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  • Texas -- a failed state


    Brisketexan

    I think that it’s now safe to say that we Texans now live in a failed state.  30 years of GOP rule, setting our own standard, living the “Texas Dream,” which they’ve bragged about relentlessly…and let’s see where we are:

    A majority of the state in complete failure, unable to deliver the most BASIC of services (things that are called “utilities,” not “luxuries,” for a reason).  No power.  No water.  No means of clearing roads (that one, I can’t fault the state so much….but it wouldn’t be as big a crisis if people weren’t stuck in their homes with no power and water).  So citizens are stuck in their homes, some of them dying there. 

    Water resource planning?  After pretending for decades that a drought would never happen again, and not doing ANYTHING to develop resources in the state water plan (a document actually developed using science and mathematical projections), we had several locations, including actual cities, down to a few days of water supply.  We’ve finally gotten on our horse a bit, but it may be too late if the next drought comes anytime soon.  

    State rank in key categories:

    Education – 34

    Health Care - 37

    Infrastructure - 33

    Opportunity - 39

    Environment - 44

    Infrastructure - 33 

    In overall quality of life ranking by US News, we are now #38, down from #36 just two years ago.  At that rate, we’ll be in the bottom 3 within ten years.

    We are SUPER independent, and FUCK the feds….but we have requested federal disaster assistance more than any other state in the past decade or so.

    But hey, our economy is ranked #15!

    That’s right, we have a “roaring economy” and the “Texas Miracle!”  But we can’t deliver the basics for our citizens.  The economy is VERY efficient at funneling bazillions to the very few…..with little of it “trickling down” to most Texans.  Yeah, the people on this board generally do fine, but face the facts – we’re the top 10% or so.  We are educated, older, and fortunate.

    Our federal system allows for state-by-state experiments.  Texas is the poster child for near anarcho-capitalism and zero regulation or oversight.  We have tested that approach, for over a generation now (30 years of Republican rule).  That approach is a failure.  The evidence is undeniable, and overwhelming.  It doesn’t matter how many River Oaks millionaires you produce if the rest of your people are dying in their homes.  Shit, some of those River Oaks millionaires might be freezing to death today, too.

    The kids of a middle class family can hardly afford to go to a good state school.  Their prospects for employment are mediocre.  Their prospects of suffering crippling medical debt at some point are significant.  Their chances of not having basic utilities needed for life safety at some point – all but certain.  Their chances of becoming ill or dying from a pollution-caused illness are material.

    What’s the result?  Our leaders have sold Texas as a paradise – move here!  Bring your business here!  And some businesses have done so, adding opportunity…..but providing little to no tax support for the infrastructure we all depend on.  To the contrary, over the past few years, I know more and more people – educated people, people who can do their jobs elsewhere, who are looking to bail on this state.  It’s people with young kids, who want them to grow up in a better place.  It’s people in their working years, who simply want a better path.  It’s retirees, who want a safe and secure place to live.

    We have consumed our seed stock.  We have burned through our reserves.  We are now consuming ourselves.  The ability to pitch Texas as the land of opportunity is done.  Seeing what we have become, the tentative thought/plan my wife and I had of wrapping up our careers here and then getting the hell out of Dodge is becoming much more concrete.  My children are already unlikely to make their future in this state.  Now we are, too.

    But the response from the Republican leadership and their sycophants – “how are you gonna pay for it?  Taxes?  That’s socialism!  You want that stuff, you have to pay for it!”

    Fuck yes I do, and I’m okay with that.  I want groceries…so I have to pay HEB.  I want a car…so I have to pay Ford.  I want clothes…..so I have to pay Dillards.  I want my population educated….so I have to pay the school district.  I want electricity, with enough capacity to keep us running when we need it…..so I have to pay my bill, maybe with a capacity surcharge.  I want water to come out of the taps….so I have to pay for development of resources and maintenance of infrastructure.  I want roads….so I pay taxes to build and maintain them.  YES, I have to pay for all of those things, and “nothing is free” – no fucking shit.  So, let’s pay for it.  We have the #15 economy….we HAVE the funds in this state.  An economy with the flow of funds that ours has can produce and maintain all of those results.  But we have chosen a different path; funnel all the dollars to the top, and spend next to nothing for the public good.  We have privatized profit….we have socialized the costs.  And we are dying because of it.

    My fellow Texans are dying in their homes….and there’s nothing I can do about it today.  And I am enraged.

