S03.E04: Special-purpose districts

[Athena]

How will he follow up last week's episode...
 

Segments: 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Gloria Steinem's interview with Lands' End, special-purpose districts.

[Delwyn]

"That's not the Nile, this is the Nile." Amazing. A running joke ouroboros.

For a few moments, I thought the mosquito control district meeting on YouTube was two guys doing a parody of the Band Meetings on Flight of the Conchords.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Delwyn

[OneWhoLurks]

Mosquito Control District Meeting - Sept 17, 2015

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kcuT_Xm16U&feature=youtu.be

[TV-junkie]

Mosquito Control District Meeting - Sept 17, 2015

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kcuT_Xm16U&feature=youtu.be

2032 views. Yeah!!! 

 

And this is well-attended, too:

Edited March 7, 2016 by TV-junkie

[DeLurker]

WooHoo!  My county has made JO's show twice now - first, with the Montgomery County (Texas) misusing money from the drug-forfeiture account to buy a margarita machine and last night's installment on the Special District in Conroe, Tx (also Montgomery County).

[theatremouse]

"That's not the Nile, this is the Nile." Amazing. A running joke ouroboros.

I don't love that joke because so far every time they've done it I've immediately thought "that's not..." and then they say "you didn't even notice that's not..." and I feel like I can't defend myself against the TV.

Yes I realize that is stupid. But it takes me out of the bit.

[zxy556575]

I trust the show at least got a participant ribbon for their special district contest submission.

 

"Videos will be judged on creativity, originality, positivity, entertainment value, accuracy of information, value of information and production quality."

[Traveller519]

I'm still not sure I understand special districts any better unfortunately. Just that they run without a lot of oversight.

[iMonrey]

Yeah, with everything going on this election year I'm having a hard time getting worked up over the special districts. Seems like kind of small potatoes to feature in a main story, but maybe I'm missing some fundamental issue. Didn't really care for the kids parodies either. 

[Julia]

The thing about it, though, is that the government is collecting taxes and then handing them over to people who don't even pretend that they're accountable for the funds or the services they're supposed to provide with them. I think that's problematic.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Julia

[Danny Franks]

It's embarrassing that I didn't realise the kids were all dressed as John until the Nile joke. Oh well, sometimes I'm just not very observant. Seemed like those kids were having a great time though. Hope they win the competition.

 

Those jokes always amuse me, because they're essentially John making fun of the stereotypical American ignorance and getting them to laugh along with him. But I struggle to believe anyone doesn't know where the Nile is. Then again, it seems like a lot of people still think Africa is a country....

 

Special Districts seem a special kind of fucked up, really. Essentially just a bunch of people skimming off public money and getting away with it. But I supposed that almost counts as entrepreneurial private enterprise, so that should be a good thing, right? Yeah, they're small potatoes, but when you add up enough small potatoes, suddenly you've got no room for anything else. Perhaps special districts are the best way of dealing with stuff like mosquito abatement and firefighters in certain places, but they really should be accountable to publicly elected officials. 

 

I can enjoy the mockery of the GOP implosion, but it's still tinged with the very real fear that Drumpf might end up President. The man is revolting. But, based on those other people elected who were shown here, there's a certain type of voter that really loves revolting people. I'm very glad I don't live in Travis County, Texas, if that's the sort of person who can be elected to public office there.

[Ruby25]

I have to admit something. As much as I love Ollie, in an election year, especially one as surreal and nutty as this one, I could very easily watch every episode be about nothing but election stuff, especially since he's only on once a week.

 

I know you can say that's what The Daily Show's for every night, but I'm sorry, Trevor Noah did not cut it for me at all and I tuned out of TDS a while back. I wish Jon Stewart had stayed for one more year.

 

I feel like without Stewart and Colbert (he's been a huge disappointment on The Late Show), I'm really missing something this year, and Ollie fills only about 5% of that gap. Samantha Bee has been even more amazing, but hers is also a 22 minute show once a week, so together they fill about 10% of the gap. It's unfortunate, and I kinda wish Ollie would maybe do at least half the show on the election every week. Just for election years! Every four years, come on, that would work, right?

