Max Powers

El Paso Needs $45 Million...I Know Where It Can Find It!...Parte Two

So yes, El Paso, if you are having buyer's remorse on that arena, you can get a do-over.

But some on City Council do not want that.

City Representative Claudia Ordaz thinks democracy is "fiscally irresponsible."

Seriously.

Ordaz thinks spending $200,000 on a election is more fiscally irresponsible than spending $180 million to build an arena sans tenant.  Again, that $180 million does not include all that maintenance costs you will be on the hook for.

Then there is City Representative Jim Tolbert who might be a bigger moron than Ordaz.

Tolbert is still carrying water for the folks who have already thrown his ass downstream. 

"But the voters spoke in 2012!!!"

And?

Five years ago, El Pasoans were in a different place. 

Five years ago, El Paso Children's Hospital was solvent.

Five years ago, Susie Byrd kinda matter.

Five years ago...well, you get the picture.

Shite, you get vote to for a president every four years. 

Why should you not a get do-over on a bond-item that was approved, but has not come to fruition in five years time?

If you build it, you might get lucky and this might be the worst-case scenario - Memphis.

Again, "might" and "lucky".

Maybe this just might be an opening for mayoral candidate Emma Acosta.

Acosta should ditch the arena, and run with this..."My opponent wants you to pay for an arena that you will not step foot in and only benefits his contracting and real estate friends.  I  rather spend that money on fixing the roads your drive on every morning and evening. We do not always have to live with our mistakes, we can correct them."

 

 

 

 

 

El Paso Needs $45 Million...I Know Where It Can Find It!

Per the El Paso Times, the City needs $45 million for "critical repairs" of your streets.

No problem. 

The City is about to spend $180 million to build a new arena. 

Forgo the arena, and you have about $180 million for streets.

"But Max, the voters approved the money for arena not street repairs!"

Hmmmm.

Let say City Council says, "Phuck it.  We are not building the arena."

What happens next?

Does the City get sued for not building the arena? And if so, by who?

Do City Representatives get re-called or lose their re-election campaigns because they are not going to piss away $180 million?  Oh, the $180 million is a baseline number that does not include all the operational costs associated with maintaining the arena for years to come.

Is there anything in the City Charter that prohibits of voters from getting a do-over?  If El Paso residents can re-call an elected official, why cannot it recall a bond item?

If the choice is to build an arena that you will likely never visit, or fix the road that you travel on daily, what would you choose?

 

 

 

Re-Elect Jim Tolbert

Now that Susie Crow...err...Susie Byrdhas openly ditched City Representative Jim Tolbert in the comments section of David K's blog, I figure why not try help the man out.

Byrd dumping Tolbert is probably the best thing to happen to Tolbert.

Tolbert no longer has to pretend to like things he does not. 

So what does Tolbert need to do?

Tolbert is kinda of an envirofascist, but oddly enough, he has been kinda of disappointing envirofascist.

If there was a time for Tolbert to embrace his inner Captain Planet, it is now

There was this old environmentalist mantra, "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle."

What Tolbert needs to focus on "Reduce". 

The idea behind "reduce" is if you are not buying shit you do not need, you are actually helping the environment. 

In the case of the downtown arena, the City is buying shit it does not need.

Any time the City wants to spend something on shit it does not need, Tolbert should think, "They are phucking with Gaia.  Now I'm gonna phuck with them."

Tolbert just needs to come out guns blazing like as though someone did not invite him to eat steak- "I was wrong, I was wrong to think that tax-and-spend people like Susie Byrd and Veronica Escobar had El Paso's interests at heart, when in fact they care only about themselves.  I regret associating with these people.  They are very self-absorbed, racist people..." I could go on, but at that point I am working for a steak. 

 

 

 

This is why Bob Moore Sucks

So there is an editorial in today's El Paso Times about State Representative Joe Moody's weed bill.

So what do us Bob Moore think?

"It deserves debate!"

After laying out a case "for" Moody's bill, Moore lets Moody down but advocating only for debate of the bill, not the actual bill itself.

The editorial is the equivalent of "I think you are a great guy, but let's be friends!"

You would think the hard-on that Moore has for Congressman Beto O'Rourke would be the same for Moody given O'Rourke's views on current drug policy. 

But I guess because it is not O'Rourke doing it, Moore gets only a semi for Moody.

Speaking of current drug policy, has O'Rourke filed anything concerning drug policy?  Or does he just talk about it?

 

 

Poor Jim

I almost feel sorry for City Representative Jim Tolbert.  Almost. 

