I’m asking everyone I know to join me in
supporting Yolanda Ford for Mayor. Runoff
Election will be held on December 8, 2018.
With
the advent of FaceBook and Smart Phones, I no longer
take pictures so I'm archiving 2 decades of throw
backs pictures that were taken for my website Guy's
Gallery on FaceBook for public viewing of the people
in the Houston Community. Take a walk down memory
lane. Click the picture below to see pictures you
don't have to be a member of FaceBook to view. Enjoy!
If you would like to see the latest
throwback pictures added? Follow link and
click on Feed View.
I’m asking everyone I know to join me in
supporting Chris Preston for Missouri City
Council Member. Runoff Election will be held
on December 8, 2018.
Mayor Turner
honors Astroworld Festival artist with
city proclamation
Mayor Sylvester Turner declared Sunday,
Nov. 18, 2018 “Astroworld Day” in the City
of Houston in recognition of
artist/musician/producer Jacques “Travis
Scott” Webster II and the debut of his
successful Astroworld Festival at NRG Park.
The inaugural Astroworld Fest featured
several music groups and attracted thousands
of fans.
Scottgrew up in nearby Missouri City and
frequently talks about his youth at the
Astroworld Theme Park, which closed in 2005.
During the proclamation ceremony, the
mayor also recognized Scott as one of
Houston’s ambassadors for art, education and
youth initiatives.
In return, Scott, who has a history of
civic engagement and philanthropic work,
pledged to support the Mayor’s Art
Scholarship Program, Houston Poet Laureate
Program, Hire Houston Youth, My Brother’s
Keeper (MBK) Houston, Team Up, and other
city-wide adolescent and youth programs.
Several dozen students representing
local high schools and Texas Southern
University attended the proclamation
ceremony. “I love you all and thank you,
mayor. I’m going to make this my goal to
come back and deliver every time,” Scott
said.
The event coincided with the second day
of the 13th Annual Houston Via Colori Street
Painting Festival. A group of Hastings High
School Students from the Alief Independent
School District created a vibrant mural of
Travis Scott and had an opportunity to meet
the widely acclaimed artist.
Houston Via Colori Street Painting Festival is
a City-sponsored event benefiting the Center
for Hearing and Speech (CHS). The
festival raises more than $400,000 annually
to fund health and educational services for
children with hearing loss in Houston.
Scott’s most recent album is named after
the now-defunct amusement park, which has
created quite a bit of nostalgia around the
city since it closed in 2005.
Fans of his significant other Kylie
Jenner waited in the rain for a chance to
see her at a popup shop for her makeup line.
Hundreds of fans, with their cameras
ready to go, cheered on Jenner as she
arrived.
She announced on Twitter she was going
to be here around noon and fans started
camping out.
The 21-year-old’s makeup line, Kylie
Cosmetics, has made her a near-billionaire.
She spent about 15 minutes in the store
before coming back out and taking more
pictures with fans.
Later in the day, Scott’s fans showed to
his pop-up shop in Rice Village
In defeat, Abrams casts aside traditional expectations
Stacey Abrams broke the rules of politics until the very end.
The Georgia Democrat who came about 60,000 votes shy of becoming America’s first black woman governor refused to follow the traditional script for defeated politicians who offer gracious congratulations to their victorious competitor and gently exit the stage. Instead, Abrams ended her campaign in an unapologetically indignant tone that established herself as a leading voting rights advocate.
“I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election,” Abrams said in a fiery 12-minute address. “But to watch an elected official … baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote has been truly appalling.”
“So let’s be clear,” Abrams concluded, “this is not a speech of concession.”
Ending a race while pointedly refusing to concede would typically risk drawing a “sore loser” label that would be impossible to shake in any future political campaign. But Democrats and even some Republicans say she is likely to emerge from the closely fought governor’s race with her political future on solid ground.
“There was a time when this may have been a bad look, but I’m not sure that’s where we are in politics anymore,” said Jen Palmieri, who served as communications director for President Barack Obama’s White House and to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“For many years, people have been too concerned about the optics of their actions as opposed to the impact of their actions,” Palmieri added, saying that addressing some voters’ lack of faith in the system is “more important than worrying what might offend people who may or may not vote for you four years from now.”
Republican Rick Tyler, a top adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign, said “botched concessions have hurt people before,” but he said it’s too simple to say Abrams “botched” anything because some of her criticism has merit.
“I wish we could all have faith in the system and the process,” Tyler said. “Then we could count votes, listen to gracious concession speeches and all just move on. That’s not where we are.”
Abrams cited a litany of problems that she said add up to systemic voter suppression. She specifically pointed to absentee ballots thrown out by what she called “the handwriting police,” a shortage of paper ballots to back up broken-down voting machines and Georgia’s so-called “exact match” voter registration rules that require information on voter applications to precisely match state and federal files.
