Bay Area Houston

Will the 18-24 year olds come out to vote this year?

This is kind of disturbing. As of today there are over 94,000 registered voters in House District 129. 9564 of these are between the age of 18-24. There are registration drives across the district at high schools and colleges. Hopefully those who take the time to register will take the time to vote.

As they have said “If not now, when? If not you, who?”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing decades behind bars if convicted for his 3 felony indictments. He has been successful in pushing his trial past the November 6 election. If elected, Paxton may have to give up his seat in our government and take a seat in a minimum security penitentiary.

If elected and convicted the Governor will be allowed to hand pick a new Attorney General, the people’s attorney not selected by the people. Paxton’s million dollar lawyers have been able to delay his trial for 3 years and his trial will be conveniently convened (here in Houston) after the election.

Paxton and the republican leaders probably know how serious the charges are and the possibility of Paxton being convicted. Pushing the trial pass the election protects Paxton and the party just in case he is elected and convicted. This way they will retain the seat and Paxton would probably agree to a plea deal in order to retain his pension and free healthcare for life and for the rest of his life.

Voters shouldn’t take a chance with Paxton. The “peoples lawyer” should be selected by the people not by lawyers and party members. Paxton isn’t using his office to better the lives of Texans. Currently he is leading the charge to remove pre-existing coverage for all Texans. Diabetes and other medical conditions do not discriminate against republicans or any party affiliation. Most every family has a member with a pre-exiting condition. And even after pressure from the business community, Paxton has continued to lead the charge against DACA immigrants which could cause severe shortage in the work force. (Besides the fact that it is just incredibly mean spirited and short sighted)

Paxton shouldn’t be running for Attorney General. He shouldn’t be running for anything. As his buddy Donald Trump has said “You can’t be serving the people while under indictment.” For once I have to agree with that rotten bastard.

UPDATE: El Tiempo Cantina has removed the pic on their Facebook page early this morning and has now removed their Facebook pages!

I’ve tried to eat at El Tiempo Cantina here in Clear Lake but it has always been too crowded. Then I saw the menu and the prices. $29.99 for 1/2 lb of fajitas? Yeow! But I digest…digress….

The chef-owner of El Tiempo Richmond received a well deserved social media beat down for posting a pic of himself with the United States Attorney General Jeff Session saying “we had the honor to server Jeff Sessions”. (his words not mine)

Everyone who owns a restaurant has the right to serve who they want, after all this is America. But everyone also has the right not to eat there especially after a half baked decision to post this pic to their Facebook page. This bothers me for a number of reasons.

Sessions is well known for his hateful, racist, policy of separating brown faced children from parents who are seeking asylum and help from the United States. The policy is racist, inhuman, rotten, and happily implemented with honor by Jeff Session against Latino families. It is just that simple.

Sessions could have taken his fat ass to a local barbecue restaurant. Instead Sessions picks a Mexican restaurant just like the Director Homeland Security did. She was heckled to the point of having to leave. Sessions on the other hand was served with honor and a pic was taken with him. 

Its like Sessions did this on purpose to rub his racist policies into the faces of the Latino community with the help of the restaurant chef-owner. The owner had the opportunity to look Sessions in the eye and respectfully tell him “El Tiempo does not in anyway support the practice of separating children from parents or any other practices of the government relative to immigration. Enjoy your food.” and leave it like that. Take his order. Serve him his goddamn food. Give him the bill. That is all he need to do but instead he joined Sessions rubbing one out in the restaurant.

The response from social media to his obvious delight in posting the pic was quick. Quick enough for him to quickly remove the photo and quickly attempt a lame defense. It was quick. And I’m not buying it. I’m not buying his damn food either. It’s America after all.

BTW. Sessions ordered the $29.99 fajita plate and tea with extra ICE.

What an incredibly stupid, ignorant idea. Lucky for trump he had a stooge, Vice President Pence, around to pitch it for him. From the Washington Post:

“Just as we’ve done in ages past, the United States will meet the emerging threats on this new battlefield,” he said in a speech at the Pentagon. “The time has come to establish the United States Space Force.”

Yeah. He said that. Turns out the only person who thinks this is a good idea is trump. Even Pence acted Luke Skywalker warm to it, but his daddy told him to sell it. And he did but not sell it very well. Pence forgot to mention this idea has an out of this world price tag of $8Billion for initial setup. None of which will go towards exploring space, going back to the Moon or working towards Mars. None.

