Texas, WTF ?

Sean Renaud said:

The problem is that is somewhere between difficult and impossible to do you know? First how are you going to prove that so and so is abusing the system? Put an ankle monitor on them to see how often they leave the house to go walking around looking for help wanted signs? In my neck of the woods the only companies that would put up a help wanted sign are the few Mom and Pops stores that still exist. Anything larger than that and your only way of getting to them is to go online to their website and fill out an app. So they should be sitting on their ass in front of their computer at least half their waking hours. Do you check their computer history? Well that's all fine and dandy (if a little invasive) most companies have a 90day waiting period where they tell you not to reapply within so depending on how many companies are in the area they are still going to have a lot of downtime. Do you judge it by how many callbacks they get or interviews? Ultimately they have zero control over that. Do you judge it by what they own (since I see a lot of people bitching about so and so has Air Jordans, an Xbox, a Cell Phone, a computer and the internet) Well the first two very well may have been gifts or purchases prior to becoming unemployed. The last three are required. I've already explained why the computer and internet are required and while I guess they could sit by their home phone if you want them spending time wandering the streets looking for help wanted signs. . .well cell phone becomes a must.

It's not that I think waste is a good thing, it's that I realize it's a lot of trouble to work through and maybe we'd be better off working on other things that would solve the unemployment issue in the first place rather than looking for ways to punish those without jobs.

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All of these are excellent points. You're absolutely right. It's something that cannot be gauged or measured. What I was trying to get across is simply that terminating a program or damning the person who initiated it or supported it is not an answer to the problem of misuse/corruption.

BlueNebula said:

All of these are excellent points. You're absolutely right. It's something that cannot be gauged or measured. What I was trying to get across is simply that terminating a program or damning the person who initiated it or supported it is not an answer to the problem of misuse/corruption.

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I wasn't really meaning to call you out btw. I know you weren't calling for getting rid of the program because of a few bad apples. You did sound like you were advocating getting the abusers off the system. Which in spirit is something I think most of us support. (I have to add that I assume when a person gets sufficiently hungry or cold they are going to knock over a convenience store and then it becomes a question of what's cheaper and better? Locking them up in jail, ruining their future prospects for employment and of course paying for their roof, board, medical and guards or giving them free food and hoping then unfuck themselves sooner or later.) I think a lot of people think it's a lot simpler than it is.

I also forgot to add that if even if there was something you could check on an individual basis to get the people abusing the system you have to pay the workers to go check it and pay them enough that they honestly give a shit instead of just walking by and checking off the appropriate boxes and moving on. And that depending on how we administer things there might be better uses of the person's time especially if we refuse to give more "handouts" a single mother High School drop out should probably get her GED before we worry about anything else. At least that's something that can be measured and weighed so to speak.

Sean Renaud said:

(I have to add that I assume when a person gets sufficiently hungry or cold they are going to knock over a convenience store and then it becomes a question of what's cheaper and better? Locking them up in jail, ruining their future prospects for employment and of course paying for their roof, board, medical and guards or giving them free food and hoping then unfuck themselves sooner or later.) I think a lot of people think it's a lot simpler than it is.

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Yeah, the money and man power it would take to monitor the people in way that guarantees that people won't abuse the system would be irrational. Another thing is that: its not always cheaper and better, more often than not its cheaper OR better and in that case cheaper always wins. Which basically sets off a cycle because that permanent mark of having been in prison does not fade, and it becomes part of your mentality, a mentality you pass on and, from what I've seen, it seems to get worse and worse as the generations progress. I think that the most socially and personally benefiting option would be to tweak the education system. Get them while young, BEFORE they are forced to do things to survive or end up making huge mistakes because they know no better..... though perhaps my thinking this is just... a fantasy. Idk.

BlueNebula said:

Yeah, the money and man power it would take to monitor the people in way that guarantees that people won't abuse the system would be irrational. Another thing is that: its not always cheaper and better, more often than not its cheaper OR better and in that case cheaper always wins. Which basically sets off a cycle because that permanent mark of having been in prison does not fade, and it becomes part of your mentality, a mentality you pass on and, from what I've seen, it seems to get worse and worse as the generations progress. I think that the most socially and personally benefiting option would be to tweak the education system. Get them while young, BEFORE they are forced to do things to survive or end up making huge mistakes because they know no better..... though perhaps my thinking this is just... a fantasy. Idk.

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You're starting to wander a bit. I don't think you're wrong mind you but I think you've leaned the wrong way a bit.

It's quite possible. I've grown up a bit detached to the outside world... the wonders of growing up in a small town and being generally antisocial haha. My apologies.

