Max Powers

Veronica Escobar: Lost It?

Your County Judge, Veronica Escobar, may have lost it.

Proof?

Check it:

Source: El Paso Times

 

What was she thinking wearing THAT one-piece?

She almost blends in with the floral arrangements in front of the stage.

If that were not bad enough, then there's the open-toed heels.

If Escobar is trying to project strength and confidence, she sure did not do it with the way she dressed.

For better or for worse, elected officials - men and women - have a uniform, and it is rather conservative and for good reason. 

But let's say you are an elected official and you want to mix it, you can, but be careful.

If you are not careful, you will end up looking like you just walked out of your house in a muumuu and chanclas.

Family Feud - Shakeup in El Paso's Donor Class

If you want to raise money to run a race in El Paso there is a list of usual suspects who you hit up for money.

In the first tier you have Paul Foster and Woody Hunt.

In the second tier are folks like Maria Teran.

Then the fourth tier are folks like Ted Houghton.   And nobody likes asking Ted Houghton for anything. 

I forgot to mention the third tier. 

In the third tier you have folks like the Bowlings of Tropicana Homes fame. 

With the Bowlings - Greg, Bobby Randy and Dad - usually if you are good with one, you are good with them all.

If Bobby gave to State Representative Mary Gonzalez, Greg and Randy would too as well.

But that may no longer be the case.

Bobby and Randy are being sued by Dad and Greg - Download CaseDetail_aspx    

And what are lawsuits about?

Money.

What does this mean for candidates?

I don't know, but you probably should not assume if one brother gave you money that the other one will. 

To make things even more complicated, you have to determine which brother now has more money than the other. 

But why bother with all that?

You can make your life a lot easier by not asking any of the Bowlings for money, that way you do not have worry about setting off some political-familial trip switch.

 

 

 

Veronica Escobar: State of the County Address

Your County Judge, Veronica Escobar, will deliver a State of the County speech on Wednesday.

Now I cannot imagine Escobar will talk about the firing of the County's first ever, County Administrator.  A position she said was necessary.  Oops.

And I cannot imagine Escobar will want to talk more than she has to about the El Paso Children's Hospital.  Again, something that she championed to create.

And I doubt she really wants to talk about UMC CEO Jim Valenti.

Or about emailing bloggers.

So what is she going to talk about?

Per the El Paso Times:

In her speech, the county judge will also highlight some of the reforms that were implemented a few years back.

That's right.

Escobar will be talking about the past. 

Someone wiser than myself once said that those who talk about the past have no future. 

 

Maybe I Missing Something...

Believe it or not, but we do not get a hardcopy of the El Paso Times in Dallas.

I know, right?

So I have a question that you may, or may not, have an answer to?

Where's Joe Muench?

I know he's retired, but that did not stop him, or Bob Moore, from running a column every Sunday.

You would think that guy would have something to say about everything going on at the City and County.

Either he crossed over into the next plane of existence (in which case, "my bad"), or Moore just did not like what Muench was going to say about everything going on at the City and County.

 

What Jim Tolbert Gets Wrong

I consider myself to be something of a tree-hugger.

That being said, I don't always agree with other tree-huggers...like Jim Tolbert and his most recent post about El Paso Electric and its proposed rate hike concerning solar.

Tolbert likes to beat up on oil and gas.

But he either is naïve or he thinks you are naïve.

The ugly truth is that solar needs oil.

Crystalline silicon solar panels (the most common panels) cannot be produced without an encapsulant and backsheet (backing for the solar panel).  Those two products do not exactly grow on trees. 

If not for oil, you would not have those two products, and thereby have no solar, or at least solar as we know it.

As though oil isn't bad enough, Tolbert then beats up on natural gas for being "dirty", but little does he tell you about the processes used to make the solar cells that are used in a solar panel (it is water and chemical intensive).

The funny thing is that he praises batteries.  Never mind the fact that batteries itself can be a nasty business from the production of it to the mining of the raw material to produce it.

I personally hate "renewable" and "green" energy labels. 

Solar power is just one form of energy among others. 

But one way it stands out from all other forms of energy - oil, coal, wind, biomass, etc. - is that almost anyone can harvest its power. 

I am all for solar, but it should be discussed in the most practical of terms.  Some of its biggest cheerleaders would do solar a big favor if they were not so sanctimonious in the way they go about promoting and defending it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If You're Gonna Recall Something...

...why not recall the arena?

I'm just saying.

I mean just asking.

$180 million dollars, not including operations and maintenance costs, just to host the Harlem Globetrotters. 

You know how much more trolley you can get with that $180 million?

If only you knew.

 

 

 

 

El Paso Electric and Solar

Apparently El Paso Electric likes solar, except when it doesn't.

That is not to say El Paso Electric is some sort of boogie man.

El Paso Electric just wants to make money. 

No, that's not a bad thing. 

On the other hand, solar installers also want to make money, and finally have the opportunity to do so given how much the cost of equipment has dropped.

