Greg Abbott and his crew are acting like heroes riding into Texas to save us from high insurance rates, failing schools, and rising healthcare costs. The irony? They’ve been driving the herd for 30 years. Republicans hold every statewide office. They control the Texas Supreme Court. They control both the House and Senate. Every mess in this state has their signature on it.
Now Abbott wants four more years with a promise to “finally fix things.” Take his new home insurance plan: it’s based on a “Fortify” program Alabama figured out 15 years ago. A similar bill was filed in Texas two years ago, but it died because Abbott didn’t want to cross his roofing buddies. Now he claims he’ll direct the Texas Department of Insurance to cut rates, even though TDI’s own charter blocks them from fighting for consumers without a legislative overhaul.
As for his promise to build top-tier public schools? The GOP has spent every year since 2003 cutting public education to the bone. He and his billionaire buddies financed voucher friendly candidates and finally passed his school voucher bill draining more money away from public schools.
They created these crises, and now they’re asking for another term to solve them. He must think voters are stupid.
It’s bad enough we have one Dick on the Harris County Department of Education.
HCDE Trustee Eric Dick’s wife, Denise or Danielle Dick, is running for HCDE. This is the same woman who called the police on her husband for domestic violence back in March of 2025 as documented by Houston Public Media:
Dick’s wife, who is not being named because she is the victim of alleged domestic violence, filed for divorce in January, court records show.
A Houston Police Department spokesperson told Houston Public Media that Dick was arrested following a welfare check at his residence.
“It was about 5:40 a.m. on March 7; a 39-year-old female stated that she had argued with him and was pushed to the ground and punched,” the spokesperson said. “He then locked himself in the bathroom. We managed to talk him out and he told the officer that they had both argued and then he was taken into custody.”
The charges were eventually dropped. Danielle has ran for office twice before and lost. This time she is running using her middle name, Denise, per the article by the Houston Chronicle. This is par for the Dick family. There is always some kind of controversy surrounding the Dicks especially Eric. Eric is currently serving on the HCDE. He has had a grievance filed against him for a number of reasons concerning the $40,000 file he received from the Texas Ethics Commission. Instead of sanctioning Dick he agreed to donate $40,000 to HCDE programs. As of today he hasn’t and there is no record of Dick paying the fine to the TEC. He is the poster child of malpractice. He has a long record of controversy. You can review it here.
Dick is running against a well qualified Trustee Silky Joshi-Malik, who is a former Houston ISD teacher and a public policy researcher. I wish Dick would just pull out.
The candidate for Harris County Commissioner, Richard Vega, (pictured here with his lordship) was all giddy about the ruling by a Federal Appeals Court’s close ruling on forcing the posting of the Protestant’s version of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Maybe Vega and Senator Money MAGAt Mayes Middleton should consider reading and following the commandments instead of forcing them down the throats of parents and children. They should also demand that their leadership follow the g**damn commandments.
Mayes and Vega are Christian Nationalists following and leading the far right extremists of the republican church. Both love Donald Trump, the leader of the Christians in Name Only (CHINOs). Both don’t seem to have a problem with the leader of their party lying on a hourly basis. They have no problem with their leaders committing adultery or killing people (Jan 6) or having false idols, or stealing. Both have no problem with the Texas Attorney General of Adultery defended the posting of the commandments he doesn’t follow.
Besides Vega and Middleton’s membership in the Society of Hypocrites In Texas (SHIT) they don’t seem to be on the side of the leader of the Christian religion, the Catholics. Catholics created Christianity. They rule in the State. If we must have the 10 commandments posted they should be the Catholic version and not any other offshoot of Christianity.
Until then the CHINOs should go back to church, ask for forgiveness, and shut the hell up.
After holding office for 12 years, and sucking on the tit of the government for his entire working life, Greg Abbott doesn’t have a lot to run on. The abortion issue is over. Immigration raids are a disaster. Health and property insurance are out the roof. Our electricity grid is still fragile and only getting worse. Groceries continue to cost more and more. Housing costs also through the roof. So Abbott needs something besides the rising cost of living in Texas to run on.
