The Houston Dynamo have published the 2016 Season Schedule Red is particularly looking forward to seeing the Portland Timber on September 24 (defending MLS Champions), the second-season New York City FC on September 30 (hopefully with aging Italian superstar Andrea Pirlo) and Toronto FC on August 13 (with league MVP Sebastian Giovinco) and the interstate rival FC Dallas on March 12.
Today is an official Texas State Holiday – sort of. Texas state offices remain open but with minimal staffing. The holiday is observed on January 19 which is Robert E. Lee’s birthday and was the original name for the holiday. Red’s negative views on the Confederacy and secession are well known by now. And while it seems odd (at best) to celebrate a cause which was rooted in the defense of the institution of chattel slavery (spare Red the BS about states rights), Red does find it refreshing that the United States is one of the few countries in the world where the population is free to celebrate traitors.
Chris Christie has come down on the side of the fifth graders on the critical issue of school lunches. At a recent event, Jacob Royal, an Omaha fifth-grader and aspiring politician asked the New Jersey Governor, “What are you going to do about the lunches? They were fine when Mrs. Bush was the first lady, but now that Mrs. Obama is the first lady, they have gone down.”
Christie’s reply, “I don’t care what you’re eating for lunch every day. I really don’t. If I’m president, back to whatever you want to eat.”
Bring on the hot dogs, French fries and soda – and throw in a couple of donuts for good measure.
Somewhere Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is smiling.
From the Annals of the Halls of Power – In 1999, Rick Perry took office as Texas’ first Republican lieutenant governor since Reconstruction. Perry’s long career in public office began in 1984 when he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from District 64, which included Haskell County where his father had served as a County Commissioner. Perry was well regarded as a Representative and served three terms. He supported Al Gore for President in 1988. But when George H.W. Bush won the Presidency, Perry was clearly attune to the direction the political winds were blowing in Texas, and he changed his party affiliation to the GOP. In 1990, he narrowly defeated the popular incumbent Jim Hightower for Agriculture Commissioner. With the help of Karl Rove he raised over $3 million and tarnished Hightower’s name – aided by a corruption scandal that enveloped 3 of Hightower’s aides. Perry’s narrow win by about 20,000 votes pushed him into statewide prominence. After serving two terms, Perry chose to run for Lieutenant Governor to succeed the retiring Democrat Bob Bullock. Perry had a notable falling out with his previous top political strategist Karl Rove leading to the much-reported rivalry between the Bush and Perry camps. In the 1998 election, Perry eked out another narrow win with 1,858,837 votes (50.04 percent) to the 1,790,106 (48.19 percent) cast for Democrat John Sharp.
At least one Dallas area parishioner is incensed about the decision of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas to not allow open or concealed carry in its churches. In fact, incensed enough to cut off tithing to the church and re-direct the money to the NRA. He or she better hope that Wayne LaPierre is standing at the Pearly Gates instead of St. Peter.
“You’re not that damn important.”
Brian Mitchell – referring to RGIII.
But really, who is?
Red Rates Himself – For Wildcard Weekend Red was 3-1 making up somewhat for the late season slide into high mediocrity. Red would have been 4-0 but for the Bengals total meltdown at the end of the game. His best call was on the Texans/Chiefs debacle where Red claimed “one big play will probably decide this one.” And damn if Red wasn’t right. He just didn’t know that it would be on the opening kickoff. At least Red had the good sense to keep his other commitments and not waste $500 and 6 hours of his time watching the Texans’ ship go down without a fight.
For the season Red is now 56-44. Red likes easy percentage calculations.
And Red knows the NFL calls this the Divisional Round or some such nonsense. It is not that, because we obviously have Wildcard teams still playing. This is Round Two or as Red prefers the Second Round. Take your pick.
Your Damnation Pick of the Week: Patriots over Chiefs. Red has to stick with the Patriots (his preseason AFC Champ) because that’s the way this thing works. And given his spotty record on picking the playoff teams this year (more on that later) he needs the added oomph of picking the Superb Owl correctly which is something that happens about once a decade. Given that, all signs point to the Chiefs – except the sign that says Foxboro City Limits. Patriots don’t typically lose in the playoffs in F’town. In the Brady Era, they are 14-3 in home playoff games. In this business, we call that a trend. More of a portent in Red’s humble opinion. This game turns on the Pats defense. If they hold the Chiefs to 20 or under, the odds of the Pats winning the game are incalculable. I cannot imagine the Pats not scoring at least 21 on any team left in the playoffs. At playoff time, the Pats either score around 15 and lose or more than 20 and win. I think this is one very tight and the Chiefs could easily win this game with even a decent offensive performance. Red likes the Chiefs plus 5 if you can get it. New England 24 Kansas City 19.
