#texasobserver — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #texasobserver, aggregated by home.social.
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Forgotten Keepers of the #RioGrandeDelta
An industrial buildout on the southern tip of Texas is erasing the last traces of an ancient world that still hasn’t died.
by Dylan Baddour
May 13, 2024"This society has been trying to get rid of #Mancias’ people for 500 years. It couldn’t kill them all, so it’s destroying the evidence that they ever existed. That’s what Mancias sees as 100-ton bulldozers flatten the hills his #ancestors camped on, churn up their bones, and casually crush them into rubble, removing these last traces of their world.
" 'They almost annihilated us, and that #genocide continues,' Mancias said. 'To destroy the #environment you have to destroy the people who protect it.'
"He faces a formidable foe here at the last frontier for oil and gas on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Every other major inlet from the Mississippi River west through Port Arthur, Houston, Freeport, Lavaca Bay, and Corpus Christi is already ringed with #refineries, #ChemicalPlants, and terminals.
"But at the farthest tip of #Texas, the #RioGrande meets the Gulf between #WildlifeRefuges, a #StatePark, and a majestic #wilderness that still shelters endangered and little-known #wildlife.
"This is where Houston-based developer #NextDecade has begun constructing an $18 billion #MegaProject, which it called the 'largest greenfield energy project [financed] in U.S. history' when it announced in 2023 that it had secured investors to proceed.
"Named #RioGrandeLNG, the 750-acre facility will eventually pipe in up to 27 million tons per year of gas from #fracked wells in the #PermianBasin, supercool it to negative 260 degrees fahrenheit, and load it onto #TankerShips for sale overseas as liquefied natural gas (#LNG). It’s part of an explosion of lookalike projects that quickly made the United States the world’s top exporter of liquefied gas and drove soaring gas production at home.
"On an adjacent tract, another project called Texas LNG intends to build atop a site called #GarciaPasture—an ancient village ground where people lived seasonally for almost 800 years. The World Monument Fund calls it 'one of America’s premier #archaeological sites.' That project has its permits and awaits investor commitments before breaking ground.
"And about 5 miles away, #SpaceX continues to expand its #Starbase complex, where it manufactures and launches the most powerful #rockets in the world (which occasionally explode and fall to earth).
"Mancias fears this is just the beginning.
" 'All of this will be gone,' he said, driving his pickup truck down a highway through the marshes. 'They’re going to destroy all of this.' "
Read more:
https://www.texasobserver.org/forgotten-keepers-of-the-rio-grande-delta/#DefendingTheSacred #SacredSites
#TexasObserver #InsideClimateNews #BigOilAndGas #CulturalGenocide #CorporateColonialism #ElonSucks #MegaProjects #Pollution #Fracking #SpaceIndustry #DefendTheSacred #EndangeredSpecies -
Forgotten Keepers of the #RioGrandeDelta
An industrial buildout on the southern tip of Texas is erasing the last traces of an ancient world that still hasn’t died.
by Dylan Baddour
May 13, 2024"This society has been trying to get rid of #Mancias’ people for 500 years. It couldn’t kill them all, so it’s destroying the evidence that they ever existed. That’s what Mancias sees as 100-ton bulldozers flatten the hills his #ancestors camped on, churn up their bones, and casually crush them into rubble, removing these last traces of their world.
" 'They almost annihilated us, and that #genocide continues,' Mancias said. 'To destroy the #environment you have to destroy the people who protect it.'
"He faces a formidable foe here at the last frontier for oil and gas on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Every other major inlet from the Mississippi River west through Port Arthur, Houston, Freeport, Lavaca Bay, and Corpus Christi is already ringed with #refineries, #ChemicalPlants, and terminals.
"But at the farthest tip of #Texas, the #RioGrande meets the Gulf between #WildlifeRefuges, a #StatePark, and a majestic #wilderness that still shelters endangered and little-known #wildlife.
"This is where Houston-based developer #NextDecade has begun constructing an $18 billion #MegaProject, which it called the 'largest greenfield energy project [financed] in U.S. history' when it announced in 2023 that it had secured investors to proceed.
"Named #RioGrandeLNG, the 750-acre facility will eventually pipe in up to 27 million tons per year of gas from #fracked wells in the #PermianBasin, supercool it to negative 260 degrees fahrenheit, and load it onto #TankerShips for sale overseas as liquefied natural gas (#LNG). It’s part of an explosion of lookalike projects that quickly made the United States the world’s top exporter of liquefied gas and drove soaring gas production at home.
"On an adjacent tract, another project called Texas LNG intends to build atop a site called #GarciaPasture—an ancient village ground where people lived seasonally for almost 800 years. The World Monument Fund calls it 'one of America’s premier #archaeological sites.' That project has its permits and awaits investor commitments before breaking ground.
"And about 5 miles away, #SpaceX continues to expand its #Starbase complex, where it manufactures and launches the most powerful #rockets in the world (which occasionally explode and fall to earth).
"Mancias fears this is just the beginning.
