Vote on the Constitutional Amendments

 Time is running out on the vote for the proposed changes to the Texas Constitution.  Today is the last day to vote.  If you have not voted, copy the suggestions in this post and hurry to your voting place.

I have reviewed a couple of sources that I respect, put their recommendations into a spreadsheet, and added my own recommendations.  The amendments are called "propositions".

Because most of the votes are Yes,  I have highlighted the No's in yellow to make it easier to mark the ballot / sample ballot.

Here is where you can find your sample ballot for your precinct, you must know your precinct: https://www.collincountytx.gov/Elections/sample-ballots?electionID=67

On proposition 11 I differed from Texas Policy Research and Texas Eagle Forum because I think the older folks should get their tax relief.  

I was tempted to go against their recommendations on Proposition 3, about denying bail, even after reading what the experts said.  But then I read what JoAnn Fleming said and she  persuaded me to vote Yes on Proposition 3.  Here is what JoAnn said:

 

 

If you would like to read for yourselves the explanations for their recommendations, you can look here.  I have reviewed them and only differed on one point because I want that tax relief that they thought was unfair.

Texas Policy Research

https://www.texaspolicyresearch.com/texas-2025-constitutional-amendments-explained-ballot-guide-vote-recommendations/

 

Texas Eagle Forum

https://mcusercontent.com/0a6e189a54bb42a6b52b5729e/files/9f20686d-0717-fb1b-69b3-c9c7c5fd3f78/2025_NOV_PROPS.pdf

 

Hustle to your voting place.  If you can get inside by 7  pm then they will allow you to stay and vote.

Kallas's failure

Dear Friends,
This year the CC GOP sponsored a Leadership 101 class at the party headquarters.  It is almost as though the party realized that the previous party chair, Shelby Williams, was such a flop that we needed an explanation of leadership.  I can give you a good example of leadership in the CC GOP:  Lee Breckenridge-Moore, the HD89 caucus chair.  I need to explain her leadership to everyone because even precinct chairs who were in the meetings where she exhibited her leadership probably did not understand what they were seeing.  One problem in understanding is that the events showcasing her leadership dragged out over several months.  Another problem in understanding is a lack of knowledge of parliamentary procedure.

Let me give you an example of knowledge needed to understand an observation:  when watching a chess game, knowledge of chess is necessary to understand what is observed.  One needs to know opening, middle-game, and end-game theory as well as strategy and tactics.  Without knowledge, one can see without understanding.  Parliamentary procedure is a bit like that:  without knowledge you do not understand what is happening in front of you.

I will tell you an interesting story of a battle between right and wrong.  I will present to you the story of the conflicting reports from the Temporary Election Review Committee (TERC).  This committee was formed by CC GOP chairman Abraham George after the May 2023 local elections.  This committee was created in the May 8, 2023, Executive Committee (EC) meeting, but the reports were not presented until the October 9, 2023 EC meeting.  Yes, it took 5 months for the committee to complete its work and present its report.  There was a lot of conflict involved in presenting the report.  It is important to understand the conflicts and maneuvers in order to understand what was happening in the Collin County Republican Party (CC GOP).

Here is a fact that everyone needs to understand: per Robert's Rules, 51:2 “a report of a board or committee can contain only what has been agreed to by a majority vote” (page 479 in the latest edition).  But Stephen Kallas, the Chair of the Temporary Election Review Committee (TERC), wrote his own personal report and then tried to pass his personal report to the Executive Committee (EC) as though it was the committee report. Lee Breckenridge-Moore was a member of the committee and she believed that the rules should be followed and the report presented to the EC should be the report endorsed by the majority of the committee.  Lee tried so hard to get party leadership to enforce the rules, but party leadership played dumb. Then Lee reached out by email to the entire EC to put the problem out in the open.  Stephen Kallas, the committee chair, then issued his own email to the EC. Here is what he said in his email to the EC:  "I want to assure you that despite what you may have seen or heard, only one authorized report from that committee is the one I authored as the Chairman."  Because he wrote the report it is "authorized"?  What nonsense.  The committee chair Stephen Kallas should have known the rules well enough to have known that his report needed to be termed the "Minority Report" because the Majority Report is what was endorsed by the majority of the committee.

