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If you never attended the school it's hard to understand the amount of brainwashing they do, it's pretty intense and on top of that you have the former students in your family/extended family telling you from birth how awesome the school is you tend to develop and over inflated sense of importance.
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Dec 8, 2016 02:00
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DangerZoneDelux posted:If you never attended the school it's hard to understand the amount of brainwashing they do, it's pretty intense and on top of that you have the former students in your family/extended family telling you from birth how awesome the school is you tend to develop and over inflated sense of importance. Yeah, I started drinking the Koolaid only about halfway through my first year here, and it's pretty indoctrinating. Traditions on traditions on traditions (and don't get me started on Corps, I feel bad for all my friends who are involved with that). I will admit though, despite all the jokes about Ags and how self important we are, the brainwashing does make it seem way easier to make friends on campus. I think that's also how a cult works, though. Whoop
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Dec 8, 2016 03:30
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Someone filed a bill to exempt the flag from sales tax  e: also one that makes English the official language and prohibits translation unless the state can get it done for free lmao Badger of Basra fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Dec 30, 2016 |
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Dec 30, 2016 18:23
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https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/816812079944527873 What kind of odds do you guys think this has of becoming law? I know our government is stupid but I'm not sure how stupid
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Jan 5, 2017 02:23
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FBS posted:https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/816812079944527873 I'd love to think that the Trump victory will have Patrick so charged up that he really overplays his hand and ends up getting shot down hard, but I'm nope hoping for it.
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Jan 5, 2017 04:03
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FBS posted:https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/816812079944527873 Strauss isn't stupid enough to do it. Patrick can grandstand all he wants but the bill probably won't make it out of committee in the House.
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Jan 5, 2017 19:21
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Shifty Pony posted:Strauss isn't stupid enough to do it. Patrick can grandstand all he wants but the bill probably won't make it out of committee in the House. Speaking of which, are there any serious challengers to Strauss this session? He's basically become the dam holding back the worst of the worst from completely flooding the state with bullshit. Of course, this is Texas and we always have to deal with lesser-of-giant evils. As a liberal friend of mine recently said. "If you'd told me two years ago that in 2017 I would be wishing that we had Rick Perry as Governor and Mitt Romney as president, I would have said you were crazy. But here we are."
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Jan 5, 2017 20:41
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LanceHunter posted:Speaking of which, are there any serious challengers to Strauss this session? He's basically become the dam holding back the worst of the worst from completely flooding the state with bullshit. Straus won the 2015 speaker election 128-19 (pretty sure all the Democrats voted for him). I don't know if the House has gotten that much more conservative since then, but I don't follow it that closely.
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Jan 6, 2017 04:13
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DangerZoneDelux posted:If you never attended the school it's hard to understand the amount of brainwashing they do, it's pretty intense and on top of that you have the former students in your family/extended family telling you from birth how awesome the school is you tend to develop and over inflated sense of importance. Yeah, you live in Texas. You root for the home team. If you are actually getting that brainwashed about rooting for the team, there is something seriously wrong with you. I went to UT, because my parents went to UT. And so gently caress OU, the only reason Texas doesn't float off into the ocean is because Oklahoma sucks. That said, a highschool buddy of mine went to OU. And he met a nice girl from OSU, and he asked me to be a groomsman at their wedding. Well OK, we're all going around being nice to each other, but we have to trash talk when the game is on. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 09:56 on Jan 6, 2017 |
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Jan 6, 2017 09:53
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The only reason I have a landline at home still is because I hope to answer a political survey. I finally had that happen earlier this week and it was all abOut Dan Patrick, Greg Abbot, and Donal Trump. They also asked if I cared about border security, gender on birth certificates and bathrooms, hate crime to kill cops, and cutting the budget elsewhere to increase funding for Texas public colleges. I told them the three named politicians are terrible and the topics they asked about are all conservative scare tactic bullshit and Texas needs to improve funding for schools and post-secondary education through tax increases not austerity.
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Jan 6, 2017 15:29
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JUST MAKING CHILI posted:The only reason I have a landline at home still is because I hope to answer a political survey. I finally had that happen earlier this week and it was all abOut Dan Patrick, Greg Abbot, and Donal Trump. They also asked if I cared about border security, gender on birth certificates and bathrooms, hate crime to kill cops, and cutting the budget elsewhere to increase funding for Texas public colleges. They threw your answers out, hope this helps
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Jan 6, 2017 15:46
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Look I'm a slacktivist, anything more than just whining about Trump on Facebook is a victory for me.
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Jan 6, 2017 16:07
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Dawna Dukes appears to be betting that she won't be charged (or at least, won't be convicted) after all! I'm assuming if she stays on until the next election she probably loses her primary, but who knows. Her district won't vote for a Republican but they might vote for another Democrat to replace her. http://www.statesman.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/dawnna-dukes-won-quit-house-seat-margaret-moore-says/hCFvlqxCA6ZoDigEWukxGO/ quote:Dukes’ decision did not come on the advice of Fort Worth defense attorney Michael Heiskell, who had been representing her.
