Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Texas Republicans declare convention is a safe space, refuse booth space to conservative group

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Here we are, deja vu all over again. The Republican Party of Texas’ State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) has once again denied the Log Cabin Republicans of Texas the opportunity to rent a booth at the RPT’s convention this summer. It is by now a biennial event, with the outcome assured beforehand, despite the farcical pretense of debate.

It is frustrating to watch the demise of the Republican Party but I find that I no longer care. If the “grassroots” wishes to speed up the loss of Republican power in Texas, who am I to complain? At this point in time, no one can reasonably claim that Texas Republicans represent liberty and freedom better than Texas Democrats do. Or fiscal policy for that matter.

As I watched the debate (several times now), a couple of things stand out. One is not that important to me, one is extremely important.

Fear of ‘they’ and ‘them’

Clearly, the people voting against this measure are scared of a group of people that they do not know or understand. Repeatedly during the discussion, the speakers against the booth referred to their fellow Republicans as ‘they’ and ‘them’ while referring to ‘our party’ and ‘our beliefs’.

I have been a member of the Houston chapter of the LCR and we have broken bread together, discussed policy together and laughed at our corny jokes together. I have never once been scared that the men and women around me would tie me up and force their ‘lifestyle’ on me. And yet repeatedly during the discussion, SREC members expressed their fear that they and their children would be exposed to the ‘lifestyle’ of LCR members if they were able to rent booth space and pass out literature advocating various policy positions, most of them very conservative.

Every time I hear someone protest that about being exposed to a gay person’s ‘lifestyle’, I’m reminded of the first time I sat down with Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. It was in 2014 and she was challenging a corrupt Republican for the office. She expressed frustration over the attacks on her ‘lifestyle’, saying something along the lines of “Lifestyle? That’s my family.”. Indeed, she had been in a monogamous relationship and provided a stable home for her children far longer than many Republicans that I know.

If you want two specific examples of SREC members that clearly don’t know any LCR members (other than me I suppose), I’ll use the two members from my senate district, SD11. For some reason, J.T. Edwards is really, really scared of LCR members. Go to the 1:26:20 mark in the video above and you hear J.T. ask if additional money has been allocated for the necessary increased security that such a booth will need. My goodness J.T., you really, seriously need to get out more.

J.T.’s counterpart, Tanya Robertson, goes for the kill with her desire for making the convention a ‘safe space’ for her children.  Go to the 1:22:35 mark in the video for her remarks. Note that she says that her children worked in previous conventions and they have ‘stories’. She doesn’t go into detail about those ‘stories’ but there is one thing that we know for a fact: the Log Cabin Republicans did not have a booth at those previous conventions. So, that begs the question…#metoo? Doesn’t it?

I have an offer for J.T. and Tanya. The Houston chapter of the LCR has its monthly meeting this Wednesday, 4/11, at Theo’s Restaurant in Montrose. Let’s go together! I’ll buy your meal (the chicken soup is out of this world good) and I’ll protect you from anyone that tries to trap you into their ‘lifestyle’. Deal?

The Republican Party of Texas is not a church

Like I said, one of these two observations is important to me. This one. Those of us in Harris County have fought this for years, this combining of religion and politics. Speaker after speaker on Saturday referenced God and their belief that homosexuality is wrong and that they must stand up and fight for God, as if He cannot fight for Himself.

One female in particular expressed her love for ‘them’ and then proceeded to say pretty much what Tanya said above, that her children must be protected from ‘them’. Go to the 1:12:35 mark if you wish to view her remarks – her name was hard to discern but she stated that she was a proxy for SD23. I’ll condense her remarks to ‘we are gonna love ‘them’ but we don’t want to see ‘them’.

As I listened to that woman’s version of love, I was reminded of a song we sang in our youth group at church. It included this line “and they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love”. Frankly, I don’t see a lot of love on display by Republicans quoting their bibles these days. Do you think that Harris County’s own Terry Lowry was displaying love in this clip?

That seems more like fear than love to me. And my observation through the years is that this combining of religion and politics has certainly helped the Republican Party but it has been devastating for the Church. Church leaders now accept every sort of immoral behavior known to mankind so that they can have access to the halls of power. Well, every type except the big one that really, really bothers them, which is same sex relationships.

