​









Governor Greg Abbott is building a big camp for Texas troops at the border in Eagle Pass. Giving his troops at the border a place to live is what he says it is for. 

Above you see the Governor using the Texas National Guard as political props is his announcement yesterday about the big camp. 

Here is some of what Abbott said in a press release:

Governor Greg Abbott today announced during a press conference in Eagle Pass that Texas is building a Forward Operating Base in the Del Rio sector to house Texas National Guard soldiers...."Texas is expanding our border security capabilities by building a new Texas Military Department base camp to increase and improve border security operations in this area," said Governor Abbott. "This will increase the ability for a larger number of Texas Military Department soldiers in Eagle Pass to operate more effectively and efficiently...  The Texas Military Department acquired 80 acres of land in Eagle Pass to construct a Forward Operating Base that will house up to 1,800 Texas National Guard soldiers, with the ability to accommodate an additional 500...."The key thing I want you to take away from this is that we are providing a better quality of life for our Texas National Guard soldiers," said Border Czar Banks. "To see those numbers decrease in Texas, it's a testament to what these soldiers and DPS are doing to secure the border."

The people of Eagle Pass have already made clear they want these troops and DPS gone from their town. Local opinions and community values don't matter much to Governor Abbott.

A big camp would be plenty useful for what Donald Trump plans if returned to the White House. 

Here is some of what opinion columnist EJ Montini wrote in the Arizona Republic:

It’s difficult for most of us to imagine a nightmare scenario in which platoons of National Guard troops from states with cooperative Republican governors march through neighborhoods in Phoenix, Glendale, Mesa, Flagstaff and Tucson conducting fascistic immigration sweeps. But it’s easy for Stephen Miller, who was Donald Trump’s senior adviser on immigration. Miller described such draconian scenarios in an interview with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk....The number of personnel needed to find the migrants Trump would deport, detain them in internment camps, process them and eventually fly them or bus them out of the country is astronomical, as is the price.....Miller said the goal would be to deport 10 million people, whom he called “foreign-national invaders.”....The formula is fairly straightforward: Dehumanize whole populations. Stage military raids on select neighborhoods. Round up “undesirables.” Build internment camps.

Donald Trump intends to use red state national guards to invade Democratic-voting states and big cities in Republican states. Greg Abbott has endorsed Trump.   

There is no reason to give Greg Abbott any benefit of the doubt. Of course he would build detention or concentration style camps. The Texas National Guard and Abbott's politicized DPS police would follow orders.  

(Houston Mayor John Whitmire wants to bring DPS troops to police Houston streets. Such police would be able to enforce Texas SB 4 which would turn routine traffic stops into immigration checks & would be here to enforce Donald Trump's 2nd Term plans of suspending civil liberties and mass immigration round-ups.)   

The infrastructure of force and repression that animates the American right wing is being constructed right before our eyes. We should believe what we are seeing.  

The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County.  

Please share word of the Houston Democracy Project and support the effort with your contribution. If you have a question about the Project or a suggestion, please send an e-mail to [email protected].

The Houston Democracy Project is sad to see the death of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. 

Thank you to the brave Russians risking arrest and being arrested publicly marking his death.   

Donald Trump says he can kill political opponents just like Putin does.  

We should take Trump at face value. 

With the political right growing ever more violent and with threats to our civil liberties a big part of the Republican Party agenda for 2024, people need to consider what self-defense looks like for their situation.   

Self-defense and what one feels will best keep them safe will look different for each individual and each household. There is no one answer. But it is a discussion we should all be having. 

Above you see word of a block walk on Sunday, 2/18, in Pasadena involving the excellent Area 5 Democrats and Harris County Criminal Court #351 Judge Natalia Cornelio.   

Judge Cornelio is out walking despite the fact she has neither a primary opponent or a general election opponent. 

That is just the program on Judge Cornelio's part. 

As we face an authoritarian threat in Texas and the nation, elected officials have an obligation to do all they possibly can to increase November turnout. With strong turnout we can defeat Republicans in Harris County, defeat Ted Cruz & defeat Donald Trump in Texas. Unopposed judges and state legislators in safe or unopposed seats must step up. Judges not up for election in 2024 could also walk and raise money to boost turnout.

Elected officials are among the chief beneficiaries of a mainstream political system leading us to authoritarian outcomes. Democratic elected officials often say things like "Your vote is your voice," but then do little to get people to vote. (And protest is over-policed.) Much of the infrastructure to increase turnout is based on exploitive models of volunteerism or low-paid canvassers while consultants and grifters cash in.

