But people do drown and die when there is catastrophic flooding. Especially when it occurs in the state’s largest city.
The Houston area including Harris, Ft. Bend, Montgomery and Brazoria counties are getting pounded again with more flooding. We thought we might go through a dry spell after the recent April 18 “Tax Day” floods but no, mother nature is showing no mercy. For those in the area who know of some in need of help or information please click here.
In many ways the city and state have brought the soggy nightmare on itself. The city is built on top of a swamp for one thing. As if that isn’t challenging enough, Houston has no zoning. Which means the city is a developers and builders’ dreams come true. They can build subdivisions, shopping malls, highways, etc. on top of prairies and wetlands. And they don’t always deliver on promises to build retention ponds when erecting massive construction projects, either. Worse, few politicians seem in the mood to punish builders for being irresponsible. Given the lax regulations and a hyper business friendly environment, it is no wonder that mother nature has a bone to pick with the Houston area.
The recent flooding from Memorial Day, 2015 to Tax Day floods, 2016 and now, during this soaked, sticky mess which has yet to be named, has been desolating. People have tragically lost their lives, their pets and their property. Some have suffered property damage multiple times. Homes near mine, not very far away, flooded last year in May, again in April 2016 and likely again yesterday when Brays Bayou reached its banks. Given the saturation from previous downpours there is no place for the water to go except into the streets, yards and homes. Neighborhoods that have never flooded before are flooding now.
My husband and I barely made it across the Brays Bayou and onto our street on Thursday afternoon after one hour of an unrelenting downpour. Our street had become a raging river. We weren’t sure we’d make it to the driveway but we were lucky. Our SUV had the power to get us there, fortunately. Luckily, our home sits up 4-6 feet from the street. Our real estate agent calls it a hill but after having lived in Cincinnati and Seattle I am not prepared to call a mound a hill. I am very grateful for the mound, needless to say, as well as to the thoughtful builder who built this neighborhood in the 1950’s. Our street is two blocks away from Brays Bayou. The builder had elevated the ground before building the homes in a very flat city that sits inside a shallow bowl. But nowhere in the city/county is immune from flooding anymore.
So while all of this suffering, dislocation and chaos for far too many continues in the state’s largest city, our Governor, Lt. Governor and our Attorney General are obsessed with two things.
One is public bathrooms, specifically transgender bathrooms. The other is a lawsuit filed against the federal government (Presidential Obama) over public bathrooms. The President had issued a decree to the nation’s public schools asking them to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their identity. The state of Texas is suing this effort as it top leadership is in favor of discrimination.
The ring leader in the ginned up bathroom circus is none other than the state’s biggest huckster, hustler and carnival barker, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, formerly known as Daniel Goeb of Baltimore, MD. When my husband and I moved to Houston Dan Patrick worked as a TV sports announcer. My husband couldn’t stand him and he would immediately switch the news channel when Patrick appeared. Patrick also worked as a right wing radio talker in Houston. I didn’t pay much attention to him until voters in his tea party neighborhood elected Patrick into the state senate. Now, as Lt. Governor we have to put up with his self-righteous, holier than thou, sanctimonious grand standing hypocrisy all of the time.
The supreme irony with all of these small government, anti-government right wingers is that they like to stick their long, pointed noses into the lives of individuals. While they are vehemently adverse to any kind of regulation that would protect consumers (e.g. from payday loan sharks) and homeowners (from reckless, greedy developers) they have no problem with controlling women’s reproductive rights (making abortion next to impossible for many), voting rights (making it tough to vote for groups that lean D) and local ordinances that the three stooges don’t like (Houston’s Equal Right’s Ordinance).
And now the Governor, Greg Trump Bribed Abbott, Lt. Governor Braying Buffoon, an indicted crook and self-professed devout conservative Christian, Attorney General Ken Paxton, want to regulate public bathrooms, determining who gets to use which facility. Where people pee is now everyone’s business.
According to the recent actions of the Governor, Lt. Governor and the Attorney General public peeing places are higher on their agendas than a large flooded city where residents have drowned.
The Braying Buffoon recently went after the superintendent of the Ft. Worth school district. Why? Because he had the nerve to show compassion for transgender students in his district.