The dueling reports came to a head at a very special EC meeting.  In the October 9, 2023, EC meeting CC GOP Chairman Abraham George resigned to run for Candy Noble's seat in HD89.  All the candidates challenging the Collin County State Legislature incumbents were introduced and spoke.  Attorney General Ken Paxton spoke.  Big events broke out into the open that night, and that is when the report of the Temporary Election Review Committee was presented.  Both the majority report and the minority report, authored by Stephen Kallas, were presented, but it was not done properly. A minority report is supposed to be identified as the minority report and Stephen Kallas was avoiding that label.

Stephen Kallas presented after Lee and he finished by making a motion that his report be accepted by the EC.  At this point I, Robert Canright, stood and called "point of order."  Mr. Kallas objected saying that he had a motion on the floor. I said that a point of order is an interrupting motion.  The new Temporary Chairman of the party, John Myers heard me out.  John Myers consulted with the parliamentarian who said that accepting the report would put us in violation of our own Rules and Bylaws.

What was so different in the Kallas report?  Mr. Kallas proposed taking away from the EC the power to endorse Republicans in local elections and giving that power to donors and "kingmakers."  Here is exactly what he put into his report:

Recommendation 4:  Investigate the feasibility and efficacy of an endorsing convention.
Benefit:  Including the PACs and Clubs builds the team and allows for better fundraising opportunities.

Lee Breckenridge-Moore protected the power of the precinct chairs in the EC.  She battled for months to get the true report heard. By not "accepting" the Kallas report, the Candidate Committee was saved.  Lee showed leadership and Stephen left me puzzled on how a man so knowledgeable on Robert's Rules appeared to not know that a committee report must be approved by the majority of the committee.

Did the party under Chairman Shelby Williams try to leverage Lee's leadership skills?  No.  Chairman Williams forced a second election for HD89 Caucus Chair, seeming to want her gone from a leadership position.  The fallout for Mr. Kallas in botching the TERC report was that Mr. Kallas was promoted to chair of the Rules Committee.  Chairman Williams seemed to get everything backwards.  No wonder the party had a Leadership 101 class.

And the work of the TERC?  All the hours of testimony?  After the effort failed to let wealthy king makers choose the party endorsements, our leadership's interest in the committee report disappeared.  All that work was ignored.  It seems to me that Stephen Kallas led the TERC into failure because their work was ignored.

Thank you for your patience.  This is an episode in our party that is worth remembering and understanding. There are, of course, others in the party who also exhibit leadership.  Matt Thorsen in HD 67 for example led the successful effort to censure Representative Jeff Leach.

Some people tell me to forget about the past.  What is past is done, so forget about it.  But how can you make decisions today without knowing what  bad events in history might repeat?  For example, how can Stephen Kallas manage the decisions of a Justice of the Peace Court if he could not manage the Temporary Election Review Committee report?

Thank you for your patience.
Robert

Key Point:  The rules pertaining to committees and their reports provided us protection.  When Shelby Williams turned many committees into "teams," he stripped us of the protections we have in committees.  Turning committees into teams stripped us of rights and privileges, diminishing the EC.

footnote: on page 483 of Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised, 12th Edition, we have these pertinent paragraphs regarding committee reports.
51:13 Motion to Adopt an Entire Report
51:14 Equivalence of Terms, Incorrect Motions
51:16 “Another error – less common, but dangerous – is to move … that it ‘be accepted’ …”
Precinct chairs should have a copy of Robert's Rules and read pertinent parts, otherwise you can get swindled.

https://www.amazon.com/Roberts-Rules-Order-Newly-Revised/dp/1541736699/

Why listen to Canright?

