Cornyn Weighs in on Trump: Your Texas Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“just been told that my set at fpsf has been pulled coz of the thunderstorm… i’m so sorry guys. gonna go cry outside beyonce’s house now : ( ”

—Singer Charli XCX on Twitter Sunday, after her performance at Houston’s Free Press Summer Fest was cancelled due to a thunderstorm, according to the Houston Chronicle.

BIG NEWS

Constructovfefe Criticism
Senator John Cornyn dished on President Donald Trump during an interview with WFAA on Sunday, offering some light criticism of the president’s use of social media. But other than tweet troubles, Cornyn largely praised POTUS, pinning some of Trump’s struggles throughout the early days of his presidency on the Democrats. “Unfortunately the president has, I think, created problems for himself by his Twitter habit,” Cornyn said. “And unfortunately he hasn’t been able to assemble a team around him at the departments like the State Department, the Defense Department because of slow heel dragging by the Democrats who simply have prevented the president from getting his team in place. But I don’t think any of us should be particularly surprised, because he was elected because he was an unconventional candidate… so I think we need to do our best to help him succeed because we want the country to succeed.” The Republican also gave Trump a favorable B+ grade on foreign policy issues. “He enforced the red line on Syrian chemical weapons,” Cornyn said. “He enlisted China to help with North Korea—I think the preeminent threat to us right now. I think he has shown some mettle in dealing with Russia and Putin, particularly in dealing with Syria and around the world.” Cornyn’s comments came hours after Trump caused a small foreign relations crisis on Twitter by criticizing the mayor of London—who is Muslim—after seven people were killed in what is believed to have been a terrorist attack. This came days after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, further straining the U.S.’s relationship with European leaders. Besides the praise, Cornyn seems to be offering a bit of solid advice to the president that would also best be followed by pretty much everyone everywhere: never tweet.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Racist Remarks
An African-American girl at Tippit Middle School in Georgetown was the victim of racism from her fellow students, a report written by the school about the incidents said, according to the Austin American-Statesman. In May, a student told the twelve-year-old girl that she looked like an ape, and called her a slave and pretended to whip her. A male student also reportedly made racist comments toward the girl. The girl’s father, Robert Ranco, says the school didn’t react strongly enough—none of the students involved were suspended, and the district didn’t even go so far as to call the incident bullying. “It makes me feel like the school district is sweeping this under the rug,” Ranco told the Statesman. In March, a girl followed the twelve-year-old around a tennis court, pretending to whip her with a long piece of trash and saying “You’re my slave now!” During a lunchtime dispute that same month, a male student said “You’re not really going to take the word of a BLACK person over the word of a WHITE person, are you?” And in May, a male student said he wasn’t sitting next to the twelve-year-old because “I don’t sit next to apes.” The same girl who pretended to whip the girl with trash then pulled up a photo of an ape on her phone, and said, “This is what you look like.”

Bayou City Bombers
The Houston Astros completed a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers on Sunday, stretching a scorching-hot winning streak to ten games. The ‘Stros have been dominant all season, and they lead the majors with a 41-16 record. If they can keep up that pace then they’ll finish with 117 wins, more than any team in baseball history. They look like a good bet right now to fulfill Sports Illustrated‘s 2011 prophecy, when the magazine boldly predicted Houston would complete its rebuilding process and win a World Series this year, thanks to the bats of Jose Altuve (.323 average), Carlos Correa (.315, 11 home runs), and George Springer (.280, 16 homers), and ace arms Dallas Keuchel (9-0, 1.67 ERA) and Lance McCullers (6-1, 2.71). The Rangers, meanwhile, have fallen well short of expectations this season. They currently sit five games below .500 and have lost eleven of their last fourteen games, an unpleasant turn for a team just one season removed from claiming the best record in the American League.

Leaving Us Hanging
Governor Greg Abbott is taking his sweet old time to decide whether we’ll have a special session of the Texas Legislature. As the Texas Tribune notes, he keeps pushing back his announcement. Last Monday, he said he’d make the announcement sometime during last week. On Wednesday morning, Abbott said he was just waiting for the budget to be certified and wanted to go through more bills on his desk first. The budget was certified on Thursday. Still no announcement. When Friday finally rolled around, Abbott said he wouldn’t have anything to say over the weekend. “Stay tuned,” Matt Hirsch, the governor’s communications director, told the Austin American-Statesman on Friday. “Enjoy the weekend.” Well, the weekend’s over. We’re still waiting. Perhaps no one is waiting as anxiously as Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who pressured Abbott to call a special session to pass his agenda items, particularly the “bathroom bill” that prohibits transgender people from using the bathrooms that match their gender identity in schools.