They’re heading to Texas, and Governor-elect Hinojosa insisted during Abbott’s tenure that they should be welcomed in.
Friday, November 06, 2026
1532: Cabeza de Vaca landed in Texas
Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca did not set out to find Texas but he landed around Galveston on this day in 1532.
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We remember Glenn Frey (1948-2016)
We remember Glenn Frey who was born in Michigan on this day in 1948.
Back in the 1970's, The Eagles were one of the most successful recording acts in the world. Later, Frey was a solo artist but I loved his work with The Eagles a lot more.
We got some bad news in January 2016: Glenn Frey, one of the founders and principals of The Eagles, passed away. He was 67.
One of my favorite songs was "A new kid in town", a # 1 song the LP "Hotel California".
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Reagan 1980 many years ago this week!
As we count the 2020 vote, let me tell you a story about another election that meant a great deal to me. Like many Cuban Americans, I had grown up hearing that it was better to vote Republican. It was Ronald Reagan who took it to the next level. He made it cool to talk about free markets and small government.
Back in November 1980, I was a volunteer on the Reagan-Bush team. On Friday night, I worked a phone bank and all the senior people were talking about a close election. A few days before, we had seen Reagan debate President Carter but the impact of “there you go again” was still unclear. I guess we did not see the impact of that debate until real people voted.
On election day, I voted early, went to work, and then listened to the radio for any detail I could find.
At 7:00 P.M., I tuned in to the TV, expecting to stay up all night, as I had in 1976, when the Ford-Carter contest literally went into the middle of the next day.
Around 7:00 P.M., the Eastern results came in, and President Carter looked weak. By 9:00, the Southern results started projecting a Reagan victory. By 11:00, the Western results made it a landslide.
The Reagan-Bush team got 489 electoral votes and almost 44 million votes. It was amazing, to say the least.
Of course, the next part was even better. The GOP picked up Senate seats and ended up with a majority for the first time in years.
A few days later, I moved to Mexico City to start a banking assignment. Down south of the border, everyone in Mexico was curious as to how Reagan did it. I had a lot fun explaining the victory. Last, but not least, President Carter was seen as a very weak leader and many remembered that Reagan had been a good and popular Governor Reagan of California.
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1860: Abraham Lincoln became president
On election day 1860, a very divided country went to the polls.
Lincoln got only 40% of the popular vote but defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois.
The election did not settle any of the differences. By inauguration date on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded, and the Confederate States of America had been formally established, with Jefferson Davis as its elected president.
One month later, the Civil War began when Confederate forces under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
Lincoln got only 40% of the popular vote but defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois.
The election did not settle any of the differences. By inauguration date on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded, and the Confederate States of America had been formally established, with Jefferson Davis as its elected president.
One month later, the Civil War began when Confederate forces under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
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November 1956: Remembering the people of Hungary
Like many of you who escaped communism, I am a strong believer in reminding the younger generation that freedom is not cheap. In fact, many have paid the ultimate price to fight for it.
Many Hungarians paid the price this month in 1956!
Before Prague 1968 or Poland 1980, there was Hungary, one of the great chapters of human valor of the 20th century.
From mid-October 1956 until the Soviet tanks crushed the revolution, the people of Hungary stood tall against overwhelming odds and indifference from the West.
One of my heroes was the late Cardinal Mindszenty, who was imprisoned for 8 years and then given asylum at the US embassy. He died in Vienna in 1975 and never saw the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
We Cubans have a special place in our hearts for anyone who stood up to communism.
We salute the brave people of Hungary and how they fought for freedom many years ago.
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Nixon 1968 and 7 of 10
A post from 2018:
We await for the voters to decide the 2018 midterm elections. In the meantime, let’s remember the election of 1968, or the first GOP victory in a long line of presidential victories.
I was a sophomore in high school and very interested in the election. Our family had arrived in the U.S. in September 1964, and I don’t remember too much about that election. I do recall that my father said that it was a landslide for President Lyndon B. Johnson. I think that my father would have voted for Senator Barry Goldwater but we were not citizens at the time.
