Telorand

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Telorand ,

The former chief was booked on 10 counts of child endangerment and known criminal negligence, according to an official at the Uvalde County Jail.

Depends on what the statutes cover. For example, you can be charged with "Serious Bodily Injury to a Minor" by way of direct action or failure to act to try to prevent the injury. It's broad and open to interpretation for a reason, and that's where juries come in.

I imagine they'll use that particular legal precedent you mentioned as part of their defense strategy, though. It's almost like a loophole, except it's literally just a gaping hole in police oversight.

Telorand ,

There is no "border crisis." Operation Lone Star is 100% political theater designed to make gullible Texans think their tax dollars are being used responsibly, with the end goal of winning political points for the November election.

I guarantee that after November, we won't hear a squeak about the border until it's time to distract from some other effort by the GOP to fuck the environment, privatize everything, and/or strip non-white, non-male, non-Christian people's rights away.

Telorand ,

I guarantee Republicans thunk, but it's that they simply don't care.

Those babies are born, goddamnit, and it's God's problem plan whether they live or die. I wish that was sarcasm.

Telorand ,

Everywhere is. That's one of the consequences of the climate change we're causing. Warmer global temps mean the air can store more water. And that means mosquitos are only going to get worse.

Telorand ,

Only works on Trump. Plus, he didn't try to go on the right wing grift circuit and invoke the magic words that make the crazies forget how critical thinking works (e.g. cancelled, woke, lawfare, Jesus, false flag, globalists, deep state operatives, etc.).

Telorand ,

I'll add that there's an element of denial and fear at losing community. For most ex-Christians I know, losing that familiar community is the last thing to go during their deconstruction. They might not believe in anything that's taught anymore, but leaving behind that community means isolation for a while and having to build new friendships and support systems.

So zealotry is definitely a component, but don't discount fear of being an outcast, either.

Telorand ,

but one pastor, even the lead pastor, doing an evil doesn't mean the whole church is faulty.

There's a reason the saying is "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch." That kind of fraud and manipulation infects the leadership, wittingly or unwittingly, and I would not be shocked to learn that he's taught them some bad habits when it comes to outing bad leaders. I myself left another megachurch whose story was very similar to this one, and while it may not be exactly the same, it's uncanny how the stories rhyme.

Telorand ,

Lol, fair. Weird that she kept going, then.

Telorand ,

I'm aware of how other churches operate. "Not all churches, tho" isn't particularly relevant to the topic, and if you want to get into it, I have plenty to say about the Church as an institution. But that's not what I was referring to with my comment.

I wasn't implying that the congregants are somehow tainted by association or that they are somehow "secretly influenced to be pedophiles." What I meant is that I know for a fact that followers behave like their leaders, and he likely employed all kinds of mental gymnastics, scriptural torturing, and whatever other tricks to justify why he shouldn't face justice.

That influence is increased the closer you are to that leader, which is why it wouldn't surprise me if the leadership that was under him still contains the tendrils of his abusive influence and subsequently influences the congregants in lesser ways.

Telorand ,

Texas sucks, but I was just on a jury selection for an injury to a child case, and at least they have their ducks in a row when it comes to that particular law. Maximum penalty is 99 years with or without parole.

Adding attempted capital murder, if the facts of the case are as they're reported, this lady is fucked.

Telorand ,

It's no coincidence that many of the biggest and most problematic megachurches happen to be in Texas, with the welcoming atmosphere towards abusers, courtesy of the Texas GOP. Feds ought to be looking at the people screeching the loudest from the bully pulpit about "family values" and "sexual purity." Ken Paxton certainly has no problem looking the other way.

I hope Cindy gets closure and healing, because she did not deserve to have her life destroyed by this monster or his enablers.

Telorand ,

If it's one thing the military community loves, it's when people pretend to have earned military commendations they never did. /s

So please, keep doubling down in an election year. Surely, this won't be used against the party you represent.

Telorand ,

I disagree, but only because giving into cynicism helps them win, and that's not something I'm willing to do. I would rather be optimistically deluded and try than apathetically complicit and give up.

And based on the voting numbers in Texas, "apathetic" sums up voter turnout for the most part. Vote, y'all.

Telorand ,

Bet, Dan. You know that bill in Louisiana is going to get thrown out, and that's why the Speaker you hate so much won't bring the Texas version to a vote.