Edited March 7, 2016 by Ruby25

[Lion]

Never has a LWT episode bored me so much nor has one made me feel so tiny and helpless.  Tackling other topics seem almost easy by comparison.  With things like tobacco companies, or transgender rights, or abortion laws, or even Drumpf, I feel like I can react immediately and even do something.  I can vote, I can write letters, I can protest, I can share with people I know, etc.  I don't even know what I'm supposed to do about special purpose districts.  Pretty much the only conclusion I had before falling asleep is that it seems like a good money making scheme and then went down the rabbit hole discovering just how unethical my mind can be.  

[Victor the Crab]

Last night's episode was a bit of a downgrade, at least compared to last week's show. But I do like those two guys holding their mosquito control meeting by themselves. Dedication indeed. So to were the mini-Ollies at the end of the show.

[Irlandesa]

I have to admit something. As much as I love Ollie, in an election year, especially one as surreal and nutty as this one, I could very easily watch every episode be about nothing but election stuff, especially since he's only on once a week.

I know.  I can believe it.  However, if you aren't already, you should really check out Samantha Bee's "Full Frontal."  I've always liked her but even I'm surprised how polished her show is.  She and John make the perfect Sunday-Monday punch.  And that's really all I think I can tolerate on comedic election coverage.  I will also say, though, that Seth Meyers has converted his monologue to a 'deskalogue' (where he sits at a desk instead of standing) and he often does a segment called "A Closer Look" which focuses on a particular topic for about a five minute or more segment.  Lately, a lot of them have been on the election and I think they're sharper segments than the one or two throwaway jokes most of the late night hosts do. It's not quite righteous anger but I think they're pretty good.

 

As for this episode, I did get a kick out of John Oliver apologizing to new viewers who were turning in because of the "Make Donald Drumpf Again" coverage.  But boy...he wasn't wrong.  That was a tough segment.  I get what a special district is but I guess I was waiting for a call to arms and that wasn't there. 

[fastiller]

Yeah, with everything going on this election year I'm having a hard time getting worked up over the special districts. Seems like kind of small potatoes to feature in a main story, but maybe I'm missing some fundamental issue. Didn't really care for the kids parodies either. 

Well, small potatoes maybe, in the macro sense, but if you're the guy that's paying $1000 a year for water while your neighbor across the street pays $7 a year, all because of where a Special District line of demarcation happens to land, I think the potatoes grow a little bigger.  It's the lack of oversight that's galling.

[theatremouse]

Yeah, with everything going on this election year I'm having a hard time getting worked up over the special districts. Seems like kind of small potatoes to feature in a main story, but maybe I'm missing some fundamental issue. Didn't really care for the kids parodies either.

I thought the whole "2 people to vote on 50 million dollars in bonds" was pretty substantial. I mean, as they said, some of these special districts happen to be very functional, but it's the extremeness of the extremes, that are completely legally allowed to have zero oversight that really kind of ought to ruffle people more.

[Gulftastic]

I still don't understand what a 'special district' is. We don't have them in the UK. 

[Julia]

I still don't understand what a 'special district' is. We don't have them in the UK. 

 

Basically, it's a way to create "smaller government" by handing the functions of government over to your political cronies, who get rich off them.

[Gulftastic]

Ah. We do have that.

[Hanahope]

I think the worst part about this episode was John saying that in many/most cases, there's no method to get rid of them once they are created.  For example, with the story about the chicken farmers, I can always boycott chicken (or at least those brands).  But unless I want to move, I can't get out or stop any special districts in my area.  I don't even know how to find out what ones are in my area.  And how do they give notice of the elections?  Do we get something in mail?  I don't recall ever seeing anything about it in my area, and I do my best to vote in every local election I can.  Maybe I don't have any in my area?  I don't know.  How do I find out?  I need more info!!!

