Monthly Archives: October 2026

The world our children inherit.

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Last night, Tracie and I watched the president of the United States tell his supporters, “I can just see the fake headlines: ‘President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump.’ That will be the headline. But I said, I don’t give a damn, I’m going to say it: We’re making a freaking fortune.”

His disconnect between Americans’ reality and the billionaires’ payday is as appalling as it is astonishing, especially given his hubris in implying it won’t make a difference to voters.

But Trumps will be Trumps. He doesn’t just enrich himself at the average punter’s expense. He rubs it in said citizen’s face. It’s the Trump way and his supporters love him for it.

What are our children going to say 30 years from now when they remember this moment? Whether Dem or GOP, politicians are painting this election as a choice between absolute good and outright evil. And both sides are complicit in the demonizing of their opponents. Let’s face it.

The same thing is happening in Israel, our partner and client in the Iran war. Neither country will be the same nation the day after the election.

Our family watches the news together in the evenings as we get ready for dinner. If my children believed what the TV tells them, they’d be convinced their father and mother are voting for candidates who are “anti-oil, anti-beef [and] anti-Texas.”

For the record, Tracie and I both drive gas-guzzlers, we eat a ton of Texas beef (growing kids, after all), and we love living in Texas (except for our youngest who wants to move to California where I grew up).

We also can’t stand for a state government whose focus is harassing Muslims and transgender families and destroying our school system (we have been directly affected).

We also can’t stand for a senator who won’t vote to stop the war in Iran and restore full aid to Ukraine.

I’ve heard more than one person say they deeply regret their vote in 2024. As you head to the polls, please ask yourself what your children will say about this moment. Please consider the world they inherit.

Congrats Lila Jane! First chair in the All Region orchestra!

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Tracie and I are thrilled to share the news: Lila Jane will be cello first chair in our district’s All Region Orchestra. We couldn’t be more happy or excited for her! She and her classmates all auditioned on Saturday and we were given the final rankings yesterday.

There’s no way to sugarcoat this: last year she flubbed her audition and even though she still had a solid score, she didn’t make the cut.

Over the last year, she worked so hard and devoted herself to her instrument. All that effort paid off! She was only one point away from being included in the region’s top orchestra (she’s in the second-tier orchestra). And she may still get bumped up (because people often drop out).

Lila Jane, we are so proud of you!

Georgia was viola first chair in the second-tier orchestra last year. That was her eighth grade “senior” outing. Now she’s a freshman at the school for performing arts. She auditioned a week ago and missed the cutoff for 9th grade All Region by one point. One point! Few freshman are admitted to the high school level orchestra and so we are still extremely happy with her result. There’s about a 50-50 chance that someone will drop out and she will be admitted. Either way, we are so proud of her, too.

Both girls are thriving and have wonderful friends groups.

Lila is enjoying her “senior” year at middle school and her orchestra will be performing at the prestigious Midwest Clinic this December in Chicago. She just went to her homecoming dance.

Georgia got her butt kicked academically at the beginning of the school year but now she’s on her feet and her grades are where we want them to be. She’s loving her school and has already found her high school crew.

And I am one PROUD DAD! Thanks for letting me share our joy. And heartfelt thank yous to all of their wonderful teachers who have supported and rooted for them all these years!

Run, Paxton, Run.

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Republicans are running scared. They can run. But they can’t hide. My post today for SETX Impact.

Running on empty.

Isn’t that how America is feeling right now about its gas tank?

Running blind.

Did our president see what he looked like before endorsing?

Running into the sun.

Maybe that explains the blindness? (In late June 2026, when a noted adulterer American politician visited, there were 20 to 22 hours of direct daylight per day in Reykjavík.)

But I’m running behind.

No, you don’t have to be Oedipus to solve this riddle.

Trump may be unpredictable. He may be impossible to pin down. He’s an ever-evolving political chameleon. But there’s one thing about the man that everyone knows and can count on: nothing pains him more than being branded a loser. And that’s what’s going to happen when his blue-ribbon hog Paxton gets his ass whoopin’ in early November 2026.

Poll after poll is showing Talarico leading his Republican opponent (by up to six points).

Trump is running so scared (and he’s not even running) that he’s been to Texas twice in recent weeks.

As Susan Glasser reports in the New Yorker, he’s been telling his supporters that Talarico is a vegan larping as a carnivore. According to the President of the United States, the seminary student feigns pleasure while eating meat dishes. He does so to appeal to red-blooded, meat-eatin’ Texans. But then he excuses himself and discreetly regurgitates his meal where no one can discover his dark secret.

“What they don’t show you,” says the Donald, “is that, after every barbecue, he walks to the back of a tent and he throws up all over the place… He’s a vegan, and you can’t get elected as a vegan in Oklahoma or in Texas.”

Is that the best the prez can come up with?

As Glasser notes, “the Dumocrats are coming for Trump, and all he can do is call them names.”

And there’s no place where the Blue Wave — no, Tsunami! — is coming for Trump like Texas.

There are currently 13 U.S. Senate battleground states. Four of those are Democrat. Nine are Republican. And it’s not just Ruby Red Texas that might be changing its colors. That’s astonishing by nearly any measure. Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio…. Did you ever dream that the Republicans would be running on fumes in historic Republican strongholds?

Locally, I can report that our household was block-walked by paid canvassers for both Paxton and Abbott. In the 12 years I’ve lived in my southwest Houston neighborhood, I’ve never been canvassed by a Republican agent.

Even more incredible are the reports of paid canvassers in Houston’s historically Black Third Ward. As the locally based activist and influencer Black Girls Who Brunch recently noted, that’s practically unheard of (unless, perhaps, in the multiverse).

Trump and Paxon can certainly take a run for their money. Their PACs, unfortunately, have opened the taps.

But right now, it seems that they are running for cover. Even Abbott was too scared of complicity to show up in San Antonio last week for the latest save-Paxton’s-ship rally.

Unfortunately for them, when it comes to the Dumocrats chasing ‘em down, they can run. But they can’t hide.