I get it. I’m military. Moving is expensive, but beyond that, it’s stressful af. Re establishing routines and relationships in brand new locations sucks, unpacking is tiring, packing is tiring, househunting is tiring, etc etc etc.
But holy shit, I’m gtfoing the second I’m allowed to. Hopefully that’ll be my last move too 😂
Yeah I feel like if it was a story from a liberal area the title would read something like residents clamoring for handouts and not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.
Having watched the court case and seen the evidence, I was personally of the opinion that Rittenhouse did act in self defense. I was really hoping he would take his free pass after being acquitted and disappear to go live his life, but it seems like he’s decided to milk his fame and join the party of racists, bigots, and other pieces of shit. Shame.
During this year’s regular legislative session, lawmakers filed at least nine toll-related bills, including proposals that sought to cap fines and fees, eliminate misdemeanor charges for delinquent users and make toll roads free to use once the bonds issued to build them are repaid.
Thank you, all common sense bills nobody in their right mind would block…
Only one of those bills, House Bill 2170, became law. It requires toll entities to notify users with electronic tags when an automatic payment is rejected. The law takes effect Sept. 1.
Wtf? That’s our “relief”? A text when credit card expires? Gee thanks.
when the Texas Department of Public Safety offered to install a chain-link fence near the riverbank last year, they welcomed the idea. The fence even had a gate with a lock so Hugo could continue fishing on the river
...
state troopers began patrolling the riverbank and National Guard members sped through their property to reach the river. Then came the rolls of concertina wire that cut off their access to the river altogether.
The other conclusion I drew from the article is that Republicans don't want to witness their cruelty first-hand. The Republican woman who helped the pregnant immigrant injured by the concertina wire responded with compassion. They'll do that when it's right in front of them. But so long as the cruelty is happening far away, to people they don't know and can't see, it's fine.
I have ties to this university, and I asked my colleagues who are still there. It sounds like professors at A&M are really shaken by this revelation and the other brouhaha around the failed hiring of Kathleen McElroy. I wouldn't be surprised if professors start abandoning the university in droves.
I have a colleague who works at a state school in Florida who said at an online virtual panel a few months ago that "the Great Resignation" had her institution down 30% of all staff/faculty roles because of COVID. I audibly gasped hearing that. But also, she's dead wrong - that isn't the COVID Great Resignation anymore, that's the consequence of DeSantis eroding professor autonomy and tenure protections in the state of Florida. Texas appears soon to repeat these issues.
I misread that 30% as 3% at first, and was like, "That's not so ba...oh. OH. Oh shit."
The thing is, to folks like DeSantis, that's probably a good thing. They don't want people to be educated. They want to scare off anyone who might challenge the points of view they want taught. Chilling effects like this are a bonus to them.
I fully clutched my pearls when I heard that 30% figure. You just simply cannot run a large state, public university to scale when you're down that many critical staff members. Something is suffering there.
I go back and forth whether it's really the case that politicians like DeSantis are big-picture minded enough to actively downgrade the quality of education across a state like Pol Pot did in Cambodia, to discourage critical thinking and increase dogmatic loyalty. Instead, I think it's more likely that people like DeSantis are myopically cruel and just want to hurt a subset of people so badly that they don't see the larger consequences.
Anyway, regarding Texas A&M, it's quickly about to no longer be the largest university in America in the next two years. The former president was so unpopular there and she introduced such huge changes to the institution (a big reason why I left) that they just can't be undone with a new university president. This is such a mess that I can't imagine who on God's green earth will take on this role. Chancellor Sharp is unlikely to hire anyone with a spine to dissent to him and the good ol' boys who exert quiet influence over the school. And anyone with half a lick of ethics and integrity is going to see the institution as radioactive at this point. I can't help but predict that only grifters will self-select into the president's chair. A&M is going to race itself to the bottom.
texastribune.org
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