mattyt36

Augie if you think the most salient feature of Fascism is government control of the economy, and not, er, all the general “vibes” and aesthetics well, I think you miss the point. The truth of the matter is plenty of Republicans (and certainly party media) are speaking in the same themes as a long line of sordid authoritarians who are manufacturing a crisis as an excuse to assume more power. If you think because they don’t say “We’re going to take over Ford like the Nazis took over Volkswagen” somehow distinguishes them from otherwise having the same general tone and intentions of their Fashy forbears, well, again, I’d say you’re missing the point entirely. And to imply that there is some universally accepted Fascist political philosophy like the one you can point to in The Communist Manifesto is nonsense—the philosophy is the aesthetic, end of story. (I must say BTW that this is a tad bit disturbing as the implication seems to be you’re OK with the aesthetic as long as they don’t nationalize the economy. Man the Republicans who came of age under Reagan are a weird bunch. I see the new Tucker talking point is “How can it be Fascism if the people vote for it?” I suppose you subscribe to that gem, too.)

MAGA has made clear that cronyism and punishing and rewarding corporations for their political views is A-OK, and it's only becoming more apparent. It may not be centralized production, but they're not shying away from direct government involvement in the private sector AT ALL. Once you throw in Fashy standard-bearers like Trump, Ted Cruz, MTG, the list goes on and on, the obsession with law enforcement (see above), overthrowing elections due to feelz, cosplay militia obsessions, penchant for book banning, and weird infatuations with other people's sex lives (abortion, gender, etc.), and, I don't know, it rates at least a 75% on my Fashy scale--with it being heavily weighted towards where the party has signaled it wants to be headed, of course (i.e., less Liz Cheney and more JD "Why Not Kill Em All" Vance).

What was the old saying? Everyone was a Communist until they weren't? A fine lesson for these days--it always seems to catch up with you when you have ideologues in charge. Not since they left the neighborhood. I still feel jilted. To each his or her own . . . but I'd say you have, er, quite the unique taste there, Augie.

Someone has his head in the sand in San Antonio (and it’s been hot again recently, so that can’t be comfortable!). Yes, I finally clicked on the profile (not sure why I hadn’t before) … Alex’s #1 supporter is a proud resident of … San Antonio. (I guess he’s scared all the rampant crime will make its way west? Sounds about right … I’m told basic logic is “evolving” (as if the D were silent … they really seem to hate that letter) … but I am reminded that reading is difficult for a not-too-insignificant (yet sadly increasingly significant) slice of the population.) I’ll hand you something, BD, if the race were determined by the endorsements of police officers (along with green posters, long names, and straight hair as opposed to curls of course!), Alex would be sitting pretty (for the first time in her life, incidentally). But, alas, one person, one vote. And, I feel obliged to advise, plenty of people see police unions and don’t have the psychosomatic reaction you seem to have (i.e., My Little Pony sharting rainbows … I jest … that’s at least partially a shout out to the Harris County Log Cabin Republicans, MAN … whoever is left must have a real sadistic bent, wonder how often they break bread with Steve Hotze … wowza … yet I suppose Steve H himself is a glutton for punishment … it may be all starting to make sense …) (BTW Mr Dogs, I totally endorse the sheriff of your fair and difficult-to-pronounce county … a tip of the hat to him for going against blatant government corruption and Floridian political interference … Florida … interfering in Texas … must be like … San Antonio … interfering in Houston … I dunno, maybe you’re all for it. One side effect is I like seeing Ron DeSantis totally troll “the best governor in Texas history” as the weak poser he is and always has been 🤣.) DeSantis appears to be in for some flooding soon, maybe Greggo can send him some water? Sr BDs (fine Mexican-American culture there in San Antonio, so I shan’t presume and “cover both bases,” so to speak), as a first-time reader of your profile, I do feel the need to end a high note (warning … metaphor!). I went to the Symphony this weekend and noted for the first time that KTRK is a blue-ribbon sponsor. I found that impressive in this day and age. I’ve always been a KPRC guy myself (triskaidekaphobia perhaps?) but I shall give them a second look now that I know they are great corporate citizens. (WHOOPS … on second thought, it was Shostakovich. They may be into Communism.)

Well, don't know what to say, except said maps are wrong. 45 at BW8 has a full stacked interchange--this does not. You can also very clearly see the tent outside the HEB at Gulfgate. Not to mention the northeast and southeast quadrants of the BW8 intersections are essentially greenspace.

