We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.
George Bernard shaw
I posted that quote from Shaw in my May 27, 2020 blog-post “It’s Over, We’re Free!“ That was less than a year ago and following no less than two (2) deadly, major resurges of COVID-19 infections and widespread deaths across the U.S. and my bullheaded, reckless home state of Texas. Easter and Memorial Day weekends of defiant, indifferent crowds gathering in large numbers, not following required public safety measures were blamed for those two major spikes.
No less than two months later (post-July 4th holiday) the same results; another third spike for 2020 also due to defiant human behavior. Three (3) more major resurges would follow that—Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas holidays—with even MORE infections and needless deaths. The cause? Duh, impatient, defiant crowds recklessly abandoning required public-health safety measures while falsely believing or being told by politicians, not expert virologists or epidemiologists, that earlier declines in COVID19 infections meant freedom, that is was all over, or at least “under control“ by the White House and Administration. But it wasn’t. Not even close.
Fast forward to March 2, 2021 in Austin, Texas and Governor Greg Abbott’s press announcement:
Does it feel like we are listening to, watching a broken record stuck in a vicious, annoying cycle/recycle? If not, it damn sure should Texas because this is sheer stupidity and a deluded misconception of authoritative medical science and infectious diseases backed with a proven, known track-record just ONE YEAR AGO Gov. Abbott! This 100% relaxing and prematurely implying victory or “under control“ is idiocy and indeed “Neanderthal thinking“ as President Biden appropriately responded.
LEADING THE NATION FROM THE BASEMENT
Why must, why do Texans insist they are the #1 leader in the nation in many/most all social and economic standards and measurements over the last three decades or more? One answer? Because our last three governors and our majority party of Congress have led the nation in MANY categories, from the basement that is, and they never want to discuss that reality publicly! Much less admit it to Texans or Americans. Did you notice in the video-clip above the very proud, verbose arrogance of Gov. Abbott implying that Texas will be one of the first states of the Union to lift/remove all COVID-19 mandates upon businesses and the public?
That is the recurring mentality and poorly advised, poorly educated, medically inept leadership and state Congress regarding infectious diseases—and many other socioeconomic segments—that I am addressing here and deeply disturbed by repeated empty Republican boasting in Texas. For my global and out-of-state readers, that’s not just a 2020–2021 occurrence. The deluded Texas perceptions from one specific demographic here has been perpetual since 1995, at least in areas of government and corporate authorities.
In an April 2012 examination of the Texas Economic Model by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, reported that despite Texas leading the nation in “expanding, growing employment,” comparatively low housing costs, and abundant oil and gas resources leading to very low prices for consumers, the state’s economic model is far from exemplary:
[T]he fact that so many Texans have failed to benefit from them – with poverty, low-wage jobs and lack of health insurance all above the national average – makes Texas a less-than-desirable model to follow.
McNichol and Johnson, “The Texas Economic Model: Hard for Other States to Follow and Not All It Seems,” (2012)- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, accessed March 3, 2021.
“Not All It Seems,“ as the report-title states, is spot-on. Although Texas loves to boast that it is The Lone Star State, or “Don’t Mess with Texas,” or “Don’t Tread On Me, Remember the Alamo,” and “Come and Take It“—a very popular Pro-gun slogan—the state actually bottoms out on many public well-being, socioeconomic measurements. Case and point, several metrics for Texas since 2018 to 2020 show my state ranks comparatively in the bottom half of almost every single quality-of-life category for the bulk of its citizens. A closer look and reminder follows Texas.
TEXAS IS SUBPAR AT BEST
Out of all 50 states in the Union, where does (and has) Texas rank? According to USNews Best States in 2019, in the following eight socioeconomic standards the Lone Star State is…
- #37 in Health Care — based on Access, Quality of Care, and the Public’s Health, a subcategory evaluated in six metrics: mortality rate, suicide rate, smoking rate, mental health, infant mortality rate and adult obesity rate.
- #34 in Education — barely 37% of Texans are college grads, a #32 ranking, and a #33 ranking of Pre-K to 12 educations, i.e. enrollment in pre-K, standardized test scores, and the public high school graduation rate.
- #15 in Economic condition — measures the state’s economic stability and potential. Oil and Natural Gas are Texas’ major driving resources.
- #33 in Infrastructure — measures the state’s renewable energy, transportation, and internet access.
- #39 in Success Opportunities — examines if states are granting citizens the tools needed to succeed in three subcategories of housing affordability, economic opportunities upward, and social-occupational, political, and legal equality.
- #12 in Fiscal Stability — measures the state’s short- and long-term fiscal health.
- #33 in Crime & Corrections — a state’s public safety and condition of prison/corrections as well as its justice systems.
- #40 in Natural Environment/Amenities — a state’s air and water quality, rate of pollution, protections and violations, and enforcement of those subcategories.
These eight 2019 metrics ranked Texas overall at #38 of 50 states according to the report. Subpar at best Texas and that’s being generous. To see the ranking methodology used for these metrics click here.
In a 2020 study from a panel of university and professional experts on WalletHub published the Best and Worst States to Raise A Family utilizing 52 key indicators for families. There are 1 or 2 crossovers, but Texas ranks #28 in four metrics valued for a quality family-life. Also and again, in the bottom half of the nation overall. The breakdown:
- 5th in Family Fun — with kids under 18, number of recreational attractions, Rec & Fitness Centers, Parks & Playgrounds, and other factors.
- 37th in Health & Safety — 17 different sub-metrics such as COVID-19 weekly rates, quality of public hospitals, number of Climate disasters in past decades, and Share of Children Aged 6 to 17 Who Go to Safe Schools, and more factors.
- 33rd in Education & Child-care — measures quality of public schools, graduation rates, daycare quality, and child-care costs, and more factors.
- 41st in Affordability/Cost-of-Living — measures cost of housing, median financial health of families, problems paying medical bills, and Median Annual Family Income and Health coverage, and more factors.
- 38th in Socio-economics — measures Separation & Divorce rates, median duration of marriages, wealth gaps, food stamps distributed, and Job Security and Satisfaction, and more factors.
Since 1995 (or longer) none of the above two ranking systems and their metrics have significantly changed for the better. In stark contrast, however, what has changed enormously for Texas is indeed its fiscal stability/growth over the last 35-years due to: 1) homebased, mega corporate revenues/profits, 2) sharp rises in K–12 charter and public school enrollments, and 3) the state’s famed “Rainy Day Fund“ (graph above) with a 2020 fiscal balance of $10.7 billion. The fund has never seen a traumatic downward fiscal turn since the 2000’s. They were short, minor turns. Yet, in the above two statistical rankings and tables for quality-of-life measurements it is irrefutable that Texas has never been better than subpar to inadequate for over 25-years. This is an odd dichotomy, a strange ongoing 10+ year enigma given the state’s outstanding fiscal stability.
