
Texas Jeff
Legacy Members-
Posts
1258 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Downloads
Recruiting - 2020
2019-2020 Football Season
Football
Entertainment
Sports
News and Business
Cloak Room
Transfer Portal
Recruiting
Events
Everything posted by Texas Jeff
-
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.
-
My wife and I were talking today about how much younger Beto looked against chunky Cruz. I had no idea so I looked it up.... Cruz is exactly 1 year 9 months and 4 days older than Beto. I would have put the gap at 7-8 years.
-
I have seen that blue line somewhere before ... where was that? Oh yeah, it's the failed rail proposal from a few years ago. And that orange line seems familiar ... sure looks a lot like the Metro Rapid 801 route from the "All Systems Go" plan that was supposed to solve our problems a few years back. But maybe the yellow line is new? No, that's the Metro Rapid 803 route... Hey but what about that green commuter rail line .... to Manor? Cap Metro spends $25 per rider today to put someone on the red line and it goes to a place where lots of people actually live. What will be the cost per person to put someone on the green line to a much less populated area? Cap Metro spends $6 per person to put someone on a bus. And that purple line ... do we expect people to drive to the Expo Center, park, and then wait for a bus to take them to downtown? Rail has show to be really, really expensive per passenger and while Metro Rapid ridership is up, it's still about 12% of all Cap Metro trips. Most people want a point to point experience to get to and from work at the lowest total economic cost to them, a sum of factors like trip cost, an air conditioned vehicle that is in good condition, safety, total trip time, ability to handle schedule exceptions and others. Right now for most people that means taking a trip alone in a car from their house to their job. Take away car lanes and you will make their life more miserable and more will take the bus because you change their economic cost, but that does not mean they are happier people. We do have a great untapped resource for transportation, and you can see it everyday when you drive around town. It's inside your own car. You probably have a four seater car with one butt in one seat most of the time. In that scenario, we are only using 25% of the transportation system everyday. We have a ton of capacity to move people. We just need some way of changing the total economic cost so that people start to use that extra capacity. Uber and Lyft are a start but there is much more than could be done with apps to support carpooling and perhaps paying Uber and Lyft drivers a Cap Metro subsidy to pick up people that might normally ride a bus. Self driving cars will lower the cost of shared transporation and increase the capacity of today's roads. The best future system might not be rail and bus but instead a better utilization of the cars we have today and the automated cars to come tomorrow.
-
Austin City Government - Circus of the Insane
Texas Jeff replied to skittlebrau's topic in Daily Texan
Pasken: I was team Steve in the last election and after four years of Steve I do not support him now. That leaves me with team Laura. During his time in office, ride sharing became a thing. An improvement in transportation at no cost to the citizens of our town. Pick up your phone, push a button and your fellow citizen picks you up and safely takes you home. More convenience, less parking congestion, fewer DUI's, better ratings systems for passenger and driver. Under Adler's leadership, the city council ran them out of town. People that were driving for these companies lost income. We then had ride sharing chaos and confusion for a year until the lege stepped in. Now scooters are a thing .... would a re-elected Adler lead a city council effort to run them out of town too? Steve came into office talking about affordability and transportation and we ended up in a place where the solution to affordability was to increase taxes and try to clog my street with cars. Not everyone's street, just certain streets in this town. The tax increases and the proposed CodeNEXT changes have had the biggest negative affect on me in the time I have lived in Austin. In 2017, Mayor Adler said: "For starters, let’s agree we will not force density in the middle of neighborhoods. There’s no sense in shoving density where it would ruin the character of the city we’re trying to save in the first place, where it’s not wanted by its neighbors, and where we would never get enough of the additional housing supply we need anyway." He said that but his actions did not match his words. I am not opposed to any change for my neighborhood, but I am opposed to change without any reasonable input from the residents who live there. I also believe that under four more years of Steve we will see maximum tax increases and additional bond packages to support a long list of projects, which will generally continue to make Austin less affordable for the average citizen. I feel will also see attempts to implement CodeNext, in smaller chunks and behind closed doors as much as possible, limiting public involvement in the process. Mayor Adler could go a long way towards rebuilding trust in this community by keeping his Austin bargain, focusing development "along our major corridors like Lamar, Burnet, and Airport Boulevard and our major activity centers like the area around the Domain, Mueller, and downtown." Will he do that or will he push for pieces of CodeNEXT that hurt Austin citizens? I don't want to find out, so I am team Laura. -
That's a problem as well, IMHO. We are a large country with differences in thoughts and perspectives. Our courts should reflect that.
