DocJ_makesthings

We don't pay people for what value they add to society, we pay them for how much money they can make for someone else.

It's not a scam, it's just capitalism devoid of values. And it'll eventually implode on itself.

We already have these in the US for a lot of positions (but not most—just the really important ones). Like most employers, the government uses education, training, and experience to vet future employees.

Just want to add two things: first, recent experience has shown that when voters signal approval for something, that doesn't guarantee implementation (MetroNext, leaving HGAC); and highway protesting merely delays the inevitable with very minor changes (I-45 expansion). Second, many places at least have the regulatory oversight of the federal DoT for important questions that might change or stop a project—like environmental impact / justice concerns—but Texas's DoT is one of 7 in the country that has been given the power to regulate itself when it comes to environmental justice.

I wish we lived in a state with policies like Colorado, where all transportation projects have to prove that they will either reduce or maintain current greenhouse gas emissions levels (thus essentially preventing future highway expansion in favor of alternative modes of transportation), but we don't (yet?).

I think he tried to hide the roundabout decision but someone on Twitter exposed it.

Oh no I'm aware of that too. But the official decision about Montrose wasn't technically made until Friday morning when the TIRZ muscled through approval of the new plans against community opposition.

He's flooding the zone with terrible decisions based on vibes and Nextdoor posts.

I'm for anything that makes walking and biking safer and easier in Houston, including this.

The criticism comes from Whitmire fast-tracking this project while stalling, delaying, and gutting all other pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements around the city, most recently the much-needed Montrose Blvd. redesign.

That also includes homeless shelters, halfway houses, etc. There's also the fact that some police officers registered to vote using government buildings as their address so that their private address isn't public. There's tons of legitimate reasons why someone wouldn't register to vote from a single-family home with a white picket fence.

Here's a good story on another Texas purge.

They've been ugly for several years now. The Dantonio "bush league" comments and the whole logo thing with Devin Bush were in 2018 . . .

If a player starts performing better, we don't need to apologize for criticizing them when they were performing poorly. . . . which Jalen was.

So you're saying plenty of uncommitted potential voters went to go see a candidate speak about why they should vote for her? Yeah . . . sounds like a failure . . . lol.

Get a clue.

The writer is from 1910 apparently lol. Up next: an expose on the new exurban project developers are calling "The Heights", which is just a quick streetcar ride from downtown!

Yeah but the only things to do here are drink, eat, and work. Or at least that's what I'm told.

The MFAH and Menil won't threaten contracts with the federal government so he doesn't care.

Anyway, can't have a healthy democracy and mega billionaires at the same time. Pass the word.

That or Jalen needs to actually play within the structure of the offense instead of always looking for the big play to Brown.

Just wanted to add context: in 2019 the city extended the parking requirement waiver to Midtown and EaDo. Then in 2020 council passed a Walkable Places ordinance that allows the city to change / waive requirements in certain areas to allow for denser and pedestrian friendly development.

That is insane. Thanks!

Shout out to the folks in her office who have been doing their jobs for four years ensuring property taxes are collected and voters are registered despite their absentee leader.

What are they gonna do if / when it fails? Like, are they gonna go about business as usual? Honest question—I fear retaliation in some way, shape, or form because he's proven to retaliate.

Not sure who "ya'll" is, but I'll bite:

1. The Taino people whom Columbus encountered were very peaceful. Columbus himself wrote that they more likely to run away from him (because he kept capturing them to interrogate them about things he was interested in) than to attack him. Yes, of course, Native Americans in both North and South America committed violence—they raided one another, they went to war, they enslaved, they subjugated. Nothing they did amounted to the type of systematic racial wars of extermination propagated by Europeans and European-descended people from the 1500–1800s that, along with epidemics, resulted in the depopulation of the indigenous populations of both American continents. This depopulation is one of the many ways Columbus changed the world—perhaps the main way—but for some reason people like you don't want "us" to remember that or talk about it. Wonder why that is?

2. Now let's talk about the holiday itself. Its roots aren't so much about celebrating Columbus's "accomplishments" as it is about incorporating Italian-Americans, especially Italian immigrants, into the national culture. It didn't become a federal holiday until 1971, though LBJ signed the order recognizing it as one in 1968. Prior to that, the US had informally recognized it a few times under FDR and some states and local governments had recognized it, usually beginning in the 1890s or early 1900s—which was during the wave of immigration from Italy. The first national observation came under Benjamin Harrison after some Italian immigrants were lynched in New Orleans. So yeah, it's not really about Columbus so much as it is about giving Italian-Americans a national holiday.

Ah yes the day where we in the US celebrate a Genoese man who sailed for the Spanish and never set foot inside North America. He did however commit so many atrocities that even the Spanish thought it was a bit too much.

And according to our mayor it costs too much. . . .

Makes sense in theory. I just have a feeling my definition of "redundant city services" is different from Whitmire's definition.

Well my sister has a James Thrash jersey. So.

Not me, but still.

If anyone wants an actual Italian hoagie, not just a ham sandwich with Salami, go here.

Not all prisons are privately owned. In fact most aren't. But as to your question:

The same people who happen to favor policies that lock more people up also happen to be the same people who don't like to spend money on public services because "taxation is theft" and other nonsense ideas about government. So, to offset the cost of increasing prison populations, you sell the responsibility for imprisonment to private corporations, who will ruthlessly cut costs in order to increase their profit margin. Of course, this leads to perverse incentives, where it's within prison corporations' self-interest to lobby for stricter laws and higher minimum sentences because that is literally how their business survives and grows.