Washing your hands of the Uvalde Massacre

August 27, 2022

Spare me.

I have never liked Mattress MAGAt Mack or his furniture store. I’ve been critical of the Houston Astros for organizing this feel good stunt of honoring Uvalde citizens who survived the shooting. Instead of actually using their power to stop this senseless violence like the Uvalde Massacre from happening again they chose to do something easy, something that can wash their hands of the blood of the kids killed.

The Astros could have used the opportunity to tell the Uvalde community, and all communities across the state that they will do whatever they can to prevent spending another nickel on consoling those affected by gun violence. They could do more than a moment of silence. They could do more than hitting a homerun for a fan.

The Houston Astros strike out on the Uvalde massacre BAH  August 19th, 2022

MAGAt Mack joined in the ceremonial, feel good, event calling it a “Day to Remember”. You know what is a day to remember? May 24, 2022. That’s the day 19 children were slaughtered by an 18 year old with a military assault weapon. Maybe instead of eating a hotdog, playing a stupid game and feeling good about yourself, you could stop giving money to the elected officials who gave the 18 year old the right to buy the weapon. Maybe you could stand up and use your power to demand a change in laws to prevent another massacre and still protect the rights to own guns, responsibly.

Instead MAGAt Mack and the Astros would rather have their very own “Day to Remember”, a day that will live in infamy, at least for them. Now, go wash your goddamn hands.

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Posted by johncoby

Don’t Move to Texas

August 24, 2022

It’s hard to disagree when Texas leads the nation in mass shootings (8), is the easiest state to get a gun, a state where anyone can walk around in public with a loaded AR15, a 100 round barrel clip, a silencer, and wearing body armor. A state with out of control property taxes, electricity rates, college tuition rates, home prices, and home insurance premiums. Texas ranks 49th in benefits for teachers in the nation, 45th in education. Texas teachers are underpaid, under appreciated, and under attack. Texas doesn’t take too kindly to gays, muslims, Mexicans, or anyone who even looks illegal. Texas has flooded the streets with unlimited guns putting our law enforcement under constant stress to keep us safe. And Texas is ranked 48th in quality of living

In short, Texas sucks. Do yourself a favor, Don’t Mess Move With To Texas.

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Posted by johncoby

Qanon running for Texas State Board of Education. Julie Pickren

August 22, 2022

Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up. #NoPlaceButTexas and Manvel Texas.

Julie Pickren is running for the Texas State Board of Education. She is from Manvel Texas, which is about as blood shot red as Donald Trump Jr’s eyes after a coke fest. She owns Glam Unlimited LLC. Pickren was elected to the Alvin Independent School District, another blood shot red area but later resigned.

Pickren attended the Jan 6 Insurrection in Washington DC supporting trump and his conspiracy theories of election fraud. Pickren is running on all of the white wing racist dog whistles such as CRT even thought CRT has never been taught, isn’t being taught, and will never be taught in Texas, or any schools in the United States. But, to Qanon candidates facts don’t really matter to her or voters in Texas. Pickren has no education experience and should be banned from being near any public school in the State.

Pickren has raised about $50,000 with $40,000 coming from 4 individuals including $20,000 from Kathaleen Wall who spent $13 million of her own money in two failed Congressional seat attempts and local sugar daddy State Representative Money Mayes Middleton.

Kathaleen ,Wall15,000.00
Schumacher ,Amanda10,000.00
McMahon ,Linda5,000.00
Middleton ,Mayes5,000.00
Wall ,Kathaleen5,000.00

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Texas Republicans issue threats to election workers…in red districts

August 19, 2022

It’s all fun and games to Greg Abbott until someone gets hurt.

According to KXAN all the election workers in Gillespie County, a county that is gunshot, bleeding red, have resigned due to threats and stalking by Republican MAGAts. Governor Abbott and the entire Republican Party have shown their support of the threats with their deafening silence and constant spewing of conspiracy stupidity. With just three months before the election the county is now scrambling to replace the workers and conduct a safe and secure election.

It should be concerning to the Mexican MAGAts, who think they are republicans, that Latinos are the focus of these threats. It’s typical of the Republican Party to claim they are courting the Latino vote then threaten and stalk Latinas running the elections. According to KXAN:

“The year 2020 was when I got the death threats,” [Gillespie County Elections Administrator Anissa] Herrera told the Post. “It was enough that I reached out to our county attorney, and it was suggested that I forward it to FPD (Fredericksburg Police Department) and the sheriff’s office.”

A Thursday report from the U.S. House Oversight Committee showed similar threats to Tarrant County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia, who sent a letter to representatives about violent threats made to both himself and his children.

