Trump stooge Greg Abbott is trying to finish the job

| 11:59 pm EDT June 23, 2021
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As promised, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called a special session of the state legislature to begin July 8th. Special sessions normally last 30 days, and items to be considered include Senate Bill 7, expected to be one of the most restrictive and suppressive voting rights bills in the country, even though Texas is already considered to be one of the most difficult places to vote.

Prior to being blocked by House Democrats’ walk-out, the last version of SB7 included last-minute changes empowering Republicans to nullify votes and easily overturn elections for no good cause, as well as giving unyielding power to poll watchers, while heavily penalizing poll workers who should violate certain terms of the bill — even accidentally — and other changes specifically targeting Black voters, which Republicans claimed were errors or typos.

It remains to be seen whether the newer version of SB7 will be even worse or if Democrats will be given more input, but Greg Abbott was furious over the walk-out. So it goes without saying that we need to ramp up the volume, putting pressure on Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin to reform the filibuster and pass voting rights legislation sooner rather than later. In a perfect world Chuck Schumer would cancel the July and August recesses unless and until voting rights legislation is passed.

In other Abbott news, a new Quinnipiac University Poll poll shows Texans are split over Abbott’s idiotic plans to finish building the Texas/Mexico border wall that Trump failed to complete (with 50% supporting it and 46% opposed), as well as whether the wanna-be-tyrant deserves another term as governor (48% said no vs. 46% said yes). I’m surprised Abbott polled that high. The poll also shows Texans are not very excited about a possible Beto O’Rourke or Matthew McConaughey run, either.