Milquetoast Op-Ed
See the featured photo. There is a very good AP story on the front page of today’s Chron hard copy on Democratic Party primary voters throughout the country wanting change in our politics. Not so much change in our policies, but more in our candidates. Democratic Party primary voters want new blood. Hopefully, voters in Texas will want a change in who is running Texas and throw out a bunch of MAGA elected officials. Hopefully.
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This does not surprise me and should not surprise you. See this from the Chron:
The prospect of a televised debate between U.S. Senate hopefuls Ken Paxton and James Talarico is looking a bit dimmer.
Both major party candidates have said they want to debate at least once before the Nov. 3 election, but the deadline to agree to the first proposed matchup, sponsored in part by Hearst Newspapers, passed on Wednesday without a commitment from Paxton.
Democrat James Talarico had agreed to the debate and has signed off on two other formal invitations to go one-on-one with his Republican opponent.
The first debate was proposed for Sept. 22 at a venue in the Rio Grande Valley and would have been sponsored by Hearst Newspapers and the Spanish-laguage broadcast outlet NBC/Telemundo. However, Wednesday was the deadline to finalize the agreement and Paxton’s team neither accepted nor declined the invitation.
Don’t hold your breath, folks. If I was cheating, crooked Ken Paxton, I wouldn’t want to go on live TV on a debate stage and get asked about the biblical reasons for getting a divorce, how I got the dough to buy a bunch of houses, and why I celebrated the Fourth of July in London. Just saying.
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On the MAGA Gov. Greg Abbott campaign ad, here is the opening line:
The Democrats are trying to take over Texas.
Let that sink in for a minute. They are worried. Maybe all those Texas polls are telling us something.
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MAGA candidate for Harris County Judge Orlando Sanchez penned an Op-Ed in the Chron on the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. The Op-Ed is milquetoast. He never mentions ICE. Here is a line from his Op-Ed:
We can protect our borders and protect due process.
Nice line, but Orlando never calls out ICE and their documented violations of due process that have been filmed countless times across our country.
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On a related note, I wonder what Orlando thinks about this story from NPR:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to give its officers high-tech gloves that deliver electric shocks to people they’re trying to detain, according to plans posted by the Department of Homeland Security this week. The agency could spend as much as $20 million on the gloves made by Compliant Technologies, a veteran-owned company based in Kentucky.
The device is called the G.L.O.V. E., an acronym that stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. When a small button on the wrist of the glove is activated, it delivers an electric shock when it touches skin. It is similar to a taser, but unlike a taser, there are no prongs that emerge and break the skin.
Demonstrations of the gloves in use appear to show it inflicting pain. The Instagram page for Compliant Technologies is filled with videos of police officers being subjected to the glove in demonstrations. Many of them grimace or yell, and almost all of them fall to the ground. The Associated Press first reported on ICE’s plans to equip its officers with the technology.
In one video, the founder of the company, Jeff Niklaus, introduced a demonstration on an officer with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department. After being shocked with the glove, the officer screamed and dropped to the ground, briefly debilitated for the moment the glove made contact with his skin.
That officer described the feeling later in the video as having “no control.” The company’s website says the glove provides a way to “de-escalate tense situations quickly and effectively.” It is meant to make arrests easier for officers when a person resists.
This is criminal pure and simple. It would make my day if one of the dumbarse ICE thugs forgets to take off his gloves when he goes to take a leak.
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We won yesterday in San Francisco and went 3-3 on the roadie. Our AL West lead is back to a game and a half. We have 40 games left on our schedule. 22 at Daikin Park and 18 on the road. We start a 9-game homie tomorrow, all 9 against AL West teams. We have today off.