The West is Won

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo returns to work this morning. Hope you are doing well, Judge! We missed you.

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See this from Politico today:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision.

Newsom is moving swiftly to name the next senator, two days after Feinstein’s death and just as a perilously split Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown. Senate Democrats are in need of every vote in the closely divided chamber.

The announcement was expected to come Monday, and an adviser to the governor, Anthony York, told POLITICO that Newsom is making his appointment without putting limitations or preconditions on his pick running for the seat in 2024. That means Butler could decide to join the sprawling and competitive field of Democratic contenders seeking to succeed Feinstein, with special elections now layered on top of the March primary and November runoff.

Butler is expected to be sworn-in to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Oh yeah, and this:

Butler, who is based in Washington and maintains close ties with Los Angeles, had a stint as director for public policy and campaigns at Airbnb and spent nearly two decades as a powerful and well-respected labor leader with the Service Employees International Union. As president of SEIU California, she worked closely with then-Gov. Jerry Brown on policies like hiking the minimum wage to $15 per hour and raising taxes for wealthy Californians. She also served on the University of California Board of Regents, to which she was appointed by Brown in 2018 before stepping down in 2021.

Butler is the first openly LGBTQ person to represent California in the Senate.

Here is the entire Politico read: Gavin Newsom picks Laphonza Butler as Dianne Feinstein replacement – POLITICO.

Newsom is the governor, and he is the only one with the authority to make this appointment. I don’t have a problem with this selection. Some who support Cong. Barbara Lee, who is running for the senate, probably will not be happy with the Gov. Newsom selection. Well, that is why we have elections. Go win it.

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The Chron E-Board endorsed incumbent H-Town District C Council Member Abbie Kamin today.  Kamin is my council member.

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I bought the iphone 14 Saturday and it has been an arduous process getting it set up and moving data over from my iphone X gizmo.  They could not figure it out at the Xfinity shop.  I am getting there.

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Lance McCullers Jr. is 30 today. Happy Birthday, Lance! We miss you on the mound.

Here is what I posted last Monday:

I am going to stop wearing team gear. I have been wearing gear including t-shirts and socks in various combinations to no avail. They can’t seem to win.  Maybe if I stop wearing gear, they will pull out of their current nosedive. The featured photo has the gear in the drawer where it will stay for now.

If we happen to make the playoffs it will likely be as a Wild Card team. That means we would play on the road for the Wild Card series. If we were to advance to the ALDS, we would be the lower seed which means we wouldn’t play at The Yard until October 10. 

After we took two out of three in Seattle, I posted this on Friday:

It will be an exciting weekend in the AL West for sure.  We are in Phoenix fighting for a playoff slot.  We will be watching the scoreboard and keeping an eye on the Blue Jays, Mariners, and Rangers. Let’s hope we play well.

Going into the weekend winning the AL West was a longshot at best. I was just hoping for a playoff spot and the team getting prepared for a few games on the road.

The Rangers lost Thursday and Friday and we won Friday. The Rangers and Astros both won Saturday night to reach the playoffs. The Mariners were eliminated. We had a subdued celebration consisting of glasses of champagne. The Rangers went full goggle celebrating.

The family gathered yesterday to celebrate my nephew David’s birthday and we were switching back and forth watching the games from Phoenix and Seattle.

We needed a win yesterday and a Rangers loss to win the AL West. We jumped on the D-Backs early and won 8-1. The Rangers lost to the Mariners 1 zip.

We did the full goggles celebrating after the win.

We flew home yesterday and play Saturday. The Rangers got on a plane to Tampa and play tomorrow.

The H-Town Mayor tweeted this yesterday:

I would like to personally thank the @Mariners for their win today.

Nice one, Mayor.

The Alex Bregman “I guess we will never know” short celebratory epic video is one for the ages for sure.

The featured photo is a t-shirt I snagged last year that is appropriate this morning.

#Ready2Reign!