Telorand ,

I understand, but I'm unfortunately financially tied for the next few years. Moved here as a Christian fundie planting a church, now left the religion and stuck here for a while.

So I gotta make due with what I've got. When life gives you lemons, make lemonades.

Telorand ,

And they did it without guns‽ How is that even possible‽

/s

Telorand ,

"Texas WOULD have been and SHOULD have been the first state in the nation to put the 10 Commandments back in our schools," Patrick said in a post on X. "But, SPEAKER Dade Phelan killed the bill by letting it languish in committee for a month assuring it would never have time for a vote on the floor."

Yeah, because there's no way it's constitutional; it would be a monumental waste of everyone's time to even entertain such a bill. The Louisiana bill is likely going to be tossed out in court, too, unless their goal is (and my hypothesis is that it is) to try to get before SCOTUS and dishonestly argue that the "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." doesn't apply to State legislatures—which is a state vs federal power inversion I don't think even the current SCOTUS would be willing to entertain.

Conservative faith-based bills DON’T HAVE A PRAYER UNDER SPEAKER DADE PHELAN. Besides Dade Phelan killing the Ten Commandments bill last session, Dade Phelan also killed Senate Bill 1396 by Sen. Middleton, which would have allowed school boards to vote to put prayer back in…

Yeah, because you see, there's still that pesky First Amendment. I hope you fall on a cactus, you disingenuous ghoul. I'm so fucking tired of the political theatre from Abbott and his cronies.

Telorand ,

It's sad that I have to verify if this is satire or not.

Telorand ,

We've tried doing nothing, and we're all out of ideas.

Telorand ,

If you're in a red district, call your rep and tell them you'll donate to Joe Biden if they support these theofascists. Maybe they'll get the message.

Even if you're a Christian, remember that they don't want Christianity in power, they want only their version of Christianity in power, with them in the inner circle.

Telorand ,

I don't care what Abbott has to say. This just smacks of dog whistling to garner political points with the, "Illegals are putting fentanyl in Halloween candy!" chuds.

Also, who cares? What's the public supposed to do about it? Scaring people with a list of potential criminals who are still at large isn't going to do anything towards furthering justice, and it's only going to incite fear.

Maybe Greg Abbott should try a little harder to do his fucking job, instead of playing at political theater all the time and just being a generally piss-poor example of a governor.

Telorand ,

Lest you forget, cruelty is the point, no matter what they say.

They don't care about taxes "being used correctly," because they are sitting on one of the biggest slush funds in the entire US, and they couldn't possibly be bothered to actually use it to better the lives of Texans. /s

ETA: These kinds of guaranteed income programs always work, no matter where they're deployed. $500/mo isn't enough for anyone to just grift off the system for long at all, and most want to be self-sufficient anyway. If the point or effect of poverty programs isn't to pull people out of poverty, then you're doing it wrong (or in the case of Conservatives, the system is working as intended).

Telorand ,

Inb4 he gets an all-expenses-paid vacation from a "friend" who just happens to also work for a car manufacturer, after which he conspicuously "finds nothing wrong."

That's how the Conservative judiciary works, right?

Telorand ,

Goddammit, you may be right. 1984, here we come.

Telorand ,

Subsequent to his arrest, Chris was served with a quarter million dollar lawsuit on behalf of the New Columbia Movement.

Bunch of fucking fascist larpers who played BioShock Infinite once and think they'll be in the ruling class if the fascists win. I hope they lose their attempts to prevent their members from testifying.

Telorand OP ,

Cool, that's more of what I meant when I said "where is it going?" I didn't think it was disappearing; I more meant, "Where is it being stored or released?" Makes sense why there would be more of it when precipitation does show up, given that hotter air can store more.

I'm still curious, though, if certain local patterns are moving off to other locations. I'll have to look into that aspect, now that I kind of have an idea what to look for.

Telorand OP ,

Super interesting! Yeah, exactly where the water is going is just as interesting to me as why it's going.

Telorand ,

Oof, I hope all the "Texan for life" types are paying attention, because letting the GOP inject blatant propaganda into the veins of Texas is what has given us people like this.

Bonevac is proof that being a professor of philosophy doesn't mean your philosophy is good or that you have any skill in self-reflection or skepticism.

Edit: and according to his university bio, one of his professional interests is "Christian Philosophy." What. A. Fucking. Surprise.

