I think Harris County has had enough Dick to last a lifetime.
Eric Dick, the Harris County Department of Education Trustee, who was fined by the Texas Ethics Commission $30,000 for various violations and was referred to the Texas Bar for possible disciplinary action, lost last night even though he wasn’t running.
His wife, Danielle Dick, was running for his position and lost. Danielle didn’t raise any money and didn’t file any reports because she said she would not raise/spend over $950. Obviously she didnt. She lost to Andrea Duhon and the HCDE will finally be free of Dicks.
In another race that took me by surprise because I didn’t know he was even running, Chris Carmona lost to Andrea Beall for District Judge, 185th Judicial District. Who is Chris Carmona you ask?
Chris Carmona is a lawyer in Houston. He’s not only a friend of Eric Dick, he represented Eric Dick in his formal hearing at the Texas Ethics Commission, the one where Dick was fined $30,000. The hearing was a train wreck for Carmona. Dick was subpoenaed to show at the hearing in person or by Zoom. He did neither. I watched/listened to the entire hearing and in my non-lawyer opinion it was an absolute disaster for Carmona. Carmona has run before, I believe it was for City Council, and he lost then too.
So maybe, just maybe, Harris County is done with Dick.
There is absolutely no limit to the corruption and stupidity of the republican party or for those who vote for them.
Aubrey Taylor is some kind of “journalist”. I say that with as much sincerity as saying bloggers are journalists. His publications have endorsements and advertisements for both sides of the political aisle but lately he seems to have gone full blown MAGAt chumming up to Steven Hotze. Hotze was indicted for a voter scheme and faces 2 felony counts. From the Texas Tribune:
Conservative activist Steven Hotze on Wednesday was indicted on two felony charges related to his alleged involvement in an air conditioning repairman being held at gunpoint in 2020 during a bizarre search for fraudulent mail ballots that did not exist, according to his attorney, Gary Polland.
Hotze, 71, was indicted by a Harris County grand jury and faces one count of unlawful restraint and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court filings in the case were not available Wednesday evening. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg declined to comment.
So now this indicted republican mega donor is offering a bounty for voter fraud the very fraud that the Texas Attorney General spent $2.2 million to find only 3 instances out of 10 million votes in 2020. According to the indictment Hotze paid a former Houston Police Officer, Mark Aguirre, $250,000 to investigate voter fraud. He then held, at gun point, an AC repairman claiming that he had over 750,000 illegal voters in the back of his truck. (he didn’t). Aguirre was indicted on 2 felonies and the AC guy is suing Hotze. From the Houston Chronicle:
David Lopez, the repairman, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Hotze and his organization, Liberty Center for God and Country, for civil conspiracy, civil theft, and aiding and abetting Mark Aguirre, the former Houston police captain who faces a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon stemming from an Oct. 19 confrontation with Lopez.
Later it was learned that there are phone call recordings with the US Attorney, Ryan Patrick, son of Lt Governor Dan Patrick, asking for support for this scheme against the AC repairman. Yep, voice recordings. You can’t get any more fucked up than this.
So now Hotze is willing to pay $50,000 for evidence of the mythical voting fraud. It’s like looking for a unicorn, blind folded, in the ocean. You can watch conservative Gary Polland, his attorney, try to sugar coat this indictment on Fox News here. It is fun to watch him grovel. He is just so fucked.
Jack Morman’s sugar daddies came through for him in his last campaign finance report. He “raised” over $811,000 with $550,000 coming from various white wing PACs in in-kind contributions. He “raised” $260,000 with $100,000 coming from Richard Weekley and another $100,000 from Alan Hassenflu another sugar daddy wannabe. Commissioner Steve Radick gave $20,000 as did Tom Ramsey(?).
All in all he raised only $20,000 from various donors. Makes you want to ask “Whose your daddy Jack?”
I worked in software at NASA. One of my last assignments required monitoring a conference call with Boeing and SpaceX concerning software testing. I was never comfortable with the attitude towards software by SpaceX, but that is for another post.
Yesterday Elon Musk, after taking control of Twitter, posted a conspiracy theory concerning the attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband. Twitter has quickly becoming a cesspool of misinformation and Musk, a billionaire with time on his idle hands, is twitting with the best of them. I would bet Musk is going to tweet something else, maybe something near racist, or homophobic, or antisemitic. He will push the envelope on misinformation, conspiracy theories, and civility and when he does NASA should consider pulling their contracts from SpaceX.
