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Lulz. This is gold.

Not sure where to put this. But had to write it down. Here seems as good a place as any. Work took me to S. Texas the last couple of days, and while I was down there (and especially on the drive), a whole lot of family history – both old, and ongoing – washed the hell over me. Hard, like "pounding me into the sand till I come up wet and sputtering." My family roots in S. Texas are deep as hell, from before Texas was just Texas. My daughter and I spent much of this past Sunday with my dad, recording stories and looking over family history, photos, and documents. Looking at a particular document my dad pulled out of an old box, I realized that I had family here when it was “Coahuila y Tejas” (also reminding me that my Texan family history and Mexican family history overlap like hell). GGGG uncle was big in the Mexican gov’t, had to work with Santa Anna to get shit done (and was one of the first Mexican officials to support deposing him). True to family form, he died penniless. My parents both grew up in S. Texas, and met and married there. We'd visit the area often when I was a kid. So being down there hit me hard with a “holy shit, this is where I’m from” reminder – sledgehammer hard. What got to me most was the drive. I stayed the night in Beeville. Beeville, where my mother, poor as hell having just fled an abusive family situation in NOLA with her mother, landed in 1950 or so. At one point, they bought a mangy old horse, which she rode to school, as other kids did back in those days. I remember as a child going to visit family in S. Texas, and seeing the landscape of brush and thorns out my car window, broken up by spring wildflowers, took me right back. My parents’ lives in S. Texas weren’t easy, and often weren’t happy. Life was fucking hard there. I'm sure it still is for plenty of folks. But it was where their lives were lived, nonetheless. It helped make them who they became. And it’s where they met and ended up together. So the place became part of my life. The scenery rolling by as I drove home had childhood memories unrolling in my mind, like a highlight reel. Mesquite thorns in my heel, fishing in the bays, sitting on a shaded patio while the adults smoked and drank and I eavesdropped, the smell of the summer dust, and the voices of people long-dead. I saw lots of oilpatch activity around Karnes City. My family was oilpatch. I know those people. Those people raised me. I don’t know what will come of the Texas oilpatch, long-term, but there’s no denying that it’s part of our identity. I remembered visions of dirty boots, rough hands, the smell of hot vinyl car seats and dust as I tagged along with my grandfather to read meters. Instead of plugging in my phone’s playlist in the car, I did something I like to do on long drives – hit “scan” on the radio, and see what’s up. Lots of Spanish language radio. Plenty of religious radio. A mix of pop, hip-hop, the usual. And plenty of country. Including a station playing classics. The very stuff we listened to in my dad’s old Lincoln as we drove down there during the heat of summer to see family. I let some of the music take me back, as it can do. I just rode the wave. I remembered my mother’s laugh in the front seat of the car as my dad cracked some sort of joke. My mom died almost three years ago. Fucking hell I miss her. Lost reception of that station. Scanned over to another station, playing a mix of country, old, new, Americana. Caught a song that sounded Robert Earl Keen-ish (but wasn’t). But it got me in an REK mood. So I popped that playlist on from my phone. Goddamn I love me some REK. Played some songs I love – songs most fans know well. But then I went down the rabbit hole, and played some deep cuts. Played a couple from the Live Album. Got to “If I Were King.” I started to sing along. But I choked up, and couldn’t go on. I just listened, as fat tears rolled down my face, I couldn’t stop ‘em from coming. It’s the song I sang over and over to my infant daughter as a lullaby. I’d hum the fiddle parts, and sing the words as she looked up at me and smiled, refusing to go to sleep as she was so wont to do (she was our lousy sleeper baby). I’d sing it again. And again. Till her eyes got heavy, and finally closed. Then I’d walk the floor with her a little more, just humming the tune softly till I knew she was out. Tomorrow, we put that girl on a plane to London, where she is moving to find work, and hopefully start to find her way in life. She graduated college in May, and since then, has been a bit lost. She’s been working here, making money, and trying to figure out what’s next. She wants to do something that utilizes her multi-language skills, and London has such jobs in spades. She was eligible for a two-year blanket visa, so she activated it as of last week, and will be there tomorrow. Maybe it’s where she’ll live and make her life. Maybe not. She’s not keen on Texas, and for her skillset, I doubt Texas is in her future; I probably don't want it to be, for her. It struck me that our family has been in Texas for over 200 years, and away she goes, away our family goes, maybe never to return. Until recently, that had never occurred to me – that our family’s run in Texas may be coming to a close. Such is the way of the world. I spent the drive with ghosts riding shotgun, listening to echoes, and pondering history. Texas has been so formative to me. I’m a child of its dirt, its people, its food, its flaws….all of it. But my girl's getting on a plane, and from now on, maybe Texas is just a place she comes back and visits. That hit me fucking hard. That Texas is going to be in the rearview mirror. It’s just a piece of dirt. But goddammit, it’s my heart. It’s so much of my heart. And it always fucking will be. And so will she.