" 'All of this will be gone,' he said, driving his pickup truck down a highway through the marshes. 'They’re going to destroy all of this.' "
Read more:
https://www.texasobserver.org/forgotten-keepers-of-the-rio-grande-delta/#DefendingTheSacred #SacredSites
#TexasObserver #InsideClimateNews #BigOilAndGas #CulturalGenocide #CorporateColonialism #ElonSucks #MegaProjects #Pollution #Fracking #SpaceIndustry #DefendTheSacred #EndangeredSpecies -
Forgotten Keepers of the #RioGrandeDelta
An industrial buildout on the southern tip of Texas is erasing the last traces of an ancient world that still hasn’t died.
by Dylan Baddour
May 13, 2024"This society has been trying to get rid of #Mancias’ people for 500 years. It couldn’t kill them all, so it’s destroying the evidence that they ever existed. That’s what Mancias sees as 100-ton bulldozers flatten the hills his #ancestors camped on, churn up their bones, and casually crush them into rubble, removing these last traces of their world.
" 'They almost annihilated us, and that #genocide continues,' Mancias said. 'To destroy the #environment you have to destroy the people who protect it.'
"He faces a formidable foe here at the last frontier for oil and gas on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Every other major inlet from the Mississippi River west through Port Arthur, Houston, Freeport, Lavaca Bay, and Corpus Christi is already ringed with #refineries, #ChemicalPlants, and terminals.
"But at the farthest tip of #Texas, the #RioGrande meets the Gulf between #WildlifeRefuges, a #StatePark, and a majestic #wilderness that still shelters endangered and little-known #wildlife.
"This is where Houston-based developer #NextDecade has begun constructing an $18 billion #MegaProject, which it called the 'largest greenfield energy project [financed] in U.S. history' when it announced in 2023 that it had secured investors to proceed.
"Named #RioGrandeLNG, the 750-acre facility will eventually pipe in up to 27 million tons per year of gas from #fracked wells in the #PermianBasin, supercool it to negative 260 degrees fahrenheit, and load it onto #TankerShips for sale overseas as liquefied natural gas (#LNG). It’s part of an explosion of lookalike projects that quickly made the United States the world’s top exporter of liquefied gas and drove soaring gas production at home.
"On an adjacent tract, another project called Texas LNG intends to build atop a site called #GarciaPasture—an ancient village ground where people lived seasonally for almost 800 years. The World Monument Fund calls it 'one of America’s premier #archaeological sites.' That project has its permits and awaits investor commitments before breaking ground.
"And about 5 miles away, #SpaceX continues to expand its #Starbase complex, where it manufactures and launches the most powerful #rockets in the world (which occasionally explode and fall to earth).
"Mancias fears this is just the beginning.
" 'All of this will be gone,' he said, driving his pickup truck down a highway through the marshes. 'They’re going to destroy all of this.' "
Read more:
https://www.texasobserver.org/forgotten-keepers-of-the-rio-grande-delta/#DefendingTheSacred #SacredSites
#TexasObserver #InsideClimateNews #BigOilAndGas #CulturalGenocide #CorporateColonialism #ElonSucks #MegaProjects #Pollution #Fracking #SpaceIndustry #DefendTheSacred #EndangeredSpecies -
Forgotten Keepers of the #RioGrandeDelta
An industrial buildout on the southern tip of Texas is erasing the last traces of an ancient world that still hasn’t died.
by Dylan Baddour
May 13, 2024"This society has been trying to get rid of #Mancias’ people for 500 years. It couldn’t kill them all, so it’s destroying the evidence that they ever existed. That’s what Mancias sees as 100-ton bulldozers flatten the hills his #ancestors camped on, churn up their bones, and casually crush them into rubble, removing these last traces of their world.
" 'They almost annihilated us, and that #genocide continues,' Mancias said. 'To destroy the #environment you have to destroy the people who protect it.'
"He faces a formidable foe here at the last frontier for oil and gas on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Every other major inlet from the Mississippi River west through Port Arthur, Houston, Freeport, Lavaca Bay, and Corpus Christi is already ringed with #refineries, #ChemicalPlants, and terminals.
"But at the farthest tip of #Texas, the #RioGrande meets the Gulf between #WildlifeRefuges, a #StatePark, and a majestic #wilderness that still shelters endangered and little-known #wildlife.
"This is where Houston-based developer #NextDecade has begun constructing an $18 billion #MegaProject, which it called the 'largest greenfield energy project [financed] in U.S. history' when it announced in 2023 that it had secured investors to proceed.
"Named #RioGrandeLNG, the 750-acre facility will eventually pipe in up to 27 million tons per year of gas from #fracked wells in the #PermianBasin, supercool it to negative 260 degrees fahrenheit, and load it onto #TankerShips for sale overseas as liquefied natural gas (#LNG). It’s part of an explosion of lookalike projects that quickly made the United States the world’s top exporter of liquefied gas and drove soaring gas production at home.
"On an adjacent tract, another project called Texas LNG intends to build atop a site called #GarciaPasture—an ancient village ground where people lived seasonally for almost 800 years. The World Monument Fund calls it 'one of America’s premier #archaeological sites.' That project has its permits and awaits investor commitments before breaking ground.
