Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Looking Beyond Todays Disgraceful Riot in DC

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The scene at the Capitol is disgraceful.

The scene at the Capitol should not be a surprise to anyone.

This type of lawlessness has become distasteful, but tolerated, behavior. Just yesterday some were saying that boarding up ahead of the announcement on whether charges would be filed for the officers involved with Jacob Blake is “hurtful” and “incitement.” They, a vast majority the left, were building excuses to riot based on their whims.  Until it became a threat to the left it was going to continue to be permitted. Today’s disgraceful rioting at the Capitol is the fruit of the past tolerance of violence and rioting.

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Joe Biden Panders To BLM, Ignores Facts In Breonna Taylor Case

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Rioting, during which two Louisville cops were shot, broke out after a grand jury refused to indict any officers for killing Breoona Taylor.  The grand jury did indict one officer for wanton endangerment because his shots went into neighboring apartments.

Leave it to Joe Biden to politicize on Wednesday the tragic death of Breonna Taylor.  Biden pandered to BLM by declaring that equal justice was not answered.  Here is what the White Obama said:

In the wake of her tragic death, we mourn with her mother, family, and community and ask ourselves whether justice could be equally applied in America.  I know for so many people today’s decision does not answer that call.

We do not need to wait for the final judgment of that [federal] investigation to do more to deliver justice for Breonna. We know what is necessary.We need to start by addressing the use of excessive force, banning chokeholds, and overhauling no-knock warrants.

Although the Louisville officers were issued a no-knock warrant they did not exercise that right.  When Biden wants no-knock warrants overhauled, he probably means he wants them done away with.  There are times when no-knock warrants are justified.
As for choke holds, sometimes that is the only way of overpowering a suspect who is resisting arrest short of shooting him.  And excessive force is in the eye of the beholder.  Often what appears to be excessive force is merely the force needed to make an arrest.

Kamala Harris also piped in by saying, “We must never stop speaking Breonna’s name as we work to reform our justice system, including overhauling no-knock warrants.”

In order to ensure that he gets the votes of the BLM protesters, Biden wants the blood of every officer involved in the Breonna Taylor case.

The White Obama conveniently ignores the fact that (1) the cops knocked on the door and announced themselves, (2) they waited for a response before entering the apartment, and (3) they opened fire only after Breonna Taylor’s live-in boyfriend shot one of the officers.

Biden’s politicizing the tragic death of Breonna Taylor is just plain obscene!

Trump Now Has The Chance To Nominate Another Conservative Supreme Court Justice

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1993 by President Clinton. In recent years she has been in poor health with five bouts of cancer. She passed away Friday at age 87. She was highly respected by her colleagues, including all the conservative justices.

President Trump now has the chance to appoint another conservative justice. If he is successful, the Supreme Court will have a conservative majority that will interpret the law rather than make law for years to come.

The Democrats in the Senate will fight tooth and nail to keep Trump from appointing a justice before the end of his term. Biden has already squawked that Trump would be wrong to appoint a justice this close to the election.

If Trump nominates a justice with impeccable credentials and not the slightest hint of any questionable behavior during his lifetime, the Republicans should be able to confirm the nominee since they control the Senate.

However on Friday, just hours before Ginsburg’s death, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski told Alaska Public Media that she wouldn’t vote to confirm any new justice until after the voters decide who the next president will be. And last month, GOP Sen. Susan Collins told the New York Times that she would not vote to confirm a new justice in October because that would be “too close” to the November election and that if Trump loses, she wouldn’t vote to confirm a new justice in the lame-duck session either. Furthermore it is rumored that Sen. Mitt Romney is set to lead a Republican rebellion against picking a new justice before the end of Trump’s term.

In 2016, when Obama tried to pick a new justice, most of the Republican senators who are still in office now went on record as opposed to picking a justice during an election year.

Nevertheless, let’s hope the President will nominate a justice whose nomination will sail through the senate and be confirmed before the end of Trump’s term.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg lost her fight to keep Trump from appointing another conservative justice. She died from her latest bout with cancer on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, one of the two high holy days in the Jewish faith. A Jew who dies on the High Holiday is considered a “Tzadik,” a righteous one.

Like her or not, Justice Ginsburg served with distinction.

