Friends & Family Christmas

Commentary has received three Christmas cards. One from The White House – the same one Miya Shay tweeted out days ago. One from Andrea and Bill White – the former Chron E-Board member and the former H-Town mayor. And one from my best friends Julie and Al Luna and their family.

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This is BS. This is playing games with the voters. This is so typical Texas GOP. See this from the Chron:

It’s an Election Day mishap that will sound familiar to Harris County residents. Voters in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County temporarily were unable to cast ballots in the 2022 midterm election when they experienced a ballot paper shortage at over a dozen of the county’s 143 polling locations. 

After election officials were accused of intentionally plotting the shortage, Luzerne County’s district attorney opened an investigation and concluded in a public report released six months ago that the problem was a result of high staff turnover and inexperienced supervisors, not criminal misconduct.

In Harris County, in contrast, over a year after Texas Republicans called for an investigation into similar circumstances, the Rangers have yet to release any findings, leaving some in the state’s most populous county with lingering doubts about the integrity of their electoral system.

Around 20 out of 782 Harris County polling locations ran out of ballot paper on Election Day in November 2022 – some for just 15 minutes, others for up to three hours. 

A week after the election, Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Secretary of State, the Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Rangers to investigate.

“The allegations of election improprieties in our state’s largest county may result from anything ranging from malfeasance to blatant criminal conduct. Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened,” Abbott said in a statement at the time.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg sent a letter the same day to Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw asking for the Texas Rangers’ assistance in investigating alleged irregularities in the election. 

They haven’t found any wrongdoing. They just don’t want to admit it. And this from the same Chron article:

While the Secretary of State audit and the court rulings shed light on what occurred during the election, questions about criminal intent would only be answered by the Rangers investigation.

“There’s every reason to believe the state is stalling on this because they have no evidence to produce,” said Jeremi Suri, a professor of public affairs and history at the University of Texas at Austin.”

The decision to keep the investigation open could also be a strategic one, Suri added.

“What this does by not concluding an investigation that should easily have been concluded by now,” Suri said, “it opens the door for continued fear mongering, conspiracy theories, lies and false rumors.”

Here is the entire Chron read: One year later, Texas Rangers still haven’t released any findings on Harris County’s 2022 election (houstonchronicle.com).

Typical Abbott crooked politics. I will say it again. Gov. Abbott is an arsehole.

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Meanwhile, the Chron E-Board is certainly in an elections Christmas mood. See their entire take today:

‘T’was the Night Before Elections,’ the ballad of Teneshia Hudspeth (Editorial)

T’was the night before voting and all through the place
Not a scandal was stirring, not even one trace!

The paper was stacked in the precincts with care,
In hopes that the piles would not soon go bare;
                                              
The clerk could not nestle all snug in her bed
Since visions of lawsuits danced in her head—

Republican mischief had set quite a trap,
Should polling be mired by the slightest mishap:

If voting in Harris fell short of perfection,
They’d ride in from Austin and wrest our elections

Away with autonomy! they’d sweetly exult,
Then tear through the ballots and toss the results!

With cameras all rolling to take in the show,
The clerk knew the stakes were high as they go.

Finally at daybreak the ballot booths beckoned
And voters streamed in –for frustration, they reckoned;

When what to their wondering eyes did commence?
But a smoothly run vote and no trouble hence!

With a diligent clerk so bent on success
Chaos fell victim to Tenesia Hudspeth!

More rapid than pistons, the polls smoothly hummed,
No shortage of paper, no lost-ballot scrum.

Now, RINO, Now, liberal! Now, all kinds of voters!
On Right Wing! On middle! On losers and gloaters!

Ho, ho, Harris County, your vote’s in good hands,
No powers in Austin will hijack command.

Freedom prevailed, our confidence grew—
May this progress restart our tradition anew!

Past spring, past the fall, past all who decry,
Our rights as conditional, our truth, a Big Lie.

Thank you, Clerk Hudspeth, for getting it right
Happy voting to all, and to all a fair fight!

Nice. And nice job to the County Clerk and the E-Board.

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The Hallmark Channel came out with a Christmas LGBTQ+ flick Sunday night. Here is from TVGuide.com:

Hallmark Channel is making a little bit of Christmas history with its first holiday movie centered on a lesbian romance. On the heels of last year’s The Holiday Sitter, the network’s first gay romantic comedy, Friends & Family Christmas hopes to keep the LGBTQ streak going.

Humberly Gonzalez (Ginny & Georgia) and Ali Liebert (Bomb Girls), who directed The Holiday Sitter, star in the groundbreaking Christmas film. It follows New York transplant and artist Daniella (Gonzalez), who is set up on a blind date with Amelia (Liebert), a lawyer who’s turned to working nonstop after a broken engagement. They agree to pretend they’re dating to appease their parents for the holidays, but as they spend more time together, the pair inevitably start falling for each other for real.

“It was honestly the right time and the right people, so it feels really special that it’s us and we get to bring the story forward,” Gonzalez, who is openly queer, told TV Guide over Zoom about the historic Hallmark moment. “I hope that [Hallmark] continues making more and more and more.”

“I’m looking forward to hearing the feedback of folks who watch this with their families over Christmas, and I’m anticipating people really loving this movie,” Liebert, who is a producer on the film, told TV Guide. “As a queer person and a person who is in this movie, I’m very excited.”

Here is the entire TVGuide.com read: Why the Stars of Hallmark’s First Lesbian Holiday Romance Hope It Inspires More LGBTQ Stories – TV Guide.

It is a good read with an interview with the two main actors.

I watched it Sunday night. I enjoyed it.

It is a Hallmark Channel Christmas flick. They all have nice endings.

See the featured photo with Ali Liebert and Humberly Gonzalez

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It is six days before Christmas Day.