 

Ok, I do know about school districts, but that's the only 'special district' I'm aware of and I do vote on school board members and try to participate when I can, since I have kids actually affected by such things.

[OneWhoLurks]

The Texas Tribune was the first to report on Morrow — according to the Tribune, Morrow chastised a Tribune reporter for declining to use the N-word when quoting him. Morrow then made the Washington Post and other national media outlets. He was even featured on John Oliver's satirical news show, Last Week Tonight, on HBO.

 

[...]

 

Looking past his flair for the repugnant, it's hard to discern how a pro-abortion, Pope-defaming, anti-Israel, Osama-defending, Reagan/Bush-hating man like Morrow came to represent the Republican Party in Travis County. But Morrow's rise to political relevancy is maybe more representative of the greater conservative climate than it is an extreme outlier. Nationally, the leading Republican presidential candidate has accused all Mexicans of being rapists, joked about having sex with his own daughter and openly talked about his penis during a nationally televised GOP debate.

 

 

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/travis-countys-robert-morrow-political-outlier-or-more-of-the-same-8223417

 

ETA:

 

Their monthly meeting had all the pomp and procedure, including the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call. But other than Latsha and Raccio, the meeting didn’t have anyone in attendance.

 

Latsha said they carry on, “just in case somebody might walk through the door. ‘You never know -- that’s really why I do it.”

 

[...]

 

The meeting did get a bit heated at one point.

 

“We tend to get a little animated at times, and it shows the commitment we both share to our town,” said Latsha.

 

The next meeting will be held March 17, but Latsha and Raccio said the date may change; they expressed concern that no one will show up because it’s St. Patrick’s Day.

 

 

http://www.wmur.com/news/litchfield-men-hold-town-meeting-with-no-one-in-attendance/38435270

 

ETA2:

 

Bruner is now one of two Texas Republican hopefuls headed for a May 24 run-off race for the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) District 9 seat. She threw what many would call an online tantrum and posting this reporter’s private cell phone number on Facebook.

 

[...]

 

Bruner since unloaded on another reporter on Facebook. She wrote, in part: “It is important that reporters state their biases. For instance, you could say at the beginning of your blog that you are a Democrat and you do not like people who have politically incorrect conservative ideas.”

 

 

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/03/09/controversial-texas-education-board-candidate-retaliates-against-breitbart-reporter/

Edited March 10, 2016 by OneWhoLurks

[stillshimpy]

Well, small potatoes maybe, in the macro sense, but if you're the guy that's paying $1000 a year for water while your neighbor across the street pays $7 a year, all because of where a Special District line of demarcation happens to land, I think the potatoes grow a little bigger.  It's the lack of oversight that's galling.

 

But it's a lot more than galling.  I enjoyed the piece because I live in the land of tiny municipal government.  Not far from here I could stand on a street corner and be in three different cities at once.  Gets better, if go down a road nearby for a mile and a half?  I could stand on one corner and be in four at once.  

 

I think it's really easy to see that about being "Well, does your city require an occupancy permit?  Depends on which corner your house is located and if you're really unlucky, you might be under the sway of four at once."  An occupancy permit runs all of about $30.00 so yes, of course, it is small potatoes compared to so many things.  However, it's not actually the amount of money that makes it an outrage.  

 

No wonder the entire GOP can wail about taxes and how we're overtaxed, etc. etc.  most people feel taxed out the damn wazoo and yet federally funded food assistance programs just took a monster cut.  We're essentially telling huge swaths of the population: It's okay if you starve to death, we're telling ourselves that we simply don't have the money to have a strong social structure.  

 

Strong schools, well-maintained infrastructures, social programs to promote education, wellness: This list is FUCKING ENDLESS.  

