Scary Stuff
Election Day is four weeks from today. 6,000 mail ballots have been sent to the Harris County Clerk.
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Four members of the H-Town City Council want to raise our property taxes. Mayor John Whitmire is opposed. Here is from the Chron:
Houston City Councilmembers are divided over a proposed emergency, one-year property tax increase that would raise the city’s tax rate by more than 5%.
The hike, which would raise the city’s tax rate from 52 cents to 55 cents, is supported by Council members Mario Castillo of District H and Joaquin Martinez of District I, along with At-Large Council members Sallie Alcorn and Letitia Plummer. They cited outstanding damage recent natural disasters as major impending financial concerns that must be addressed.
“Recent disasters like the Derecho and Hurricane Beryl have only added to our financial challenges,” Castillo wrote in a Friday email. “The estimated cost of these disasters is over $210 million, and while FEMA is expected to cover 75% of that, Houston still needs to come up with around $52.6 million to cover the local share. That’s a significant burden we can’t ignore.”
Opponents include Mayor John Whitmire, who previously pledged to root out corruption and waste before resorting to a tax increase or additional fees, and District F Councilmember Tiffany Thomas, who pointed to rising insurance costs as a compounding financial burden for residents.
“We’ve got flood insurance, we’ve got freeze insurance and your premiums have gone up — you’re literally pricing people out,” Thomas said at a City Council meeting Wednesday.
Thomas cast doubt as to whether Whitmire truly opposed the increase, questioning whether the mayor wanted to shift the political burden onto City Council.
“I think that works in his favor politically, to have three council members come out and take hits that he doesn’t have to take because he’s on record saying ‘I’m not raising taxes,’” Thomas told the Chronicle. “He had his finance director come before us with the proposed option, which, that’s a signal of a green light.”
Here is the entire Chron read: Houston City Councilmembers are considering a 5% tax increase (houstonchronicle.com).
I look to the Mayor for leadership on this.
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Bob Woodward has a new book titled “War” and here is a take from CNN:
Woodward reports that in the lead-up to Russia’s invasion, the US had obtained a treasure trove of intelligence, which showed “conclusively” in October 2021 that Putin had plans to invade Ukraine with 175,000 troops.
“It was an astonishing intelligence coup from the crown jewels of US intelligence, including a human source inside the Kremlin,” Woodward reports. Human sources are among the most sensitive in the intelligence world.
“It was as if they had secretly entered the enemy commander’s tent and were hunched over the maps, examining the number and movement of brigades and the entire planned sequence on the multifront invasion,” Woodward writes.
While Biden and his advisers agreed the plan was “dead serious,” it was still hard for them — and their allies — to believe it.
“This is what Putin plans to do,” CIA Director Bill Burns said to Biden, according to Woodward.
“This would be so crazy,” Biden responded.
“Jesus Christ!” Biden said. “Now I’ve got to deal with Russia swallowing Ukraine?”
Biden confronted Putin with the intelligence twice in December 2021, first in a video conference and then in what Woodward describes as a “hot 50-minute call” that became so heated that at one point that Putin “raised the risk of nuclear war in a threatening way.”
Biden responded by reminding Putin that “it’s impossible to win” a nuclear war.
Despite repeated warnings, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the idea that Putin would actually invade, even after Vice President Kamala Harris told him during a February 2022 meeting at the Munich Security Conference that an invasion was imminent.
Harris told Zelensky he needed to “start thinking about things like having a succession plan in place to run the country if you are captured or killed or cannot govern.” After the meeting, Woodward writes, Harris said she was worried it might be the last time they ever saw him.
Here is the entire CNN take: ‘That son of a bitch’: New Woodward book reveals candid behind-the-scenes conversations of Biden, Trump, Harris and Putin | CNN Politics.
Very scary stuff for sure. The featured photo is one of the scariest photos in my file, err Junction Jack.
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Here is from MLB.com:
Every Division Series tied at 1? That’s a first!
An already memorable DS round continued Monday with the Tigers’ 3-0 win over the Guardians and the Royals’ 4-2 victory over the Yankees, tying both best-of-five American League Division Series at one game apiece. And after Sunday’s wins by the Phillies and Padres, both National League series are ALSO tied 1-1.
To say that doesn’t happen often would be an understatement. In fact, 2024 is the first year in Division Series history in which all four series were tied 1-1 after their first two games.
Now all the lower seeds get two games at home.
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I saw this tweet last night.
Yuli Gurriel is now ranked 11th all-time for the most hits in postseason history, with 90.
Carlos Correa is 10th with 91 hits.
Jose Altuve is 3rd with 118.
Derek Jeter is number one with 200 base hits.
Got it?