In August SpaceX won a $1.4 Billion contract to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station. The total so far that has been awarded to SpaceX is over $5 Billion. If Musk would ever dive head first into the Twitter cesspool NASA should seriously consider pulling their contracts with him. From NPR:
Musk himself inflamed those concerns on Sunday when he tweeted a link to unfounded, homophobic allegations about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Replying to a tweet from Hillary Clinton about the attack, Musk wrote: “there is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.” He included a link to an article from the Santa Monica Observer, a fringe website with a history of publishing false stories, which makes lurid claims about the attack without evidence.
NPR Twitter Owner Elon Musk shares conspiracy theory about Pelosi
What kind of human being makes fun of an 82 year old who was viciously attacked with a hammer? What kind of human beings gives this man a $1.4 Billion contract?
Sure 21 families have been devastated by the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde Texas. 19 children and 2 teachers lost their lives, some had their entire heads blown off, others sat in a pool of blood crying out for their mommies, but enough is enough. It’s been 5 months already and it is time to do exactly what we did after the Sandy Hook shooting that took the lives of 28 6 year olds. Just forget and vote republican.
Everyone else has moved on. The Houston Astros had a baseball game for the Uvalde survivors. That was enough. The Houston Texans also had a game dedicated to the families. They even wore Uvalde Strong stickers on their helmets! Stickers! What more could we ask for? Our republican officials moved on immediately after the shooting. Not one of them offered thoughts and prayers. Not one, but they quickly looked for a scapegoat and found over 150 of them. Over 150 school, city, county, and state law enforcement officers where quick to be blamed for screwing up their response, listening to the children screaming in horror while they failed to confront the gun nut with a military weapon that could rip through their body armor. Many of them have been fired. Many will have nightmares for life. Most probably voted republican, the very party that put that weapon in the hands of an 18 year old. Now they will be held accountable by the republicans they voted for.
So it is time to move on. Vote republican so they can continue to protect the rights of an 18 year old to buy a military weapon, hundreds of rounds of ammo that can rip a body apart, high capacity clips, body armor, and silencers. All of these purchases are legal in Texas no questions asked. This 18 year old can walk around in public and the police, the very ones that didn’t charge the shooter, cannot ask if they have a license or training to own a military weapon because in Texas you do not need a license or training.
State Representative Dennis Paul has refused to take any meaningful action on gun violence (he didn’t even offer thoughts and prayers after Uvalde) Paul must think that the lives of 19 little Mexican kids is a small price to pay to continue to protect an 18 year olds rights to military killing machines.
So, be like Dennis. Bury your head in your hands and go vote for republicans and join Dennis in hell. After all it wasn’t your kids that got their faces blown off. Why should you care?
Seriously. It’s a question that needs to be asked and there is no easy way to ask it. What the flying fuck is wrong with you?
Nineteen children, ages 9-11, were slaughtered, some with their heads blown off, by an 18 year old who had easy access to military style assault weapons provided by Greg Abbott and yet you are STILL going to vote for him? What. The. Fuck? Before that shooting 10 kids lost their lives in another school in Sante Fe, and 25 in an El Paso Walmart, and 27 in a Sutherland Springs church, and 8 in the streets of Odessa. All lost their lives because Texas has the most lax laws in the country when it comes to guns and yet you have no fucking empathy for those affected, like the parents, those who will bear the mental scars forever, or those with lifelong physical injuries. No, you have to vote for Greg Abbott because you lack basic common sense, decency, and moral values. Don’t go to church to wash your fucking hands with holy water. Go to your fucked up church to ask your priest forgiveness so you won’t risk going to fucking hell.
In 2021 you suffered through a freeze that took hundreds of lives, cost billions in water damage, and left you huddled under a stack of fucking blankets and yet you are STILL going to vote for Greg Abbott and those who did that to you? How fucking hard is it to keep the goddamn lights and heat on in the “Energy Capitol of the World” and how fucking hard is it for you to just vote his crippled ass out of office and put people in who will actually fix the goddamn grid? What are you? Stupid?
