Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Mary Nan Huffman: Kim Ogg put the gun in his hands

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Actions have consequences, Ms. Ogg. From the InBox:

Mary Nan Huffman logo

WEBSITE: https://www.marynanhuffman.com/PR-20-10-20
BITLY: https://bit.ly/3kbId6V

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Actions Have Consequences: Ogg Directly Responsible for HPD Officer’s Death
He pulled the trigger but she put the gun in his hands

HOUSTON TX – Houston Police Department Sergeant Harold Preston was killed in the line of duty today. As tragic as that is, his death was 100% preventable. His partner also was shot and will survive his injuries.

The suspect, Elmer Manzano, a convicted felon with multiple prior assaults on his record, was in custody just a day before this tragedy occurred.

On October 18, HPD Officers responded to a call from Mrs. Santos, stating that her ex-husband, Mr. Manzano, was at the location brandishing a gun threatening Mrs. Santos and her children.

HPD Officers took Mr. Manzano into custody that day but Kim Ogg declined to take charges, instructing the Officers to release him, leaving the gun at the scene. Had charges been accepted, Mr. Manzano might be back on the street, but his gun and ammunition would have been seized and held as evidence.

No gun would have meant no dead officer.

Today, Officers responded to another call from Mrs. Santos. Mr. Manzano answered the door firing gun shots at point blank range. The two Officers were hit.

100% preventable.

The actions of Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg are inexcusable. While Mr. Manzano pulled the trigger, Kim Ogg put the gun in his hands. Her actions are directly responsible for the death of HPD Sergeant Preston.

The good people of Harris County mourn the tragic and senseless loss of HPD Sergeant Preston. They have an opportunity to ensure this does not happen again.

DA Ogg’s fate is in their hands. She is on the ballot today.

Vote to keep your streets, your neighborhoods, your homes, and family safe. Vote to keep the men and women of law enforcement from preventable perils. Vote to hold Kim Ogg responsible for HPD Sergeant Preston’s death.

More information about Mary Nan Huffman is available at www.MaryNanHuffman.com.

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I like Kim Ogg. I voted for Kim Ogg. But her actions, combined with those of the Democratic judges in Harris County, have led directly to increased crime and this travesty.

Vote for your life. Vote Republican.

So what’s happening with political party finances in Harris County?

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I finally got around to looking at the 30 day out finance reports for the two major parties in Harris County. And as expected, the Harris County Democratic Party is well funded while the Harris County Republican Party is, shall we say, not.

Harris County Political Party 30 day Campaign Finance
Democratic Republican
Raised $ 231,904.11 $ 2,770.00
Spent $ 105,552.32 $ 1,240.00
Cash on Hand 9/24 $ 161,360.27 $ 1,760.05
Period (7/1/20 – 9/24/20) (8/3/20 – 9/24/20)

So, if you are one of the ones asking why there isn’t much activity from the HCRP via traditional communication avenues, I think you have your answer. Note the different reporting periods – that reflects the date that Keith Nielsen took over as chair of the HCRP.

Those numbers are from the County Executive Committee reports required by the state and do not include Federal reports. They are just as lopsided but there is one very interesting entry on the HCRP’s report filed yesterday.

BILL GATES 10230 NE POINTS DR SUITE 200
KIRKLAND, Washington 98033		 GATES FOUNDATION / CO-CHAIRMAN CONTRIBUTION 09/29/2020 5000.00 5000.00

$5,000 from Bill Gates? Huh. Who’d a thunk it?

If you are a Republican in Harris County, you’d better be out there doing non-traditional campaigning if you want your candidates to have a prayer.

In Shoreacres, we had a golf cart Trump parade!

 

 

Texas 14th Court of Appeals denies assault as protected speech

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From the InBox:

Orlando Sanchez applauds the Texas 14th Court of Appeals Decision in Assault Case

On December 28, 2018, Orlando Sanchez stood as the lone conservative advocating on behalf of all Houston’s school children.  In a widely publicized press conference, Orlando stood silent as union and Antifa-inspired protesters threatened him and others in attendance.  Finally, after multiple calls to the police for protection, Orlando was assaulted from behind by having a bottle of water poured on his head.  The assault was captured by every camera in attendance.

