Meet Don Huffines
When the Texas Governor has a significant challenger from the right, you quickly discover what the hell is to the right of Greg Abbott.
Don Huffines, Texas GOP candidate for governor, says he won't fire his campaign staffer with white nationalist ties bc he doesn't engage in "cancel culture."
via @emilylhernandez https://t.co/W7SmTGxq50
— Rebekah Allen (@rebekahallen) January 20, 2022
Huffines is a former State Senator and is a grossly wealthy developer in Fort Worth. He’s not an outlier Republican. He’s mainstream and Greg Abbott is far too liberal for him.
Huffines probably won’t win the primary but he’ll push Abbott to the bigot right. I don’t think Huffines’ ties to the white nationalists was exposed by accident. It’ll force Abbott into doing something brutally racist before the March primary.
This dude and West have been on Abbott’s mind since the beginning of the pandemic, when he abandoned all pretense of moderation and went on a tyrannical tear against local governments and school districts and bars that wanted their customers to show they were safe to serve and his EOs about the border and the 2020 texas election “audit”
IOW, it’s my opinion they’ve been driving him to the right for over a year now.
1Geez. And I thought the challenger in Kansas was bad…
2The Texcesspool of repugnantican politicians- can’t get much stinkier can it? Unless desantis moves there.
3These guys have a way to go to catch up with the pack of crazies running against Governor Meemaw in Alabama!
4Ms. JuanitaJean Herownself, as much as Jane and I avoid stereotypes, we have to throw one Huffine’s direction. That face. Seriously. From every B-grade movie when a character ‘reveals’ himself to be the devil, it’s Huffine’s face.
A-butt do something “brutally racist”? The only thing Greg hasn’t done is publicly drag a person of color or “other” perceived minority to death behind his vehicle. Not saying he hasn’t done the crime, just not publicly. Yet.
5I will believe it when Huffines refuses to fire a Democrat “bc he doesn’t engage in ‘cancel culture.'”
6“Meet Don Huffines”
I wish I hadn’t.
7But at least I didn’t have to shake his hand.
Tegsass sure is ‘Messed Up’, but sadly it ain’t just the Rethuglikans.
My own US Rep. Henry Cuellar [D-28th*][who we all just luv /s], has just had the effing FBI RAID his Laredo home and other properties; seizing docs, computers and whatever.
WTF? Veery unusual to have a sitting Congresscritter get buzzed by the Feebs; and Cuellar has been around a long time. Has your Congresscritter ever been shaken down by the bigdawg LEOs?
There’s been a very tight press info lid clamped down on this, so nobody seems to know anything further about this except that it happened, video and all. Interesting to see vid clips of the FBI swarming all over Cuellar’s rather fancy Laredo place.
And the 2022 primary election is on March 1st. Cuellar is once again challenged by Jessica Cisneros. There used to be a commenter here who was quite vocal about good ol’ Henry C., and I’d have to tangle with them since no matter what, Cuellar’s Laredo lock dominates the whole very huge SoTx ‘fajita strip’ district.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%27s_28th_congressional_district
Gotta wonder what –really– is going on down here. ???
The usual things would be drug trafficking [Laredo area, Webb County, ranks near the top for that stuff]… Hey, I been watching it for 50+ years. The so-called ‘War on Drugs’ has been a total loser every year. Just legalize, control, and tax it all; and the most serious problems will go away.
*[Currently been my Rep for years, but the Rethug redistricting may be changing things, again..]
.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/19/henry-cuellar-fbi/
“The FBI was on the scene Wednesday near the Laredo home of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar for what authorities described as a court-authorized ongoing investigation.
…
Hughes said in a statement that the FBI was present on two streets around Cuellar’s house in Laredo “conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity.” “The FBI cannot provide further comment on an ongoing investigation,” she said.
On Wednesday evening, Cuellar’s office released a statement: “Congressman Cuellar will fully cooperate in any investigation. He is committed to ensuring that justice and the law are upheld.”
Agents were seen taking cases and other items from the congressman’s home, according to MyRGVNews. FBI officials were also present at a downtown building owned by Cuellar that reportedly houses his campaign office as well as other private businesses, according to KGNS News.
First elected in 2004, Cuellar is a longtime representative of his Laredo-based 28th District.”
.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/20/2075782/-The-FBI-just-raided-this-conservative-House-Democrat-s-home-Fortunately-we-have-a-better-choice
“On Wednesday night, the FBI raided both the home and campaign headquarters of conservative Rep. Henry Cuellar, the last anti-choice Democrat in the House. Agents spent hours cataloging and seizing items, including computers, with a spokesperson saying they were “conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity.”
We don’t yet know what the FBI is investigating, but raids like this are always very serious. And if you’re a sitting member of Congress, they are extremely bad news. The story immediately made the front page of newspapers in the area, and it’s sure to stay in the headlines.
With our majority on the line in November, Democrats can’t risk nominating a candidate who, by all appearances, is the target of a federal investigation. Fortunately, there’s a much better—and safer—choice in Texas’ 28th District: progressive Jessica Cisneros.
