A look at Texas politics with George Rodriguez from South Texas. We will look at the Paxton vs Cornyn upcoming election plus other stories.......
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Hispanic remorse? Maybe not in California.
What if 30 years of one-party rule has finally taken its toll on Hispanics?
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My guess is that the Democrats will win in California, but Mr. Hilton will put up a great fight. He will be sharper in debates than Mr. Becerra, but the numbers are not there because they tell us that Hispanics will not vote for the GOP out there.
Well, what if that is not true about Hispanics this time around?
What if 30 years of one-party rule has finally taken its toll on Hispanics? Let’s take a look at this, from David Catron:
All year the corporate media has produced story after story telling us that Latino voters are suffering buyer’s remorse after voting for President Trump and Republicans in 2024. This, we are told, is due to the failure of the GOP to drive down prices and defeat inflation. This seems reasonably plausible, but California’s gubernatorial primary produced no evidence that it is actually true. Indeed, it appears that it was support from Latino voters that enabled Republican Steve Hilton to emerge as one of the top two finishers who will face off in the November general election. Hilton will face Democrat Xavier Becerra, who generated remarkably flaccid support among Latino voters.
This doesn’t mean Hilton will defeat Becerra in this Democratic state, but his showing among Latinos suggests that GOP performance in the midterms will be stronger than the legacy media would have us believe. According to a report in the Daily Torch, Fresno County is 55 percent Latino, yet Hilton beat Becerra by 14 points. Hilton also flipped Tulare County, which is nearly 70 percent Latino, winning it by 17 percentage points. In Madera County, which is 60 percent Latino, Hilton beat Becerra by 23 points. And it gets better. All across California Hilton received twice the number of votes received by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s last GOP challenger, Brian Dahle, in June’s primary. Becerra secured 1.4 million fewer votes than did Newsom in 2022.
But the numbers that really should encourage Republicans are the results in large counties with a lot of Latino voters. In San Bernardino County the electorate is more than 53 percent Latino and Becerra only managed to eke out 26.1 percent of the vote while Hilton and fellow Republican Chad Bianco received 45.9 percent combined. Riverside County is over 50 percent Latino and Becerra received 27.2 percent while Hilton and Bianco received 47.7 percent combined. Obviously, Chad Bianco isn’t going to be on the ballot in November, so it’s reasonable to assume that most of Bianco’s votes will go to Hilton, including those allegedly disillusioned Latino voters who just cast ballots for him.
Disillusioned Latinos? My guess is that there are lots of them in Los Angeles, and other cities. They are disillusioned with one-party rule that produces the chaos and lawlessness in the city. Or the one-party rule that doesn’t lock up criminals. I wonder how many El Salvador immigrants in LA wish that the criminals in LA got the Bukele treatment with respect to crime? Or the one-party rule that won’t pick up garbage because the public sector unions run the state. Or the one-party rule that won’t stand up to the teachers who want to tell your son that he can be a girl if he feels like it.
And then there is the cost of living, which includes very high local taxes that do not translate into good public services.
For years, California Democrats have relied on the Latino vote on the basis that the GOP is too harsh on immigration enforcement. Maybe Mr. Hilton will flip that theory by simply convincing Latinos in California that they are not getting their money’s worth. In other words, the Democrats can’t govern, and the evidence on that case is overwhelmingly true.
Maybe there’s more to voting than immigration reform, especially when your kid can’t read at his graduation level or your grandmother can’t walk to the “bodega” without a bum stealing her purse.
P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.
Click to read:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/06/hispanic_remorse_maybe_not_in_california.html
1858: Remembering Lincoln's warning
On this day in 1858, U.S. Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln addressed the Illinois Republican Convention in Springfield. He lost that race but his words left their mark.
As you remember from your U.S. history class, the country was bitterly divided and there was talk of secession and threats of a war between the states. The primary issue was slavery but it was more complex than that.
Lincoln looked at the audience and said this:
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
It became one of his most profound messages and speeches. Two years later, he was elected president and the war between the states followed.
What can we learn from that today? Are you listening, Mr. Attorney General? At times of great division and uncertainty, it's often better to pause and look at the big picture, such as do we really want to indict the man of the other party currently leading your guy in the polls? Do we want to indict him over documents when the one known as "the Big Guy" has a little problem of his own? Do we want the whole country talking about a double standard when Mrs. Clinton was given a pass on her document problem?
It's hard to be optimistic when the people running the country seem more interested in hanging Trump like Mussolini rather than resolving legitimate questions about documents.
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
A word about Eric Segal (1937-2010)
We remember Eric Segal who was born on this day in 1937.