It’s telling that RPT Chair James Dickey stated during the discussion that because the party is a private entity, they can refuse to do business with anyone, anytime, for any reason. And that is true, as per Gov. Greg Abbott’s opinion on the subject when he was on the Texas Supreme Court. You know, the guy now asking for unity so that he can be reelected to do more of the same nothing he’s done the past four years?

It makes you wonder, what group is Mr. Dickey and team going to exclude next?

Statement from the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas:

Today the executive committee of the Republican Party of Texas had an opportunity to reach out to minorities and show they were serious about growing party membership. When offered this opportunity, the members of the executive committee responded with a resounding “no.“

The Republican liberty caucus of Texas is saddened by today’s vote of the executive committee not to offer a booth at the state Republican convention to the Log Cabin Republicans, singling them out as the one group of Republicans who will not be allowed to be represented at the convention. For a party that had a gay national chairman just a few years ago this is a step in the wrong direction.

Every two years when the convention meets the platform is substantially revised and updated. Traditionally, party members have participated in this process and lobbied for positions that they think should be changed to reflect the changing interests a party. One of the best ways to get your group’s message out to the membership is through a booth on the convention floor. Businesses, union groups, political action committees and issue oriented activist groups – many of which hold positions counter to the party platform – will all be represented, but this one group made up entirely of grassroots Republicans will not have a voice at the convention, solely because they have one position which is not in keeping with a plank of a platform which was added less than a decade ago.

The Republican Party of Texas seems to have forgotten Ronald Reagan’s maxim that “the person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally – not a 20 percent traitor.”

“It saddens me the RPT continues down the road of exclusionary policies while fully supporting elected Republican officials who vote against our platform planks on a regular basis,” said Jeff LeBlanc Chairman of the Texas RLC. “The free exchange of ideas is a good thing. A convention is the place for that. As one speaker put it today, at this rate we will eventually run out of people to exclude. This notion of safe spaces, once reserved for liberals, creeping into the RPT is frightening and flies in the face of individual liberty.”

The Republican Liberty Caucus will continue to work with the Log Cabin Republicans just as we work with any group within the Republican Party that advocates for our candidates and our core principles. We will do what we can, as we have in the past, to see that their concerns are raised at the convention and that their members are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve but are often denied within the party.

Disrupting The Lives Of National Guardsmen For Much To Do About Nothing

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Quick, call out the military!  We are about to be invaded by 1,500 Hondurans.  Make that 1,100 because Mexico has shipped 400 of them back to Honduras.

President Trump has called for 2,000-4,000 National Guard troops to be positioned along the border with Mexico.  He is following in the footsteps of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Texas Governor Rick Perry.

In 2006, Bush’s 6,000 troops freed up 581 Border Patrol agents, logged more than 28,600 flight hours and built 130 miles of road, fencing and barriers and repaired more than 1,100 miles of road.   Obama’s 1,200 troops performed similar tasks at the border in 2010.  In 2014, Gov. Rick Perry deployed 1,000 National Guardsmen to back up the Texas DPS at the border.

Our military is prohibited from performing any law enforcement duties within the United States.  Homeland Security and the Pentagon have yet to decide whether the National Guardsmen that Trump wants to deploy will be armed.

The Bush and Obama deployments cost a combined total of $1.3 billion.  I haven’t been able to determine the cost of Perry’s deployment, but it appears to have been a complete waste of taxpayer money.  As for Trump’s planned deployment, no one knows how long the National Guard will stay at the border and how much that will cost.

Of course, the Democrats are up in arms over Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, calling it nothing more than a political stunt.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has advised the president she will not contribute any Oregon National Guard troops to Trump’s deployment.   And since California is officially a ‘sanctuary city’ state, I doubt that Gov. Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown will allow any of his state’s National Guardsmen to be deployed along the Mexican border.

So what will Trump’s planned deployment accomplish?  As in past deployments, the troops will release some Border Patrol officers for law enforcement duties who are not now engaged in the field.  They will conduct aerial surveillance.  And they will do construction work.

Is this deployment really necessary?  I doubt it.  It may slow down the illegal border crossings somewhat, but when the deployment ends, all will be the same again.