"And about 5 miles away, #SpaceX continues to expand its #Starbase complex, where it manufactures and launches the most powerful #rockets in the world (which occasionally explode and fall to earth).
"Mancias fears this is just the beginning.
" 'All of this will be gone,' he said, driving his pickup truck down a highway through the marshes. 'They’re going to destroy all of this.' "
Read more:
https://www.texasobserver.org/forgotten-keepers-of-the-rio-grande-delta/#DefendingTheSacred #SacredSites
#TexasObserver #InsideClimateNews #BigOilAndGas #CulturalGenocide #CorporateColonialism #ElonSucks #MegaProjects #Pollution #Fracking #SpaceIndustry #DefendTheSacred #EndangeredSpecies -
Forgotten Keepers of the #RioGrandeDelta
An industrial buildout on the southern tip of Texas is erasing the last traces of an ancient world that still hasn’t died.
by Dylan Baddour
May 13, 2024"This society has been trying to get rid of #Mancias’ people for 500 years. It couldn’t kill them all, so it’s destroying the evidence that they ever existed. That’s what Mancias sees as 100-ton bulldozers flatten the hills his #ancestors camped on, churn up their bones, and casually crush them into rubble, removing these last traces of their world.
" 'They almost annihilated us, and that #genocide continues,' Mancias said. 'To destroy the #environment you have to destroy the people who protect it.'
"He faces a formidable foe here at the last frontier for oil and gas on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Every other major inlet from the Mississippi River west through Port Arthur, Houston, Freeport, Lavaca Bay, and Corpus Christi is already ringed with #refineries, #ChemicalPlants, and terminals.
"But at the farthest tip of #Texas, the #RioGrande meets the Gulf between #WildlifeRefuges, a #StatePark, and a majestic #wilderness that still shelters endangered and little-known #wildlife.
"This is where Houston-based developer #NextDecade has begun constructing an $18 billion #MegaProject, which it called the 'largest greenfield energy project [financed] in U.S. history' when it announced in 2023 that it had secured investors to proceed.
"Named #RioGrandeLNG, the 750-acre facility will eventually pipe in up to 27 million tons per year of gas from #fracked wells in the #PermianBasin, supercool it to negative 260 degrees fahrenheit, and load it onto #TankerShips for sale overseas as liquefied natural gas (#LNG). It’s part of an explosion of lookalike projects that quickly made the United States the world’s top exporter of liquefied gas and drove soaring gas production at home.
"On an adjacent tract, another project called Texas LNG intends to build atop a site called #GarciaPasture—an ancient village ground where people lived seasonally for almost 800 years. The World Monument Fund calls it 'one of America’s premier #archaeological sites.' That project has its permits and awaits investor commitments before breaking ground.
"And about 5 miles away, #SpaceX continues to expand its #Starbase complex, where it manufactures and launches the most powerful #rockets in the world (which occasionally explode and fall to earth).
"Mancias fears this is just the beginning.
" 'All of this will be gone,' he said, driving his pickup truck down a highway through the marshes. 'They’re going to destroy all of this.' "
Read more:
https://www.texasobserver.org/forgotten-keepers-of-the-rio-grande-delta/#DefendingTheSacred #SacredSites
#TexasObserver #InsideClimateNews #BigOilAndGas #CulturalGenocide #CorporateColonialism #ElonSucks #MegaProjects #Pollution #Fracking #SpaceIndustry #DefendTheSacred #EndangeredSpecies -
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-lege-state-mandates-dei-religion-in-public-ed/
#Texas House Passes Raft of #DanPatrick Priorities Imposing #Rightwing Mandates on #PublicEducation
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https://www.texasobserver.org/whos-paying-for-public-school-vouchers-1998/
Calling all #texans #texan #texas to read this 1998 article from @TexasObserver #TexasObserver about school #vouchers. If we have any hope of stopping this monstrosity, we've gotta understand its roots. Consider this 1998 article a prophetic post-mortem of how school vouchers finally got through the Lege #txlege. Then subscribe to The Texas Observer and start organizing outside of the two-party right-wing duopoly. (#txpol)
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>Bullock wouldn’t discuss his recent resignation from the voucher PAC Putting Children First. But his aide, Tony Proffitt—who has worked for Bullock since long before he moved from the comptroller’s to the lieutenant governor’s office—said the Lieutenant Governor still supports a “very limited voucher program,” and that he left Putting Children First because, as was first reported by the Dallas Morning News, “it was engaging in partisan activity.” The specific partisan activity was a January 19 letter from Putting Children First Chairman Jimmy Mansour to Betsy DeVoss, the founder of the Amway company [2025 Editor’s Note: Betsy DeVos married the son of the founder of Amway]. The letter refers to last session’s “tremendous momentum for our forces, as evidenced by Lt. Governor Bob Bullock joining our effort.” And it mentions plans “to gain two additional seats in the senate, where we currently hold a slim majority.”
Lolwut? "I left the PAC because it was doing PAC things." Were PACs, in the 1990s, genuinely considered to be "non-partisan" entities engaged in "non-partisan" activities? Or is that just Bullock grasping for straws?
