Casper-level white. He's a smart, educated guy. He just has nothing to do with me or us, he panders to the suburbanites from Austin to SA, us people out there to the West are meaningless to him. He's a 100% assclown, but it's the district map that really pisses me off.
A perfect example of what's going on today with trump, except with others "pulling the strings." For those unaware, Ottomaton posted a scene from the classic Cold War motion picture from 1962, The Manchurian Candidate. I saw the film when it came out, and it was stunning. There was a remake made of it a few years ago that isn't nearly as good as the original. If anyone wondered if Frank Sinatra could act, this film proves beyond doubt that he could. Here's a description from The Criterion Collection - The name John Frankenheimer became forever synonymous with heart-in-the-throat filmmaking when this quintessential sixties political thriller was released. Set in the early fifties, this razor-sharp adaptation of the novel by Richard Condon concerns the decorated U.S. Army sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), who as a prisoner during the Korean War is brainwashed into becoming a sleeper assassin in a Communist conspiracy, and a fellow POW (Frank Sinatra) who slowly uncovers the sinister plot. In an unforgettable performance, Angela Lansbury plays Raymond’s villainous mother, the controlling wife of a witch-hunting anti-Communist senator with his eyes on the White House. The rare film that takes aim at the frenzy of the McCarthy era while also being suffused with its Cold War paranoia, The Manchurian Candidate remains potent, shocking American moviemaking.
Yes, it's part of the astonishingly gerrymandered way the City of Austin was sliced and diced into 4 districts. The one you posted, the one that goes all the way to the Woodlands, the one that meanders down to the Valley, and one more. Before this abomination occurred, major Texas cities traditionally had a single district centered on them. If a city was large enough, it might have other districts surrounding it that had part of the major city within them, but that central district always remained. It insured that the citizens of that district would be represented in the Legislature by a resident elected by that city. Tossing that tradition in the dumpster illustrates just how corrupt the GOP has been in the Texas Legislature. Someday, it will bite them in the ass. What goes around, comes around. When that happens, I hope the tradition of large Texas cities having a central district representing them returns.
...come on, man... ...you didn't like Liev Schreiber in the remake? ...I know he was no "Ray Donovan" in that...but...
It isn't a bad movie, but not nearly as good as the original. What made the original so shocking was that the McCarthy Era was still hanging around by its fingernails. The Manchurian Candidate was one of the nails in its coffin.
Here's the Burnet County one...San Marcos to Fort Worth, while grabbing certain parts of Austin, what a ****ing joke. Notice how they carefully carved out Killeen (Ft Hood) and put them in another district. How anyone can defend this is beyond me.
Thank you, Buck. I was trying to remember how the 4th one made its way to absurdity, and was too disgusted to look it up. Kudos for posting it.
Liev Schreiber is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life. (he's also married to Naomi Watts, so I'm just a bit jealous)
I could register in either, but I'm in Blanco even though I mostly live in Burnet Co. What do I have in common with these people? How is a "representative" going to represent people he has no frame of reference about?
None of the districts do, not really. Doggett has gone out of his way to be a good representative for the folks in the Valley, while looking out for the interests of Austin and the area, which pisses off the GOP (they thought Doggett would be history), but it's ridiculous the machinations he's had to go through to retain his seat. It isn't fair to anyone, and is entirely due to the ruthless partisanship of the Texas Republican Party.
Just get an independent, non-partisan, bunch of statisticians (with input from the county judges) who could draw these maps in about 2 weeks and let them go to work. Hell, give me a pen and a state map and I can do better than this bullsh!t.
I think so. With Trumpism, I've seen efforts to revise American historiography on several fronts. They want to challenge how it is we think of ourselves. Trying to rehabilitate McCarthy doesn't surprise me. Why did they shape his district to look like Massachusetts?
....heeeheee.... ...and this right here, my friends... ...is why we all might want to take this "...government of the people, by the people, and for the people..." business just a bit more seriously than we have been...
There was lots of outrage when Trump tried to instill his Muslim ban that (because it was totally unconstitutional) then morphed to a specific country ban.
So what does that have to do with what she said? There was a lot of outrage for Trump to say what he said. Doesn't change the fact she said what she said.
Don't particularly care for her at all, but if Trump can dream of deporting citizens, I'd think he's fair game too. He's definitely more unAmerican than she/they are.