I-45 at the South Loop, perhaps?

The only things that seems a bit off from the photos (to me) are the completely open windows and doors in the front, which appears (to me) to be quite an affront to the intimacy of the space. Perhaps they have curtains to cover the windows, at least.

Quite the redo

If HCSO and HPD each get 1,000, how much do the Constables get? Let’s not forget they’re the ones who have done most of the b*tching.

I assume with the new signage and name, this complex changed hands like Broadstone Museum District?

Is it just me or was this completed relatively fast?

I.e., perpetual overtime or hire more officers? Seems like that choice is pretty clear. But perhaps that's your point.

OK that makes sense, but getting "caught in the act" still means the crime is being committed, i.e., it still counts in the rate. So I guess the underlying hypothesis, assuming this is the strategy, is that most criminals will continue "criming" until they're caught. Or more arrests deter others from committing crimes. Probably true for many crimes, but not necessarily all (murder being one, which people seem to be focused on). I wonder if HPD or HCSO have any data on number of reported crimes in which they feel an apprehension would've been made if the response time were lower.

I dunno--I'm not a criminologist. I understand how that would make intuitive sense, but surely there must be a point of severely diminishing returns, not to mention unintended (and potentially severe) consequences. Again, it would help to know more granularity about the data, what types of crimes are increasing, and some meaningful analysis as to the driving factors. Domestic abuse, for example . . . I fail to see how hiring more police officers is going to stop a husband from being abusive towards his wife. Maybe if they're doing it on the street, I suppose there's an increased chance assuming more police cars are driving around. But even then that seems like a very low probability given the region's land area. So we go from (for illustrative purposes only) a 0.01% chance that a police officer will be driving by at the exact location at the exact time when a husband is abusing his wife to a 0.02% chance if we double the police headcount? I just fail to see the reasoning. Are there not enough 911 operators? Are officers not arriving fast enough (or not at all)? Are cases not being processed quickly enough? Have police reduced patrols? And if we have information on the above, what exactly has changed since 2019? Seems to me questions like that are the place to start.

B

"Mug" would be ominous. As long as it's plural, it's OK. You can't have just one after all!

Thank you for sharing @trymahjong. I don't know if this is the first substantive article the Chronicle has written about the subject but it sure feels like it. Key points from the article: The success of the GOP approach depends less on statistical trends and more on whether crime is “visible” to voters on the nightly news, Adams said. Which is my sense--this is more about "feelings" than reality. Contrary to Young’s claim, Houston is far from the most dangerous city in the country. In 2020, the first year of the homicide surge, Houston tallied about 17 murders per 100,000 people, less than half the rates recorded by several other large cities, including St. Louis, Baltimore, New Orleans, Detroit, Memphis and Cleveland. Either Ed Young "feels" this way, or it was deliberately political. I know what my guess is. Still, Houston has seen a sharp rise in homicides each of the last two years, starting with a 43 percent surge from 2019 to 2020 — similar to the increase measured across all of Harris County, including Houston and the other incorporated cities. Murders across the country spiked by 29 percent that year, as a number of large cities — including Chicago and New York — recorded increases north of 50 percent. Awful statistics. 43% surge 2019-2020, all on Mr Law and Order's watch, if you want to get political. I prefer not to. Seems like we should figure out what exactly is going on first before making ridiculous promises about hiring 1,000 new police officers "just because . . . feelings."

Have noticed the same. And building is completely dark at night, which either used to not be the case or I am crazy. Maybe that was related to the crane.

Somehow missed this. I went to the location in Vegas and very much enjoyed, a great French dip, great atmosphere, and plenty of TVs and bar space. Never thought it would take until April 2023 to open up. OH WELL. Guess in time for Opening Day.

“Best Governor in Texas History” as I have heard on here or ”It Could Have Been Worse”? Hopefully people wake up and realize that the current Oppositional Defiant Disorder (i.e., “Lib Owning”) style of politics is not a path to anything greater or grander, and could very well be a path to disaster. Hello Mississippi!

@Blue Dogs welfare check?

