Incompetence and Insanity On Full Display: Hostess House Bids Come In at $3 Million – Or $1.12 Million Over Already-Bloated Previous Estimate

Holy shit.

Cathy “Even If It Costs a Little More” Kuehne better start practicing her “shocked face” in the mirror this weekend between bites of pork chop panko…she’s going to need to use it at Monday’s council meeting.

The art-teacher-who-would-be-mayor is likely soiling her undergarments right now as she realizes that she and the other profligate spenders on City council are now very much painted into a corner.

I cannot wait to hear her ridiculous “how did this happen?” bleats on Monday evening as she tries to pretend she had nothing to do with any of this.

“How could we have known?” they will cry out in disbelief!

How indeed.

If you’d listened to this blog and the “cowardly keyboard warrior” who called it from the start, you would have been prepared for this.

Here is an excerpt from my blog post last October – Old City Hall 2.0: Hostess House Costs EXPLODE To $1.88 Million! Up 44% From Last Estimate!!

I wrote:

I warned you! I warned you over and over and over. I laughed when the Hostess House “minor repairs” were first talked about….

Birth of ANOTHER bad idea under Mayor Misti Talbert

That was exactly three years ago. Just some “minor repairs” and “minor decorations”. Yeah, sure. I called bullshit. I reminded you of the Old City Hall debacle and the $1.6 million spent on that vanity project (soon to be $1.85 million) – a pet project of Misti Talbert’s.

THEN it jumped up to “about $200,000”, according to City Manager Finley deGraffenreid in the Lampasas Dispatch in March 2021 – a mere 18 months ago:

Maybe Finley can stand up there and tell us how he never said this…kinda like the skate park lies.

Council picks architecture firm for Hostess House upgrades

THEN it ballooned to $1,308,670 – which is a sick joke all by itself. Morons like Cathy Kuehne said they should keep the historical look “even if it costs more”. Why not? It’s not her money! It’s just play money, apparently!

But I knew from years of watching these clowns that it wouldn’t stop at $1.3 million. No way. As of today, the costs have exploded once again…as they ALWAYS DO. That’s what happens when chimpanzees get ahold of somebody else’s checkbook.

The NEW estimate is $1.879,483.55 [see page 67]

My god. It turned out to be even worse than I imagined back then. I guess we aren’t stopping at $1.88 million either. RKJ [of bungled OCH elevator fame] was the LOWER of the two bids at a hair under $3,000,000.00

Three million. You could build 6 nice houses for that money. At this point, you might want to just have the Hostess House hit by Jewish lightning after making sure it is fully insured.

Three million for an “event venue” that MIGHT bring in $12,000 per year AT MOST to the City coffers. So it will only take 250 years to break even on this project. I remember not too many years ago morons like Bruce Haywood were saying the City should build an entire civic center from scratch and that it would only cost about $2.5 million.

Now the question is: why didn’t Reliance Architecture (who has ALREADY been paid a TON OF MONEY to “manage” this debacle) have a better estimate of the costs?

This is the EXACT SAME THING that happened with the Old City Hall “remodel” 8 years ago when JNW Architects fucked up the EXACT SAME WAY.

Here we are again.

There is no way in hell they can accept these bids. They will have to be rejected. Then what?

Monday night should be fun.

City Makes Atrocious “Deal” With Martin Custom & Rod. Taxpayers Heavily Screwed.

Well, I can see why they wanted to keep this a secret. The “deal” also revealed yet another lie by the City last fall…but we’ll get to that later.

I am still going through this and have submitted some questions to the City manager to make sure I understand the details of this “deal” and will report by this weekend. But it looks like lose/lose for the taxpayer and win/win for Martin Custom & Rod. No surprises there.

Meanwhile, here is the EASY way to solve the math problem from yesterday. A couple guys I know who I consider smart made it WAY too complicated and tried to bring algebra into it. Remember, this is a FIFTH-GRADE math question, according to Reddit. Only a little logic and simple division need be applies.

On the second day, the kid reads 1/8 of the book. On the third day, he read 1/4 of the book – which we convert to 2/8 immediately to make all the denominators the same. Ergo, he read 3/8 of the book on day two and three.

THEREFORE, he had to have read 5/8 of the book on the first day – and we know that is 30 pages. Ergo, 30 pages = 5/8 of the book. How do we determine how many pages represents 1/8? What number divides 5 times into 30? Answer? The number 6. Therefore, 6 pages represents 1/8 of the book.

The book is therefore 48 pages (1/8 = 6 so 6×8 is 48)

I know “Doctor” Chane Rascoe has been crowing recently about how awesome our schools are. I wonder if I showed this to every 5th grader in Lampasas ISD, how many would get it right. My over/under is 10%.