LEADING THE WAY IN HIGHEST TEEN BIRTH RATES
In another metric/category regarding families and parenting, the CDC 2019 Teen Birth Rate ranking for females aged 15-19: Texas is #42 joining all 11 Southern states formerly of the Confederacy, and all eleven being among the highest Teen Birth-rates in the entire nation for decades. In 2018 and 2017 Texas ranked 44th both years. Going further back to 2005 Texas was ranked the worst/highest at 50th, dead last. All 11 former Confederate states are and have been the nation’s worst/highest Teen birth-rates going back to 2005.
WHY NOT LEAD THE NATION IN REPEATED COVID-19 SPIKES IN 2021
Now with the total lifting of all COVID-19 safety mandates by Gov. Greg Abbott and his Republican Administration and Congress, Texas is all but guaranteed to soon lead the U.S. once again in another 8th or 9th deadly spike of coronavirus infections and widespread hospitalizations by late March 2021. Mark my words. The stupidity here in GOP leadership and supporting it knows no bounds. Not in infectious diseases, public health and safety, higher education, or sheer psychiatric delusions of fact-based science.
Since Jan. 21, 2020, when the very first case of COVID-19 was reported inside the U.S., to date Texas has never been in the top 50 states with the fewest cases and deaths. Never. Always in the bottom-half or lower. But no worries, it is all over. We are free to return to normal Texas! Gov. Abbott and his cabinet say so…
…well, until that likely spike, resurge in Texas late this month or early April sends these defiant, clueless Texans back into quarantines, lock-downs, and public mandates… for a 7th or 8th time in just 15-months. Yes, Texas just has to be the nation’s leader in many metrics, including ignorance, self-centered defiance, and medically-scientifically uneducated. It seems for the last 25+ years we must be in the nation’s rear-end. Not being first—way up in the smelly hindquarters below—is clearly unacceptable for us Texas folk! 🤦♂️😖
March 5, 2021 Addition — Over the last several months I have very much appreciated various TV news outlets doing segments of ‘Remembering Those Lost to COVID-19’ segments to remind many of us insensitive, divisive, and defiant Americans how to be human, how to empathize with regular Americans dying way too prematurely, and NOT forget those who died needlessly. Here is one such segment below. There are over 520,000 stories just like these five dead people. The story of James Wong, a 45-year old American of Chinese descent and Zurina Rose, a 42-year old American of Filipino descent, resonated with me deeply because of their health-care and mental-health connections. Zurina’s story is particularly crushing. I too began to choak-up like Judy Woodruff does at the end. Please watch all of the 3-minute clip from PBS NewsHour:
Live Well — Love Much — Laugh Often — Learn Always
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M
The Professor's Convatorium 
When people stop electing idiots we might see an improvement. But idiots vote.
I’d tell ya to pack up and move to Tn, but it’s no better here!
Maybe, if they limited fracking strictly along the Texas state line, it would break loose from the continent and float away?
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Ooo, that’s an interesting idea. Or give it back to Mexico? No, Mexico probably wouldn’t want it.
They’re an interesting bunch down there. Just a few weeks ago they were demanding the state secede from the union and now they’re begging for help from the same federal government they claimed they didn’t need and didn’t want.
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Hahaha! 😄 Hey Grouchy, “double-speak” is our state trademark down here!
If there’s a miniscule chance that you are wrong in saying something or doing something… WHAT THA HELL, just apologize publicly as many times as it takes. Then in a month or two later continue on business as usual. The American and Texas general public suffers from severe Dementia; they’ll forget… everything ad infinitum! Any and all political and/or criminal mistakes are never career-ending! Should I list all the examples of dramatic, sensationalized apologies the last 50 or 100-years? Man, public apologies are THA THING, in fashion and vogue right now! Come one, come all!!! 😛
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It’s not only Texas that demonstrates this hypocrisy. Pretty much every Republican leader will scream and shout how they want their state to be “independent” –and how they hate “socialism”– yet when a catastrophe hits them in the groin area … well, I think the proof is in the pudding.
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😄 Haha… great “fracking breakaway” idea Shell. For many years there has been several anti-government, anti-federal, and pro-gun groups here in Texas—one or two of the groups were in D.C. Jan. 6th—that would GLADLY secede (again) from this “Socialist Liberal” Union for some of the most idiotic Anti-Constitutional and anti-civil reasons. 😉
Here where “Everything Is Bigger in Texas,” certainly includes big, overly hyper testosterone levels. If they hear the sabres rattling or see the bats-n-clubs swinging, OH BOY look out Shell!!! 😲 It takes very little to get these warmongering Texans riled up and into rabid frothing. 🤦♂️
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Btw Shell, I added a footnote addition—a PBS NewsHour clip—this evening that just simply MOVED ME deeply and jacked-up my heartfelt emotions and welled up my eyes along with Judy Woodruff, the host/anchor of NewsHour. Please watch it, especially the part on Zurina Rose, the pregnant RN. 😢
I never want us to lose sight of the HUMAN cost of apathy, indifference, and hate toward political enemies. 💔
Take care Sir and be safe.
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I hate seeing what’s going on in Texas. I have friends down there and everything you’ve said is exactly what I’ve been hearing from them.
Of course thanks to the crooks we have in the state legislature here Wisconsin is slowly sinking down the list as well.
Our highway system is one of the worst in the country thanks to decades of neglect. We’re the home to what is allegedly THE most racist city in the country, Milwaukee. We are also first or second in the country in binge drinking which, believe it or not, a lot of people are actually proud of, heaven help us. The Foxconn scam is still hanging around our necks like an albatross. The town of Mount Pleasant and other communities around the Foxconn site ran up bill of close to a billion dollars for infrastructure leading to a factory that will probably never actually produce anything. Their grand children will probably still be paying those bills off. Instead of actually doing something to deal with the problems of the state, our legislature has decided that the most important thing they need to deal with is banning transgender kids from participating is school sports.
I think the human race will become the first species on the planet to stupid itself into extinction. I realize that is ungrammatical but the phrase seems appropriate.
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Wow Grouchy.