At least Dak will finally win something.

Boy has a project to build a model of the earth. I help him by going out and buying clay, paint, we get a box, make a stand. I help him get started and we make the inner core and outer core. Between layers painting it. Next we just need the mantle and then the crust. Then the wife helps. She doesn’t understand why we have the inner core exposed, so she mashes it down, builds a mantle layer from plain white clay, then adds some red clay to cover the outer core as well. That we painted. It is completely ruined. Boy pained the box, glued little stars in it and all it needed was the earth model. Her thought is to just make it in Minecraft. I suppose he should just toss a flash drive in the box. I am a geologist, btw.

This is a big step towards Ukraine targeting the refinery towers themselves as opposed to storage tanks. Everybody likes big fires. The tank farms are easier targets, in that hand grenade close is good enough, but you only damage the tanks and the products in the tanks. All it takes to repair them is plate steel and labor. Knocking out the towers is huge, like taking out the heart. The towers themselves are also rolled, plate steel, but the control systems and instrumentation are specialized equipment that is No Bueno for Russia. There have already been portions of Russian refining capacity shut down because of sanctions stopping the availability of critical equipment, to the point Russia was already curtailing the exports of refined products. It is relatively easy for Russia to export crude oil to the black market. Importing significant quantities of refined products is a much bigger issue.

It's been said before but this is EXACTLY how you know we really weren't cheating when so many others (read: A&M, OU, Bama, UGA, LSU, etc.) were screaming "EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT TOO" as loud as they could at anyone who'd listen. Now that it's actually legal to pay these kids, our recruiting is simply out of hand - and it's still gathering steam. Like top 3-5 classes EVERY FUCKING YEAR type of steam. Our recruiting would have been like this each and every year since the mid-70s if "eVeRyOnE eLsE wAs DoInG iT tOo!!" The gap between the haves and have nots is only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and it's good to be the biggest "have" around. Get all the ins you can with that uncle everyone has, bitches. It don't make a shit. Not anymore tldr: prepare you anus, rest of cfb

Um. This is not a coherent response. The right has been hell bent on privatizing a public service with the intent of pushing that public money to something else, all the while underfunding it. Let's just look at a small example. Special education, which can include anything from speech classes, OT, diaper changes, and other services to offer appropriate education to children with other needs. Texas has an 8.5% special ed funding. That started in 2004 under Rick Perry, who appointed a new TEA lead (name escapes me at the moment), who created a goal to push the funding down from 10.7% to 8.5% and then celebrated how much fucking money they saved. So yeah, own this shit if you voted for these people. Because the school districts all over Texas didn't just magically land on that same fucking figure. And this rot, isn't simply because of Trump/MAGA crowd, they are just a catalyst. For reference, the national average is 15%. Do you think it is because we are just genetically superior even with all those immigrants and ESL kids? Or do you think our teachers are just better (that is the lie the TEA guy tried). Or maybe we are just underfunding it, and making it so fucking difficult for people even if they have a little means. More on that in the next paragraph. Districts and schools are systemically lying to parents on services available, how to apply for them, and who can get them. This creates time which the districts are encouraged to stall for (I have spoken about this earlier in the thread, including our own experiences). Once a written request is received they have 45 school days to respond. And then they get another 30 calendar days to stall for the first ARD meeting. This might not seem like a lot, but it creates problems where investigations start while the kid is in one grade and then it gets pushed to another without the kid getting the support they needed. Let me bring this closer to home. How many hours a week did you spend with your son doing his work and teaching him the material that is not being effectively taught? How many hours did you spend per week talking with the school and district just getting them to do what they are fucking supposed to do? Because some teachers have opted to do nothing but just pass the kid along, meanwhile he isn't learning in their class. This isn't me rambling on about perovskite or Alcibiades, this is me, taking his lessons on heat transference and breaking it down, demonstrating examples, helping him comprehend the differences, and then relating it back to his classwork and teaching him the terminology. There are 2 other kids who are getting neglected to some degree because of how severely fucked up the education is for the first kid. I had to hire an advocate to help us navigate the situation and join parent groups to see how systemic these issues really are. ----------------------- You talk about party, because it does boil down to political parties now. It used to be that we, or maybe I naively thought, that we used to both want a robust education system which would help our country out in the long term and perpetuate the development of skilled people here. But I see clearly one political group that has tried to undermine education in a multitude of ways for decades. And now I get the benefit of seeing how fucked up it is because I have to deal with it. Think about what I am really saying. I might have to leave my home where all my kids have taken their first steps, where my wife and I are happy, where my kids are happy and have friends and ties simply because the education system in one of the largest cities in the US, with the 5th largest district, in a state with 10s of billions in surplus slush funds, because education is how the right wants to punish us for voting blue. So, tell me how I am wrong. Tell me what I could do better. Tell me how I should feel. Tell me this is just in my head. Tell me I am interpreting it incorrectly. Tell me there isn't one political party to blame for this. And tell me if you take any responsibility for causing or supporting it?