So elected officials can show up.

(How Senator Carol Alvarado can best observe Pledge of Allegiance Day details some steps elected officials can take to help the full Democratic slate & defend democracy.)     

Judges do important work. They are also politicians. For the purposes of our current political circumstances, we must insist Harris County Democratic Judges stress their role as politicians in 2024.          

Judge Cornelio is walking to increase turnout in the Harris County Democratic Primary and to be part of a political scene in Pasadena that is changing for the better.

Judge Cornelio is smart and understands things people sometimes miss. There is a role for elected officials in safe seats very different from just sitting it out or going through the motions. She gets it.

(Here is the famous Erik Manning spreadsheet so you can see who is running for what in 2024). 

As rank and file Democrats who want to live in a democracy, we must demand that the people we vote for have our backs. For the most part they won't take risks for us or do something outside business as usual unless compelled. Our futures are on the line. We need more from them. Ask them over and over to show up and don't take no for an answer.           
 
The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County. 

Please share word of the Houston Democracy Project and support the effort with your contribution. If you have a question about the Project or a suggestion, please send an e-mail to [email protected].​ 
​       

​







​



​The Houston Democracy Project reads many books! Current reading includes Mussolini's Italy: Life Under The Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945. 

You'd think politics at the moment is depressing enough without reading about fascist Italy. And you'd be right. But it is interesting to read about how societies go wrong and how lessons of the past can be applied today.

A few days ago the Houston Democracy Project posted about the people of Eagle Pass, Texas telling Greg Abbott to take his unconstitutional border operation out of their town. 

One of the many complaints was about the Texas Department of Public Safety police and Texas National Guard in Eagle Pass.

Here is what was said:

"We are grateful to the Eagle Pass Police Department and Maverick County Sheriff’s Office for protecting us and maintaining peace and civility with this chaotic situation that you invited into our Texas city..... The Texas National Guard seizure of Shelby Park is illegal. It has not only blocked federal U.S. Border Patrol agents from entering and patrolling the area, and doing their job, but it has also effectively barred us, the residents and taxpayers of Eagle Pass, from accessing our own public park."

The people of Texas and of Harris County merit safety from extremism. It is interesting and maybe a preview of what's to come in Texas and the nation, that the local communities of Eagle Pass and Maverick County  relied on local police to protect themselves from a violent and lawless Republican governor.  

Donald Trump is openly discussing the use of Red State National Guards in Democratic states and in cities all across the nation. There is also serious talk of mass migrant round-ups and deportations in a 2nd Trump term.   

Houston Mayor John Whitmire intends to bring the Department of Public Safety to police the streets of Houston. These DPS troops could easily enforce Texas SB 4 which allows police to turn routine stops into possible deportation situations.

And even if SB 4 is overturned in court which is hopefully what will take place, Greg Abbott's police would be in Houston/Harris County to implement any and all aspects of Trump's second term agenda.

Mayor Whitmire says DPS in Houston would be under city control. Why would we have confidence this would be so? The people of Eagle Pass don't want DPS to block access to a local park. But DPS won't move. When DPS was policing the streets of Austin and were asked to leave by Mayor Kirk Watson after a series of controversies--The reply from DPS was no.  

​And then there was failure and seeming cowardice of DPS during the 2022 mass shooting at the school in  Uvalde. 

We don't need DPS in Houston. We can't count on them for basic aspects of policing, we can't have any trust they will respect local viewpoints & they would be an active danger to Houstonians in a 2nd Trump term.   

The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County. The Project will continue through 2024 at the least. 

Please share word of the Houston Democracy Project and support the effort with your contribution. If you have a question about the Project or a suggestion, please send an e-mail to [email protected].​

The Houston Chronicle has been publishing endorsements for both the Democratic and Republican primaries. Early voting for these primaries begins on February 20 and Primary Election Day is March 5.

The Chronicle should not be endorsing Republican candidates who fail to distance themselves from the election-denial and insurrection of the Republican Party. Silence about extremism is itself extremism.

All Republican  candidates should be asked if they believe Joe Biden won the 2020 election without cheating, and where they stand on Donald Trump's openly-announced plans to suspend civil liberties if back in the White House.     

When you read the Chronicle's Republican endorsements, they attempt to parse between right-wing extremists and further out right-wing extremists.