Abbott has filed for re-election running on abolishing taxes but guess who is going to pay for it? Homebuilders? Insurance companies? Chemical companies? Corporations? His donor base? Not a chance. Abbott’s tax stunt is going to put the burden on the middle class and the poor and for good reason. They don’t vote. They aren’t paying attention since they are working to afford living in Texas. This tax stunt is going to starve our public schools, again, driving more money into private schools, forcing more cuts and causing more failures. Schools are not free. Running the government is not free. Roads are not free. Someone has to pay for them and guess who the fuck will?
Abbott claims to have created this so called “Texas miracle” bringing in large companies into Texas, driving up the cost of housing, increasing traffic congestion, straining our electric grid, and now stressing our water supply. This is great for business but someone is paying for it. We are and I bet, if elected, Scott Bowen will take a knee, and kiss Abbott’s ass and support him.
Lucky for Abbott, most Texans don’t vote and most that do are the biggest idiots on the planet. Don’t fall for it. As they said in Star Wars “It’s a trap!”.
Yet another ass whipping for former CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen this time in Cy Fair ISD. Last night CY Fair parents rejected the chaos in their school district defeating the extremists recruited by Scott and endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott and the Harris County Republican Party.
Last week Abbott held a get out the vote rally for the extremist candidates Blasingame, Walker, and Edwards. All three lost. Later in the day he had a small gathering in Kemah along with Scott giving another awkward and boring speech about CRT, DEI, and other losing topics. Abbott was greeted by a group of loud protesters. Scott was responsible for candidate recruitment throughout Harris County which didn’t go well in CCISD or CFISD. Scott is now running for State Representative in the Clear Lake area after voters threw him off CCISD.
Congratulations to the parents of CFISD for rejecting Scott’s chaos and restoring civility and common sense to the school board. Hopefully it will be as boring as CCISD has become, which is a good thing. Parents want our boards to do the job, what’s best for parents, students, teachers, and taxpayers not political parties. Because of Bowen’s party that job has become extremely difficult. Once again congratulations!
In November Cy Fair ISD parents will decide if billionaires and millionaires will control their elections and their schools.
So who is funding the election of the 3 extremists running for CFISD? The Political Action Committee Cy Fair 4 Liberty PAC was created in 2023. Since then they have raised a whooping $187,000 for a damn school board race! More than half, $81,495, coming from outside the district.
12 out of the 438 donors donated $153,172 or 82% of the entire total. The largest contributor was William Ely for $40,178. Ely is a sales rep for SAP America and works with the Harris County Republican Party. Ely’s republican buddy, Terry Wheeler donated $16,086. Ranteur Media of Austin donated $15,000. Senator “Money” Mayes Middleton from Clear Creek ISD donated $5208.
When you have partisan, extremist money coming into the district mailers such as the one below will be sent. It’s pretty sick. Sick enough for even republican voters to react according to the Houston Chronicle:
“Is this the example we want to set for our children? Using the tragedy of Charlie’s death and martyrdom in exchange for a vote?” said Judi DeHaan, Harris County Republican Party precinct chair. “They are on the wrong side of history with this divisive narrative.”
School boards should be non partisan. CCISD parents took a stand and removed Scott Bowen from the Board. Bowen is responsible for recruiting unqualified, extremist candidates for local elections including CFISD. Luckily the parents of CCISD voted everyone of them out. Now CFISD parents have that opportunity. Here are the top 12 donors to the PAC:
Well, actually in this case he did and for good reason. The Houston Chronicle posted an article concerning Cy Fair ISD. It’s detailed, long and a good read. Turns out the so called “Conservatives” running for reelection are fighting each other over the endorsement from the Harris County Republican Party. Who is more MAGAt? Who will bring Bowen’s chaos into the district? Who will attack the gay community, Hispanics, and non-christians while claiming to be a christian?
How does Bowen fit into this chaos? Bowen was referenced late in the article “The chair of the local government committee, Scott Bowen, did not respond to a request for comment.” Bowen not only was responsible for the chaos in CCISD he was responsible for recruiting candidates to run for school boards across the county. In CCISD he recruited some of the most unqualified candidates to ever run for the board. Misty Dawson, Christine Parizo, Pete Lauzon, and Joe Machol. All were gawd awful candidates and all lost. It will be interesting to see who funded the CFISD trustees.
