Refuse the Juice

The Bizarre teachers union thing gets more bizarre

I've had at least a dozen people try to explain to me how this teacher's union non-endorsement of Dori all came about. It's either very confusing or Jaime Abeytia and his boss Vero are trying to make more out of it than it is. 

From what I gather someone on Dori's team simply related that they thought some teachers liked her.  Then the teachers union head, Ross Moore, goes apoplectic over the comment and has spent every waking minute since that day trying to shit on Dori. 

When I talk to people who know a lot about the situation they tell me that Dori was absolutely sure she was never going to get Ross Moore to endorse her.  Moore had been extremely vocal about his hatred for Dori, the Super and the rest of the school board in the past.  Teachers within the EPISD district are fuming at Moore's personal vendetta against these folks and his inability to represent the teachers in a way that's beneficial to them. 

I've got an email... as all of you probably got... And why did we all get it?  Because it's so deranged and insane that you'd think it came from a guy so paranoid he's got a rail car buried in his backyard with a year's worth of ramen stocked up.  We're talking about a guy who is using a public union for his personal revenge... Dori and friends have always known this guy had no intent on endorsing her and that's why her team didn't even bother wasting their time filling out the questionnaire Moore sent around. 

Moore's weird rant -  Download Ross Moore emails.

The guy is in some kind of paranoid induced fight with rich people in El Paso who support education choices.  At no point does he really make a case for teachers and doing his best to make sure they are represented.  He's just pissed at a list of people... a list of people who may want to seek a restraining order against the guy because his next step could be physical violence.  This is the kind of ranting you find on a guy's computer after he goes and hurts people. 

The tone here is truly terrifying and while Jaime and I disagree, I usually respect his judgement on people... not here. Jaime is covering for a mad man bent on revenge.  What's worse is Jaime is tying himself to it because Vero thinks it's  a strategy.  Believe me, no union member, or union supporter, in the world thinks Ross Moore is doing anything other than hurting their cause.  Jaime's helping them hurt their cause by backing this Moore guy. 

All the teachers I talk to don't care that Dori didn't get an endorsement of the teacher's union. They knew she wouldn't. Dori knew she wouldn't.  Jaime knew she wouldn't.  Dori, being smart, didn't bother to fill out the union's candidate questionnaire because it's a waste of time. She's known for months that she'd never get that endorsement. Instead, she went and made contact with voters, which is always a better use of a candidate's time. 

Also, everybody knows that every single candidate the NE democrats got questions before hand. Apparently one candidate was given even more access... that candidate told Jaime Abeytia to say only Dori got the questions ahead of time knowing that was a lie.  Think about who's willing to lie to you just to win and ask yourself what else they might lie about...

 

NE straw grasping and the "investigation"

My buddy Jaime has a ton of egg on his face after it came out that his boss Vero had the questions before the debate at the NE Democrats.  Video evidence made him change his argument from "Dori cheated" to "Dori is a RINO."  Guess he won't set the record straight.  Bottom line - the Vero crowd has been rocked by this endorsement.  I'm not sure why they care so much about this one, but they do.  

There's a rumor former Mayor Leeser could jump into this race at the last minute.  That would create a run-off, but not I'm sure if it would be Dori or Vero facing him at this point.  I would say that Leeser needs to throw more personal money at this race than he did at the mayor's race in order to really get a foothold. 

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Yes, KVIA did report that the DPS "turned over their findings" to the El Paso District Attorney's office.  Once again, no names were tied to the "findings," so KVIA continues to defame sitting and former members of council.  It's unethical to assume someone is under criminal investigation.  You must get complete verification that each person is under investigation. 

Someone close to the whole issue has given me a scenario that is quite interesting and has happened in Texas before.  One member of council texts each other member of council independently begging them to meet them at the local coffee shop at a certain time.  All of the other city council members show up at exactly the same time... a picture is snapped.  You now have a proof a quorum and a secret meeting.  Who should be charged with crime here?

THIS NOT WHAT HAPPENED IN EL PASO.  However, there are certain pieces of information that show a least a few of the city council members that showed up wouldn't have known others would be there.   But even that doesn't matter given what has taken place with the so-called "investigation."

The city council members, city staff and others "in the know" laugh at the idea that any investigation was conducted at all.  And it surely wasn't conducted by the Public Corruption Unit of the Texas Rangers because they send their findings up to the Texas DAs office (why would you let a corrupt local DA try the case you built against his friends?).  That leaves the one or two Texas Rangers that are in and around the El Paso area... two guys who do a lot of fugitive recovery operations and not a lot of white collar crimes involving history nerds and local electeds squabbling over whether or not a building is old and significant or just old. 

