As part of our larger “Progress Texas Summer Vacation" series, we reviewed the threats to our national parks with Cristóbal López, the National Parks Conservation Association’s Texas Field Representative. Our talk ranges from exacerbated staff shortages, to how Trump’s budget bill could create the largest public lands sale in modern history - so billionaires can cut you out of “America’s best idea” and keep the views to themselves.

Learn more about this ongoing work at https://www.npca.org/articles/9320-senate-committee-abandons-national-park-staff-in-reckless-budget-proposal, and at https://www.npca.org/articles/8858-new-order-threatens-park-service-s-efforts-to-protect-and-explore-american.

Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Trump's Big Bullshit Bill, passed by the Senate, now heads for the House, where part of the opposition is Texas Congressman Chip Roy - whose concerns about impacts to the national debt will likely lead to even deeper cuts for vulnerable Americans: https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2025-07-02/why-texas-rep-chip-roy-broke-with-trump-on-the-gops-mega-bill

...Rural, red, Republican Texas is about to feel the full impact of the bill as the healthcare desert they already live in gets even worse: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/budget-bill-trump-medicaid-rural-hospitals-20402463.php

Senator John Cornyn - in major trouble in polling against Ken Paxton - has lost none of his fundraising prowess as he'll have at least $12 million to fend off his primary challenger: https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/01/congress/john-cornyn-fundraising-texas-senate-primary-ken-paxton-00434713

Progress Texas Executive Director Kathleen Thompson weighs in on what Zohran Mamadani's success in NYC means for Texas: "young people are motivated if they’re turned on by a candidate": https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/01/politicians-texans-can-learn-zohran-mamdani/

...And we review that time in 2008 when Kathleen bested recently-declared Texas Senate candidate Leigh Wamsganss, who wanted Texans to ignore bad polling on then-VP candidate Sarah Palin: https://vimeo.com/27319160

Advocacy and Development Coordinator Tatum Owens has been travels in the Pacific Northwest, where she's experiencing firsthand the impact of Trump's budget cuts on our national parks: https://www.commoncause.org/fr/actes/tell-congress-stop-trumps-cuts-to-national-parks/

The merch to match your progressive values awaits at our web store! Goodies at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://store.progresstexas.org/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, naturally, are all in for Donald Trump's deeply unpopular Big Bullshit Bill: https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-7-1-2025

...It will have massive effects in Texas, both for SNAP recipients and the 15% of Texans who rely on Medicaid: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/how-could-changes-to-snap-and-medicaid-in-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-impact-texas/

...Elon Musk is up in arms about the cuts to electric vehicle subsidies in the bill, and Tesla stock took a dive this morning when Trump suggested DOGE have a look at Musk's federal take: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/01/tesla-shares-tumble-after-trump-says-doge-should-look-at-elon-musks-subsidies.html

...Don't cry for Elon though - the loss of USAID is projected to result in 14 million needless deaths globally by 2030: https://www.ft.com/content/945a0301-2bf5-4e0f-bdc4-f07f82891cb1

As expected, former Dallas Congressman Colin Allred has formally launched a run for the U.S. Senate: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/01/colin-allred-texas-us-senate-democrat-2026-cornyn-paxton/

A host of Texas GOP establishment biggies are calling for Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Bo French to resign over a recent bigoted tweet - but figures in the hard right lunatic fringe are rallying in support: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-republicans-tarrant-county-bo-french-social-media-poll-jews-muslims/

Progress Texas Summer Vacation! Advocacy Manager Reagan Stone paid a visit to the Alamo over the weekend: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/unesco-san-antonio-missions-nps-layoffs-20202390.php

...And Advocacy and Development Coordinator Tatum Owens has been traveling in the Pacific Northwest: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/research-restrooms-summer-staffing-crunch-hits-national-parks-after-trump-cuts-2025-06-08/

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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Donald Trump's continued press to establish an authoritarian regime, supported by his stacked Supreme Court, gives progressives all the more reason to rise and resist: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/us/supreme-court-trump-victories.html

...The Trump tax bill, on the verge of passing the Senate, provide even more reason for working Americans to make their opposition known: https://apnews.com/article/senate-bill-trump-tax-breaks-spending-cuts-549c2fdd47c1965007282b8461687bc9

...Seeing that opposing Trump is a fatal mistake for Senate Republicans, and living in fatal fear of a Ken Paxton primary, John Cornyn is now sucking up to the President with whom he has up till now maintained distance: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/30/john-cornyn-senate-texas-primary-republicans-trump-paxton/

...Who will the Democrats put up for Senate? Beto O'Rourke, James Talarico, Joaquin Castro and more gathered Friday night in San Antonio: https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2025-06-29/who-will-texas-democrats-pick-to-be-their-nominee-to-run-for-u-s-senator...GOP toxicity in both D.C. and Texas are giving Dems hope for '26: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/06/30/why-democrats-are-excited-about-texas-real-this-time/

...Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz find themselves in an endorsement battle in the race for Texas Comptroller: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/06/30/hard-fought-2026-gop-primaries-could-reshuffle-texas-politics/

...Fort Worth State Rep. Nate Schatzline, just days after declaring a run for the Texas Senate, chickens out when a Patriot Mobile executive declares for the same seat: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article309578670.html

A capital murder charge brought against a North Texas man accused of slipping abortion-inducing drugs to his pregnant girlfriend represents a new move by anti-abortion activists to establish fetal personhood: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/30/texas-abortion-pill-capital-murder-charge-fetal-personhood/

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On this week's download of frustration and triumph and frustration, the crew celebrates the win of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral primary - which both portends the rising power of young progressive voters, and has also unleashed an amazing outpouring of panic from not only the far right, but also, strangely enough, some from the Democratic old guard. What gives? We talk about it, and more.

Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can join in our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Current and former aides to Attorney General Ken Paxton are in an all-out and tawdry legal battle over alleged obstruction during Paxton's 2023 impeachment, threatening to become a sideshow for Paxton's expected run for Senate next year: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/26/ken-paxton-impeachment-witness-tampering-former-employees/?_bhlid=1ce16d89f9b2653aa078b30c686107bc7fce03c7

...Top Democrats are lining up to face Paxton next year, as Congressman Joaquin Castro, former Congressmen Colin Allred and Beto O'Rourke, and Austin State Rep. James Talarico have begun talks to discuss the plan: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/06/26/democrats-allred-castro-orourke-talarico-meet-to-discuss-2026-options/

...O'Rourke, Talarico and Castro will all speak tonight at a Powered By People event in San Antonio: https://www.mobilize.us/poweredxpeople/event/798485/

Tarrant County Republican Party chairman Bo French, once again, displays his childish bigotry online - when will Fort Worth area Republicans tire of his embarrassing antics? https://www.sacurrent.com/news/north-texas-republican-party-shares-online-poll-asking-whether-jews-or-muslims-are-bigger-threat-37841913

The Trump administration is expanding its military footprint in Texas, endangering the right of Texans to enjoy outdoor spaces near the border: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/26/texas-military-zone-expansion-illegal-immigration/

...The Posse Comitatus Act is now being significantly strained in the Texas borderlands: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/06/g-s1-63778/military-border-zone-posse-comitatus-explained

Social Security is NOT doomed to insolvency - it could be made solid if the top 6% of American earners paid in the same rate as the rest of us: https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2025/06/24/social-security-faces-cuts-even-though-theres-a-fix-for-its-problems/

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The second time we've run Joe Jaworski's "Midterms" political talk show hosted by KPFT-FM in Houston, where it runs every Tuesday morning, features a talk with former Congressman Beto O'Rourke! It was recorded just after Beto's swing through Texas on his tour of town hall meetings - since, of course, he's joined Senator Bernie Sanders and Austin Congressman Greg Casar and more for a similar run of rallies through the state.

Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can get involved in our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

New bi-monthy polling in Texas finds negativity growing against Republican leadership and policies, from Donald Trump to Governor Greg Abbott and on down the line: https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/blog/june-2025-university-of-texas-texas-politics-project-poll-economic-concerns-drag-trump-s-job-approval-underwater-in-texas-while-most-texans-oppose-ban-on-thc-products-dividing-gop-leadership

...Also deep bipartisan disapproval for Dan's Ban of THC products, vetoed by Abbott and now central to an upcoming special session: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/25/texas-poll-voters-oppose-thc-ban-sb-3/

The special session will likely cover more than Dan's Ban - a massive water-pumping project in East Texas has led to calls to reform state laws that allow almost unlimited private water access: https://www.kltv.com/2025/06/26/east-texas-lawmaker-might-ask-gov-abbott-add-water-rights-special-session/

...So far, not much has been said about tackling redistricting in the special session - this one, anyway - which is good, because it's a terrible idea: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2025/06/26/texas-shouldnt-use-special-session-to-redraw-electoral-maps/

Trump's "big beautiful bill", if passed as written, would be the end of at least 15 rural hospitals across Texas: https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_on_rural_hospitals.pdf

The Texas oil industry has thus far ignored Trump's calls to expand pumping to offset his misadventures in Iran - unlike the dictatorships Trump admires, American oil producers are more beholden to their investors than to the Dear Leader: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/article/trump-oil-production-texas-20391839.php

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Former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger has become an influential player in Texas politics since moving his family to the Houston area after leaving the U.S. House in 2022. His vocal rejection of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, including his active involvement in Trump's second impeachment, has brought him into natural alliance with progressives across the country. Congressman Kinzinger recently took part in a forum with several recent Democratic winners of North Texas elections, organized by the Dallas County Democratic Party and held at Northaven United Methodist Church on June 17, and this podcast contains his remarks as well as an interview conducted by Congressman Kinzinger's fellow anti-Trump Republican and military veteran Michael Wood, in which the two explore the history and current nature of the MAGA movement, and strategies on how the rest of America should go about resisting it.

Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how to support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

The primary win of young Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamadani in the New York City mayoral election is being seen by some as a bellwether for the national Democratic party: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/nyregion/cuomo-mamdani-mayor-primary-nyc.html

...Also representing that wave, Austin Congressman Greg Casar has been sticking to economic messages over cultural issues on his recent tour with Bernie Sanders: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/25/greg-casar-midterms-2026-democrats-economic-populist-message/

...Also with the Democratic new guard is Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who has once again been denied a leadership position by the Dem establishment, who tend to see her as "overzealous": https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/24/texas-jasmine-crockett-house-oversight-committee-ranking-democrat/?_bhlid=1766cdc79b48c2d325de759b7727d6aa2da63f9e

...Houston Congressman Al Green - not a young lawmaker but definitely a fiery one - has seen his move to impeach Donald Trump for his attack on Iran fail, once again at the hands of Democrats concerned about the middle: https://www.axios.com/2025/06/24/trump-impeachment-iran-democrats-al-green

East Texas rancher and firefighter Bobby Cole has launched a campaign for Governor as a Democrat, promising to support working Texans - and to legalize marijuana: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/bobby-cole-texas-governor-20391255.php

A migrant detention camp in El Paso is straining at the seams, part of a swelling number of people under ICE detention - much to the glee of the private prison industry: https://elpasomatters.org/2025/06/24/ice-detention-facility-el-paso/

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