Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

You never let me down!

"Since teachng this course, I have caught and seen cheating, been told to 'chill out,' 'get out of my space,' 'go back and teach,' [been] called a 'f***ing moron' to my face... listened to many hurtful and untrue rumors about myself and others... I am frankly and completely disgusted. You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass the course... All are being awarded a failing grade."
—Professor Irwin Horwitz, in an email to the students in his strategic management class

Now, I'm honestly not Texas-bashing on this one. I think this is more reflective of Wall Street and general trends on greed. But I still found it interesting and it will be fascinating to see what kind of kerfuffle it causes.


THIS is the best news from Texas that I've read recently: THEY'RE BEING INVADED BY THE U.S. ARMY!

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/30/right_wing_lunatics_think_the_military_is_planning_to_invade_texas_heres_why/

The Army is conducting a multi-state training exercise in the Southwest. including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, etc. to simulate war in a variety of environments and will be run on military reserves and on private land for which the military has obtained permission. Apparently a map was seen that labeled Texas as hostile.

The governor was quoted by Associated Press as follows:

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday asked the State Guard to monitor a U.S. military training exercise dubbed “Jade Helm 15″ amid Internet-fueled suspicions that the war simulation is really a hostile military takeover…

“It is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed,” Abbott wrote. “By monitoring the Operation on a continual basis, the State Guard will facilitate communications between my office and the commanders of the Operation to ensure that adequate measures are in place to protect Texans.”

Yes, the Texas State Guard will keep an eye on what the U.S. Army is doing, because they'll be so effective at stopping M1 Abrams tanks and helicopter gun ships.

The article goes on to mention that Texas has 15 army bases, one is about 80 miles south of where I live.

You know, if this is what it takes to get Texas to redistrict fairly, I say go for it. ;-)

"I don't have a well-crafted response on that one."
—Professor of Economics and GOP Congressional candidate David Brat, when asked if he favored raising the minimum wage

The House Majority Leader was dethroned by this idiot, who is an economics prof, who doesn't have an answer on supporting raising the minimum wage. Yeah. He had similar statements showing a total lack of preparation for the potential positions in TV interviews after he won the primary, including on whether the USA should arm Syrian rebels. (The correct answer to that one is 'which group?' as there are a thousand distinct groups fighting the current regime.)

Cantor had problems which he apparently ignored. First, his job approval rating in his district was on the order of 30/60, good vs bad. Next, he spent something like $5,000,000 on his re-election, over ten times what his opponent spent. And that isn't bad enough, but most of it came from Wall Street, only 2% came from small contributions. Cantor reportedly spent more on steakhouse dinners than his opponent spent on his entire campaign, I'm not sure if those were fund raiser or rewards for staff or what. He also made a huge mistake in hiring a polling company that consistently shows ridiculously inaccurate results and said company showed him having a comfortable margin of victory, which may have led to overconfidence if he ignored other polls.

The odd thing is that a different polling company's polling of his district showed overwhelming support for immigration reform, which is the sole issue that his opponent ran on. The Tea Party infuriated the electorate, and Cantor went down. Not in flames, but it was a pretty clear defeat. Since then, he's announced that he will resign his position as House Majority Leader effective the end of July, it'll be interesting to see who gets slotted in to that for the rest of the term. Also, Cantor says he's not going to run a write-in campaign.

Not doing a write-in campaign is probably a good thing, I think it might totally hand the race to the democratic opponent, it would split votes from Brat which would make Dem votes stronger. But a subversive write-in campaign would have the same effect, regardless of whether or not Cantor wanted one. Considering all of the dirty electioneering tricks that the Repubs, and some Dems, have done, I'd say go for it.

I'm sure Eric will land on his feet 'consulting' for a K Street lobbyist in February.