The deployment is much to do about nothing.  It will cost the taxpayers a bundle.   It will cause some disruption to the businesses the guardsmen work for.  But worst of all, it will unnecessarily disrupt the lives of the deployed National Guardsmen.

Are Texas Republicans tired of governing?

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Governing is hard. You have to actually DO something rather than campaign against something. And since Governor Rick Perry left office and more specifically since Steve Munisteri left as the chair, the Republican Party of Texas seems to be tired of the whole governing thing. So the question is not Erica Grieder’s question in her latest column:

I’ve found myself wondering, in the wake of the primary, whether Texas Republicans are secretly tired of winning.

The Republicans at the state level that I know actually like winning. They like seeing their faces plastered around noting that they are elected to running the state. But you know what they don’t like? Yeah, that’s right, actually doing anything.

Think about it for more than five seconds and you’ll agree with me. Address the education problem in Texas? Oh hell no. Fix the transportation system? Of course! Let’s figure out how to pretend we aren’t raising revenue with tolls while at the same time sending contracts to our friends (people that give us money for our campaigns). Address flooding issues on the coast, which is the economic center of the state? Oh, hell no, we’re going to demand that the federales do that! But hey, we’ll spend $800 million a year on the border instead of insisting that the federales do that! And to the substance of Grieder’s column, we’ll support adding a question to the census that insures that we actually lose influence at the federal level. And I’m not even going to mention Gov. Greg Abbott’s “passion” for pre-K that he’s abandoned.

What a freaking mess.

But in the midst of the storm, we have good old Tio Pablo to tell us that nothing is wrong, Texas R’s have everything under control!

Despite what you have heard, the “blue wave” in Texas stalled out before it came ashore. Statewide, Republicans outvoted Democrats by more than 500,000 votes and set a record in turnout. Democrats had just over a million votes in their Primary, a number they last matched back in 2002. Texas remains a solidly “red” state going into the November election.

To be fair, Tio Pablo notes that Harris County is, in his words, “much more purple”. Purple? Sheesh. But hey, it’s all good because his Senate District “remains a Republican powerhouse”. Thanks for that enlightenment Tio Pablo.

Meanwhile, newly reelected HCRP Chair Paul Simpson recognizes the problem that we have in the county. So he decided to engage with a member of the local media that has a very big platform. He actually had enough of a “spine of steel” to invite Ms. Grieder to moderate a panel of Republicans at the annual HCRP Lincoln-Reagan dinner. Oh my, Tio Pablo didn’t like that one bit!

During the dinner, Grieder moderated a panel with U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R–Houston), State Rep. Jim Murphy (R–Houston), District Clerk Chris Daniel, and Harris County GOP Chairman Paul Simpson on Hurricane Harvey relief.

…

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) told Texas Scorecard he was “astonished” by Grieder’s inclusion due to her “constant hammering of Attorney General Ken Paxton, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Gov. Greg Abbott,” adding that “by her own definition, or anyone’s definition, she’s as liberal as they come.”

Grieder is as liberal as they come? Really? This is the woman that literally wrote the book titled Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right: What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas. And supported (and still supports) Gov. Rick Perry. And supported Ted Cruz for President in 2016. Granted, she doesn’t like Donald Trump or Greg Abbott. And she doesn’t seem particularly in tune with the current emphasis on social issues by Republicans in the main. But “liberal as they come”? Hardly.

The interesting thing is that both Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick were singing the praises of unity if Republicans were going to maintain power at the state level and the local level. So what does Tio Pablo do? He writes a letter to the Houston Chronicle, criticizing the Republican dominated Commissioners Court. Republicans that understand a little something about governing if not politicizing every issue. Unity, eh?

I’ll be honest here. I tune out whenever either Dan Patrick or Paul Bettencourt rail about property taxes. You know why? They’ve been screaming about that issue for over 20 years and have done nothing substantive to address it. I’m sorry but the bill that they put forth last year did absolutely nothing to address the problem. Forcing local entities to have elections while the state does zero? Sorry, I ain’t buying it. And don’t forget that Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said that he would be in favor of eliminating Harris County property taxes in favor of a sales tax. But Tio Pablo was having nothing to do with that. Why? Well, he told me that it was because Ed didn’t come and testify in front of his committee when they came to town. Please.