Sanchez sued the assailant, who won dismissal in a District Court under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA).  The trial court opined that the assault was protected under free speech and under the TCPA and dismissed Sanchez’s case because Sanchez sought to silence the assailant.  Sanchez appealed the ruling to the 14th Court of Appeals.  Even the Houston Chronicle’s Editorial Board decided to pile on Sanchez, giving his lawsuit against his assailant a “Thumbs Down”, describing the suit as, “frivolous”.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Thumbs-up-down-Orlando-Sanchez-Dr-Evil-and-13602884.php

This morning, in a landmark case, the COA ruled that the TCPA does not provide a shield to those who commit assaultive acts in the name of political protest.  “We hold that the TCPA cannot reasonably be construed to protect assault as an exercise of the right of free speech.  Assuming that (the assailant) intended to communicate a message on a matter of public concern by his act of pouring water on Sanchez, we do not construe the TCPA to apply to such conduct because doing so contravenes the act’s express purpose and would lead to absurd results the legislature could not have intended”, the Opinion stated.

 

In reaction to the COA’s ruling, Sanchez stated, “It’s a great day in Texas when the Court of Appeals recognizes a citizen’s right to speak in the public square, without fear of assault.”

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Good. A lot of people laughed at Orlando for doing this but not me. You might think that a bottle of water being poured over your head for speaking out is cool but maybe someone is not quite as peaceful as Orlando and would beat the crap out of that idiot. Which would be perfectly fine by me but they would probably get arrested.

Keep going O.

So what does Allen West really believe?

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Well this is awkward. Now that Allen West is the Chair of the Republican Party of Texas, he is going around the state endorsing candidates at all levels of government in the November election. It’s a good thing. Republicans have long ceded too many government positions to liberals, especially school boards. But it does strike me as odd that West would endorse someone that goes against the party platform and West’s stated views on the homosexual community.

First, remember what West said about denying the Log Cabin Republicans a paid booth at the recent state party convention.

If you are taking a position that undermines any of the planks of the platform of the Republican Party of Texas, I don’t believe you should be there at the convention with a booth saying you’re part of the Republican Party of Texas. This is not a purity test, and I believe that when it’s time for Republicans and conservatives to say that this is who we are.

We welcome people, but we are not going to acquiesce, appease, and water down our beliefs in order to accommodate and make others feel happy. We’re not shunning anyone that is a part of these organizations or believes in the LGBT lifestyle, but one of our major planks is that we support a traditional nuclear family, and I will not support an organization that believes the nuclear family is not important for the sustainment of Texas, and the sustainment of the United States of America. As a matter of fact, what has decimated our communities is the undermining of the traditional nuclear family.

(read the article on TexasTribune.com)

Whether or not you agree with West, that is the position that he has taken.

While I couldn’t find any specific plank in the Texas RPT platform opposing Diversity and Inclusiveness Training in public schools, I did find these two planks:

  1. Sexual Education: We demand the State Legislature pass a law prohibiting the teaching of sex education, sexual health, or sexual choice, or identity in any public school in any grade whatsoever, or disseminating or permitting the dissemination by any party of any material regarding the same. All school districts, individual schools, or charter schools are prohibited from contracting with or making any payment to any third party for material concerning any of the above topics. Until this prohibition goes into effect, sexual education shall only utilize sexual risk avoidance programs and promote abstinence outside of marriage. [State, Local]
  2. Extracurricular Opportunities: We encourage nonpublic school parents to create extracurricular opportunities for their children where they are not readily available and in a manner that they can be free from discriminatory testing, intrusive government oversight, or harmful school policies regarding mixed-gender students in bathrooms and locker rooms. We encourage the Legislature to find ways to allow nonpublic school students’ participation.i Any homeschool student that does not participate will be unaffected.  [State, Local]

Clearly, the party is against LGBTQ indoctrination in public schools at any grade. But along comes Allen West and endorses a guy for a school board that is for Diversity and Inclusiveness Training at ALL grades of public school. Here is what Muni Janagarajan, candidate for Frisco ISD, wrote when he ran for the same position a year ago:

Here is Allen West’s endorsement of Muni Janagarajan:

Allen West Endorses Muni Janagarajan for FISD

Not sure who to support for school board trustee in Nov? Allen West chooses Muni Janagarajan for FISD trustee. www.muniforfisd.com

Posted by Brandon Burden – Build Frisco for Generations on Wednesday, August 12, 2020

It’s interesting that in West’s endorsement speech, he states that “we have got to get back to a system of education and not a system of indoctrination”. Apparently, Muni Janagarajan prefers a system of indoctrination. At ALL levels of education.