But there is more. No one wants an abortion. No one is advocating for abortion, but in Texas it doesn’t matter anymore. It doesn’t matter if the fetus you are carrying, or your wife is carrying is viable, you have no choice but to carry it to term. It doesn’t matter if your 12 year old is pregnant from rape or incest. That child will be forced to have that child and all you have to do is ignore it and vote for the very person who will do this to you and your family. Besides the emotional stress of the entire situation there could be a huge financial impact that the family must endure but you don’t really care because, well it didn’t happen to you, so fuck em. Yeah. Well fuck you too.
And for you teachers and parents of school kids. How much is enough for you to finally take some kind of action? How much shit will you teachers take from the Karens at the school board claiming you are “indoctrinating” kids and who are trying to micromanage how you teach, what you wear, what you say? How much are you going to complain about cuts to education, your shitty retirement, your shitty benefits, your expensive healthcare, and your low class salary before you will get off your fat ass and vote the idiots out who have done this to you over the last 20 fucking years? (Yes Texas has been a republican state for 20 fuckin years)
And lets not leave out Latinos. What the fuck do you think the MAGAts think about you? The first thing they think is “Are you illegal? Do you speak English like you should? Are you sucking on the tit of Social Security?” You think you have a seat at the dinner table but they invited you because you ARE dinner. Have some goddamn dignity and cojones and vote these rotten racists bastards out of office. Show them that they cannot demonize people because of your color or your language or your heritage. For flying fucks sake do something beside rolling over. Act like a Latino.
And if you are gay or have a gay member of your family or have gay friends and you are STILL going to vote for the homophobe Abbott, well then just fuck you. Many times over. One of these days Abbott will target you and will will be begging like a little bitch for help from the very people you turned your back on.
I’d so tired of law enforcement whining about crime while they vote for the very people who have flooded our streets with guns pointed at police! You idiots. What the fuck is wrong with you? The guns are pointed at you! What is it going to take for you to realize guns are more important to the very people you vote for than law enforcement? These are the very people who bashed police in the head with flags on Jan 6. What the flying fuck is wrong with you?
Personally I am tired of fighting to make things better for teachers, the gay community, Latinos, women, police, and everyone in this state. If you can’t do one simple fucking thing to help your goddamn self and your fucked up family, then fuck you. You are on your own.
This is who you are voting for. It’s no longer the party of Conservatives. It’s no longer the party of Lincoln, or Reagan, or Bush. It’s the party that has embraced lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, Kruelty, Korruption, and Khaos. It’s the reemergence of the KKK.
Korruption. The highest attorney in Texas, the State Attorney General, Ken Paxton is the epitome of corruption. Paxton has been under indictment for over 6 years for multiple felonies. His own staff blew the whistle on him. He ran away from accepting a subpoena letting his wife drive him away to safety, the same wife he cheated on. The man can’t even be faithful to his own family members much less the citizens of Texas.
Kruelty. No one excels at being cruel to other human beings than Greg Abbott. Over the last 8 years as Governor he watched as immigrants entering the United States legally had their children ripped away from them. He has blamed immigrants for the ills of society while doing nothing to solve the problem. Immigration is what his party runs on. They have been whining about immigration for decades even when they had full control of the government on the state and federal level, yet they did nothing to solve the problem.
After 8 kids were killed at Santa Fe High School Abbott falsely vowed to end school shootings. He didn’t do anything except pass open carry without the need of a license or training. Then after 19 children were slaughtered he did nothing but laugh in the family’s faces. This is beyond cruel. It’s sick. He is sick. Those who vote for him might as well piss on the graves of the 19 children who were slaughtered. They are just as cruel as Abbott.
Korruption. The highest attorney in Texas, the State Attorney General, Ken Paxton is the epitome of corruption. Paxton has been under indictment for over 6 years for multiple felonies. His own staff blew the whistle on him. He ran away from accepting a subpoena letting his wife drive him away to safety, the same wife he cheated on. The man can’t even be faithful to his own family members much less the citizens of Texas.
Khaos. Trump. He thrives on chaos. His party loves chaos. It’s a game to them. Lie. Cheat. Steal. Screw porn stars. Cheat on their spouses. Double down on hypocrisy. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Herschel Walker, Matt Gaetz, Gym Jordon, Jan 6 insurrectionists, Louie Gohmert, Ted Cruz, they all are following trump’s chaos. It’s divisive. It’s destroying confidence in our system of government. It’s what they want.