I’m very sorry to read that about Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Mount Pleasant, and Foxconn. I’ve always had the impression that Wisconsin was one of our nation’s better quality-of-life states. Banning transgender kids from sports!!! 😲 Are you KIDDING ME!? 😔
Yes, we do seem to possess an entire and huge segment of the human population that mimic the FAT bull-frog in the hotter and hotter frying pan, eh? “BBQ’D frog legs anyone!?” 🍗
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Yes, Grouchy IS kidding you but spouting exactly what transactivists want widely spouted. Bigotry! Sexism! Transphobia!
None of this is true.
The legislation seeks to prohibit schools from allowing students to join teams that don’t correspond to their biological sex as assigned by a doctor at birth… unless the sport is classified as “coed.” This would apply to all public K-12 schools, independent charters, private choice institutions, the University of Wisconsin System and technical colleges.
From the CAP Times: Airiana Lynch, a sophomore girls lacrosse player at Arrowhead Union High School in Hartland who also spoke at Tuesday’s news conference, stressed the legislation isn’t “an act of discrimination against transgender athletes” and would instead acknowledge the “distinct chromosomal, hormonal and physical factors that separate a male from a female.”
Why let biological facts get in the way of a good activist smear job, am I right Grouchy?
Another idea gaining some momentum is to have two classes of athletes: a female class and an open class. No banning at all!
Why does blocking males identifying as ‘women’ and ‘girls’ matter? Because the evidence is that biological males have a distinct and lasting advantage in size, length, weight, strength, speed, torque, and grip. Pre hormonal measurements are between 18-35% greater for these male ‘women’ ; after ‘transitioning’ and with hormonal therapy even after 2 full years, that differential is still significant, 12-22% greater. In fact, such transgendered people offer unfair competition that hurts one cohort specifically and puts them at a competitive disadvantage: females. And this negatively affects all kinds of opportunities for females in all sports. There’s your true bigotry in action. Victimizing women in the name of transgendered rights!
Has anyone else noticed that transgendered activism ALWAYS and ONLY takes away from women and reduces women’s safe spaces? It skews national statistics when ‘sex’ becomes gender and gender is legislated a prohibited category? In other words, when police arrest someone for, say, sexual assault, we have no clue if the accused is a biological male or female and this undermines directing funding for victims… again, almost entirely women. We have to send these male ‘women’ if they so choose to a female prison and so the sexual assaults that follow – and there many documented cases no one cares much about – are not classified as anything other than ‘female’ violence between ‘female’ inmates. Imagine a female felon who had been raped prior to her crime having to be incarcerated in the same cell bloc as her rapist? You want to talk about real victims here? There are at least two cases like this I am aware of, and a third where the female’s child’s killer was in the same prison wing. Females are always the ones to lose to men even if the men identify as women. Surprise surprise. And isn’t that the very nature of patriarchy – even if it comes in pantyhose, make-up, and artificially enhanced busts?
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Wow – I make a comment about the Wis. state legislature taking up a bill to ban transgender people from sports to point out how it is grasping at anything rather than actually doing their jobs and trying to help their voters, and you launch into a page long rant about rapists pretending to be transgender so they can assault their victims again? And you’ve interpreted that comment as meaning I’m – what, some kind of anti-woman radical or something?
“There are at least two cases like this I am aware of, and a third where the female’s child’s killer was in the same prison wing” Really? If that is indeed true please include actually references, court cases, investigation reports, etc. You can claim “I know of” as much as you like and it proves absolutely nothing. In any case it doesn’t matter in the slightest because *that wasn’t what I was talking about*. Again, I was pointing out that the legislature has been trying to avoid doing anything by attempting to pull attention away from the real problems here in the state.
Frankly that whole thing reads like something from someone who’s been watching Tucker Carlson too long.
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Your point is fine: governments doing stuff and addressing issues you don’t think are as important as others. That’s fine. I get that. All legit.
But then you lie. You intentionally go out of your way to misrepresent reality to align with a smear that is ideologically driven.
This is the problem with undermining a legit point by not just shooting yourself in the foot with a lie that doesn’t need to be this way to make your point stand but a way to empower those who want to divert attention away from your main point. This hurts all of us seeking better governance.
You have given fuel to the opposition. You. And this kind of lying is going on all the time. This the fuel the Republicans under a populist leadership must have to survive.
Why is it a lie? Because any transgendered person can join whatever sports they want. They are not banned from participating. At all. What they can’t do is cross the sex barrier that has been established in sports between men and women’s leagues and competitions based on this factual sex-based differential and pretend to be a sex they are not. This pretending favours only men in women’s sports. That’s the fact.
Why does this matter? Because going along with the pretending by misrepresenting facts is an ideological one that harms real people in real life in the name of respecting the feelings of those who wish to cross this boundary. Again and again, this is ALWAYS at the expense of women. This is wrong on many levels, including an attack on equality rights, not least of which is a loss of respecting reality. This is the fuel you – and SO many on the Left – are providing to those who are acting against the best interests of the health and welfare of the polis. And this is a chronic problem that is harming everyone. That’s why you need to be taken to task for using this deplorable tactic.
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Did you even read a single thing I said? I said absolutely NOTHING except pointing out that the Wis. legislature is taking up a bill to restrict the involvement of transgender students in sports because it is a hot button topic that will allow them to avoid dealing with the real issues in the state. Period. End of story. Where the hell did I utter one single lie? Where did I say one single thing about transgender people except for that? I didn’t. You’re the liar. You’re accusing me of making statements I never made, of being some kind of radical activist. Where in the world are you getting this crap from? I NEVER SAID ANY OF THAT! Go back and read, for heaven’s sake.
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No you didn’t:
“…our legislature has decided that the most important thing they need to deal with is banning transgender kids from participating is school sports.
That’s not true. That is a lie.
Then you double down:
“Wow – I make a comment about the Wis. state legislature taking up a bill to ban transgender people from sports to point out how it is grasping at anything rather than actually doing their jobs and trying to help their voters…”
Again, that’s not true… in spite of me pointing out what IS true about THIS claim.
My point is that people making THIS kid of claim is fuel for politicians to on the one hand paint all opposition as liars, is fuel to point out the divide between ‘Us’ on this team who care about facts and ‘Them’ on that other team who rely on their ideology to create alternative ‘facts’. This makes every morsel of your legitimate criticism about gov’ts having more important concerns absolutely irrelevant when what you’ve said about THIS can be demonstrated to be a lie.
