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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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    It’s crazy that I long for the days when Rick Perry was Governor. Unfortunately the crazy rich guys beat out the sensible rich guys for most influential donors.
     

     

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    On 9/5/2024 at 10:10 PM, Brisketexan said:


    No it’s not. The Paxton wing has won. Perry will be sidelined immediately.

    Nobody puts Perry in the corner!

     

    image.gif.ec8567b082b54db08e5daf4ab90ab09d.gif

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    3 hours ago, HenryJames said:

    Good to see the party of small government is going to chase people who go to other states and do stuff in those states that’s illegal.

    Abbott will want to keep building the border wall he has planned for New Mexico and maybe run it up to Oklahoma and over to Arkansas and Louisiana.

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    28 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    Good to see the party of small government is going to chase people who go to other states and do stuff in those states that’s illegal.

    Abbott will want to keep building the border wall he has planned for New Mexico and maybe run it up to Oklahoma and over to Arkansas and Louisiana.

    Only one of those states is a librul shithole.  The others are just shitty shitholes.

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    7 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

    Innocent man likely to be executed next month based on junk science. Great job, Texas.

     

    It's an election year, he's dead.  Abbott would get hard over executing this guy if he could.

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    Wish Lobo were around to watch all of this play out.

    Perry had a machine at one point backing him, I'd imagine he still has plenty of people he can call on.

    I'd take him in a heartbeat over Hot Wheels.

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    18 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    Wish Lobo were around to watch all of this play out.

    Perry had a machine at one point backing him, I'd imagine he still has plenty of people he can call on.

    I'd take him in a heartbeat over Hot Wheels.

    the days of even Rick Perry sanity are long gone, i dont think he has shit compared to what the Patrick/abbott/paxton team can roll out there in power play. Just look at the house primary season to see how much the nut jobs have taken hold. 

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    8 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

    abbott has a big big war chest

    he’s counting on trump losing and making a hard charge at 2028 

    Greg Abbott has hit his ceiling.  He'll be 70 then, and all of his assholery will be used against him in the Republican primaries by younger politicians without his baggage, who will literally walk circles around him.  Him deciding to put up a border wall between Texas and New Mexico will be fodder for everybody else.

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    Abbott can run for president on 3 things: false narrative of Texas winning for businesses, cruelty towards illegal immigrants and cruelty to those seeking an abortion. Maybe a 4th on voter suppression. This will be his 2025-28 focus for Texas.

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    4 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    Abbott can run for president on 3 things: false narrative of Texas winning for businesses, cruelty towards illegal immigrants and cruelty to those seeking an abortion. Maybe a 4th on voter suppression. This will be his 2025-28 focus for Texas.

    Maga isn’t voting for a cripple 

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    6 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

    Greg Abbott has hit his ceiling.  He'll be 70 then, and all of his assholery will be used against him in the Republican primaries by younger politicians without his baggage, who will literally walk circles around him.  Him deciding to put up a border wall between Texas and New Mexico will be fodder for everybody else.

    Abbott’s assholery won’t be a liability in a gop primary, it’ll be his main selling point. His liability will be the fact that he’s crippled.

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    5 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

    His liability will be the fact that he’s crippled.

    He also has a Desantis/Vance level of charisma and humor.  Those weirdos got away with it in the cozy confines of their red weirdo states, but on the national level it started to become a liability.  

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    Abbott has never been in a debate or a real press conference.  His thin skin will expose his ass the second he is given a question he wasn't allowed to script.

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    1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    Abbott can run for president on 3 things: false narrative of Texas winning for businesses, cruelty towards illegal immigrants and cruelty to those seeking an abortion. Maybe a 4th on voter suppression. This will be his 2025-28 focus for Texas.

    Like South Austin said, he has no charisma, no humor.  He's just a pathetic shell of an old man who is screaming at the clouds. Trump is also an old man who screams at clouds, but Trump has more charisma in one of his pinky fingers than Abbott does in his whole body.

    And that "It could have been worse" bullshit will hit the national airwaves as well.

    But mainly it's all about vvvvvvv

    1 hour ago, Sawbonz said:

    Maga isn’t voting for a cripple 

    Hes Right GIF by MOODMAN

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    On 9/8/2024 at 8:41 PM, atomheartbevo said:

    It's an election year, he's dead.  Abbott would get hard over executing this guy if he could.

    Abbott will order they kill him twice.

