Jump to content

bolverk

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    16041
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    12

Everything posted by bolverk

  1. Communist subterfuge disguised as pragmatism.
  2. Lucky. We've got a 50% chance for storms later today and 40% chance again tomorrow. After that:
  3. That one word shout-out goes gloriously with your avatar.
  4. Fake fiscal "conservatism" in a nutshell. Overall, my view is that since it's a regional problem that individual cities/counties have trouble with, the State of Texas has a responsibility to step in and assist with planning, funding, operating, and coordinating among all the regional entities. That said, I don't think local jurisdictions should get it entirely funded for free. Those communities benefit significantly from the revenue gained from visitors, as does the State. Shared benefit. Shared burden.
  5. Go read my last post in the CR flood thread about what the Texas lege has failed to do in implementing flood plans. There's a good ol' boy in Seguin complaining about the bureaucracy being at fault. Great example of what you're saying. These people know they need to point the finger at someone, but have been so thoroughly conditioned that they keep failing to identify the real culprit behind their woes.
  6. Penny wise, pound foolish. Also, the Guadalupe County guy knows things are fucked up, but like the typical DTer, he points his finger in the wrong direction. This is pretty long, so I tried to snip it down to as bite-sized as I could. Link has full article. Texas lawmakers largely ignored recommendations aimed at helping rural areas like Kerr County prepare for flooding [A] ProPublica and Texas Tribune analysis of legislative proposals, along with interviews with lawmakers and flood experts, found that the Legislature has repeatedly failed to enact key measures that would help communities prepare for frequent flooding. Such inaction often hits rural and economically disadvantaged communities hardest because they lack the tax base to fund major flood prevention projects and often cannot afford to produce the data they need to qualify for state and federal grants, environmental experts and lawmakers said. Over the years, legislators have declined to pass at least three bills that would create siren or alert systems, tools experts say can be especially helpful in rural communities that lack reliable internet and cell service. A 2019 state-commissioned report estimated flood prevention needs at over $30 billion. Since then, lawmakers have allocated just $1.4 billion. And they ignored the key recommendations from the state’s 2024 flood plan that are meant to help rural areas like Kerr County, which is dubbed “Flash Flood Alley” due to its geography. Spokespeople for Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, did not answer questions about why the plan’s recommendations were overlooked but defended the Legislature’s investment in flood mitigation as significant. They pointed to millions more spent on other prevention efforts, including flood control dam construction and maintenance, regional flood projects, and increased floodplain disclosures and drainage requirements for border counties. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick did not respond to questions. This week, the Legislature will convene for a special session that Abbott called to address a range of priorities, including flood warning systems, natural disaster preparation and relief funding. Patrick promised that the state would purchase warning sirens for counties in flash flood zones. Similar efforts, however, have previously been rejected by the Legislature. Alongside Burrows, Patrick also announced the formation of committees on disaster preparedness and flooding and called the move “just the beginning of the Legislature looking at every aspect of this tragic event.” Burrows said the House is “ready to better fortify our state against future disasters.” But Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos, a Democrat from Richardson, near Dallas, said state lawmakers have brushed off dire flood prevention needs for decades. “The manual was there, and we ignored it, and we've continued to ignore these recommendations,” said Rodríguez Ramos, who has served on the House Natural Resources Committee overseeing water issues for three sessions. “It’s performative to say we’re trying to do something knowing well we’re not doing enough.” One recommendation from the 2024 flood plan would have cost the state nothing to enact. It called for granting counties the authority to levy drainage fees, including in unincorporated areas, that could fund local flood projects. Only about 150 of 1,450 Texas cities and counties have dedicated drainage fees, according to a study cited in the state assessment. Kerr, a conservative county of 53,000 people, has struggled to gain support for projects that would raise taxes. About a week after the flooding, some residents protested when county commissioners discussed a property tax increase to help cover the costs of recovery efforts. The inability to raise such fees is one of the biggest impediments for local