 Friends,

I was thinking about how I voice opinions and you might wonder why you should listen to me.  I think that I should share some of my background with you.  You should have some foundation to assess my statements.  That is what I hope to accomplish with this communication.  I will be sharing examples from my life regarding (1) my skills in drilling past obstructions to discover truth.  (2) I will share examples of my speaking truth to power.  And I will be giving examples of (3) my competence and my ability to assess competence in other people.

Truth to Power

Here are a few examples from when I was a student in college.  To self-test my competence when I took a class in Digital Control Theory, I derived the formulas in a table of Z-Transforms.  I discovered an error in our textbook.  One of the transforms in the textbook was wrong.  I went to the library and found another textbook that supported my version of the Z-Transform.  For truth to power, I went to my professor and pointed out the error.  He agreed with me and instructed my classmates to correct their textbook.

When I was a college student I designed and built an analog computer that I used to prove to my professor that the requirements he gave us for a design project were impossible to achieve.  This truth to power was fine because he agreed with me.  I asked him why he gave us impossible requirements.  He said that the real lesson was that we might get impossible assignments at work.  Notice that I went to extraordinary lengths to discover the truth, designing and building an analog computer.

At work, when I was working on compact supercomputers I challenged every rule of thumb that was used without justification.  I drilled past a lot of "old wives tales."  In my research I discovered an equation that was missing in a famous book:  "A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism" by James Clerk Maxwell, published in 1873. The author published one equation and I knew that those types of equations came in pairs.  So, as a mathematician and engineer,  I derived the missing equation.  Then I wondered why Maxwell printed just one of the two equations.  I decided that he printed the easy one and skipped the hard one, leaving it as an exercise to the reader.  Next I realized why he printed the equation at all: because it made some measurements possible that some contemporary scientists thought were impossible to measure.  I published these equations and explained how they could be used for measurements, see reference 1.

In this case telling the truth blew up on me.  Instead of getting a pat on the back for good work, I was punished because I embarrassed an important man.  This man had said that the measurements were impossible to make, but my equation made those measurements possible.  My paper contradicted a well known professor.  Yes, you can get hurt by telling the truth.

Here's another example.  I decided that I needed an accurate and simple equation to do some of my work.  There were expensive computer programs that my project could not afford, so I developed an equation that I could use for analysis and design, and I published the equation.  When I saw that another researcher had published an equation that did what my equation did, but his equation was inferior from a couple of perspectives, I wrote a letter to the editor in order to bring this oversight to the reader's attention.  The other paper was also flawed by not mentioning my prior work.  Researchers should know the current state of the art. This drew the attention of a couple of professors in Italy.  They studied both of our closed form equations by using a precise computer program and they agreed with my assessment.  In this case telling "truth to power" worked out.  Experts in Italy supported me, see reference 2.

I have given you four examples of my digging down, past faulty logic and past oversights, and revealing underlying truths, telling truth to power.  I learned that "telling truth to power" can have blowback.

Competence

As examples of my competence, besides my work in research and development (R&D), I was involved in the design of some very complex systems.  One system that I worked on was the weapons systems in the Apache helicopter.  The Apache AH-64 is still in operation after 40 years (Ref. 3).  The targeting and navigation systems are more complex than most people can imagine.

Another weapon system I worked on that is still operational is the Javelin Anti-tank missile.  It is still operational after 30 years and has been very successful in the Ukraine, destroying Russian tanks (Ref. 4).  Again, the design is more complicated than most people can imagine.

A third military system I worked on that is very complicated is the RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft.  Some of my systems in that aircraft are life-and-death systems, some are mission critical.  I was able to work until I chose to retire because I was competent.  You might have seen this aircraft in the news recently.  President Trump deployed this aircraft at our southern border to spy on the drug cartels (Ref.5).

Incompetence

At one place of employment I refused to accept two men onto my projects whom I thought would jeopardize the success of my projects.  Both of these men were eventually let go because they could not perform to our standards.  At another place of employment, as part of an interview team, I spoke against hiring a Ph.D. from Cal Tech.  I told our management that I had worked with enough Ph.D.s to recognize that the applicant's achievements did not measure up to the typical achievements of Ph.D.s in engineering.  My managers were so excited to hire someone from the California Institute of Technology, a premier school, that they ignored my advice, hired the man, and ended up dismissing this man for poor performance some months later.