The Greatest President Since George Washington

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Many stories have been written about the life of Donald Trump.  Most of those stories are simply not true.  According to my sources, here is the real truth about Trump.

Trump was not born into wealth.  His parents emigrated from Ireland to America in order too escape the potato famine.  Trump’s father barely eked out a living by sweeping the streets of New York.  The Trump family lived in a dilapidated apartment on the lower east side.

Trump attended the city’s public schools.  While in the third grade, he punched a white classmate in the nose because the boy called a black girl in the class a ni–er.

Trump saved his lunch money so he could attend college.  He worked his way through college as a sparring partner for Rocky Graziano and Jake LaMotta.

Graziano gave Trump $1,000 as a graduation gift.  Trump bought a small property with that gift.  He soon sold it at a neat profit.  Trump kept repeating this until he became a real estate mogul.

Always willing to share his business acumen, Trump coauthored “The Art of the Steal“, a book that taught people how to come out ahead in any business deal.  The book stayed number 1 on the The New York Times Best Seller list for 13 weeks.

According to my sources, Trump wanted to fight the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese in the jungles of South Vietnam.  He tried to enlist in the Marine Corps but was turned doe because of some bone spurs in his feet.  Then he tried to enlist in the Army, but he was turned down for the same reason.

My sources sweat that Trump was not a womanizer.  On the contrary, women threw themselves at Trump because he was handsome and rich.  He had two failed marriages because his wives were only after his money.  Finally he met and fell in love with Melania who was not after his money.  As a matter of fact, Melania was about to become a nun when they met.  My sources also swear that Trump never cheated on his wives.

Trump wanted America to have a black president.  He donated a large amount of money to Barack Obama’s campaign.  But he became disenchanted with President Obama’s domestic and foreign policies.  Trump believed Obama’s policies were bad for business and he was upset with Obama’s appeasement of our enemies.  That’s why he decided to run for president.

Trump has made some mistakes.  He hied Michael Cohen, a crooked lawyer.  Cohen has now written a book full of lies about Trump.  He appointed John Bolton as National Security Adviser.  He fired him when he learned that Bolton was trying to get us into a war with China.  Bolton then wrote a book full of lies about the president.  Trump refused to let Mary Trump, his cray niece, be committed to a hospital for the insane.  Mary also wrote a book full of lies about Trump.

The Democrats and the media have never forgiven Trump for defeating their beloved and crooked Hillary Clinton.  Even before he took office, they began to spread lies about Trump.  Prodded by Houston’s Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee, the Democrats even impeached Trump on trumped-up charges by Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and Houston’s Sylvia Garcia.  And there isn’t a day that goes by without Trump being called a racist and accused of fomenting the violence going on in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and other cities.

And the media is always misrepresenting what Trump says.  For instance, Trump never said that Mexicans who entered this country illegally were murderers and rapists.  What Trump actually said was that “We have to stop illegal immigration even though Mexicans are trying to  flee from the murderers and rapists in their country.”  Nor did Trump ever call neo-Nazis and white supremacists “fine people” as the media keeps reporting.

Then there was the time the media twisted Trump’s words around to make it look like he said drinking toilet bowl cleaner would prevent or cure coronavirus when he actually only mentioned that some other people had claimed this.  To my embarrassment and regret, they had me believing that crap.

The Democrats and the media keep accusing Trump of being a divider.  That is a bald–faced lie!  Trump is a uniter.  He has united the white supremacists and neo-Nazis with mainstream Republicans and he has united the mainstream Democrats with communists, anarchists and anti-Semites.

To top it off, The Atlantic magazine published a preposterous story about Trump calling our fallen soldiers “losers” and “suckers”.  Jon Bolton, who is now an enemy of Trump, jumped to the defense of the president by declaring that the Atlantic story was completely false. 

The truth is that Trump has been the greatest president since George Washington.  He made America great again with his domestic and foreign policies.  He rebuilt our military which had bean weakened by the Obama-Biden presidency.  His policies resulted in the best economy and lowest unemployment rate this country ever experienced.  That was especially beneficial for African-Americans.  And he told our foreign enemies China and Iran to go pound sand.

And now Trump has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering peace agreements between Israel and the UAE and between Serbia and Kosovo.  Compare that to Obama receiving the 2009 prize for delivering an appeasement speech in Egypt.