On top of that there will be a need for another layer of Generals, Colonels, Majors, Captains, and Lieutenants as well as their personal assistants and staff required to manage the new military branch of space roving Buzz Lightyears. This all costs even more money for the military complex.

Pence was standing in-between the Boeing CST-100 and the Space X Dragon mock ups as if NASA will have anything to do with this Space Farce. With a $1.5 Trillion deficit, a looming $40Billion Worthless Wall that Mexico will be paying for, and about $12Billion for a proposed Ike Dike to protect the insurance industry, there isn’t much money available to fund Trump’s Space Farce. 

Maybe they will raid NASA’s funding. That would almost be funny. Almost.

How can any teacher or anyone with a pre-existing condition vote for this man?

A few years ago State Representative Joe Driver plead guilty to a felony of “double dipping”. The Texas Tribune summed it up:

State Rep. Joe Driver, who candidly acknowledged pocketing taxpayer reimbursements for travel paid by his campaign, will enter a guilty plea on abuse-of-office charges, a third-degree felony, a top prosecutor said Tuesday night.

Driver stole about $50,000. He eventually negotiated a sentence of only 3 years probation. It was an incredibly sweet deal since it protected his $62,000/year pension and his free healthcare for himself and his family.

This is what Ken Paxton is going to do. In 2015, a grand jury indicted Paxton on three criminal charges: two counts of securities fraud (a first-degree felony) and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators (a third-degree felony). His trial has been delayed till after the election. If Paxton is convicted you can bet he will pull a Joe Driver to protect his $55,000 pension and his free healthcare provided by you, us, me, the taxpayer.

Elected officials receive a pension based upon the salary of a District Judge, $158,000 even though Representatives and Senators are not full time positions. Based upon his service of 15 years Paxton would receive atop $55,000/year and would have healthcare for life for himself and his wife.

A teacher with decades of full time service would be lucky to receive a $25,000 pension and would have to pay for their healthcare. From the Houston Chronicle:

Health care costs soared Monday for many retired educators on the state-subsidized insurance plan, with families now facing $1,000 monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs rising across-the-board.

$1000/month while Paxton, a soon to be felon, will pay nothing. But wait….it gets worse. Paxton is leading the fight to remove the pre-existing condition mandate from health insurance policies. From the Dallas Observer:

The attorney general, as he made clear in the court filing, wants a federal judge to end the act’s protections for Texans with pre-existing conditions, regardless of whether the court rules against Obamacare as a whole.

It’s enough to make you sick. Literally.

Self financing a million dollar campaign for public office must be a thing for republicans.

Hallelujah! Photo from the Dallas Observer

Don Huffines is a multimillionaire. He recently completed a trip to Russia to meet with other wealthy Russian individuals. He was elected to the Texas Senate in 2014 edging out John Carona in the Republican primary. His Libertarian challenger dropped out of the race in the general election.

According to the Texas Tribune his 2018 Democratic opponent Nathan Johnson stated:

“Over the last few weeks, I’ve crisscrossed the district talking to constituents about the many challenges we face right here in Senate District 16,” Johnson wrote. “Meanwhile, my Trump-defending opponent Don Huffines decided to go on a Moscow adventure this week with Rand Paul instead, to ‘improve parliamentary relations’ with Russia. What does this say about his priorities?”

His priorities are clear. According to his ethics reports he has raised $7.4 million for his primary win with about 15,000 votes, about $500 per vote. Much like Kathaleen Wall who invested $6 Million for a Congressional primary (and lost), and David Mayes Middleton who invested $1.5 Million for his State House primary win, Huffines invested $6 Million for his primary win for a State Senate seat. Out of his $7.4 fundraising haul 81% came from his own pocket!

$7.4 Million might be an appropriate amount to raise for a very competitive Congressional race but it is an obscene amount for a State Senate race and much less for a primary. It’s pretty clear. Just like Middleton, Huffines bought a seat at our table. At least the republican voters in CD2 didn’t buy Kathaleen Wall’s buying of her seat. 

Besides his own $6 million, Huffines raised $1.4 million, the vast majority coming from high dollar donors. Only $15,000 (1%) came from donations less than $200 from about 125 donors. $1.35 Million (92%) came from about 200 wealthy donors of $1000 or more, including a $100,000 donation from Donald Huffines, $115,000 from Carl Allen, $65,000 from Andrew Beal and $63,000 from Huffines relatives. 

Unfortunately the republican voters do not mind if a seat is bought by a wealthy candidate. This is who they are.