CardinalBacker

Nah… I just get tired of people crying because they don’t get paid like I do when they went to college to be a part time babysitter.

If their job was important, society would demand that they do it year ‘round. Do hospitals get to shut down for summer? No, they’re vital. Most businesses and jobs require constant inputs of work. Even daycares are open all year long because people actually NEED those.

Those guys really do, and the stipend is a joke compared to the extra time that they put in.

They say 75,600 minutes for the same reason that oil is produced and sold by the barrel, but every time a ship plows up on the rocks somewhere, it's spilling oil in gallons. A little quick math says that you average about 2000 hours per year at a full time job. Honestly it works out to be around 1920 hours if you get a couple of weeks of vacation and a couple of weeks of sick time. I'm being generous. Johnny Punchclock might not get two weeks of vacation and your sick time is necessarily used, but I'm just trying to be generous when I say 1920 hours for a typical American with a job that has nice benefits. If you take your 75,600 minutes of instruction time and divide that by 60 minutes, you end up with roughly 1280 hours of instructional time. Now, before you start yelling about grading papers, that instructional time students get actually INCLUDES a teachers conference period.... kids are instructed all through the day, even when the teacher is hanging out in the lounge flirting with the PE coach for a class period every day. It's a part time job. Stop letting teachers pretend that they have a full time job.

I wonder if Teachers will stop crying about the fact that they aren't paid salaries comparable to people with full time jobs? I doubt it. That 187 day calendar is about to drop down to about 140/365 instead of the 240-250/365 that most Americans work. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Educators collectively overestimate the value of their profession. Always have, always will.

Fixed it for you. Unless by "documented" you mean that the 10:00 o'clock news made some accusations. I don't remember Briles even being investigated criminally. I'm lazy... which year did one of Briles' teams clap y'all's cheeks?

It really sucks that we're all here because Trump would rather be mean on Twitter than be President.

The fact that you can't wrap your brain around the fact that people might (gasp) actually dislike Trump enough to vote against him shows how simple you are.

The fact that you swallowed Trump's lie despite a complete lack of evidence (which was repeatedly promised, yet never delivered) while ignoring U.S. Attorney General Barr, the Justice Department, the FBI, Homeland Security, state law enforcement, local law enforcement, local election officials, and 300 million cell phone cameras who all neglected to take a single photo or video of ANY impropriety..... means you believe in fairy tales. You're not just wrong, you're aggressively wrong. Kinda like Joe Biden.

The typical voter is uninformed. The typical hardliner is misinformed. The fact remains that one has to woo the uninformed or risk being right, but beaten. A candidate can't say "okay, I did all of these things to make myself unlikable to the uninformed, but when those people vote against me, it's because they're stupid." No, they voted against you because you were so freaking unlikable. The fact remains that roughly 77% of voting-age Texans are registered to vote. Then, take into account that right at 17% Registered voters (that's right, 17% OF 77%) bothered to vote in the Texas Primary Election last week. The general population IS uninformed. The fact that any of us even bother to talk politics online puts us in a very, very, VERY small percentage of the population. Face it... the gen pop (or the "Great Unwashed," as my economics professor used to say) ARE uninformed. What you can't have is a candidate that is so polarizing that he awakens the sleeping giant of uninformed voters to come out just to vote against him. None of what you've accomplished matters if you motivate the masses to vote against you.

You do understand that if Trump had managed to NOT alienate less than 4 million voters he'd still be President, right? Honestly that number is even lower when you factor in the Electoral College. Trump believed that bluster and hate would not hurt his chances to win because his followers kept heaping praise upon him. He was wrong, and we're all paying for it.