That clarification is very helpful, thank you. I'm not under any pretenses that Beto will win the gubernatorial election. Which is a good thing in at least one respect, as such an outcome may take years off my life from the overload of excitement and fluid (ocular) loss. This will be my first time voting for Lina, but my second time voting for Beto. I think he's a wonderful guy and would make a wonderful governor, and, quite honestly, Make Texas Great Again. Your comment is well taken, however, and I shall clarify my point that I am not predicting any Texas blue wave. To me, this is only about Harris County, and it will be a bellwether to me about how much the County has "evolved" (I put that in quotes because I do not want to imply a value judgment) politically . . . it would be pretty remarkable, as I personally think Hidalgo is (well, has become) a weak, weak candidate. Do I think she is a victim in some respects? Yes, but that doesn't matter in politics. I believe the State Republican Party thinks the same and is the reason they're so focused on Harris County . . . at the end of the day, it's about control of elections in the biggest county in the State to "nip it in the bud." Absolutely unconscionable from the perspective of responsible leadership, but refer above . . . that doesn't matter in politics. Look--here's my perspective--there's a global sense of anxiety (and, let's be honest, absolute hopelessness) with regard to the future. It should be no surprise that there are different ways to react to the same themes. But I believe there are a whole class of people (not the voters, per se) who see this as some opportunity for a power grab and to make a lot of money (e.g., Bannon, Steve, or the majority of the global non-democratic political "elite"--China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.). I understand in theory the idea of a "leftist takeover" of the U.S. and how that would not be any more or less beneficial than a MAGA takeover. At the end of the day, as far as I'm concerned, MAGA government and leftist government means an economy entirely ruled by the government. But as much as the MAGAites want to argue that there is some impending leftist takeover, there is absolutely no comparison whatsoever based on volume of coordinated actions and just, I mean, outright lying and gaslighting so obviously orchestrated that it has become such a reflex for the practitioners that even they are beginning to believe it. Absolutely insidious stuff going on. I mean I'll go with at least a couple orders of magnitude. When it gets to just 1 order of magnitude, I’ll listen more closely. (Remember, as you would remind us, that we’re supposedly a lazy bunch, and give your guys some credit for efficiency!) I do think the above is a "reasonable" observation. Hopefully the country is awakening to it. Because once it's gone, it's gone. And it will be the ultimate definition of "waste" in the first post-apocalyptic edition of Webster's.

Augie, you have won my heart again!

Augie, your responses I must say are becoming more tiresome and rather formulaic than normal. Seems to be some derivative of "Nothing to see here," blah, blah, blah, always, when it comes to any negative news from a partisan perspective. Which, as we all know, is the standard Republican approach to things these days (at least for the ones not threatening Civil War). Journalist: "It is reported that the President stole nuclear documents?" Marco Rubio: "Hmmm, well, that's a document storage issue. Now let's talk about Hillary and the socialists and the groomers." (Note Rubio has no credibility in this example.) The poll is an update to the one posted by our friend Mr Dogs earlier this summer. It is all we have. The same group of people conducting the same poll has shown different results. Yes, I understand statistical analysis, MOE, etc. Yes, the 2016 polls were bad. The 2018 polls were not, however. The 2020 polls weren't the best, but weren't as bad as 2016. So I could say by simple powers of selective observation of patterns, which is the same logic you're using, I'm going to say, well in this rotation, these polls must be better. But, I will not, as that is hogwash. I will evaluate them in this context: -As described above, germane from a trend perspective to the polls conducted by the same group several months prior -They parallel state and national trends, which show people clearly running away from the radical Republican agenda -Mealer's announcement re the 1K new policemen indicates desperation . . . she could've announced this months ago At the very least, a reasonable response should be "Even though I don't trust polls, that's a tad bit concerning." But I will acknowledge that you still believe in a 12-year period of Republican political dominance. I agree, I think it is a real possibility, but only if they are successful at fully subverting the American democratic processes and replacing it with an authoritarian "I Know Better than You" government, which admittedly many seem intent on doing.

Well there’s a generous interpretation. Might as well get rid if all the parking then, by that rationale. Can get the Faculty and Administrators to move, too. In all fairness, I agree that some institutions elsewhere have adopted this approach. But it seems to me that there is plenty of enough parking downtown, especially these days, so I am not sure the logic holds as a matter of policy and therefore the most likely explanation is one of convenience. They can easily contract with a nearby garage for preferred monthly rates for students, faculty, and administrators, no? Seems like when the park is completed, it’ll only be more obvious that they are a “bad neighbor” (which would really be ironic if the stated goal was “urbanist,” ie to encourage people to live downtown).