Sadly, the economy has gone to crap because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Trump is being blamed for that too.  But according to my sources, China deliberately exported coronavirus to the US in order to help Joe Biden defeat President Trump.

My sources also tell me that if Trump is reelected, he will write “The Art of the Steal” Volume 2, which will show people who want to run for office how to win an election against all odds.

EXCLUSIVE:  Two new sources have just informed me that back in the summer of 2007, they personally observed Trump walking on water across the lake in Central Park during the middle of the night. They also saw Bill de Blasio trying to follow Trump, but he had to be rescued by a cop.  I’m trying to find some more people to verify their account, but I have no reason to doubt that Trump walked on water the way my sources described it.

So, Dan Man and Bill Daniels, now you have the whole truth and nothing but the truth about Trump, from poverty to wealth to the greatest president since George Washington.

Trump Calling Dead Soldiers ‘Losers’ Is Unimaginable

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President Trump has said a number of very stupid things since he took office, but a report in the Atlantic magazine that claims he refused to visit an American cemetery in France because he considered the dead soldiers “losers” is unimaginable.

The Atlantic piled on other accusations.  Among a slew of accusations, it claimed that Trump said he did not understand why Americans volunteered to serve in WW2 because they were not going to get rich through fighting.  And according to the magazine, Trump described those who fought in Vietnam as “losers” because they did not find a way to dodge the draft. He also allegedly referred to the 1,800 Marines who died in the WW1 Battle of Belleau Wood in France as “suckers'”.

Only an imbecile would make such absurd remarks and I do not believe that Trump is all that stupid as to make them.

Trump did have the audacity to call war hero John McCain a loser because he was taken captive by the North Vietnamese.  That was a really stupid thing to say, especially since Trump was a draft dodger.  But to call soldiers killed in action losers is beyond the pale.

Saying something like that about our fallen heroes as alleged by the Atlantic is far more absurd than Trump comparing cops who shoot unarmed men to golfers who “choke” and “miss a 3-foot putt.” That’s why I cannot imagine Trump ever saying anything so utterly callous.

If President Truman had not ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I could easily have been killed during the invasion of Japan.  Several of my high school friends lost their lives fighting during WW2, two of them on the sands of Iwo Jima.

If Trump actually called my fallen friends and the other 400,000 soldiers, sailors and marines losers because they lost their lives fighting for our country during WW2, he can no longer serve as the Commander in Chief and he should resign from office forthwith!

Trump attacked former White House chief of staff Gen. John Kelly as being the source for the Atlantic story and he demanded that Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin be fired for reporting that her sources had told her it was entirely true.

Attacking Kelley and Griffin was a hug mistake.  It just keeps the story going.  Trump should have simply said, “That Atlantic story is a complete lie and Jennifer Griffin is a damn liar.  I regard al soldiers as heroes,” and let it go at that.

Later Trump tweeted: “You work so hard for the military, from completely rebuilding a depleted mess that was left by OBiden, to fixing a broken V.A. and fighting for large scale military pay raises, and then a slimeball reporter, maybe working with disgruntled people, makes up such a horrible charge,”

That tweet was spot on and much better than attacking Kelley and Griffin.

The Atlantic report appears to be an unsubstantiated attack deliberately made on the eve of the election that is just one more example of the media’s obsession with destroying the Trump presidency.

How the Soft on Crime DA and Criminal Friendly Judges are Impacting Neighborhoods

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Update: Four more gunshots tonight.  That’s three shootings in four nights in the same general area.  So far it’s been an hour since reporting the gunshots and no HPD response. 

Update: It’s been two hours and forty-five minutes give or take, and it’s now 1:16 AM.  I am giving up and going to bed.

A vocal minority is turning criminals into celebrities.  Law enforcement was summoned to the Jacob Blake incident because he was violating a restraining order.  They were attempting to arrest him on an open warrant for sexual assault where he stuck his finger in his victim, smelled it, and commented it smells like you’ve been with other men.  (Page 2 of the embedded document) Professional sports teams are honoring this man and condemning law enforcement.  This has a long history tracing back to Mike Brown.  Remember, in the autopsy report it showed that Brown had a blood spatter inside the police cruiser with the wound at an upward angle, establishing his arm was inside the cruiser above the officer when he was shot – verifying the officer’s version of the events.