-
It's a little jacked up that if BK is confirmed, two Supreme Court members out of nine (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh) will be graduates of the same small, private high school. Tuition at Georgetown Prep is $37,000 per year; $60,000 if you are a resident -- with an enrollment of about 500. In a country that is supposed to be a meritocracy, this hints at elitism.
-
She did not plug her gofundme campaign. She was asked if someone had paid for her polygraph test, her lawyers responded that they had paid for the test. She was then asked if she expected to have to reimburse the lawyers for the test. She said that she was not sure, that she had relocated twice and was behind on the specifics of what she would have to do. She was asked if someone else was going to assist her with these costs. At that point she mentioned that she was aware of several gofundme accounts that have been set up, mostly for her security detail, but said she did not know how to collect the money or use the site, but she was aware of those sites. That is a truthful answer to the question asked. Had she given out the name or a link to the gofundme site in her prepared statement, you could say she was plugging her site. But she was asked a question and answered truthfully, and demonstrated a lack of knowledge of how gofundme works in her answer. Watch it yourself here, around 6:45 into this clip: https://www.c-span.org/video/?451895-102/professor-blasey-ford-testifies-sexual-assault-allegations-part-3
-
To me this feels a lot like the OJ trial. To me, it was obvious from the evidence that OJ was the killer -- but plenty of people thought that OJ was not guilty because of some trial technicality. I don't mean not guilty as in reasonable doubt in a court, I mean they believe that OJ did not kill anyone because a glove was too small. This feels like the Republicans' OJ moment. Find a small flaw in a story to win the case. From watching this, I believe this person is telling the truth and what she says happened did happen. But for some, a gotcha moment like a witness being afraid of flying yet flying means that she is lying about all of this. If BK's nomination is pulled, those folks will hang onto those gotcha moments for years.
-
I believe Beto gets your vote and R's get your vote in all other races. See Sec 65.007 of the election code, section (c). (c) If a ballot indicates a straight-party vote and a vote for an opponent of one or more of that party's nominees, a vote shall be counted for the opponent and for each of the party's other nominees whether or not any of those nominees have received individual votes. Straight ticket voting in Texas is going away on Sept 1, 2020, just in time for the 2020 election. You may want to vote early in that election. I suspect that many people who only vote every four years choose straight ticket. Those folks are going to be really confused when there is no R or D button and they have to either punch all of the votes one by one or think about their choices. Expect long lines of confused people on election day.
-
Coming Soon: The Theranos Of Higher Education
Texas Jeff replied to TwiceHorn's topic in Daily Texan
As a hiring manager, I saw hundreds of Chinese and Indian resumes with an undergrad from some place I had never heard of in their home country, but a master's degree from a US university I had heard of. This is a common path into the US. Most of those with US BS degrees go get a job after undergrad ... but those outside the country have to come get an advanced degree, then start working the visa system to get a path to stay here. I could open a requisition on a Friday and have 80 foreign born fresh MS applicants by Monday, no matter what the posted job qualifications required. -
Texas State Board of Education (Republicans, again)
Texas Jeff replied to Pancho's topic in Cloak Room
You can read the draft changes to the social studies TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) here: https://tea.texas.gov/Academics/Curriculum_Standards/TEKS_Texas_Essential_Knowledge_and_Skills_(TEKS)_Review/Social_Studies_TEKS_Streamlining_Work_Group_Drafts/ These are marked up documents showing the changes, one each for elementary, middle school, and high school. Other subject area reviews are here: https://tea.texas.gov/curriculum/teks-review/ -
I agree, find someone in their mid 40's to mid 50's, bring in some new blood. Carter was 52 at the start of his presidency. Johnson was 55 at the start of his, which is about the median age for new presidents. Only two presidents have been over 70 at the *end* of their presidency; Trump will be the third. Other than Obama, the president has had a 1946 birthday from 1993 through whenever Trump leaves. That's too much time for one generation to have power.
-
Texas State Board of Education (Republicans, again)
Texas Jeff replied to Pancho's topic in Cloak Room
You would think they would want to delete Nixon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk -
Austin City Government - Circus of the Insane
Texas Jeff replied to skittlebrau's topic in Daily Texan
Isn't it a little bit YIYBY (yes in your backyard) -- that's how I felt about CodeNEXT. -
Austin City Government - Circus of the Insane
Texas Jeff replied to skittlebrau's topic in Daily Texan
Also Burnet Rd, Lamar Blvd, the Bouldin Creek neighborhood, Barton Springs and other things that have names that might have been associated with someone who may have owned slaves or been involved with the confederacy. Here's the powerpoint presentation from the equity office: http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/pio/document.cfm?id=302508 How do you distinguish between someone in the past who did something wrong and thus should not be recognized by having something named after them, and someone who followed the customs of the day that are wrong by today's standards? Do you draw the line at everyone who owned slaves at a time when that was legal and a common source of labor for land owners, or do you draw the line at people who demonstrably abused people during that time? -
Are you old? Are you Republican? Are you old and Republican? If so you will really fit in. The "town" itself has a nice yet small one-street downtown just west of 281. It is surrounded by a lot of housing that is pretty poor. Meadowlakes is the exception close to town. Horseshoe Bay is really not "in" Marble Falls, it is a resort community on the south side of the lake. You can also live out from town a bit on a bigger lot maybe with a view, out 1431 or 281. There are traffic bottlenecks at 1431/281 and through downtown, but they're not anything close to Austin traffic.
-
I think it is an amenities floor (the 34th floor of the building): http://www.independentaustin.com/the-building/ A fitness center, board room, theatre, outdoor lounge, owners lounge ... for residents only.
-
Tennessee Tech @ Texas: Austin Super Regional Thread
Texas Jeff replied to Horny Bull's topic in Baseball
Parking in the garage was $5 I think for the regionals. The worst part was getting out after the game, but the garage is a very short walk and folks are tailgating in left field and in the garage. You can also be entertained by watching about 60 people trying to sort out who's uber is who's. If you want free parking or want to leave quickly after the game, yep street parking is probably the way to go. -
Tennessee Tech @ Texas: Austin Super Regional Thread
Texas Jeff replied to Horny Bull's topic in Baseball
SirusXM's online schedule says it will be on channel 84 (ESPNU). They have 12 hours of play-by-play scheduled for super regional games, noon to midnight. -
stubhub has tickets starting at $93 and rising over $100 in the grandstand. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
One more thing regarding the Austin City Council ... the council may be denying the citizens their right of petition, a right defined in the city charter. You may remember the Uber/Lyft kerfuffle of 2016. City council passed an ordinance requiring fingerprinting of ride sharing drivers and Uber and Lyft left town. Two petitions were submitted, one to remove the ordinance and one to remove Ann Kitchens. One petition was ruled invalid and one went to the ballot, with some confusing language and a drumbeat against corporate control of Austin. Neither petition actually changed anything. Now, there is a petition to put CodeNext on the ballot, sort of. The petition calls for citizens to have the right to vote on CodeNext, up or down, at a future election. City council has the option of adopting the petition or putting it on the ballot. According to the city charter, they only have these two options. The council has chosen a third option, which is to declare that the petition proposes illegal action and thus an election should not be held. They voted 6-4 to not put this petition on the ballot (Troxclair was absent) in what was probably a proxy vote for how they will vote on adopting CodeNext. This, in my opinion, is absolutely wrong. This is the third time since 2016 that citizens have tried to initiate change and the third failure for that initiative to have an effect. It is OK for something to lose at the ballot box and OK for the city clerk to invalidate petitions that are wrong. A petition that is voted in could contain an illegal provision and could be challenged in court. But confusing ballots and invalidating on technicalities and saying that you think it might be illegal eventually add up to an indifference to the will of the citizens.