governments seeking to fund flood mitigation projects, said Robert R. Puente, a Democrat and former state representative who once chaired the state committee responsible for water issues. Lawmakers’ resistance to such efforts is rooted in fiscal conservatism, said Puente, who now heads the San Antonio Water System. “It’s mostly because of a philosophy that the leadership in Austin has right now, that under no circumstances are we going to raise taxes, and under most circumstances we’re not even going to allow local governments to have control over how they raise taxes or implement fees,” he said. Another one of the flood plan’s recommendations called for lawmakers to allocate money for a technical assistance program to help underresourced and rural governments better manage flood prone areas, which requires implementing a slew of standards to ensure safe development in those hazardous zones. Doing this work requires local officials to collect accurate mapping that shows the risk of flooding. Passing this measure could have helped counties like Kerr with that kind of data collection, which the plan recognized is especially challenging for rural and economically disadvantaged communities. Insufficient information impacts Texas’s ability to fully understand flood risks statewide. The water board’s plan, for example, includes roughly 600 infrastructure projects across Texas in need of completion. But its report acknowledged that antiquated or missing data meant another 3,100 assessments would be required to know whether additional projects are needed. In the Guadalupe River region, which includes Kerr County, 65% of areas lacked adequate flood mapping. Kerrville, the county seat, was listed among the areas identified as having the “greatest known flood risks and mitigation needs.” Yet of the 19 flood needs specific to the city and county, only three were included in the state plan’s list of 600. They included requests to install backup generators in critical facilities and repair low-water crossings, which are shallow points in streets where rainwater can pool to dangerous levels. At least 16 other priorities, including the county’s desire for an early warning flood system and potential dam or drainage system repairs, required a follow-up evaluation, according to the state plan. County officials tried to obtain grants for the early warning systems for years, to no avail. Gonzales County, an agriculture-rich area of 20,000 people along the Guadalupe River, is among the rural communities struggling to obtain funding, said emergency management director Jimmy Harless, who is also the county’s fire marshal. The county is in desperate need of a siren system and additional gauges to measure the river’s potentially dangerous flood levels, Harless said, but doesn’t have the resources, personnel or expertise to apply for the “burdensome” state grant process. “It is extremely frustrating for me to know that there’s money there and there’s people that care, but our state agency has become so bureaucratic that it’s just not feasible for us,” Harless said. “Our folks’ lives are more important than what some bureaucrat wants us to do.” For years, Texas leaders have focused more on cleaning up after disasters than on preparing for them, said Jim Blackburn, a professor at Rice University specializing in environmental law and flooding issues. “It’s no secret that the Guadalupe is prone to flash flooding. That’s been known for decades,” Blackburn said. “The state has been very negligent about kind of preparing us for, frankly, the worst storms of the future that we are seeing today because of climate change, and what’s changing is that the risks are just greater today and will be even greater tomorrow, because our storms are getting worse and worse.” At a news conference this month, Abbott said state committees would investigate “ways to address this,” though he declined to offer specifics. When pressed by a reporter about where the blame for the lack of preparedness should fall, Abbott responded that it was “the word choice of losers.”
  7. He should've indicated that he teed it up to the moment when Stewart’s main rant about CBS started. It'd make a great short clip.
  8. Wordle 1,494 3/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ ⬛🟨⬛🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #772 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1275 4️⃣7️⃣ 6️⃣5️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  9. Y'all watch this while you can before it gets scrubbed. John thinks he's going to get cancelled and outright tells CBS to go fuck itself while backed up by a choir. It's worth each and every one of its 29 minutes, so block out the time.
  10. He could also be lying about getting fired as a grift.
  11. When I was in kindergarten (1976), we only lived about two blocks from the school. My folks let me wander over alone, no problem. We moved to another town when I was in the first grade (1977), and I rode my bike alone about a mile to elementary school.
  12. I only made it to that first guy who opened his kimono and revealed himself a fascist -- to a round of applause -- in that first YouTube clip you posted. Disgusting.
