Bay Area Houston

Click pic for dog whistle video

Ask Judge Ed Emmett what happens when you stand with a racist and keep your mouth shut.

Kathaleen Wall is a candidate endorsed by Governor Abbott, spending her own money to win a seat in Congress, and has recently sent out a racist ad concerning the Coronavirus. She is in a runoff in CD22 against Fort Bend Sheriff Tony Nehls.

When your opponent, or someone you know, says something that is racially dividing or just plain racist, you have two options. 1) Denounce it. Say it is wrong. Say the statement does not represent you, your campaign, or the party. or 2) Stay quiet as if you agree.

Judge Emmett stayed quiet while his leader made racist comments over and over again. He lost his job in 2018. Nehls has been quiet. Not a peep out of him. Zero. Zip. Nada. The Texas Democratic Party as well as the Democratic nominee for CD22 has not been quiet. From a press conference:

From Donald Trump to John Cornyn to Kathaleen Wall, Republicans everywhere have taken to racist dog-whistles to distract from their mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis. This racist rhetoric is dangerous to our Texas AAPI community, the fastest growing community in the state, and has already caused a “spike in prejudice” against Asian Americans. 

It’s as if Tony Nehls, Greg Abbott, John Cornyn, and the entire Republican Party agrees with racist Walls. It’s who they are. It’s what they have become.

The calls for the resignation of the chair of the Galveston County Republican Party continue except from the official party itself. Instead, after being silenced by their own party, precinct chairs, independent of the party, has written a statement calling for the Chair’s resignation.

A Facebook post from one of the chairs explains. (see below)

“The following statement is made on behalf of the individual precinct chairs signed below and is not an official statement or resolution made on behalf of the Galveston County Republican Party Executive Committee as a whole.”

“We strongly condemn intolerance, bigotry, or racism in any manner.” (except for Mexicans, Muslims, Blacks, Asian Americans, and anyone that isn’t white, but other than that they will not tolerate racism!)

This is a statement from the Galveston County Republican Party Precinct Chairs regarding the actions of the County Chair Yolanda Waters:

Many of us precinct chairs had hoped to formally address the matter regarding the County Chair’s inappropriate text communications through an official party meeting. Previous attempts to address our concerns were met with equivocation and defiance. The County Chair chose to squash the latest effort through an opinion from GCRP Attorney Tom Dickens that called the meeting call “defective and therefore void.” The opinion further suggested she “file suit and ask the Court to enter a Temporary Restraining Order” against the Precinct Chairs who called for the meeting.

Given these efforts to silence the Precinct Chairs, we instead chose to informally dine together at the previously chosen location. A consensus emerged from those Precinct Chairs in attendance to sign on to the following letter regarding the text communications of our County Chair. The short version is that it calls for the resignation of the County Chair; the full text is below:

“The following statement is made on behalf of the individual precinct chairs signed below and is not an official statement or resolution made on behalf of the Galveston County Republican Party Executive Committee as a whole.

We the undersigned Galveston County Republican Party Precinct Chairs strongly advocate for the opportunity for all Texans and Americans to participate in the political process. We strongly condemn intolerance, bigotry, or racism in any manner. It recently became known that The Galveston County Republican Party Chair, Dr. Yolanda Waters, used a racial slur in a text message. We condemn this message and hereby call for the immediate resignation of Galveston County Republican Party Chair Yolanda Waters.”

It was signed by 16 Precinct Chairs in attendance, and others have since indicated their desire to sign.

The Galveston Daily News just published an article about this issue. We submitted a copy of this letter to the Daily News, and we have informed them there will be more signatures to add as we contact those who did not have the opportunity to meet us for lunch today.

The Texas Republican Party has adopted the Trump campaign strategy: Lie. Cheat. Steal

How many times do we hear so-called independents (embarrassed republicans) say we need civility, and truth in politics, and “Both parties do it”. Well they must be really pissed now that the Texas Republican Party has leaked their 2020 campaign strategy…. to the Democratic Party. 