However, this piece isn’t to rehash the vocal minority celebrating criminals.  This piece looks at the other side of the equation – the victims when law enforcement makes the decision to write off an area.  In this case, it’s the edge of Sharpstown.  The past two nights have seen two different shootings on the street where I live.  Both have had posts on social media and establish what happens when law enforcement writes an area off.

This is the post regarding shooting one two nights ago. Notice the police activity in the back right.  The back center and left is the condos where I live with my unit off screen to the left.  Had I been in my driveway this would have been visible.  Gunshots are a regular occurrence out here.  We hear them on a monthly basis.  Whoever posted this image is obviously unhappy with Houston Police Department.  They didn’t even bother to investigate.  What happened the next night?

Shooting two happened the next night.  This shooting ended up with a fatality and media coverage.  Notice Neighbor13.  Is the neighbor correct?  Who knows, we have no idea if the two shootings are related or not.  However, we do know that HPD didn’t investigate a shooting on the same street the night before.  We can’t connect the dots because of HPD writing off the area.

The incident described in shooting one and brushing off crime isn’t unusual.  Twice I’ve been the victim of petty crime.  Twice I’ve called HPD to come out and pointed to the surveillance camera that recorded the crime.  Twice HPD hasn’t cared.  They didn’t even bother to talk to the people who own the camera or try to obtain the video.  Here’s the crime in one report:

Keying a car is petty criminal mischef.  However, when you point to the surveillance camera that captured the act occurring and HPD doesn’t bother to investigate then it’s no wonder crime persists.  Criminals know they can act with impunity.  The featured picture of the defaced Trump sticker could easily acted upon by HPD.  The incident occurred on the night of August 20-21, and the same surveillance camera pointed out to HPD twice before captured the event.  However, with the history of HPD not caring why bother to seek law enforcement involvement?  Criminals know HPD will not act.  This doesn’t just hold true for petty criminal mischief.  A vehicle robbery occurred in the same vicinity, and surveillance video exists.  HPD can’t compare the video of the robbery to the shooting and criminal mischief videos if they don’t try to obtain all the videos.

The broken window theory of law enforcement takes criticism for penalizing the poor and homeless.  The criticism has some merit, but it’s also hard to disagree with the results that come from the practice.  It works.  The question is how strike the correct balance.  Too much broken windows enforcement and you break down trust between police and the population.  Too little, and criminals know they are allowed to act with impunity.  One answer is holding a broken windows mentality for violations that threaten the health and safety of the community.  It’s not a big deal if someone jaywalks.

But what about parking in a fire lane?  Individuals in the vicinity park in fire lanes on a regular basis.  You send the city pictures, but nothing happens.  In fact, HPD drives past them to take the call for the criminal mischief and doesn’t bother to address the violation.  Demanding a minimum level of obedience to laws that are meant to protect health and safety isn’t an unreasonable expectation.

This is all evidence of HPD simply writing off the neighborhood.  That’s the end result of what happens when there’s significant black lives matter sympathy, a soft on crime district attorney, and a crop of criminal judges who are pro criminal as evidenced by the ongoing bond to murder spree take power.  However, that mentality also has negative consequences to law enforcement.

Neighbor13 appears unhappy with HPD, and understandably so.  Anyone in the area should be displeased that a shooting isn’t investigated.  Why call law enforcement when they obviously don’t care and aren’t going to even pretend to hide their disdain for the neighborhood? Just like minority communities don’t trust law enforcement a similar level of distrust is brewing with the run of the mill law abiding citizen in the neighborhood.  When HPD doesn’t even pretend to care or do the bare minimum investigation to try and solve crime why should anyone in the neighborhood trust them? This simply raises barriers to effective policing and police-community relations.

In the end, everyone loses.  The neighborhood already has lost because HPD has written them off. HPD will also lose, though, because if the neighborhoods don’t see any value in having them around there’s no reason to back the blue when they make requests or raise concerns.  Elections have consequences.  We are starting to see the deep dive societal consequences from the democrat control of the district attorney and criminal court judgeships.

 

Stay alert but calm with the tropical weather threat

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Marco and Laura both pose a threat to southeast Texas, but each in a different way.  To understand what’s happening with the two systems we need to first look at what was going on with March to see why the National Hurricane Center forecast initially said Southeast Texas impact, changed to a New Orleans landfall and now shows the storm skirting the coast.