Gillespie county is about as red as it gets and includes the cities of Fredericksburg, Stonewall, and Luchenbach (where ain’t nobody feeling no pain). The threats and stalking are coming from the constant lies about voter fraud and rigged elections by Trump and the Republican Party. Eventually someone will get killed, the Republican Party will blame it on someone else, and we will all forget about it without doing something to stop it.

Just like we did after El Paso, Santa Fe, and the Uvalde massacres.

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Posted by johncoby

I need to do something! How do I get involved?

August 12, 2022

Electricity prices, property taxes, housing costs, college tuition, and home insurance are out the roof in Texas. Gun violence is out of control. Texas ranks 45th in education. Women’s rights have been slashed and you are telling yourself “I need to do something!“. Well you have about 2 months to do something to correct the direction of our State. It’s up to you to get involved. This is how.

Volunteer with a campaign. Find a campaign to work on. Sign up. Volunteer.

Volunteer with our clubs. The Bay Area Democratic Movement, Bay Area New Democrats, and the Bay Area Association of Democratic Women has opened a joint headquarters and will be campaigning for all of our Democrats across the Bay Area including Beto, Lina Hidalgo, and Adrian Garcia. We are located on the corner of Diana and Bay Area Blvd. 1215 Bay Area Blvd. We are open 11-6 Monday – Saturday. Closed Sunday. (Times will change as we get closer to the election.) We will be a one stop shop for signs, phone banking, block walking, rallies, and more. Sign up here to get periodic news on our HQ. Our phone number is 346-384-0387.

Phonebank. Phonebanking will be conducted throughout the day and evening. We will be calling voters in our own neighborhood. Our phonebook system is easy to use and does not require your personal cell phone! We will provide training. Again, join our newsletter to keep informed of when we will have training.

Block Walk/Literature drop. We will have our own door hanger available to leave at a door advocating for all of our candidates. Volunteer to work your own neighborhood. We will train you. It’s easy and great exercise.

Put a sign in your yard. Come by the HQ and get a sign for your candidate. (Donations greatly appreciated!) Show your support and enthusiasm for changing our State. Signs will be available soon. We will also be putting out signs in the district. If you have a business or property we can get a large sign for you. Once again, sign up here to learn when we get Beto signs!

Donate money. If you can’t talk, or walk, then donate! Our headquarters would greatly appreciate a donation to our HQ! The money will be used for rent, utilities, phonebanking, and literature. Donate to the HQ here.

Get involved! After 30 years of republican rule we have an excellent chance of a lifetime to finally put our state on the right track. DO SOMETHING! NOW!

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Posted by johncoby

BREAKING: Texas DPS to leave 1025 school districts open to assault!

August 11, 2022
From The Austin Chronicle

You simply cannot make this up.

According to Click2Houston, Texas DPS will provide 30 officers to campuses throughout Uvalde ISD.

“As a new school year begins, we must ensure students, parents, and all dedicated school personnel can look forward to new opportunities to learn and grow. Texas will keep working to provide all available support and resources to the Uvalde community as they continue to heal.” — Greg Abbot

So 1 school district out of 1026 districts in Texas are now going to have extended police protection leaving 1025 districts open for assault, a total of 8723 schools. Once again Abbott is using a distraction in order to protect his gun buddies just like he did after the Santa Fe shooting.

After the Santa Fe shooting Governor Abbott and Lt Governor Dan Patrick promised metal detectors at the High School, again after the fact, after 8 kids were killed. Metal detectors at 1 out of 8724 school in Texas did not solve the problem as was the case in Uvalde. These are nothing but knee jerk reactions to distract from the real problem of easy access to military style weapons leading to 8 mass shootings in Texas alone.

This is Greg Abbott. He loves guns more than your kids lives.

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Blast from the past: The Texas Ethics Commission

August 10, 2022
KHOU Reports

Back in 2009 KHOU did a story about the research a few activists performed concerning how elected officials spent their donors money, specifically hiding expenses behind a credit card. You can watch it here.

NOTE: In this story I made some comments about the Texas Ethics Commission which I do not agree with today. I have gained a much better respect for the Commission, especially the staff, and appreciate what they do.

In 2009 a small group of us looked at every State Representative and State Senator expenditure reports, about 180 of them. We found many were hiding purchases behind credit cards. The rules of the Ethics Commission are clear, report who gave you money and what you bought using their money. We found elected officials spending their donors money on personal items hidden behind a credit card. Converting campaign donations to personal use is against the law. It’s called “stealing”. We eventually filed about 60 ethics complaints with only 2 rejected.

Of the 58 accepted by the Commission, one resulted in the largest fine in the history of the Commission, $75,000. Many resulted in fines and requirements that the official return the money they stole from their donors. The Commission also required a new form to be filled out to identify every purchase made with a credit card. I hope this new form requirement was based upon the research we performed.

We eventually published a report called Don’t Mess With Ethics documenting what we had found. You can read that report here. Enjoy!