 

So mismanagement, or even corrupt allocations of funds is very, very important, because among other things it's part of why there are areas of the country just allowed to fall to rack and ruin over a lack of funds.  There are areas of St. Louis (we are relocating soon...but to a place no less divvied up into small districts:  the greater Los Angeles area) where the police response system can take hours, literal hours for help to come.  Meanwhile, as I'm typing this, there's a squad car sitting outside my home.  I know the officer, nice guy, I happen to be close to a three way stop, so he parks there to catch people running the stop.  

 

Throughout the course of the day three different counties will patrol my very short street.  If I needed help I could practically stand outside and yell for it and be assured that I'd have no less than two responding counties.  

 

That has to with the amount of taxes funding those police departments, because I live in the affluent part of St. Louis county: West County.  I'm lucky, it just happened to be where I moved when we moved into this area from Colorado.  I didn't realize that my choice of county would dictate the likelihood of whether or not I'd be assaulted, robbed, able to walk my dogs at any hour of the day, or able to get armed response to my alarm system.  

 

I don't think John necessarily did as good a job as he normally does in explaining why something is a giant problem:  Misappropriation of funds can lead to the actual ruination of  a society and that's no joke.   Special districts within states -- if you happen to be on the other side of political divide than I am (because my heart, she does bleed like the mouthy liberal I am) this is another way to look at is:  in theory the GOP favors state run government.  A place like Michigan is not a  poor state, but allocating funds for the management of public services on a city by city, district by district basis can, and arguably has, led to a situation like the Flint, Michigan water crisis.  

 

The concept that there are entities, claiming to be government entities, taxing for essential services that then misappropriate funds -- yeah har-har, the fire chief's specialized purchases were pretty funny, but without a word of exaggeration people die because of misallocation of essential service funding.  

 

I also found the clearly non-corrupt Mosquito task force to be touching in their dedication to recording the minutes of a meeting no one was likely to watch without this segment. 

 

But the appropriate allocation funds is an essential part of a working government.  When you create that many entities, it's almost like a diversionary tactic:  No one but the most dedicated of souls can be vigilant enough to watch what is being done with public funds, but it matters a lot more than on a nuisance or irksome scale because those are funds we are pouring into our world, trying to keep it maintained when they are misused, even when the results aren't deadly it's a giant problem because the money is needed elsewhere AND the people paying it end up being overtaxed without seeing results. I'm sure everyone remembers the story of the guy whose house burned down because he had not paid the local fire department tax, even though the fire department responded, it was to watch to make sure his burning domicile didn't ignite the home of the guy who wasn't in arrears on his special district taxes.  For fucking real.  

 

So even when the stakes aren't that high -- and god knows that poor dude tried to persuade the fire department to let him pay the $130.00 annual fire tax right then and there, they wouldn't allow him to and his burned to the ground -- but we aren't supposed to divvy up essential services on that level.  Misallocation of funds is one of the reasons that some districts end up feeling such a financial crunch that the house-burning-down story could occur.  

 

Breaking things down to city and district to that level is dangerous but it also determines the entire trajectory of the lives of the people who live in the less affluent areas.

 

Special districts are one of the most crushing forms of political corruption in our country.  It's almost like living cheek-by-jowl with the old mob system. It invites corruption, it encourages disillusionment with the government as a whole and it's one of the contributing factors to things like the "Sorry, hope you don't starve to actual death, but we're cutting funding for your food sources".   It's one of the things that feeds penalization for poverty.  

 

I liked Johh's piece on it.  Maybe he took it as read that people would understand the greater implications.  But appropriate allocations of funds is very important, because those funds are sorely needed at the state level in a lot instances.  People then don't understand "How the hell do you not have enough money?  I'm looking at my 'personal property tax bill' right here and the one thing you all shouldn't be hurting for is dough, because god knows I give you enough of it."  

 

But that's what misallocation of public funds does.    

Edited March 10, 2016 by stillshimpy

[fastiller]

stillshimpy - don't be so quiet on the topic!!! [/kidding]

[stillshimpy]

stillshimpy - don't be so quiet on the topic!!! [/kidding]

 

Yeah, you know me.  Meek.  Woman of few words.  Never really have a solid opinion on any matter and am loath to share it, even when I do.   Shy, retiring.  Stoic.  