Back when Marco was in the northwest Caribbean Sea the original forecast was for the storm to head towards Houston.  In the image below we see streamlines of the satellite derived steering currents. Marco was on the edge of a split in the steering currents.  The initial forecast was for Marco to follow the currents to the northwest.  Only Marco was too shallow and never was picked up by the northwest steering currents so continued on a more northerly direction and ended up being picked up by currents that were driving it northward and north-northwestward. (The star is the approximate location where Marco was located.)

Over time the steering pattern has changed a bit, and the slight change has important implications for the future track of March.  I’ve been saying Marco will make a left (or west) turn, and we just have to wait and see when that happens.  The model runs have been all over the place, so we need to see some run to run consistency before having much confidence in the results and forecast.  However, the satellite derived steering is starting to shape up that the westward turn may be less far inland, or possibly offshore paralleling the coast.

This morning two high pressure centers were present on the satellite derived winds, one over the Atlantic and one over Oklahoma.  In between these two high pressure systems was a weakness in the high (or a trough if you must), and the forecast was for Marco to move inland into the weakness before finally making the left hand turn. (Note – the forecast path shown is for Laura.)

 

As the day progressed the satellite derived winds showed the same general pattern, but some subtle difference in the way the two high pressure systems were evolving lead to a significant change in when the left hand turn occurs.  The high over the Atlantic is ridging farther westward, and the high that was in Oklahoma has moved westward.  The high in the Atlantic is nosing in under the weakness/trough between the two leaving that void less influential.  A weak area of mid-upper low pressure in the far western Gulf of Mexico is now more influential and imposing a westward flow.  As a result the models are saying that the westward turn will happen just barely inland, or possibly even offshore.

 

Now, that’s all fine and dandy, but is this actually showing up with Marco?  Not yet, but satellite imagery is suggesting that the impacts are starting to be felt.  The animated GIF is too large to fit into the blog, but the clouds to the west of Marco are starting to show evidence of being impacted by the mid-upper low. Looping visible satellite imagery at last light shows  high clouds on top of the lower clouds moving in a northerly direction.  This holds true throughout the loop, however, the lower clouds direction changes.  At the beginning of the loop they were moving southwest.  As the loop progresses the motion changes to more of a westward motion showing that the mid-upper low is exerting more influence.  This is important for two reasons.  First, it will mean there’s a more westward component to the steering, but also as the low continues to retrograde to the west heights will rise in the low’s wake and tend to impart a more westward motion on Marco.  We will have to wait and see if this holds up, and when the westward turn occurs, but as of now there’s some support for the shift in model output.

What does this mean for Southeast Texas?  If you are east of Harris County, it’s actually not bad news.  Because of the curvature of the land this is not a bad scenario. If Marco moves inland before turning west then he will weaken over land and bring rain, but not much else.  If the turn occurs offshore areas east of Harris County are farther north because of the way the land curves and it will be more of a near miss than a direct hit.  This would be more impacts than if Marco moves inland before turning westward, but the strongest winds and rain would move south of the area in the Gulf.  For Houston, it’s more of a hit or miss event.  Just like with areas east of Harris County, if Marco moves inland first then the impacts will be rain and not much else.  However, just like the land curvature helped the areas to the east it hurts Houston.  The land curvature is such that if the westward turn occurs just offshore Galveston or Fort Bend Counties could be in the potential landfall areas.  Now, the storm could turn even a little quicker and have landfall farther to the southwest. However even a landfall in Galveston of Fort Bend Counties would likely be as a tropical storm because the storm will be moving into an area of higher wind shear which will cause weakening regardless of if the storm is over land or not.  Almost all the intensity guidance shows weakening to a middling tropical storm status even if the system stays offshore until reaching landfall in Texas.  This is not ideal, but not a devastating scenario.  Wind, rain, a bit of storm surge.  Not devastating, not Harvey or Imelda, but unpleasant.

Laura also poses a potential threat, but we would need to see how she fares with the interaction with Cuba before really getting a handle on the potential impacts.  The steering would be a matter of how far does the high from the Atlantic expand westward.  The models have been moving westward, but now seem to have stopped the westward expansion.   Let’s get through Marco, and see how Laura handles interacting with Cuba before worrying.  We have plenty of time to prepare if Laura does come this way.  Right now, it looks to be more of a threat to the triangle and Southwest Louisiana, but we really won’t have a good fix until she is in the Gulf.

