Kathy Mitchell

Trump's plan to fight illegal drugs with punitive tariffs makes no sense President-elect Donald Trump says the special tariffs he has threatened to impose on goods imported from China, Canada, and Mexico are aimed at stopping

If stopping drugs from entering the country is as straightforward as the president-elect implies, why didn't he do it during his first term?

#austin #gardening

Hey Austin gardeners. Can someone tell me what I planted?! Because it is doing great and I am sad that I seem to have misplaced its name. Vigorous creeping groundcover, very low, happy yellow flowers. Seems to need little attention. Loves the sun. What is it!?!

I just keep slamming my head against my desk. I blockwalked for Allred. Argh.

...they will have a tantrum, walk off the job, and take their complaints to state lawmakers. Who they believe (🙄) will grant them immunity from prosecution, safe harbor from administrative discipline, and a thick veil of secrecy to hide all this from the public. But they will keep the paycheck.

If you think we should not subject police to this system -- the justice system -- then police Chiefs need to do a much better job removing officers who are dangerous. Taylor should have been terminated long ago. But the police union opposed that too. They want NO penalty at all -- or ...

Why? Because Christopher Taylor, who killed two people -- one unarmed and the second holding a knife to his own throat during an attempted suicide -- was found guilty by a jury. The jury didn't buy the police union's self-defense case. The judge sentenced him to two years in prison.

Austin Police Union tells officers to avoid mental health calls following Taylor sentence A day after being sentenced to two years in prison without the chance of probation, Christopher Taylor has been fired from the Austin Police Department.Taylor,

Austin police officers just pocketed a $2,000 bonus, their "incentive" for agreeing to accept a huge pay increase (28% over five years, 31% because it is front loaded.) So in thanks, the police union called on its members to quit responding to 10 to 20% of 911 calls.
cbsaustin.com/news/local/a...

Voted for the shortest list of candidates ever. Fernando de Urioste for AISD Trustee! One and done!

Just joined the tens of people voting today! Com'mon people! Let's finish this with some progressive wins here at home. Fernando de Urioste got my vote (and if you live in D7 👍 for Mike Siegel)! Now you go!

Austin run-off early voting starts today! I strongly recommend folks vote for:

✅ Mike Siegel for Austin City Council, District 7

✅ Fernando de Urioste for AISD Board of Directors

Polls are open 7am-7pm. Early voting runs through Dec. 9th. Election day is Dec. 14

votetravis.gov/current-elec...

Newly minted "Civic Leaders" will enter the workforce able to make the kinds of big mistakes on behalf of capital only possible if you have no idea what happened the last time and never listened to those who remember. Genocide. War. Poisoning the earth and ourselves. The trenches all over again. 😶

A deep dive into this period might do students a lot of good. But that is not Dan Patrick's goal for the School of Civic Leadership. He hopes not to expand minds, but to reign them in with weighty quotes from great thinkers, out of context and ordered to describe an America that has never existed.

100 years ago, a period that feels relevant to the now, thinkers were wrestling with a deep, despair over the reality of WWI trench warfare and what it said about humanity. And also the WWI "settlement" divided the world up into new countries, the effects of which still drive politics today.

The Right-Wingification of UT Texas targets liberal enemies within one of the top U.S. schools

The key point here -- intellectual honesty IS what is at stake in this transition. If I believed that UTs leaders or state lawmakers would ensure that students roamed as I did freely through a broad range of writings, then all this would be less dire.

www.austinchronicle.com/news/2024-11...

How Project 2025 plan for weather agencies could affect Houston Project 2025, a blueprint for a conservative presidential agenda, calls for the dismantling of the National Weather Service and privatizing its data.

“Project 2025…calls for dismantling the agency that oversees the National Weather Service and privatizing its weather data for the sake of ending the ‘climate change alarm industry,’ and commercializing its forecasting operations.” www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

Stock Market News From Nov. 22, 2024: Dow Marks Record Close; Nvidia, MicroStrategy, Super Micro, More Movers; Bitcoin; Russia, Ukraine Fears Lift Oil The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq finished higher Friday as the stock market ended a volatile week.

Meanwhile folks in my age bracket have a median net worth of $364k, and saw real gains this year. Yesterday's high close likely added >$3k to that. A cohort that always votes was likely both poorer and richer on election day. No wonder the results are so confusing.
www.barrons.com/livecoverage...

I can't say I fully understand this, and I will reread it. But this author makes a compelling case for the proposition that voters who said they were just better off under Trump were right. The rich got richer while the poor (and the middle) got poorer. Ouch.
jzmazlish.substack.com/p/yes-inflat...

I planted milkweed in a bed of wild onion to see if the wild onion would repel the aphids. And it worked! Until they grew to about 4 feet tall. I think it is fair to say, wild onions protect to about 3 ft away.