Texas Jeff

All of the living presidents will be there. It's what they do, even Trump. If they showed up for Nixon they will show up for Trump. Trump will ask for the same pageantry he saw Bush get, but I would bet he won't get it.

A threat of rain would keep Trump away... Have we ever in our history had as many living ex-presidents as we did yesterday? (five -- Carter, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama)

It's great for an older employee that needs health care but is not looking to move up in the company. I managed a software developer like this that moved from a 40 hr week to a 30 hr week and I saw almost no drop-off in productivity. The employee was one of the happiest people on my team, showed up to meetings on time, did not get on their phone, did not have youtube or facebook up on one monitor during the day. For the right person and job, it's great .... but you kill any progress up the corporate ladder.

I would like to see some reform to the Supreme Court, so that each president shall more or less be able to appoint two judges during each four year term. Perhaps if the Supreme Court reaches the end of its term in an odd year and the president shall not yet have appointed and confirmed two justices to the bench, then the longest serving justice shall be removed from office. I think this would cause the Supreme Court to roll over about every 18 years with 9 justices, and each president should be able to get two on the bench, but maybe more if there is a rash of deaths or retirements. You would not have judges staying until they keel over in the hope that their party would one day control the White House and thus their replacement.

If you voluntarily drive into a parking garage for an event that holds 100K ... and you park anywhere not close to the exit and/or you don't back into the spot... ... and you lollygag your way out of the event at the end rather than sprinting for your car... You friggin' deserve the wait. Either park on the street away from the venue or hustle to get to your car. Or wait. Once you see cars gridlock inside the garage you are toast.

During the CNN town hall, Beto said he would not run for president. He may have meant just in 2020, but he did say no when asked.

I would guess that it’s the people that marked the straight ticket box at the top of the ballot. You can leave this blank or you can mark it, then change individual votes. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I believe an incumbent Texas Republican US Senator has never lost a reelection bid. If you include Democrats, very few have ever lost. It is very difficult to beat a US Senator running for reelection. Most retire, freeing up the seat for an election ... then whoever is elected holds the seat until they move on to something else or retire.

Both UT on-campus sites have been red (over an hour wait) or yellow (30-60 minutes) all day. They have 20 machines at the FAC and 10 at the PCL. That's a lot of students voting and probably good for Beto.

Ok, well I will revise my theory to say I don't know what's going to happen! Also, I think polling places stay open until everyone who is in line when they close has a chance to vote, so that could delay polling places from closing in urban areas with higher turnout.

I would not be surprised to see an early Beto lead with Cruz closing as the night goes on. I have a theory that ballots get counted faster in urban counties than rural counties (because they are generally having to count more votes and thus have to be more efficient). I also think that polling locations closest to where they are counting votes probably get counted first, just because it takes some time to pack up the polling area and drive over to the counting location. Suburban areas should have more Cruz votes than central city voters. I have no idea how they transmit votes from the polling place to the central county, but I hope they physically drive the votes over with the machines rather than phoning them in somehow. If I am right, then rural is slower than urban and suburban votes will come in after central city votes. That means an early Beto lead if he is to win ... and Cruz catching up later. Cruz either catches him or he runs out of votes. If Cruz is ahead right from the start I think Beto is toast. El Paso closing later is the wildcard. It would be great if it came down to Beto's hometown. Of course, I could be wrong!

In addition, the City of Austin now requires food businesses to divert organics and mentions donating food as a preferred alternative. Restaurants saying that the city or state prevents them from donating food may be misinformed.

Travis County total turnout through the end of Thursday was 19%, versus 21% in 2016, 7% in 2014 and 12% in 2012 at the same point in the election. That's about 148,000 voters at this point in 2018, versus 153,000 in 2016, 47,000 in 2014 and 90,000 in 2012.

I would bet that a poll worker just periodically takes a count and plugs in a number. They really only know how many people per hour are checking in to get that little four digit code, and then how long it is until the four digit code is used in a booth. I think to know the real count you would have to make everyone walk through a counter at the start to measure the arrival rate.

If you don't want to wait in line, the Del Valle Admin ISD building has seen the fewest voters. They are pulling in 200-300 people per day and they have six booths. The Randalls at Brodie and Slaughter is the place to go if you enjoy lines. So far they are seeing about 1900 voters per day using 20 booths. The Travis County website will tell you how many people are in line at each location and how many booths are at each location (click on the stoplights in the map at the bottom). The Randall's voting lines are the longest ... perhaps those folks are trying to vote and score some bottled water at the same time...

"Get off my reef!"

When that drone video shows the back side of the dam, it looks like water is seeping through it. Is that really happening or just my imagination?

Lady Bird Lake looks like a scene from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory...

