Thoughts on Viernes – 05032024

Special Election Saturday

Remember to vote in the Special and Uniform election on Saturday, May 4. Vote at any voting center. Vote the Stace Slate. Vote for Molly Cook for Texas Senate District 15. Vote for Bluford-Daniels, Noriega, and Adeleke in the HCAD races. Click here for a sample ballot. Kuff has more and more.

The Democratic Run-off is on May 28. I’ll have a Stace Slate for that one, too, next week.

First Flood Disaster of 2024

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo acted quickly to call for a mandatory evacuation of areas in Northeast Harris County who are experiencing some massive flooding. She signed a disaster declaration to ensure resources are readily available to help evacuees with their needs and officials to deal with the situation effectively.

Thursday’s rains certainly exacerbated conditions. It doesn’t help when the guy at city hall calls a performative and actionless press conference and the press tries to make it about the elected officials and not the flood victims. It doesn’t help the situation that the guy Judge Hidalgo beat in 2018 is given a platform to mouth off about the woman he lost to in the middle of a disaster. (Dude, you lost! “Hunker down” and watch! And, people, stop trying to give Ed Emmett relevance.) And it doesn’t help that someone who didn’t run against the losing guy because she didn’t want to offend him in 2018 now wants to run in 2026 and is getting press for it. All while disaster is afoot!

Meanwhile, Judge Hidalgo is doing the job. Hopefully, we won’t have too many of these disasters over Hurricane season. Thankfully, we have a County Judge who does the job and a friendly federal government (for now) who won’t mind helping us out in the event of these kind of disasters. You know, without trying to make a show of it at a fire station.

Still Seeking Leadership

Where are all the local and state Democratic elected officials who continue to fail in calling out the police attacks on college campuses? Our college students aren’t only in Texas but they go everywhere. After Biden’s weak “I support you, but…” statement yesterday, it would seem the electeds are just following along, instead of showing us what they’re worth.

I will say that Senator Bernie Sanders is so right when he reminds us that while we are sending out armed officers to attack students expressing themselves as is their right, the attack on Palestinian children and people continues with no end in sight. Someone needs to stand up and speak out against these atrocities, since our leaders are too busy giving out and receiving medals.

Students–Stand your ground!