(Reading ahead: grasping for straws)
Also, I guess Betsy DeVoss has been entangled in Christian Right politics for a while.
>“They assured him it wouldn’t be partisan,” Proffitt said. “Bullock still believes that a child who has been refused admission to another public school, after leaving a low-performing public school, should be allowed to attend a private school—as long as it doesn’t have a religious program.”
Why do I get the feeling that reading this 1998 article is gonna have me pining for the right-wing of the 1990s? (Yes, I know Bullock was a Democrat; No, Democrats are not, and never have been, left-wing).
>And in all likelihood, he has known and knows about Putting Children First, which until last year operated as a thoroughly partisan political action committee called “The A+ PAC for Parental School Choice.”
The rhetoric is the same, even 30+ years ago.
>Although A+ focused on the House and Board of Education, it also worked to ensure that the Senate over which Bullock presided would have a Republican majority, giving at least $20,000 to the unsuccessful candidacy of Bob Reese and at least $5,000 to Senator Steve Ogden, who trounced a woefully underfunded Democratic opponent.
Those numbers are fucking quaint.
>(Besides directly electing Republican candidates in the past two sessions, the PACs’ targeting of vulnerable incumbent Democrats has driven the cost of campaigns so high that the limited funding resources of Texas Democrats are constantly exhausted.)
>
>...
>
>It is in general elections that PACs make a big splash, and in the last election A+ PAC (Mansour, Leininger, Walton, and several big, out-of-state funders) made sure that conservative Republican candidates were awash in money. So Putting Children First has been bi-partisan thus far. But the last time these funders got together as the A+ PAC, the contributions were indeed “imbalanced.” The A+. PAC provided a total of $8,500 to Democratic House candidates. To Republicans, it contributed $587,445. As with the Putting Children First money, almost all the A+ Democratic money went to minority, inner-city Democrats, who now find themselves in the seemingly awkward position of accepting contributions from corporate and Christian right funders whose explicit and much-announced goals include making the Democrats a minority party, and reducing funding for public education. In this battle, “vouchers” are simply a means to an end—and that end is defined by Republican funders.*Dingalingaling!* (that's a bell) Democrats underfund Texas (even when they ruled it, apparently). Also, water is wet. If you think the Democrats have learned in the intervening 30 years, they haven't.
>I asked Glen Lewis, an African-American Democrat from Fort Worth, if he had any misgivings about such funding, considering that most of the $685,000 Leininger spent on lobbying and campaigns last session was used against Democrats and Democratic Party interests. “I didn’t go to them,” Lewis said, “they came to me because I was interested in the issue.” Lewis, one of three Democrats who remain on Putting Children First’s Legislative Advisory Council, said he favors vouchers because of the extremely poor performance of the inner city public schools that his constituents are forced into. (The other Democrats still with Putting Children First are Ron Wilson, of Houston, and Laredo Representative Henry Cuellar, who sent Mansour a letter complaining about the letter that provoked Bullock’s resignation.) I asked Lewis if he had any objection to accepting campaign contributions from a group whose huge investment in elections is moving the state’s political center farther and farther to the right. “Texas politics?” Lewis said. “How could it get any farther right than it already is?” (For the answer to that question, Representative Lewis will only have to watch the next two election cycles.)
Yowza. I find it fitting that #FortWorth #Dallas #dfw creeps up here. In Fort Worth, *nobody* wants to send their kids to public school. Everybody fights over slots in private schools. One would have thought that democrats would look at the rightward slide they were in and come to the conclusion that, perhaps, veering leftward might have been the harder, but more foundationally sound, choice to make.
Also, not surprised to see that Cuellar was a shithead even back in the 1990s.
>He said he will take advantage of whatever resources are available to pass voucher legislation that will allow students to transfer from low-performing public schools to high-performing public schools. “I have a different agenda. The Republicans are in this for the privatization and the free market aspect. I want to improve the public schools,” Garcia said. “I support increasing teacher salaries and decreasing class size to eighteen.” But until schools, and in particular inner-city schools, are improved, Garcia said, he will work to pass a voucher bill that will require school districts with high academic performance to accept students from schools with low academic performance.
This is the *escape* mindset. It is a corrosive poison that has embodied the body politic of Texas for decades. We will not *escape* these problems. We must *meet* them, head on.
>“I have seven students in my district who want to transfer to suburban schools that refuse to admit them,” Garcia said. “They think if they accept these seven students, they’ll have a whole wave of transfers and their standards will fall.”
The classism and racism of suburbia strikes again. May we all read The Color of Law, please.
>Garcia’s pragmatic argument may seem to make principled liberal opposition to vouchers seem somewhat precious. But in historical perspective, the battle over school vouchers is not finally about vouchers at all; it’s about real racial integration in Texas (and U.S.) public schools.
Yep.
>Short term, these guys will use inner-city children as a first step, and even spring for a few tickets for poor minority kids to attend rich majority schools. In the long term, as Republican Representative Rick Williamson said after the House came as close as ever to passing a voucher program in the 1997 session, losing only on a tie vote (67-67): “We’re going after the whole system.”
And that is exactly what was done.