Summary

Because I have had many decades of experience in drilling past obstructions to discover the truth, I have some confidence in my "baloney detector."  I realize that the truth is not always welcome and that there can be repercussions from revealing an unpleasant truth.  Because of my decades in engineering, designing and delivering challenging and important products, I can tell whether an organization is on track for success or failure.  I can also spot incompetent or sub-par performance.

If I reveal unpleasant truths to you, or I make judgments regarding competence, you have some sense of my experience in these matters.  I hope this can be a help to you in assessing some of my statements.

Thank you for your time.

Robert Canright

References

Ref. 1: Capacitance: Relationships and Measurements, Robert E. Canright, Jr., Proceedings of the 40th Electronic Components and Technology Conference, Vol. 1, 1990, pp. 163 – 168.

Ref 2: Comments on “An Analytic Algorithm for Unbalanced Stripline Impedance”, E. Costamagna and A. Fanni, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Technique, Vol. 41, No. 1, January 1993, pp. 173 – 174

Ref. 3: The AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter Still Reigns Supreme By Brent M. Eastwood, February 1, 2025
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2025/02/the-ah-64-apache-attack-helicopter-still-reigns-supreme/

Ref. 4:  FGM-148 Javelin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin

Ref. 5: US Steps Up Intelligence Flights for Border Mission with RC-135 and P-8 Spy Planes
Feb. 4, 2025 | By Chris Gordon, Air & Space Forces Magazine
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/us-intelligence-flights-border-mission-rc-135/

Credentials
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering
B.S. in Mathematics
M.S. in Electrical Engineering
Licensed Professional Engineer in Electrical Engineering

Other Perspectives
My email describes me from the perspective of an engineer.  I read my first book in political science when I was in Middle School.  I started self-studying history and philosophy while in High School.  I still read a lot of books.  I ran for Plano ISD Board of Trustees in 2006.  I have been involved in local politics for the last 20 years.  I have many of experiences that I draw upon when making judgments, just like you do.

Please pray for the good people in the CC GOP

 Dear Friends,

I am asking for you to pray for the precinct chairs in the Collin County GOP (CC GOP).  The grassroots precinct chairs have been under undue pressure and we need your prayers.  Our Collin County party Chairman resigned on April 7, 2025 and we had an internal election to replace him.  The candidate who said that the name calling should stop and we should work together lost the election.  We will have to see whether or not the bullying stops.  Do pray for us.

Here are some examples of our problems. In the February 3, 2025, Executive Committee (EC) meeting, an elderly precinct chair (PC) was accosted by an Establishment PC.  After complaining to  her about a vote in a previous meeting, he hit her with the door as she was leaving.  She turned and told him that he hurt her, and he did not apologize.  Another lady who is a PC told me that she intends to carry mace to protect herself if she gets attacked at an EC meeting.  Oh my goodness!  Elderly ladies and grandmas are worried for their safety at our Republican EC meetings!

 

In the January 6, 2025, EC meeting there was an incident that was pretty well documented.  You can see the video in YouTube:  "Hammer and Knapp 1 6 25", https://youtu.be/84krgcCWx18?si=VfoUHSPzXgFV2iAC

You can read the details of this incident in the email that I am enclosing below. 

 

Below my email is a copy of an email sent by Jeremiah Hammer in response to an email from Greg Knapp.  Mr. Hammer's entire email is copied so you have all the context, but the important words are highlighted by me in yellow..  If you do not want to read the entire email from Mr. Hammer, at least read the highlighted segment. 

 

This pressure that grassroots PCs have been getting from Establishment PCs has been going on for a long time.  It was April of last year, 2024, when the current first Vice Chair was videoed pushing two grassroots activists. 

 

It takes courage now to stand for Republican values, to ask that rules be followed and to have decent behavior in our meetings.  The pressure is relentless.  We need your prayers.  

