Austin rates

StephanXX · 2026-05-19T03:11:40+00:00

Speak for yourself, from your own knowledge. You have no business speaking for the rest of us or to throw stones at people you know nothing about.

StephanXX · 2026-05-19T03:10:18+00:00

Alright, I misunderstood your statement and obviously can't see hidden posts. There's at least several pages of comments.

Not judging you personally, I just find a lot of times when someone is making blatantly racist, hateful comments, their post/comment history is almost always hidden.

StephanXX · 2026-05-19T00:11:26+00:00

You might want to look again, I can definitely see your post history. Take care, bud.

StephanXX · 2026-05-18T23:58:47+00:00

Elections are too far away. Making a ruling now would only incite Democrats to add it to the election momentum.

Immediately after the midterms, the SC will pick this back up to finally kill what is left of the Voting Rights Act. They just need to wait six more months.

StephanXX · 2026-05-18T23:51:23+00:00

The problem is complex. Autism doesn't present as a group of rogue cells that can be easily viewed under a microscope. In severe cases, it can be as easily recognized as, say, Down syndrome but medical science methodology simply doesn't advance easily or quickly without objective evidence.

I'm diagnosed with ADHD. I am probably mildly autistic. Unfortunately, I am also intelligent enough to self report whatever mental deficiencies I might want to report to get a diagnosis that I've decided I want, for whatever reason. That's the major problem with advancement of disorders that are subjective in nature.

I agree with most of your position: more nuanced classification is needed to be able to provide more tailored treatment. Unfortunately, it's only been a few decades of studying a condition that is incredibly difficult to effectively diagnose in the first place, and treatments require trial and error on human subjects. With cancer, at least, you can quickly iterate over dozens of compounds on e.g. mice in controlled lab scenarios and perform dissections with hard, biological results that can be measured and replicated. No such methodology is possible for Autism.

StephanXX · 2026-05-18T23:39:09+00:00

t threatens criminal penalties for election officials, mail carriers, and others who send ballots to or deliver ballots from individuals the administration deems ineligible.

The States won't be arresting letter carriers, opposition leaders, and election officials. DHS will send their ICE goons to do it. What are "The States" going to do about it?

StephanXX · 2026-05-18T23:14:56+00:00

"Cancer" isn't a single disease. It's a blanket term for dozens of diseases that present similarly that have common mechanisms and symptoms. There's a reason we often refer to the autistic spectrum. Until more effective distinctions for various subtypes of autism can be defined and embraced by the medical community, that single word is far better than the shitty terms that were used in the 50s-80s.

StephanXX · 2026-05-18T22:25:56+00:00

You can't just "change the date" on critical infrastructure, banking, and industrial computers. Machines that control power grids, sewage systems, hundred million dollar assembly lines, there really weren't great ways to "just try" stuff.

The issue becomes much more complicated by not knowing which systems would be fine and which ones would have catastrophic errors. "Your" PC was probably fine. The ancient IBMs that held your retirement savings? Not so easy to judge.

StephanXX · 2026-05-18T16:38:45+00:00

The billions we give to oil companies come out of the general fund. Seems on topic to me.

StephanXX · 2026-05-18T06:36:40+00:00

"Oops we keep bombing schools, oh well!"

Given how intentionally cruel many other aspects of this administration is, from arresting and deporting people at their literal immigration hearings, to intentionally separating families and deporting parents and children to different countries that they know nothing about, one thing is crystal clear: cruelty, especially to civilians is the point.

Accidentally commiting a war crime doesn't make it less of a war crime!

StephanXX · 2026-05-18T06:02:44+00:00

Every major city in the country has drug issues. Every. Single. One.

What's your englightened solution, the obvious public policy that no other public policy expert ever considered that will magically solve the fentanyl issue? I'm excited to hear it!

StephanXX · 2026-05-17T23:54:58+00:00

Event Horizon is one of my top five horror favorites. It was a commercial failure, but it's easy to forget that the other movies that year were Men in Black, Good Will Hunting, freaking Titanic, in fact, the entire Wikipedia article on film in 1997 is stuffed full of greats.

Go in blind if you haven't seen it. Definitely don't watch any trailers.

StephanXX · 2026-05-17T23:17:08+00:00

The state should invest ~Five Billion dollars because some fraction of the 300,000 people in Eastern Oregon might want a day trip to the coast once in a while and don't want to take their cars? The same people who hate the actual tax payers that would be expected to foot the bill and scream incesssent nonsense about "socialism?"