Subscribe to the Texas Observer, y'all.
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Heard about this via @[email protected] at:
www.texasobserver.org/sordid-story-behind-lethal-injection/
I've heard before about how lethal injection is pseudoscience. Perhaps a full treatment is given in this book. Now that I've decided to go into nursing, having a full understanding of the system could help to motivate healthcare to take a stronger stance against it.
#DeathPenalty #LethalInjection #CriminalJustice #TexasObserver
(comment on Secrets of the Killing State)
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>Various AI-powered software programs were purchased under the governor’s border disaster declaration or in response to Abbott’s executive orders to prevent mass attacks, agency records show.
The defense sector is all a big grift.
>Several AI companies, including those that sell tech to DPS, have registered lobbyists in Texas this session, according to state records, including Clearview AI, Flock Safety, and LEO Technologies, which sells the Verus surveillance software. One company also has connections to state law enforcement in Texas: Skylor Hearn, a former DPS deputy director, was a registered lobbyist for Clearview AI in 2020 and 2021 and joined the company as its government affairs director in 2022. During his tenure at the firm, he testified in other states against banning or limiting police use of facial recognition tech. This session, Clearview AI has three registered lobbyists in Texas.
The revolving door keeps revolving.
>The Republican lawmaker cautioned that, while he would not necessarily call the agency’s capabilities a “dragnet,” he had concerns about protecting Texans’ privacy: “It does come into question whether we are creating a wide area of study of people who have not committed a crime and trying to use that for law enforcement purposes.”
"That's not bullshit. It's repurposed bovine waste."
>Meanwhile, Senator Parker’s bill, SB 1964, would require Texas agencies to more thoroughly report on how they use AI and what risks of “unlawful harm” these systems have. Under the bill, state agencies would be required to create impact assessments of any AI-powered tools they deploy—though the reports would be considered confidential and exempt from the Texas Public Information Act.
Intelligence for me but not for thee.
>“People want to make sure that the government isn’t just surveilling people who aren’t doing anything wrong just because they can. ..."
Completely missing the point. The government *defines* what "doing anything wrong" *is*. "Only going after bad guys" is tautological nonsense in this context.
>Shah, the attorney from Just Futures Law, said the dangers of surveillance technologies are easily overlooked because they are not viewed as inherently or imminently violent.
>
>“It’s just that it’s creating the infrastructure in which you can be harmed,” Shah said. Plus, she added, many surveillance tools were originally designed for warfare, or by former military intelligence personnel, and should be viewed through that lens and not as the “soft side” of policing, which is how some AI companies market the tools.
>
>“These are wartime technologies that are now in the hands of local cops,” she said. “We should be really worried.”At least one person quoted in the article understands the problem. Talk about burying the lede, @TexasObserver :P
#TexasObserver #DragnetSurveillance #Surveillance #texas #AI #PoliceState #DPS #ALPRs #ALPR #ANPR #ANPRs #LicensePlateReaders #FacialRecognition #Biometrics #Flock
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>Various AI-powered software programs were purchased under the governor’s border disaster declaration or in response to Abbott’s executive orders to prevent mass attacks, agency records show.
The defense sector is all a big grift.
>Several AI companies, including those that sell tech to DPS, have registered lobbyists in Texas this session, according to state records, including Clearview AI, Flock Safety, and LEO Technologies, which sells the Verus surveillance software. One company also has connections to state law enforcement in Texas: Skylor Hearn, a former DPS deputy director, was a registered lobbyist for Clearview AI in 2020 and 2021 and joined the company as its government affairs director in 2022. During his tenure at the firm, he testified in other states against banning or limiting police use of facial recognition tech. This session, Clearview AI has three registered lobbyists in Texas.
The revolving door keeps revolving.
>The Republican lawmaker cautioned that, while he would not necessarily call the agency’s capabilities a “dragnet,” he had concerns about protecting Texans’ privacy: “It does come into question whether we are creating a wide area of study of people who have not committed a crime and trying to use that for law enforcement purposes.”
"That's not bullshit. It's repurposed bovine waste."
>Meanwhile, Senator Parker’s bill, SB 1964, would require Texas agencies to more thoroughly report on how they use AI and what risks of “unlawful harm” these systems have. Under the bill, state agencies would be required to create impact assessments of any AI-powered tools they deploy—though the reports would be considered confidential and exempt from the Texas Public Information Act.
Intelligence for me but not for thee.
>“People want to make sure that the government isn’t just surveilling people who aren’t doing anything wrong just because they can. ..."
Completely missing the point. The government *defines* what "doing anything wrong" *is*. "Only going after bad guys" is tautological nonsense in this context.
>Shah, the attorney from Just Futures Law, said the dangers of surveillance technologies are easily overlooked because they are not viewed as inherently or imminently violent.
>
>“It’s just that it’s creating the infrastructure in which you can be harmed,” Shah said. Plus, she added, many surveillance tools were originally designed for warfare, or by former military intelligence personnel, and should be viewed through that lens and not as the “soft side” of policing, which is how some AI companies market the tools.
