There’s a hilarious scene depicting Moses on Mt. Sinai in Mel Brooks’ 1981 comedy film “History of the World, Part I.”

As Moses, played by Brooks, descends from the mountain, he’s holding three large tablets.

Moses bellows: “Hear me! Oh, hear me! All pay heed! The Lord, the Lord Jehovah, has given unto you these fifteen…”

He then stumbles and drops one of the tablets. It shatters when it hits the ground.

“Oy!,” he says to the Hebrews below, using a well-known Yiddish interjection. “Ten!,” he tells his people. “Ten commandments for all to obey!”

How the world might be different today if Moses had given us all 15!

Joking aside, many Gentiles will be surprised to learn that the “Ten Commandments” are just the opening decalogue of the five books of Moses (the Jews’ Torah). They are followed by 603 more commandments (mitzvot in Hebrew; the singular is mitzvah; a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah is the son or daughter of the commandments, hence the rite of passage for 13-year-old Jewish kids).

Last year, Governor Abbott signed SB 10, detailing the mandatory display of the “Ten Commandments” in Texas public schools (uncanny that the bill was number 10!). Not only are teachers now compelled to display them (although legal challenges are still pending), but they are also required to use the officially Texas-sanctioned “Ten Commandments.” And yes, they must use Texas-sanctioned “Ten Commandments” posters that are provided by the state.

I was surprised — floored, actually — to discover that the agreed text of the “Ten Commandments” adopted by my state actually includes 12, yes, 12 commandments. And the strangest part of the arrangement is that those 12 commandments are introduced by the title “The 10 Commandments”…

Please click here to continue reading my post this week for Southeast Texas Impact Initiative. Please consider subscribing or donating to the group. It will play a key role in the run-up to the mid-term elections with local block walking and voter registration. Thank you for your support and solidarity.

Dear California, I know it seems like we are all out of our minds here in Texas. But don’t give up on us yet!

A good friend from your state recently commented on a photo of our Texas-born children that my wife (born and raised in Orange, Texas) posted on her Facebook.

“Great!” she wrote, clearly sharing her joy in seeing our kids grow up healthy, strong, and determined. But the line that followed left us crestfallen.

“Now we just got to get you out of Texas!” she added.

Remarks like that are hurtful and make us feel like all that matters to you is that we live in a place you don’t like.

But given our truly laughable and often frightening political class, I can also understand how you have such a warped perception of who we are and how we live our lives.

Please continue reading my post today for the Southeast Texas Impact Initiative Substack.

Impact — as we shorthand it — is a tireless progressive activism organizer headquartered in the Golden Triangle, where Tracie grew up, one of the most ruby red of the ruby red zones of our state. These folks never stop registering voters, block walking, connecting people with resources they need, protesting the MAGA hegemon… They are great people and I’m proud to be one of them, representing our corner of SETX (as we acronymize it).

Please consider reading, subscribing and maybe even giving. They will be a key local player in the run-up to the midterms. Thanks for the support and solidarity.

The Mountain Dew hue of Trump’s botched Reflecting Pool restoration has become a stand-in for the grand level of his incompetence. He is the sparkling New York realtor and TV star who lacks the wherewithal of even your garden-variety swimming pool maintenance technician. And why is the president of the U.S. busying himself with such mundane issues when the rest of the world is on fire?

Click here to read my post this week for Southeast Texas Impact Initiative.

Impact, as we members of the group shorthand it, is a widely active and highly disciplined progressive group in Orange County, Texas, a land where Ruby Red Republicans outnumber Democrats four to one.

Weekly protests in Rogers Park in Beaumont, weekly Zoom meetings where Orange County residents can learn how to get involved in local politics, aggressive representation at city council and planning meetings… These guys are doing the day-to-day work, making sure that Democratic voices are heard in a place where they have been historically suppressed.

If you live in Orange, County (which includes the city of Orange, where Tracie grew up and where we spend a lot of time with family), please join up!

And if you want to support from afar, please donate via the group’s website.

Thanks for being there. Thanks for being here. And thanks for reading.

Thanks again to everyone who called and wrote after my father died last week. It’s been a rough time. Your support means the world.

I’m excited to share my first post for Southeast Texas Impact Initiative, a Beaumont-based group that organizes, advocates, and protests against the current MAGA hegemony.

Please join me and members of the initiative as we celebrate Juneteenth by protesting from 4-6pm at the Neo-Confederate monument in Orange, Texas, where Tracie grew up. (DM me if you need more info.)

Tracie and I have been mounting protests at the site since 2017. We couldn’t be more thrilled that the initiative has now taken the lead on reminding the Sons of Confederate Veterans that conspicuous displays of racist iconography are no longer acceptable in our society.

No matter what you do to observe the federal holiday on Friday, do something on purpose, like my friend Annette Purnell, a former Orange council woman, likes to say.

Thanks for checking out my post. Hope to see you on Friday. Happy Juneteenth!

“Juneteenth Remains a Beacon of Hope for the Future, even in Bleak Gerrymandering Times.”

I’ve lived in Texas since 2008. I’ve been gerrymandered twice.

The first redrawing happened when our state lawmakers sought to go after Al Green’s seat in Houston. The district where I lived had finally flipped blue. It had been solidly red since the time of George Bush senior, who first went to Washington representing the neighborhood where I’ve lived since moving to SETX. Suddenly, Al Green was now my new congressman. I supported him gladly.

The second venture in surreal cartography infamously came recently when the house where I live with my family became part of a new district, now the only majority-Black district in the city.

There’s a disconnect that often happens when you try to explain Republican gerrymandering to someone who’s never lived in the south. While segregation exists throughout the U.S., southern emargination, with its origins stretching back to the Civil War, has created a unique overlap and interconnection between geography, race, and politics. It’s because our cities are more deeply divided along racial lines than in other parts of the country…

Click here to continue reading on the Southeast Texas Impact Initiative Substack.

A lot of eyes turned to Texas last night as Ken Paxton’s U.S. senate primary win over John Cornyn suddenly prompted political observers to claim that “Texas might now be in play” for Democrats (despite decades of unfulfilled wishful thinking that the state might turn Blue).

For those who are just beginning to wrap their minds around Paxton’s rise, let’s be crystal-eyed clear: Paxton is no “gift” for Democrats.

In 2023 Paxton, the state’s attorney general, was impeached by our Republican-dominated house of representatives. The impeachment was led by the former speaker, Dade Phelan, one of the most conservative politicians in the state (we follow him closely because he represents the county where Tracie grew up, Orange, a conservative bastion). The vote to move forward with the senate trial was 121-23. At the time, 60 of 80 Republicans — in Texas! — voted to impeach him! That gives you a sense of just how loathsome Paxton is in this Red state.

Paxton’s own staff of lawyers quit on him after accusing him of bribery and misuse of his office. His own hand-picked staff! Paxton has associated with a convicted, corrupt Austin real estate developer, the same one that let the attorney general use his Uber account so that he could meet with his adulterous love interest and then gave her a job.

Tracie and I were eager to watch the primary returns last night. Beyond the Cornyn/Paxton fight to the death, there were two contentious races in Texas where rabid antisemitism was a key element (one of the racists, a Democrat, lost; another, a Republican, won).

It’s exciting to believe that Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. senate, might have a chance to beat “the most corrupt politician in America,” as Talarico’s team has already branded Paxton in their ads this morning.

But it’s also saddening to think that we may be represented in the senate by two of the most hated politicians of our era, Cruz and Paxton, both in lockstep with MAGA.

Daunted but not deterred, Tracie and I will be working hard for Talarico by block-walking. We can’t afford to lose this one.