Why?

Well, his own friends, like Susie Byrd, have phucked him over.

Remember when the El Paso Times did a big story on City Representative Claudia Ordaz's text messages that I received through an open records request?

Hard time remembering?

Well, don't try too hard because it did not happen.

I pull an open records request on Tolbert and post an email about steak?

The El Paso Times goes to DEFCON 1.

You would think Tolbert's alleged friends like Byrd and County Judge Veronica Escobar, who are de facto editors of the El Paso Times, would have told the Times not to run it.  But they did not.

Why bother putting up with Byrd and Escobar if you are not getting the media protection that they bestow on themselves and their other friends?

Tolbert has gone to bat for those asshats, but they will be more-or-less AWOL as he has to fend off five challengers.

Sure, Byrd and Escobar will say they support Tolbert, but when Tolbert calls for help, his so-called friends will come up with a myriad of reasons as to why they do not have time to.

Escobar will say something like that, "Jim, you have my endorsement, but I have to be in Austin this week, and next week I will be in D.C. with the Congressman measuring my drapes."

So what's Jim to do if he cannot count on his alleged friends?

He should start expediting some paving projects in his district.

 

 

 

Here and there...

A few thoughts:

• Souvenirs, anyone? - Max is heading to Portugal this weekend so if you want a souvenir, please let me know.  But to be honest, the only person I want to buy a souvenir for is Veronica Escobar.  In a past life - oddly enough in Portugal - her and I were an item, but I got so tired of her shit that I boarded a ship that set sail for the Americas.  Look, divorce was not an option back then. 
• Tommy Gonzalez FTW - Technically the credit goes to El Paso CFO Mark Sutter, but phuck it I will give credit to Gonzalez.  Gonzalez was able to undo his predecessor's multi-million phuck-up by a few million.
• President Donald Trump - Of the two New York Democrats running for President, I voted for the real New Yorker.  And so far so awesome.  Do not get me wrong, I am actually supportive of Hillary Clinton's vision of a borderless Western Hemisphere...it was what our Spanish ancestors wanted for us.
• Iran - Ah, yes. The "Muslim" Ban.  Now, I have been inconvenienced by CBP before at MIA.  I get it.  A young man with my name traveling solo and not having shaved for a few couple weeks...well, it looks a bit suspicious.  But I did not bitch and moan about it?   Nope.  If missing my connecting flight was the most I lost that day, I still have it pretty good.  If Iranians are being inconvenienced by an executive order, that is more the Iranian government's fault than America's.  I could go on, but that's exhausting and really boring. 
• El Paso Delegation - DPS has not been able to locate State Representative Lina Ortega since she went missing in the Capitol trying to find a restroom last month.  State Representative Cesar Blanco is no longer bumping uglies with Mary Gonzalez. 

End.

 

Why Beto O'Rourke Should NOT Run for Senate.

Two words.

This. Douchebag.

 

Here you go folks. Country over Party from my pickup truck in Texas at home. https://t.co/v1sLCEhGTX pic.twitter.com/qoOBHDr85t

— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) February 1, 2017

Matthew Dowd knows better.

He knows he will not win as an independent candidate for US Senate.

Now, I do not know if Dowd is running in an exercise of self-aggrandizement or he is running to help a potential Democratic candidate - in this case El Paso's own Beto O'Rourke - win by playing spoiler. 

Either way, it ain't good for Beto.

Turn out in mid-term elections suck enough already. 

Some asshole who just bought a pickup truck last week to sell t-shirts made it that much more difficult. 

It would be stupid to think that Dowd would pull votes, or enough votes, from Cruz to allow Beto to win.

Remember a while back when twenty people ran against then-Governor Rick Perry?  Perry still won. Among the candidates, one was a former Democrat, who turned Republican, and then turned independent...much like Dowd.

"But Max! The Resistance!"

Democrats are hoping yet again all people with Hispanic surnames will turnout and vote because Trump hates beaners or something.

Well, then if you are a Democrat, you better hope that Trumps does end up deporting all those millions of undocumented immigrants to create the fear factor necessary to get the turn out you desire. 

But I am willingly to place a wager that those deportations will not happen and come 2018 your abuela will not give a shit about the mid-term election, assuming she even gave a caca at all. 

I have long been in the tank for Beto, even though he does some stupid shit from time-to-time by getting all Vero, and think he would be a great Senator.  He has a tough - some might say impossible - road ahead if he wants to be Senator though.   But things will go from tough to shahid if Beto also has to run against Dowd as well.