My initial reaction upon reading of Juaquin Castro ‘outing’ local San Antonio donors to the Trump campaign was along the lines of “oh dear, that was so not a good idea!” Nothing that I have read about the imbroglio in the days since has given me cause to revise that opinion … other than to confirm it. Yes, such information is a matter of public record, but opening up certain of your constituents to harassment, especially in the wake of such things as calls for Republicans to be harassed in restaurants, protested by persons threatening violence at their homes, attacked physically, and going so far as shooting up their softball teams … this does not calm the political passions in any degree. No, it’s as good as spraying gasoline on a bonfire, and the Castro brothers richly deserve every bit of the opprobrium they have earned – especially locally.
There is a rather curious thing about San Antonio; it may look like a medium-sized city to the distant observer, but it is actually the biggest small town in the world. The networks of personal connection are as strong and as intertwined as any small town.
Examples? I used to part-time at the local public radio/classical music station, which turned out to be a major node; any number of various circles – the military, business, artistic, political, medical/scientific, scholastic etc. – all intersected there. One of the other announcers was big in local small theater, another announcer was noted on the local music scene for performing and building harpsichords, yet another’s family was neighbors with a former San Antonio mayor – the mayor was himself their family dentist – and the senior radio guy was a retired colonel who had been a squadron commander in my own former career field. It wasn’t just the radio station, either: one of my occasional employers was a high-school friend of the previous employers’ wife … and it turned out that another of his high school friends was the CPA who does both of our taxes. A neighbor from just three houses away – his brother owns the best independent burger joint on Broadway, and their family also owned one of the classic old movie theaters downtown. One big small town, you see.
I don’t know personally any of those people whom Juaquin Castro so maliciously chose to all but dox – but I know of them. They aren’t national names, especially; but they are local, of substance, and generally considered solid good citizens. Phyllis Browning Realty, Bill Miller BBQ, Valero Energy, the Pearl Brewery development, USAA, Kuykendall, Steves; all names and companies of local note, and I’ll bet just about anything you like that they all know each other, or at least, know of each other. It shouldn’t have been any surprise that half a dozen of those named had previously contributed to his own and his brother Julian Castro’s various political campaigns. The Castros likewise were of note; and probably got to where they are in local and national office through the monetary support of those donors — donors whom Juaquin Castro gratuitously kicked in the teeth, because he didn’t like it that they also donated to Trump. I’ll just go ahead and assume that the Brothers Castro have pretty written off local office-holding; those local donors who consented to comment to the media seem rather annoyed – those who didn’t comment are probably incandescent with fury. Just my .02 – comment?
— Added later, some pithy remarks from this rant –
It would be comforting, in a sense, if there were some Grand Council of Masturbatory Dorks behind all this. But there isn’t. How to take that into account. You could be a grotesque cretin such as Joaquin Castro, the jackass Democratic representative from San Antonio (his idiot brother, Julián, is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination) and try to magic one into existence, organizing a two-minute hate campaign against such infamous malefactors as Bill Miller Bar-B-Q and the odd retiree in retaliation for their contributing to these acts of terrorism by . . . supporting the other party’s presidential candidate in the last election. It takes an ass of exceptional asininity to go down that road, but there is no shortage of them: We’ve two Castro brothers in Texas. If you wanted to ensure that we do not tamp down the hysteria and extremism in our politics, if you wanted to create an environment in which Americans understand one another as enemies, then creating a political situation in which your local congressman will try to ruin you and your family financially for ordinary political participation would be an excellent way to do that. That will do nothing to help to prevent these crimes, and may in fact contribute to the very culture that cultivates and celebrates these acts of theatrical outrage. You really think the other side is the moral equivalent of Adolf Hitler? We killed 4.3 million Germans getting at Hitler.
Bill Miller BBQ has the best commercially made pecan pie I have ever tried. Crisp crust. Their BBQ sandwiches are also great deals- especially when adding fixings to them.
Am I correct in concluding that the Kino Jimenez MAGA-hat taking case in San Antonio has not yet come to trial? Kino’s Facebook page doesn’t express any degree of remorse. On the contrary, Kino defends what he did. (Link chosen to point out such acts are found all over the country.)
Lefties/Progressives/Democrats believe that they can doxx/assault/harass their political opponents with impunity. Will they ever experience negative feedback to the degree that they will be reluctant to pursue such tactics? I suspect not. I imagine that Congresscritter Castro would have been happy to have the outed Trump donors surrounded by a screaming mob. Or have their houses picketed. Imagine a screaming mob surrounding Congrescritter Castro, for example. Or have his house picketed. I very much doubt that Congresscritter would like those consequence.
I get the impression that Kellye Burke, a City Council member for Houston area West University Place, has gotten a lot of negative feedback over her harassing teenage girls for one of them wearing a Trump shirt.How Houston Lost Its Mind Over a Trump Shirt.
Given the barrage of negative feedback that City Council member Kellye Burke has gotten, I doubt she will pull this stunt again.
[But you never know. After all, Kellye Burke is an Aggie. :) ]
I haven’t seen anything locally about the various people being harassed at their homes, Gringo … but the thing is, they are all pretty much well-to-do. If they are resident in the ’09 zip code – that’s Alamo Heights, and they have their own police department and school district … and I don’t think the SAPD or the Alamo Heights PD would put up with solid citizens being harassed. If they live in the upscale gated communities … good luck with getting past the gate guards.