This is all I've been saying. I've been to actual Republican meetings over the last few months. Local leadership way is obviously way down on the Democrats, but equally nasty about "RINOs." You know, anybody that isn't goose-stepping along with every single item on the platform. Let's say that you're for lower taxes, support the police, a strong border, oppose abortion, believe in the second Amendment, but believe that we should explore legalization of Marijuana? You're a dirty RINO and they're going to do their best to silence you. You can say things like "I believe 100% of everything that you guys are fighting for.... but I've been waiting over a year for some actual proof that there was widespread voter fraud and I just don't see it" and Reagan and the rest of you will start all of the name-calling. Not following group think puts you on the outs with the loudest party voices... And we can't beat the other side if we're fighting each other in house.

You're exactly right... we needed him, or someone conservative. That's what makes the fact that he threw the election away to the worst dem duo in history so infuriating. He literally crapped the bed, and then he wants to phone down to the front desk and complain that his room has an odor... and you guys are chiming in to blame housekeeping.

The things that Abbott is "in trouble" for are transgressions against Rs.... not Ds. The lockdowns? Dems aren't mad about that.... Rs are. Higher property taxes? That doesn't bother a good liberal... but it'll get you an opponent in the primaries, apparently.

Which abhorrent behaviors on the part of Abbott can you show that would have alienated moderate/undecided voters and/or motivated democrats to go out and vote against him? I'll wait. BUT, the main difference is that Texas has a clear majority of Republicans who can re-elect Abbott if they turn out and vote... but the Rs CAN lose if "conservatives against Abbott" stay home. The US as a whole does not enjoy such a majority.... That was the infuriating part about Trump continuing to play to his base (who were already going to vote Trump) instead of trying to win over the middle... which you MUST HAVE if you're going to win the White House. You NEED moderates to go "R" if you want to win a nationwide contest. Abbot can win if he just gets the Rs to all vote for him.

You will.... I will, too. But in this era of scorched earth politics I'm confident that a large number of "conservative" voters won't because Abbott isn't their guy. It's this simple. People on the extreme see everything as a fight. It doesn't matter if they are a democrat (obviously an enemy) or just somebody who doesn't espouse every single far-right view point... they all get attacked. It's easy from our perspective how the far left is pushing everything that's going on with the Democrat party. It's a lot harder to recognize from the same perspective how the fringe on the right is hurting the Republican candidates. How did an incumbent like Abbot get three challengers? He's not crazy enough for those on the far right. Why didn't Trump get a challenger? It's not because he was the best, it's because the wackos on the far right supported him. I haven't forgotten the antics that the Tea Party was pushing a decade back... forcing candidates to sign pledges didn't end up so well for us at all, did it? That's the same energy being applied today. We need to keep Abbott in office. We won't like the alternative.

The guys who worship Trump are the same guys that hate Abbot because he's too moderate for them. The guys that they supported (Huffines, West, Prather) weren't electable.... even in the primary. But they'll sit home and pout in November instead of voting for Abbott and hand the thing to Beto.

No, because I think about him every morning when I examine my stool.

Good hire.

They’re in his sent box.

Watching these Ukrainians fight against Mother Russia makes me really mad about the Afghanis rolling over for the Taliban.

I heard it was because Pierce accidentally called the defense the Chain Gang.

Freddie Mercury is the best front man, ever, in my opinion. I had the kids watching Queen live from Montreal about 6 years ago... they were so put off by his prancing around and mannerisms, but had to admit that he was the best vocalist that they'd heard. Then how I explained that nobody knew FM was gay until he came out... every queer since then has simply been imitating Freddie Mercury.

I don't see the point of electing some guy (West) who hasn't been here long. It's a big state with a ton of different points of view. I also lost a little respect when he accused the police of targeting his wife when she was driving home drunk, allegedly. Not very "back the blue," if you know what I mean. Prather? Is that better or worse than Jessie "The Body" Ventura? I'm not really sure. I'll pass regardless. Abbott has two groups really mad at him... liberals and ultra hardcore conservatives. Neither one's opinion really matters.

True heroes.... staying home and fighting alongside their friends/family against an invading force. In 150 years they'll be labeled traitors, right General Lee?