I Bet Cathy Kuehne Cannot Solve This 5th-Grade Math Question…

This popped up in my feed this morning. I always marvel that most of the population cannot do basic math. It isn’t even math, really. It’s logic. I bet many of the teachers screaming for a $70,000 starting salary cannot get the answer to this, either. Which is very sad.

I can hear “well, I’m not a math teacher” – which is nonsense. Every adult should be able to figure out a 5th-grade math question. It’s like being able to spell the plural of “STORY”.

There is no way idiots like Bruce Haywood or Clayton Tucker would get it either. If they understood basic math and logic, they would not be pushing for pinwheels and solar panels.

A lack of rudimentary math knowledge is the root of almost every problem in America.

For those of you who want to help your kids in the math department, I highly recommend the book “Innumeracy” – one of the best books ever written.

Yet Another LEDC Exercise In Wheel Spinning Replaced By Free Market

First it was the LEDC Facebook reposts replaced by DoLampasas.

Now, we have Workforce Solutions taking care of the job fair that the LEDC does every year.

Will that stop the LEDC from re-inventing the wheel and having their OWN job fair this spring? Probably not. When you are paying an “economic development director” over $100,000 in salary and benefits, they need to look busy doing SOMETHING!

I never understood the LEDC “job fair” thing around here every year. It might have made sense when I was a young kid in the late 1980s and early 1990s, because we didn’t have the Internet and social media and about 100 other ways to look for jobs with the push of a button. We had to go out and pound the pavement.

These pussies today have it so easy, and they STILL whine about finding a job. Unbelievable.

Lampasas Sales Tax Receipts Up 6.54% For January – Trails State Again

Sales tax receipts have cooled considerably – up only 6.54% over last January.

For comparison, LAST January, receipts were up 17% over the previous January.

The State of Texas as a whole saw receipts increase 9.4% – so Lampasas trails the state by almost 3 percentage points.

The OFFICIAL inflation rate is 6.5% – so this shows out sales tax increase is flat, at best, in REAL terms. We all know that inflation is hotter than 6.5% however. Looks like the start of a serious cooling-off period after the torrid increases due to Biden money printing.

America’s Most ‘Tarded – Grady Lucas Edition

We may have a new candidate around here to dethrone Bruce Haywood and Clayton Tucker as King of the Dipshit Liberals.

Behold: Grady Lucas!

Grady is the kind of sick perv who thinks withholding books with graphic adult themes from 6-year-olds is actually “banning” books…

Naturally, Ron DeSantis is a “Nazi” because he thinks books that give graphic descriptions of sex acts don’t belong in the hands of 5 and 6-year-old kids. Sick groomers like Grady apparently think that’s just fine.

He’s also fine with men who get off dressing as women flaunting their kink in public to young children….

If I tried to bring a 6-year-old boy into a strip club, I’d rightfully be tossed out on my ear. But if it’s a fat, hairy, bearded MAN dressed in lingerie and grinding his ass in the faces of little kids, that is just fine with Grady Lucas.

Sick fuck.

Hypothetical Lampasshole daughter on left and Grady Lucas son on right

Naturally, he is a hard-core Covid Cult moron also…

Putting another man’s penis in his mouth is no big deal, but he is PETRIFIED of a cold virus that has been around years and is no more deadly than the common flu….

STILL terrified of Covid.

Yes, it is over, moron. Has been since Day One.

Wow…sounds just terrible! A “soar” throat and headache? Good thing we ruined America locking down over THAT! I’m guessing Grady isn’t gainfully employed, so it was no skin off his back.

How do you know you didn’t just get that “soar” throat from your husband, buddy? Wink wink.

Wait a minute! How did you get Covid when you got the first AND second “vaccine” shots, then got boosted and boosted over and over?

Exhibit A: fucking moron

LOL. I mean, I knew libtards were extremely stupid, but to see it laid out like this is hilarious. Remember, these are the “geniuses” that think they are smarter than you and want to run every aspect of your life from transportation to education to health care.

I’m pretty sure I remember this guy from a few years ago – he moved his poor mother into a nursing home, moved himself (and his husband too, I assume) into HER house and THEN (here is the scummy part) posted a GoFundMe for “repairs to my mother’s house” – which made it sound like it was for some poor old lady, but was actually just this scumbag Marxist trying to get some free shit for himself. Classic.

What is it with these commies living in mom’s house?? Just an absolute piece of garbage – like all Marxists.

There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, I despise more than wokester, Marxist trash enjoying the benefits of living in the greatest state in our nation and then spending their entire life bashing it. Go move to a liberal paradise like California or New York or New Jersey, you scumbag.

Free Dogshit!