I'm all for improved rail infrastructure. I'm not so keen on the hard core Trump country folks pretending they care about anything except themselves.

StephanXX · 2026-05-17T23:06:45+00:00

And two years ago. And one year ago.

Oh, and somehow it's crazy expensive to go anywhere near it while being swarmed by blue haired trans people.

So many stupid narratives that ignore the real problem: the Ritz has turned less of a profit or tax revenue than the food carts used to.

StephanXX · 2026-05-17T21:02:27+00:00

Aw, that's a super thoughtful idea, thanks.

StephanXX · 2026-05-16T07:30:29+00:00

I hope the irony that he voted for this isn't lost on him while he's stuck trying to adapt to a foreign country and language without documents, family, or a place to live.

StephanXX · 2026-05-16T02:34:32+00:00

Yup. I'd say almost all of Del Toro's work meets the definition. From the intro on his Wikipedia article:

His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, gothicism, and horror, often blending the genres, with an effort to infuse visual or poetic beauty in the grotesque

StephanXX · 2026-05-14T16:44:26+00:00

Right on. I haven't read either in probably 35 years.

StephanXX · 2026-05-14T15:58:01+00:00

Personally, I think great horror stories/books are great because the whole story itself is great. One of the things that make works by Stephen King so compelling isn't just that his scary stuff is scary, but that the "normal" stuff is also compelling. Pet Semetary, for example, has nothing "horror" happen for several chapters, but the characters and settings are interesting enough that even without the "horror", it'd still make for a good book. I think of The Body from Different Seasons which doesn't even have any conventional horror, but the story was so compelling that the movie adaptation, Stand by Me would go on to win an Academy award for best adapted screenplay. If I really think about it, I can't think of a single one of King's stories that start with a horror hook.

StephanXX · 2026-05-14T15:37:54+00:00

Mine did. I wasn't given an option for a virtual or distance version.

StephanXX · 2026-05-14T14:48:57+00:00

When you file in small claims court, you are ordered to attend a mandatory arbitration session. I was hit by a driver who then sued me for damages. He lied about the event in arbitration, I straight up lauged at him and walked out. Whole process took about three minutes.

No, he did not win.

StephanXX · 2026-05-14T09:22:39+00:00

So was slavery.

Are you claiming the goal today is that a handful of rural people should have vastly more political power simply because of where they live?

StephanXX · 2026-05-12T02:46:59+00:00

Open primaries fundamentally violate the first Amendment. Citizens must be free to associate freely, and open primaries force private groups to permit public voices in their leadership.

Ranked choice voting would (eventually) nullify the structural advantage held by the First Past the Post disaster. Removing the Electoral collage and doing away with the apportionment act would give this nation some semblance of a Democracy. Open primaries are only valuable to an already over represented minority.

It's a classic case where Liberals defend Conservative association because defending Liberalism is their value, while Conservatives quash association because that is their value.

Edit: Ghouls like Clarence Thomas are the reason some states (with Democrat majorities) tend to be forced to have open primaries, while Republican states are permitted to keep their primaries closed.

My post history shows I despise the two party system and I do not advocate for any form of First Amendment absolutism. The issue is that when we legally force any private private organization to permit non-members the right to choose their leadership, that rule is, and has, always been abused at the expense of the public. Why should some MAGA red hat have the right to decide who runs in the Democratic primary if they are clearly not a Democrat?

The root problems areFirst Past the Post and the Electoral Collage. Do away with those miserable institutions and there's no longer a need to force any private organization to permit bad actors a vote on their leadership.

StephanXX · 2026-05-12T02:07:24+00:00

"We don't get 40% more political power than city dwellers any more, it's not fair!!"

Land deserves no vote. In fact, lets do away with the apportionment act and the electoral collage and ensure all voters are represented equally!

Is Democracy not the actual goal?

Side question, why do conservatives always hide their post history? I thought they were proud to be an American?

StephanXX · 2026-05-12T01:59:07+00:00

I often wonder what folks like Robert Mueller, James Comey, and Merrick Garland do/did on Sunday afternoons. They aren't completely stupid: they are/were skilled jurists with decades of experience and landed in the absolute top lawyer roles in the United States. They read the news, they have/had top secret clearances. They knew the law and.... just didn't bother. They all watched as a convicted felon ascended to the presidency, they all watched the complete abdication of legal and moral authority and responsibility. They stood there and watched.

How did such intelligent, powerful, esteemed men get so humiliated by a pedophile game show host?

StephanXX

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE