Camposcommunications' Blog

I saw this tweet earlier that came out after a GOP state rep announced he was running for AG: 

Scott Braddock 

@scottbraddock 

At this point, it’s difficult to see how  

@KenPaxtonTX 

avoids a primary runoff – every incumbent’s nightmare #TxLege 

Heck. That arsehole Paxton might not even make the runoff. 

The 16^th of September is not National Corona Cerveza Day or National Margarita Day.  It is Mexico’s Independence Day.  From Spain. In 1810 

You are not limited to Dos Equis, Tecate, Corona, Modelo or Pacifico. Do a little hunting and find a craft beer from south of the border.  Or maybe just refer to it as San Arnoldo. 

Favorite Mexican things?  City? Mexico City.  State? Michoacán. That is where by Mom’s family was from. We used to visit every summer when I was a kid. Movie star actor and actress from Mexico? Anthony Quinn and Salma Hayek. 

Band? Maná.  Athlete? Fernando Valenzuela who pitched for the Dodgers.  Beach? Zihuatanejo.  Food?  I have to go with carne guisada. Animated cartoon character? Speedy Gonzales. 

Have a nice Diez y Seis! 

Our magic number is now 11. 

Read Full Post »

That was a major league whupping of the GOP in California last night. Science won over the kooks. The results were better than expected.  Opposing vaccine mandates is a losing proposition. Opposing mask mandates is a losing proposition. Opposing science is a losing proposition.  Don’t believe me? Scoreboard Dems. A solid victory for Democrats for sure. 

I forgot to mention yesterday that during the time I didn’t have power yesterday, I was able to use my phone to check emails. At around 1:30 pm yesterday, CenterPoint emailed me to let me know that my power had been restored.  It hadn’t.  CenterPoint can’t handle business.

You gotta love AOC’s style.  She was a hit at the Met Gala the other night with her gown.   

Everyone knows I am not a fan of this fella. Check this from the Miami Herald:

Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo, a surprising and prized hire by the mayor, is already on the hot seat only five months into the job. 

Miami commissioners — angered over a series of controversial decisions and gaffes by the new chief — have called for a special meeting in two weeks to grill Acevedo and potentially decide his future. Last week, in the most recent controversy, the chief drew a rebuke from commissioners for telling a group of officers that department was run by the “Cuban Mafia.” 

Acevedo — a Cuban American who gained national prominence while serving as police chief in Houston during last summer’s Black Lives Matter marches — apologized for a comment he said he intended as a joke. He said he was unaware the term had been coined by Fidel Castro to paint Miami exiles as criminals for opposing his dictatorship. The majority of city commissioners are either exiles or have families who have suffered during the six decades of oppression under the Communist regime. 

“I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a new transplant come here and do whatever he wants,” Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo declared from the dais at a meeting Monday night. “Each one of us are duly elected. And each one of us has deep roots in this community.” 

Acevedo, who was sworn in on April 5, came highly touted by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who said at the time that “We got the Michael Jordan of police chiefs.” 

His brief tenure has been steeped in controversy. 

Acevedo fired the highest-ranking police couple in the department for not properly reporting a patrol vehicle accident. He relieved a popular sergeant-at-arms from duty and demoted four majors, including one of the city’s highest-ranking Black female officers, without explanation. 

He posed for a selfie — unaware, he said — that it was with a leading member of South Florida’s white nationalist group the Proud Boys. He’s rankled members of the judiciary by repeatedly blasting them for early inmate releases from prison and jail. Last week, it was disclosed that he had made the “Cuban Mafia” statement to about 100 officers during a morning roll call. 

Here is the entire read: Miami commissioners to grill police chief Art Acevedo | Miami Herald. 

Oh, well.

We lost last night but still managed to reduce our magic number to 12. 

Read Full Post »

Yesterday, as Nicholas was approaching, my power went off intermittently three times. I kind of was thinking that power would be an issue today. I lost power at around 3:15 am this morning and got it back like 12 hours later after three pm. 

I drove around my neighborhood this morning and I couldn’t find a single tree or utility pole down or bent.  There were tree branches strewn here and there. It rained last night and was kind of windy.  I lost my street sign. I don’t understand how half a million CenterPoint customers lost their power this morning. The storm wasn’t that hard hitting. There was more storm activity coming off Astros bats last night in Arlington. 

I tell you what it is.  CenterPoint needs to do a better job of maintaining its infrastructure.  If it would have been a category three, a lot of us would be in the same shape as the folks in Louisiana. 