I raise this point because what you consider a lesser concern is actually a very good representation of how the Republicans can claim victimhood, of why the ‘Left’ cannot be trusted to operate and legislate in our best interests when they want (here’ where they flip your lie) boys to dominate girls’ sports and men to have access to rape centers and women’s prisons. Again, this has more than a kernel of truth to it when there are many examples of implementing this ‘alternative facts’ in practice and imposed on people outside of sports but just as skewed and plays into the Republican handbook of painting the Democrats as social engineers out to indoctrinate your children. Believe me when I say THIS is the kind of example that has great effect on Red America, exactly the kind of intentional deceit demonstrated by ‘libtards’ that both fuels and justifies voting Republican. I know this to be the case because I hear my American relatives – across the economic and geographical landscape SAYING as much to me… and I’m Canadian! In other words, the ‘Left’ needs to stop making this mistake you have made here, and by doing so will drain the fuel used to power the Republicans who operate by populism and populist issues EXACTLY like THIS one. You may think it’s a very low priority but to Republicans appealing to their base, it’s their bread and butter. And the Left keep opening up loaf after loaf after loaf.
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Wow. I mention the word transgender once in regard to a piece of legislation and you extrapolate from that this bizarre fantasy where I’m some kind of intentionally deceptive “libtard”? Wow.
You have absolutely NO idea what my beliefs are on the subject. I’ve never stated them anywhere. I’ve never expressed an opinion here or elsewhere, either for or against transgender. Never. Yet you’ve taken my mentioning that one word, one time, and used that to claim I am a liar, some kind of extremist, that I want to put rapists in prison with their victims.
You have flat out lied about what my comments were. You have flat out lied about what my opinions and beliefs are. You’ve accused me of lying about things that are a matter of public record and easily verified.
Obviously you aren’t here to actually have a discussion, all you’re interested in is trolling. You’re blocked.
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… or you could just own up to making a blanket claim that was factually wrong, correct yourself, show class and character and apologize for the mistake and thank the person bothering with time and effort to correct you, and move on…
I’ve done that many times. It’s okay to be wrong. It really doesn’t break anything except maybe temporarily dent one’s pride. But that’s how we learn. That’s a good thing. But in this case, I’m also trying to explain why it’s important to not keep feeding the populists…
If you want to stop Republican power through populism of today’s political landscape, it starts with each of us. It relies on each of us being honest, open, and willing to speak truth to power regardless of partisan painting, regardless of politically correctness, regardless if it criticizes ‘progressive’ ideology. The only side we should be on is the side for ‘us’ and not feeding those who would create and maintain these divisive boundaries that creates a ‘them’.
Just sayin…
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I made no blanket claims about anything. You did. I said the state legislature was considering a bill to ban transgender students from participating sports, and that they were trying to divert attention from the fact they’ve been doing nothing during the entire pandemic. That is all I said. And that is an absolute fact. Period. Everything else you’ve been ranting and raving about has been made up entirely by you. I made no claims about transgendered people. I never offered and opinion on the subject. Not once. I never mentioned the Republican party. I never mentioned populism. Nothing. Every single thing you’ve been ranting about me saying has come from your own imagination.
You’ve insulted me, you’ve lied about me, you’ve misrepresented what I’ve said, you’ve claimed I said things I did not. And now you want me to apologize?
My, what a strange and bizarre world you live in.
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“I said the state legislature was considering a bill to ban transgender students from participating sports”
“our legislature has decided that the most important thing they need to deal with is banning transgender kids from participating is school sports.”
” the Wis. state legislature taking up a bill to ban transgender people from sports
Can you not read your own writing? These claims, made by you as I demonstrated three times now , are factually wrong no matter how many times you write it.
All the rest of my commentary has to do with WHY this repeated claim by you is not true in fact and continuing to spout these falsities matters. That’s the extent of my ‘ranting’ and ‘raving’.
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You said you were Canadian, so here you go:
https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/guides-and-publications/looking-for-mental-health-services
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Wow. Can’t even admit when you’re wrong. It’s almost like a religious believer that rejects reality just to keep the faith intact and thinks highly of him/herself doing so while denigrating those who point this out.
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No, sorry. I am not going to engage with you any longer about this. At first I thought you were just another troll so I responded as I did when you went off on that rant after the single mention of the word “transgender”, but now I’m genuinely worried about you. Your continued obsession with this is concerning. If you can’t reach out yourself to the health care system perhaps you can get a family member or friend to help you deal with this.
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Did you not write what I quoted you as writing?
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Btw Grouchy, I added a footnote addition—a PBS NewsHour clip—this evening that just simply MOVED ME deeply and jacked-up my heartfelt emotions and welled up my eyes along with Judy Woodruff, the host/anchor of NewsHour. Please watch it, especially the part on Zurina Rose, the pregnant RN. 😢
I never want us to lose sight of the HUMAN cost of apathy, indifference, and hate toward political enemies. 💔
Take care Sir and be safe.
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Yeah, go ahead! Write about silly stuff like this instead of the REAL problem! Tom Hanks and Bernie Sanders are eating babies in pizza parlor basements ALL over America, and you’re writing about THIS??!! WTF??!! What kinda reality do you live in, man?! (Excellent post, Prof.)
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😆 I will gladly take all of that as nice compliments Jeff! In fact, when I was working hard for years in the Psych/A&D field at an inpatient hospital, I was called and labelled many more things too. In fact, I got along so well with most all the patients that sometimes visitors thought I was also a patient there. 🤭
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Btw Jeff, I added a footnote addition—a PBS NewsHour clip—this evening that just simply MOVED ME deeply and jacked-up my heartfelt emotions and welled up my eyes along with Judy Woodruff, the host/anchor of NewsHour. Please watch it, especially the part on Zurina Rose, the pregnant RN. 😢
I never want us to lose sight of the HUMAN cost of apathy, indifference, and hate toward political enemies. 💔
Take care Sir and be safe.
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I’ll watch it.
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This is the inevitable downward spiral result of too many people going along with the idea that belief can trump reality, that if we just grant our trust and confidence to those who best reflect in words what we want to believe, who in effect we know spreads the most shit, by our faith it’s all going to come up roses. And when reality indicates otherwise, that the shit is just getting deeper, then we’ll just double down because the revealed failure must mean we didn’t believe hard enough. Hence, the spiral. It’s a form of the bygone principle fallacy played out using public money but putting the public in harm’s way.