    I love Texas.  I am 6th generation here.  My ancestors have Texas historical markers on their graves.  We helped make this state, and this state helped make us.  It educated us (back when college was affordable).  But it’s time to face the fact – this state is a failure, and on its current path, with its current leadership and philosophy, it will only get worse.  This state has a terrible future, unless we dramatically change our path.   Chances of that happening?  0.0% -- because we’ll continue to vote for the guys who make our leadership priorities bathroom bills, and transgender sports, and requiring the national anthem be played at certain events.  Any bill that has been proposed to improve emergency preparedness of gov’t entities has been crushed by the Republicans controlling the lege….but we will definitely stick with those guys.  No taxes.  No government functionality.

    What we are seeing happening right now is our system working EXACTLY AS IT WAS DESIGNED AND INTENDED TO WORK.  And we will, I guarantee it, collectively decide to stick with that.  This state is in free-fall, and anyone with eyes can see it.  And anyone with a brain is starting to think of ways to make their life elsewhere.  It breaks my goddamned heart to see us commit collective suicide, but here we are.

     

     


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    Just now, miguelito said:

    (I'm just quoting you for the thought, not so much to comment on your post)

     

    Here's the thing: there shouldn't be any failing schools.  THE STATE OF TEXAS is responsible for public education.  If a school is subpar, it's because the State has failed. 

    Truth. More specifically, Texans who vote Republican have failed spectacularly.

     

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    4 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

    How you motherfuckers didn't put a stake in his heart when you had the chance, I'll never understand.

    This state is full of hateful shitheads. It’s not exactly a secret. 

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    7 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

    At the end of the day, the state should allow a lot more local control and just accept that there are extenuating circumstances for a lot of kids who are struggling, that not all kids learn the same way and can be measured the same way, and that not all kids are going to go to college.

    Good post, all well stated. I am aligned with what you are saying here. The DISD examples provided earlier seem quite reasonable to me. Bottom line, to me at least, the most local form of control is parental control. More power to parents, teachers, and local administrators, and in that order. Less to everyone above that level. We just went through this whole COVID school thing, there were lots of discussions here in real time about the challenges and the problems. Clearly there are not always easy answers.   

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    10 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

    lol Scott Braddock is drunk and shitposting on Twitter again

     

    Would love to see the Texas Tribune ask every state senator, rep and major officeholders for the number of times and guests they've brought to Centerpoint's getaway compound. While it doesn't mean there is corruption, let's be clear on our politicians who appear tough on Centerpoint while simultaneously use them for vacations.

    And better yet, ask the same officeholders to commit to not using Centerpoint's compound until certain improvements are made. 

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    5 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    And better yet, ask the same officeholders to commit to not using Centerpoint's compound until certain improvements are made

    FIFY

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    9 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

    If it was that easy, we would have solved it decades ago.  As @Eskimohorn said, schools that are failing have a lot of kids who are poor and/or whose parents are struggling.  My wife taught at one of those schools for several years in East Austin back in the early 2000s.  She had kids whose parents didn't have much of an education themselves (which hinders them helping their kids), and parents who struggled with English (which also hinders them helping their kids).  There were parents who were working multiple jobs and at the end of the day were too tired to help their kids, single parents whose lives were already stress-filled enough as it is, and too worn out to help their kids.  And it may sound ridiculous, but many of those kids in poorer schools, the school breakfast and lunches were the best meals they were getting all day, because, again, tired parents or parents stretched thin, were buying cheap/fast food at the end of the day because they didn't have time to cook a proper meal.

    And every one of those parents loved their kids as much as any parent in Tarrytown or wherever, but whereas a kid in a wealthier part of town might have parents who are educated enough (and have the time)  to easily help them with homework, those kids in the poor part of town didn't.

    No Child Left Behind was never going to work in the long run - you can't just take a kid doing poorly in a failing school, close the failing school, and throw them on a bus to a better school, and hope things will get better.  Now you've potentially started dragging that school down if the kid isn't able to improve their scores, the kid is going to be stuck on a bus for another 15 or 20 minutes in the morning, and another 15 or 20 minutes (or more) in the afternoon, so you've taken time away from the kid, and you've increased distance between the kid's family and the kid's school (which is a huge problem for a lot of poor people).  And penalizing an already-underfunded school with struggling students is a surefire way to ensure that the school will fail.

    Not to mention that teachers end up "teaching to the test" and focusing on the lowest-performing students at the expense of the other students (which could drag their scores down if they aren't hitting their full potential).