  13. Shit, people are falling in love with their AIs that they use for therapy or as personal assistants. I caught a good chunk of this conversation a few days ago, and it's both sad and scary to think about what it has the potential to do to society writ large, considering all the lonely people out there. https://www.npr.org/2025/07/18/g-s1177-78041/what-to-do-when-ai-says-i-love-you-we-talked-to-an-artificial-intimacy-expert
  14. Yep. Didn't he just pull that shit a couple of weeks ago? He's also cruelly gone after at least 2-3 female posters who’ve naively disclosed a bit of personal information, like selfies. One was done in celebration, and the other had gotten Covid. In neither instance did he get a ban. Of course, there are others he's fucked with over personal stuff and has gotten away with it. It's like Johnny Sack/Frank Drebin has plot armor on this soap, Surlies of Our Lives. Absolutely the most despicable poster on this site. The dude is evil incarnate and deserves to be permabanned.
  15. As newlyweds, my ex-wife and I enjoyed her first prominent feature back in the mid-90s.
  16. Einhorn is Finkle! Finkle is Einhorn!
  17. Not even close. I'd provide some helpful non-identifying context, but I don't want to be banned. Let’s just say he has a history of not being shy about freely sharing unmentionable details about certain aspects of his life. By contrast, this windfucker's trolling -- as evidenced by his repeated use of insults while simultaneously ignoring about 10 direct and pointed questions from different posters along with sidestepping a few attempts to engage in serious discourse -- is perfectly A-OKAY. It's hard to keep track of the site's mercurial moderation rules.
  18. I get it but also have slightly more sympathy for the Hermit Kingdom grunts who've never had access to a Free Press.
  19. A mildly political response: Putin has cynically co-opted the Russian Orthodox Church and tried to establish himself as the savior of socially conservative Christian values in contrast to decadent Western Europe (recall how he went after Pussy Riot along with all the homophobic propaganda about the West). Steve Bannon gave a whole speech about uniting Christendom at the Vatican (2015, I think), hinting at times at Putin’s important role in fighting culture wars against the threats posed by liberal decadence and Islam. Some Western social conservatives have, over the years, responded well to all his surface-level promotion of family values while ignoring (or embracing) his crusade against Western democracy and the destruction he’s wrought on Ukrainian, Georgian, African, AND Russian families. I also vividly recall that, before he invaded Ukraine (the first time in 2014), he seemed to have some admirers on Shaggy who also spoke highly of his strategic brilliance and overall leadership in contrast to the US president at that time. Hell, one prominent poster who only occasionally posts nowadays even defended Russia’s claims on Ukraine when they illegally annexed Crimea. He had, and still has, some Western fans. Witness the guy from Round Rock, who, early in the war, went to Russia and became a reporter covering the war for the Russian government. Also, remember that many Americans used to work for RT. The vast majority of us now see him pretty clearly for what he is, but that wasn’t necessarily always the case.
  20. Fun new show on Hulu called ‘Rivals,’ starring David Tennant, Aidan Turner (Poldark), and Alex Hassell (minor role in The Boys). It’s set in the mid- to late-1980s (lots of music from that era for those who enjoy the nostalgia) with the main plot surrounding the efforts of a regional independent television studio in the "Central Southwest" region trying to renew its franchise agreement with the government. As the title suggests, it involves lots of intrigues between a bunch of posh British twats living in the Cotswolds behaving like scoundrels and screwing each other over, both literally and figuratively (TITS!), in their personal / business affairs. The first season is 10 easily binged episodes. Not perfect, but pretty entertaining. Wives and girlfriends will also enjoy. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/rivals_2024
  21. The guy in that photo looks just like the type who would tailor a jersey.
  22. Struggled with this one. Wordle 1,493 5/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ 🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #771 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1274 7️⃣4️⃣ 6️⃣5️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ 🟨🟨🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  23. You're right. Boston Celtics is too PC. They should change the name to Boston Gingers.
×
×
  • Create New...