>
>“These are wartime technologies that are now in the hands of local cops,” she said. “We should be really worried.”At least one person quoted in the article understands the problem. Talk about burying the lede, @TexasObserver :P
#TexasObserver #DragnetSurveillance #Surveillance #texas #AI #PoliceState #DPS #ALPRs #ALPR #ANPR #ANPRs #LicensePlateReaders #FacialRecognition #Biometrics #Flock
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>Various AI-powered software programs were purchased under the governor’s border disaster declaration or in response to Abbott’s executive orders to prevent mass attacks, agency records show.
The defense sector is all a big grift.
>Several AI companies, including those that sell tech to DPS, have registered lobbyists in Texas this session, according to state records, including Clearview AI, Flock Safety, and LEO Technologies, which sells the Verus surveillance software. One company also has connections to state law enforcement in Texas: Skylor Hearn, a former DPS deputy director, was a registered lobbyist for Clearview AI in 2020 and 2021 and joined the company as its government affairs director in 2022. During his tenure at the firm, he testified in other states against banning or limiting police use of facial recognition tech. This session, Clearview AI has three registered lobbyists in Texas.
The revolving door keeps revolving.
>The Republican lawmaker cautioned that, while he would not necessarily call the agency’s capabilities a “dragnet,” he had concerns about protecting Texans’ privacy: “It does come into question whether we are creating a wide area of study of people who have not committed a crime and trying to use that for law enforcement purposes.”
"That's not bullshit. It's repurposed bovine waste."
>Meanwhile, Senator Parker’s bill, SB 1964, would require Texas agencies to more thoroughly report on how they use AI and what risks of “unlawful harm” these systems have. Under the bill, state agencies would be required to create impact assessments of any AI-powered tools they deploy—though the reports would be considered confidential and exempt from the Texas Public Information Act.
Intelligence for me but not for thee.
>“People want to make sure that the government isn’t just surveilling people who aren’t doing anything wrong just because they can. ..."
Completely missing the point. The government *defines* what "doing anything wrong" *is*. "Only going after bad guys" is tautological nonsense in this context.
>Shah, the attorney from Just Futures Law, said the dangers of surveillance technologies are easily overlooked because they are not viewed as inherently or imminently violent.
>
>“It’s just that it’s creating the infrastructure in which you can be harmed,” Shah said. Plus, she added, many surveillance tools were originally designed for warfare, or by former military intelligence personnel, and should be viewed through that lens and not as the “soft side” of policing, which is how some AI companies market the tools.
>
>“These are wartime technologies that are now in the hands of local cops,” she said. “We should be really worried.”At least one person quoted in the article understands the problem. Talk about burying the lede, @TexasObserver :P
#TexasObserver #DragnetSurveillance #Surveillance #texas #AI #PoliceState #DPS #ALPRs #ALPR #ANPR #ANPRs #LicensePlateReaders #FacialRecognition #Biometrics #Flock
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>Various AI-powered software programs were purchased under the governor’s border disaster declaration or in response to Abbott’s executive orders to prevent mass attacks, agency records show.
The defense sector is all a big grift.
>Several AI companies, including those that sell tech to DPS, have registered lobbyists in Texas this session, according to state records, including Clearview AI, Flock Safety, and LEO Technologies, which sells the Verus surveillance software. One company also has connections to state law enforcement in Texas: Skylor Hearn, a former DPS deputy director, was a registered lobbyist for Clearview AI in 2020 and 2021 and joined the company as its government affairs director in 2022. During his tenure at the firm, he testified in other states against banning or limiting police use of facial recognition tech. This session, Clearview AI has three registered lobbyists in Texas.
The revolving door keeps revolving.
>The Republican lawmaker cautioned that, while he would not necessarily call the agency’s capabilities a “dragnet,” he had concerns about protecting Texans’ privacy: “It does come into question whether we are creating a wide area of study of people who have not committed a crime and trying to use that for law enforcement purposes.”
"That's not bullshit. It's repurposed bovine waste."
>Meanwhile, Senator Parker’s bill, SB 1964, would require Texas agencies to more thoroughly report on how they use AI and what risks of “unlawful harm” these systems have. Under the bill, state agencies would be required to create impact assessments of any AI-powered tools they deploy—though the reports would be considered confidential and exempt from the Texas Public Information Act.
Intelligence for me but not for thee.
>“People want to make sure that the government isn’t just surveilling people who aren’t doing anything wrong just because they can. ..."
Completely missing the point. The government *defines* what "doing anything wrong" *is*. "Only going after bad guys" is tautological nonsense in this context.
>Shah, the attorney from Just Futures Law, said the dangers of surveillance technologies are easily overlooked because they are not viewed as inherently or imminently violent.
>
>“It’s just that it’s creating the infrastructure in which you can be harmed,” Shah said. Plus, she added, many surveillance tools were originally designed for warfare, or by former military intelligence personnel, and should be viewed through that lens and not as the “soft side” of policing, which is how some AI companies market the tools.
