990;
  • Alcoholic beverage taxes — $57 million, down 55 percent from April 2019.
  • TX Attorney General Ken Paxton has sided with Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins et al against The People. Paxton doubled down on Abbott’s executive order Thursday after some county judges and district attorneys said the order was “vague” (true) and “unenforceable” (true – if your intent is lawful enforcement) relating to hair and nail salons, barbershops, bars and gyms.

AG Ken Paxton said the governor’s order was “neither vague nor unenforceable, and local governments are prohibited from allowing businesses to reopen unless they are recognized as essential or reopened services under the Governor’s order.”  In the past Ken Paxton has refused many times to defend state laws (TX Advance Directives Act, Ethics Commission rules) that conflicted with his interpretation of the Constitution. Where did THAT Ken Paxton go? See the full article here: https://bit.ly/2WfGuml

In Case You Missed It

If you are as sick as I am of anything related to COVID-19, social distancing, gov’t officials telling you to wash your hands for the five thousandth time and everybody and his dog Skyping, Zooming and FaceTiming, you may have tuned out and missed these important articles that rose above the noise this week.

Click on the article title to read.  Click on the source to read more and bookmark. If you don’t have time now, save for later. The contents are well worth pondering and sharing.

If You Are Still Wondering How Death Camps Happen, Just Take a Look Around You

The Story that Broke My Heart

Cruz to Trump: Don’t Put American Taxpayers on Hook for Blue State Bailouts

Texas Is Open for Business…Kinda…For Now

Day 47 of the Shutdown – parting thoughts…

Before I close this laptop and turn off the phone (the one that I dream of sailing off my back deck like a Frisbee), here’s one last sobering thought for the week sent to me by a thoughtful patriot:


Our State Legislative Branch defines a crime in statute.
The Executive Branch enforces the statute.
The Judicial Branch ensures it is applied and interpreted fairly.
If Gov. Abbott can define a crime and also enforce it,
we have violated the Constitution.

Think about it… 
If the governor can define a crime and then also
send his troopers to arrest you, that is called a banana republic.

 
Texans, we must stay in this fight.  Have a peaceful Sunday.

Freedom is murdered – not in one fatal blow – but by a thousand disloyal cuts.