Telorand ,

Not just farmers. People who own land often get money from oil companies just to prospect oil. I was in a jury selection for a case with two oil companies fighting, and there were so many people who had gotten or were still getting money for mineral rights or pumps.

Telorand ,

The study comes from Texas banks, who have a definitive interest in promoting Texas residency.

https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2023/0829

It smacks of the kind of twisted logic you might find in Business Insider (who only recently stopped writing articles about "how workers secretly hate working from home"). Also, there's no linked journal paper, so we should assume this hasn't been peer reviewed at all. Garbage article, garbage conclusion.

Telorand ,

The Texas in the news is the one that affects people's quality of life. Nature is great, but nature won't protect you from hostile legislators, and you can find amazing nature in almost every state (hence why that aspect doesn't warrant news coverage). I wouldn't be surprised if Texas GOP legislators eventually sell off that beautiful nature, or remove protections for it, to get kickbacks from whatever company wants to exploit it in the coming years.

I maintain that Texans who love Texas because it's Texas have rose-colored glasses and remember a past time when it used to be a pretty nice place to live, overall.

Telorand ,

It's the classic Boomer (which is mostly a Conservative demographic) trope of "fuck you, got mine." Their child-bearing years are long over, so time to be gigantic busybodies and force their subjective morals onto their children and grandchildren.

There's an elderly care crisis for the looming, and it's fueled by actions like these.

Telorand ,

"It's fine, as long as he's hurting the right people." —Conservatives, probably

Telorand ,

Vote, y'all. Politicians should never be making medical decisions for everyone, especially when their basis is a 2000yo religion.

Telorand ,

I only sacrifice to Molech.

Telorand ,

That's the Republican spirit. "Fuck their water shortage! I don't have a water shortage, so why should I give them anything until they give me my water back‽"

Telorand ,

Yes, good. Keep banging that drum. Surely, this hasn't been proven over and over again to be a loser issue at the polls...

But seriously, this is how they intend to solidify their hold: run off the good teachers (including the allies) to reduce the quality of education, so the voting base that's left is uneducated, feed them propaganda they no longer have the intellectual tools to question, profit.

Don't check out in November. There's a lot of seats up for grabs, and we can't let these people have a majority. Fuck theocrats.

Telorand ,

I think that's because the "left" states are really just politically center. There's some that are doing more progressive things like Michigan, but since the GOP is now infected with extreme right goobers, the policies they push are also extreme right, which in turn pushes out anyone center or left of center.

The left analog would be progressive policies that push out the bigots (like Civil Rights and desegregation for trans people), but we don't have any examples of that these days, since that's not where any of the democratic state governments are.

Telorand ,

Which is exactly why it's so important that we ensure Democrats win a majority in both chambers of Congress (if we presume Trump will win, which I don't). It won't stop Trump from doing damage, but it will slow him down and prevent at least some of it.

There's lots at stake, and lots of downballot races deserve our attention.

Telorand ,

“If we allowed encampments in this instance, it would be nearly impossible to stop encampments from other groups in the future without facing challenges of chilling speech or viewpoint discrimination.” —UT President Jay Hartzell

Yeah, Jay. That's kind of the point of the right to free speech, free assembly, and protest. That's why your goon squad dropped all charges against every protestor you arrested, because they didn't actually commit a crime and were in fact exercising their rights.

Telorand ,

I dare the President to hold a confidence vote with the faculty. Most university professors don't appreciate authoritarian leadership.

Telorand ,

I don't know why, but the idea of the Earth yeeting off into space at 67,000 mph all of a sudden is really funny to me.

Telorand ,

I suppose it's a good thing nobody really reads the textbook. /s

This truly sucks, because it's cutting off a valid source of information, but given how prevalent the issue is on the internet and how kids have access at a younger age than these ghouls ever did, it's like trying to stop a river with a single stick.

Telorand ,

A good point. It's why I will always be a proponent of books and libraries. Everyone deserves access to the wealth of information we've discovered as a species.

Telorand ,

But let's keep voting in Republicans, amirite? Surely, they're not a big part of the problem... /s

Telorand ,

First thing I thought of, too!

Telorand ,

It sounds like you're basically saying that because scientists talk about the negatives of fossil fuels a lot and not as much about renewables' negatives, there's some kind of cover-up effort. Is that what you're saying?

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