So which is it Mr. West? Follow the platform or not follow the platform?

Will Harris County Republicans take advantage of this opportunity?

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A couple of emails arrived back to back this morning in the ol’ InBox:

kim ogg

Dear Friends,

When I first decided to run for District Attorney, I knew that difficult decisions would be part of the job.  Pursuing evidence-based prosecution to ensure equal application of the law to everyone necessarily shut the “back door” at the DA’s Office to special interest groups like the police unions. It was this “back door” that allowed police to avoid accountability for officer-involved shootings for decades.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Houston Police Officer’s Union is my opponent’s employer and that the organization is defending the Houston Police officers currently charged with murder and corruption.  Their attacks on me, my office, and our work are all directed at unseating the only District Attorney in the history of Harris County who has successfully sought indictments and prosecuted 33 police officers for misconduct.

Corruption corrodes the system and endangers the lives of honest, hard-working law enforcement officers.  It destroys community trust and ultimately, democracy. When I chose the campaign slogan:  EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL, I knew what I was getting into–now I need your help to see this through into a second term as District Attorney.

For those of you who have contributed before, please accept my humble and heartfelt thanks for your continued support. For those of you who have not, please contribute any amount you can right now, and let’s finish the job.

 

Kim Ogg,

Harris County District Attorney

And right behind it was this one:

THE REVOLVING DOOR OF ROBBERY IN HARRIS COUNTY

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s office let hundreds of dangerous armed robbers get back on the streets and the results should not be shocking to crime victims. More robberies – even murder.

A Dolcefino Consulting investigation shows that since January 1, 2017, Ogg’s office allowed more than 330 criminals convicted of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon to get a plea deal that gave them deferred adjudication – a get out of jail free card.

“What’s wrong with the system?” asks Ken Webster of LaPorte. “People that have committed violent crimes there are not even getting prosecuted. And those that do – half the time they get let out. And yeah, my case was a classic example.”

Webster is one of thousands of Harris County residents that are victims of a violent crime. In 2017, using a cell phone selling scam, an armed robber held a gun to Webster’s wife’s head  and demanded money. Webster shot and killed that robber, but his accomplice and getaway driver, Frederick Gibson, was given deferred adjudication in a plea deal the District Attorney could have stopped.

Frederick Gibson was arrested as part of a multi-state jewelry robbery ring in Louisiana this year, but that is not the only consequence of this soft on crime justice. In April of 2020, Gibson was charged with the murder of a customer at a Houston pawn shop. Houston musician Austin Thomerson had gone to the pawn shop to search for musical instruments but had a permit to carry a weapon. Thomerson paid the price when he tried to stop Gibson and the other robber.

Vincent Canady is another one of the aggravated robbers given a second chance to commit crime.  He stole a car with a 16- month old baby in it. Luckily, the baby was rescued and unharmed.

Our review of thousands of deferred adjudication sentences make it clear our get out of jail free card court system is a failure. Thirty five percent of those convicted robbers have already gotten back in trouble. We traced at least 16 of the convicted armed robbers to 21 new robberies. Those are just the robberies that they have been caught committing.

Dolcefino Consulting has already traced dozens of murders to criminals released on deferred adjudication. Ogg has also allowed the release of some of violent family criminals.

“The numbers do not lie. Houstonians are being robbed and murdered and the District Attorney has blood on her hands,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “Sure we have elected some judges who are endangering law abiding folks, but NO violent criminal should get a deal. Period. Let juries deal with them.”

Questions about this press release?

Contact Dolcefino Consulting

[email protected]

713-360-6911

That is an issue tailor made for Harris County Republicans. We have a great candidate running against DA Ogg, Mary Nan Huffman, who is running on a law and order platform. Obviously the odds are against her in what has quickly become a Democratic dominated county but what if the HCRP were to take advantage of this issue and pull in the same direction?

