Top of the AL

Just so you know how extreme MAGA is, Democrats in the Texas Legislature are now having to defend the GOP gerrymandered congressional map in the featured photo adopted in 2021. That’s f_cked up!

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Meanwhile, the Trib just tweeted this:

Tejano superstar Bobby Pulido is forming an exploratory committee for a congressional bid in South Texas as he considers challenging Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg.

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This isn’t piling on. This is just accentuating how unprepared folks were nearly three weeks ago. See this from the CNN website:

In critical minutes and hours when deadly flash floods hurtled down the Guadalupe River washing away children’s camps and RVs, the county official responsible for coordinating emergency response was likely asleep at home, the Kerr County sheriff tells CNN.

When asked if he knew whether Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator W.B. “Dub” Thomas was working the night before the early morning July 4 flooding that killed at least 136 people in the state, Sheriff Larry Leitha said: “I’m sure he was at home asleep at that time,” and added that he was also asleep.

Here is the entire read: Texas county’s emergency management coordinator was likely asleep in critical morning hours of deadly floods, sheriff says.

I sure hope these bozos are held accountable. I sure hope there are consequences to their inaction. Sad.

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This one is on Gov. Greg Abbott. See this from the front page of today’s hard copy of the Chron:

The state’s director of emergency management told lawmakers on Wednesday that better coordination between state and local emergency managers was needed during the July 4 flash floods that killed 136 people statewide. 

Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, was the first expert to testify in front of the special panel of 18 House and Senate members convened to consider the state’s response to the floods. A second hearing is scheduled for July 31 in Kerrville, the epicenter of the Hill Country flooding.

Kidd told lawmakers that emergency management responsibility is spread among hundreds of individual local governmental entities that have little incentive or guidance to work together. “There’s no funding, there’s no carrot, no stick” to get everyone to work together, he said. 

“We have a long way to go on improving our communications,” Kidd said. He also noted TDEM lacked funding to help local governments create corrective action plans after major disasters. “That’s why we keep having those failures of the same thing over and over again,” he said. 

Here is the entire read: Poor coordination hampered Texas flood response, Texas official says.

This is a shocking admission from Director Kidd. It is the responsibility of state government to put together a communications plan with local governments. This falls onto Abbott’s lap.  Abbott loves to usurp locals of their authority. His lack of leadership on emergency management is coming into full focus. He’s a sad joke.

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With all the Astros players on the dinged-up list, it is surprising to see us on top of the AL tied with the Blue Jays after 102 games with a 60-42 record. Amazing. Now we have a seven-game homie that starts this evening as we host the A’s. Wow!