DALLAS – With the stroke of a pen Monday afternoon, Governor Greg Abbott overruled voters in Denton and voided their much-publicized fracking ban.

Last November, Denton voters approved a ban on fracking inside city limits.

But House Bill 40, which Abbott signed into law Monday afternoon, no longer lets cities and counties enact regulations on oil and gas activities.


Many opposed to the bill found this type of rhetoric hypocritical, especially for a state with such a strong foundation in limited government oversight and local property rights.

"Many of these legislators are speaking out of both sides of their mouths, decrying federal preemption of state sovereignty on the one hand, while pushing one-size fits all mandates from Austin overriding local ordinances.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/19/3660369/texas-prohibits-local-fracking-bans/

Critics have accused the governor of hypocrisy for frequently suing the federal government for what he deemed an overreach into Texas affairs, and then declaring that local control at the city level is problematic.

"I am outraged by this assault on local control, public health and safety," said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, which opposed the bill. "Local ordinances are often the last line of defense for Texans beleaguered by dirty drilling. Now, we are all at the mercy of state regulators who routinely deny science, disregard public health, and do whatever Big Oil tells them to. Oil and gas companies donated $5.5 million to the campaigns of legislators in the last elections, and clearly they got their money's worth."


http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...ibit-local-fracking-bans-heads-to-6241882.php

gotsnowgotslush said:

DALLAS – With the stroke of a pen Monday afternoon, Governor Greg Abbott overruled voters in Denton and voided their much-publicized fracking ban.

Last November, Denton voters approved a ban on fracking inside city limits.

But House Bill 40, which Abbott signed into law Monday afternoon, no longer lets cities and counties enact regulations on oil and gas activities.


Many opposed to the bill found this type of rhetoric hypocritical, especially for a state with such a strong foundation in limited government oversight and local property rights.

"Many of these legislators are speaking out of both sides of their mouths, decrying federal preemption of state sovereignty on the one hand, while pushing one-size fits all mandates from Austin overriding local ordinances.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/19/3660369/texas-prohibits-local-fracking-bans/

Critics have accused the governor of hypocrisy for frequently suing the federal government for what he deemed an overreach into Texas affairs, and then declaring that local control at the city level is problematic.

"I am outraged by this assault on local control, public health and safety," said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, which opposed the bill. "Local ordinances are often the last line of defense for Texans beleaguered by dirty drilling. Now, we are all at the mercy of state regulators who routinely deny science, disregard public health, and do whatever Big Oil tells them to. Oil and gas companies donated $5.5 million to the campaigns of legislators in the last elections, and clearly they got their money's worth."


http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...ibit-local-fracking-bans-heads-to-6241882.php

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All that conservative love for limited power and respecting the will of the people!! LOL

BotanyBoy said:

All that conservative love for limited power and respecting the will of the $$$ people!! LOL

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Fixed it for you.

The river was expected to crest at 50 feet by Sunday. Late Friday evening, the river was just above its flood stage of 48 feet.

Washington Post

http://blog.chron.com/weather/2015/05/flash-flood-watch-issued-for-saturday-afternoon-night/

"The status quo is rife with unsustainable confusion over what's protected and what's not. This rule provides the certainty that businesses and industry need to keep our economy going and this rule does it without getting in the way of farming, ranchers, foresters, and in fact giving them the potential to benefit from the certainty that this rule provides," he told reporters on Wednesday. "The only people with reason to oppose the rule are polluters who knowingly threaten our clean water."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/27/epa-clean-water-rule_n_7451742.html

Abbott signs law creating Texas depository for state gold

June 12, 2015

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/te...law-creating-Texas-depository-for-6324196.php

Texas doesn’t actually have a billion dollars in gold bars in the evil untrustworthy Federal Reserve bank in New York City.

Rather, the University of Texas endowment fund has a whole bunch of gold bars that, in a story too complex to repeat, one of its goldbug financial advisors insisted would be the best possible investment.

And they’re in a bank vault — and earning a rate of return far lower than the stock market. That gold may or may not be coming back to Texas; the law actually doesn’t required it to.

But because most, maybe all, of the state’s gold reserves will actually be stored with private companies, a whole bunch of gold brokers got behind the bill and it passed, which is awfully nice for the brokers who’ll be getting a cut.