I doubt we’ll ever know. The party itself will not be a help to Ms. Huffman, given Chairman Keith Nielsen’s silence while his surrogates attack his candidate. They are also attacking the major donors of the party, calling them Democrats and crooks, so don’t expect the party to have the type of funding it will take to mount a real challenge. And I received an unsolicited email from one of the new yelpers advising those that do not agree with him 100% to leave the party and join the Democrats. Yep, that’s the way to win elections.

It’s a shame but that’s the reality of where we are today in Harris County.

US Supreme Court agrees – churches are no different than zoos

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Is now the time for a rebellion? That was an odd thought that popped into my head on this beautiful Sunday morning in my little burg on the coast of Galveston Bay. I had had a good meditation and reading of the Bible, then glanced at the news, where I saw the latest assault on the First Amendment. My wife and I decided to take a walk to hopefully burn off the frustration that resulted from reading about that decision but even a three mile walk around the hood didn’t alleviate the frustration. Instead, it, the frustration churned until it became a roiling anger.

There is so much wrong with the court’s decision that is now law of the land. Actually, it’s the second time in two months that John Roberts has joined the liberals in limiting religious freedom. This one is especially egregious, with the state of Nevada arguing that churches are no different than zoos.

Nevada’s lawyers had defended the limit on in-person religious services, saying churches were being treated no differently than museums, zoos, and some schools.

The spineless Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t issue a majority decision, so we have no idea how he was able to twist his interpretation of the First Amendment into a pretzel defending his vote. Sort of how he said Obamacare was a tax when President Obama himself said it wasn’t.

Fortunately, the four dissenters did issue a rebuttal. Here are some snippets:

Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent that Nevada was discriminating against religious groups in favor of casinos, which under Governor Steve Sisolak’s reopening plans do not face the same 50-person limit on indoor gatherings.

“That Nevada would discriminate in favor of the powerful gaming industry and its employees may not come as a surprise, but this Court’s willingness to allow such discrimination is disappointing,” Alito wrote, adding that Sisolak’s plans allow thousands of people to gather in casinos.

“That Nevada would discriminate in favor of the powerful gaming industry and its employees may not come as a surprise, but this Court’s willingness to allow such discrimination is disappointing,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent joined by Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

“We have a duty to defend the Constitution, and even a public health emergency does not absolve us of that responsibility,” Alito said. “The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. It says nothing about freedom to play craps or blackjack, to feed tokens into a slot machine or to engage in any other game of chance.”

Kavanaugh also wrote his own dissent, as did Justice Neil Gorsuch, who said today’s world “with a pandemic upon us, poses unusual challenges.”

“But there is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel,” Gorsuch wrote.

Alito said in the lead dissent that by allowing thousands to gather in casinos, the state cannot claim to have a compelling interest in limiting religious gatherings to 50 people — regardless of the size of the facility and the measures adopted to prevent the spread of the virus.

“The idea that allowing Calvary Chapel to admit 90 worshipers present a greater public health risk than allowing casinos to operate at 50% capacity is hard to swallow,” he wrote.

Kavanaugh said he agreed that courts should be “very deferential to the states’ line-drawing in opening businesses and allowing certain activities during the pandemic.”

“But COVID-19 is not a blank check for a state to discriminate against religious people, religious organizations and religious services,” he wrote in his own dissent. “Nevada is discriminating against religion.”

Speaking of dissent, Ted Cruz had this to say:

“John Roberts has abandoned his oath,” Senator Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas, said in a tweet. “Maybe Nevada churches should set up craps tables? Then they could open?”

There are many who have been warning that this day is coming. I have been complacent and ignored it. There have been some reasonable responses by various government entities to try and control the spread of a very dangerous virus. This is not one of them. And now that it is the law of the land, with no explanation from the majority, I fear that more government entities will take this tact.

Don’t do it. I’ve been concerned that a civil war is coming and this simply reinforces my feeling. We’ve seen the riots in Democratic controlled cities around the country. The respect for law among many on the left is gone, completely gone.

