Texas House Democrats who left the state to stop the special redistricting session are coming home. 

I'm glad they took off. They can't stay away forever. The rank & file of the party asked they show some fight and they did. I believe this has been helpful in Texas and across the nation. I was not relying on elected officials in the first place and so I'm glad for any help as we fight back. 

Above you see Texas House Democratic Leader Gene Wu from an interview last week. 

He says: "Do something. Get off your ass."  He is asking Texans and all Americans to fully join the fight.  

I don't think we can hear enough from elected officials that the conventional political process alone is not going to be enough. Gene Wu is very much an establishment guy & he is telling us this. 

We must have our own networks of safety, communication and power outside of elected officials and their networks and clients. Part of the work of the Houston Democracy Project is to help form these networks. 

We have the right to disrupt, to take part in general strikes and boycotts, make clear that we have Second Amendment rights like we've been told over and over all our lives & to make clear we will not live in an authoritarian society. 

Elections, candidates and the Democratic Party can be organizing tools and structures for us to meet one another and help form our own networks of power, communication and safety. We want to win elections and we also want our own voice. We want to live freely and have our own power. 

The next action is when you organize it. The First Amendment is your permit. Your existence itself is the only credential you need. You don't need to feel confident to act. Just proceed. 

We saw the importance of citizen leadership in the martial law crisis in South Korea late last year. 

Everything is at stake. We must show up for ourselves, the people in our lives and our freedom. The systems we've trusted at times before don't work.

​We have the capacity to organize ourselves on our terms. 

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.

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Here is the current Houston Democracy Project Houston-area Grassroots Event Calendar. This is my 2nd go-round with this. It will be a permanent feature of the Houston Democracy Project. Please leave a comment or email me at [email protected] if there is something I'm missing. I'm looking to feature autonomous actions outside the networks of elected officials.

The next action is when you organize it. The First Amendment is your permit. Your existence is the only credential needed. You don't need to feel confident to proceed.  

​Here is the list: 

Wednesday, 8/13--The very strong Indivisible Fort Bend County monthly meeting is 6:30-8:30 PM at the University Branch of the Fort Bend County Library at 14010 University Blvd. If you go to the link there is also a Zoom link. 

Thursday 8/14—Egberto Willies’ Politics Done Right broadcasts the weekly Houston Democracy Project hour from 6 AM-7 AM. Politics Done Right is on KPFT 90.1 every weekday morning from 6 to 7 & there is also Egberto’s 3 PM show on YouTube and his Substack. Egberto is essential local independent media who merits support. 

Thursday, 8/14--The weekly protest at the office of the odious Dan Crenshaw is 10 AM-11 AM, at the intersection of Kingwood and Green Oak. This is from Indivisible Kingwood. It is essential people see others like themselves willing to stand openly and confidently for freedom. It's all the more important in Republican areas where folks may not know that neighbors feel just the same way they do. 

Friday, 8/15—The theme of this week’s Indivisible Katy Huddle weekly protest organized by Marsha Kamish at the Social Security office at 13302 Westheimer from noon to one, is opposition to the wrongful Trump-ordered redistricting. They get a decent crowd each week and strong support from passers-by. 

Saturday, 8/16--Indivisible Kingwood is holding a Fight The Take Trump Takeover demonstration at the intersection of West Lake Houston and Kingwood Drive. This is 9 AM. This was announced a few days ago and Indivisible Kingwood is working hard on their own time and dime. Above you see a picture of signs they are printing up this week for the event. 

Sunday, 8/17-There is a weekly protest each Sunday at the Avelo Airlines HQ, 10:30 AM-12: AM, 12 Greenway Plaza. Avelo is flying people abducted by ICE. This event is held by Houston Area People's Advance. (I do not know this group.)

Monday, 8/18—Indivisible No Surrender Coalition of Fort Bend County will demand that very bad Congressman Troy Nehls hold a town hall. This is noon to one at 6510 FM & 359 Rd. S. In Fulshear. The rally is also meant to note the 105th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. They have a great team making these events happen in Fort Bend. 