I have lost confidence in the folks who are supposed to keep the lights on.

Good thing it stayed in the low 70s throughout the day. We got off light today. 

Our magic number is 13. 

Read Full Post »

We are going to have a lot of rain today and tomorrow.  It will get serious once the local news starts preempting the regular programing. As I write this, Channel 2 local news has just preempted “Today.” I have already experienced two power outages within the last 30 minutes.  Let me thank arsehole Gov. Greg Abbott and the GOP controlled legislature for fixing the grid. 

Commentary watches Fox 26’s “What’s Your Point” on Sunday mornings. It is the only local station with the same rotating political talking heads. It has a right wing bent for sure.  I guess that is by design by Fox 26 and the host, Greg Groogan. 

They certainly have given up on the Latina demographic.  Yesterday, they piled on Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on the contract. Never mind that Judge Hidalgo cancelled the contract.  Some of the talking heads even said that local law enforcement was investigating the contract stuff. The criminalizing of the contract is news to Commentary and probably not true. 

They certainly don’t have any clue about Judge Hidalgo’s popularity among Democratic Primary voters. 

It also appears that “What’s Your Point” doesn’t have a problem attacking the trans community. That’s too bad. 

In the show’s intro, Groogan likes to say that the panelists “tell it like it is.” Yesterday, they had on a Holly Hansen.  Her “it is” was totally clueless and ignorant.  Where does Groogan find these folks? 

Commentary doesn’t mind healthy debate back and forth. It’s the lies and alternative facts that bothers me.  Fox 26 and Groogan are letting that become a heavier presence on their show and that is never good for local politics.   

Here is a headline from a story in today’s Chron: 

Abbott’s mask mandate ban mostly toothless 

Our magic number is now 14 and we are in Arlington for 4 games this week. 

Read Full Post »

Commentary is talking about President Joe Biden cracking down on the COVIDidiots who refuse to get vaccinated and are killing their fellow citizens.  This personal responsibility sh_t and personal freedom crap is just that – crap. 

Folks have had ample opportunity and time to get the shot. Heck, millions of doses have gone to waste. 

Here in Texas, we responded in laughter yesterday when the arsehole Gov. Greg Abbott accused the President of a power grab.  What a moron.  Let’s hope and pray that President Biden’s mandate push moves us closer to some sort of normalcy. 

Here is what Greg Shaw said about my take yesterday on Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s goof on the $11 million contract:  

Amazing! An elected official who will admit to making a mistake. Please observe, she has neither turned into a pillar of salt nor been deserted by her supporters. Now, if she will publicly reach out to the GOP Commissioners on how to go forward (if they refuse it would be on them), our heads will collectively explode. 

Here is what Royko said: 

So, when Dems are caught granting pork contracts to feather the nests of political insiders, it is a goof…for getting caught? 

Someone needs to tally all the federal, state, and local tax money the pequeña Comandante has squandered to advance her partisan agenda. 

Duh. The contract was cancelled. 

Tomorrow is the 20^th anniversary of September 11, 2001.

Random thoughts. I don’t travel as much for business as I used to prior to 9/11. It is like business travel for me abruptly stopped. 

Rudy Giuliani went from one of the most respected to one of the least respected Americans. 

The Taliban were in control of Afghanistan back then. Oh, well. 

I remember the skies being empty for a few days. 

There was nonstop coverage of the attack on the major networks for nearly a week. 

American and United were the airlines that were hijacked. 

I was at the Downtown Hyatt Regency in a conference room for a breakfast meeting at the time. I have not been to the Hyatt for a meeting since.  

I was driving a Ford Explorer then. Guess what? 

We didn’t have cameras in our phones back then. Same for texting. 

We were supposed to play the Giants at The Yard that evening and I was supposed to sit in pal Drayton’s seats. At the time, we were in first place in the NL Central with a 5 1/2 game lead. 

Good thing Abbott wasn’t governor back then. No telling what cwazy arse sh_t he would have done. 

The Angels are in town for three this weekend. 

Read Full Post »

Sooner or later, it had to happen. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is human after all. She made a mistake. Here is from the front page of today’s Chron: 

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Wednesday said she would cancel a controversial vaccine outreach contract after Republican commissioners had accused her of steering the work toward a Democratic firm with no public health expertise.

“The way it’s being politicized is getting in the way of getting people vaccinated,” Hidalgo said. “It’s really sad, but it’s the truth of the matter. We need to focus on so many other efforts.” 

