We have a little Mom and Pop food establishment / caterer / food truck / in my hometown of Richmond.  They are the goodest people I know.  They cook like grandma, except better.  They are M&M Southern Creole Kitchen.

They are feeding people – people in shelters, first responders, people who are land-locked and running out of food, volunteers.  They are trying to feed 2,000 people this weekend.  Their loyal local customers are supporting them as best we can because we believe in them.

This takes money and they need help to do this again today, tomorrow, and as long as it’s needed.

I trust them with my money and you can, too.  There is no middle-man here.  Every penny that comes in goes toward food.  $5 will buy someone’s lunch and a big glass of iced sweet tea.

You can donate by clicking right here and scroll down until you see DONATE.  You do NOT have to have a Pay Pal account to donate.  There’s a place for a note on the donation form.  Tell them where you are from and that you’re a friend of Don and Susan Bankston so they won’t think you’re some troll.  They know who we are because Don loves their fried chicken.

Thank you. Houston gets all the help and often it’s the small towns surrounding Houston that get forgotten.

Thank you again!  This chef-in-training needs some more fresh veggies to cook.

Okay, here’s the deal.  There’s a mess of stuff on my mind this morning, so here goes.

Remember how I told you that the Brazos River was going to crest on Wednesday morning and that’s when I’d know if I was going to flood or not?  Then it became Thursday afternoon, then early Friday morning.  I was too tired to wait it out so when my feet hit a dry floor this morning, I started singing the Hallelujah Chorus using my bedside table as drums.  Scared the crap outta Bubba, who assumed I was in labor or something.

Then I checked the local police department to see how high the river got when it crested.

Damn.

The river, they are saying, now won’t crest until …

So, the way I see it, this is Texas so we are bound to have a drought before the river crests so I’m just holding out for it.

And we are up to our necks in water but it doesn’t matter much because you can’t breathe the air above the water.

Yes, Houston is having an Ozone Action Day.  That means we have both hell and high water.

And there is no climate change.  None.  All this is just because we are heathens and need more prayer.  How do I know that? Because the Texas Secretary of State – who is appointed by the Governor – says so.

Quebec’s Minister of International Relations Christine St-Pierre called [Secretary of State Rolando] Pablos  to express her sorrow and condolences on behalf of the people of the Canadian province. She also offered equipment and manpower.

Pablos turned it down. Instead he asked for “prayers from the people of Quebec,” the minister relayed.

Look, Rolando, you damn fool, that was an answered prayer.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.  

Donald Trump claims he came to Texas and saw the “horror & devastation” firsthand.

Of course, he did not.

Not even close.

So, Sarah Huckabee Sanders explains how it is that Trump saw devastation firsthand.

He met with a number of state and local officials who are eating, sleeping, breathing the Harvey disaster. He talked extensively with the governor, who certainly is right in the midst of every bit of this, as well as the mayors from several of the local towns that were hit hardest. And detailed briefing information throughout the day yesterday talking to a lot of the people on the ground. That certainly is a firsthand account.

Okay, would somebody please tell me the definition of secondhand account because it got lost some damn place.

Objection.  Hearsay, your Honor.

The only thing Trump witnessed in Texas was our Governor and … wait, wait, I got it.  Firsthand horror and devastation.

As I am sure you’ve heard by now, Robert Mueller has a triple digit IQ.

Trump pardoned Arpaio for one reason  – to send a hollering message that he is gonna pardon anyone indicted by Mueller.  Oops.

Mueller can fix that.

Mueller is teaming up with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “One of the people familiar with progress on the case said both Mueller’s and Schneiderman’s teams have collected evidence on financial crimes, including potential money laundering,” he notes.

Trump can pardon anybody facing charges from Mueller, but not from Schneiderman. It is probably significant that Mueller is letting this fact be known to Trump’s inner circle. Trump’s biggest source of leverage over Mueller just disappeared.

Checkmate.

Arkema Group, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, warned us yesterday that their chemical plant, 30 miles from Houston, was likely to explode this morning because the plant has been without electricity since Sunday.  As a precaution, a one and half mile area around the plant was evacuated.

Early this morning the first in what is expected to be several explosions sent plumes of smoke in the air.

Brock Long, administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Thursday that evacuations are based on “plume modeling,” which is used to predict the geographic extent of a hazard area from an explosion.

“By all means, the plume is incredibly dangerous,” Long said of what’s occurring in Crosby.

However ….

Company officials said the smoke is believed to be a “nontoxic irritant,” authorities added.

This morning, the CEO of the company responded on tv — “Toxicity is a relative thing.”

No it is not.  Either it’s gonna hurt you or it ain’t.  And whether it hurts you or kills you ain’t even relative — it’s one of the other.

Remember when Texas decided it was not going to monitor chemical plants any longer because that was too heavy a burden on free enterprise?  So this right here is your Dan Patrick Memorial Toxic Plume.

Well howdy doody, I smiled first thing this morning.

California Senator Kamala Harris (D) announced during a town hall on Wednesday that she would support Sen. Bernie Sanders‘s (I-Vt.) “Medicare for All” bill, which would institute a single-payer health insurance system.

“I intend to co-sponsor the ‘Medicare for All’ bill because it’s just the right thing to do,” Harris announced Wednesday at a town hall in Oakland.

Indeed it is.  Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s also the politically smart thing to do. It’s damn time that Democrats stood for something except election.

She will change the conversation and that’s a good thing.