I’m sensing that the Castros are losing bigly, locally, over this. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving set of oily weasels.The old money SA may vote Dem, and have revered Roosevelt back in the day – but they are pretty conservative, otherwise, and biting the hand that contributed to you a couple of campaigns ago is Not Good Form.
Wasn’t Castro’s mother high up in the La Raza food chain? Maybe that’s where the impetus for this craziness is coming from.
Maybe people will rethink the utility of donating to both parties, though it appears the Democrats are just going to up the need to pay protection money.
George Parr was another prominent resident of San Antonio. So prominent that, with the help of ballot box 13, he elected LBJ to the Senate in 1948.
He went to prison later but that did him little harm in the most corrupt city in Texas.
She is, OC – quite the race-based activist, from what I recall. One of the La Raza founders. The scummy thing about the weasel Joaquin’s tweet is that he apparently omitted the big contributors with Hispanic surnames from his nasty tweet. So he seems to be playing the race game for all it’s worth.
I haven’t seen anything locally about the various people being harassed at their homes, Gringo
But that would, I suspect, be one of Congresscritter Castro’s goals. Such as:Left Wing Mob Outside Mitch McConnell’s Home Shouts Death Threats.
From the Williamson piece:
“That so many self-proclaimed do-gooders turn first and instinctively to gutting the Bill of Rights and suspending due process for socially marginal types and purported subversives tells us only that political power must be kept from those who desire it most. When the Democrats propose new constraints on Americans’ constitutional rights — and not only the right to keep and bear arms — and when it is clear that those constraints would do nothing at all to prevent massacres like the one in El Paso, it is fair to ask what their real motives are and why they apparently are unable to be honest about them with the public.”
I don’t know personally any of those people whom Juaquin Castro so maliciously chose to all but dox – but I know of them. They aren’t national names, especially; but they are local, of substance, and generally considered solid good citizens. Phyllis Browning Realty, Bill Miller BBQ, Valero Energy, the Pearl Brewery development, USAA, Kuykendall, Steves; all names and companies of local note…
Some of the consequences may not be what Congrescritter Castro wanted. People reporting lines around the block at Bill Miller Bar-B-Q following Castro’s Trump shaming.
So much for a boycott of Bill Miller Barbecue.
Don’t even start to think this is new for Democrats. DDG up Gibson Guitars rosewood.
During the Obama Administration, Gibson Guitars was raided by the EPA for using rosewood as an instrument raw material. There is a law that states that only certain varieties may be imported and only in “sustainable” amounts. The owner of the company supposedly violated that law, and so his business was raided with drawn guns, its’ assets were seized, and it ultimately spent over a million dollars defending itself, successfully, against the charges. System worked? No?
Meanwhile, his major competitor, Martin Guitars, also imported rosewood for use in its’ instruments. Part of it, in fact, came from the same import shipment that Gibson Guitars was supplied. It was used to make a beautiful guitar which was taken to the White House and presented to Michelle Obama with some ceremony.
Martin guitars was never investigated, never raided, never had to lay out over a million in legal fees. The difference between the two companies: the Martin Guitars owner was an Obama donor. That’s it. There were no other obvious differences.
Selective prosecution: it’s what’s for Democrats and against Republicans. Should tell everyone whether “red flag” laws are a good idea.
The brothers Castro are the end product of cultural breakdown.
Culture is the result of tens of thousands of generations of compromise and kludge, so that Cro Magnon learned to live together from hunter-gatherer to sedentary agriculture.
The law is just the codification of culture and only a fraction of it.
When the culture is debased, laws cannot hold society together. The mortar of civilization must be implicit, and more adaptable than law allows.
You can’t legislate “hold the door,” nor “help your neighbor” (Luke 10:25), nor in the end “be decent and do not dox.”
So the indecent propagate, until everyone is forced to respond in kind.
Well done, Rosie Castro – fine pair of boys you raised there.
Well done, Rosie Castro – fine pair of boys you raised there.
She is very proud of her sons. Unfortunately.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_Castro
Jonathon:”…ask what their real motives are and why they apparently are unable to be honest about them with the public.”
They’re afraid of getting shot. That’s it. Personal fear (cowardice?) of assassination. To a degree, it’s justified. Every politician is a target, to one degree or the other, but the Dems, more so. The left is going to “do more” and will therefore affect more people. Every law has its negatives, therefore more people are likely to be damaged and looking to get even.
The left’s vision is the government telling everyone what to do and when to do it, with themselves controlling the whole shebang. They know they’re painting a big bullseye on themselves, and they want any chance of opposition neutralized before they get to the good stuff.
Their real motives are to control your life while living damned good doing it.
Two very little Napoleon’s, with a death grip on mommy’s Alinsky-themed apron strings, seem even mas minuscule with this fear-based idiocy.
She must be so proud. Her club, “The Race CC”, seems to have forgotten that their spiritual leader, Caesar Chavez, literally battled against illegal aliens as they raised from the river, soaking wet from swimming across our US border.
Life is So Grand!
re: But you never know. After all, Kellye Burke is an Aggie.
Ah, A&M isn’t what it used to be. And I was at Rice.
Public information, apparently of only “White” opposition supporters, starts to sound alot like a “Hit List” from El Jeffe for the unstable and excitable among his followers.