What’s more, many of our pastors have fallen into secular traps and no longer present the Good News of Christ. Instead, our many of our “mainline Christianity” pastors sit around with their thumbs up their butts, wearing Black Lives Matter shirts while waving a rainbow flag either singing kumbaya or egging on rioters to throw bricks at cops. Many of our “evangelical Christianity” pastors have replaced the cross in their churches with an American Flag.

Both of these types of pastors have ignored that our freedom to worship as we please is under fire and the First Amendment is being discarded as we speak.

I wish the churches in Nevada well. If I lived there, I would hope that my pastor opened the church, going against the Supreme Court. I would be in attendance.

As a matter of fact, I’m going to go ahead and find a church that is open here in Harris County, Texas and go.

Overreaction? Hey, I gotta start somewhere. Beats going to a smoke filled casino, although the 5 liberal Supremes would prefer we do that.

Calling all barflys and covid protesters – time for duty!

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From the InBox:

PROTEST RALLY IN PASADENA TO DEMAND THE REOPENING OF TEXAS BARS

gov abbott bar closure

Sunday, July 12, 2020 at 4:00 pm
Chuters Dance Hall and Saloon
7337 Spencer Highway
Pasadena, TX 77505

Tee Allen Parker, the Kilgore bar owner leading the legal fight to reopen Texas bars will be on hand to support Chuters owner James Kopeck and his employees.

Bar owners and employees from all over the Houston area will gather Sunday afternoon to demand the freedom to reopen before any more lives are destroyed.

The Facebook page Texas Bars Fight Back already has 15,000 members.

For additional information contact Wayne Dolcefino. 713-389-0810

Here is a link to that Facebook page Wayne mentions: Texas Bars Fight Back!

Harris County Republicans, THIS is your chance to FIGHT BACK against Gov. Abbott’s treasonous order! If you aren’t there, you are obviously NOT a PATRIOT!

Masks not required or wanted! Get out to Pasa-git-down-dena and show your patriotism! That means YOU mister State Rep. Briscoe Cain!

briscoe cain

BTW, it would be most appropriate if you rode your horse to Chuters. If you don’t have a horse, drive a pick-em-up truck. If you don’t have a pick-em-up truck, borrow one. DO NOT DRIVE AN IMPORT!

 

Texas GOP just keeps getting stupider and stupider

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How self-important do you have to be to insist upon meeting in a large gathering in the middle of a pandemic in a city that is blowing up with cases of coronavirus? Texas GOP executive committee and delegate self-important. But state Republican elected officials have figured this one out. From Cassandra Pollock at the Texas Tribune:

The Republican Party of Texas is moving forward with its controversial in-person convention during the coronavirus pandemic — but elected officials including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will be giving their scheduled speeches virtually.

“All the elected officials are switching from a live, in-person speech to videos,” Kyle Whatley, the party’s executive director, said during a town hall livestreamed Tuesday night. “They’re doing that for us in order to focus all the attention on the business of the meeting and to get everybody in and out of here as quickly and as safely as possible.”

(click here to read the entire article on TexasTribune.org)

LOL, sure, to focus on business and the safety of others. Wait. You are still going to have the speeches. How does that help anything? Dumbasses. The elected officials just aren’t as stupid, although certainly as self-important.

Where to start? I keep hearing from delegates that the upcoming election is too important to not have an in-person convention. Huh? Exactly how is the convention going to help in the upcoming election? By adding more idiotic planks to the already bloated party platform? You know, the platform that elected officials ignore.

The thing is, if you’ve been around Republican politics for any length of time, you know the reason for insisting upon an in-person convention. The SREC members and many delegates have come to the conclusion that it is more important for them to control the party than it is to win elections. Gay folk want a booth? No way, get the hell out of here, we have important cocktails to drink while we scheme against other Republicans.

The RPT continues to talk about all of the safety measures that they will have in place. First off, many wild-eyed delegates aren’t going to follow any safety measures. Because, “it’s muh right”, dontcha know? Second, what about the service workers at the hotels and restaurants? How many restaurants have reported cases of staff Covid again? So let’s get infected and take it back to podunk Texas and have our own outbreak dammit!

I’ve also heard the tired rhetoric of the Black Lives Matter protests being “allowed” and what about that? Well, what about that? It turns out that the data refute that notion.