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Local Representative attends extreme white wing event

August 9, 2022
Dennis Paul
State Representative Dennis Paul

This is disturbing.

Local State Representative Dennis Paul attended a meeting at the Hampton inn in Webster, Texas, by the “True Texas Project” an organization labeled as an extremist anti-government group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the Houston Chronicle this group was banned from a local church:

Leaders of Webster Presbyterian Church, where astronaut Buzz Aldrin is a “ruling elder,” banned far-right political group True Texas Project from holding events in their meeting spaces and removed the group’s events from its calendar last week, according to texts and emails obtained by Chron. Houston Chronicle July 22, 2022

The all white attendees listened to Paul and State Senator Paul Bettencourt talk about “Igniting the spirit of the original Texians”. Who are the Texians? “Texians were Anglo-American residents of Mexican Texas and, later, the Republic of Texas.” Wikipedia. Just an FYI for you white wing history deniers:

Mexico invited white people to come and settle in what later became Texas. All they asked was for them to learn the language and become citizens. Instead they decided to steal the land, with 200 military idiots picking a fight with 1500 well armed Mexican soldiers in San Antonio. They were killed and their bodies burned.

According to True Texas’ website, “We believe in Constitutional government, national sovereignty, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, and rule of law.” Paul is an election denier. He doesn’t believe Biden is the duly elected President. He doesn’t take personal responsibility for the COVID response disaster leading to the death of his own friends or the 19 children killed in Uvalde because of easy access to assault weapons. And “the rule of law” is nothing but a punch line to him and his party.

True Texas is mainly funded by the billionaires identified by CNN in “Deep in the Pockets of Texas”, Timothy Dunn, and Defend Texas Liberty PAC funded by Dunn and Wilks. Their top donors Include:

Empower Texans PAC25,000.00
Defend Texas Liberty PAC24,731.97
Defend Texas Liberty PAC21,000.00
Dunn ,Timothy18,000.00
Dunn ,Timothy13,000.00
Middleton ,Mayes13,000.00
Saulsbury ,Dick12,000.00
Empower Texans4,000.00
Texans for Dan Patrick3,000.00
Mason  ,David2,400.00
Mason  ,David2,085.00
Empower Texans2,000.00
Mason  ,David2,000.00
Patrick ,Dan 2,000.00

Why Dennis Paul would attend such as extremist organization says a lot about him. Maybe Paul can arrange a meeting space for them at his own church, St Bernadettes.

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Election for the Chair of the Texas Democratic Party coming up!

July 16, 2022

This ought to be fun.

We have 3 candidates to choose from, our current Chair Gilberto Hinojosa, Kim Olson, and Carroll Robinson. I’ve heard all three speak at various events and I have my personal choice. Here is what I think the atmosphere is like in the convention.

Most everyone I have asked have good words for Chairman Hinojosa but follow it with a big but……we need to do something different. Hinojosa is running on his record but the other two are running on his record also. Hinojosa has been the chair for 10 years now and quite frankly I have to agree with the opposition. Our state has moved backwards on all fronts and we stalled in 2020. 

Lots of folks wearing pink Kim Olson shirts. Lots of women are supporting her. Robinson has a small showing. Hinojosa has a supporters but seem to be subdued. We will see what shakes out when the the sign waving starts.

Hinojosa has some interesting endorsements including one from an unknown PAC called Future Generations. Never heard of them but I received a text endorsing Hinojosa. FG was created recently, raised only $66,000 and seems to be endorsing far lefties across the county and Hinojosa, which I do not consider a far lefty. Not sure why they would pick a State Chair race to endorse.

Olson has received an endorsement from the Texas Progressive Caucus. I know very little about them.

Vote is later today.

Who’s is Future Generations PAC?

 

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Kim Olson for Texas Democratic Party Chair

July 6, 2022

Sometimes a change is necessary. That time is now.

I remember voting for Gilberto Hinojosa many years ago. He was a great choice then and did a great job for many years but it is time for the party to move on and do something different. As with every issue facing our state whether it is gun safety, immigration, civil rights, women rights, etc, etc, we are not moving in the right direction. It is time to do something different.

Kim Olson is running for the Chair of the Texas Democratic Party. Kim’s resume is outstanding. Take a minute to review it here. She has been involved in the party for many years, running for Texas Agriculture Commission and Congress, and advocating for Democratic issues. (See her video here. It’s a good one.) Running for office requires raising money. Running the Party also requires raising money as well as enthusiasm.  I am confident she has the ability to raise money for the party. Kim is tough, battle tested. Unlike many who have run for office and lost, Kim is still here, still working to make our Party and our State better. 

We should all thank Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa for his years of service to the Democratic Party. He has served our Party honorably. Kim is up for election on Saturday. I believe the Party will be represented well by Kim Olson if elected.

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