There are in fact policy differences between Republican primary challengers. Some of them may well be reasonable people. Bipartisanship is essential to democracy.

However, there may be times when there is no rational or pro-democracy bipartisan political party to  partner with.

​Now is such a time.

The Chronicle's view is we should seek the least crazy Republican and hope for the best. We've been trying that strategy for years now and still we move closer and closer to authoritarianism. In almost all cases, even these supposedly even more moderate Republicans accept Donald Trump's leadership of the Republican Party. 

The Chronicle Editorial Board would better serve its readers and the pragmatism it endlessly says it seeks, with a firm and unrelenting advocacy of democracy. It is not pragmatic to pick one Trump supporter over another.  All you get with that is more Trump supporters in public office.  

The more productive and rational course would be to inform readers each and every day that today's Republican Party is anti-democratic, and to encourage readers to do all they can to defeat every Republican on the ballot.  

The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County.  

Please share word of the Houston Democracy Project and support the effort with your contribution. If you have a question about the Project or a suggestion, please send an e-mail to [email protected].

Governor Greg Abbott's seditious siege at the border in Eagle Pass, Texas continues.

Here is what seems to be a good explanation of the current situation from NBC News.

Below are some excerpts of an "Open letter to Greg Abbott, Texas Military Department and Department of Public Safety" in the Eagle Pass Business Journal.

Here is how the Journal describes itself:  

The Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc. was founded in January of 1993 to promote economic development, international trade, and improve the quality of life in Eagle Pass, Texas and its sister-city, Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico.

Since our founding in 1993, the Eagle Pass Business Journal has been a clarion for positive and professional journalism on the United States-Mexico Border.

From the letter:

This past weekend our city experienced a frightening spectacle when you held a major press event at our local Shelby Park with 14 governors from out of state, and excluded any actual Eagle Pass, or U.S.border residents.....Due to your heavy-handed and highly staged media event and dangerous rhetoric about our border community, armed militias from across the United States were inspired to invade our normally quiet, safe, and peaceful border town.....We are lifelong residents of Eagle Pass. This has never happened before. We have never felt unsafe in our border town until this past weekend.....We are grateful to the Eagle Pass Police Department and Maverick County Sheriff’s Office for protecting us and maintaining peace and civility with this chaotic situation that you invited into our Texas city....Our beautiful and safe public park has been taken away from us, and turned into a military style staging area, now being used as a backdrop for political theater by you, who live over 200 miles away, and out-of-state politicians. Even the TV celebrity Dr. Phil, who lives in Beverly Hills, CA was allowed to attend. Meanwhile, local residents can no longer use our park for fishing, kayaking, flea markets, sports, barbecues, quinceañeras, or to have our children play, as we did daily for generations.....The Texas National Guard seizure of Shelby Park is illegal. It has not only blocked federal U.S. Border Patrol agents from entering and patrolling the area, and doing their job, but it has also effectively barred us, the residents and taxpayers of Eagle Pass, from accessing our own public park.....We refuse to be treated as second class citizens in our own town, in our state, in our own country.

Governor Abbott does not care about the people of Eagle Pass or about the border. It's all a show to attack and weaken the United States Constitution & to help elect the traitor Donald Trump.     

The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County.  

Please share word of the Houston Democracy Project and support the effort with your contribution. If you have a question about the Project or a suggestion, please send an e-mail to [email protected].

The Houston Democracy Project attended the endorsement meeting of the Harris County Tejano Democrats.

The Tejano Dems endorsed Sean Teare for Harris County District Attorney in the Harris County Democratic Primary.

Above is a picture from this evening. Mr. Teare on the right and a club official in the center are keeping time on DA Ogg as she addresses the crowd. Let the metaphor here please be correct that Ms. Ogg's time in office is almost up.​

The Houston Democracy Project works daily to inspire, organize and strengthen pro-democracy coalitions in Houston and Harris County.  

Please share word of the Houston Democracy Project and support the effort with your contribution. If you have a question about the Project or a suggestion, please send an e-mail to [email protected]   

​










​​
​​​I went to the monthly Houston LGBTQ Political Caucus meeting tonight to push the Houston Democracy Project. They talked about the recent municipal election. Above you see a slide with the election turnout. 17%

​I'm a big a believer in democracy, there are many reasons people feel discouraged from voting & I can't say I found many of the candidates appealing.

​But we've got to do better than 17%.