Bowen not only recruited these horrible candidates he found campaign money for them from the two Texas Billionaires who funded Defend Texas Liberty. This group was dissolved after their meeting with a known white supremacist was uncovered by the Texas Tribune. Bowen still associates with these individuals.
Bowen is now running for State Representative so he can further the decline of public schools in Texas. Well at least his gdamn signs are being removed by the City of Houston.
State Representative Dennis Paul of the Bay Area has already been anointed by the party for State Senator replacing Senator Money Mayes Middleton. He isn’t the best choice considering his lack luster performance for the community. He has spent his 10 year career in the Texas House on the Insurance Committee and we have all suffered for it. He believes in guns for all with no restrictions on criminals or drug dealers carrying weapons in public. He has never held a town hall type of meeting with his constituents. He is a mule for Greg Abbott and carries the bills to restrict voting. He cosponsored the voucher bill. His fundraising capabilities are pathetic except for PAC donations. Unfortunately he is all the Republicans have. He is all we have.
Senate District 11 is such a gerrymandered district the winner of the republican primary most probably will win the general election. True Conservatives need to challenge Paul in the primary. They need to restore dignity to the office. They need to focus on the people in the district not just the business community. They can advocate for safe gun ownership like they have in the past. They can fully fund public education and end the voucher program. They can do something about the out of control insurance crisis, at the very least, meeting with those in the district who are suffering. They can return to their core Republican Christian values.
Is there a conservative willing to take back their party from extremists like Paul?
Keller ISD is a perfect example of why we need campaign finance reform.
Background A couple of years ago Patriot Mobile donated $50,000 each to three far right candidates for the Keller ISD Board. They ran as a “coalition of conservatives”, won and brought their far right politics and controversies with them.
The Movie Shortly after being elected two board members invited a Dutch evangelist film crew into a high school without the permission of the parents, principal, or school board. Trustee Sandi Walker resigned and many called for the resignation of Trustee Micah Young. The Dutch eventually aired a Praise Jesus movie featuring the high school students. Parents were not happy and I would bet there is a lawsuit working it’s way through the courts.
Former Trustee Micah Young
The Split Last year the Board considered a plan to split the district in two due to financial burdens. The split was met with fierce opposition calling it racially motivated. Keller ISD has about 34,000 students. For comparision, CCISD has about 45,000 students. Eventually the split failed but that didn’t end the controversy.
The Investigation Board members are now being investigated for violation of State law concerning the Open Meetings Act, which is serious stuff. Trustee Micah Young, one of the $50,000 candidates, posted a long “I am the victim” post on his Facebook acct. He posted a text from Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Cody Copeland who was asking Micah for comments for a story about board members meeting in violation of the Open Meetings Act. He has since deleted his entire account or has blocked me. Or maybe his lawyer told him to delete it because he and other members of the Board are in some deep shit. Seriously deep shit. Parents are now petitioning for the removal of three Board members.
The Lawsuit According to Cody Copeland of the Fort Worth Star a lawsuit has been filed to remove members of the board violated the Open Meetings Act:
Keller school board trustees who tried to split the district earlier this year began discussing the proposal as early as May 2024, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in a Tarrant County district court. They previously held that the earliest they discussed the split before it became public was Dec. 19.
Not only would they be removed from the Board they could also be held criminally responsible for their actions. Micah Young did not run for reelection. $50,000 down the drain.
Campaign Finance Reform Keller ISD could be the poster child for campaign finance reform. Thank God for the voters of CCISD who improved our School Board at the last election!
FILE PHOTO: ear gas is released into a crowd of protesters, with one wielding a Confederate battle flag that reads “Come and Take It,” during clashes with Capitol police at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
No Place but Texas. And Alvin.
The Bay Area chapter of True Texas Project is holding their next meeting at a private school in Alvin, Apogee Gulf Coast. (Kind of far away from the Bay Area, more on that later) Their host for the evening is convicted Jan 6 rioter Treniss Evans who was sentenced to 3 years probation. You can read the entire indictment here. In conclusion the indictment states:
Evans knowingly and voluntarily admits to all the elements of Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(1). Specifically, Evans admits that he knowingly entered and remained in a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting, without lawful authority to do so.