    At the end of the day, the state should allow a lot more local control and just accept that there are extenuating circumstances for a lot of kids who are struggling, that not all kids learn the same way and can be measured the same way, and that not all kids are going to go to college.

    And, maybe just maybe, there should be free breakfasts and lunches for all kids at all schools and before and after school programs that are free for kids to get help with school work and participate in extracurriculars.  This isn't hard...but Texas.

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    26 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

    If the Texas Democrat 'party' had any semblance of sense, they would make commercials to air in rural and suburban areas of the state, blaring about how under republican leadership, Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and crooked Ken Paxton, state leadership has stolen billions of dollars from your schools and given them to cronies and 'big city' private, charter and magnet schools, while your children go to the same broken down underfunded public schools.


    hammer them on schools and our dumbass elected leaders not expanding Medicaid 

     

    Expanding Medicaid improves everyone’s health. So why hasn’t Texas done it yet?

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    41 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

    If the Texas Democrat 'party' had any semblance of sense, they would make commercials to air in rural and suburban areas of the state, blaring about how under republican leadership, Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and crooked Ken Paxton, state leadership has stolen billions of dollars from your schools and given them to cronies and 'big city' private, charter and magnet schools, while your children go to the same broken down underfunded public schools.

    How about the Democrats running ads in rural areas thanking rural Republicans for supporting and funding vouchers to help fund private schools in the Dallas/FW, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin areas?

     

     

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    On 5/17/2024 at 1:54 PM, Brisketexan said:

    Also…what would airing that laundry gain (other than making Mackowiak lose)? Understand that the messages would indicate that he’s not Trumpy ENOUGH…meaning that the Trumpier candidate would win.
    At this point, in Repub elections, it’s like being a Jew choosing between the candidate who is all-in on the final solution, and the other candidate who has slight concerns about the cost of Xyklon-B, and would like to find a cheaper means of extermination. You get to have a tiny bit of influence over how and when your doom arrives, but that’s it.

     

    Come on man. This is bullshit rationalization. You are better than this. 

     

    Hypocrisy and lies should always be exposed. 

     

    Your holocaust metaphor is also bullshit. Its not like Jews choosing between two different Nazis. Its like normal Germans not speaking up when the Nazis came to power. 

     

     

    (Yes, I realize this is a three month old post and the election is already passed. You should still publish the texts. )

     

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    4 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

    If the Texas Democrat 'party' had any semblance of sense, they would make commercials to air in rural and suburban areas of the state, blaring about how under republican leadership, Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and crooked Ken Paxton, state leadership has stolen billions of dollars from your schools and given them to cronies and 'big city' private, charter and magnet schools, while your children go to the same broken down underfunded public schools.

    A competent party would be hammering rural Texas with "Under 30 years of Republican leadership, your electric grid has gotten worse and Abbott and company are allowing Chinese bitcoin miners to make it even worse. Your schools have gotten worse and Abbott and company want to kill them once and for all by diverting state money to private schools in Dallas and Houston. Rural healthcare is hanging on by a thread and Abbott and company refuse to expand Medicare."  

    Edited by Pescado_Rojo
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    I can’t I don’t even
     

    Women in hip-hop DO push back against the male gaze. I heard that they regularly push it, push it, push it REAL good.
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    8 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    I can’t I don’t even

     

    Don't make a joke about yell practice, don't make a joke about yell practice, don't make a joke about yell practice...

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    Aggy has one of the largest collections of LBGTQ literature in the country at one of its libraries.  This will give the MAGA idiots a chance to purge it. 

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    37 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

     

    The intersection of 1488 and 2978 is not in Magnolia; it's in Egypt.  I'm sure Magnolia has plenty of cultists, but at least get the location correct. I've shopped at that Kroger before.

    Edited by NeverMarryAStripper
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    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-teachers-spend-school-supplies-states-19604960.php?sid=5eb35f0cd14307791d11019c&ss=A&st_rid=2fa7d4dd-6d4f-48a7-81ac-0fdb75dd3d65&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_campaign=HC_The713
    Texas teachers outspend their counterparts from all 50 states on yearly school supply purchases for their classrooms, according to survey released Monday as educators prepare for the 2024-25 school year.
    The survey, which sampled 50 teachers from each state for 2,500 teachers nationwide, found that educators in Texas spend on average $1,396 per year on school supplies for their classrooms, compared to the nationwide average of $915. 
    According to the survey, 93% of teachers dip into their own money for school supplies, including pens, paper, ink, classroom decorations, educational aids, cleaning supplies and even snacks. 
    While teachers are not required by law to purchase their own supplies, many do so anyway out of fear that their classroom learning environment would suffer if they didn’t -- a statement that 77% of survey respondents agreed with.
    While this is a survey and not backed up with receipts, I'm not surprised that our teachers are shelling out this much because Texas and the ISDs fail to adequately supply the teachers and students. But then they blame those same teachers when the students don't score high enough on an exam. 