Trump had full control for 2 full years 2017-2019 POTUS SCOTUS HOUSE SENATE DOJ Immigration bills passed = 0 Borders closed = 0 Wall money = 0 Illegal immigration soared up to a new record in 2019 Tax cuts for billionaires = 1 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

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Picked this up today. Created on the day of the invasion by a Canadian artist inspired by his American friend.

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Last time I recall any begging for energy was the past few years' winter storms. Thanks a lot ERCOT PUC Abbott Texas lawmakers unwinterized natural gas facilities Biden!

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Elon has managed to turn Don fucking Lemon into a sympathetic figure. I didn’t think it was possible.

When did he ever?

Jimmy Kimmel went to town on Donald Trump’s new nickname for himself. The former president at 1:30 a.m. on Monday described himself as “Honest Don” when he challenged President Joe Biden to debate him “ANY TIME, ANY PLACE” in a post on his Truth Social platform. “He’s giving himself nicknames now,” mocked Kimmel. “Is there anything sadder than giving yourself a nickname at 1:30 a.m.? On the toilet, going ‘Honest Don,’ that’s going to be…” he continued. “‘Honest’ is Abe Lincoln’s nickname. Even the nickname ‘Honest’ is stolen,” said Kimmel. The late-night host then reeled off other monikers that “would be better” for the four-times-indicted ex-president — from “Don the Con” and “Genghis Don” to “Donye West” and “Donald Duck the Draft.”

Check the date.

Run up those lines of credit …..

Derka lists specific failures by Terry, Deej posts something stupid trying to bait him. Later people will complain that Derka is ruining the thread and ignore completely worthless shitposts like that one.

Say what you will, even in this fraught climate community notes is still keeping the facts straight when needed.

This had to hurt coming from an aggy mod.

I see GRUHorn has ventured out of the fanni Willis thread to spew his brand of Russian propaganda elsewhere. It was only a matter of time.

Northern mockingbird. State bird of Texas. Wordle 998 3/6 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Daily Quordle 779 6️⃣3️⃣ 4️⃣8️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ 🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟩🟩 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨 🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #travle #455 (9/15) ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅ https://travle.earth Connections Puzzle #276 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟨🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪

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FML Wordle 998 6/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟨 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 On the short bus this morning Daily Quordle 779 9️⃣4️⃣ 8️⃣5️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟨⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ Blossom Puzzle, March 13 Letters: A C F T I N O My score: 400 points My longest word: 12 letters 💮 🌸 🏵 🌻 🌷 🌺 🌹 💐 🌼 💮 🌸 🏵

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I’ll take a thread being Derka’d over Greenspoint’d 10/10 times. Ballgame.

Why shouldn’t it be partisan? For approximately the last 25 years, Texas has been 100% Republican run at the state level. Of course they should own the results. The Republican Governor just held multiple special sessions to push vouchers after receiving a multimillion contribution from an out-of-state contributor pushing vouchers. We have several billionaires in this state essentially pushing for a theocracy and controlling the party who runs this state. Get out of here with that bullshit.

I'll say this.....watching drones hit refineries makes my Texan ass pucker like a mofo. I've driven by plenty of Texas refineries, large chemical plants, etc. And, ummm....the ease with which a bad actor could create a kamikaze drone, launch it from damned near anywhere nearby, and fly it into crucial infrastructure to go "boom".....yeah, that troubles me. Do our plants have defensive capabilities? CIWS hidden somewhere? A platoon of rednecks with 10 gauges? Something?

*warshing

It’s a tech platform. And it’s not being banned, the choice is for the PRC to divest. TikTok doesn’t have any “speech” to silence and there’s no first amendment right to use a Chinese tech platform to distribute your speech. TikTok is not the press.

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