Tuesday, 8/19—Week 445 of the John Cornyn Houston Office Protest, 11:30-1 at 5300 Memorial Dr. Cornyn called for the FBI to round up the Texas State Representatives who have correctly left the state. The John Cornyn Houston Office Protest is fully autonomous and has kept the act going for well-over 8 years. It is essential that people see others like themselves standing openly and confidently for freedom no mater the aggression of the right. 

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.

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On Tuesday, 8/12, I’m moderating a forum at an Indivisible Kingwood meeting with Harris County District Court Judges Melissa Morris & Natalia Cornelio. Here is the website for the District Courts of Harris County. This is all part of my work on the Houston Democracy Project. 

​(Above is a picture of the Criminal Court House from Wikimedia Commons.)

The meeting will be from 6 PM to 8 PM in the back room at Skeeters Mesquite Grill at 4121 W. Lake Houston. 

Indivisible Kingwood is a great shop with leadership from Cindi Hendrickson and an active membership. They are independent from the Democratic Party and have led the way with candidate forums, a weekly  protest at Dan Crenshaw’s office and well-attended No Kings rallies. 

The task ahead is ours. Nobody is coming to save us. 

I’m not going to say much as moderator of this forum. I don’t know much about courts and the law & the meeting is for the membership rather than myself. 

I’m going to say and ask the following: 

1. With all the attacks on the rule of law, where are the lawyers and professional classes standing up for their profession and the public good? 

2. How on Earth are we losing debates on so-called law and order, when Republicans support an insurrectionist felon for President. 

3. How can you Judges Morris & Cornelio give us the most succinct and effective way to convince other people to support Harris County Democratic Judges? What is the 90 second pitch in plain language ?  

We all have the capacity to effectively advocate for ourselves & for candidates and issues important to us. Our elected officials have an obligation and every reason to make the work easy.

Please join us in Kingwood on Tuesday!

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​​​​

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The John Cornyn Houston Office Protest held an extra Week 443 Part B today to oppose Cornyn calling on the FBI to abduct the Texas State Reps. who have gone to other states.

(The John Cornyn Houston Office Protest meets each Tuesday, 11:30-1, at 5300 Memorial Dr. Next week, 8/15, will be our 444th week.)

We support the elected officials who have done the right thing. They are making a sacrifice and accepting risk. At bottom line, we believe in our own power to show up for ourselves. Each of us are the main act. We will have to accept risk in the difficult days ahead.

Above is our team today. We had 26 on short notice & it was hot. We had a great response from the many passing motorists. It is essential people see others like themselves standing openly and confidently for freedom, no matter the aggression of the right.

Below is me with my sign saying that voting will not be enough. That's true. Voting will not be enough. 

HPD sent 3 units. This is not a criticism of HPD. They were helpful when someone threatened to shoot us a few weeks ago. It's interesting though since we did not tell them we would be there. We are proud at the various stages of life we are in, to be subjects of police monitoring. Very exciting.

It the spirit of helpfulness and cooperation, we ask authorities to be mindful of the large number of local elected officials part of an extreme right-wing political party that supports a felon President & looks the other way at insurrectionists trampling cops. These extremists are in plan view at Houston City Hall, Harris County Commissioner's Court & the Texas State Legislature.

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​​

The Houston 50501 folks are looking to get 50,000 people on the streets on Labor Day, September 1st. Specifics to come. No Kings Day on June 17 had 26,000. 

50,000 can be done. Let's spread the word. 

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​​

​







​​There are many grassroots actions led and organized by Houston-area activists in the days ahead. These are events organized by people who made the decision to step up--People without institutional connections.

The Houston Democracy Project 100% supports the Texas State Representatives who have left the state. At the same time, we have to be mindful that conventional politics are not keeping us safe.

The next action is when you organize it. The First Amendment is your permit. The only credential you need is existence itself.  Take the lead. Show up for yourself and others. Make connections with people you see at events you attend or who you see often on social media. We are all going to need each other in the very challenging days ahead. (Here is an account by someone new to protesting about what she saw & encouraging others to break new personal ground.) 