While state law allows “no viable remedy,” she said she plans to file federal legal action challenging various aspects of the electoral system Kemp oversaw until he resigned as secretary of state two days after the Nov. 6 election. She also launched the new non-profit group “Fair Fight Georgia” to advocate for changes.
Some Republicans rebuked her approach.
“She seems to think there are only two branches of government: executive and judicial,” said Debbie Dooley, a Georgia-based activist who was among the early national tea party leaders. “I’m just disappointed that her immediate adversarial response is to file lawsuits when there are a lot of people on the Republican side who see a need for some of the reforms she wants.”
For starters, Dooley cited an absentee ballot process that varies from county to county and Georgia’s reliance on electronic voting machines with no paper trail — a system a federal court already has ordered changed after the 2018 elections.
“If they try to do it all through the federal courts, it’s going to end up with people resenting her,” Dooley predicted.
Abrams said “pundits and hyper-partisans” would object to her flouting “normal order” for losing candidates. “I should be stoic in my outrage and silent in my rebuke,” she said of conventional expectations. “But stoicism is a luxury and silence is a weapon for those who would quiet the voices of the people.”
Georgia Democrats said Abrams has little choice but to continue highlighting problems.
“The middle ground here is simple: ‘Count every vote,'” said Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Abrams’ campaign chairman.
Buddy Darden, a former congressman who chaired the campaign of Abrams’ Democratic primary rival, agreed. Darden, who is white, said Abrams proved wrong the “old dinosaurs like me” who thought a black woman couldn’t compete in a general election in the Deep South. “She did it by getting folks out that no one else could,” Darden said. “Now she has their back, and that’s a good thing for the party, a good thing for the state.”
Palmieri, the former Obama and Clinton adviser, said Abrams can fill an important national void. Republicans, she said, have spent a generation focused on passing GOP-friendly voting rules, redrawing district boundaries and electing like-minded secretaries of state like Kemp. The left has answered with a less-effective patchwork of lawyers and think tanks. “She would be a formidable force on that front,” Palmieri said.
Lawrence-Hardy and other Abrams confidants say she’s not considered future runs for office. The next chance would be to challenge for Republican Sen. David Perdue’s seat in 2020, though those close to Abrams say her policy interests are better suited to the governor’s office.
History offers some parallels.
Democrat Al Gore fell just short of the presidency in 2000 after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmed Republican George W. Bush’s victory in Florida. Gore never returned to politics, but established himself as a leading advocate for addressing climate change.
Republican Richard Nixon lost a bitter presidential election to John Kennedy in 1960, followed by a loss in the 1962 California governor’s election, prompting a bitter concession speech in which he declared himself done with politics. Six years later, he was elected president, capitalizing on Democrats’ Vietnam-era disarray.
Cruz found himself in Republican crosshairs in 2016 when he spoke at the Republican convention but notably refused to endorse then-nominee Donald Trump for president. Weeks ago, Trump and Cruz embraced on a Texas campaign stage, helping Cruz to a hard-fought re-election victory to the Senate.
The lesson, Palmieri said, is that “voters let these things play out.”
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A mother and a baby camel were lying around under a
tree.
Then the baby camel asked, “Why do camels have
humps?”
The mother camel considered this and said, “We are
desert animals so we have the humps to store water so we
can survive with very little water.”
The baby camel thought for a moment then said,
“Ok…why are our legs long and our feet rounded?”
The mama replied, “They are meant for walking in the
desert.”
The baby paused. After a beat, the camel asked, “Why
are our eyelashes long? Sometimes they get in my way.”
The mama responded, “Those long thick eyelashes
protect your eyes from the desert sand when it blows in
the wind.
The baby thought and thought. Then he said, “I see.
So the hump is to store water when we are in the desert,
the legs are for walking through the desert and these
eye lashes protect my eyes from the desert then why we
in the Zoo?”
The Lesson: Skills and
abilities are only useful if you are in the right place
at the right time. Otherwise they go to waste
In year of Democratic hopes, GOP comes out on top in Florida
This was the year Florida’s Democrats spoke ambitiously of ending their 20-year journey in political exile in this battleground state. Instead, election results after a tense and bruising recount showed Republicans coming out on top for governor and even picking up a U.S. Senate seat.
After a recount dragged on for nearly two weeks, top Democratic candidates in the state came agonizingly close but fell short of their avowed goal.
Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum conceded Saturday, followed by three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson a day later. More than 8 million voters weighed in — a far higher turnout than in past midterm elections — but the result was the same for Democrats.
When official returns were posted Sunday, Republican Gov. Rick Scott led Nelson in the Senate race by slightly more than 10,000 votes. Republican Ron DeSantis edged Gillum, Florida’s first African-American nominee for governor, by more than 32,000 votes. State officials will certify the official results Tuesday.