But let's not get caught up in the dollars and cents at least not right away.

Let's look at something else instead. 

Geography. 

Unlike in other major cities in Texas, in El Paso you can get by with a swamp cooler.  The higher altitude and desert climate let El Pasoans cool down with something that is much cheaper than a HVAC system.  You could have a solar installation in Dallas or Austin, but will still need to pull from the grid in the summer because the HVAC system is working overtime, and you need more than what your solar installation can produce. 

In El Paso?

El Pasoans probably use less electricity than folks in other parts of Texas. 

If you are an El Pasoan with a solar installation, you might get away with not pulling power from the grid during the summer, and even if you do, it would be nowhere near as much as it would be in other places in Texas.

So back to those dollars and cents.

Using less electricity, means the utility bills you less.  Which good for you, but bad for the utility.

And if more and more folks in El Paso are installing solar, you can see why El Paso Electric is not all that thrilled.

In some ways though this "fight" if you want to call that, mirrors that of Uber and taxis.  Utilities are the taxis.  For so long it has a built-in market, but then all of sudden somebody shows up and says, "Look, I can offer you something better!" thereby give you something you have not had before - a choice.

But in another way, this does not really mirror that fight.

Almost everyone that has a residential solar installation is on-grid.  In this regard, yes, the utility is basically subsidizing your solar installation.  An off-grid solar installation with a battery back-up will cost you at the very least double, if not triple, than that of an on-grid system. 

Why is off-grid so much more expensive? Batteries. 

I am not sure many homeowners want to sacrifice a room to store all their back-up batteries. 

When it comes to money, both sides have a point.

But when it comes to the environment, which I did not bring up, one side probably has the stronger point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foundation PSA

Some my advice to women, transgendered women, and guys who just like to party...

Easy on the foundation. 

I get it. 

You want to cover your pores...never mind the fact burying your pores actually makes things worse for them.

Just don't get to0 crazy like this...

 

I don't know normally wear foundation, but when I do...

 

 

Lawyer Ball: Why The Rangers Collapsed

Max has not been frequently posting.  Too much going on.  Much of it heartbreak.  Argentina v Ecuador.  Then Argentina v Paraguay.  Sure, that was a tie, but Argentina needs the 3 points.

Then, the US v Mexico.  No, that was not Klinsmann's fault.

And now the Texas Rangers.

I am not saying I am a die-hard Rangers fan.  Although I once was, back when Geno Petralli and Ruben Sierra were on the team. 

But what happened yesterday is proof that the American League baseball gods hate it when American League teams play National League baseball.

Odor had been great this series against Toronto, but yesterday went too far for the AL baseball gods. 

Yes, according to the rulebook, Odor scoring off of an odd bounce of the ball off a bat from a routine throw from a catcher was a-okay.

But that's problem.

In American League ball, if you have to whip out a rulebook to determine things, that's when the AL baseball gods smite you, and smite they did. 

Bottom half of the seventh inning, Toronto destroyed Texas.

Now I know a lot here are saying, "Well, it was an incredible season, let's not lose perspective."

That's bullsh*it.

I know we get back Yu Darvish next season, but there's no guarantee you will return to the post-season.  The Astros are getting better, and the Angels are not far behind. 

Once you are in the post-season, you better get it done. 

You beat a team two games in a row on the road, you better win one at home. 

But if you cannot, and you are an AL team, you have to win the hard way, and not the cute way.

That being said, I'll be pulling for the Blue Jays for the rest of the way. 

 

 

 

 

El Paso Times and Women

Over the weekend the El Paso Times published a piece regarding local efforts to empower women.

Which is funny that the El Paso Times would report about such a thing given the way it does not empower women.

Take State Representative Marisa Marquez.

If not for Marquez, UTEP probably would not have secured funding for its pharmacy school.

But you would not know that from reading the El Paso Times.

But if State Senator Jose Rodriguez is named chair of a political caucus that won't move the needle for El Paso (more on this later)?  STOP THE PRESSES!!!

"But Max, the El Paso Times likes women, it supports City Representative Claudia Ordaz!!!"

Yes, the El Paso Times does like Ordaz.

But liking or supporting a woman who takes orders for her fiancé, and from an unemployed, middle-aged, deadbeat blogger is not exactly empowering.  What kind of message is the Times sending to women?

Speaking of Ordaz, it is rather interesting that El Paso Times never ran a story about her text messages, yet it ran a story about a text message between two female legislators a few years ago.  Say what you will about that those women, but they ain't taking orders from men. 

And take City Representative Niland. 

The El Paso Times will run a story about Niland and how she may or may not get along with another colleague, but nothing on Ordaz.  Niland, unlike Ordaz, does not take orders from overweight county bureaucrats, or overweight bloggers. 

Again, what kind of message is the El Paso Times sending to women who think for themselves?

And if you are a woman who works at the El Paso Times, how can you?