Be prudent, but don’t panic.  Marco may be a threat, but it’s not a danger.  Laura could be more serious, but we are a long way from knowing how much of a threat she may be.

 

Streamline images courtesy of University of Wisconsin CIMSS.

 

If Rice Students, Both Black And White, Are Unhappy With The Founder’s Statue, They Should Disenroll Forthwith And Find Another University To Attend

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Rice University opened in 1912 as the William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art,

William Marsh Rice was a very wealthy businessman and investor who left the bulk of his wealth to establish the school which bears his name.  Rice had at one time owned 15 slaves and his will mandated that the school be for “whites only.”

In 1930, the statue of a seated William Marsh Rice was erected on the campus.

Back before the nation’s colleges and universities lowered their standards in order to admit more minorities, Rice University was one of America’s premier universities, ranking right up there with MIT and Cal Tech.

Not to be outdone by the nationwide protests against racial injustice, black students at Rice are making the following demands:

__The school must fund a “non-residential Black House” on campus.

__The statue of William Marsh Rice must be removed.

__The school must hire more black professors.

__The school must hire more well-being counselors and therapists.

__The school must increase the number of black students accepted to Rice.

__If  during the new student orientation, a Black student requests to have a Black roommate, that request must be honored.

__”Hate speech” must be included in Rice’s code of conduct.

__Course descriptions must include tags that indicate what race/ethnic/cultural groups are included since many course titles do not make it clear if they include diverse perspectives.

__The school must provide better lighting for ID photos because “many Black students have had significant issues with the photographs that are displayed on our student IDs. … We deserve to be photographed and represented properly without having to make modifications and adjustments.”

*****

I’m surprised they have not demanded that the name of the school be changed to Obama University … or George Floyd Univerdity … or Kaepernick University … or MLB University … etc.

There is no doubt that William Marsh Rice was a racist, but if it were not for him, there would be no Rice University.  And because of his generosity, the university did not charge any tuition at all until 1965.

If Rice students, both black and white, are unhappy with the William Marsh Rice  statue, they should disenroll forthwith and find another university like Texas Southern or Prairie View A&M to attend.

And if any Rice professors are unhappy with the William Marsh Rice statue, they shouldn’t let the door hit them in the ass on the way out.

Win the Person not the Argument in the Current Race Riots

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Win the person not the argument is a very old adage on how to conduct political affairs.  It may take the form of win hearts and minds or some other similar language.  That was a major prong in the Vietnam war strategy.  Republicans are the minority in Harris County.  We know this, but don’t adapt to our minority status.  The ongoing race riots show we are stuck in the past and do not accept present political reality.  The response to the ongoing race riots plays right into the hands of the violent extremists and allows the democrats to continue to win the person.

It’s easy to be critical of the race riots.  For that matter it’s easy to be critical of Acevedo’s actions in the riots.  Not only was he seen marching with the rioters, but when Ashton Woods was videoed attacking someone in the crowd he was not arrested and charged with assault or disorderly conduct.  We, as a civilized society have every reason to call of Acevedo’s resignation. We have reason to demand Woods arrest, booking, release and trial that would happen if you and I acted similarly.  However, that wins the argument and not the person.

It is to many of our minds wrongly, but Acevedo and Woods are seen as heroes among many in the county.  Simply winning the argument is not going to move the needle in our direction as it reinforces the prejudice/racist/whatever built in excuse that black lives matter and their supporters have to excuse their behavior.  This is a known problem – my first post here on Big Jolly was asking what’s the plan for civil unrest.

It appears the local elected official’s plan is largely to turn a blind eye to the lawlessness.  That’s a politically astute plan as it leaves them open to losing the argument and continue to win the person.  By accepting the invitation to criticize the lack of meaningful response to the riots republicans simply reinforce the preconceived notions of racism thereby continuing to lose the person. Winning the argument is what the democrats want us to do – it makes them heroes in the eyes of a significant portion of the population.  Winning the argument doesn’t turn enough of the center-left voters away from the democrats to be worth the harm inflicted.