In 1968, our family was with Richard Nixon. My father always spoke highly of Nixon and explained that it’d be better for the U.S. to replace the Democrats. My parents used to say that the Democrats were soft on national security. It was an opinion largely shaped by the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
As you may recall, Richard Nixon lost the election of 1960 by 114,000 votes out of 76 million cast that day. In 1962, he failed to become governor of California and gave his famous “last press conference”. After that, Nixon “retired” from politics and spent the next five years helping GOP candidates and hoping for another shot. In his memoirs, RN, he wrote that he felt better about his chances after seeing the good results of the 1966 midterms.
In 1968, Nixon jumped in again and battled Governor Ronald Reagan of California and Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. He easily won the nomination on the first ballot in Miami.
It turned out to be a very strange campaign. The Democrats self-destructed in Chicago. The George Wallace factor divided the Democrats in the South. Vietnam was the issue of the day, but “law and order” was in the conversation. We remember that Reverend Martin Luther King and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were killed that year.
On election night, Nixon got 43.4% and VP Humphrey was right behind with 42.73% of the 74 million votes cast. Governor Wallace got 13.5% and carried 5 Southern states. As I recall, it was not until the next morning that the election was called.
In the end, Nixon got the Electoral Votes and became the 37th president.
The 1968 election started a very interesting trend. The GOP won in 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2004. It was 7 of the next 10, a remarkable streak.
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Thursday, November 05, 2026
What rhymes with disaster?
So the midterm curse happened, and it bit Trump hard. Let's fight back and go forward.
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As that line goes, I've had better days. My predictions were wrong, and that's on me. Gina Hinojosa, a lady that got the Democrat nomination because no one wanted to run against Governor Greg Abbott, will be replacing him. James Talarico, who sounds like "hope and change" Obama, will be our next U.S. senator. Not good. Not good at all.
As my late Cuban mother used to say, you cry for a while and then go out and fight the next battle. And that's what our attitude has to be this morning.
Let me make a couple of suggestions:
1) President Trump did not explain why we are bombing Iran or paying higher prices. I understand it, but many Americans just paid the high price and had no idea why. That's on President Trump.
2) Why was Darline Graham, a wonderful lady who couldn't speak about current events, running in South Carolina? Why? That's on President Trump.
3) Why wasn't Senator John Cornyn running for reelection in Texas? Sorry, but endorsing AG Paxton, a wonderful Attorney General, was bad timing. I know that some of you will disagree but Cornyn would have won. He had broader appeal, and a midterm is no time to have a nasty primary. The two men spent much of March, April, and May badmouthing the other. Why?
4) President Trump now has a chance to veto himself back into the game. He will fight all of the excesses and win. He won't have to worry about the GOP passing his legislation because he will spend the next two years rejecting the Democrats.
5) Finally, don't exaggerate the Democrats' victory. It may crash into a dead end as Isaac Schorr wrote:
"Whatever the final count, it looks like voters are unhappy with President Trump. The Iran war is unpopular, and sky-high gas prices are, well, fuel for voters’ continued fury over the ongoing affordability crisis.
But what will Democrats do with that discontent?
As Axios noted in a prescient preview, Democrats’ celebration of their triumph -- be it a ripple or a wave -- might be short-lived.
For good reason, too.
The party’s elites and their media allies have spent the better part of two decades now shaming the rest of the country for not joining them on their reckless ride leftward.
Joe Biden and his hapless deputy Kamala Harris were run out of Washington, DC, just two years ago, after foisting on Americans an agenda they’d never agreed to.
Wide-open borders, transgender madness, profligate spending and a submissive, self-conscious approach to geopolitics that compelled a surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan -- while inviting the invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities of Oct. 7.
And even if they end up with control of both chambers of Congress come January, it’s unlikely that Democrats will be doing much governing at all.
No governing at all! Yes, how does the House pass a budget or even write an anti-ICE bill, or immigration reform? How does it get 60 votes in the U.S. Senate? How do they override the anticipated veto? In fact, we will see a lot of President Trump signing vetoes on live TV.
So the midterm curse happened, and it bit Trump hard. Let's fight back and go forward.
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Happy # 85 Art Garfunkel............
We say happy birthday to Art Garfunkel, who was born in Queens, NY on this day in 1941. His career had two episodes: Simon & Garfunkel and several solo hits and LP's.
Garfunkel's version of "I only have eyes for you" was one of the best romantic ballads of 1975-76.
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