In the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death, health officials expressed great concern that protesters, potentially yelling and shouting in very close proximity, would quickly spread the virus, which might lead to devastating outbreaks.

However, researchers found “no evidence that urban protests reignited Covid-19 case growth during the more than three weeks following protest onset.”

In fact, they determined that, based on cellphone data, “cities which had protests saw an increase in social distancing behavior for the overall population relative to cities that did not,” leading to “modest evidence of a small longer-run case growth decline.”

The study’s lead author, Dhaval Dave of Bentley University, said, “In many cities, the protests actually seemed to lead to a net increase in social distancing, as more people who did not protest decided to stay off the streets.”

(click here to read the article on Forbes.com or here to read the study by the National Bureau of Economic Research)

It was fairly easy to guess that this was the case, given the fact that cities other than Houston had massive protests with no increase in coronavirus cases and the whole indoors/outdoors thing but hey, who cares about data when you are a populist Republican and mad/scared about black folk protesting?

Hopefully someone, somewhere will put a stop to this nonsense and tell the self-important Republicans to stay away and let Harris County recover somehow. Trust me when I say this, your platform isn’t important to the electoral process.

For those of us that do live here, stay away from people outside of your family, wash your hands, and wear a damn mask.

(see here for more)

Republican Party of Texas – Stupid Is as Stupid Does

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Although after following many of the Republican Party of Texas State Executive Committee members over the past couple of weeks on social media and knowing what the outcome of last night’s vote regarding the upcoming convention would be, I still watched much of the “emergency meeting” to listen to the debate. It was as predictable as it was sad to watch a once great political body descend into the dark abyss of conspiracy, chest thumping about patriotism, and making a mockery of public health and freedom.

As reported by SREC member Mark Ramsey:

republican party of texas

This comes at a time when Harris County is the epicenter of the second wave of Covid-19 infections and on the same day that Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott issued an executive order requiring face masks to be worn in public. Notice that Mark says masks are not going to be required by the party.

Want to know why Republicans will soon be extinct in Texas? This is example 1,503 with many more to come I’m certain. My favorite comment from the viewers was this one:

republican party of texas

Heh. Diluted acid showers to kill the virus. Now that was funny.

What isn’t funny is the destruction of the Republican Party of Texas as it continues to be taken over by libertarians and populists. Gone are the Ed Emmett’s and Joe Straus’ of the world, replaced by AR15 wearing “patriots”. Gone are the days of small government or fiscal responsibility. Gone are the days of “the best government is the smallest government closest to the people”. Three decades of solid gains wiped out.

Jonathan Tilove has more over at the Statesman, pointing out this statement by SREC member Leslie Thomas:

republican party of texas

It’s interesting how people use the Bible to justify whatever it is they want to do. I would submit that “putting on the armor of God” wasn’t written so that people could ignore science, common sense or a virus. But that might just be me.

It even happens here on BJP. As you know, I don’t censor writers, I let them write what they wish. And I’m not going to change that. Their words, their responsibility. I’m hopeful that sanity prevails among the readers when one of our writers says that the governor and county judge need to grow up and act like adults while said writer goes around in public wearing a cow head mask to mock health care professionals and elected officials that are doing their best to protect both the health of the public and the economy. But who knows?

The more disconcerting thing to me about Greg’s post with the cow head was his use of rhetorical terms to inflame racism, in my opinion. He continually used the phrase “Floyd riots” to claim causation for the increase in COVID-19 cases in Harris County. Fact is there were no “riots”. There were a few very isolated issues with property destruction but to say those were “riots” does’t pass the “smell test”. But it certainly inflames the passions of those that are afraid of black folk having an equal opportunity to take to the streets and protest. Also, correlation does not equal causation. There are any number of correlations for the increased hospitalizations  – Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, full moon, high tide, pollen count, etc. So please use common sense when reading anything, including this post.

FWIW, I think that County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia have done a very good job in this very difficult situation. Judge Hidalgo issued mask orders only to have them shot down by the governor. Now that the virus is out of control in Texas, Republican Gov. Abbott has finally issued his own order, although in typical Abbott fashion, it is more of a riddle than an executive order.

