Texas is planning to make a huge public investment in space

"Further investment will cement Texas as the preeminent location for innovation."

See full article...

 

[aerogems]

Texas and innovation are not words you typically associate with one another, unless it's somehow related to the contest with Florida for the dubious Dumbest State in the Union title.

Still, as I'm a fan of space exploration, I'm for this in a very general sense. I just hope that NASA and the like can stick riders into contracts that prohibits a lot of the culture war bullshit. Like, no discriminating against LGBTQ+ people, no racial discrimination, women getting paid the same as men, insurance plans can't ban coverge for abortions or gender affirming care... basically, if a policy makes you wonder if you somehow traveled back in time to 1953, it's out.

 

[aerogems]

I'd prefer a "dump" over some place like San Francisco with people deficating on the streets and crime gangs mounting organized mass broad daylight robberies. Oh and rents that aren't through the roof.

How to say you've never been to a large city without actually saying it.

 

[aerogems]

When was the last time you were in San Francisco?

You can go to Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, or any other large city in Texas and find homeless people shitting on the streets and all the other things the OP was parroting from conservative talk radio. It's hardly unique to San Francisco. Any city of sufficient size is going to have these problems because people like the OP would rather pretend those people don't exist so they have an extra $5/year in their pocket, to paying that in taxes to help these people.

 

[aerogems]

To be fair, Senator Cruz actually represents the NRA, not Texas.

Also to be fair, he didn't flee the country when Texas was hit with another freak cold snap, so he managed to rise to the occasion and meet one basic requirement for being a decent human being. Only like several hundred more to go.

 

[aerogems]

I also like their use of the phrase “crime gangs”. As opposed to… ?

Gangs of little old ladies who knit?

 

[aerogems]

Rural areas also have this, but the population is just less dense.

I wish I could find it now. I swear a few years ago I remember seeing a story about some small business owner in Texas somewhere, who would show up to open the store every day and find someone had taken a shit in the back alley. This went on for several days until they finally caught the person in the act, and IIRC, it wasn't even a homeless person. It was like some drunk who frequented a nearby bar.

 

[aerogems]

You should go read comments on the Wall Street Journal. It's the same but opposite. That's why I look at both.

That just sounds like torture. Ignoring for the moment that the Wall Street Journal has essentially become a clearinghouse for all the stuff that ends up on the Fox News cutting room floor, just going out of your way to read additional stupid comments... Is it like a graduate thesis project or something? That's about the only reason I can think of for willingly subjecting yourself to that sort of torture.

 

[aerogems]

Proud to be a resident of the DEEP BLUE part of Florida.

That the part that's under water? /s (sort of, since the entire state is basically a giant sandbar)

 

[aerogems]

Yeah, Texas is heavily gerrymandered, and has been for decades. Before the Republican takeover, the redistricting was done mostly to protect incumbents. For decades now it has been gerrymandered to allocate more Republican slanted voting districts.

Despite the 'Robin Hood' laws, school district funding is local, and based on property values. As the state also has a balanced budget law, you'd hope that some of that money would go into the Rainy Day Fund, for use in the bad years. But it is Texas, and Texas is run by evil clowns right now.

Hey, c'mon... Being run by evil clowns would be like the difference between the European Dark Ages and Renaissance. The people of Texas should be so lucky as to have the enlightened leadership of evil clowns!

 

[aerogems]

Maybe expand Medicaid before giving Elon Musk even more taxpayer money.

That would benefit actual people, and not large corporations run by people who make more money in a day than some people in Texas make in a year. Clearly the billionaires need the money more!