This is who they are. This is who you are voting for. The new KKK.
As mentioned, Danielle Dick, candidate for Harris County Department of Education has not filed a campaign finance report which was due Oct 11, 2022. As of today no report has been filed. I believe that even if you did not raise money or spend money you are still required to file a report. If that is the case, then Dick is following in her husbands ethical foot steps.
Danielle’s treasurer, according to her previous report, is Joe Synoradzki who is her husband’s treasurer also. He is also the treasurer for Joseph Saldana who is also running for Harris County Department of Education Position 1. Joseph has also failed to file a report.
Not quite sure what this is all about. Maybe the Texas Ethics Commission can sort it out.
Danielle Dick is running for Harris County Department of Education. Her husband, Eric Dick, is currently on the board but will leave in January to pursue other interests. He ran unsuccessfully for the Harris County Republican nomination for County Treasurer. Even the Republicans had enough of Dick.
Last March Dick was fined $30,000 by the Texas Ethics Commission, which at the time was the 2nd highest fine in TEC history, for various reasons. His final order can be reviewed here. Usually complaints like Dick’s end in a slap on the wrist, a small fine, and a promise not to do it again. Unfortunately for Dick it ended in a large fine and the TEC referred him to the Texas Bar for possible disciplinary action.
Joe Synoradzki according to LinkedIn works at the Dick Law Firm. He is also the treasurer for Dick’s campaign and at this point should know the rules of the Ethics commission inside and out. He is also the treasurer for Eric’s wife Danielle and as of today has not filed an campaign finance report which was due earlier this month.
Usually not filing a timely report ends with a slap on the wrist, a small fine, and a promise not to do it again. Let’s see how this one plays out.
I was a bit disappointed (a bit). As advertised I was hoping to hear from City, County, & State Leaders on school safety and hear them defend their non action on limiting the easy access to assault weapons but that wasn’t what happened. There were no city, county, or state officials in attendance. That was disappointing since they have been in hiding ever since the Uvalde shooting that killed 19 children and 2 teachers.
But, all was not lost. The staff of CCISD did a great job on presenting their Safety Network. I took notes and will highlight the highlights. Since the Santa Fe shooting the district has spent $35 Million on hardening our schools and providing services to students and parents. They have added a total of 45 law enforcement officers to the campuses, created secure vestibules, panic buttons, door hardware for each classroom to secure the doors from inside or out, bus cameras, open door alarms, and security cameras on all campuses.
They discussed their apps available to the students and public called CCISD Alerts which is available for download. Their emergency protocol is consistent across the district no matter what type of emergency is being reported, a shooting, an emergency around the school, or a loose dog roaming the campus. The protocols for lockdowns, sheltering in place, etc as all the same.
I truly believe CCISD is doing the best they can in securing the school facilities given the limitations by our elected officials at the state level, who were not in attendance to explain these limitations. Unfortunately there are holes in the security that should be addressed.
As an example the most security for the campus is a fence that an 18 year old with an assault weapon could shoot through at kids playing at recess, or practicing football, or at band practice. Unlike the school classrooms the campuses are wide open. To compound this situation according to Texas law anyone (including criminals) can walk around in the open with a loaded assault weapon, wearing body armor, with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, large capacity ammo clips, and silencers and there is nothing law enforcement can do about it.
We were told at first there are no limitations on how close a possible shooter could come to the school but later we were told that the limit was 1000 feet if they had a license to carry. On the surface this sound reasonable but….how can you tell if that person has a license? Law enforcement cannot ask for proof of a license. They can only take action if that person breaks the law by threatening someone or shooting. This needs to be clarified. It makes absolutely no sense and should be addressed.
As I have said, I believe CCISD is reacting responsibly to the threats to our schools because of the lack of action by our elected officials on the State level. They are doing the best they can given the situation. It is sad that they have to become security experts just so that our elected officials can protect the rights of an 18 year old to buy assault weapons, body armor, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, large capacity ammo clips, and silencers.
It’s like they want to protect guns and bullets instead of girls and boys.
Posted by johncoby 
Bay Area Houston 