Repeat Tweets: Car chases, Fist fights, Shootouts

Repeat tweets from August, 2018:

• Aug 2 2018: Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018): Much better stunts than script. The mission is to recover stolen plutonium. The "plan" constantly goes wrong and needs improvisation: car chases, fist fights, shootouts and everybody changing sides. Tom Cruise shows his age. C-
• Aug 3 2018: Warlight: A coming-of-age novel set in London after WWII, where a boy is left by his parents "in the care of two men who may have been criminals". Why leads to a life-long quest of self-discovery. Along the way, some great adventures. B+
• Aug 3 2018: What's new? A foreign country inflicted upon our election system systematic violations of democratic norms, and not only did we *not* consider it an act of war, our government can't stop praising the hostile foreign country responsible. Where's the outrage?

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

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• Aug 5 2018: Now that he has confessed to collusion, we move on to the stage where "collusion is totally legal."
• Aug 5 2018: Beto hyping a single poll is a risky strategy. It's just one poll. Average of recent polls shows a Cruz lead of 6 points. So when the next poll shows a reversion to the mean, his supporters might get discouraged. Better to downplay polls and stress campaigning.
• Aug 6 2018: Set It Up (2018): Two executive assistants with overbearing bosses play matchmaker for them and end up falling for each other. Because of course they do. Plays like a 90 minute pilot for a rejected TV sit-com. Stereotypical. Formulaic. Cast is OK, script is not. C-
• Aug 6 2018: Headline: "China pursues US semiconductor technology on multiple fronts."
  Not all legal. This is where an American president should go to bat for American companies, but with *this* president, one can't know whose side he'd be on.
• Aug 6 2018: "Texas State Sen. Don Huffines meets with Russian officials in Moscow."
  It's not just Trump. The GOP is riddled with Russian tools.
• Aug 6 2018: RISD BoT meeting: Agenda doesn't include any topics for visitor section. Either no one notified RISD of what they intend to talk about, or RISD doesn't feel obligated by TOMA to list the topic on the agenda.
• Aug 6 2018: RISD BoT open mic: Bill Ames warns against the slippery slope of equity and inclusion morphing into intolerance. Bill Ames speaking in favor of tolerance. Just kidding.
• Aug 6 2018: RISD BoT open mic: Bryan Holland argues that RISD is as racist or more than a half century ago. Test gap won't change until we spend *more* money on the disadvantaged students.
• Aug 6 2018: RISD BoT open mic: Speaker asks for earlier testing for dyslexia.
• Aug 6 2018: RISD BoT open mic: Graduate of RISD asks for better training for dyslexia intervention for RISD teachers. We are taking "leaps and bounds" but more steps are needed.
• Aug 6 2018: RISD Board of Trustees reviews certified property values. Value increases of 6.5% are now expected. The budget that was adopted assumed 6%. That results in additional revenues versus budgeted plan of $1.25 million.
• Aug 6 2018: RISD plans to send out only one tax bill this year, later than in prior years because of the November tax rate ratification election.
• Aug 6 2018: RISD BoT rescinds tax rate hike earlier adopted and the tax rate election called for September 4. In its place will be a new public hearing on and adoption of a new tax rate on August 20, and a tax rate election on November 6, and mailing of tax bills on November 13. All clear?
• Aug 6 2018: There was no hint that anything will be different with the new, new tax rate to be adopted August 20, but there was no explanation why tonight's actions were necessary, either. Color me puzzled.
• Aug 7 2018: Eighth Grade (2018): I'm not a 13 yr old girl. Not even 13, but if memory serves, this movie is spot on with early teen life today. Story arc is flat. Don't expect blossoming or downfall. All the best scenes are in the trailer. Acting is excellent, especially Elsie Fisher. C+
• Aug 7 2018: "5 Better Reasons to Hate Pete Sessions."
  It's not like there are a shortage of reasons to dump Pete. These 5 aren't even the best.
