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TwiceHorn

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Everything posted by TwiceHorn

  1. Just for the sake of elabotion of the concept, you can make much better state arguments, such as Better knowing the nature of local disasters Better knowing how to respond to them with available resources (and what should be brought in) And maybe best of all If you are going to stiff disaster victims (or reimburse them generously) you have a local electorate to deal with the fallout
  2. Factual bias? Concerning. At least it's not 787 Million worth and counting of outright lies.
  3. Yeah I don't think you can justify it as some kind of naive mistake. Where the debate comes in, if any, is how justifiable is it to take advantage of a program, without committing actual fraud or deceit, when you know you don't need it and aren't the intended beneficiary. People do that all the time with tax breaks. PPP loans, all sorts of shit, without incurring severe moral judgment. There was a guy in my law school class, an Hispanic Californio, very well off (twin turbo Supra as his grad gift from ND), white, actually Jewish looking and may have been with a German surname, but he could legit check the "Hispanic" or "Mexican-American" or whatever the box was and was getting free tuition to UT Law.
  4. Corollary to this, though. Although in theory, I think the notion of federalism and state primacy is a good one, in my experience and observation, the federal government does a better job with almost all of the functions where the state, or Texas in particular, has a parallel function. But yeah, we can cut FEMA, cut federal taxes accordingly and maybe do that for a lot of things where the state has a primary interest, knowledge, and responsiveness to local priorities. They're also gonna need to raise taxes.
  5. I can actually buy the notion that disaster response should be primarily a state activity. That makes a certain amount of good sense. But, we've had FEMA for who knows how long and many/most states have abdicated their disaster response functions. Like tariffs, or the notion of incentivizing domestic manufacturing, I could get on board with "we're gonna devolve FEMA's responsibilities back on the states where they belong." But that needs to take place over like 10 years, maybe 20.
  6. Freshman Senator from Florida. Replaced lil Marco by appointment from Meatball Ron. Former Florida AG, and as such sued to repeal Obamacare joined in Texas v. Pennsylvania, Paxton's frivolous Supreme Court original jurisdiction case opposed legalization opposed restoration of felon voting Also, with the exception of Brennan's testimony to Congress in 2023, criminal prosecution for "Russia gate" is barred by limitations, having occurred more than five years ago. Performative nonsense and she knows it. And let's not forget this was also the subject of the Durham investigation, five some-odd years ago now.
  7. Hell, most of Florida and a good bit of the rest of the Gulf and Atlantic Coast states.
  8. Well, glad it worked out. I just did the one on mine and my wife's car recently. They did not suggest doing all four, or give me a 4-for-1. One thing I did do before letting Discount do it was check Rock Auto. There are various "flavors" of TPMS sensors, from generic one-sensor-fits-most, to OEM, to OEM-equivalent. Many times, Rock Auto will sell you an OEM part or very good equivalent, for a lot less than even an AutoZone or OReillys will sell a generic, or a shop will charge you for the part. For example, I recently bought AC-Delco iridium plugs for a tuneup for about half what AZ and OR wanted for them. An AC-Delco O2 sensor was more like 1/3. For my car, the GM-AC-Delco monitors were about $30 more than Discount's installed, so I decided to go that route.
  9. This may be a blinding glimpse of the obvious, but it just occurred to me with clarity. This seems to be symptomatic of the "American Dream." Even without knowledge of the normal distribution, morons seem to know that they are morons, not smart and/or not educated, and are close to the majority. And intelligence and education correlate pretty well with success in America. Yes, a moron can get rich or attain the middle class by hard work, pretty much alone, but the odds are not great. In order to maintain the illusion that "anyone can 'make it' in America," there needs to be a devaluation of intelligence and education. Add in a little demagoguery and you have an elevation of ignorance.
  10. One can come to a theological certainty that their faith is the only way to salvation without engaging in imperialism, colonization, and greed. One can be nominally a member of a faith, engage in imperialism, colonization, and greed, and justify it by claiming faith certainty compels it without ever having broached the question from a theological or philosophical standpoint and otherwise having little or no opinion on the matter. As stated above, war, imperialism et cetera happen wherever there is man, with or without religion. If man/society happens to be religious, religion will often be claimed as a justification. Rome was expanding its empire long before Christ and the RCC. Heathen Celts and Carthaginians were invading resisting them.
  11. I'm not really sure that certainty was the result of any theological or philisophical thinking. I think it's more a post-hoc justification for imperialism, colonization, and greed.
  12. Of course, but often "legislative" decisions are a mixed bag of motivations and it can be difficult to discern what motivated a particular action or inaction. In this case, it's not at all.
  13. Actually, I am even more perturbed at what preceded this tragedy. I start with the proposition that the government of the State of Texas, at many if not most levels, seems quite unconcerned with improving the lives of its citizens, especially if that comes at some cost to the government or taxpayers. Yet, it will spend taxpayer money lavishly on corporate subsidies and tax breaks etc. and do other things to make the "lives" of institutions and corporations easier in this state. So, the leadership of Kerr County on several occasions refused to modernize and improve its flood warning systems with this specific situation in mind. If that were merely a cost-benefit analysis, I might cut them some slack. If it were that sirens are noisy, or we need to improve the roads, or even give money to the cops. But both the leadership and citizenry of Kerr County could have obtained the money to do that at no fiscal cost from the federal government. And declined to do so for overtly partisan, ridiculously political reasons and they said so right in the public record.
  14. Saw it somewhere, maybe not on this thread, but AP among others was reporting that Mystic had just passed it's inspection or some such. I noticed that most camps note their membership in a trade org of some sort and licensure by the state and post links. This is the State Dept. of Health Service site/page for camps. https://www.dshs.texas.gov/youth-camp-program I didn't see much/anything about disaster planning in the certification/licensure information/application, etc.
  15. She's smiling at her own cleverness at dodging the question.
  16. As mentioned previously, I was raised Methodist. In I think 7th grade Sunday School, we did a "unit" on world religions, which included touching on differences between us and other denominations. Which prompted some questions like "are we right and they wrong." Even on that pretty pointed question, the teachers hedged including ministers. We were never taught that our way was the only way, point blank. It was another matter of faith.
  17. She seems like a real syphilitic cooze. And *more than
  18. What is it you need, cuntburger? Some FEMA? Fucking white trash.
  19. I have no hope for the hardcore Trumpists, that's not who I am thinking about here. I am thinking about those who made the difference between 2020 and 2024. They're not all-in on evil, but they are influenced by guys like Rogan and Von.
  20. That letter is distinctly Trumpian in using capitals for emphasis and overuse of superlatives.
  21. Makes me think they idolize Bill Clinton because he was such a policy wonk. But that is not why he got elected. Nor Obama
  22. I'd go right ahead with the Cleveland Steamer. Maybe even a Hot Karl.
  23. There is often the tiniest nugget or kernel of truth buried somewhere in most MAGAisms.
  24. The AG doesn't represent the President, duh.
  25. I am a staunch defender of the church exemption, for churches that stay out of politics. This is
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