Winning the person means changing tactics.  Winning the person means not pouncing on the red meat available.  It’s bait.  To win the person, republicans have to look beyond the win the day argumentation and return to our values aware of the realities of the current political climate.  The electorate in general is not fiscally conservative.  Although Houston’s finances are a mess the passage of the pension bond, flood bond, and firefighter’s proposition show that the electorate doesn’t accept a fiscally conservative message.  Winning that argument doesn’t win the person; worse, it may backfire and get the spending cap removed in an election.

Winning the person means going back to social conservative and personal responsibility messaging.  Just as the electorate isn’t open to a fiscal conservative message the electorate is open to a social conservative message.  The bathroom proposition went our way.   Crime is so out of control with activist judges that a tough on crime message would resonate.  Helping others and cracking down on crime will change hearts and minds, and that in turn, makes it easier to indirectly attack the privilege the race warriors enjoy.

Calling for Ashton Woods to be held accountable for his actions in this environment is a losing argument.  We have a weak district attorney who would possibly not accept charges.  We have activist judges who would go out of their way to help him.  We have a political environment against accountability.  That underlying culture needs to be combated first.  Only then, when we have judges who care about public safety and a district attorney who actually prosecutes crime, can we seek accountability for the protected troublemakers.

There’s a difference between fighting and winning.  Right now we are too willing fight to our own determent.  It doesn’t matter if we win the argument; we will lose the person.  This must change before the blue tide is stemmed.  Things will continue to get worse if we don’t accept our minority status and change tactics to reflect this new reality.

Democrats Suffering From PTSD ….. Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder That Is

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During a January 8 press conference on the assassination of Qassem Soleimani held by members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said: “I feel ill a little bit because of everything that is taking place and I think every time I hear conversations around war, I find myself being stricken with PTSD.”

Republicans immediately blasted Omar for her “shameful behavior” towards veterans.  Oh, come on now, let’s give the wretched refugee from war-torn Somalia a break.  Fearing that we were about to go to war with Iran, Omar obviously meant Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Omar is not the only one to suffer from Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  224 House Democrats suffering from the same disorder approved a War Powers Act resolution on January 9 that will require President Trump to obtain congressional authorization before taking any kind of military action against Iran.

By passing that resolution, the Democrats hope to prevent the President from taking a preemptive strike against an enemy planning to attack us or our allies.

These are not the days of WW2.  Had President Roosevelt been able to retaliate against Japan for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, he most certainly would have done so without obtaining congressional authorization.  That was then and this is now.

Had 9/11 been carried out by a nation instead of by an elusive terrorist, President George W. Bush would probably have struck back quickly with overpowering military action and done so without obtaining congressional authorization.

This is the age of ballistic missiles and proxy armies that can strike our troops and assets at a great distance from the homeland of an enemy.  Prompt military action is needed to prevent a catastrophic attack against us and our allies.  The House resolution, if it were binding on the President, would be an impediment against preventing such attacks.

As it is, the Pre-TSD Democrats passed a resolution that is nonbinding on President Trump. And Trump administration officials insist the president already has the authority to take action against Iran under a 2002 war authorization act passed by Congress in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Our enemies must know with certainty that there will be swift preemptive retribution whenever they or their proxies plan to attack us, even it that gives the appeasement Democrats a good dose of Pre-TSD.

Now Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats are shaking in their collective boots because the Trump-hating media is reporting he authorized the killing of Soleimani 18 months ago.  So what!  Soleimani was clearly a threat to the U.S.

Israel has a history of sending out Mossad hit squads to assassinate Palestinian terrorist leaders wherever they could find them.  Dspite condemnations by the Europeans and the U.N., Israelis are much safer now.  Likewise, Americans are much safer now that Soleimani has been dispatched to the Islamic paradise.

When Omar made her PTSD comment, she turned back to look at the AOC squad members who were there to support her.  And guess who was standing beside the squad … it was none other than Houston’s very own Sheila Jackson Lee.  And while Sheila was lamenting about the deaths of 4,400 American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Omar and Rashida Tlaib were seen giggling.

Thank God we now have a president who will take decisive action against our enemies immediately when needed.  The appeasement policy of President Barack Obama and his Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry only emboldened our enemies.  And Obama’s appeasement is what the United States now has to deal with.