• Aug 8 2018: "Dallas City Council May Pay Racketeering Defense for Dwaine Caraway."
  Hmm...I wonder if there's anything pertinent here to the City of Richardson's situation with its former mayor Laura Maczka Jordan and her legal troubles.
• Aug 8 2018: @PeteSessions's slavish support of @realDonaldTrump yields no results for north Texas. Texas Instruments, where the integrated circuit was invented, is turned into cannon fodder for Trump's tariff war.
• Aug 14 2018: Tig Notaro: Happy to Be Here (2018): Netflix standup routine, again based on stories from her life, but this time small, everyday pleasures: her kitten, her wife, her adopted twins, her life. It's time for a smile. Tig brings it. B+
• Aug 16 2018: It looks like we could do away with standardized tests and just look at IRS income data to decide which neighborhood schools should get more attention and resources.
• Aug 17 2018: Embassytown: Science fiction with something to say about earth by imagining language, consciousness, communication and colonization at the edge of the universe. B-
• Aug 21 2018: Ekaterina (TV): 2014 Russian TV series on rise of Catherine the Great. Straightforward melodrama. Easy introduction to Ivan VI, Elizabeth, and Catherine and Peter III, St Petersburg's palaces and 18th century palace intrigues. Perfect preparation for a Russian vacation. C+
• Aug 23 2018: Wonder Wheel (2017): Coney Island in 1950s. Love triangle. Looks and reads like a stage play, down to saturated stage lights. Usually Woody Allen plays a lovable neurotic. Here it's a woman and she's not lovable, just pathetic. Best line: "Oh, God, spare me the bad drama." C-
• Aug 24 2018: RT @impactnews_pln: "As state-bound payments spike, Plano ISD pay increases fall behind local price inflation."
  Similar story everywhere.
• Aug 24 2018: RT @kenolin1: "The next superstar in the Democratic Party is @BetoORourke. I predict he’ll defeat Ted Cruz this November and be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 2020. And he’s not just what our party’s been looking for, he’s what America desperately needs."
  Getting ahead of ourselves here? Race seems stuck at Cruz +4.
• Aug 25 2018: "U.S. coal inventories are at their lowest point in four years, the result of electricity generators in Texas and elsewhere retiring their coal-fired power plants."
  Wait. What? Trump promised us King Coal was back. You mean he can't turn back the clock?
• Aug 25 2018: Measles Case Confirmed At Plano West Senior High. "Texas is one of 18 states that allows parents to opt out of school immunizations and a new study shows Tarrant County and Collin County as 'hot spots' for opting out."
  Batshit crazy.
• Aug 26 2018: Headline: "Host Indonesia dreams of badminton glory at Asian Games."
  It's a big world out there. Experience it.
• Aug 29 2018: RT @AngieChenButton: With a growing population and more vehicles on the road every day, we can’t cut corners on transportation. Last session, I protected more than $1 billion for highways from budget 'diversions' to make sure our roads aren’t.
For a second there, I thought you said, "we can't cut corners on education." Then I remembered what you said about that, that throwing money at a problem doesn't work. I guess you now think it does.
• Aug 30 2018: BlacKkKlansman (2018): Undercover cops infiltrate Klan in 1970s. A broad satiric look at America's dark history, but Spike Lee slips in a word or scene now and then to show he's more interested in today than the 1970s. And he connects with a gut punch by the end. B+
• Aug 30 2018: Texas Public Policy Foundation. Sounds like a civic-minded do-gooder organization. But they're in it for the money. Remember the name. They control a lot of Republican legislators in Austin.
• Aug 31 2018: This is How You Lose Her: Short stories about failed love. In each he's young. He's Dominican. He's a sad sack and a cad at once. He knows why he loses her, but somehow he can't help himself. Writing as real as you could want. B+
• Aug 31 2018: RT @realDonaldTrump (Feb 28, 2016): "Why would the people of Texas support Ted Cruz when he has accomplished absolutely nothing for them. He is another all talk, no action pol!"
  There's always a tweet.