Treniss is now the founder of Condemned USA, an organization claiming to provide legal assistance to those affected by the”government overreach” such as the Jan 6 insurrectionists. He is making the tour of republican clubs and organizations. When asked about this meeting, Apogee Gulf Coast claims they are not a political organization. That may be true but they might want to research the far white political groups they are catering to.
Who is True Texas Project? The Southern Poverty Law Center has added the True Texas Project to their list of extremist organizations categorized as a general anti-government organization. The Bay Area local chapter was banned from holding meetings at the Webster Presbyterian Church after the elders learned of their background. They moved to the Holiday Inn for a number of months but are now at Apogee.
The local group has attempted to enter the League City elections by holding a forum for the candidates. Only one candidate accepted the invitation. TTP is considered so extreme even the extremists of the Republican Party refused to participate in their birthday celebration. The venue, The Fort Worth Botanic Garden stated the event would not be held there, and that it “rejects all forms of hate speech, discrimination, or bigotry.” According to The Texas Tribune:
Billed as the 15th anniversary celebration for True Texas Project, the conference agenda claims that there is a “war on white America,” and urges attendees to embrace once-fringe ideologies such as Christian nationalism or the Great Replacement Theory, which claims that there is an intentional, often Jewish-driven, effort to destroy white people through immigration, interracial marriage or the LGBTQ+ community.
Local politicians support Our local elected officials State Representative Dennis Paul and CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen have been guest speakers to the organization. Paul is now running for the Senate and Bowen is running for State Representative.
Funding TTP has been funded by the Scott Bowen’s billionaire buddies, Timothy Dunn and Farris Wilks, with $40,0000 coming from their new PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority. Their former PAC, Defend Texas Liberty, was disbanded after The Texas Tribune exposed them for meeting with Nick Fuentes, a known white supremacist.
Apogee might want to reconsider who they associate with.
If I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet I would not be more surprised.
CCISD voters made a huge statement last Saturday and rejected partisan politics in our schools by soundly beating Trustee Scott Bowen and his recruit, Joe Machol. They beat back Bowen’s Billionaire Buddies. I bet the voucher bill signed on elected day contributed to these defeats. Bowen authored the Voucher Bill resolution for the Texas Republic Party. CCISD was not alone in taking a stand against extremists.
Patriot Mobile has spent an outrageous amount of money on their candidates. Two lost. One resigned. Maybe parents, teachers, and taxpayers have had enough of dark money in school boards.
Our hope is voters are rejecting the incursion of hate-mongering, covert money, outside money, partisan ideology and partisan agendas of all sorts in their decisions about electing local people to volunteer posts.
The truth is, school boards only work when they reflect the communities they serve — not the agendas of party leadership. That’s why our school board elections are held in May, separate from partisan ballots. We’ve protected that nonpartisan tradition in Texas for over a century because education isn’t supposed to be political.
Over the last decade school boards across the state have been flooded with unlimited money from out of district PACs including Defend Texas Liberty funded by two West Texas Billionaires. In most part they have been successful in winning and controlling school boards bringing chaos, corruption, and cruelty into schools. Do your own research on Keller ISD, Katy ISD, and Friendswood ISD. Friendswood is an example of voters rejecting outside money. The losing candidate raised an outrageous $50,000 from 2 out of district donors. (FYI FISD has only 6 schools. CCISD has over 40)
In the past CCISD voters have rejected this outside money and political influence by rejecting Trustee Bowen’s recruited candidates, Christine Parizo, Misty Dawson, and Pete Lauzon. All three were woefully uneducated in education. Bowen’s buddy, Joe Machol, is also a very poor choice for our kids and Scott Bowen is responsible for this political sideshow and outside influence into the district. On Saturday voters have a chance to put an end to outside, political influence and solidify CCISD as a shining example of putting parents, teachers, students, and tax payers above partisan politics.
As Ms Dupont said:
Local elections matter more than ever. The best way to protect our schools is by electing leaders who are there for the right reasons.
Machol, a former NFL referee, was flagged for delay of game.