Oh, THANK YOU Bernie Sanders for being such a fake tough guy that you think you bullied Moderna into giving away shitty “vaccine” that nobody wants anyways! What a national treasure you are!

What kind of moron believes that story? Oh, right…

Pardon my math, but $0 times 400% is still $0, geniuses!

What will he demand be given away free next? The turd I dropped in the toilet this morning? The scabby band aid and busted toenail that fell off my big toe a couple days ago? Those are JUST as valuable as the “vaccine” that doesn’t stop Covid and is killing young people in droves.

LOL. What a maroon!

Happy Joe Stack Day

Who is Joe Stack?

So glad you asked. He was an American hero who flew his plane into an IRS building 13 years ago in North Austin.

I remember driving by that building and marveling at the destruction. Unfortunately, he only took out a single employee. But his heart was in the right place.

I invented this holiday 12 years ago in remembrance. It is to remind us that the IRS is a pure, unnecessary evil and anyone who works for them is a piece of shit and deserves pancreatic cancer. That also goes for anyone who cheers on the IRS too.

Fat fuck hasn’t filed taxes in over 23 years

“Agreement Finalized” On Industrial Park! What Are Details?

Well, it only took about 16 months, but according to the City: “the industrial park agreement has been finalized”. I only know this because I make it a point to ask them every single month. The fact it wasn’t trumpeted in the newspaper tells me it’s a shitty deal for the City.

So what are the details of this complex agreement that took 16 months to “finalize” with Martin Rod & Custom?

Well, they are making me wait on that, which surprises me not at all. Oh, and it’s a holiday weekend. So the earliest we get it is Tuesday – even though I requested it two days ago.

I’m going to go ahead and guess it is a giant joke that involves ZERO “breweries and cigar lounges”, creates ZERO primary jobs and is no more than two pages long, despite the fact it took almost 1.5 years to “finalize the agreement”.

We shall see…

P.S. – I’m losing track of all the “possible distilleries and microbreweries” around here! The LEDC was yammering about one in the old Rutland’s building (nothing has happened there for three years), then you have our buddy Mike Hardin and his Train Depot, which was ALSO touted as a sit for a microbrewery. Now this one!

For The “Schools Need More Money!” Crowd…

I’ve spoken before about the Kansas City, Missouri disaster “experiment” where a judge forced taxpayers to VASTLY increase spending on schools and NOTHING changed. The incredible story is HERE.

There is ALSO the fact that the U.S. spends FAR MORE per pupil than any other industrialized nation – and has far shittier results. CLEARLY, it is not about “more money” for schools. They have a TON of it already:

The US spends more on education than other countries. Why is it falling behind?

[The US spent an average of $16,268 a year per student, well above the global average of $10,759 – those are 2017 numbers. It is FAR worse now.]

Now we have more proof from Chicago that throwing piles of money at the schools is NOT the answer:

Spry Community Links High School, in the Heart of Little Village in Chicago, says its vision is to “provide a challenging and supportive environment…to enable our students to succeed in the 21st century.”

Number one on the school’s focus list?

“Increasing reading and math scores to or above grade level.”

But a look at state data that tracks reading and math scores for each Illinois school reveals two frightening facts about Spry. Not a single one of its 88 kids at the school can read at grade level. It’s the same for math. Zero kids are proficient.

Spry is one of 30 schools in Illinois where not a single student can read at grade level. Twenty-two of those schools are part of the Chicago Public Schools and the other eight are outside Chicago. 

The failure list in math is even longer. There are 53 schools statewide where not one kid is proficient in math.

And only 1 out of 10 kids or less can do math at grade level in 930 schools…that’s more than a quarter of all schools in the state.

Defenders of the current system are sure to invoke covid as the big reason for the low scores. But a look at the 2019 numbers show that the reading and math numbers were only slightly better than they are now.

Take Spry, for example. Just 2 of the school’s 127 students in 2019 could read at grade level before the pandemic. In math, zero students were proficient.

The failure isn’t about money, either. Data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows spending at Spry was already at $20,000 per student before the pandemic.

Today it spends $35,600.

THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND!!!!

What’s really incredible is that many of these schools are rated “commendable” by the Illinois State Board of Education. That’s the 2nd-highest of four “accountability” ratings a school can receive.

Not a single one of the 113 students at Sandoval Sr High School can read or do math at grade level. And yet the school is “commendable.”

Same with Ralph Ellison Chicago International Charter School. Over $24,000 spent on each of its 172 students. Labeled “commendable.” And none of the students are proficient in either reading or math.

In a sane world, schools that don’t and can’t teach a single student the most basic of skills would be shut down. But here, they carry on…the system thrives while students wither.

The libtards bleat for more money constantly, but that is CLEARLY not the answer.