POLITICAL CALCULATION

Lizz Burr writes a critical and thorny piece for the Burnt Orange Report about Texas officials making political calculations in the wake of the release of the infamous Trump tapes. Earlier this month, The Washington Post released a video from an unaired segment from Access Hollywood in which Mr. Trump is caught on hot mic talking about making unwanted advances towards women. Many perceived it as him bragging about sexual assault.

Burr, who is especially critical of Gov. Gregg Abbott, finds an issue in the fact that the Governor had to wait a full day to condemn his party's presidential nominee. Burr further asserts that the Governor was waiting to see which way the political winds were blowing and how severe the fallout to his party was from the damaging tapes.

Burr uses the word "sweetment" to describe Abbot's condemnation and further criticizes the Governor for still sticking with Mr. Trump. As of this writing, Governor Abbot still plans to vote for the Republican nominee this November. 

This piece is clearly intended for a more left-leaning audience. Personally, I find Burr to be jumping to conclusions and being a little unfair to the Governor. I'm not a fan of Greg Abbott, but I don't find fault in the fact that he waited a full day before he expressed condemnation. 

I do, however, find it amusing that so many politicians nationally and locally had to wait so long to revoke their endorsements from Mr. Trump. There is already a treasure trove of evidence that he is unfit to be president. Many politicians who are finally distancing themselves from Mr. Trump were still 100% with him when he spoke of Mexico sending rapists and criminals, John McCain not being a war hero and proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States. 

But the last straw was when he was offensive towards 53% of all voters (women) that finally, many GOP politicians around the country and some in Texas (Will Hurd) decided that endorsing him would politically backfire (especially if they're running in a swing district).

This is another example of politicians examining what's politically convenient for them, rather than what's good for the entire nation as a whole. 

ENERGY POLICIES

It feels like this has been the longest election of our lifetime. In between all the personal insults, email scandals and conspiracy theories that have taken over headlines, the issues that affect everyday Americans, and especially Texans have been sidelined. So what do we (as Texans) focus on? 

Michael E. Webber from the statesman  makes an argument that (if we can filter out the back and forth nastiness), we should focus on the candidate's stance on energy policies.  Webber's article highlights the importance of the fact that energy is vital to the economy of the lone star state. Trillions of dollars will be spent here in the coming decades that will create jobs in fields like oil and gas, decarbonization, infrastructure upkeep, renewable energy and electricity grid upgrades. 

Webber endorses Clinton's plan to let the dying coal industry faze out. He argues that coal is a thing of the past  and that Clinton's plan would benefit the oil and national gas industry far more than Donald Trump's. The Republican nominee's stance is mostly intended to protecting coal, which is not only an ancient source of energy but also something that contributes to the environment in negative ways. 

I like the argument that the author makes. Presidential candidates stance on energy policies directly affect how many good paying jobs will be created in Texas in the coming years. As a state where oil and agriculture are critical, we should be paying more attention to where candidates stand on energy policies than the back and forth rhetoric that dominates the narrative in the media.