The map above, indicating the individual precincts of Cameron County in faint blue, green, pink and yellow, seems almost intentionally obscure, difficult to figure out.
Who would discern from the map that Precinct 1, represented in pink, encompasses heavily-populated Southmost, then goes east to include the Port of Brownsville and rural areas with no towns, bypassing Port Isabel, Laguna Vista, Laguna Heights, Bayview, but then incomprehensibly takes in South Padre Island?
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| County Commissioner Sofia Benavides |
Mrs. Benavides, a quiet lady, who dutifully hands out push cards at every political event, seems particularly out of touch with the South Padre Island side of her district. She certainly does not share their vision of our region promoted as a tourist destination including one of the last remaining untouched natural beaches and a carefully developed barrier island.
Benavides, along with her three visionless compadres on the Cameron County Commissioners Court, has bought into the glib salesmanship of the petrochemical industry that has our county faced with the ugly prospect of none one, not two, but THREE highly toxic liquefied natural gas plants in close proximity with a rocket launching facility a few miles downwind. Talk about braindead planning! What other government entity in the US would be short-sighted enough to allow three highly toxic LNG companies side-by-side in their community?
Sofia and her foolish cohorts on the commission, have compounded their sins by allowing these multi-billion dollar LNG companies to skip paying property taxes to the county, and will likely end up giving each of the three companies tax abatements in the $400,000,000 range, shifting that tax burden to the citizens of Cameron County including the hardworking men and women of Southmost.
All of this has been described as environmental racism, where the black and brown people of our country get saddled with highly polluting industry other areas don't want in the name of "jobs" in numbers that are frequently greatly exaggerated and misrepresented.
Interestingly, when the Cameron County Commissioners Court recently approved the second huge tax abatement, this time for Annova LNG, any promised number of jobs by the company included in the agreement was kept secret. Cowards!
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Stick to writing about the city. You know nothing about the county or our PRECINCT 1 commissioner.
ReplyDeleteSofia has been there too long. She's gotten too comfortable, not paying attention and her decisions are bad and reckless. Time for new blood.
DeleteGot out from under immigration papers to mail this in?
ReplyDeleteDonald Clupper will lose. Voters don’t care about your issues, Barton boy.
ReplyDeleteCounty is divided into precincts. Districts don’t exist. Those who know, lead; those who don’t, blog.
ReplyDeleteSo true. LMAO
DeleteVery disappointing to see the direction of the blog nowadays. Seems to be more propaganda than the reporting you’d done in the past Jim. Just saying, Jim. Wish you the best and have a happy new year.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you as well. Propaganda? Please elaborate.
DeleteWhy is everyone bitching about districts? Barton wrote precinct.
ReplyDeleteBarton edited without explaining the correction. Are you blogging out of McAllen, Jim?
DeleteI agree with Jim. These are sad facts that she voted for a fly by night polluting company, this lady makes bad decisions. Are you saying this politician is above critique? Her husband died over a decade ago.
DeleteYour attacks on Commissioner Benavides are cruel. At least after her husband died, she didn’t go out and marry a man half her age, you jerk.
ReplyDeleteNothing written in the article was a personal attack on Mrs. Benavides. If you're close to her, why don't you help her understand the issues so her votes are not so detrimental to her constituents?
DeleteIt's called politics and politicians will and are expected to act. You just type for the sake of typing. Sofia is a decent lady and, no, she does not have the crazed Filipino tendencies you chase. LOL
ReplyDeleteMy impression is that Sofia is a decent lady who is simply in over her head, not understanding the issues. Why has she been so eager to support huge tax abatements for the multi-rich LNG companies to the detriment of her constituents? He rconstituents simply deserve better representation.
DeleteJust SHUT THE FUCK UP, Jim! Shut the fuck up.
DeleteThis post is spot on. I live on SPI and Sofia has been ignoring us for a very long time. She fails to respond in any form to calls and messages. She may be a decent person, but she is a terrible commissioner and she deserves to be booted out of office at the next opportunity. A group of us are very interested in doing just that.
ReplyDeleteLNG should never be allowed in the county but what I don't understand is why would someone vote for tax abatement for a company that was coming anyway? Now, according to the plan as I see it, they will be making millions of dollars using our land, our roads, our infrastructure for free. But it won't be free for those of us who live here, we will be carrying a full tax load in their place. Will they do the local hiring they claim they will? Who knows but based on the SpaceX example the answer may well be no. They will bring in skilled tradesmen from other places when they need them and our guys will be working for subcontractors guarding the gate and sweeping up. Again, why give abatements to people who were coming anyway? I say, follow the money. Nothing is happening for free.
ReplyDeleteYou don't get to fuck with our Sofia, White Boy! In this town, you will lose, Baboso!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is Jim’s business who and when he marries!!
ReplyDeleteStick to the issues at hand.
Jim, for those who comment about your personal life, don’t pay any attention!
ReplyDeleteAs for those who comment that “your blog is more about Propaganda” obviously don’t know you ! ! Thanks Jim and Ana.
Obviously you don’t know grammar.