8Cisneros is a human rights attorney and daughter of working-class immigrants from Mexico who believes in a pathway to citizenship, universal health care, expanding Social Security, and protecting women’s reproductive rights. She’ll be a strong, clear voice for South Texas.”
Don’t sell Abbott short – he’ll do something brutally racist *after* the primary too.
If only because he wants to be in the conversation about being on the GOP’s 2024 presidential ticket.
9Sandridge @9 that a conservadem is corrupt is no surprise. Not here to “defend” Henry. But I am curious as to how the FBI and other federal LE agencies ‘manage’ to nail down Democratic miscreants while “missing” every screaming Republicon criminal.
Remember Dana Rohrbacher? Only slightly less criminal than every Republicon since Nixon. Moscow Mitch and his drug trafficking protector wife Elaine? Until EVERY member of the tRump crime family is behind bars both the FBI and DOJ lack credibility.
10Jane & PKM @11, It’s extremely curious, particularly the who, where, and when.
Given that the Texas 2022 primaries are just FIVE weeks away, and the local media was tipped in advance; there were teevee camera crews on hand and newpaper people too.
His main primary re-challenger Jessica Cisneros surely doesn’t have the clout to initiate something like this. Unless she’s kin to Mr. Henry Cisneros…y’all remember him? He’s still around, and quite active.
The FBI is a den of Rethugs, so maybe the plan is to take down Cuellar [about the only way], so that liberal progressive Cisneros can get beaten senseless in the November election by whoever RWNJ the Rethug primary chooses…
Or maybe Cuellar has actually been up to something nefarious, guess that we have to wait and see.
–The damned Democrats keep dreaming that Texas Hispanics are in their pockets.– Despite the obvious mounting evidence that it just ain’t so. Even Cuellar’s vote margins slipped a bunch in recent elections.
This 28th District looks like all the other South Texas ones, solid Democratic, but it ain’t so.
Abbott and the Rethugs have been turning it all Rethug under the Dems broken radar.
Texas Hispanics are nothing like California ones.
I’ve even tangled with the notable Hispanic Markos M. as far back as before the critical 2010 elections [when I predicted my then Democratic US Rep Sol Ortiz was toast, and Kos was dumbfounded Ortiz got beaten…].
Somethings got to change, quickly, the Democrats need to wake the fuck up. Or we’re doomed in 2022, 2024.
11@Sandridge – Glad you brought this up. I was just going to ask if anyone knew anything. JJ,? El Jefe? Alfredo? Glen Maxey? If they leaked the raid someone who talks knows the charges.
A question from a non-Texan: is Cuellar a good guy or a bad guy?
12Wally @13, Yeah, the whole thing is fishy.
Is Henry Cuellar [D-28th TX] good or bad?
He’s a fairly conservative Democrat, some think the most conservative Dem in Congress.
I don’t like his brand, but have held my nose and voted for him in all the general elections that I’ve been in his district [my district has been changed many times, only a couple because I actually moved].
I end up voting for him because he IS a Democrat, and the alternative is a Rethuglikan.
Simple as that, the simple Party numbers determine who steers the ship; some/many ‘purist, et al.’, Democrats still don’t comprehend how the game works.
I don’t like much about him, most of the ‘lib’ Dems hate him [mostly over abortion, which I avoid and isn’t a factor to me].
He’s a borderline DINO, but reflects his/my 80%+ Texas Hispanic 28th district accurately. Something most Democrats are still refusing to understand.
Because of that we are in grave danger of seeing Texas remain Rethug… and maybe the rest of the damned country too.
JFCOAC, wake up Dems.
The Dems radar is broken and eyes blind, in Texas particularly. As shown repeatedly by the very influential California Hispanic Democrat MarKos Moulitsas [who is = Daily Kos].
2010 was a very bad, very critical year, y’all know who I tend to blame, and it’s quite unpopular.
But the way my very complacent former Democratic Congresscritter, TX 27th Rep. Solomon Ortiz, got sniped out of his supposedly ‘safe’ Hispanic seat [by fucking Blake Farenthold, y’all remember him!]
—was/is the blueprint of the Rethugs dominance.—
I voted for Ortiz from when District 27 was created in 1983, it became apparent that Ortiz was pretty damned useless, but he –was– a Democrat. We have to do better.
13Ortiz’s Coastal Bend, formerly Valley-CC 27th District, now solidly held by raving RWNJ McCloud:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%27s_27th_congressional_district
—A historic blueprint…—
Slight correction :
TX 27th is now solidly held by Rethug Michael Cloud, not “McCloud”.
Cloud gets 63% of the vote in a now redrawn 50%+ Hispanic district, formerly 70%+ Hispanic with Dem Ortiz [who managed to lose in 2010 by 799 votes, while asleep at the wheel].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%27s_27th_congressional_district#Recent_election_results
14And to get your minds off of politics, a good article with lots of birds below.
From my former home, the Valley [Rio Grande Valley]. I had flocks of fantastic birds around the homeplace, and a very little known small wildlife refuge [p/o Las Palomas WMA] just a few miles away.