-
I would say the first step is to stop calling each other assholes. CodeNext has winners and losers and people are fighting for their best interests. The people who mostly do not live in the affected neighborhoods want it passed. Developers want it passed because they can buy an older house in central Austin, knock it down, and build 2-4 small houses on that lot and sell them at downtown condo level prices and make money. Affordable housing advocates like it because they have studies that say that these smaller houses will be less expensive, or they are trying to get language into CodeNext so that developers would be required to build some cheaper units along with the more expensive ones. People that want to live central in a smaller home but currently can't afford what is on the market (think young single folks or a couple without kids) are in favor of it because they want to live central. The people who mostly do live in the affected neighborhoods do not want it passed. They moved into the neighborhood because they liked it, some a long time ago, and they do not want the family house next to them replaced with 2-4 houses with 4-10 adults living on the property. The new code requires only one parking space per unit and it's likely that this new form of living would put more cars on the street. Existing residents do not the area in front of their houses turned into perpetual parking by their neighbors. There are concerns that doing this will increase the cost of land for those that choose not to redevelop their lots, which may mean higher property taxes. Many of the existing residents worked on neighborhood plans at the urging of the city just a few years ago and they want the neighborhood plans enforced. If you tried this in any neighborhood in the region, you would get push-back from the people already living there and support from those that will profit from the change. In my opinion, the people that want this change did not work at all with the people affected by the change to see what they would support. Both sides are now entrenched. The process of creating the maps was not transparent and did not involve the people living in the affected areas. Many people felt that some unseen committee was redrawing their neighborhood without their consent. If I was in charge, I would stop the current proposal and see if we can create more communities like the West Campus overlay. Find areas of town that would welcome high rise density and then densify the heck out of that. The Domain area development could be redeveloped into a West Campus like neighborhood all the way from Mopac to Metric, with existing rail service. The Dell campus area around Parmer and IH-35 is about the size of downtown and it could be redeveloped into a high density area, with bus service to connect it to downtown. Most of the Robinson Ranch area is undeveloped and it already has a rail line running through it, it could be a "ribbon" shaped downtown with 3-4 frequent rail stops connecting West Campus like neighborhoods. Highland Mall is being redeveloped on the same rail line and the Texas DPS owns a large property nearby that could be a mid-rise or high-rise neighborhood, with bus service on Lamar and a short walk to rail service. I think we should focus on development like West Campus and downtown, and not try to disrupt our single family neighborhoods. We can create dense, connected neighborhoods without CodeNext. But doing that has different winners and losers than CodeNext, so you will find people opposed to my ideas. They are not assholes, just people with an interest in the outcome.
- 63 replies
-
- 14
-
-
-
Place your bets now: Predict the Year and Exit of Donald Trump
Texas Jeff replied to Hugo Stiglitz's topic in Cloak Room
In the midterms, the Dems will probably take the House but not the Senate and Congress will look like the last two years of the Clinton administration. Constant calls to impeach, constant hearings, constant revelations but never votes in the Senate to convict. Lots of dramatic TV and 24 hour coverage. Nothing will get done for two years. Nixon resigned under pressure; Trump will never give in. I think he's healthy enough to make it to the next election and he'll stay to the end of his term, then leave and complain forever that he got screwed but in spite of that he was the best president ever and did so much in four years. He will constantly be seeking attention for the rest of his life. He may lose in the primaries to a more moderate Republican challenger, someone like Kasich. If not, he will lose to whatever Democrat is on the ticket in 2020. I always thought that the 2016 winner would set their party up for big losses and a pendulum swing in 2020 and I still think that will happen. His last day on the job will be January 20, 2021. He may not come to the inauguration, might just skip it and call in to Fox News later that day. Trump can change his fate if he is seen as a big part of actually ending the Korean War, the economy stays hot through 2020, Mueller turns out to have not much directly on Trump, or some combination of that. -
I looked up the last few elections to see how popular vote led to number of house seats: Votes received for each major party for a US Representative, seats controlled by that party as a result of the election: 2016: Rep: 49.1%, Dem: 48.0% (R +1.1%), result is a Republican house 241-194 seats (55.4% R) 2014: Rep: 51.2%, Dem 45.5% (R +5.7%), result is a Republican house 247-188 seats (56.7% R) 2012: Rep: 47.6%, Dem 48.8% (D +0.8%), result is a Republican house 234-201 seats (53.7% R) 2010: Rep: 51.7%, Dem 44.9% (R +6.8%), result is a Republican house 242-193 seats (55.6% R) 2008: Rep: 42.6%, Dem 53.2% (D +10.6%), result is a Democratic house 257-178 seats (59.1% D) 2006: Rep: 44.3%, Dem 52.3% (D +8.0%), result is a Democratic house 233-202 seats (53.5% D) Strange that Congress is never closer than about 30 seats even though two elections have been within about 1%. The Dems held about the advantage they should have had in 2006, then were overweighted in 2008. Since 2010, the Reps have always held more seats than their national percentage and the percentage of seats has not varied more than 3%, even though the election results have varied by 7.6%. The R's in the house from 2010-2016 seem entrenched, regardless of the national vote totals. And, in response to the poster, the D's have not recently won more than 55% of the vote ... if they did that would be a landslide election.
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!