 

In the same universe where Spock sports a beard, that is.  

[tenativelyyours]

I recently saw the insane power of a special district where my grandparents live.  A new municipal sewage authority was formed.  There was no voting. Merely the approval by the state and by the local county commissioners (another larger special district).  This is not a sewage treatment center but simply a carrying line a certain person with some clout in the area got the right to build .   Man who got the permission also happened to own the land that he wanted to put a small industrial park on, and hoped ultimately to create this commercial zoned property which sits next to a proposed interstate expansion that will condemn and pay him for what was pretty worthless swampland off in the middle of nowhere.  But to do so had to get sewage lines.  Which means imposing a sewage line on everyone who lives in that small area.  That is mostly rural but touches on a small urban edge.  The rural people had state approved septic systems because most of them have wells.  (I'm not sure how that works but it somehow ties in together and has an odd effect which I will get to).

 

Because the area is mostly farmland and the areas that are developed are along old roads that are owned by the state, while getting permission to create and carry this out, they also were denied permission to dig along said state roads.  No problem because the state gave them legal writ to seize property as it is considered a "utility".  So they dug through people's yards that live along the road.  And not the frontage.  but through backyards.  Destroying gardens, long developed landscaping and turning lawns into muck fields.  Even forcing homeowners to either pay to move outbuildings or see them destroyed and bear the cost themselves of rebuilding.

 

Lawsuits abounded to no avail.  And people saw a small limited district get the power to not just impose huge costs to implement the sewage line but also have no oversight in terms of billing.  Since half the population on the line is on a water district and the other half provide their own water through wells, the special district got a variance so everyone pays the same.  No matter the size of the household.  Even that half that pay a metered amount of water.  The rate since the implementation has gone up three times and now sits at 153% of the original monthly bill in less than four years because:

 

1.they did not properly submit the proper studies and that the population cannot support the costs they claim to need to run a bare basic service

 

2.the interstate went in ten miles down the road which means the man who started all this saw his planned investment unrealized and he had no intention of creating a financially sustainable special district.

 

3.the man who started all this is discovered to have opened two offices of operation.  Two.  The second one is not known where according to auditors.  Speculation is that he diverted State and Federal funds to his own newly built huge mansion in Florida. 

 

And nothing can be done to stop this.  It can't be undone.  Not just because there is no apparatus to do so, but the sheer effort of trying to convert all these people back to what they had before is impossible.  And there is no means to turn it over to another system.  The one that it ties into that actually processes the waste didn't want it in the first place and is overtaxed as it was.  The irony being the State also denied that system the upgrade they still need to handle the increased sewage line this special district tacked on. 

 

And this is something that happens too often and no one questions it.  They might be not be instances that are so fucked beyond belief as this one, but they still don't get questioned.  They don't have any type of escape clause or means at all.  They have no oversight or accountability at the end of the day.

 

Oh and the messed yards when they put the line through.  State law requires such a company to put everything back to the standards it had before construction.  Not only did they not do so?  It turns out they took rich and old well cared for top soil from dozens of homes and sold it and then dumped crap gravel and dirt on their lawns as the "fix" back.   My grandparent's neighbors had a lawn they actually played tennis on.  It is now mostly dirt and rocks almost four years later.

 

Oh and just to make things fun, they built a huge shiny new office building with a bronze plaque outside.  Not extolling the advances in health and area development.  Nope.  This plaque tells anyone who tries to enter that the offices are not open to the general public.  All bill paying must be made through the mail or via electronic payment through a customer's bank (they have no direct electronic method).  And any concerns customers have should address them through the mail for review.  I thought this was a joke until my grandmother drove me by a house that now has a small sinkhole in it because the sewer line broke and the people had to write a complaint to get it address.   And this is in an area that I would consider "country bedroom" community less than 45 minutes outside of Philadelphia. 