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Tildeb, as I read your opening sentence, I was whisked back in time to 1988–1991 and my many classrooms at RTS in Clinton, MS (Reformed Theological Seminary) and days at my church as Singles Ministry Co-director and a Deacon. I also knew by memory about 90% of the Westminster Shorter Catechisms along with the large bulk of the entire Protestant bible, particularly the canonical New Testament. IOW, the word and concept of “Faith” and frequently BLIND Faith was popping in my head reading your comment. Then you arrived at the nutshell. 😉
BULLS-EYE! 🎯 It’s a Robin Hood! Faith, in whatever form and definition one prefers because the fact of the matter is… no matter how hard one tries or an Apologist tries to frame only ONE definition of what “Faith” entails, it is unequivocally impossible to do! And yes all of you Christian Fundamental Apologists, not even your 4th-century Greco-Roman canonical New Testament can reliably provide a cut-n-dry, unanimous definition of Christian “Faith.” And if you FEEL the Hellenistic Herodian Jew Saul of Tarsus, i.e. Paul, provides the definition, you would be horribly mistaken. Read my 5-part Series Saul the Apostate.
Ah, “we didn’t believe hard enough.” Excellent Tildeb. Another Robin Hood bulls-eye Sir. Yep, so much for the full meaning, maintenance, and protection of that famous renown speech (emphasis mine):
Tildeb, the operative word there, “people” served by public servants no longer exists today, not in the ordinary common sense. Government officials elected to serve and represent “their people” are few and far between now, IF AT ALL. The vast majority of public officials serve their wealthy constituents and their personal political party first and foremost. That is not a democracy and certainly not a Constitutional Democracy with functioning and wholly co-equal THREE Branches of government upholding their roles and duties as ONE-THIRD of the authority given to them… “BY THE PEOPLE.”
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Sorry to go off the OP topic with Grouchy as Nan would point out for the umpteenth time to me (I’m pretty thick that way).
Notice how the further from the original liberal values we go, the easier it is to blame ‘the system’? Of course, it’s not the system but an abuse of it. And Republicans depend on gaming the system as much as possible, as you point out from your own experience. This arduous ordeal is then used to stop people – those most likely to have to move – from voting but the shield I keep hearing from Republican supporters is, they just want the law to be followed! There is no admission of gaming the law through partisan legislation to clearly favour the Republicans.
This is nothing new and I have some hope and would appreciate your thoughts – if you’ve heard anything – on the new legislation passed today regarding making voting easier.
In Canada, the Census is the basis for the creation for a voter’s list. The same list is used by all three levels of government. Depending on which level is holding the election, cards are then mailed out to each registered citizen. If you haven’t received your card in the mail, you are urged well ahead of the election to call Elections office and get it sorted out quickly and easily. You take the card plus one piece of identification clearly laid out by instruction on the card itself (everything from photo ID and passports to various federal and provincial cards to billing invoices delivered to your address with your name and account number, and so on.) The card has the address and specific table number of your local polling station plus the date and time this station will be open. You go, you show the ID at the entrance to gain entry, find where your polling station is out of several – perhaps dozens in larger places. You then go to the table that has your specified polling number. This table has at least two people at all times and usually four or five as scrutineers as well. It’s very social. You hand over your card and ID to the Deputy returning officer who is usually affiliated with the party in power who reads your name out loud for the polling clerk – usually affiliated with the party in opposition – to find on the master voting list, compares info, and crosses your name out. The clerk then hands a numbered ballot to the DRO who checks it against a master list. If everything is fine, you are given the ballot with instructions on how to mark it correctly behind a cardboard tryptic on another desk, reminds you to read the instructions that are posted there, and asks you to return the folded ballot after marking it. You go, open up the ballot, make your selections, refold it so your selection can’t be seen by others, return to the polling station, and hand it over to the person who gave it you. This person tears the part you marked away from the remainder of the ballot, and insert into the sealed ballot box under the voter’s supervision. You then leave. It takes about a minute and the only time it takes longer is if you hold the door for someone else coming or going. It’s very efficient, easy to do, and allows small numbers of votes both cast and left blank from each polling station to be tabulated and reported usually within twenty minutes of the poll closing.. presuming the counted ballots by both the DRO and the Clerk under scrutineer supervision has no issues. The polls I’ve worked usually involve counting up to about 150 – 200, checked, recounted, verified and the results called in to the Returning Officer. The materials are gathers, placed into boxes and bags that are sealed and signed by everyone who touches it and then returned in this sealed condition to the drop off office for final verification. Unofficial results are posted within a few hours and released to the Press, followed by certification the next day by the Returning Officer of a precinct/ward/constituency. In races where the difference falls into a narrow percentage, automatic recounts are done the night of the election. I’ve never heard of a tie but it’s probably happened with this first past the post system.
In other words, the principle is to have each franchised citizen vote. Because of multiple party systems means rarely a two-person race, the winner almost never has a majority of votes cast. People claim this means our democracy is not the will of the majority and this is true except in whatever House the elected representatives sit. By that count, majorities can and are created and they govern (with the permission of the Crown’s representative). Sometimes, no Party holds a majority and so the party with the most has first shot at forming a minority government (if the Crown’s representative is willing to accept it). This is where Canadian politics is far superior to many other kinds of Republics: minority governments have to find enough votes from opposition parties to pass money bills or the government falls and new election must be called. This is a time when the most popular programs have been negotiated: programs like universal health care, minimum wages, unionization, old age pension, old age security, and various targeted social programs. In the past 50 years, 2 very unpopular majority governments (they have to hold an election at least every 5 years) had their parties go from hundreds of elected representatives to less than and handful and lost part status (and funding for staff and offices) in the House. A Provincial government tried to introduce legislation to make religious belief part of public education and went from certain victory in a hasty election to the worst showing ever by the party. Opposition parties play a key role in governing especially during minority governments and so compromise is a necessary function. If any party in a majority position tried to pull what the Republicans have pulled in the States and make voting difficult more for some than others, they would be wiped out at the polls. And I say all this because it is an incredibly diverse country in all social categories and have had to develop systems of governance that somehow balance as best we can incredibly diverse needs and demands. That’s why the principles of Peace, Order, and Good Governance are the core principles here versus the much more individualistic Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. These core values make a significant difference in the systems of governance they produce over time and so our laws naturally reflect this fundamental compromise of local values to achieve these national principles. But the root lies in getting the most people out to vote as possible and not to hinder this foundation without suffering massive public disapproval. I hope this will someday be better reflected in the US because it makes a huge difference in the public perception of legitimizing legislation.