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Jan 8, 2017 20:59
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Is there another state where the House is moderate and the Senate is the one pushing ideological red meat?
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Jan 8, 2017 21:54
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The revenue estimate is out and it's less than last time so get ready for more cuts (after they've already cut everything to pieces)! https://www.texastribune.org/2017/01/09/hegar-gives-lawmakers-dour-revenue-estimate-2017-s/ Also get ready for the Lege to refuse to draw from the Rainy Day Fund, which currently has $10 billion in it. It's apparently not for supplementing the budget in lean years. What is it for? Who knows! What a fun mystery of Texas state government.
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Jan 10, 2017 02:36
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Badger of Basra posted:The revenue estimate is out and it's less than last time so get ready for more cuts (after they've already cut everything to pieces)! https://www.texastribune.org/2017/01/09/hegar-gives-lawmakers-dour-revenue-estimate-2017-s/ i'm like 90% sure the rainy day fund is txlege code for embezzlement
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Jan 10, 2017 02:39
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itll be like when poirot finds an EVIL BANKER STOLE ALL THE INHERITANCE
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Jan 10, 2017 02:40
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Is the Rainy Day Fund invested, or is it just sitting in a savings account accruing 0.05% annual interest? e: according to the Comptroller's website it's both quote:Throughout most of its history, the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, an entity chaired by the comptroller, has invested rainy day fund revenue in short-term, low-yield, highly liquid instruments, to keep the funds readily available if needed. https://www.comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/2016/september/rainy-day.php Badger of Basra fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Jan 10, 2017 |
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Jan 10, 2017 02:41
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Now that I work in local govt (Travis County) I have some fun insider facts. Well, insider-ish. Dawna Dukes told everyone she was going to resign, so they cleared out her big office and gave it to the next person in line with seniority. When she decided to stay, she got stuck in the smallest, worst office for the most junior person.
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Jan 10, 2017 03:18
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Badger of Basra posted:The revenue estimate is out and it's less than last time so get ready for more cuts (after they've already cut everything to pieces)! https://www.texastribune.org/2017/01/09/hegar-gives-lawmakers-dour-revenue-estimate-2017-s/ I've always assumed the Rainy Day Fund is basically just a place to sequester public money until they find a politically convenient way to give it to the rich/business class in the form of tax cuts. I hope I'm wrong.
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Jan 10, 2017 06:49
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Number_6 posted:I've always assumed the Rainy Day Fund is basically just a place to sequester public money until they find a politically convenient way to give it to the rich/business class in the form of tax cuts. I hope I'm wrong. Didn't Rick Perry have some huge slush fund running that they dismantled after he left? I feel like that's what the rainy day fund is really for.
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Jan 10, 2017 07:00
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PostNouveau posted:Didn't Rick Perry have some huge slush fund running that they dismantled after he left? I feel like that's what the rainy day fund is really for. Perry did have an "economic development" fund that was basically handouts to get companies to move to/expand in Texas. It wasn't as slushy a fund as it could have been, and at least had some small positive impact. As for the Rainy Day Fund: They didn't even touch it during the great recession. They decided to slash school budgets and fire a shitload of teachers instead. So it's not really a slush fund, it's more a lockbox that we keep putting a bunch of extra money into and somehow forgot how to use the key. (Or where the key is held by some crazy miser who never thinks there is a good enough reason to use it.)
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Jan 10, 2017 14:08
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The Texas GOP position on the rainy day fund is that it should only be used for extremely important one-off expenses that can't be otherwise funded and should never be tapped for any recurring expenses. Which kind of makes sense. Other states have gotten themselves into a lot of trouble using single-time money sources like RDFs or windfalls to fund normal expenses. But then you realize that money is fungible, nearly everything can be classified as recurring if you look at it right, and that the GOP threshold for what is important enough to merit tapping the rainy day fund is apparently higher than the threshold of what is important enough to merit cutting all other state agencies. Combined we get the current clusterfuck where even if some really important one-time expense comes along the Lege funds it first (because it is super important) then refuses to use the RDF to fund any part of the rest of the budget because those are "recurring" expenses. You could just as easily fund the agencies first and then use the RDF to pay the one-off but noooooooOOOOOoooo. Also the Texas GOP really likes having a pile of money from which they can look down smugly at other states.  Oh small silver lining I thought of the other day: if Trump scraps NAFTA and starts a trade war with Mexico, truck traffic on I35 should drop a bit. So we'll have more room for our Mad Max murderbuggies.