Edited March 11, 2016 by tenativelyyours

[peeayebee]

That makes my blood boil. It's unbelievable that this type of stuff is happening without any remedy. 

 

(TBH, I had too much to drink last Sunday and so didn't get a whole lot out of LWT. I think I need to rewatch.)

[stillshimpy]

Thanks for taking the time to tell us that story, tentativelyyours.  That's the part I don't think John Oliver conveyed adequately.  Now I adore John Oliver and his work is almost always stellar, but the example he used about property taxes is fairly common, still an outrage, but doesn't actually convey how this bullying, corrupt practice actually endangers people on a number of levels.  

 

In addition to everything you outlined about the truly outlandish treatment your grandparents' property received, you know what it's a really, really bad idea to allow people to fuck with on a mercenary whim?  Sewage treatment and disposal, as well as potential contaminating of ground water, which is going to matter a fuckload in you happen to be on well water.  Or, you know, a human being with a central nervous system that is susceptible to toxins just in general. 

 

Special Districts really are very much like organized (and  state approved!) crime in a lot instances.  

 

Plus, I know I hit this note previously, but in a country where nearly one in four children live in a household that is below the poverty level, where in places like Mississippi and Arkansas one in five households is deemed "food insecure" (what a polite term for something that literally means regularly living with the fear that you won't have enough food to live...and not as a baseless fear, but as a "no seriously, don't know how we'll keep body and soul together this week!  Chew slowly on the remaining crumbs we possess!" ) it's a basic obscenity that special districts are formed without any oversight, recourse or democratic process.  Source on those stats. 

 

This was actually on Last Week Tonight, but do you guys remember the state senator from Illinois that had a complete and total meltdown and starting yelling about, "Let my people go!!"  as he hurled papers around?  That dude was screaming about how his district sent him there to vote for them.   Check out the completely uninterested expressions of everyone around him as he damned near has a fit of apoplexy.   The other thing all those special districts do is hobble the ability of the duly elected officials to DO anything.   Special districts are designed to hamstring democracy.  

 

Edited March 11, 2016 by stillshimpy

[NextIteration]

Where I live we don't have these much or at all.  I can speak to how impossible this is to handle, if you want to collect all these special district fees/taxes for employees.  There are hardly any software systems that can handle it while processing payroll, and depending on the size and multi-state/municipality of your employees, it can be a full time job for one or two people to stay on top of all these shenanigans.

 

Ollie has said that he didn't want to cover the election season much, but holy shit last night upped the stakes.  I hope he comes around a little bit because this is getting absolutely insane.

[Victor the Crab]

Ollie has said that he didn't want to cover the election season much, but holy shit last night upped the stakes.  I hope he comes around a little bit because this is getting absolutely insane.

 

Ollie didn't cover it much in the past because he said it was far too early to start talking about the 2016 election. But since the primaries started, he's certainly been giving it more time. I hope he does say something about last night given how he got us all to say Drumph.

[NextIteration]

Ollie didn't cover it much in the past because he said it was far too early to start talking about the 2016 election.

 

In interviews leading up to new season (end of hiatus?) he indicated that he did not want to focus on the election very much at all.  He previously said he didn't want to cover it all, because it was not 2016 yet.

 

That said, I think last night, and the growing protest movement against tRump and violence at tRump rallies will be difficult for him to ignore.

[OneWhoLurks]

LITCHFIELD, N.H. —The Litchfield Mosquito Control District meets every month, and after the recent attention, there has been a lot of extra interest on what happens at its meetings.

 

Thursday night’s meeting began as it usually does: Members John Latsha and Alfred Raccio recited the Pledge of Allegiance, despite there being no attendees.

 

[...]

 

Oliver featured a clip from one of the district’s 2015 meetings on a recent episode. Prior to being featured on the show, a YouTube video of the meeting had zero hits; now it’s approaching 82,000.