>
>“These are wartime technologies that are now in the hands of local cops,” she said. “We should be really worried.”At least one person quoted in the article understands the problem. Talk about burying the lede, @TexasObserver :P
#TexasObserver #DragnetSurveillance #Surveillance #texas #AI #PoliceState #DPS #ALPRs #ALPR #ANPR #ANPRs #LicensePlateReaders #FacialRecognition #Biometrics #Flock
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>Various AI-powered software programs were purchased under the governor’s border disaster declaration or in response to Abbott’s executive orders to prevent mass attacks, agency records show.
The defense sector is all a big grift.
>Several AI companies, including those that sell tech to DPS, have registered lobbyists in Texas this session, according to state records, including Clearview AI, Flock Safety, and LEO Technologies, which sells the Verus surveillance software. One company also has connections to state law enforcement in Texas: Skylor Hearn, a former DPS deputy director, was a registered lobbyist for Clearview AI in 2020 and 2021 and joined the company as its government affairs director in 2022. During his tenure at the firm, he testified in other states against banning or limiting police use of facial recognition tech. This session, Clearview AI has three registered lobbyists in Texas.
The revolving door keeps revolving.
>The Republican lawmaker cautioned that, while he would not necessarily call the agency’s capabilities a “dragnet,” he had concerns about protecting Texans’ privacy: “It does come into question whether we are creating a wide area of study of people who have not committed a crime and trying to use that for law enforcement purposes.”
"That's not bullshit. It's repurposed bovine waste."
>Meanwhile, Senator Parker’s bill, SB 1964, would require Texas agencies to more thoroughly report on how they use AI and what risks of “unlawful harm” these systems have. Under the bill, state agencies would be required to create impact assessments of any AI-powered tools they deploy—though the reports would be considered confidential and exempt from the Texas Public Information Act.
Intelligence for me but not for thee.
>“People want to make sure that the government isn’t just surveilling people who aren’t doing anything wrong just because they can. ..."
Completely missing the point. The government *defines* what "doing anything wrong" *is*. "Only going after bad guys" is tautological nonsense in this context.
>Shah, the attorney from Just Futures Law, said the dangers of surveillance technologies are easily overlooked because they are not viewed as inherently or imminently violent.
>
>“It’s just that it’s creating the infrastructure in which you can be harmed,” Shah said. Plus, she added, many surveillance tools were originally designed for warfare, or by former military intelligence personnel, and should be viewed through that lens and not as the “soft side” of policing, which is how some AI companies market the tools.
>
>“These are wartime technologies that are now in the hands of local cops,” she said. “We should be really worried.”At least one person quoted in the article understands the problem. Talk about burying the lede, @TexasObserver :P
#TexasObserver #DragnetSurveillance #Surveillance #texas #AI #PoliceState #DPS #ALPRs #ALPR #ANPR #ANPRs #LicensePlateReaders #FacialRecognition #Biometrics #Flock
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https://www.texasobserver.org/brazos-river-development-pollution-drifting-toward-disaster/
>What’s more, Dow-Freeport is operating with a wastewater permit that expired in 2019 but has been “administratively continued” by TCEQ, according to an agency spokesperson. That means Dow is allowed to follow outdated rules while a TCEQ review of the facility’s new draft permit drags on.
>
>“It is concerning that this is coming up on five years, which is, frankly, the length of time a new permit would have been,” said Josh Kratka, a senior staff attorney at the National Environmental Law Center. While Kratka doesn’t know what’s transpiring between Dow and TCEQ specifically, he explained that many companies try to convince regulators that they can’t reasonably comply with pollution limits in order to delay enforcement. “Rather than really crack down, enforcing a solution quickly, the regulators just give them more time,” he said.This article was written in 2023. So far as I can tell, the permit in question, WQ0000007000, was originally granted in 1978. Its latest "approval date" is from 2016, and its latest "expiration date" is... STILL 2019. And yet the permit is still "active" rather than expired.
You can check at: https://www6.tceq.texas.gov/wqpaq/index.cfm
Put in "WQ0000007000" for the State Permit No., click Add, then click Search.
(Sidenote: still using ColdFusion? In 2025? Damn).
Ouch.
#TexasObserver @TexasObserver #BrazosRiver #Brazos #Brazoria #Texas #TCEQ #FreePort #CleanWaterAct #CleanWater
-
https://www.texasobserver.org/brazos-river-development-pollution-drifting-toward-disaster/
>What’s more, Dow-Freeport is operating with a wastewater permit that expired in 2019 but has been “administratively continued” by TCEQ, according to an agency spokesperson. That means Dow is allowed to follow outdated rules while a TCEQ review of the facility’s new draft permit drags on.
>
>“It is concerning that this is coming up on five years, which is, frankly, the length of time a new permit would have been,” said Josh Kratka, a senior staff attorney at the National Environmental Law Center. While Kratka doesn’t know what’s transpiring between Dow and TCEQ specifically, he explained that many companies try to convince regulators that they can’t reasonably comply with pollution limits in order to delay enforcement. “Rather than really crack down, enforcing a solution quickly, the regulators just give them more time,” he said.This article was written in 2023. So far as I can tell, the permit in question, WQ0000007000, was originally granted in 1978. Its latest "approval date" is from 2016, and its latest "expiration date" is... STILL 2019. And yet the permit is still "active" rather than expired.
