Comment by KennyBlanken | Hacker News Reader

Comment by KennyBlanken | Hacker News Reader

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A commitment that apparently does not include:

- treating anyone who isn't "white enough" with dignity and without extreme suspicion of being in the country illegally. Driving in texas and not white enough? You might end up in jail if you don't have sufficient proof on you that you're not "an illegal"

- a reliable power grid, because they petulantly do not want to have to follow federal regulations in how they run said grid (also, electrical pricing that doesn't swing by 4 orders of magnitude or more)

- a well-funded public school system with science-based curriculum to develop their children into a skilled workforce capable of critical thinking, being retrained, etc.

- human rights, healthcare, mental health services, etc which highly skilled technical workers tend to strongly prefer/value (and in case nobody told Texas: there is a long, long history of highly skilled electronics engineers, programmers, etc being LGBTQ, autistic, having mental health needs, etc.)

Anyone who is highly skilled in semiconductors could write their own ticket. Why would they go to Texas?

> a reliable power grid

Texas ranks about middle of the pack by most statistics in electrical grid reliability while also being one of the cheapest places in the US. Its also expanding renewable energy faster than any other state in the US, by a massive margin.

> electrical pricing that doesn't swing by 4 orders of magnitude or more

Clearly shows you don't actually know what you're talking about. The vast majority of households and businesses in Texas are on fixed rate contracts. The price of my electricity swings every three years or so. The headlines you're reading are spot prices; the vast majority of people don't directly pay those.

> a well-funded public school system with science-based curriculum to develop their children into a skilled workforce capable of critical thinking, being retrained, etc

Eh, PreK-12 35th overall according to US News, not great. 25th for higher education, so exactly middle of the pack. There's a lot worse of places to be education-wise. It really varies from school district to school district though. US News ranks the high school my kids will eventually attend in the top 16% of schools nationally. The smaller college I attended was ranked in the top third of all national universities. Not too bad.

> Why would they go to Texas?

As mentioned, loads of opportunity and comparatively low costs of living compared to a lot of other places.

For all these issues, states like Texas are going to be vastly more practical than doing any real projects in places like California. Look at California's record on railway, housing, etc. SF spends $1B/mile on railway (see Central subway), or $1M on a public toilet. If anything, moving more industries to states like Texas or Georgia is a great way to improve the overall dynamics of the state. This already happened to a great degree with film/tv studios moving to Atlanta.

It’s a law in many countries that you have to carry your ID with you, eg Germany. The police may do random check in high risk areas. Do you think Germany treats its citizens without dignity?

You have to own an ID document (Pass or Personalausweis) in Germany, but you don't have to carry it with you.

Maybe I misinterpret it, but the law says “[Germans] must present their identity card at the request of an authority entitled to check identification.” I guess they won’t mind if it’s at your home a casual drive away, but if you live in another city?

The point is that this isn't Germany and there is no such law here.

If there is no such law in Texas, then surely detaining random people who are not white enough and putting them in jail would be a significant topic of discussion rather than an offhand comment on HN. 40% of Texas are Hispanic — a demographic that would be under the most suspicion. That is a lot of people in jail for no reason and without any legal reasons. The whole state would probably get bankrupt after a few lawsuits by those unfairly arrested citizens.

I was tempted to reply, "you're not from around here, are you?" but that's probably a bit too snarky.

There are only four states that require you have an ID during a police stop and Texas is not one of them. Obviously if you're driving, a driver's license is required. But for a random stop walking down the road? Nope, Texas does not require that you have ID.

To the rest of your post: I honestly don't know where to start. You're making a lot of assumptions that don't hold. Suffice to say that it's a lot harder to prevail in a case against the police than you realize.

People get arrested/thrown into jail for no reason far more often than you apparently think. I know someone (a software developer actually) who was attacked by an undercover officer in a case of mistaken identity. He fought back not knowing the guy was a cop. To prevent him from being able to sue, they charged him with assaulting a police officer. After months of trying to fight it in court, he finally gave up. City dropped the charges as long as he agreed not to sue them.

This is why people are so pissed and why there have been so many protests in the last few years. Everyone is tired of this shit.

Let’s assume all of that is true. How come that your media feeds me stuff about “it’s a MAGA country” cases that turn out to be hoaxes or “it’s okay to be white” signs at college campuses instead of citizens being unlawfully detained so often it is a legitimate threat to half of the state’s population?

That sounds like a massive conspiracy that all media (left, liberal, conservative) are part of.

Because none of what I said is newsworthy.

The assumption here is that the politics of the state will continue to shift against extremism.

What do you mean 'continue'?

Bush won Texas by 20 points, Trump won it by 9 and 5.5 points respectively. Expect the margin to go down again in 2024.

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