In fact, there eventually may or may not actually be a single great big gold vault for the state, so at first — and maybe forever — it’ll be outsourced, but goldbugs shouldn’t worry: the firms will all be “licensed and bonded.”

http://wonkette.com/588545/texas-to-build-very-own-gold-stash-inside-giant-20-acre-mattress

gotsnowgotslush said:

Abbott signs law creating Texas depository for state gold

June 12, 2015

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/te...law-creating-Texas-depository-for-6324196.php

Texas doesn’t actually have a billion dollars in gold bars in the evil untrustworthy Federal Reserve bank in New York City.

Rather, the University of Texas endowment fund has a whole bunch of gold bars that, in a story too complex to repeat, one of its goldbug financial advisors insisted would be the best possible investment.

And they’re in a bank vault — and earning a rate of return far lower than the stock market. That gold may or may not be coming back to Texas; the law actually doesn’t required it to.

But because most, maybe all, of the state’s gold reserves will actually be stored with private companies, a whole bunch of gold brokers got behind the bill and it passed, which is awfully nice for the brokers who’ll be getting a cut.

In fact, there eventually may or may not actually be a single great big gold vault for the state, so at first — and maybe forever — it’ll be outsourced, but goldbugs shouldn’t worry: the firms will all be “licensed and bonded.”

http://wonkette.com/588545/texas-to-build-very-own-gold-stash-inside-giant-20-acre-mattress

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Maybe they can hide it under the Alamo, like Jim Bowie did.

Tactic of Texas ? Tell a tall tale.

Welcome to Dallas!

Until this spring, AT&T was slowing speeds until the customer's next billing cycle, even when there was no congestion.

Both Verizon and AT&T had phased out their unlimited plans after data usage grew following the iPhone's launch in 2007. Existing customers, however, were able to keep their unlimited plans.

The FCC says AT&T's approach to unlimited plans violated the agency's transparency rule.

“Unlimited means unlimited,” said Travis LeBlanc, the FCC enforcement bureau chief. “As today's action demonstrates, the commission is committed to holding accountable those broadband providers who fail to be fully transparent about data limits.”

The hefty fine by the FCC comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit filed against the company last fall. The Federal Trade Commission, which enforces rules against deceptive advertising, said it wants to refund customers who were offered the unlimited data packages, only to be given slower data speeds than advertised. That lawsuit is still working its way through a federal court in California.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/technology/ct-att-unlimited-data-fine-20150617-story.html

AT&T Mobility is located in Atlanta and is a subsidiary of Dallas-based AT&T Inc.

Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville

They made Rep Sid Miller the Agriculture Commissioner, after he proved himself to be unconcerned that House Bill 15 would force women to endure an examination with a sonogram wand, if she wished to qualify for the right to get an abortion.

House Bill 15 requires a woman seeking an abortion to allow a medical professional to perform a sonogram, display live images of the fetus, provide an explanation of the images and play audio of a heartbeat, if there is one. All that is supposed to happen at least 24 hours before the procedure.

The author, Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, said his measure is not a sonogram bill; rather, it is an informed consent bill.


Rep. Sid Miller did not realize exactly what kind of highly intrusive procedure he was mandating for the women of Texas. This came to light during debate, when Rep. Carol Alvarado detailed the procedure Miller wanted to force on Texas women.

Rep. Alvarado had to bring a sonogram wand to the hearing, and explain that it was not an external sonogram examination on the outside of a woman's body.

Rep. Sid Miller took instructions from A.L.E.X, and became the "authur" (his word) of H.B. 15, and did not bother to find out what he was ordering women to do.

Rick Perry Signs Controversial Bill Requiring Women To Get Sonogram 24 Hours Before An Abortion

May 25, 2011

The Senate sponsor of the bill, Dan Patrick (R) hailed it as “the beginning of the end for abortions,” and said he was so proud that “I may be inspired to wear my cowboy hat” when Perry signed the bill.

House sponsor Sid Miller (R) described it as “one of the strongest sonogram bills in the nation.”

It did not concern him that a rape victim would be forced to endure a medical rape before she was allowed to abort.


How concerned is Sid Miller about animals ? Before he became Agricultural Commisioner, he did this, while he held the office of Representative-

Agriculture commissioner hopeful Sid Miller accused of mishandling horses


He hitched the trailer up to the truck, tied three horses to the trailer, and pulled the horses around in circles.

He could not be bothered to ride his own horses, and did not care if they got hurt running behind a truck.

"Ward Stutz, the quarter horse association’s senior director of breed integrity, confirmed the association received a complaint that Miller had tied horses to his trailer pulled by a pickup to exercise them at a May show at the San Antonio Rose Palace."

Nobody who complained has come forward publicly.

Is it any wonder, why they did not ?