DeleteOh God, theyyyyre baaaack! it's the crazed feminists again. Seriously you women managed to drive Jim and others to Dominguez, despite the LNG thing which was up until that point a total deal-breaker. I'm still going to vote for Amber because of LNG but man, you ladies make it hard to want to!
DeleteYour buddy Alex Dominguez also voted for LNG Tax abatement and you haven't thrown shit at him! You're going after Sofia because she is a woman, but, fucker, she has supporters!!!! Take your shit elsewhere, Bozo!
ReplyDeleteNot tru:e. I wrote this about Dominguez: "Alex is a very nice young man who made a horrible decision as a County Commissioner, voting for a $370,100,000 tax abatement for Rio Grande LNG. He could serve admirably in the Texas House of Representatives for 30 years and not make up for transferring such a huge tax burden from a multibillion dollar corporation to the citizen taxpayers of Cameron County. My reporting of our interview was sketchy at best. Alex did admit to me that fossil fuels were likely not part of our future. When I pointed out that many cities in northern Europe had already converted 100% to renewable energy, he claimed it was because they didn't use dryers like so many homes in the U.S., an observation I doubt will stand up under scrutiny."
DeleteBoth Alex and Sofia failed their constituents miserably when they voted for the huge tax abatement for Rio Grande LNG. Sofia has since voted in another abatement for Annova LNG. That is inexcusable.
This throws a horrible tax burden on Cameron County taxpayers where residential taxes are 70% of the tax burden while commercial only 30%.
Both are either totally ignorant on the issues or simply could care less about the taxpayers or are being paid by the ultra-rich parent companies of LNG.
Neither one deserves our vote.
Alex Dominguez is up for re-election. Let's see what shit you post about him, but everyone in town says you're a wuss and a chickenshit in person. Attacking Sofia Benavides online is one thing; facing her supporters will be another, asshole. Go Sofie!!!!
DeleteNeither Sofia nor Alex have been attacked by me. I doubt you've talked to "everyone in town" but it's obvious you're too cowardly to sign your name. Figures!
DeleteNo one would admit to being a Sofia supporter
DeleteYour shitty "whiteness" is showing, asshole!
DeleteWhat supporters? She's hated everywhere.
DeleteTrump parties with wealthy at Mar-A-Lago on New Year's Eve: Trump wouldn't be caught dead socializing with the dumb SOBs that populate his hillbilly rallies, scurrying for his attention. Unless they're vendors he can cheat, Trump U students he can con or undocumented employees he can exploit, Trump has no use for them.
ReplyDeleteSofia is a drag. Enough with career politicians!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteU.S. kills Iranian military chief: Trump tweeted back in 2012 that Obama would start a war with Iran to elevate his poll numbers. So now we know Trump thinks being a war president will pay off for him. Like so many other things, Trump miscalculates the attitudes of Americans. There is no US foreign policy under Trump. Just fires Trump lights and the gasoline he pours on them when he wants to change the subject from his crimes.
ReplyDeleteYour headline has her name wrong, you fucking Panson! May God Damn You!!!
ReplyDeleteHer re-election sign has a picture that doesn't even look like her and you're worried about the name being spelled properly? I hope she loses. These nuts and their supporters need to go climb up the highest mountain then jump.
DeleteNo worry. It's just the McAllen Impotent. He spends hours a day obsessed with this blog, fretting about the obvious, fantasizing about being relevant.
DeleteHeadline: It's BENAVIDES, pinche gordiflon! Too much fat between the ears? Sofia has more class than you can dream of, puto!
ReplyDeleteThen, why do her supporters seem so classless and clueless?
Delete"Seeming" is not "being," you imbecile!
DeleteIt's "Benavides" in the headline dumbass! That plump nurse in Kyle must have kicked you in the head when she kicked you to the curb.
Delete“Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.”
ReplyDeleteThis is what Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, in an Aug. 30 email, which has only been made available in redacted form until now. It is one of many documents the Trump administration is trying to keep from the public, despite congressional oversight efforts and court orders in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation.
Earlier in the day on Aug. 30, President Donald Trump met with Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the president’s hold on $391 million in military assistance for Ukraine. Inside the Trump administration, panic was reaching fever pitch about the president’s funding hold, which had stretched on for two months. Days earlier, POLITICO had broken the story and questions were starting to pile up. U.S. defense contractors were worried about delayed contracts and officials in Kyiv and lawmakers on Capitol Hill wanted to know what on earth was going on. While Trump’s national security team thought withholding the money went against U.S. national security interests, Trump still wouldn’t budge.
Thanks to the testimony of several Trump administration officials, we now know what Trump was waiting on: a commitment from Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
Race-baiting on this thread "courtesy" of the obsessed recluse from McAllen.
DeleteYes, Duardo always trying to stir something up on your blog Jim. We all know the lowlife does that.
DeleteWho dat?...
DeleteBenavides 75% The Clap 25%.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost a foregone conclusion that Sofia will win. It's just disappointing that she represents her constituents so inadequately, which was the primary focus of my article, a simple lament that poor representation is an unfortunate barrier Precinct 1 must overcome.
Delete