 

“Family and friends and people around the work place have gotten a kick out of it,” said Latsha, founder of the Mosquito Control District.

 

Even when they go out of town to eat, the two are being recognized.

 

[...]

 

“Hopefully the exposure will maybe, possibly, get other cities and towns across the state of New Hampshire to implement a mosquito control program into their town or city,” Latsha said.

 

He started the Mosquito Control District nine years ago, after a girl died of the EEE virus.

 

“I decided to do something on my own to get to try to protect as many people as possible,” Latsha said.

 

 

http://www.wmur.com/news/following-brush-with-fame-litchfield-mosquito-board-pursues-mission/38574668

[tenativelyyours]

For those in the U.S. it should also be considered that most of us get our water from some kind of special purpose district.  And while states and the nation have certain laws, Flint has shown us how wonderful those can be at making sure our water is clean and safe.  Also Rachel Maddow did a story a couple of years ago about how private companies are taking over the water in many metropolitan areas.   Pretty big companies.  So we have a mix of special districts and private industry mixing in with getting their grubby paws all over the second most important thing to human life and the first that can see it fall into the hands of the few who determine where how why and when it gets passed on to the many.  In an age when water is the most valuable resource, the fact that it falls for so many into this rabbit hole of loopholes, unlimited power, little oversight and little to no means to negate or even just fully regulate scares the crap out of me.

 

I think the show might have done better to look at such a specific district to illustrate the level of power a few people can exercise with no oversight.  As funny as that meeting is it also speaks to the lack of probity involved in a worse case scenario.  Those two men were scrupulous and seemed totally on the up and up.  Actually above and beyond.  But what if they had any power and they weren't such men of character?  Who the heck would know?

[OneWhoLurks]

Bruner says she doesn’t watch Oliver’s show, but she doesn’t back down from the comments she’s made, either. In one Facebook post, she said Obama once prostituted himself. It’s a logical conclusion, she says, since he admitted to smoking pot as a young man.

 

[...]

 

Bruner also wants to see schools emphasize love of country and capitalism, that don’t promote gay or transgender issues, and that don’t teach climate change as a fact.

 

“I’m going to be fighting for the values that our east Texas people believe in,” she says.  “The majority of the people in District 9 believe like I do.”

 

[...]

 

“I’m just saying we were a better country, we were a better society, we were better all around,” Bruner says. “We didn’t have so many murders and rapes and everything when people were more moral.  And I’m just making the statement that morality is taught through religion.”

 

 

http://keranews.org/post/texas-education-board-candidate-who-called-obama-gay-prostitute-wont-back-down

[fastiller]

In one Facebook post, she said Obama once prostituted himself. It’s a logical conclusion, she says, since he admitted to smoking pot as a young man.

 

 

So, smoking pot logically leads to one prostituting oneself?  How about drinking booze? 

[Julia]

You know, you gotta admire the initiative of someone who managed to keep up a full load of classes, not to mention president of the law review, plus a heavy enough prostitution schedule to pay for two different Ivy League universities, while stoned.

[Lion]

According to the Bruner rule, I've prostituted myself.  Like, a lot.  Guess I can check "sex work" off the ole bucket list.   

[Irlandesa]

So, smoking pot logically leads to one prostituting oneself?  How about drinking booze? 

He had to pay for that drug habbit, don't ya know?

[stillshimpy]

According to the Bruner rule, I've prostituted myself.  Like, a lot.  Guess I can check "sex work" off the ole bucket list.

 

I'll give you a ride to the free clinic, because apparently I need to get there too.  We'll need to stop and pick up roughly a third of the population on our way there though, so mark out a block of time on your calendar.  

Edited April 7, 2016 by stillshimpy

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

WASHINGTON – A broad ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals in a case of a developer's egregious fraud has sent lawyers to the state's General Assembly for legislation to protect existing special districts that issue tax-exempt bonds.