Upcoming: 

Thursday 8/7 & Friday, 8/8—Egberto Willies’ Politics Done Right will be broadcasting from Netroots Nation in New Orleans. You can see and hear it all on Egberto’s YouTube page. Politics Done Right is on KPFT 90.1 every weekday morning from 6 to 7 & there is also Egberto’s 3 PM show on YouTube and on his Substack. Egberto is great and essential local independent media who merits support. 

Thursday, 8/7--The weekly protest at the office of the odious Dan Crenshaw is 10 AM-11 AM, at the intersection of Kingwood and Green Oak. This is from Indivisible Kingwood. It is essential people see others like themselves willing to stand openly and confidently for freedom. It's all the more important in Republican areas where folks may not know that neighbors feel just the same way they do. 

Friday, 8/8—The theme of this week’s Indivisible Katy Huddle weekly protest organized by Marsha Kamish at the Social Security office at 13302 Westheimer from noon to one, is opposition to the wrongful Trump-ordered redistricting. They get a decent crowd each week. 

Saturday, 8/9-There is a weekly protest each Saturday at the Avelo Airlines HQ, 10:30 AM-12: AM, 12 Greenway Plaza. Avelo is flying people abducted by ICE. This event is held by Houston Area People's Advance. (I do not know this group.)

Saturday, 8/9--Houston 50501 is staging a Houston Overpass Protest. The initial meet-up is at the Will Weber Baseball Field at 4648 Dunlavy. The overpass is a couple of block away. This event runs from 10 to noon. Houston 50501 keeps getting it done on behalf of democracy. 

Sunday, 8/10—Houston patriot Diana Martinez Alexander is organizing Educators Stand Against ICE at 6 PM on the Hazard St. Bridge over I-59. Diana asks that you bring signs of love and support as a new school year begins with ICE in our communities. Diana shows up for everybody. You see word of this action up above. 

Tuesday, 8/12—Week 444 of the John Cornyn Houston Office Protest, 11:30-1 at 5300 Memorial Dr. If you need some extra encouragement to go, Cornyn has called for the FBI to round up the Texas State Representatives who have correctly left the state. The John Cornyn Houston Office Protest is fully autonomous and has kept the act going for well-over 8 years. 

Tuesday, 8/12—Indivisible Kingwood will host a meeting featuring Harris County Judges Natalia Cornelio and Melissa Morris. I will be the host. This is 6 PM-8 PM at Skeeter's Mesquite Grill, 4121 W. Lake Houston. One thing we are going to talk about is how the Judges can empower people to concisely and effectively explain the decisions they make and why people should vote for them. Cindi Hendrickson does a great job leading Indivisible Kingwood. 

Monday, 8/18—Indivisible No Surrender Coalition of Fort Bend County will demand that very bad Congressman Troy Nehls hold a town hall. This is noon to one at 6510 FM & 359 Rd. S. In Fulshear. The rally is also meant to note the 105th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. They have a great team making these events happen in Fort Bend. 

​I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​​

​




 This post is mostly written by Carol Wells who lives just outside Houston. It is about a protest she took part in this past weekend at a for-profit prison that is processing ICE detainees. She posted it on Facebook. I'm using it with her permission.

(The picture above is from the protest and taken by Nora Dayton. Nora has been chronicling protests around Houston. It's important work and I'll have a post about Nora's efforts soon.)

Carol says this was the 2nd protest she has ever attended. She offers thoughts on what she experienced.  Carol and her sister as well went outside what they normally do, and shared what they saw. 

Voting is not going to be enough to get us out of this nightmare we are living through. Most of are never going to be organized by any group. We must show up for ourselves. Carol is a great example of showing up for ourselves, and of leadership in explaining what she saw as a way of encouraging others to also join the fight. 

From Carol: 

Thoughts on a Protest

My sister and I participated in the August 3rd protest at the Core Civic Houston Processing Center, a for-profit prison corporation and Trump campaign donor that is profiting from ICE rounding up and detaining people. It was eye-opening to see the facility and its location, even if only from the outside.

I appreciated the energy from the protestors, who were made up of various organizations, as well as non-affiliated folks like us. Speeches were made, chants were chanted. Notable were the call and responses of "¡Viva [fill in the country]!" aimed at the detainees, who evidently can hear them inside.

