Yeah, he ain’t coming here.  He’s going to Corpus Christi and then dropping by Austin to strut with the Governor.

Here’s the deal. Undocumented workers were refusing to go to shelters because they feared it was a ruse by ICE. So, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez went on tv, speaking in Spanish, to say that he would personally insure that they would not be arrested or detained.  Then Mayor Sylvester Turner, a lawyer, said that if they were detained, he would personally represent them for free.

Trump and his sheriff would not feel at home here.

I’m not saying that insurance companies own the Texas Legislature but they most certainly do have a long term lease. The Texas Republican Insurance Whore Corp (those last two words rhyme) has signed the lease.

Most Texas homeowners insurance does not include flooding. Thanks to the Texas Lege, you have to buy a separate policy if you think you might flood.  (ON EDIT: I have been instructed that this is also the case in foreign states.  I apologize.  I am running 102 degrees with cabin fever.) Many of those policies come through FEMA.

Let’s say you have to sue your insurance company so they will pay your claim.

For many Texans ravaged by the rain and winds Hurricane Harvey carried ashore this past weekend, filing an insurance claim for the damage their property sustained is probably the farthest thing from their minds right now. But waiting to submit a claim past Friday could cost them big.

A new law set to take effect Friday aims to crack down on frivolous insurance lawsuits. But House Bill 1774 also reduces the penalty interest rate insurance companies face for late payments if the policyholder files a lawsuit.

Okay, there are people in shelters, those who cannot get out of their flooded homes and are living on the second floor, and the lucky ones who might be dry but are trapped in their neighborhoods and all these folks better file an insurance claim before Friday.  Hell, they are now saying the Brazos River won’t creat until Thursday around noon so the worst is yet to come for a mess of people.

Thank you, Texas Republicans.  You and Joel Osteen are the grinches of Houston.

Customer Rob just sent me this picture of one of our badass first responders.

Houston SWAT officer Daryl Hudeck carries Catherine Pham and her son 13-month-old son Aiden to safety after they were rescued via boat from the flooding on Interstate 610 south in Houston on Sunday, August 27, 2017. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)

So, if I have to call somebody to come get me, y’all send Daryl.

We are still dry and have electricity this morning.  That puts us in the top 1%.  Thousands of my friends and neighbors are under mandatory evacuation today because the Brazos River (which is one unforgiving sumbitch of a river) will hit 59 feet tomorrow night.  That’s higher than any flood in recorded history.

We have been told to stay put.  We do have a second floor.

Let me tell you what a good man I married. You know about our Republican neighbors across the street.  They are so typical of Republicans – haughty and oh so much smarter than anyone else.  We don’t chat much.  Well, they are in their 80’s, so Bubba walked across the street in the rain and told them if it flooded, they would be welcome to come to our house since we have a second floor.  They said that they appreciated the offer, but you could tell it would just kill them to ask a Democrat for help because Republicans are so damn self-sufficient and can take care of themselves.

Our neighbor beside us is the one who asked us not to have so many Muslims come to our house because Muslims are ordered by their God to kill us all.  That guy can drown.  I don’t care.

Sorry about the lack of news but we ain’t getting any news here.  But, Nick Anderson did this cartoon.

Oh no, oh, NO.

Donald Trump is coming to strut around hurricane damage and where the damn fool tarnation do you think he’s going?

Oh yeah, his guide is gonna be Blake Stinkin’ Farenthold.

I am not kidding.  I wish the hell I were.

Ducky Boy says …

“I might be of a little bit of value to the president because I grew up in this area and can provide some context,” he added.

Sure you can, Blake, and Trump needs it.  “See this tree laying on the ground with no leaves on it?  Well, it used to be standing.  See this building with no front on it.  It used to have a front.  See that house with only the roof sticking out of the water? That water wasn’t there a week ago.”

Trump knows for damn sure he better not come to Houston.  He’d baptize him and not in the nice way.  Hell, if he sets foot in Houston, we’d have to skim nasty off the flood water for weeks and we just don’t have time.

So Trump is going to Corpus to talk about the size of his inaugural crowd.  Just what we need.

Y’all, Anna the Geek sent me this link early this morning to let me know I am not the only one having misery.

The White House communications team’s rapid response director, 31-year-old Andy Hemming, resigned on Monday. National news outlets probably knew him best as “that guy who tried to find positive news stories about Trump.”

This isn’t an uncommon role, but Hemming’s job reportedly included delivering a folder full of positive news articles twice a day to Trump. According to Politico, Hemming was paid “$89,000 a year to spot and distribute positive stories from the mainstream media.” He worked from 5:30AM to 11PM every weekday.

That poor guy could come to Houston to vacation this week and think it’s an improvement over his past job.

I am fine, and I tend to feel a little guilty about that.  My friends and neighbors in the path of Harvey are not so good.  I know the word catastrophic is overused right now, but I don’t know a better one.  This is Katrina.  People are on the roofs of their homes, big fancy two story homes included.  Hospitals are packed and the largest trauma center (Ben Taub) has backed-up septic system.  Even outside of the flooding, the roads are not holding up well. This is the road I take to the grocery store.

This is why they are telling people to stay home if they can.

It will take Houston years to recover.  On the plus side, we have a good mayor and county judge.  We also have a sense of humor and a whole lot of guys with flat bottom boats who just live for this so they can go rescue people.

It’s around noon on Saturday.  We are doing great.  We got about 7 inches of rain last night but it hasn’t rained since daybreak so we are draining great. There was a tornado last night in the county that left a mess in a residential neighborhood but amazingly, no one was hurt.

Here’s my all time favorite local news story.  About an hour ago, my son and I were watching hurricane porn on the teevee, where local reporters – who never pronounce the names of any cities or streets correctly – stand in driving rain dodging deadly tree branches so you don’t have to.

So this reporter was bent in half in the wind, telling us it was so damn awful outside that you should stay inside and get in your closet.  And he earnestly says to the camera, “I don’t know how much the camera can get of this, but the smell is awful.”

Praise God, the camera couldn’t get much of it.