Not only did Machol fail to attend a candidate forum, he failed to submit a bio for the event. Instead of attending the forum and answering very tough questions from the audience, Machol chose to attend the Seabrook City Council meeting. Machol has only a month left on Seabrook City Council and the council meeting was more important to him than the office he is running for. An office that requires the next 3 years of his attendance if elected.
Besides not showing up, how hard is it to submit a bio for the event? This forum was sponsored by the local PTA organization. These are parents and teachers that would be interested in hearing from Machol besides giving the same old answer for every question, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Catholic prayers in school. The District will have very serious issues to resolve next year that no amount of prayers will address. At the very least he should have submitted a bio.
Instead he just forfeited the game and should leave the field of candidates. Permanently.
Hopefully the moderator of tonight’s forum will press Scott Bowen on his support of the school voucher bill. Last year Bowen authored a resolution for the State Republic Party in support of vouchers and calling for Greg Abbott to declare it an emergency bill requiring quick passage. (He was caught on video) That resolution was not unanimous. A number of delegates were vocal about Bowen changing the resolution to better suck up to the Governor but it passed anyway. Last night Scott’s wet dream, the voucher bill, passed the House and is one step closer becoming law.
During the hours and hours of testimony were many experts in the field testifying against the voucher bill. Even Republican office holders associated with the Texas Republic Party spoke out against vouchers! The only ones who spoke in favor of vouchers were those who would benefit from the bill including Catholic schools, private schools, and home schoolers. And Scott Bowen.
As reported earlier our State Representative Dennis Paul has been flooded with calls against the voucher bill. He voted for the bill anyway ignoring his constituents and siding with Scott Bowen.
Hopefully the voters in CCISD will reward Bowen and remove him from the Board.
Our local representative, Dennis Paul, has received thousands of calls against his voucher bill. Just a week ago his office refused to say whether they were tracking the score, for or against, the Welfare for the Wealthy bill. They claimed it was not subject to the Open Records Act. That’s not true. No one was asking for personal information such as the name of the caller or their phone number. We were just interested in how his district felt about his voucher bill. They continued to refuse to provide this information.
Well, there are ways to find information. 71% of callers are against his voucher bill. 71% of his constituents who live in a gerrymandered district are against his voucher bill. This district is so gerrymandered that Paul can win his seat by 17 points by just putting his name on the ballot and he has, multiple times. This means even his republican base are against vouchers.
But Paul is going to vote for giving $10,000 or your tax dollars to some elite Catholic families who only pay $1000 in school taxes. And then he will retire with a nice tax payer funded pension and free healthcare for him and his family. Praise the Lord. Even Paul’s church, Saint Bernadettes will be praising the Lord and welcoming the welfare.
You can add your name to the list by calling his office at 512-463-0734. It’s Sunday. Go to church.
Joe Machol, a former NFL referee, is still on the ballot for CCISD trustee. Based upon his answers to a questionnaire by Community Impact and another set of questions (see below) it is clear he should not be competing on the field. He hasn’t filed an appointment of Treasurer, yet it seems he has spent money on campaign items. That’s considered unsportsmanlike conduct by the Texas Ethics Commission and could result in hefty fines. He doesn’t have a website, Facebook, or any social media account. That’s a fumble. His heart is not in this race. I wrote to him asking if he would consider focusing on what he is good at, refereeing and his World War II activities:
Personally I don’t think your heart is in this race. Maybe you should consider focusing on returning to refereeing, and continuing your WWII activities? In the past running for CCISD was a non partisan, quite boring campaign left to those who were educated in education. Recently it has become a race between educators and wannabe politicians like Scott Bowen. It is brutal, with out of district money flowing into the district, and outside PACs interfering with our elections. Candidates must now be vigorously screened. I’ve been screening candidates for many years now and will continue but this latest questionnaire and your answers are embarrassing to say the least.
He ignored me. My email to him was based on his response to a recent questionnaire. I posted about his answers here. Below are his responses in full. In summary he believes in the 3 Rs. Reading wRiting, and aRithmetic. Read it for yourself.