Your DamnYankees Pick of the Week: Packers over Cardinals. Cardinals picked a bad time to fall apart and lose key players. Packers fell apart early and often while shedding good players like the working girls at the Men’s Club. Again this is a damn close call between two teams that could win the Superb Owl with just a little luck. Red won’t overly retread his Quality Wins rubric. Suffice it to say that the Packers come in with 3 (discounted for early season wins) while the Cards also have 3 QWs over the Pack, Vikings and Seahawks. Despite this trend of beating our northernmost NFL teams, Red again has to play out the skein all the way out and since he picked the Packers to win it all this year, he has no choice but to go against his gut and pick the Pack. But he wouldn’t bet on this game if you held a hot poker to his pecker. Green Bay 27 Arizona 24.
Your Double Damn Pick of the Week: Panthers over Seahawks. The Panthers don’t strike Red as a team that is going to play tight in a situation where everyone might expect them to not be able to excrete an aspirin. Cam stays loose and since the Panthers have to rightfully believe that they can beat anyone why should they fear the Seahawks. These teams are fairly similar both featuring offenses powered by a steady running game backed up by mobile quarterbacks who are mediocre in the passing game and tough defenses. Admittedly, the Hawks have a better defense, but have they really faced anyone like CN all season? Only in practice. And they were lucky to escape with their lives when facing a decent Vikings defense last week. At some point CN is going to have to take this game over and make some plays against a defense that will be head-hunting. If he survives the gauntlet then the Panthers can win this one going away. Everyone but Red is calling this the game of the week. Red thinks the Panthers expose the Hawks more than the Vikings did last week. Take the Panthers giving up a single point. Carolina 37 Seattle 13.
You’re Damn, Damn, Damn Pick of the Week: Stealers over Broncos. PMS (that’s Peyton Manning Starting for those who have not been paying attention in class) is old and brittle and all but washed up as a premier QB. Ben Rotlessburger is not quite as old and still tough as the steak served at El Rio in Monterrey. Red never underestimates the ability of brilliant Gary Kubiak to outcoach himself and blow it in a big game. He has a defense that can win this game if he will just let them, but he won’t and the Broncos are going to turn it over at least 3 times. The Stealers are playing on borrowed time and glad of it. They make the most of it this week. Red likes the Stealers plus 7 – he likes it a lot. He may like the over at 38.5 even more. Pittsburgh 28 Denver 23.
From the Annals of the Musicians – In 1972, Don McLean’s song “American Pie” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Charts. The rambling lyrics have evoked numerous interpretations but what is not in doubt is that “the Day the Music Died” refers to February 3, 1959, the date of the tragic deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson all of whom were from Texas. The song became something of an anthem for a whole generation of high school and college students. Perhaps no one was more surprised by the success of the song than McLean himself who claims he did not write the song intending it to be a generation-defining epic. McLean states that it was simply written to capture his view of “America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become.” McLean’s greatest hope was that he might make a few thousand dollars and be able to keep performing for another year. Instead, when asked about the meaning of the song, McLean remarked “it means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) has mastered the art of the non-debate. Here are the 10 basic rules:
Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to amend the holy crap out of the U.S. Constitution looks to be a non-starter judged solely by the complete lack of buzz surrounding his “big” announcement. Red saw Megyn Kelly giving him what-for on her show a few nights ago, but other than that – cue the crickets. So instead of directing so much of his energy towards not actually running the state he was electing to govern (hence the title “governor”), Tom Herman of the Austin American-Statesman suggests that Abbott turn his attention to a document that actually could use some revising – namely, the bloated, turgid and all too frequently amended Texas Constitution.
Abbott is correct on another front: There indeed is a Constitution overdue for a major overhaul. It’s our very own semi-beloved Texas Constitution, a 90,000-word, 385-section, 491-amendment mélange of a mess of a pastiche of a patchwork of a guiding document.
The last real run at reworking the Texas Constitution — and it turned out to be a run that barely got beyond the starting line — was in 1999 when then-state Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, and Rep. Rob Junell, D-San Angelo, tried it.
As the 1999 legislative session began, Ratliff and Junell noted a new millennium was approaching and “we must exercise foresight to prepare this state and its citizens for the challenges of the next century.”
Multiple outlets are reporting that Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) failed to report as much as $500,000 in loans from Goldman Sachs that may have been used to help finance his longshot 2012 Senate campaign. Cruz is downplaying this as an “inadvertent” filing error, but part of his Senate campaign was premised on his anti-Wall Street rhetoric and the fact that he was getting preferential loans from a Wall Street giant (that also employed his wife) would not have fit well into that narrative. Cruz explains one of the loans as a “standard margin loan” that you would have with any brokerage account. Red calls BS on that one. There is nothing “standard” about margin loans and they are the easiest way for the average investor to get in trouble and rack up big losses. Red sees potential trouble for the high-flying Tea Party darling in the weeks running up to Iowa. Ted’s “nothing to see here, move along” explanation doesn’t pass the smell test and how did the oh-so-brilliant attorney from Texas not manage to follow disclosure laws which are pretty damn clear on their face. Isn’t interpreting law supposed to be his strong suit?
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