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Tildeb, you are always more than welcome to express all of your highly valuable feedback in as concise a form or extensive a form as your heart desires. Please do both as you see fit. Personally, I enjoy it and very much welcome details, the detailed support, and ALL BASES covered whenever possible. 🙂
On your request about my “…thoughts – if you’ve heard anything – on the new legislation passed today regarding making voting easier,” give me a day or two to collect my thoughts, etc, and respond. Thank you. I am only today hearing more relevant, significant details and progress about it. But I need a day or two to sort out MY personal assessments.
Regarding your last two EXTENSIVE paragraphs, I’ll also need time to reread, digest, reread again, digest again—with indigestion? 😉 —in order to respond intelligently. Give me some time to do this as well please Sir. 🙂
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All I mean to say really is that one person one vote shouldn’t be hard. It should be easy. And citizens shouldn’t stand for hard. Politicians will always get their roles reversed after an election so it really does fall on citizens to remind them who really pays for their position of borrowed authority.
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Btw, I added a footnote addition—a PBS NewsHour clip—this evening that just simply MOVED ME deeply and jacked-up my heartfelt emotions and welled up my eyes along with Judy Woodruff, the host/anchor of NewsHour. Please watch it, especially the part on Zurina Rose, the pregnant RN. 😢
I never want us to lose sight of the HUMAN cost of apathy, indifference, and hate toward political enemies. 💔
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Tildeb, you asked…
As with any accusation in the court of critical-thinking—NOT personal opinion or confirmation bias—one must thoroughly examine the veracity of the accusation/claim. The reason legislation Bill H.R. 1 is being proposed by the House is that over the last 8-12 years, probably more, legal registering then voting by a variety of basic methods, all designed to encourage legalized Americans several easy ways to participate in their democratic elections. To make this process more and more difficult—near impossible for many specific demographics in the U.S.—goes against the spirit of a democracy. This is especially so with disadvantaged and poorly educated citizens who are nonetheless still legal citizens. This demographic is rarely ever Caucasian and certainly not wealthy Caucasian! That is merely a social occupational fact. Here in Texas, Tildeb, I have noticed how much harder, more confusing, and intensely complex the whole voting process has become the last decade or more.
Today, I feel like that unless you have a Ph.D. from MIT or Stanford, you will NOT clearly understand what it is you must do to renew your voter-registration or all the umpteen different photo ID’s required and how to obtain those! As I’ve mentioned before on WordPress, the last three elections, i.e. 2016, 2018, and 2020, it became increasingly difficult for me to comprehend all the instructions given on how to relocate my registration to a new/different County. Yet, I have been legally voting since 1981… with no confusion whatsoever! If it is very difficult for me—I well-educated white man and certainly a legal citizen of Texas and the U.S.—imagine what it must be like for 1st or 2nd generation legalized immigrants here. Or 5th, 7th, 10th generation legal Americans (non-Caucasian) who have never been able to afford under-grad higher education costs, much less post-grad, imagine the repeating frustration every 2-years! For a nation that claims to be a democracy with a HUGE Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor symbolizing freedom, liberty, and the right to vote for government officials… easily, provided legalization is properly complete… certain specific political and socioeconomic groups in the U.S. have made the whole process an EFFIN QUAGMIRE!!!!
So what is the REAL history of “Voter Fraud” in the U.S.? Today, irrelevant.
Back during America’s Industrial Age, into the Roaring Twenties, and on into post-WW2 Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement, voter fraud and repression was rampant in specific ethnic regions of the 46-50 states. But those days have disappeared. Gone are the days when bribes and voting by voice were commonplace at the polls. Today secret ballots and improved security measures have largely ensured fair outcomes in elections. And if there is indeed fraud happening, it is so miniscule that it wouldn’t have changed the final outcome one bit. These have always been acceptable anomalies for the last 60-years.* The Guardian also has a good article on this “False Narrative” and its history:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/04/trump-voter-fraud-america-false
The bottom-line now is that for all intents and purposes, after Russia was proven by the FBI to have covertly influenced our 2016 national elections primarily thru social-media, it is much, much harder for foreign powers to directly contaminate our elections and election campaigns. However, our federal security & protection agencies can only do so much (or nothing at all) to a gullible, ignorant, and poorly educated American public OBSESSED with social-media daily, especially those who are pseudo-addicts to confirmation bias. The world-wide-web is a never-ending supply of information and disinformation 24/7, 365. That’s impossible to monitor/police perfectly 100% of the time. A lot of that, most of that must be done personally and with equitable due diligence by each and every American. How long does that take… if it is not your full-time job? Let’s just say it is enormously daunting and frustrating, mainly because on a media-platform YOU are not or rarely in control of what is pushed in front of your face, first… for the first 20-30 seconds or more.
Then there are those damn psychological algorithms programmed into those webpages, see my recent blog-post SMSD Disorder. Or if you prefer a more entertaining informative documentary, watch Netflix’s The Social Dilemma. American internet and social-media browsers/users are bombarded today with TOO MUCH information and disinformation it will all make your head spin, overheat, and then explode. I should know, I’ve replaced my head 4-5 times already! I’m sure it won’t be the last in a culture totally driven by and addicted to ALL THINGS ELECTRONIC, FAST, CONVENIENT, and often BEFORE you realized you wanted it or needed it! 🥴
Tildeb, it is because of these conditions in America and how easy it is for disinformation to bombard American browsers/users without adequate critical-thinking and analyzing skills/tools that we find our country so divided and in this toxic condition. Joseph Goebbels would be green with envy how well modern social-media influences and controls the masses! As a result, personally I use regularly 2 or 3 non-profit organizations whose only job is to verify claims as fact, half-factual half-false, or wholly bogus… with a bit of background and explanation:
PolitiFact — https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/mar/05/fact-checking-misleading-attacks-hr-1-voting-right/
Media Bias/Fact Check — https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
FactCheck.org — https://www.factcheck.org/
In Texas for Texas politics — https://www.texastribune.org/ (rated high for objective journalism)
Then for equitable info during our Federal elections I use ProCon.org — https://www.procon.org/
To conclude, it is because of what tRump and his radical minions/party spread over social-media platforms (Twitter thee main culprit) between Nov. 4th, 2020 to Jan. 21st, 2021… that H.R. 1 was birthed and is needed, not just for those 3-months after Nov. 3, 2020, but for everything else the last 50-60 years against any non-Republican or non-Conservative Americans and those specific demographics. It is undeniable that right now and for the last 8-12 years it HAS gotten incredibly harder to register to vote, renew or relocate voter registration, WHERE your polls are located, and at what hours they are open. Yes, H.R. 1 is long over due in my opinion.
