Third Saturday Seminar 2014-2015

Return of the Elders, Unleash your Wisdom

Session 03

Dissecting the Texas 2014 General Election
Governance-Politics-Wars (Continued)

John Haydel

Saturday, 15 November 2014
9:30AM til 12:00 NOON

 Room B-102, Lone Star College – Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384 – 936.273.7000

Well, the Texas 2014 General Election is done.
Many candidates won as predicted, and many did not, as some had hoped.
As to who or which sides won is to be determined over the next two years when; guess what? November 8, 2016 we elect a new President. 
Will we have learned anything from 2014? 
Who knows whether we are even capable of learning, or even care to?

But now is a good time to try, while, at least, the experience is fresh in our minds.

In reality? Think of all the distractions, foreign and domestic, economic, political, military and medical we will have between now and then.

In the meantime the chaos continues.  I hated to have to cancel last month’s session at the very last minute because of a pretty vicious vertigo attack and my thanks to Georgann who met the people whom I missed.  And thanks for the many kind “get wells” that resulted.

For some reason I thought I would,  by 15 November with the capable assistance of Houston’s world class medical community have THE VERTIGO MONSTER (“TVM”) under control so I could rejoin you all in Room B-102.  Well, I hope/expect to be there Saturday but whether “TVM” will be under control is, I find totally unpredictable.

So, just in case  Charlie Lindahl has  agreed to back me up.  And John Haydel will present, “Dissecting the Texas 2014 General Election”  Since I approached John only today with the request, I am greatly indebted to him for his willingness to help out.  Most of you know him as a talented teacher.

For those who like to read ahead, I offer the following articles from The Texas Tribune all which are conveniently listed at here  as well as listed individually below.

Analysis: The Voters Who Disappeared

  • by Ross Ramsey Nov. 10, 2014
    Thousands of Texans who voted in 2010 did not come back to do it again in 2014, and most of those voted for the Democratic candidate for governor four years ago. At the same time, another kind of voting — mail ballots — is booming.  Full Story

Analysis: Tuesday Aside, It Was All Over in March

  • by Ross Ramsey  Nov. 7, 2014
    If you want to know how the officeholders you elected on Tuesday will govern, look at how they ran and what the voters responded to.   Full Story

Abbott Campaign Credits Sophisticated Turnout Machine

  • by Jay Root  Nov. 7, 2014
    Greg Abbott‘s gubernatorial campaign released details this week on its exhaustive ground game and voter targeting efforts. The campaign credits those efforts in aiding his eye-popping margin of victory — 20 points — over Wendy Davis.   Full Story

TribLive: Craddick on the GOP Sweep

Davis Campaign Marked by Failed Tactics, Muddled Messages

  • by Jay Root  Nov. 5, 2014
    Many Texas Democrats had said that Wendy Davis was the kind of candidate who could at least move the needle for the bedraggled state party. But failed tactics and other issues helped doom Davis’ bid for governor.   Full Story

Map: How Democratic Turnout Tumbled Across Texas

  • by Ryan Murphy and Ross Ramsey  Nov. 5, 2014
    Take a county-by-county look at how the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate changed between 2010 and 2014.   Full Story

and one more:

Wendy Davis spends big to hire Obama campaign veterans

Or Google, “davis campaign hires obama consultants” for more.

 

As usual we will start out with Current Events

Possible Current Events Topics include: 

ISIS, ISIL, IS –                                                           Not the Isis of health, marriage, and love

Syria

Iran

Palestine – Britain recognizes

Russia-Ukraine-EU – Poland – Lithuania

Ebola –  Doubling every 2-3 weeks until they get it under control. 

China – Japan – Philippines – Taiwan

Economic recovery – US numbers are looking better, Unemployment is less than 6%,  The dollar is stronger, a good investment but who can buy our products?

This is the first  session of the 2014-2015 Third Saturday Seminars. 
(We started in Jan 2000)

About A.L.L.
The Lone Star College ALL Program:
Academy for Lifelong Learning Program Description
A.L.L. Falk 2014 Course Schedule (PDF) (covers all campuses)
Map of campus and parking lots

 

Reminder for ALL members:

Please let A.L.L. know if you change your address, phone number, or email. Call 936.273.7446 or email: MCALL@LoneStar.edu.


“Some part of our being knows this (the universe) is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”  Carl Sagan

Curt Gibby
Director