The favorite ultra-cool chachalacas, noisy aggressive grackles [the avian equivalent of Rethugs], jays, cardinals, whitewing doves, redwinged blackbirds, hawks, migrants, ocelots and jaguarundis, dozens more:
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/lower_rio_grande_valley/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_chachalaca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chachalaca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-tailed_grackle
Dawn Chorus: Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley :
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/23/2074862/-Dawn-Chorus-Texas-Lower-Rio-Grande-Valley
“Good morning birders, twitchers, twitchy birders, bitchy twirlers, and anyone seeking respite from our bird-brained politics. I want to share highlights from a spontaneous New Year’s road trip to Texas’ lower Rio Grande Valley.
15After a cancelled ski trip left me with spare time and an urge to travel, I hopped in the car and drove 8 hours to the far southern tip of Texas, where the Rio Grande River meets the Gulf of Mexico. This is one of the top birding sites in the Continental U.S.”
Here’s a whholle lot more about Rep Henry Cuellar [D-TX28]. Ruh-oh, ‘Azerbaijan’…
His situation is really a portending microcosm of Texas Democratic politics. Far too many ignore this, at all our peril. Very good reads.
FBI raid portends political and legal challenges for U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar:
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/22/henry-cuellar-texas-fbi/
” U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar may be the most powerful Texas Democrat whom most Texans have never heard of. But with early voting to begin in a matter of weeks, he is in a world of political trouble.
On Wednesday, the FBI raided the nine-term congressman’s home in Laredo. For now, government officials are keeping a tight lid on what spurred their actions. But it could not come at a worse time for Cuellar, who is in the fight of his political life ahead of the Democratic primary on March 1.
…
Cuellar is a uniquely complicated figure in Texas politics: He’s both admired and reviled within his own party, and almost universally adored by Texas Republican members of Congress, because of his tendency to cross the aisle.
In representing the 28th Congressional District, which includes Laredo and [note– a tiny sliver of]San Antonio, he holds an elevated standing within the House Democratic caucus, serving on the Appropriations Committee, the most coveted assignment because it controls the federal government’s purse. He is also a deputy whip to U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn.
Back home in Laredo, he’s viewed as a native son, a self-made political powerhouse who represents an often-neglected region of Texas.”
.
I’ve seen the change in Cuellar’s local teevee commercial spots, rather interesting:
After FBI raid, Henry Cuellar launches new TV ad for reelection campaign:
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/21/henry-cuellar-campaign-fbi/
“U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, is airing a new TV ad in which he says he will “never stop fighting for South Texas,” a sign that he is not backing away from his reelection campaign after FBI agents raided his home Wednesday.
16The 30-second spot is set to go on the air this weekend and was first shared with The Texas Tribune. The commercial begins by showing Cuellar standing in a field, saying it is where many migrant workers like his parents “got their shot at the American dream.”
“This land gave my family a chance,” Cuellar says at the end. “That’s why I’ll never stop fighting for South Texas.”
The ad will run in English and Spanish in the Laredo and San Antonio media markets, according to the campaign.
Cuellar’s political fate was thrown into uncertainty with the arrival of the FBI agents, who also went to his campaign headquarters. The agency said it was conducting a “court-authorized law enforcement activity” but did not say what it was investigating.
A grand jury has issued subpoenas for records relating to Cuellar; his wife, Imelda; and at least one of his campaign staffers, and their ties to Azerbaijan companies, an ABC News report said. A member of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, Cuellar has been a strong advocate for Azerbaijan’s interests.
Cuellar’s office said he would cooperate with any probe. His TV ad makes no mention of the raid.”
Jane & PKM @6: I don’t mind pointing out when people are ugly … when the outside shows what’s inside as well. And someone else has noticed this:
https://i.imgur.com/wRZ5Uju.jpeg
17FBI used to have a policy of not conducting public operations on politicians within 60 days of an election. The few exceptions to the rule had to be signed off by the centralized public corruption unit (or another team), internal legal, upper echelon FBI’ers, and probably the US District Attorney for the area.
The Intercept wrote on 20 January
An adviser to Rep. Henry Cuellar, the conservative Texas Democrat whose home and campaign office was raided by the FBI this week, also leads a dark-money group that recently ran ads against Cuellar’s primary challenger, Jessica Cisneros, according to Federal Election Commission and corporate records. Colin Strother, a longtime Cuellar aide and a consultant who has been embedded on Cuellar’s campaign, is also the head of the secretive Voter Education Foundation. The staffing overlap reveals Cuellar’s close proximity to one of Texas’s most zealous anti-abortion activists.
The article goes on to question the “independent” nature of the organization.
18Professor, I know I’m repeating myself answering the question posed in that meme, but IMHO it keeps on being true
19Repugnantcans have so totally embraced the ideology that any kind of empathy is weakness, that only the most obnoxiously malicious ideas even make news.
So their “Marketplace of Ideas” are just naturally dominated by f**king douchebags bent on better ways to…dominate.
And be douchebags.
And if that’s true, the folks competing for that kinda narrative know they can’t look like Captain America or Superman.
Nobody they’d want to influence would listen to some p**sy that advocates for the weak and defenseless.
So IMHO, the haberdashery’s just the palette.
It’s the scowl that seals the deal.