So, here we are. One HCRP precinct chair gets it:

Open your eyes, Senator, and stop being in denial. A big blue wave has taken over the city of Houston. The map tells the truth. I heard you and several elected officials on Sat at the SD7 Convention say that we can defeat the wave and y’all had us chanting about not letting the Dems win. 200 people chanting about keeping harris county red isn’t going to make it so. I got involved 9 years ago to make a difference and we hear the same things year after year, that now is the time. Ummm, we need new leadership in Congress and in Texas. The county is turning blue cuz all y’all continue to disappoint.

Yep.

Discuss the HCRP slates with the Memorial West Republican Women

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From the Memorial West Republican Women Facebook page:

Don’t miss the April general meeting! Monday, April 2, 2018. Guest speaker: MWRW member, Mary Sergesketter, and the topic is “The Influencers, the Candidates and the Voters….a discussion about the slates in Harris County.” This is a program you will not see anywhere else!

10:30 A.M. Social, 11:00 A.M. Program, 12:00 P.M. Lunch (optional). Please make your reservation for lunch by Thursday, March 29th via email.

Ninfa’s on Memorial. 14737 Memorial Dr, Houston, TX 77079 (click the link for directions)

This should be a very interesting meeting and might even get me out of hibernation to be there. Mary has been around the HCRP for a long time and will be able to discuss the various slates intimately. I’ll be interested to hear her thoughts on using the slate mechanism to get better candidates on the whole, instead of having a November candidate slate full of holes because of niche issues.

And speaking of slates, there is a small one called Katy Christian Magazine whose publisher doesn’t understand the law regarding political advertising. As you know, political advertising is highly regulated by the State of Texas. Here are the specific laws taken directly from a Texas Ethics Commission ruling against another local slate in 2011:

  1. “Political advertising” is defined, in relevant part, as a communication supporting or opposing a candidate for nomination or election to a public office that in return for consideration, is published in a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical. ELEC. CODE § 251.001(16).
  2. The rate charged for political advertising that is printed or published may not exceed the lowest charge made for comparable use of the space for any other purposes. ELEC. CODE 255.002(b).
  3. In determining amounts charged for comparable use, the amount and kind of space or time used, number of times used, frequency of use, type of advertising copy submitted, and any other relevant factors shall be considered. ELEC. CODE 255.002(c).
  4. The documents at issue supported the election of candidates to public office. Therefore, they are political advertising. The evidence indicated that two candidates for public office purchased the same amount of advertisement space from the respondent. However, the candidates were charged rates differing by $5,000 for the same amount of space. Therefore, there is credible evidence of a violation of section 255.002(b) of the Election Code.

That ruling resulted in a $500 fine to the slate’s publisher.

In the Katy Christian Magazine case, Judge Jay Karahan paid $1,200 for a one-half page ad in the February / March 2018 issue of the magazine. The same issue also contained a one-half page ad for Judge Karahan’s opponent Dan Simons. After reviewing Mr. Simons’ campaign finance reports, Judge Karahan saw that Mr. Simons only paid $400 for his comparable use ad.

Judge Karahan inquired about this discrepancy via email to Joseph Menslage, President/Publisher of Katy Christian Magazine. Mr. Menslage responded thusly:

The reason why Mr. Simons got a better deal is because he negotiated with us on the pricing. As a business owner, we do have the right to negotiate.

Of course businesses have the right to negotiate. But the law says that Mr. Menslage must charge candidates the lowest charge made for comparable use of the space.

I have nothing against this particular slate (other than the “Christian” branding) but I hope that Judge Karahan files a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission so that Mr. Menslage will have a better understanding of the law and his responsibilities when accepting payment for advertising. There are other examples of this practice in the same and previous issues of the slate.

Perhaps Mary Sergesketter will address this problem in her talk about the slates.

Stormy’s Interview On 60 Minutes Was Anything But Stormy

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The Stormy Daniels interview on Sunday’s 60 Minutes was much to do about nothing.  She said she and Donald Trump had sex together and that she was threatened with physical harm by a man if she didn’t keep quiet about their relationship.  She also emphasized she was not a victim.