Interesting as well is that the targets of the "investigation" have never ever been contacted to even confirm basic details.  City staff told me that nobody has asked to review the surveillance tapes KVIA has and that it would be odd for a law enforcement agency to rely on a tape from a local news channel when an official copy is available.  None of the people who were not in elected office, but in that meeting, were ever questioned by anyone about anything to do with the situation.   Wouldn't you ask the history nerds what was talked about in there?  There's your smoking gun!  Yet, none of them were contacted by anyone.  

So... I asked a lawyer buddy here in Austin what might be going on.  He laughed and in so many words said "The Rangers sat on that file, read it and kindly returned it to the DA with a note asking to no longer waste their time."  A longer discussion revealed that whatever the DA turned over could have been literally read by one guy and he simply referred it back to the DA saying he didn't find anything wrong.  The DPS has to report that it returned its "findings" to the DA - they didn't say those findings were good or bad.  To assume that because the DPS did its duty means that we have five guilty politicos is flat out stupid.  KVIA, Jaime and YOY don't know what's in those "findings."  All we do know is that it's been the laziest "investigation" in the history of investigations... I take that back, my daughter trying to find her lost shoe is probably lazier than this "investigation." 

So why are Jaime and KVIA so hot to trot on this?

Leeser's pending announcement of his run for congress.  The timing coincides with the rumor... they're doing to him what they did to Tolbert.  Inventing and investigation to tarnish his name.  Susie's MO.  Something she learned from archenemy Norma Chavez.  Notice you don't hear the other names associated with the incident until they run against Jaime's employer's puppets. Vero is scared and so now the dirty shit throwing part of the campaign starts. 

Leeser has the means to go after these guys. There is zero evidence he's under investigation by anyone.  He should make it hurt to lie. 

Setting the record straight...

My friend Jaime was told to write a blog about the NE Democrats candidate forum.  Why?  Because Vero's team go caught doing something and needed to start playing some offense.  

Jaime says that Dori had all the questions in advance and the other contestants (ha ha!) did not.  The truth is that they all had the questions in advance.  Jaime wasn't at the forum, so he doesn't know exactly what was said and by whom.  Someone at the forum made a video of the whole thing.  Turns out Jaime has been used to lie about the situation. 

From the email I got:

https://youtu.be/4aPgp3x1mNw

39-minute mark is where Dori talked about Vero receiving questions that were given. Questions given to everyone, not Escobar were different.

56:18-minute mark is where Dori talks about campaigns trying to pull 'gotcha' moments

57:15-minute mark is where Dori addresses receiving the questions as well.

 

It's obvious that Jaime and his boss are big Dallas Cowboy fans.  It's sooo obvious... When they win it's because they are the best and when they lose it's because the other team/ref/crowd cheated.  

Super PACs - I have many, but you can't have one

It appears that Dori has some kind of Super PAC organized by some folks in El Paso to push voters her way in the primary.  The thing is - these Super PACs can not coordinate with the campaign.  This means Dori's team will have zero control over what they do and say.  This always makes campaigns fun.  Often, the Super PAC does what a candidate's own team can't, or won't, do.  The fun stuff comes from the Super PACs.

Now, you're going to hear a lot of rumors about who, what and how this thing got formed. It's likely before the end of the week the other blogs will claim that President Trump himself started the PAC for Dori.  None of the claims will be true.  And even if it were true, do you care?  

I mean, if you care about Super PACs and whose behind them, then you're going to love the Republican Super PACs gearing up to support Vero.... just like they supported Beto.  Yep, they've got the biggest Republican donors in the state and the country supporting Vero and that means they are bringing their mercenaries with them too (mercenaries = Super PAC... it's to make it seem so much more sexy).  

So, if you're a mouthpiece for Vero and want to shake your finger at Dori's Super PACs, you might look inward first.  

The non-story that is now a story that nobody cares about

So two teachers unions with local chapters endorsed Vero.  Awesome.  With a good chance that there will be a lot of Rs crossing over to defeat the more liberal candidate, this just emboldens them.  But, hey all the teachers will do exactly what their union says to do right? Wrong. 

Believe it or not a few teachers read this blog.  They've told me that the unions themselves sway the teachers no direction when it comes to elections.  The teachers, among themselves, chat about potential school board candidates and create a consensus of who'd be good to them.  I'm also correct when I say that no matter who wins, the teachers always end up hating them.  The school board vs. teachers - the fight that never stops.  

So... that leaves us here with this weird story about somebody in Dori's campaign saying something about an endorsement.  Oh wait, was it someone with the teachers union who said it?  Or was is just something someone didn't hear correctly?  

