Here we go again.

Gov. Greg Abbott has just released the agenda for the special session of the Texas Legislature convening tomorrow (Thursday, July 8), and, yes, transgender youth are once again being targeted by Republicans.

“The 87th Legislative Session was a monumental success for the people of Texas, but we have unfinished business to ensure that Texas remains the most exceptional state in America,” Abbott said in a statement announcing the agenda. At least one more special session is expected this year, according to the Texas Tribune, to deal with redistricting and how to spend federal COVID relief funds.

Among the issues Abbott has deemed pressing enough to call a special session that is likely to cost Texans about $1 million (based on estimates from previous years) is making sure that transgender youth are not allowed to play school sports based on their actual gender identity rather than gender assigned at birth. This is a pressing issue for Republicans even though none of them have been able to cite a single specific case in which it has been an issue.

Of course, what the Republicans “election integrity” — and what everybody else calls “voter suppression” efforts are also on the agenda. As the final hours of the regular session ticked away in May, Democrats in the House of Representatives staged a walkout to break quorum to prevent a vote on a draconian voter suppression bill that now even Republicans admit was seriously flawed. Abbott then threw a temper tantrum and in retaliation vetoed the section of the budget that provided for legislators and their staff to be paid. Re-instating that pay is also on the special session agenda.

But you know what’s not on the agenda? Anything to do with fixing Texas’ busted-ass electric grid. Sources say at least 150 people died when the state’s independent electric grid failed during Winter Storm Uri in February this year.

And just last month, when temperatures began to soar into triple digits, ERCOT — which supposedly “manages” the electric grid — asked everyone to set thermostats to at least 78 degrees and dial back on power usage. Power companies even took control of some people’s smart thermostats during the heat wave remotely, raising the settings for a “three-hour energy savings event.”

Also on the agenda, according to the GOP Caucus, are legislation overhauling the bail system in Texas, social media’s “censorship” of Texas, teaching critical race theory (also known as “factual accounts of history”); funding for “border security”; legislation allowing parents to “opt their children out” of lessons at school on dating violence, domestic violence and child abuse; legislation preventing delivering “abortion-inducing drugs” by mail or delivery service and strengthening “laws applicable to the reporting of abortions and abortion complications, and ensures that no abortion-inducing drugs are provided unless there is voluntary and informed consent”; Legislation relating to a “thirteenth check” or one-time supplemental payment of benefits under the Teacher Retirement System of Texas”; and “legislation providing appropriations from additional available general revenue for … property tax relief, enhanced protection for the safety of children in Texas’ foster care system by attracting and retaining private providers for the system and to better safeguard the state from potential cybersecurity threats.”