Here is the summary: 

The contract was for 11 million dollars. The firm in question really didn’t have any experience in this. Let me say that what firm does have experience doing vaccine outreach during a pandemic? None that I know of. 

There was a five-person committee reviewing the proposals including three members of Judge Hidalgo’s staff. Her chief of staff, Alex T was on the committee. That was a dumb idea. Her staff led her down. If I were Judge Hidalgo, I would fire Alex T. 

The Chron E-Board also made it clear today that Hidalgo messed up and here is how they ended their take: 

Unfortunately, in the contract in question, Hidalgo didn’t live up to her own high standards. We urge the county’s top executive to seize the opportunity to seek changes in the bidding process to make it fairer and to reassure residents that when she vowed to govern as a different kind of politician, she meant it. No exceptions. 

Like I said, fire Alex T. He is not doing her any favors. What a screw-up for sure. 

Let me say it again. We have a lousy vaccination rate in these parts compared to some parts of the country. Why don’t we get a firm from an area that does have a good rate. Just saying.

We lost yesterday so our magic number is still 18. 

Read Full Post »

Commentary has made it clear Gov. Greg Abbott is an arsehole. Yesterday, he let us all know he is plain stupid.  Here is from Chron columnist Erica Grieder’s take today: 

Gov. Greg Abbott seemed a bit flustered Tuesday when asked by a reporter about Texas’ near-complete ban on abortions, and specifically why the state would require a victim of rape or incest to carry a resulting pregnancy to term. 

“It doesn’t require that at all, because obviously it provides at least six weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion,” Abbott said during a bill-signing ceremony for another measure, a package of GOP voting restrictions. 

“That said, however, let’s make something very clear: rape is a crime,” the Republican thundered, in the tone of a politician who’s just found himself publicly suggesting that survivors of sexual trauma should simply be efficient about the recovery process. “And Texas will work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets. So goal No. 1 in the state of Texas is to eliminate rape, so that no woman, no person, will be a victim of rape.” 

What. A. Dumbsh_t! 

Abbott is a national embarrassment. Even his fellow GOPers are hard pressed to defend what he said. 

This is not surprising. Texas is not a welcoming state these days. Here is from a Bloomberg story: 

Solugen Inc., a Texas chemicals company, said it plans to open a new research and development facility outside of the state because its social policies are making it difficult to recruit employees, Axios reported Tuesday.  

The Houston-based startup said it will more than double its R&D team over the next two years, with the company eyeing Massachusetts and California for the new facility, according to the Axios report. The organization employs about 115 people.  

“We’ve come to the conclusion after talking to lots of candidates that they want to join Solugen but they don’t feel comfortable coming to Texas, so for us it’s become a no brainer to have R&D facilities elsewhere,” Chief Executive Officer Gaurab Chakrabarti told Axios. 

Chakrabarti is among few executives speaking out against Texas’s law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Ride-sharing companies Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. announced they would cover the legal expenses of drivers sued under a provision of the law that holds anyone abetting an abortion legally liable. Dating-app providers Match Group Inc. and Bumble Inc. announced relief funds to support those impacted by the ban. Few other corporations have so far followed.  

On Saturday, Chakrabarti tweeted that the company was considering expansion opportunities outside of Texas in response to the law. “Disgusted by this abortion ban,” he said. “As the CEO of @solugen, a Texas-based company, I am ashamed of our state for this.” 

Expect more of this to happen. Folks across the country are becoming more aware of the joke we have become. Thanks to Abbott and the Texas GOP.

Commentary is thinking that 2022 is the year we save Texas from this spiraling madness. 

The magic number is now 18. 

This afternoon’s game is on YouTube.  

Read Full Post »

The racist voter suppression bill will be signed into law today by the racist arsehole Gov. Greg Abbott. 

The La Porte ISD is asking parents to consider driving their kids to school because of a bus driver shortage due to COVID-19. Thanks to Abbott. 

I wonder how long it will take for the GOP to figure out that climate change is man-made and join the rest of us in combating it. All these severe weather events are costing us serious taxpayer money.  

CNN aired “LFG” last night about the members of the U.S. Women’s soccer team fighting for equal pay. I was wondering why they called it “LFG?” Right off the bat they tell you. LFG stands for ‘let’s fuc_ing go,” a phrase they use before every match.  

We have less than 4 weeks to play. Commentary thinks the time is right to post the so-called magic number to win the AL West. What is the magic number? It is the combination of wins and losses of the second-place team that allows the first-place team to clinch the division championship. I won’t post the playoff magic number because that would mean posting for the Wild Card Game that could only extend the season for 1 game.  