FORT WORTH — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrickrenewed his call Tuesday for the Fort Worth schools superintendent to resign after approving a bathroom policy to accommodate transgender students. But supporters of district chief Kent Scribner, and the policy, called Patrick a bully exploiting "fake outrage" to score political points.
Speaking at a news conference in Fort Worth ahead of a district school board meeting, Patrick said Scribner had overstepped his role as CEO of the state's sixth-largest school district, and that he traveled here to explain exactly why he was calling for his resignation.
It is actually the braying buffoon who has overstepped his role as the state’s Lt. Gov. Patrick bullied the superintendent and a group of kids that are largely misunderstood. Maybe Patrick is showboating for a spot on Trump’s bigoted gay bashing and xenophobic advisory committee. The Lt. Gov. has already proven his misogynist bona fides.
In a pre-emptive press conference held before Patrick spoke, supporters of the district's transgender bathroom policy also lobbed accusations of misplaced priorities, accusing Patrick of making something out of nothing. They derided Patrick for what they described as his “fake outrage,” calling him a shameless bully."This policy does nothing to improve a student's chances of graduating," he said.
“There is no news here,” said Steve Rudner, chairman of Equality Texas. “The only news here is that the lieutenant governor has decided to pick on an already bullied group of kids. It’s shameful and it’s despicable."
Dan Patrick will continue on his bathroom crusade no matter how shameful or despicable. Actually he intends to make his potty policy a statewide issue.
Bathrooms are but the latest front in our great national culture war. On one side: People who want to do their business in a bathroom that corresponds to the gender with which they identify. On the other side: People who think that a person’s genitals should determine which bathroom they’re legally allowed to use.
If all of that sounds like extremely personal stuff for the entire world to be weighing in on, well, that’s where we are right now. Where a stranger pees is, apparently, everybody‘s business. North Carolina passed HB2 in March, a controversial law (not to be confused with Texas’ own controversial HB2) that bans transgender women from using ladies’ rooms and transgender men from using mens’ rooms. That’s in contrast to Houston’s now-defeated HERO ordinance, which was repealed in November, that would have prevented businesses from telling customers which bathrooms they were required to use.
Patrick sees his role as the chief of the Texas morality police.
Patrick was given the opportunity two weeks ago to declare that a bathroom bill similar to North Carolina’s HB2 would be something he’d push for in the lege in 2017, and he declined to lay out a specific legislative agenda on the matter. It’s extremely clear, though, that he’s comfortable getting involved with the issue in ways that are increasingly outside of the specific reach of his office. Coming out against HERO in his hometown of Houston during a public referendum on the issue is one thing—but urging an official in a completely different part of the state to resign over a school district’s bathroom policy is another. It suggests that Patrick is invested in the idea that his office has an important role to play in determining who’s allowed to pee where in Texas.
It would be far more helpful to the people in Houston if our three top Republican stooges would stop obsessing over potty places and focus instead on why Houston area prairies and wetlands have become concrete jungles. Rather than regulate bathrooms they should have controlled developers and builders in the state’s city that sits on top of a swamp and rests inside of a shallow bowl. Drainage infrastructure has not kept up with the region’s growth. Why? In 2010 Houston area voters voted in favor of assessing a drainage fee known as Rebuild Houston. Residents here knew we had to do something because the state is doing very little. We agreed to pay a fee. And then voila! A disgruntled resident filed a class action lawsuit against Rebuild Houston. The Texas Supreme Court sided with the resident. And here we are in 2016 with the worse flooding in decades.
But then it is summer time in an election year. The right has to find a way to gin
up its fringe base. Fear mongering hairy, perverted men wearing dresses who lurk in women’s bathrooms is one way to do it. I just hope the Houstonians that voted for these RWNJ clowns realize none of the three care about them or their losses, aside from requesting federal disaster relief on their behalves. The top leadership is far more interested in what they are doing in their bedrooms and bathrooms. Remember the great words of wisdom from the wise Governor of the once great state of Texas, pre W.
The region’s residents should also know that it is more likely for their homes to flood than it is for a personal encounter with a bogey man who prowls in public restrooms.