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/loca...-sid-miller-accused-of-mishandling-horses.ece

Texas Ag Commission Rolls Back Ban on Deep Fryers, Soda Machines


Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on Thursday restored the option for public schools to serve certain fried foods and soda by lifting a decade-old statewide ban on deep fryers and soda machines.

Why would he bring fast food and soda back into the schools, if there was not something in it, for him or the people who support him ?

He could not be bothered to think about the children he was harming

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/18/agriculture-commissioner-rolls-back-ban-deep-fryer/

He cared enough about himself, to order the state to refurbish the office for his new job as Agricultural Commisioner.

He could not be bothered to look at the budget, and see if there was money to cover his demand.

There was not.

He could not be bothered to be concerned about appearances. He gave the wife of his consultant a high paying job.

People noticed. She left.

While appearing on a conservative talk show, Rick Perry was asked about President Obama’s decision to call for more gun control following the shooting that left nine people dead.

“This is the MO of this administration anytime there is an accident like this,” Perry said.

“The president’s clear, he doesn’t like for Americans to have guns and so he uses every opportunity – this being another one – to basically go parrot that message.”


The excuse that has been used, for as long as I can remember. "I misspoke."

A spokesperson for Perry’s campaign said the presidential hopeful meant to say ‘incident,’ not ‘accident.’


Later in the interview, Perry called the shooting “a crime of hate” and suggested drugs may have been to blame.

How convenient, that his mistake benefited his speech, and put President Obama in the light of using a trivial accident to take Take Away Our Guns.

Perpetuate that false meme, Rick Perry! The truth does not fetch campaign dollars for your fruitless run.

The people that love the false memes that bolster their positions, do not want to hear the inconvenient and unpleasant truth.

Have something to say about the scoff law people who attend the gun shows, and sell guns to anyone, and everyone ?

The ones who pay fines, when they get caught?

I would not expect Rick Perry to say much against them.
His campaign account is filled with contributions from them.

http://kxan.com/2015/06/19/perry-criticized-for-calling-charleston-shooting-an-accident/


The slaughter of 20 school children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School was not enough to bring reason into the minds of gun fanatics.

So strange to see many falsehoods gain acceptance in the gun fanatic community, because the need to believe is so desperate.

Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed a person to lead the State Board of Education during his time in office

http://tpr.org/post/gov-abbott-appoints-home-school-mom-chair-state-board-education

Gov. Abbott Appoints Home-School Mom To Chair State Board Of Education
By RYAN POPPE • JUN 19, 2015


http://tpr.org/post/gov-abbott-appoints-home-school-mom-chair-state-board-education

For the last two years Houston Republican Donna Bahorich served as a member of the State Board of Education. Before that she worked for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s previous state senate campaign, and she was one his top choices when asked who should succeed outgoing chair Barbara Cargil.


Bahorich’s appointment is being criticized by some education groups as well as by some of her colleagues because all three of her sons were home schooled and later attended a private high school.


One of Bahorich first initiatives will be to have a roundtable discussion with textbook publishers about their vision for the future and how to possibly reduce the cost of classroom content.

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/dan-patrick-thinks-texas-monthly-was-mean-to-his-friends-7540884


Same home schooling program that educated the Duggars ? (It would be polite to warn the virgin temptresses that they will be blamed for their own rapes by her three sons.)


It would seem our new Sheriff is not exactly comfortable with gay people. First, he told to his surprise at a Republican club meeting that the HCSO website has a small rainbow flag tucked into a corner:


Ron Hickman, the new hater in town

Needless to say, that rainbow flag is now gone. What’s more worrisome to LGBT advocates is that Hickman has also axed the LGBT liaison program entirely.

Here’s the explanation Ryan Sullivan, the new HCSO spokesman, gave us this week:

“The LGBT liaison program didn’t have the capacity which you would expect by looking at the website. …Those requests were kind of administered ad hoc. Should a request come in, it would be processed around through the department until it could be fulfilled. We already have systems and structures in place through our community services division to take care of those things directly.”

That the department’s LGBT liaison program was somewhat loosely organized and that requests for an LGBT-friendly officer were handled on an “ad hoc” basis, as Sullivan puts it, is technically true. Lou Weaver, a local LGBT activist and consultant, says she worked closely with Garcia’s office in helping craft policies dealing with everything from discrimination to hate crime allegations to how the sheriff handled gay and transgender inmates in lockup at the county jail.

According to Weaver and others who are familiar with how the LGBT liaison program was set up, Garcia identified officers and employees within the agency who could act as points of contact whenever something LGBT-related came up. Many of those employees went through hours of training in how to better serve the LGBT community, particularly jailers tasked with implementing Garcia’s rather groundbreaking policy directive to classify and house inmates based on gender identity and expression rather than biological sex — a policy that Hickman’s office says will continue.