He died in January 2010 at age 72.
Who remembers "Love Story" or the book that became a hugely popular movie? It was the love story of Oliver Barrett IV, a rich kid at Harvard law school and Jenny Cavilleri, a pretty working class girl studying music at Radcliffe.
Segal also wrote the screen play for The Beatles' movie "Yellow Submarine". Wonder how many people know that?
"Love Story" also made huge stars of Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw. It was probably the biggest "date movie" of 1971.
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
1965: Bob Dylan recorded "Like a rolling stone"
The song (almost 6 minutes long) peaked at #2 in early September behind The Beatles’ “Help".
"Rolling Stone", a magazine that has nothing to do with the famous group or Dylan, chose the song as # 1 in its compilation of the 500 most influential songs of rock.
It was quite a song.
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
We remember Frank “Pancho” Herrera (1934-2005)
Juan Francisco (Villavicencio) Herrera was born June 16, 1934 in Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba. He was known as Frank or Pancho or even Panchon. Herrera began his baseball career in 1954 with La Habana in the Cuban Winter League. His manager was the legendary Adolfo Luque, a major-leaguer from the 1920’s.
The Philadelphia Phillies signed him in 1955 (their first black Latino player) and he spent the next few years between the minors and the Cuban league. He played with fellow Cubans, Tony Gonzalez, Tony Taylor and Octavio Rojas in the Phillies’ organization.
His major league career was short, but he hit .281 with 17 HR and 71 RBI in 1960, good enough to come in second to Frank Howard in the 1960 Rookie of the Year vote! He came back with 13 HR in 1961. Herrera was sent back to AAA in 1962 and hit 32 HR but never got another chance to play in the big leagues. In retrospect, that’s hard to believe because Herrera proved that he could hit and expansion brought 4 new teams in 1961-62. We should point out that players back then did not enjoy the opportunity of being DFA or designated for assignment. Under today’s rules, a team can not return a player to the minors indefinitely thus allowing him to sign with another team. In other words, the players did not enjoy the rights that they have today.
After the majors, Panchon played for various seasons in Mexico. He led the league with 39 HR in 1969. They remember him as one of the great power hitters in Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico! He was a big favorite there with Mexican baseball fans.
Herrera died in Miami in 2005. We remember him as one of the last Cuban players to play in the U.S. and the old Cuban Winter League.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk). We always recommend "The pride of Havana", a great book about Cuban baseball:
Monday, June 15, 2026
Can Social Security make it to 100?
The Trust Fund is in trouble sooner rather than later.
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As you may remember from your history class, Social Security was signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1935. Since then, millions of Americans have survived or complemented their retirement savings with that monthly check or direct deposit. It's become a sacred cow of politics, and most politicians avoid talking about it.
It looks like we will be talking a lot about it in 2032, or not that far down the road. Let's take a look at this editorial from The Washington Examiner:
Politicians from both parties have been able to avoid Social Security’s impending insolvency for decades because bankruptcy was still years away. It was a little over the horizon, and for our irresponsible politicians, out of sight has been out of mind. But according to the latest Social Security trustees’ report this week, bankruptcy is upon us now. The Social Security trust fund is estimated to run out of money in 2032. That means whoever wins the next presidential election in 2028 will have no choice but to confront Social Security in the final year of a first term. Whoever is in office then will have surprising flexibility in deciding what happens next.
Bankruptcy is upon us? Funny how that happens. Social Security was supposed to be self-financing, but now it may run out of money. Funny how that works too.
The big question now is whether the issue will be discussed in the upcoming 2028 election or avoided altogether by a news media obsessed with everything Trump. Will the media ask Democrats and Republicans for their plans to save the program? The fact is that millions of Americans depend on that check, and punting on a resolution may not cut it this time.
So, the countdown to 2035 is underway, and it's going to get louder and louder.
Click to read:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/06/can_social_security_make_it_to_100.html
1938: Johnny Vander Meer and back to back no-hitters
On this day in 1938, Johnny Vander Meer became the only pitcher in baseball history to throw two back-to-back no-hitters.
Vander Meer went on to play 13 seasons with a 119-121 record. He won 49 games and led the NL in strikeouts over a 3-year span before going off to World War II in 1944-45.
His record of back to back no hitters will be very difficult to match or break.
PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.
June 15, 1941: Joe DiMaggio goes 1-for-3 to reach # 28 on the way to 56
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June 15, 1941: Joe DiMaggio goes 1-for-3 to reach # 28 on the way to 56......he got # 27 vs Bob Feller.....
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
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