Day Two: The Calm Before The Chaos
Uneventful on the surface, but every gesture tells a story of power.
Last night, I went back to watch the opening day of the 88th Legislative Session (2023) and noticed that Secretary of State Jane Nelson’s outfit was nearly identical to the outfit she wore yesterday. Maybe it’s her lucky legislative jacket. Or maybe she’s trying to remind everyone that she’s been here before. Either way, if the session is going to repeat the same nonsense, I guess it’s only fair that her wardrobe repeats too.
Day Two - Texas House.
The House did not debate the House rules today like I thought it would. Instead, it gaveled in, laid out the Housekeeping Resolutions, and adjourned. The day was mostly uneventful.
They are also scheduled to meet tomorrow, Thursday, 1/16, but they will adjourn after that until Wednesday, 1/22, when they are expected to debate the rules. For some reason, in the last session, they debated the rules a lot earlier. I’m unsure why they are waiting until Day Eight of the Legislature to get to the rules. Perhaps they expect it to be contentious and are giving the Republicans more time to cool down from the Speaker’s race.
It’s probably a good thing they’re stretching it out; the more delays there are, the better. Democrats will try to run down the clock on some of the worst Republican bills (they do every session), which is mainly why the far-right wanted to shut them out of the legislative process.
The only quasi-interesting thing in the House today was my observation as the members waited to gavel in.
What do you see?
Nothing? Here’s a zoomed-in version:
This is a group of Republicans greeting one another and chit-chatting. Notice that whenever the men greet each other, they shake hands. But when the women walk over, they hug them in a very touchy-feely way.
Ben Bumgarner (R-HD63) is the big man on the left. When Keresa Richardson (R-HD61) approaches the group (she’s the woman in the gray jacket), Bumgarner seemingly hugs her and then kisses her on the forehead.
The woman in blue is Denise Villalobos (R-HD34). When she walked over, Mano Deyala (R-HD133), the man in blue, hugged her, as did the other man, who had his back facing the camera (I didn’t recognize him).
I started paying attention to this after the last session when I watched Jay Dean (R-HD07) walk up behind Terri Leo-Wilson (R-HD23) and rub her back. At the time, it appeared to be nonconsensual touching from a male coworker, which I thought was inappropriate.
The fact that Republican men only hugged the women, never shaking their hands as they did with their male counterparts, reveals how deeply ingrained the patriarchy is in the Republican psyche. The optics of it are striking. Professional women, both of them married, being casually kissed and embraced by their male colleagues in a way that would never happen between two men.
The message is clear: Republican women, regardless of their titles or accomplishments, are still seen as something to be handled, touched, and embraced rather than treated as equals with a firm handshake.
Republican women, perhaps unknowingly, internalize this, navigating spaces where they are expected to accept these physical gestures without complaint, lest they appear cold, unfeminine, or ungrateful for male attention. That same internalized misogyny manifests in their policies, too, voting in ways that uphold the very systems that diminish their autonomy and reinforce male dominance.
Meanwhile, the men seem to operate under the assumption that they have an unspoken right to invade personal space. There’s an entitlement embedded in the casual way they lean in, squeeze shoulders, and kiss foreheads. These small moments, repeated over time, build the scaffolding of a political culture where male power is reinforced and normalized. An unspoken declaration that women in their orbit exist within specific, gendered roles.
It’s gross. And it’s telling. These public displays of dominance serve as reminders of who really holds power in their world.
Day Two - Texas Senate.
The Senate did adopt the Senate rules today, and it went off without a hitch.
Bryan Hughes (R-SD01) mentioned that the only rule changes were the ones they discussed behind closed doors (presumably) because they weren’t addressed on the floor. As of writing this, the text of the rules hasn’t been posted online, but sometimes it takes a little while. I’ll watch it and let you know if anything is interesting.
Some of the members of the House came over to let the Senate know they were organized and ready to conduct business.
It’s a little ironic that Dan Patrick told the House members, including some Democrats, to stay and fraternize for a bit, considering his statement yesterday regarding the Speaker’s race, which was dripping with disdain for the bipartisan election of Speaker Dustin Burrows.
Patrick’s statement framed Burrows’ victory as a betrayal of Republican voters because Burrows was elected with the help of Democratic votes. He lamented that “the minority party” openly elected the Speaker of a legislative body instead of the majority party as if bipartisanship was some kind of crime.
Yet, here he was today, in full charm mode, acting as if he welcomed cross-party camaraderie. The fucking contradiction.
Patrick wants to project an image of a collegial, smoothly functioning Senate while simultaneously fanning the flames of partisanship when it suits his narrative. His friendliness today was performative, a stark contrast to his public statement, which painted any Republican working with Democrats as complicit in undermining conservative values.
It’s a classic bait-and-switch. Smile for the cameras while sharpening the knives. And it’s not lost on anyone who’s paying attention.
The Senate adjourned and won’t return until next Wednesday.
138 days of chaos to go.
While today may have been mostly uneventful on the surface, the undercurrents of Republican behavior were still on full display for anyone paying attention.
But this is just the beginning. There are 138 days left in this session, and the real battles haven’t even started. The fireworks are coming, and when they do, the fake collegiality will crumble. For now, we wait, but the chaos is inevitable.
March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.
June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.
Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.
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Thanks for your reporting and insights, Michelle.
"House Republicans are looking to cut SNAP benefits in an attempt to reduce federal spending
The hefty cuts were outlined in a list of spending reform options, first obtained by Politico"
Now if we were as concerned about this as MAGA was to get Hegseth nominated we would be at every church from now till...necessary
We won't.
It will get debated and traded away or slimmed down and if ur a poor person u may never have even been made of aware of the threat.
Beto or whoever will spend 12 month revising the mailing list cause their $3 beggin letter pissed off so many people they stopped being registered Dems...or they will move to another HQ or get some new software or maybe work on a new logo.
What the new Chair of TDP will not do is organize a sustained and wide spread protest to protect the nutrition of poor Texas kids.
Please report here the first organized protest by statewide Dems. Protesting after the fact doesn't count.