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Larry T. Spider

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Everything posted by Larry T. Spider

  1. I certainly hope you are right. It’s not often that republicans nominate somebody so polarizing that it will really drive democrat turn out. W’s second election could have been that way but Texas was much more conservative back then and he was from here. McCain and Romney were vanilla enough to not rile up Dems too much. Trump is a different animal. I truly expect Texans to show up and vote against him in record numbers, making the closest presidential election this state has seen in a long time. Carter beat ford by 3.2% in 1976. The next election Reagan won by 27.5% and it’s been red ever since. My prediction is that trump wins Texas by less than 5% (it was 9% last time) and it becomes very clear to all that Texas is a swing state. Republicans will later claim it was just a trump problem...and they will be wrong.
  2. Waco has some advantages that many of these other towns don’t. It has a university, it’s in between Dallas and SA/Austin, and it already has almost 300k people in the metro area.
  3. Of the early states, which ones are winner take all? I would never concede a state that is proportional.
  4. I can offer some perspective on the teacher situation as I’m somebody that hires them. As a group, you have to think of them as degreed professionals that like the same types of amenities that other degreed professionals like. They are no more likely to want to live in a town with few entertainment options than anybody else. Another major point for older, married teachers is that they are likely to not be the breadwinner in their household. They are married to another professional that would have limited job prospects in a smaller town. Teachers that are unhappy with their job are mostly likely to decide to quit the profession or move to a new school or district in the same metro area. When I was a teacher, I moved districts in the Austin area. It never once crossed my mind to move to a small town. In fact, I have been interviewing more teachers interested in moving from a small town to the city. Why? Because they are degreed professionals that like the same things that other degreed professionals like. Finally, culture matters and smaller cities/towns have a reputation problem. Whether it is true or not, they are perceived as backwards and not that interested in education. They aren’t very diverse and have a reputation of being intolerant to outsiders. It’s possible to fix that, but would the current residents allow it? Doubtful.
  5. The question is how motivated Texans will be to show up for trump.
  6. There will be 10 cents left when his lawyers are done with the costs of his legal defense.
  7. Mildred from needville will be donating $5 a month as soon as she gets her grandkids to set up her America online with her credit card info.
  8. I’m in this district and will support the democrat against carter. It’s very close to flipping. That being said, I have more twitter followers than Imam and I have 122. She is going to have an uphill battle considering MJ was great and lost.
  9. I came here to bitch about lines and crowds for everything that I like in Austin. Glad to see that people beat me to it. I grew up here when you could just drive down to Barton springs, park, and hang out for the afternoon. It’s an ordeal to do anything now. San Antonio has a completely different culture for being so close but many things about it remind me of Austin in the 90s. I would honestly consider it.
  10. Completely agree with this. It worries me that she doesnt just say that though.
  11. Harris and Castro both came off looking like snakes to me. I’m trying to be reflective and think about the fact that it was minority candidates going after white males and I might be more sensitive to that. But, I just can’t shake that it made them seem hard to trust.
  12. When should we expect fundraising numbers to become available to the public?
  13. During the school year public school administrators are in a perpetual state of being swamped with work. Unless its cyber bullying, which we legally have to deal with, being the internet police is the last thing I’m going to do.
  14. Limited media access after Vietnam. Can’t have joe public seeing what he supported. Just keep liking the military Facebook posts and move along.
  15. Anybody else out there have experience in mining? I find the whole idea fascinating.
  16. I’m curious about the unwritten rules for the media in which pictures are shown. It seems that they do have a line that they typically don’t cross. Usually the face isn’t shown but the body with the scene to give context is. I also wonder how the internet has changed things as people have become desensitized to graphic images. Some of those images from 50 year ago were so powerful because people hasn’t seen stuff like that in print.
  17. I feel more justified in my hatred of the olympics.
  18. Just spitballing here: We have 2000 chronically homeless people in Austin. I would create a database of these people (with pictures) that includes basic information on them, any mental health diagnosis, addiction issues, work history, and criminal record. When an officer approaches one of these people they will (hopefully) be able to identify them and get some history on them. They can then divert the homeless person to the correct service. The three basic options would be a work program, mental health treatment, or addiction treatment. I’m not sure what already exists in these areas but I’m under the assumption it would be created from scratch or an existing programs would need significant funding increases. If you are involved in one of these three programs, you get access to a huge shelter that would be built in north east Austin with bus access to the rest of the city. The shelter would have tiers of living with the top tier being like a halfway house. If the person refuses all three options then jail is the last resort. I truly want to help homeless people by treating the root cause of their homelessness and would be willing to pay more for a comprehensive program. I’m not in favor of just letting them camp and do drugs all over the city. That isn’t helping the homeless live a fulfilling life or the city in any way.
  19. I’ve seen the sales pitch in action before. It goes something like this: Coach: Timmy is a really good player and we are happy to have him. He’s good but he’s only scratching the surface of his potential. The sky is the limit for Timmy because most people are just not born with what he has and they would kill for it. Hes a bit raw right now and will need a couple of days with our batting coach to really set him up right. We also have an extra infield drills practice each week he should attend. Parents: I don’t know, this sounds expensive and we just want him to enjoy the game. Coach: I would really hate for you to regret not giving it your all later in life considering his talent. He has real potential and you don’t want him to wonder how far he could have gone if you had let him. Parents: I don’t know.....he’s only 7, this seems like a lot. End of the story: they signed up.
  20. “If Austin — or any other Texas city — permits camping on city streets it will be yet another local ordinance the State of Texas will override.” — Gov. Greg Abbott
  21. The same thing happens for UIL academic competitions. Parents wanting to confront judges about how some thing subjective like 3rd grade storytelling. I hate zero tolerance policies but we need to go in that direction for youth sports. If you have a problem with a ref/ump you go through a formal process to file a complaint. If you have a problem with a coach, you take that up on your own time. We now have a shortage of referees despite despite decent pay because of this. Yell at the ref once and you’re done for the season.
  22. It’s not just in sports that this happens. That’s just where the cameras are out and rolling. Let’s just say I learned a lot in my first week as a school administrator.
  23. There is no way for our current city council or any one that would be elected in the future to come up with a reasonable position on homelessness. We love electing loons even if it will clearly worsen our quality of life. Remember the whole Uber thing? Guess who is still running this city... The best hope is for an outside organization to come up with a reasonable plan, gain public support for that plan, then have the city adopt and fund it. Quality ideas are never going to be generated by the city.
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