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Jan 10, 2017 14:57
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Frankly, a rainy day fund is going to be great for the state if it still exists when climate change starts to devastate coastal regions and access to food. By then Texas will be a stronghold of leftist democrats and we will rule the world
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Jan 10, 2017 15:01
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Shifty Pony posted:Oh small silver lining I thought of the other day: if Trump scraps NAFTA and starts a trade war with Mexico, truck traffic on I35 should drop a bit. So we'll have more room for our Mad Max murderbuggies. Oh lord. If Trump actually manages to scrap NAFTA, we are beyond hosed. This could be the one thing that would turn back the clock on Austin's growth. (Except instead of turning us back to the early-90s "Slacker" era if would turn us back to the early-00s "DotCom Bust"/"500 people mobbing the new Target's job fair" era.) EDIT: Actually, here's an interesting game to play. Who will be more hosed if the Trump administration gets its way: Texas of California? Repealing NAFTA: Fucks both of us (but possibly Texas a tiny bit more) Mass deportations: Fucks us both equally. Energy policy / Ignoring climate change: Fucks California more (more coast, and we'll see some short-term oil revenue increases) Repealing Obamacare: Fucks California more (Perry deciding not to opt-in to the Medicaid expansion almost seems smart now, since that money is gonna vanish) Trade wars / antagonizing China: Fucks California more (but only in the sense of "hey, they are in the center of the nuclear blast and we're only on the edge of it") LanceHunter fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Jan 10, 2017 |
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Jan 10, 2017 15:09
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LanceHunter posted:Repealing Obamacare: Fucks California more (Perry deciding not to opt-in to the Medicaid expansion almost seems smart now, since that money is gonna vanish) All the people that have needlessly suffered and died over the last six years would disagree
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Jan 10, 2017 15:55
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Some guy that claimed he was a representative of the South Korean President just sang the US national anthem, declared that newly elected county commissioner Jeff Travillion should be Governor and then President, and finally condemned the United States for committing terrorism against South Korea by.... not stopping her from being impeached? It wasn't very clear. His rendition of the anthem was great but then poo poo got crazy. He also had all kinds of news articles taped to his suit
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Jan 10, 2017 16:43
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Texas Tribune posted:Committing a cultural faux pas, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave Taiwan's president a clock. According to Taiwan News, the phrase "giving a clock" symbolizes an untimely demise for the recipient.
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Jan 10, 2017 16:47
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Haha, that's so unlucky
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Jan 10, 2017 16:57
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A clock, what a lame gift.
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Jan 10, 2017 18:02
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He probably watched Mr. Robot a long time ago and thought all prominent asian politicians love collecting clocks.
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Jan 10, 2017 18:07
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blue squares posted:Frankly, a rainy day fund is going to be great for the state if it still exists when climate change starts to devastate coastal regions and access to food. By then Texas will be a stronghold of
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Jan 10, 2017 18:51
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blue squares posted:Some guy that claimed he was a representative of the South Korean President just sang the US national anthem, declared that newly elected county commissioner Jeff Travillion should be Governor and then President, and finally condemned the United States for committing terrorism against South Korea by.... not stopping her from being impeached? It wasn't very clear. His rendition of the anthem was great but then poo poo got crazy. He also had all kinds of news articles taped to his suit I would like to know more about this.
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Jan 11, 2017 00:04
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karlor posted:I would like to know more about this. hmm ok here you go this is public record: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzAbu8ioxgo
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Jan 11, 2017 00:50
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On a related note, we should probably start figuring out what species to use as our Apocalypse Meat. The grackles are probably out, since they'll have evolved super-intelligence. How does gecko taste?
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Jan 11, 2017 01:42
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A lovely Reporter posted:On a related note, we should probably start figuring out what species to use as our Apocalypse Meat. The grackles are probably out, since they'll have evolved super-intelligence. How does gecko taste? The answer is always wild hog. Which will mutate into gangs of roving Bebops that tribes will go and hunt in order to pass into adulthood and wear the sunglasses as proof of a successful graduation into being a member of society.
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Jan 11, 2017 08:27
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blue squares posted:Some guy that claimed he was a representative of the South Korean President just sang the US national anthem, declared that newly elected county commissioner Jeff Travillion should be Governor and then President, and finally condemned the United States for committing terrorism against South Korea by.... not stopping her from being impeached? It wasn't very clear. His rendition of the anthem was great but then poo poo got crazy. He also had all kinds of news articles taped to his suit Wait, she's the one that was legit in a loving cult, right?
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Jan 11, 2017 08:56
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Jiro posted:The answer is always wild hog. Which will mutate into gangs of roving Bebops that tribes will go and hunt in order to pass into adulthood and wear the sunglasses as proof of a successful graduation into being a member of society. And their leader will be Hoggish Greedly from Captain Planet. A fitting leader for when the world turns into Venus, if you ask me
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Jan 12, 2017 04:18
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Spaced God posted:And their leader will be Hoggish Greedly from Captain Planet. Well he WAS head of the TRC during W's first four years as governor soooooo...
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Jan 12, 2017 08:50
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Straus was unanimously reelected speaker. As in, even the conservatives who always complain about him openly voted for him.
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Jan 12, 2017 15:08
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