As this was only our second protest (the first being the 50501 Houston Good Trouble protest/march in downtown Houston), we learned more about group dynamics, as well as protest "rules." After standing across the street from fellow protestors for an hour or so, everyone rushed to our side on the sidewalk at the end. A woman right in front of me started screaming "F@%k HPD/Core Civic" and kept stepping off the sidewalk on to the grass, which we were told not to do because it was private property. An HPD (Houston Police Department) officer calmly told her to back up but she kept putting a toe over the line. The officer warned her she would be arrested if she didn't step back. The crowd was shoulder to shoulder and there were megaphones blasting our ears. I felt like it could go wrong and we'd be knocked down by the crowd.

I don't have a loved one inside the facility so can not speak directly to the anguish, but I can share the rage against the regime and all those enabling and profiting from it, like Core Civic. My ambiguity comes from the tactic of screaming "F&%k HPD" and "F&%k Core Civic" in the faces of low-level employees. Earlier in the protest a speaker had implored to the humanity of both HPD and Core Civic employees, saying we understand they need the jobs to support their families, but they also have rights and a moral obligation to do the right thing. This seems like a better tactic when 10 feet away from a captive audience.

My sister and I extracted ourselves from the crowd and stood on the edge of the gathering. An HPD officer approached us and told us our metal poster holders were not allowed; she calmly showed us a professionally printed template (pictured) with rules for protest signs. Who knew? This made me realize we had put ourselves in further danger, because of our non-compliant poles, when in close proximity of the defiant protestors.

I'm not writing this to dissuade anyone from protesting, I encourage everyone to get out there. Just learn from my naiveté -- be aware of your surroundings, and if you're uncomfortable with a particular group or groups find another. Or protest in your own way, whether that's online, one-on-one with a neighbor, or on your own street corner.
​
Would welcome your thoughts or own experiences. This is all new and perplexing.

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​​

​Most Texas House of Representatives Democrats have left the state, to prevent the ongoing special legislative session planning to pass Trump-ordered redistricting for Texas U.S. House seats. 

Many representatives have reportedly gone to Chicago. Above is a picture I took of Chicago in 2012. 

Here are some thoughts: 

1. Thank you to the representatives who left. It means time away from family and work. Because both Texas and the United States are governed by authoritarian white supremacists, there is real risk to what they are doing. Below you see a tweet from horrible Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton saying House Democrats should be "hunted down." We must support them. 

2. As our elected employees who signed up for service fully knowing the stakes involved in politics today, they had an obligation to skip the state. Thank you to all the rank and file, grassroots Texas Democrats who made it clear that the expectation was that the representatives would go.

3. This teamwork of grassroots expectations and elected officials stepping up in a way that involves both sacrifice and risk, is a helpful model for the very difficult days ahead.

4. When martial law was declared in South Korea last year, members of the National Assembly and the general public relied on each other to push back. These efforts were successful. We need one another to keep each other safe, and to keep hope of getting through this nightmare we are experiencing in Texas and the nation. 

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​​

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I went to the Rage Against The Regime rally today, 8/2, at Houston City Hall. There were about 100 people. The event was put on nationally by national 50501 & organized locally by the Houston 50501 crew. It’s all volunteer. There were also events today in Conroe and Kingwood and an afternoon protest at an ICE detention center.

I spoke today. Anyone could come up and speak. So I did. The picture above is the rally today.

Here are the points from today from what I said & what others said:

1. Don’t wait for permission to act. The First Amendment is your permit. The next action is when you organize it.

2. Nobody is coming to organize most of us. There is great work being done by people just like us all across the Houston-region. It is the rank & file taking the lead.

3. Each of the 100 people present have the capacity to speak to others about what is going on and to act against authoritarianism.

4. The intent of the right is to take our representation, take our rights and kill many of us. We are not necessary in Peter Thiel’s A.I. world where only a few white babies are needed. That's why they don't care if we are flooded away or don't have any money. 

5. Electeds, their networks and politically-orientated non-profits can’t protect themselves. How can they keep us safe? They ask us to sustain them and help keep them safe, but most often don't share resources. They are rarely there when we are taking physical risks in our interactions with the right & at times with police.

6. We must be ready to be disruptive. 

​I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​​​