Stormy’s interview was anything but stormy.  It failed to meet the expectations resulting from the pre-show hype put forth by CBS and the nation’s media.

Trump has repeatedly denied having a relationship with Daniels, calling the accusations fake news.  The porn actress and her lawyer have not provided any evidence that the two had a sexual relationship.  So, this is a classic case of ‘he said, she said.’

President Trump not only has to deal with the media storm over Stormy’s revelations, but he is also faced with claims by former Playboy model Karen McDougal that she had a 10-month affair with Trump.  Both alleged affairs took place in 2006 around the time Trump’s wife gave birth to their son Barron.

What will the voters do in 2020 about the allegations made by Daniels and McDougal?  They were not persuaded by the allegations of more than a dozen women during the 2016 campaign that they were sexually abused by Trump.   Nor were the voters persuaded by the video clip showing Trump saying, “Grab them by the pussy.”

Despite Trump’s denials, Stormy and Karen are probably telling the truth.  Since a significant percentage of husbands cheat on their wives, Trump’s flings are not a big deal to men.  Women?  That could be a different matter.  But it should be noted that surveys show quite a number of wives cheat on their husbands too.

Hillary Clinton now says she lost the election because white women were intimidated by their husbands into voting fir Trump.  If those women are pissed off in 2020 over Trump cheating on his wife, they might tell their husbands to shove it.  In that case, Trump’s reelection bid could be in deep doo-doo.

The 2020 election will most likely be decided by the state of the nation’s economy rather than by Trump’s affairs with a porn actress and a Playboy model.  If the middle class is better off, Trump has a good chance of being reelected.

If the middle class is not better off, look for Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren to be our next president.  Oops, I forgot Oprah.

If You Want Your Personal Data Kept Private, Don’t Put It On Social Networks

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Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg have come under fire because Cambridge Analytica had obtained the personal data of over 50 million Facebook users and misused it to develop “psychographic” profiles which were used to help the Trump presidential campaign.

It is amazing what people put on social networks, and it isn’t just messages.  Both men and women have sent pictures of their genitals to others by using social networks.  One of the most notable cases is that of Anthony Weiner, a former congressman and husband of Hillary Clinton’s close aide Huma Abedin.  Wienee waving Weiner was sent to prison for flashing his genitals to a 15-year-old girl on a social media site.

Once you’ve put any of your personal data on a social network , it’s there for the whole world to see.   No matter what security steps social networks take, a hacker will still be able to gain access to your personal data.

A retired Texas state police lieutenant with more than 40 years of law enforcement experience told me that cops should not make any comments whatsoever on the internet because, according to him, criminal defense attorneys scan the internet to see if they can dig up any dirt on officers that may testify against their clients at trial.

Teachers and cops have lost their jobs for outrageous remarks they’ve made on social media.  Political office holders have been forced to resign from their offices or face recall elections because of what they said on the internet.  President Trump has left himself open to a backlash of criticism for what he said on some of his many tweets on Twitter.

Personally I’ve been described as a moron, as lacking in intelligence, as a liar, etc. for some of what I’ve posted on my blogs and on Big Jolly Times, and for comments I made on Grits for Breakfast in response to anti-police posts on that website.  But you will find little personal data on anything I’ve written on the internet.

Cambridge Analytica has been denounced and is being investigated for criminally misusing the personal data of Facebook users.  But Cambridge Analytica merely used data it readily obtained from Facebook to bolster the business it is engaged in.

I do not feel sorry for those 50 million Facebook users whose personal data may have been misused.  They should have known better than to put it on that social network site or on any other such site.

Trump’s campaign may have benefited from the data Cambridge Analytica obtained.  Hillary Clinton, who has successively blamed James Comey, WikiLeaks, the Russians and white men and their wives for her defeat, can now add Cambridge Analytica to that list.

Zuckerberg has apologized and promised to make the personal data of Facebook users secure.  But that will not be easy to achieve.  Hackers will always find some way of gaining access to Facebook accounts.

Call me a moron for not using Facebook or any other social network.  And if you want your personal data kept private, don’t put it on a social network.  Stick to your emails, but remember that your email account can also be hacked … so always be careful what you say.  It’s out there and cannot really be erased.