How do you calculate the magic number to win the AL West? It is easy. The second-place Mariners are 75-63 with 24 games remaining on their schedule. If they win all their remaining games, they will finish at 99-63. The Astros are 80-57 with 25 games remaining. If we win 100 games, there is no way the Mariners can catch us. To get to 100 wins, we need to win 20 games. Tada! That is your magic number – 20. 

Now you know. 

We won last night. 

Read Full Post »

Today is Labor Day.  The dumbsh_t Texas House Speaker gave a shoutout today to the “workforce.” I prefer to give a shoutout to those who organized our workforce to bring us the 40-hour work week, paid vacations, overtime, workplace safety and other key worker protections and benefits. Have a nice Labor Day. 

This week the country will be heading into the 20^th anniversary of September 11, 2001.  This will be a week of 9/11 commemorations. It started this past weekend on CNN. 9/11 brought this country together behind New York City, the Pentagon, Shanksville, Pennsylvania and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. 

Today this country is divided.  We have not been this divided since the Civil War.  Rudy Giuliani has been a major contributor to the division. He is a Trumper, Big Lie promoter and helped fuel the January 6 insurrection.  It would be insulting and embarrassing to our nation if Giuliani was invited to be anywhere near this Saturday’s memorial service in New York. 

He is an unworthy scumbag.  

This a headline from a Chron story from last week: 

Constable Alan Rosen can’t be sued over Harris County deputies’ sex abuse claims, judge rules 

This is how the story ends: 

His (Rosen)  defenders had called the attacks politically motivated, noting that Rosen — a widely known local politician with deep pockets — was assumed to be a top contender to replace Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who President Joe Biden has tapped to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Rosen attorney Ben Hall said Wednesday that his client “should never have been in the lawsuit in the first place.” 

He said believed Rosen was added to the lawsuit to tarnish his political viability. 

“I think the fact the judge dispensed (with this matter) so quickly will at least remove this stain,” Hall said, “So he can move down the road. And if it is his fate to be sheriff, I think he’d be a fabulous sheriff.” 

Constable Rosen is an old pal.  I also get along with Ben Hall. I don’t think this is a stain remover. I don’t think Ben knows Harris County Democratic voters these days.  

Constable Rosen will not be appointed sheriff once Sheriff Ed Gonzalez is confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the ICE gig.  The sheriff position will then be on the 2022 ballot to fill the unexpired term.  The Constable Precinct 1 mess will still be fresh next year.  Constable Rosen may want to sit still and think about running for sheriff in 2024.  Even then that is probably a stretch.

We lost Willard Scott this past weekend. Everyone knows that Commentary is a loyal fan of “Today.” I thought Willard was very entertaining and I loved his schtick.  He will be missed. 

Here is the deal. We have 26 games left on the schedule. 15 are at The Yard. The Mariners just slipped past the A’s for second place in the Al West and we lead them by 4 1/2 games. The Mariners are also in for 3 at The Yard starting this evening. This will be the last time we face the Mariners this season in the regular season. At this point, we are pretty much playing for the second seed in the Al playoffs. 

Read Full Post »

We had a real good crowd last night for Janette Garza Lindner’s Campaign Liftoff.  Folks from throughout HISD Trustee District 1 attended and some folks from outside of the district showed up.  Diversity for sure. She spoke for roughly 7 minutes.   

The event was held outdoors for obvious reasons. It was kind of warm.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval rating is tanking in Texas. 41% approve of the job he’s doing and 50% disapprove in the latest poll.  In the same poll, 52% of the respondents say Texas is headed in the wrong direction.  53% disapprove of Abbott’s handling of COVID-19. 

He can be beat.  A Democratic female candidate of color for Texas governor, plus the national Democrats investing $200 million, he would be toast. This isn’t farfetched. Democrats have the money.  They just need the will and desire. 

My “Wizard of Oz” calendar for September has a picture of the Wicked Witch with “Ohhhhhh what a world! What a world!” 

My Beatles calendar has a photo of the four from 1967 wearing colorful clothes. Not quite psychedelic, but colorful.

Commentary said a few weeks ago that the Big 12 should invite UH to join them. It looks like that is going to happen. It is a good move for the Big 12 and a good move for the Coogs. 

We have a 4 ½ game lead in the AL West with 29 games left on the schedule. We are in San Diego for the weekend. 

Read Full Post »