    I spend around $500 a year for subscriptions to online resources alone. Websites like Blooket and Gimkit that let me turn my questions into online computer games. Hate it if you want, but these kids have never not had a screen in their hands, and this is a way to increase engagement. Anyway, that's $500 plus everything else I buy that goes into making a classroom run. So yeah, $1300 out-of-pocket doesn't sound too far-fetched. At least I get a $250 tax deduction. And the $100 department allotment.

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    On 8/21/2024 at 4:13 AM, atomheartbevo said:

    Aggy has one of the largest collections of LBGTQ literature in the country at one of its libraries.  This will give the MAGA idiots a chance to purge it. 

    200.webp?cid=790b7611grddf66mtqaqrdk6ive

     

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    We should pump tax dollars into whatever educational systems can demonstrate performance on outcomes and objective measures of educational attainment. And I say that as one with three kids in the public school system. 
    Educators: "Finland has a fantastic education system and typically outperforms American students."
    Texas: "Really? What do they do differently?"
    Educators: "Well, one thing they don't do is place an emphasis on testing. Oh, and they also don't allow for-profit education."
    Texas: "Oh, well fuck that."
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    7 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

    The intersection of 1488 and 2978 is not in Magnolia; it's in Egypt.  I'm sure Magnolia has plenty of cultists, but at least get the location correct. I've shopped at that Kroger before.

    basically the back side of the woodlands, not even methnolia

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    8 hours ago, tchookem said:

    Educators: "Finland has a fantastic education system and typically outperforms American students."
    Texas: "Really? What do they do differently?"
    Educators: "Well, one thing they don't do is place an emphasis on testing. Oh, and they also don't allow for-profit education."
    Texas: "Oh, well fuck that."

    "Well if nobody is profiting, then there's no incentive to improve things!!! Free public education is SOCIALISM" [/businessbrain]

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    8 hours ago, tchookem said:

    Educators: "Finland has a fantastic education system and typically outperforms American students."
    Texas: "Really? What do they do differently?"
    Educators: "Well, one thing they don't do is place an emphasis on testing. Oh, and they also don't allow for-profit education."
    Texas: "Oh, well fuck that."

    They break kids out after 9th grade into vocational and secondary track. I think that makes a lot of sense. 

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    They break kids out after 9th grade into vocational and secondary track. I think that makes a lot of sense. 
    So does Texas. They just do it in the most inefficient possible way. Oh, and they keep giving standardized tests to the vocational kids.
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    12 hours ago, Anastasis said:

    They break kids out after 9th grade into vocational and secondary track. I think that makes a lot of sense. 

    So your behavior and academic aptitude when you're 14 should determine the rest of your life? Fuck that.

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    1 minute ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

    So that shit really does go on your permanent record

    And fat, drunk and stupid is the way to go through life?

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    1 hour ago, linux said:

    Have you guys checked if you are still registered to vote after the Abbot purge?

    I did. Was surprised, given I live in Travis County.

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    2 hours ago, linux said:

    Have you guys checked if you are still registered to vote after the Abbot purge?

     

    yes, i just voted and was glad to see I wasn’t purged 

    i’m in the heart of harris county Dem territory. my congress woman was shelia jackson lee, im one block from sylvia garcia’s district 

    deep blue country 

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    On 8/15/2024 at 12:04 AM, StassneyHorn said:

    lol Scott Braddock is drunk and shitposting on Twitter again

     

    Schwertner is an absolute piece of shit

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    46 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

    yes, i just voted and was glad to see I wasn’t purged 

    i’m in the heart of harris county Dem territory. my congress woman was shelia jackson lee, im one block from sylvia garcia’s district 

    deep blue country 

    How'd you fly under the radar and not get purged?

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    On 8/24/2024 at 1:42 PM, NeverMarryAStripper said:

    The intersection of 1488 and 2978 is not in Magnolia; it's in Egypt.  I'm sure Magnolia has plenty of cultists, but at least get the location correct. I've shopped at that Kroger before.

    James Franco GIF

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