You can check at: https://www6.tceq.texas.gov/wqpaq/index.cfm
Put in "WQ0000007000" for the State Permit No., click Add, then click Search.
(Sidenote: still using ColdFusion? In 2025? Damn).
Ouch.
#TexasObserver @TexasObserver #BrazosRiver #Brazos #Brazoria #Texas #TCEQ #FreePort #CleanWaterAct #CleanWater
-
https://www.texasobserver.org/brazos-river-development-pollution-drifting-toward-disaster/
>What’s more, Dow-Freeport is operating with a wastewater permit that expired in 2019 but has been “administratively continued” by TCEQ, according to an agency spokesperson. That means Dow is allowed to follow outdated rules while a TCEQ review of the facility’s new draft permit drags on.
>
>“It is concerning that this is coming up on five years, which is, frankly, the length of time a new permit would have been,” said Josh Kratka, a senior staff attorney at the National Environmental Law Center. While Kratka doesn’t know what’s transpiring between Dow and TCEQ specifically, he explained that many companies try to convince regulators that they can’t reasonably comply with pollution limits in order to delay enforcement. “Rather than really crack down, enforcing a solution quickly, the regulators just give them more time,” he said.This article was written in 2023. So far as I can tell, the permit in question, WQ0000007000, was originally granted in 1978. Its latest "approval date" is from 2016, and its latest "expiration date" is... STILL 2019. And yet the permit is still "active" rather than expired.
You can check at: https://www6.tceq.texas.gov/wqpaq/index.cfm
Put in "WQ0000007000" for the State Permit No., click Add, then click Search.
(Sidenote: still using ColdFusion? In 2025? Damn).
Ouch.
#TexasObserver @TexasObserver #BrazosRiver #Brazos #Brazoria #Texas #TCEQ #FreePort #CleanWaterAct #CleanWater
-
https://www.texasobserver.org/brazos-river-development-pollution-drifting-toward-disaster/
>What’s more, Dow-Freeport is operating with a wastewater permit that expired in 2019 but has been “administratively continued” by TCEQ, according to an agency spokesperson. That means Dow is allowed to follow outdated rules while a TCEQ review of the facility’s new draft permit drags on.
>
>“It is concerning that this is coming up on five years, which is, frankly, the length of time a new permit would have been,” said Josh Kratka, a senior staff attorney at the National Environmental Law Center. While Kratka doesn’t know what’s transpiring between Dow and TCEQ specifically, he explained that many companies try to convince regulators that they can’t reasonably comply with pollution limits in order to delay enforcement. “Rather than really crack down, enforcing a solution quickly, the regulators just give them more time,” he said.This article was written in 2023. So far as I can tell, the permit in question, WQ0000007000, was originally granted in 1978. Its latest "approval date" is from 2016, and its latest "expiration date" is... STILL 2019. And yet the permit is still "active" rather than expired.
You can check at: https://www6.tceq.texas.gov/wqpaq/index.cfm
Put in "WQ0000007000" for the State Permit No., click Add, then click Search.
(Sidenote: still using ColdFusion? In 2025? Damn).
Ouch.
#TexasObserver @TexasObserver #BrazosRiver #Brazos #Brazoria #Texas #TCEQ #FreePort #CleanWaterAct #CleanWater
-
https://www.texasobserver.org/brazos-river-development-pollution-drifting-toward-disaster/
>What’s more, Dow-Freeport is operating with a wastewater permit that expired in 2019 but has been “administratively continued” by TCEQ, according to an agency spokesperson. That means Dow is allowed to follow outdated rules while a TCEQ review of the facility’s new draft permit drags on.
>
>“It is concerning that this is coming up on five years, which is, frankly, the length of time a new permit would have been,” said Josh Kratka, a senior staff attorney at the National Environmental Law Center. While Kratka doesn’t know what’s transpiring between Dow and TCEQ specifically, he explained that many companies try to convince regulators that they can’t reasonably comply with pollution limits in order to delay enforcement. “Rather than really crack down, enforcing a solution quickly, the regulators just give them more time,” he said.This article was written in 2023. So far as I can tell, the permit in question, WQ0000007000, was originally granted in 1978. Its latest "approval date" is from 2016, and its latest "expiration date" is... STILL 2019. And yet the permit is still "active" rather than expired.
You can check at: https://www6.tceq.texas.gov/wqpaq/index.cfm
Put in "WQ0000007000" for the State Permit No., click Add, then click Search.
(Sidenote: still using ColdFusion? In 2025? Damn).
Ouch.
#TexasObserver @TexasObserver #BrazosRiver #Brazos #Brazoria #Texas #TCEQ #FreePort #CleanWaterAct #CleanWater
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#Texas #ActiveClub #Leader #Blurred His #Face But Forgot to #Scrub His #Socials.
In an online conversation with the #TexasObserver, #RhettMurryLoftis, a 23-year-old #resident of #Weatherford, admits he is a #fascist, and that he leads the #ParkerCounty #ActiveClub.
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Hategroups #RepublicanParty #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Racism #Homophobia #Transphobia #ThePartyOfHate