There ya go Sir. Any questions? 🙂
* — https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/voter-fraud-used-to-be-rampant-now-an-anomaly
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So how has the voting changed from what was to what is? In other words, is this a systemic change or more of a band-aid?
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What’s changed? Well, as I mentioned first, a LOT less corruption and fraud in the distant past. With the advent of ever progressing technology, encryption, and more thorough, sharper security measures the last 10–15 years… today and last November’s elections fraud and/or corruption is miniscule or essentially non-existent. And none of the times in our nation’s history has it EVER BEEN RAMPANT and at a level to EVER CHANGE any of our election outcomes the past 245+ years! Yet, both our political parties still try to scream wolf when they’ve been defeated. THAT hasn’t changed in America. 😄
It is a necessary systemic change, although perhaps on an introductory scale. Honestly, in my amateur opinion—amateur in the sense that I am not privy to ALL of the modern security measures, ins and outs, etc, because that is not my full-time job and I am not qualified for those jobs either; duh, right?—there will need to be more change, modifications, etc, because there will ALWAYS be an element in the U.S., political players and their covert minions/scapegoats trying every 2-4 years to find new ways to CHEAT the voting system. Those who stand to lose the most, or PERCEIVE they’ll lose the most are usually the ones most actively breaking the ethical, moral, and legal laws of our election systems.
You see Tildeb, many many Americans have a weak spot, we are suckers for slick charismatic Con-artists and criminals like Clyde Barrow & Bonnie Parker, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Annie Oakley, D.B. Cooper, and the list of prolific, loved Rebels we Americans deify goes on and on. Therefore, IMHO… keeping and maintaining our local, state, and national elections protected, fair, and 97.89% accurate and clean has been and always will be a perpetual battle, against Americans and foreign enemies.
Those are the vices, greed, and American competitive know-how—or sly, insidious, iffy-criminal behavior—that Capitalism and hyper self-absorbed Individual rights and freedoms nurture. 😁
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Your governor really has to go.
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Rinse and repeat.
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John, you are absolutely correct. And as the ethnic and demographic political landscape here in Texas has been gradually changing to the color Blue—many would argue that since the famed Senator Wendy Davis in 2014 ran against Gov. Greg Abbott—most Texans today think the state is already Blue in voice, however, sadly voter repression the last 4-6 years has gotten A LOT WORSE. “Doubled down” as Tildeb stated appropriately.
As a matter of fact John, because I moved (again) back to Dallas in 2017 from Kerrville, TX, when I tried to update or legally move my voter registration to Dallas County… JEBUS H. CHRISTMAS, it was the hardest task I have EVER had to do in my legal-voting life of 40-years!!! And I’m a god damn white man with a Bachelor’s and many credits toward a Master’s degree. I am and have been an exemplary law-abiding Texan for most of my life and I almost was unable to vote at all in 2016 then again in 2018!!! And as I understood all the highly complex problems I was having in moving my voter registration was because I had moved 4-times in about 6-7 years. Hence, I was flagged and that process kicked me into a SHITLOAD of delays. 🤦♂️
Voter repression here in Texas John is getting more and more ridiculous. Now I am baffled by it and I am not stupid and I can read at a college level—most of the time! 😉 I think I can truthfully say now that if I were Republican in this Red state, I would have no issues whatsoever regarding my vote.
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I did see that story about one drop box for a ‘county’ larger than many states. This is precisely why Biden has to push for the elimination of the filibuster and pass sweeping voter reforms, which include making voting day a holiday.
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Btw John, I added a footnote addition—a PBS NewsHour clip—this evening that just simply MOVED ME deeply and jacked-up my heartfelt emotions and welled up my eyes along with Judy Woodruff, the host/anchor of NewsHour. Please watch it, especially the part on Zurina Rose, the pregnant RN. 😢
I never want us to lose sight of the HUMAN cost of apathy, indifference, and hate toward political enemies. 💔
Take care Sir and be safe.
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Texas would totally be #1… if it weren’t for them browns down south. Or them libs fleeing California. Or… urban Texans that have been corrupted by their soft city living!! I bet you you don’t even wear a hat Dwayne… or boots. You accent is probably more clipped than drawl. Basically you’re a traitor. Critiquing your home like this! Why don’t you move!! Your compassion and general striving to make things better for everyone make me sick!!
I feel like a comment on a Fox News thread. Ha ha.
Also I wouldn’t risk this level of satire if you didn’t know me. 😉
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Hahaha! “soft city living“!? 😲 WHAHHHHTTT? Hey you, we city folk are hip, cool, intelligently stable, and we dance good! We even have a song made for us! Put your bell-bottom jeans on Jo, platform shoes, and let your hair down while you worship me and my slick city peeps…🕺🔮
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Oh! And I DO wear a hat and boots, they’re just very unconventional attire for all these uppity Conservatives in this state and nation. 😄 Have you seen some of my pics here on my blog? Go… looky here: Professor’s Looking Glass
And I love your parody/satire directed at a particular American political party! Well done Mate! 😉
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You’re… eh… surprisingly hip looking. Ha ha. For some reason I imagined you older… and more crotchety… with a walking frame (augmented with tennis balls for extra-grip). But now I find myself having to reclassify you in my mind as someone quite sprightly who poses with women who apparently have no fear that they might wake up in an ice-bath with a suspicious scar and a missing kidney.
My mind is blown.
Your ancestors at the Alamo wound be sad to see what they fought and died for has been used so frivolously. (it takes me at least five attempts to spell frivolously… eventually I have to right click on it)
Steampunk is likely pure anathema to traditional Texan attire. Ha ha. Well done.
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HAH! 😄 You flatter me abundantly Sir. Thank you. BUT… yes, there’s a butt… 😉 —I must confess, most all of those pics are at least 10-12 years old. These last 4-5 years in my country and VERY Red-state and all the moronic, uninformed, childish behavior in our politics and governing has aged me Jo at least 10 more years. So if anything, I have a HELL OF A LOT more grey hair, everywhere, fewer teeth, much louder bones and joints, and my mental sharpness is beginning to cut like a balsa wood spoon. 🤦♂️
Yeah, I’m a spritely 58-years young my fine friend.
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*clutches his chest*
I feel like we’ve just gone on our first date… and while your profile said ‘a few extra pounds’… clearly your interpretation of what that means is different from… you know… ‘the regular vernacular’.
Ha ha.