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    8 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

    Maga isn’t voting for a cripple 

    They do every election for the Governor of Texas. And they voted for Madison Cawthorn...but yeah, they won't vote for Abbot for President. 

    26 minutes ago, texasdago said:

    As long as Texas is full of dipshits, we'll keep getting dipshits like Abbott 

     

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    Imagine being a MAGA and driving a Kia Soul. That has to be like being a MAGAT and having I LOVE TAYLOR SWIFT tattoo'd on your fucking face. Can you imagine when he goes to the club meetings and pulls up next to all the f150's?  

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    8 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    Abbott can run for president on 3 things: false narrative of Texas winning for businesses, cruelty towards illegal immigrants and cruelty to those seeking an abortion. Maybe a 4th on voter suppression. This will be his 2025-28 focus for Texas.

    If he runs, I hope he has the pleasure of being embarrassed in the primaries. 

    Edited by YChang
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    1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

    They do every election for the Governor of Texas. And they voted for Madison Cawthorn...but yeah, they won't vote for Abbot for President. 

    Abbott stumbled...well...kind of rolled into things - he had a warchest and the connections and he wasn't the asshole that he is now, so it was no big deal in 2014 or 2015 for him to win when Perry decided he was done.

    But his little man syndrome + lack of charisma + wheelchair + lack of connections on the national scale = MAGA on the national level never giving a shit about him.

    Or to put it another way, if Abbott was worth anything to MAGA/Trump, it would be him riding around inside of limos with Trump instead of Paxton, and Trump would be talking about Abbott being a good fit in his administration instead of Paxton

    efhy585xuaein4c.jpg?_gl=1*8ih7q9*_ga*NDc.

     

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    Abbott stumbled...well...kind of rolled into things - he had a warchest and the connections and he wasn't the asshole that he is now, so it was no big deal in 2014 or 2015 for him to win when Perry decided he was done.
    But his little man syndrome + lack of charisma + wheelchair + lack of connections on the national scale = MAGA on the national level never giving a shit about him.
    Or to put it another way, if Abbott was worth anything to MAGA/Trump, it would be him riding around inside of limos with Trump instead of Paxton, and Trump would be talking about Abbott being a good fit in his administration instead of Paxton
    efhy585xuaein4c.jpg?_gl=1*8ih7q9*_ga*NDc5NzEyMDc4LjE3MDQ3Nzk5NDQ.*_ga_N8ELNX2503*MTcyNjAwNzIzMC4yLjAuMTcyNjAwNzIzMC4wLjAuMA...
     
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    Yep. And make no mistake - Paxton is the most powerful politician in Texas since at least Bob Bullock, and maybe since LBJ.
    It’s incredibly stupid, he’s awful and malevolent…. But it’s true.
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    We get anywhere from 400,000 - 600,000+ new residents from out-of-state every year, but hundreds of thousands also move out every year (plus many military personnel and college students moving in still vote in other states).  The latest numbers I could find saw Texas gaining 175,000 people in 2020 (when subtracting folks who moved elsewhere).

    It's possible that a lot of those new voters are out-of-staters who are settling in, it's also possible some are registering for the first time because renewing driver's licenses makes registering to vote easy - that's the speculation on the newly-registered who didn't vote in recent elections - they were automatically registered, but didn't vote because they didn't care (if they cared, they'd have registered independent of renewing their DL/ID).

    With that said, we also have around 200,000 deaths a year prior to 2020 (2020 saw 249,000 deaths, wonder why?) and it's a lot of olds.  So we've had 800,000 - 1 milliion or so die since 2020 (possibly more).

    Hard to put all of this together until after November, but combine it with Paxton and Abbott trying to take over Harris County's voting, and Paxton suing Bexar and Travis counties.

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    they're trying every plank they can to retain power and I think people are finally waking up to the game. the new generations see it in real time and are disgusted - the older of us have had to shed biases and brainwashing to see through the fog. Texas' days as a red state are numbered, thankfully. will there be anyone cool left here when it switches remains to be seen

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    24 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

    they're trying every plank they can to retain power and I think people are finally waking up to the game. the new generations see it in real time and are disgusted - the older of us have had to shed biases and brainwashing to see through the fog. Texas' days as a red state are numbered, thankfully. will there be anyone cool left here when it switches remains to be seen

     

    Iran is there model. a small radical minority got power and gutted govt to keep themselves in power 

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    Took some backroads through Blanco and Comal county yesterday... such beautiful scenery... but damn those counties are Trumpy.  Could never live in the hill country :(

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