 

Christian friends have told me that they will not get involved in politics because politics are corrupt.  Well, the Republican Party has turned into something unpleasant, but there are many good people in the party who are standing up to bullying and trying to do the right thing.  

 

Please pray for us.  

Robert

Here, below, is the email I sent to precinct chairs about the Hammer-Knapp incident. I tried to provide as much evidence as I could.  I ended the email with a recommendation that Chairman Williams resign. 

Dear PCs,

This is interesting.

At the January 6 Executive Committee (EC) meeting of the Collin County GOP we had a controversial incident.  It was captured on video.  You can see the video in YouTube:  "Hammer and Knapp 1 6"25, https://youtu.be/84krgcCWx18?si=AfppIUotUf5dCdkk

Here is a guide for you to use when you look at the video.

 

The video shows Mr. Hammer, a young man, quickly running to the microphone while Mr. Knapp walks slowly down the stairs, going one step at a time.

I do that too.  I have bad knees and I have to go slowly down stairs.

Mr. Hammer speaks at the microphone and then wants to sit back down.

Mr. Knapp is waiting for his turn to speak at the microphone.  His attention is on the microphone, waiting for his chance to speak.

Mr. Hammer decides not to wait for Mr. Knapp to go to the microphone and moves past him. 

When you first watch the video, you will see Mr. Hammer go past Mr. Knapp.  Now look at it again and look at the two ladies who are circled in the picture above.

You will see the mouth drop open in shock on the lady on the left.  You will see the lady to the right pointing at the incident.

These ladies saw the incident and were disturbed by it.

Now watch the video again and look at Mr. Knapp's right hand.  See how Mr. Knapp quickly grabs the railing for support

Young folks might not realize it, but when you are in your 70's you start being careful with your balance.

From this angle you cannot see Mr. Hammer's right hand make contact with Mr. Knapp.  You see the hand go up.  You see Mr. Knapp get moved back and grab the railing.

It looks like there was enough room for Mr. Hammer to move past without touching Mr. Knapp.

What do you think?  Would you say Mr. Hammer pushed Mr. Knapp?  Or would you say that Mr. Hammer poked Mr. Knapp?

After you decide whether Mr. Hammer pushed or poked Mr. Knapp, what you might consider next are the words written and distributed widely by Mr. Hammer.  I am copying them below and suggest you skip to the words highlighted in yellow.  The point I am making by including Mr. Hammer's email is the attitude Mr. Hammer has towards Mr. Knapp.  I suspect that Mr. Hammer's feelings toward Mr. Knapp were present when he decided to touch Mr. Knapp as he went past him.  Perhaps unwanted physical contact is an assault.  But if it is a poke instead of a push, is it really an assault?

I believe that this is evidence of bullying.  Even if the unwanted touching was a poke instead of a push, I think it could be interpreted as an act of bullying.  And it is my observation that there has been a consistent pattern of bullying ever since Mr. Shelby Williams became the county party chairman.  On the night that Mr. Williams was sworn in, June 17, 2024,  he told the EC that if we did not vote for the rules changes that he wanted, then he would adjourn the meeting and we would have to leave without accomplishing anything.  It seems to me that Mr. Williams has a pattern of bullying in our meetings and that his followers are picking up his habit of bullying people that they don't like.

It seems to me that the Collin County Republican Party has become toxic under the influence of Mr. Williams.  I believe that for the good of the party that Mr. Williams should resign.  It seems to me that politics has brought out the worst in Mr. Williams, and that it would be best for the community of Collin County if he withdrew from politics, because politics seems to bring out the worst in Mr. Williams.

Thank you for your patience in watching the video carefully a few times.  I am curious to hear your opinions on this matter.

Robert

 

Here is a copy of the email Mr. Hammer sent out after Mr. Knapp complained publicly about how he was treated at the January 6 EC meeting.