I am not advocating that everyone vote for 6 of 11. I am trying to point out (perhaps badly) that a citizen today can go to only two people that need his or her vote. Everyone else on council has no reason to care. Lobbyists have time and money to give to causes they care about, and they are free to twist the arms of all eleven. I believe that some of the conflict we are seeing today is happening because groups that are lobbying city council are not aligned with the citizens of the city. Compromise is difficult, because two opposed groups just go to the rails when conflict happens. Honestly, I did approach CodeNEXT with a goal of learning about it and hopefully putting in my opinion. I took time to read the drafts, look at the maps, comment online and attend sessions that the city promoted as ways to offer my input. I am not opposed to reasonable change in my neighborhood. I thought R2C zoning was mostly acceptable, before the lot sizes and parking restrictions were changed. I would really love to see more taller development like the university overlay, especially in areas like the Domain, where development can happen without fundamentally changing neighborhoods. I liked Adler's Austin Bargain, where he said the goal was "not to force density in the middle of neighborhoods." The end of the CodeNEXT process was pretty crazy, with tons of amendments and changes and factions divided pretty evenly down the middle. It was impossible to keep track of the latest proposal. To me, it felt very out of control. So yes, if we are going to change zoning I would like the Prop J protections in place, to allow the voters some time to see the final work product and decide if this right for Austin or not.

Crazy numbers. One acre-foot of water is 43,460 cubic feet of water. Today, the Llano River is dumping 3-4 cubic acres of water into Lake LBJ per second, or around 13 thousand cubic-acres per hour, or around Jimmy's number of 310K acre feet per day. Lake Travis was 77% full yesterday and it's full today. Rain is in the forecast off and on for the next four days. Time to root for the forcefield.

currently rising about a foot every 45 minutes, crossed 677 at 12:45 pm

We’ll see if Longhorn Dam can take it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A pic of the Llano bridge washed out by the previous flood of record in 1935:

In Austin under the 10-1 system, you vote for only 2 of the 11 city council members, your district rep and the mayor. Any six council members, voting the same way, can pass something. It is possible for the city council to vote for something that both your rep and your mayor voted against, and you have no way to counter that at the ballot box. They can and do make decisions in the middle of the night at the end of all-day city council meetings. If you are a special interest group or stand to benefit financially from something the city council passes, you can lobby or donate to six of the council members, get them on your side, and get something passed that benefits you or your group. This benefit to you may be at odds with what the majority of voters would choose, if given a vote. Prop J was created as a response to CodeNEXT. Citizens petitioned the city council to require a review period and a city-wide vote prior to adopting CodeNEXT, as a check on the power of city council. The city council had two choices: adopt the ordinance proposed by the petition, or put the proposed ordinance up to a vote. Instead, a majority of the city council, mostly those in favor of CodeNEXT, decided to ignore the petition. The petitioners sued the city and won the right to put the ordinance on the ballot. If you vote in favor of Prop J, you are voting to have the protection of the ordinance. You are giving power to the voters by giving them a waiting period to review any major changes to the land development code proposed by the city staff and the city council, and the power to vote for or against the changes. You are helping to ensure that the majority of the voters in the city are aligned with the decisions created by staff and council. If you vote against Prop J, you are voting to not have the ordinance. You are giving power to city council and city staff by not requiring that their plans align with the wishes of the majority of the voters and not requiring periods for citizen review proposed by the ordinance. You are OK with the decisions of city council and staff possibly being at odds with the wishes of the majority of the voters. If you are aligned with a special interest group or business that may benefit from the majority decision, you can lobby behind the scenes knowing that plans created will not have to face the voters. I support Prop J because I want the people proposing major land use changes to know that they do eventually answer to the voters. I think it is important for the city council, the city staff and the citizens to be aligned on major revisions to our land development code. After meeting with CodeNEXT city staff members, I do not trust them to learn about neighborhoods or listen to city residents without the Prop J protections. Changing the land use code is a big decision, affecting almost everyone. I want the city council and staff to know that they can plan and propose, but ultimately they need voter support to pass.

Every time I see this, I notice the generic tiki torches (in addition to the crazy people), probably made in China and purchased at Home Depot on the way to the rally. Imagine the guys before the rally: "Hey man, we can get a ton of tiki torches for like forty bucks at Home Depot, just pick them up on the way to the thing." Imagine, some HD manager sets up an end-cap display with weekend party supplies, and is suddenly short several hundred torches. The manager is feeling great, thinking "man, we are really moving these things!" Later that weekend they turn on the TV and say "Oh crap ...." By Monday, the supply chain has kicked in to refill the torch display, and the same manager is taking delivery of boxes and boxes of new generic, imported, cheap tiki torches.