El Paso Politics

Chris Yost & Pube Braids  Its universally understood that most El Pasoans that aren't certi-fucking-fiably nuts want a safe El Paso. But there are some that think politicizing the virus is some sort of political hill they need to climb and die on.  You know, all the Republitarians that bitch about "muh rats" ("my rights" for all of us familiar with the English language). Republicans across the country have decided that protecting the community from COVID and supporting local businesses are somehow mutually exclusive. They have tried to sell the public a lemon by saying that you are either on the side of protecting El Pasoans or protecting businesses.  Wanting what is best for businesses and the community are not mutually exclusive. In fact, you really can't have one without the other.  --------------------------------- Chris Yost Yost is clearly the kinda guy that probably pees in the pool. I'll get to Mayor Margo in a second, but lets talk about wha...

I can't recall a local elected official that is more casual about saying racist remarks than Dee Margo - which makes the fact that he's actually in a run-off for another 4 year term as Mayor of El Paso. Recently Margo made a comment about "gestapo tactics" toward the only Jewish elected official on City Council. He altered followed that remark up with another towards that same Jewish member of council stating that he came from "a unique environment" and that was "unfortunate".  Well in this interview yesterday, Dee Margo makes a comment that I just can not believe he made and I had to watch it a couple of times just to make sure I wasn't imagining he said it. Mind you, this is the same guy who four years ago when he was running for Mayor he called Trump's proposed border wall a "freedom fence" .   Follow this link to see video of Dee Margo's interview on Good Morning America , where he looks like a proper villain. He is clearl...

Okay aside from the fact that El Paso is bluer now that it has really ever been and all the local Republicans got trounced, there were some other elections that happened that we need to talk about.  So first of all, whenever you stand on local government's action inaction, if you are upset about stay-at-home orders, or upset that El Paso leaders aren't doing enough about the pandemic, you should now at least understand that elections are important.  At this point you're going to vote for or against local leaders based on the pandemic, because city and county leaders made dueling decisions recently. And if you're not wanting to vote at this point, Jesus Christ you're stupid.  Lets start with the judicial races because an important decision was just made by an appellate court. Those are partisan races and one of the biggest things Democrats do wrong is not pay enough attention to those races. Appellate court is one of those races I told you was important but you blew...

This is the first in a series of post-election blog posts.  I know Republicans don't really pay much attention to data, only the info that supports their particular world view. But the results of the election yesterday were pretty clear for the El Paso Republican Party.  Well if you read their comments and posts - the El Paso Republican Party has a real problem with accepting reality. I'll get to that in a minute.  Here's some broad strokes in terms of turnout. Republicans lost big time in El Paso County, with Democrats getting anywhere from 63-65% to the Republicans' 32-35%, with the exception of Precinct 3 where the Republican was only able to manage 27% - although he out-performed the previous Republican by about 4 points. Truth be told, he had a much steeper hill to climb than the rest of the Republicans because they at least had the Republicans on the westside to add to their totals.  Despite what they are all telling themselves, the reality is that the Republic...

I have failed my readers.  I am normally on top of local government and the important issues facing our community - but I haven't been watching the the actual City Council meetings while the issues surrounding the pandemic have been debated.  But I have since rectified that situation and have been watching the meetings and boy am I glad I started watching them - because they are eye-opening!  There are several members of council, all allies of the Mayor, that are facilitating Mayor Margo's quest to do absolutely nothing of substance to deal with the pandemic currently facing our community.  The city representatives you elected that are doing NOTHING to protect us - and doing everything they can to block any efforts to actually protect us are District 4 City Rep Sam Morgan of the Northeast (SIDEBAR: Morgan insists on being called "Doctor" now that he has his Phd. Fair enough, Dr. Do-Nothing it is.), District 5 City Rep Isabel Salcido of the Far Eastside (she insists...

I know, I know, you're waiting for the post-election blog posts.  Relax - they're coming. Some of them are already written. But today I'm going on a rant because I wanted to address city council about how they are handling the pandemic and about a minute into my comments - which were critical of City Rep Lizarraga and Mayor Margo - there was a "glitch" and I was kicked out of the meeting.  Fair warning - I drop a few curse words and I was pretty emotional in one part. I don't apologize for that, but I thought I'd warn you so in case you watched it in front of mixed company.  But seriously, City Reps Lizarraga, Salcido, and Rodriguez are really doing this community a disservice at a time where the stakes are high. I expect it from Rodriguez because she's a Trump supporter and has completely ignored the pandemic from the start - but I expected more out of Lizarraga and Salcido.  Rather than prevent a solutions-based policy proposal, the trio pushed to ge...

I don't think there's an El Pasoan that thinks the City of El Paso has been handling the pandemic very well at all. I caught part of last night's marathon session of city council and it was very enlightening and I'm going to keep a closer eye on it because how people voted on a range of issues relating to the pandemic was very interesting.  What is clear to me is that Mayor Margo really is a jerk in these meetings and comes across as someone who wants to do the bare minimum and nothing more when it comes to the pandemic. His campaign team must freak out when they watch him manage a city council meeting because he talks over people, is condescending, and breaks decorum on the regular. Quite frankly, its embarrassing that in the midst of a pandemic and crisis situation, Margo can't be the calm, rational, adult in the room. Instead he's overly-aggressive, confrontational, is anything but a steady hand.  City Rep Claudia Rodriguez is an absolute joke of a member of ...