For the sake of brevity, I am skipping the email sent by Mr. Knapp in which Mr. Knapp objected to the way he was treated.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jeremiah Hammer
Date: Fri, Jan 10, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Subject: Re: About Last Monday Evening...
To:

To my fellow precinct chairs:

Earlier this week, in an attempt to disparate my name and reputation, the below email was circulated by Greg Knapp claiming that I assaulted him at the last meeting.  This is a lie, which he, along with four other precinct chairs, conspired to give false testimonies to the police, in a deliberate attempt to frame me for a violent crime.

On Tuesday morning I received a call from the officer who took the incident report, and told me that upon reviewing the video, there are no charges being filed,as there is no evidence whatsoever of me assaulting Greg. Only of him clearly leaning in to me after he told me he was 1. deliberately blocking me from returning to my seat and 2. that he was not going to allow me to pass. 

The video then shows him leaning into me when I tried to get to my seat, at which I touched his shoulder to steady myself. He then started screeching "assault" which again, mind you is an outright lie.

I returned to my chair.

Moments later, he got in my face while I was seated to threaten me with arrest. He is a real life creep and he's treated other members of our body in a similar fashion.  

Having now had the opportunity to interact with Gregg on numerous occasions, I can say with absolute certainty, objectivity, and sincerity, that he is a despicable, festering, mound of donkey shit with legs and a disgrace to our party and country.

The other four lying precinct chairs who decide to bear false witness, you are all an embarrassment to yourselves and only every so slightly less disgusting examples of human beings than Greg. I encourage you to repent and beg God for forgiveness. 

All that being said, I forgive them all. Their behavior is precisely to be expected. 

You have to remember that these are the same people who tried to have Shelby Williams arrested in an attempt to improve the odds of winning for their puppet candidate, Ellen Loveless, who we all know is a complete ding dong and couldn't lead her way out of a paper bag with both hands and a map.

These are the same people that violently attacked Jim and Joanie Pikl at our EC meeting.

And the same people trying to frame Stephen Kallas for assault during yet another one of Donovan's violent outbreaks.  This behavior is pathological. These people are garbage humans. Pray for their souls.

Do you recall last month, I warned you that this same band of degenerates who rigged the vetting and recruiting committee over the last 4 elections, were planning on sodomizing the rules committee?

Well, they did not disappoint, and went full Diddy on the hypocritical, word salad, garbage resolution that not only points a [metaphorical] gun at fellow republicans while simultaneously condemning independent thought, but at the same time, only serves to alienate many of the moderate and independent voters who held their nose and voted for Trump this year. It was monumentally ill thought out, and worse it made no sense to the average person.  Read it to a 6th grader and tell us what they think [hint: it's crap]. Huge waste of everyone's time, especially the rules committee chair.

To add insult to injury, they tried to top it off with Rohitler's unrelated and utterly stupid amendment that the party coerce the chair into signing a letter, against his will and judgement, that only serves to the detriment of our party and reputation with voters. 

By the grace of God, what was intended as another trap to undermine our party leadership and reputation, turned into a revelation of the very degenerates seeking to undermine our party, and their plot failed.

Matthew 7:15-20 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.The bible says you will know them by their fruits.

At Monday's meeting, we all saw the fruits.  Everyone that stood in support of more of John's toddler tantrums, is part of the group of ECs that have been actively sabotaging our party for the last 6 years. Do not trust any of them. Their intentions are evil. They are cursed people, and one they will turn on you when you don't think and talk alike.

Because of the antics of this same crowd, yet again, the party has no committees, no speaker for Lincoln Day, and no capacity to endorse because the degenerates are constipating every facet of the EC you allow them to come in contact with.

I commend each and every one of you who stood up in opposition to the forces of evil on Monday night. That took incredible courage.  God is good, and He favors the virtuous.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. My cell is xxx-xxx-xxxx if you ever want to call or text me and gain a better understanding of anything, political, municipal, technical or otherwise, drop me a line, or let's go and meet for coffee. 

The CCGOP has much rebuilding to do, and we are only improving, even in spite of the efforts of those who work so hard for our ruin. 

The degeneracy will stop.  Stand with us. 

For God and County

Jeremiah Hammer - The Big Red 1

29:11