From the leaked memo, emailed to the Democrats, the Party will create a disinformation campaign, just like Russia did in 2016, buying website domains that look like a Democrat’s website and load it with negative information. I would expect this disinformation campaign to be staged on social media, buying ads on Facebook.

They intend to reach out to minorities with ads showcasing minorities that are probably paid actors or stock photos. That has been done before. And according to the Houston Chronicle:

According to the leaked memo, the Republican Party of Texas plans to create “microsites for negative hits” against a dozen Democratic candidates who defeated Republican incumbents in the 2018 elections. The party would work to juice sites’ appearances on search engines and buy Democratic candidate website domain names still available and reroute clicks to those domains to the microsites.

They intend to use their money to do what Trump does best, cheat. Instead of debating the issues they intend to just simply cheat. Instead of defending their positions on health care, immigration, taxes, they will defend their cheating. 

At least, in the leaked memo, the Texas GOP finally agrees that Trump is toxic. It only took them 4 years to figure that out but then again, Trump has always been a great representation of the Texas GOP. He is a liar. A cheater. A crook. A racist. A rotten human being.

This is who they are.

Trump, like an 8 year old, enjoys referring to others with cute, sometimes racist names. Calling Senator Warren Pocahontas, or VP Biden “Sleepy Joe” are just two examples of this childish behavior. I hope our candidates will learn how to handle these immature, racists comments during the 2020 campaign because he is going to continue to do it.

If it was me I would respond with the following when asked about his comments: 

What do you expect? Seriously, what do you expect from Trump? This is who he is. This is what he does. Nothing will change that. When he calls someone Pocahontas, or Fredo, or Pablo, he isn’t doing it to be cute. It’s racist. It is just simply racist and that is who he is. It is so incredibly sad that I have to say the President of the United States is a racist but he is. His name calling is beneath the dignity of an 8 year old but again, that is who he is. So what do you expect from him?

Calling a German American “Adolph”, or a Mexican American “Santa Anna”, or an Irish American “Mickey” or a Native American “Pocahontas” or “Chief”, would usually get your ass kicked. Lucky for Trump he has the secret service to protect him. Calling names like this is demeaning, ignorant, insulting, and racist.

That is who Trump is.

When you have to say “I’m not a racist”…. From The Associated Press.

Photo by Reuters

Racist. It stands for Racist, as in, Donald Trump (R).

The president of the United States Donald Trump is a racist. Everyone who will stoop to vote for him is a racist. You cannot support a racist and say “I’m not a racist…but”. No more. Either stand proudly with the republican party or step up and vote his racist ass out of the country.

Mark Tice. From the Baytown Sun

UPDATE: Commissioner Tice responded with a form letter concerning him say “English this is not Mexico”. Here it is:

Sadly, this story has been turned into something it’s not. In know way were my comments centered around race. The intention behind my statement had to do with the fact that questions were being asked in Spanish and answered in Spanish, with no interpretation being given in English… or into any other language that many other Houstonians speak. This is about getting information out to people in an emergency situation in the most effective way possible. That is all. In my opinion, the structure of the press conference could have been better put together. I sincerely apologize if the way I said things landed in a way that was offensive or derogatory… that was absolutely not my motive. Some of my best friends in life are Hispanic. This narrative that’s being painted of me couldn’t be further from the truth.

I just don’t get it. It is 2019 not 1819.

Why do we have to continue to call out elected officials from the Republican Party to stop saying things that are racist? It begs the question “Why do you have to be a dick about everything?”. Todays official Chambers Commissioner Mark Tice joins Trump, Gohmert, the Harris County Republican Party, Sid Miller, and Stan Stanart for being a dick. About everything.

From the NBC News:

The commissioner, Mark Tice, of Chambers County, posted a comment saying “English this is not Mexico,” after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo — the first Latina and first woman elected as the county’s top executive — addressed constituents and reporters from English and Spanish language media outlets on a briefing Monday that was streamed on CBS affiliate KHOU’s Facebook page.In the same comment, Tice said Hidalgo was “a joke.”