Weaver and others were already troubled that Maj. Debra Schmidt, a 29-year veteran of the department who helped implement protections for LGBT inmates and employees at the sheriff’s office, was among Garcia’s top commanders who were demoted once Hickman took over. Axing the LGBT liaison program in the name of “productivity” is equally worrying, Weaver says.


http://www.houstonpress.com/news/new-harris-county-sheriff-axes-lgbt-liaison-program-7502172


Among Ron Hickman’s initial moves as sheriff was filling each of his first eight command posts with white males, a choice critics said shows a lack of vision in a jurisdiction as diverse as Harris County.

“A lot of African-American deputies have approached me … asking me to say something about this. We are going back to the days of (Sheriff) Tommy Thomas,” said J.M. “Smokie” Phillips Jr., president of the Afro-American Sheriff’s Deputy League. “They are expressing concern that we are going backwards to the old days of racism, the good old boys’ system, discriminatory practices and disparity in treatment.”

Robert Goerlitz, president of the Harris County Deputies Organization, which endorsed Hickman’s appointment, said, “I think the choices are being made more based on ability than based on what race or gender (the individuals) are. It’s detrimental to an organization when you make your decisions based on race or gender.”

The president of the Mexican American Sheriffs Organization, Marty Rocha, declined to weigh in until Hickman completes his assignments.

“We’re going to have to give him the opportunity to set up his command,” Rocha said. “We’re going to wait until he finishes. … It’s not a done deal, and he’s still moving folks back and forth.”

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...hp?t=ea9d927afb55ac21b0&cmpid=twitter-premium

Hickman called it insulting to question whether race or gender were considerations in his early staffing assignments.

Niece lives in the Austin area. She and her husband hold Masters degrees. They're seriously considering moving out of Texas, or sending their son to a Catholic school.

RjThoughts said:

Niece lives in the Austin area. She and her husband hold Masters degrees. They're seriously considering moving out of Texas, or sending their son to a Catholic school.

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I' would push them to get the fuck out while they can.

Austin is the only livable part of that state (in rapid decline as it turns into TX's LA I might add) and the rest of it is just a twangier Alabama, but more belligerent and FOX washed. FGB is like the standard Texan. A bunch of racist theocratic tyrants in denial about what they are and hiding behind (R) and talking out the sides of their ass's about freedumb.

Like the pure opposite of CA....

BotanyBoy said:

I' would push them to get the fuck out while they can.

Austin is the only livable part of that state and the rest of it is just twangier Alabama.

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Austin was the ONLY place when I was in Texas where I could sit and read without being harassed because of my skin color.

RjThoughts said:

Austin was the ONLY place when I was in Texas where I could sit and read without being harassed because of my skin color.

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Dude outside ATX just having tattoo's got me more shit than I could have ever imagined.

They have sticks that far up their conservitard ass's.....

BotanyBoy said:

Dude outside ATX just having tattoo's got me more shit than I could have ever imagined.

They have sticks that far up their conservitard ass's.....

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No shit! I visited niece when she was at Southwestern U in Georgetown. Their campus police and the locals kept an eye on me.

RjThoughts said:

No shit! I visited niece when she was at Southwestern U in Georgetown. Their campus police and the locals kept an eye on me.

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Yeeeeep....fuck Texas man, they can keep that shit hole and the union should let them go on about their boot strappy way so they can quit dragging the rest of us down.

BotanyBoy said:

Yeeeeep....fuck Texas man, they can keep that shit hole and the union should let them go on about their boot strappy way so they can quit dragging the rest of us down.

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they can't secede, they'll loose all that military and oil subsidy money!

RjThoughts said:

they can't secede, they'll loose all that military and oil subsidy money!

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SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!!



Don't point it out to them....

BotanyBoy said:

SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!!

Don't point it out to them....

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LOL I know

Last November, the Republican-controlled State Board of Education voted to adopt new textbooks that will hit classrooms for more than 5 million public school students this fall.

The textbooks will contain information that is challenged by academics and that critics say is making education in Texas far too political. It all started back in 2010, when the board voted to adopt new standards for textbook manufacturers to follow.

The new standards are causing controversy in part because they require that Moses be cited as a major influencer of America’s founding documents.

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/06/25/controversial-textbooks-texas


Fuck the facts! This is Texas!

http://wonkette.com/560133/new-texa...rote-the-constitution-for-slavery-segregation


Holy Right Wing propaganda, Batman!

Will there be a test on this brainwashing ?