It is almost funny. The bill in Austin concerning vouchers will give parents $10,000 to apply towards tuition to a private school. Let’s say your neighbor pays $1000 a year in school taxes and has 2 kids in private school. This bill will give your neighbor $19,000 MORE than what they put in to the public school system. Who is going to pay for that? You. Us.
There are many reasons to stop this voucher stupidity and there are many examples where vouchers have failed in other states. Abbott claims it will improve education in the State, although his party has been in control for over 20 years and Texas ranks 43rd in education. We ain’t the sharpest bowling ball in the tool shed. Under 20+ years of republican rule Texas sucks in almost every category except for job growth. Just look at our electricity grid, home insurance, cost of education, healthcare, and more.
But this issue of giving your money to your neighbor so their snot nosed, uppity, kids can attend a private school should really piss off conservatives in the Clear Lake area. This is nothing but welfare for the wealthy and you are going to pay for it. If vouchers are going to pass then parents should get what they put in. Nothing more. Nothing less. Period.
As I said, Texans suck at education.
You can voice your opinion on House Bill 3 to our State Representative Dennis.Paul@house.texas.gov and call him at (512) 463-0734.
Texas State Representative Stan Gerdes, a republican with the full backing of Governor Abbott, has filed a House Bill 4814 banning animal role playing by kids in schools. (This is NOT satire) Gerdes claims this bill was a result of a complaint confirmed by the Superintendent of Smithville Independent School District. SISD has 5 schools, including 1 high school. They have a total of 1770 students and 122 teachers. The SISD is what we call “rural” like in farmers and lots of white people in Bastrop County. Many would consider this district to be in “Bum f*** Egypt”.
The bill will prohibit dress up by kids in animal costumes, role playing, and even having cat litter available. Seriously. According to his press release “I filed HB 4814, the FURRIES Act (Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Educational Spaces) to ensure that public schools are not accommodating or allowing disruptive “furry” roleplaying behavior.” His press release is below. His bill, HB4814, can be found here. It has no co-sponsors or chance for a hearing.
According to the Houston Chronicle this stupidity was debunked in early 2024 but not after it caused considerable chaos including bomb threats and threats against school districts. Even the farmers in the area were taken back by this bill. “What I do in the privacy of my barn is none of your g**damn business.” said one farmer who wanted to remain anonymous. (Ok. That sentence was satire)
The bill has the full support of CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen.
Yesterday I called our State Representative Dennis Paul and asked how many calls they have received on HB 3, the school voucher bill. I was told this information is “privileged” and could not be shared. Needless to say I called bullshit and was abruptly referred to his Chief of Staff, Greg Bentch. I have been in contact with Greg for a number of months concerning home insurance and even met with him last week. He also claimed this information is protected from being released. I don’t believe this. He claimed that they have received calls on “both” sides of the argument but refused to say just how opposed to vouchers Paul’s constituents are.
I’ve called other State Representatives and they did not agree with Paul’s position. Poll after poll show nearly 70% of Texans are against vouchers including Democrats and Republics. If his office is taking statistics on this topic it is public information. Period. Even a simple spreadsheet or hand written tally is public record. All emails concerning HB 3 are public information. All of it is.
Paul co-sponsored the voucher bill even though his constituents are widely opposed to it. Even members of his own party are against vouchers. The business community in the Bay Area are against it. A resolution in support of vouchers was spearheaded by CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen and it was NOT a unanimous vote. Vouchers are just not popular. Yet Paul will support it nevertheless.
Maybe you will have better luck contacting Paul’s office at (512) 463-0734 or via email at Dennis.paul@house.texas.gov. Voice your opposition and ask for statistics.
The Public Education Committee in the Texas House has scheduled a hearing on School Vouchers Tuesday March 11. You can, and should, submit comments to the bill on the House Comment Webpage. Submit your name, address, the bill you are commenting on (HB 3 by Buckley) You are limited to 3000 characters.
My personal issue with this bill besides cutting funding to Public Schools, is that this bill will give parents 10 times more money than what they contribute to public education. If you pay $1000 in school taxes the State will give you $9000 more, all paid for with your tax dollars. This is nothing more than Welfare for the Wealthy.
Posted by johncoby 
Bay Area Houston 