The close of nearly two weeks of high political drama in the presidential swing state likely spelled the end of the political career of the 76-year-old Nelson. First elected to Congress 40 years ago, Nelson had been a Democratic survivor in an era when Republicans swept to power in Florida in the ’90s. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 and seeking a fourth term.
“It has been a rewarding journey as well as a very humbling experience,” Nelson said in a videotaped statement . “I was not victorious in this race but I still wish to strongly re-affirm the cause for which we fought: A public office is a public trust.”
The political journey, however, appears to still be unfolding for Gillum, who ran on a liberal platform that included expanding Medicaid and raising taxes to spend more on education — both potential hard sells in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
In his concession video , Gillum told supporters to “stay tuned” about his next move.
“Although nobody wanted to be governor more than me that this was not just about an election cycle,” said the 39-year-old Tallahassee mayor. “This was about creating the type of change in this state that really allows for the voices of everyday people to show up again in our government, in our state, and in our communities. We know that this fight continues.”
Now, ahead of the 2020 presidential election, it will be Republicans again in firm control in Florida. A Scott victory means Florida will now have two Republican senates while padding the chamber’s Republican majority.
Nelson, a Florida native with a distinct twang, fought a hard and acrimonious race against Scott, a multimillionaire businessman and relative newcomer who jumped into politics eight years ago and was urged to run this time by President Donald Trump.
And it was the third time Scott barely edged a Democratic opponent.
“Now the campaign truly is behind us, and that’s where we need to leave it,” Scott said in a statement after official results were posted. “We must do what Americans have always done: come together for the good of our state and our country. My focus will not be on looking backward, but on doing exactly what I ran on: making Washington work.”
Trump congratulated Scott on Twitter: “From day one Rick Scott never wavered. He was a great Governor and will be even a greater Senator in representing the People of Florida. Congratulations to Rick on having waged such a courageous and successful campaign!”
While Scott and Nelson disagreed on such key issues as gun control, health care and the environment, their campaign focused primarily on attacking each other’s character and competence.
Scott bashed his rival as ineffective and out-of-touch in TV ads paid for by more than $60 million of the Republican’s own money.
Nelson branded Scott as a Trump follower who used the governor’s office to pad his wealth.
Nelson and his allies also ran ads that questioned Scott’s ethics, pointing to his ouster years ago as chief executive of health care giant Columbia/HCA amid a federal fraud investigation. Scott was never charged with any wrongdoing, though the health care conglomerate paid a then-record $1.7 billion fine for Medicare fraud.
Nelson was seen as a moderate who rarely made waves or earned much national exposure as he largely devoted himself to Florida-specific issues. One of his more notable moments came when he flew on Space Shuttle Columbia while serving in Congress.
His only other election loss came in 1990 in a Democratic primary for governor — to the eventual winner Lawton Chiles.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, said he would miss working with Nelson.
“I knew Bill Nelson not just as a Democratic senator, but also as a man of genuine faith, integrity and character,” Rubio said. “A man who served our country with a dignity that is increasingly rare in our modern politics.”
After it became clear the Senate race would head to a legally required recount, Nelson and Democrats filed several lawsuits that challenged everything from Scott’s authority over the state’s election division to deadlines for mail-in ballots.
Republicans also raised questions about how some South Florida election officials were counting the ballots.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported late Sunday that one of those officials, Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, had presented a resignation letter to step down in January. The report cited an attorney who works as counsel to the Broward elections office, Burnadette Norris-Weeks. Snipes couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Beyoncé buys back shares from Topshop Co-Founder accused of misconduct
Beyoncé Knowles has bought full ownership of her athleisure clothing line Ivy Park from British partner Topshop. Topshop’s co-founder Sir Philip Green is currently facing sexual and racial misconduct allegations.
The Grammy Award-winning singer teamed up with Topshop in 2016 to market her athleisure line of designer wear such as leggings, sports bras, T-shirts, and accessories, getting a 50 percent stake in the venture.
After learning of the allegations against Green, the singer cut ties with the company in a multimillion-dollar buyout. An Ivy Park spokesperson released a statement saying, “After discussions of almost a year, Parkwood has acquired 100% of the Ivy Park brand. Topshop/Arcadia will fulfill the existing orders.”
The allegations of sexual assault and racial abuse against the billionaire came out last month, and since then activists have been demanding that Beyoncé cut ties with the company. Activist and member of the Equality Now campaign Yasmeen Hassan said, “Beyoncé has put herself forward as a women’s rights activist. She and her team need to look closely at these allegations.”
Green has denied the allegations of harassment. The British businessman claimed that the accusers may have mistaken his “banter” but “there was never any intent to be offensive.”
Topshop brand director Jane Shepherdson described Green as a “bully” and that his behavior was “worse than most.”
The
PINNACLE Center is free* for use to Fort Bend and City
of Houston residents that are ages 50 and above.