Its okay. I still like you though. Maybe we can hold hands when I walk you back to your car?
Wait… JFK was the president when you were BORN! Holy cow… you lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis!!
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I often (too often, in the opinion of many) point out how supposedly ‘progressive’ policies by the Democrats end up equipping and arming the Republicans with easy ammunition to respond in a way that attracts enough voters from the political center to give them power. I keep hammering home the idea that giving in to these ‘woke’ policies and implementing them in law is the greatest threat to American democracy because this is the only currency the Republicans have to attract said voters. In other words, the Left – the Democrats themselves – must become the main defenders against the woke. If not, the Republicans will and they will win because of this failure by the Left to clean its own house, this failure of principle by the Left to give aid and comfort and political clout to these antiliberals.
So when I read a gross distortion by Grouchyfarmer about Republican legislators that paints them in this case as ‘banning’ transgendered youth from sports, I challenge that lie because to not do so arms the Republicans with a legitimate complaint that the ‘the Left’ are liars. Well, not this Leftie.
So the recent changes called the ‘Equality Bill’ to Title IX legislation that alters sex-based requirements for ‘gender identity’ requirements has a profound and highly negative impact on all women. This is WHY the Republican state legislators used this idiotic inclusion to mollify the ‘progressive’ wing of the Democrats to ‘respond’ with new legislation, state legislation, Republican legislation, that protects women’s sports from being swallowed wholesale by men pretending to be women, what Grouchyfarmer misclassifies as ‘banning transgendered athletes’. So .
See what’s happened? By DEMOCRATS introducing this gender identity switch for biological sex in legislation, the DEMOCRATS have given potent fuel to the Republicans to then respond with legislation that cannot help but be very attractive to most voters across the political spectrum. Fully endowed males are not women. Duh. So fully endowed males should not be able to dismantle women’s equality rights in the name of ‘transgendered rights’. This term ‘transgendered identity is lipstick on the pig of misogyny. What Grouchyfarmer has done is excuse it by smearing the truth, by claiming the lipstick is the pig. The only ‘winner’ here are the Republicans who have been given this fuel by the Democrats and additional fuel by denying what’s true. And the Democrats have done this to themselves by denying reality and calling it ‘progressive’. Giving in to this entire ‘woke ‘ movement is absolutely fatal to the Democrats. So it’s going to take Democrats to address and reject wholesale this malignant part of their party.
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I don’t know why the link I added to testimony yesterday before a Committee about the real world effects of this switch in language from ‘sex’ to ‘gender identity’ didn’t show up in my comment. It’s was the main point, that in fact not enough Democrats are talking about this, not enough Democrats are criticizing this change because of its real world effect, that not enough criticizers of Trump and the Republicans really GRASP why doing so is so damned important.
So here’s the full link again to the testimonial videos by many women:
We really should be listening, learning, and acting rather than lying about why the ideology is so toxic, so malignant, and why dismissing the growing evidence of harm because of its enactment is law arms only the Republicans. If we don’t deal with this cancerous ideology inhouse and reject it completely, the Republicans will and they will win because of this failure. What’s true matters.
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Every election for a while now we’ve heard the pundits say that Texas could turn blue, but it seems like that’s a ways off. What are your thoughts?
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Carol, that’s a great question and very significant regarding the undeniable FACT that Texas’ demographics are changing and WILL change again by 2024 and beyond. Allow me to be very blunt (and perhaps awkwardly crude) about how this might change, could change.
Texas turning Blue is inevitable unless White Texans start humping more and popping out a LOT more white babies per family unit—a minimum of 5-6 births every 9-months—for the next 5-10 years, then keep doing similar humpings and popping out White babies for 20-30 years beyond 2030. Insane, right? Absolutely. Feasible? No.
Okay, so what are the next-best alternatives for White Texans who are staunch Conservative Republicans? How can they fight against the Natural changes of human progress, evolution, and economic development? And the byproduct of that development is migrations and immigrations, economic growth-booms for businesses in Texas due to protected and/or increased corporate deregulations in Texas causing MORE immigration and available blue-collar jobs every year? And care to guess Carol what ethnicities will gladly take blue-collar jobs paying Texas’ minimum wage of $7.25/hour—a wage that hasn’t gone up since 2008-09 ($6.55/hr). That minimum wage to a non-White immigrant from Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, or Mexico is like $37.25/hour compared to what wages they live off of in their native countries. What’s the answer for white Republican Texans over the next decade or more?
Their answer: Change as many Texas voting-registration rules and laws as possible, including PROVING by several methods you are who you claim to be, thus making it harder and harder for non-whites to vote in biannual elections. Consider…
From the Austin-based news-media company The Texas Tribune, a non-partisan, non-profit organization:
The Texas Congress in Austin is now considering some 20-23 Bills to pass to make voting harder and harder so that the non-existent problem of “voter fraud” the last 2-3 state and national elections is stopped. Or in other words, the will of ALL Texans and its growing near-majority demographic is stopped cold.
Carol, Texas will eventually turn Blue. However, as you can surmise it is going to be a long fight, tooth and nail, for Texas voters who adhere to Constitutionally democratic principles (state & federal) and protect what is supposed to be FREE elections for legal voters. Hardcore Republicans don’t see it that way.
P.S. If you are interested Carol, in Feb. 2019 thru May 2019 I blogged a 5-part series called Black Underworld Inc. In Part 2 I detailed how “Big Texas Businesses Perpetuate the Black Underworld Inc.” In one section of that post I wrote about how in Texas and other states there is “No Shortage of Low-Wage Jobs for Illegal Immigrants-Refugees” because the hiring practices of these mid-level to high-level revenue companies/corporations use expendable contractors who hire illegal immigrants for wages at or significantly LOWER than $7.25/hr. They get away with doing it because those illegal immigrants have no choice. If undocumented workers complain, their new white employers will turn them in to the Dept. of Immigration. Or they’ll suddenly be caught by authorities tipped-off by the Equal Justice Center attempting to stop corporations in the U.S. and Texas from exploiting, on all levels, these undocumented refugees working for $3–$5 per hour.
The system Carol, here in Texas and elsewhere, is sadly still rigged to benefit those in socioeconomic and political power. Period. And those wealthy Republicans are NOT going to give up their opulent lifestyles anytime soon.
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Thanks for the explanation. Makes perfect sense—this and shutting down Planned Parenthood to kick the white teen pregnancy rate up another notch. Just joking but truly, there seems to be far too many Republicans that will stop at nothing to cement themselves (and other white males) in the seats of power.
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