Does it matter?  Before Jaime made a big deal about it, nobody really knew/cared what the teachers thought.  Once Jaime exposed the story to the light you get the impression that the teacher unions can't really get their shit straight and you might just question their judgement on candidate endorsements. 

When you're grasping at straws your hands will get all sticky.  (you see what I did there? I have modernized the saying to mean drinking straws where it once meant straws of a grass-like crop... I am changing the way we write, one blog post at a time... or not)

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 A quick word on endorsements... 

I work in the political world and I have run for office.  The general rule for an endorsement from most groups is that they automatically endorse the person holding an elected office. If both candidates are office holders they usually pick the one in higher office. In this case that would be Vero.  These rules are rarely bent or broken.  

When I was running I talked to a lot of local groups.  I knew the game.  I knew I'd never get an endorsement because I was running against an incumbent.  However,  I was told by a few groups that they'd be individually voting for me over my opponent because they actually liked me.  This means endorsements are basically useless. 

And yes, I ran for office and lost big.  I know all of you can't wait to put that in the comments.  You want to make fun of a person for trying.  You want to put someone down for doing what we have always told our kids to do - try hard if you want to succeed.  It's you morons who have created a society where when a woman is being beat to death in the street you whip your phone out to record it rather than help.  It's you morons who have created a generation of little pricks who would rather poke fun at others for trying and failing than ever trying to succeed themselves.  Being there to laugh at those who have the guts to try is now a position in society that is celebrated.  It's sad.  

The arena argument doesn't need to change

On a flight yesterday I finally caught up with my Texas Monthly pile.  I saw the article on Duranguito.  I thought it was very well written and captured a lot of the points that need to be maid... you know, how Duranguito was invented a year ago, but also how the area does have some cultural significance.  I was dismayed, however, that Texas Monthly continues to lean on David Romo who makes it up as he goes... the guy is no more an expert on El Paso than I - being that neither of us live there.  None of what he claimed about the area was true, and it's a shame they didn't catch that.  Also, there was the hole Pancho Villa thing... The guy murdered Chinese people by the thousands because they were Chinese.  There is no difference between Pancho and Hitler.  I have no idea why El Pasoans can't see that. 

Anywho... 

The anti-arena crowd keeps moving their argument around.  First it was the poor people, then it was something else and now it's the wording of the original ballot language.  None of the matters because the single most important reason not to build an arena is that there are no events to have in that arena.  Sports or otherwise, there's nothing that will occupy that space to generate money to take care of it. 

How do I know this?

If there was a need of a facility to house events in El Paso because the market wasn't being served - there'd be a private effort to serve that market.  If Celine Dione and Justin Beiber were dying to come to El Paso but couldn't find the space to perform, I guarantee there'd be private money remedying that problem.  However, you don't have any interest in that kind of investment because there is no market for it. 

Forget about historic neighborhoods and poor people.  Simply ask the city to prove up who, or what, will occupy that space for at least a couple of weeks a month.  If they can't do that, then they should scrap the idea.  

Teachers are to the school board as Redskins fans are to the Dallas Cowboys

Sorry for being quiet for over a week, it's deer season. 

It's also been quiet because the Vero crowd has toned down the racist rhetoric and Bob Moore is not at their beck and call for newspaper headlines.  The only thing they have is my buddy Jaime's blog where he's got some kind of weird, convoluted accusation that "teachers" hate Dori because members of the teachers union said one thing but the official process has yet to be processed so it's a big scandal... I know, I'm as bored as you are with how dumb that is. 

First of all, the only teachers that ever give a shit about the teachers union are the ones who are in trouble all the time.  I come from a family of teachers and I can tell you they've never ever cared for the teachers union.  This idea that every rank and file teacher in the district is somehow dying to serve the union and all their causes is incorrect.  The vast majority don't give a shit. 

With that said, it's par for the course that all teachers always hate their school board and their superintendent.  Just like the rest of you hate your bosses.  The school board is why they don't make a million a year with seven months off.   Same story, different job - we've all been there.  You're an idiot if you thought that any teacher would ever support a sitting member of the school board.  As far as teachers are concerned, the school board is detrimental to their very being.  

That's not to say that they don't endorse candidates for office.  It's only after that candidate is elected that they hate them for not shortening the school year to a month and tripling their salary.  They are no different than you and I in that respect. 

The fact is - there's nothing there and the grasping at straws has begun.  Unions are dead mainly because America has seen the communities they killed.  They were never a force in El Paso and never will be.  Trying to make something of some non-endorsement from a union group that only exists because they thieve from teachers against their will is a sad attempt at piling on a race that is already done.  Vero is the anointed one.  Why kick her opponents in the face for no reason?