Every person in Texas shall wear a face covering over the nose and mouth when inside a commercial entity or other building or space open to the public, or when in an outdoor public space, wherever it is not feasible to maintain six feet of social distancing from another person not in the same household;

Care to explain what that means, exactly?

I’ll leave you with this. Many of the commenters on last night’s meeting encouraged having the in-person convention in Houston so that attendees could gather at the largest Planned Parenthood crematorium in the world and protest or pray in front of the building.

Think about the irony of that. The “pro-life” Republican Party of Texas is literally supporting bringing death to the residents of Harris County so that they can protest the death of unborn children.

Harris County issues COVID-19 Threat Level System

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Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and team have devised a new threat level system to combat the rising  hospitalizations of COVID-19 in Harris County.

Leading Harris County: Public Guidelines for a Healthy Community

Message from Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo

During this uncertain time, we must do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to succeed in our fight against COVID-19: manage the spread of the virus, keep the number of cases and deaths low, and keep our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. Safety measures such as social distancing, wearing face coverings, and staying home from work, school, and social activities are difficult. But, if followed closely, these orders and policies can save thousands of lives. They can give us our best shot at reopening sustainably, rather than driving our community toward the breaking point time and time again, hurting our economy even more profoundly over the long term.

We cannot, at least not now, go back to the way our lives were before COVID-19 emerged in Harris County. We must assess the risk for everything we do. Harris County Public Health has developed the recommendations published here to help us safely navigate our everyday lives and better manage the ebbs and flows in severity of the threat of COVID-19. We must remember that a resurgence of the virus that can knock us down and put us right back where we started, or worse, is right around the corner as long as a vaccine or treatment are not readily available.

We all want to get back to work, see our friends, hug our family, go out to eat, and resume our livelihoods without limitations, but we still have a long road ahead of us to end this epidemic. Here in Harris County, we remain committed to taking whatever actions are necessary to save lives — not just the lives of people with the virus, but the lives of anyone requiring a hospital bed.  We will continue this fight to keep you and your family healthy as long as we have to. Here in Harris County, we are in this together.

Message from Dr. Umair Shah, Director, Harris County Public Health

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact globally, nationally and locally here in Harris County. Currently there is no treatment or vaccine to prevent COVID-19, so prevention is the best way to reduce your chances of getting COVID-19. This includes tried and true actions such as maintaining social distancing from others (6ft or 2m), wearing facial coverings, proper handwashing, and staying home and away from others if you are sick. Extensive social distancing and these other types of interventions have shown to be successful in other countries to prevent or delay a rapid increase in the number of cases and deaths. However, these measures do not eliminate the threat COVID-19 poses within our community.

Social distancing has allowed Harris County to slow down rapid accelerations in the number of positive cases as well as hospitalizations, which has given our public health and healthcare systems more time to prepare for a potential surge of cases. To continue reducing spread and deaths from COVID-19, social distancing and other preventive measures must be sustained, and testing must be widely available until vaccine options are developed.

Harris County Public Health (HCPH) is continually working to keep the community healthy and safe by conducting its epidemiology (disease detective) work including disease surveillance and investigations; building data and technology infrastructure; coordinating and providing testing, both in the community and at nursing homes and other group facilities; monitoring levels of important supplies and equipment in the healthcare system; and continuing to reach out to educate the community.

HCPH has developed these local public health recommendations as a guide for residents to understand better state and local COVID-19 orders and guidance. It will take everyone in the community working as a team to continue to slow the spread of COVID-19 and ultimately stop this pandemic.

We thank all our community, including businesses, faith-leaders, and other partners for continuing to do their part in reducing the spread of COVID-19 in Harris County. We must all come together to combat COVID-19 today and into the future.

Click to download the entire document: Harris County Public Health Public Guidelines for a Healthy Community
Here are slides from the document:


For those of you who insist that our political leaders are fearmongering this virus in order to get Trump reelected, how about looking at the facts? And the fact is, hospitalizations in Texas and Harris County continue to increase daily. Besides which, Harris County doesn’t need any fearmongering for people to vote against Donald Trump, he does just fine with that on his own.

Harris County’s political leaders continue to lead the way in addressing this virus. Just the fact, Jack.