The case could have been the poster child for English Comedian John Oliver's recent television segment skewering special districts and is an example of everything the Treasury Department is concerned about with such districts.

[...]

The case involves a high-profile developer, Zachary Davidson, who used sham contracts to make him and five associates organizers or "eligible electors" who formed a special metropolitan district in Greenwood Village, Colo. that issued almost $35 million of bonds now in default. Davidson included nearby condominium purchasers in the district and obligated them to pay taxes to help pay off the bonds, even though the condo owners were unaware they were in the district or that bonds had been issued.

Davidson stole millions of dollars of bond proceeds for his personal use and was eventually indicted on 20 felony counts by an Arapahoe County, Colo. grand jury. He eluded law enforcement for months and ultimately committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Withlacoochee State Forest in Florida at age 46.

[...]

For years, the test under the federal law for whether a district is a political subdivision that can issue tax-exempt bonds has been based on whether an entity has been delegated a substantial amount of at least one of three sovereign powers: eminent domain, taxation, and policing.

The Treasury and IRS are now proposing rules to expand that test to add two new requirements. Under rules they proposed February, a political subdivision that can issue tax-exempt bonds, would also have to serve a governmental purpose and be governmentally controlled "with no more than an incidental private benefit."

The proposed rules have met with a firestorm of criticism from muni lawyers who have warned they would threaten existing special districts and potentially millions of dollars of bonds.

 

Colo. Court Case Puts Spotlight on Special Districts That Issue Munis

[stillshimpy]

I have less than two weeks to go in Missouri, but before that, I lived in Colorado for my entire adult life:  

The case involves a high-profile developer, Zachary Davidson, who used sham contracts to make him and five associates organizers or "eligible electors" who formed a special metropolitan district in Greenwood Village, Colo. that issued almost $35 million of bonds now in default. Davidson included nearby condominium purchasers in the district and obligated them to pay taxes to help pay off the bonds, even though the condo owners were unaware they were in the district or that bonds had been issued.

Poor Greenwood Village (which is by the Denver Tech Center, for anyone trying to figure out where it is) is like the poster child for why special districts are not simply overly complicated bureaucracy, active fraud has been perpetrated on that relatively tiny 'burb over and over since the oil bust of the 80s.  It's basically a close-in bedroom community for the Tech center and as such has lots of multi-unit dwellings with far fewer single-family units than you would normally associate with a suburb.   

The only reason that's worth bringing up as an area of focus is that is one of the ways that special districts are exploited in urban areas.  Greenwood Village is a fairly affluent area, which is part of the reason the fraud was detected and pursued.  In areas that aren't as affluent, it is one of the ways that funds are diverted away from things that support the societal infrastructure comprised of things like educational funding, after-school programs, continuing education programs, etc.  

Sorry, I know I've clearly turned into the Terrier version of me on this issue, but it is yet another way that people end up locked into poverty.    

In Greenwood Village Zachary Davidson (spit!) citizens, many of whom work in the Tech Center which is a big business concern in Colorado, ended up being pursued to the actual end of his worthless life because he tried to exploit an area that housed people considered important to Denver's economy.  

The implication of that though is how many of these things exist in communities that aren't valued or supported in the same way that Greenwood Village was. I really do appreciate that John Oliver opened up a discussion on this and thanks for above material OneWhoLurks, I still think John downplayed how truly sinister special districts can be.  

By the way, there is something almost poetically fitting that Davidson essentially met his end in a swamp where presumably his spirit will dwell in eternity with the other snake oil and swamp-land salesman throughout history and their blood sucked dry perpetually by afterlife mosquitos the size of which only a Florida swamp could produce.  

I might bear that guy some ill will.   

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

With the exquisite care of a bomb squad, the Travis County Republican Party is seeking to defuse its Robert Morrow problem by crafting rules that will enable the party to function as normally as possible under a duly elected chairman who has described himself, with considerable understatement, as “Donald Trump on steroids.”

How the Travis County GOP is defusing its Robert Morrow problem