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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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    20 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    The alternative is to build a lot more prisons, which are a cost sink both economically and socially.

    We could always turn Greenland into the American Australia

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    1 minute ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

    We could always turn Greenland into the American Australia

    We're already turning America into the American Australia.  Greenland will be just fine.

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    Why didn't he also make it to where every state employee, hired or elected, must stand the duration of Insurre....I mean Inauguration Day?

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    16 minutes ago, Burt said:

    Why didn't he also make it to where every state employee, hired or elected, must stand the duration of Insurre....I mean Inauguration Day?

    I don't think Abbott would be able to participate in that

    Edited by Evil Bill Obrien
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    55 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

    No I won’t. It’s not in my district, and if it becomes any part of their curriculum I’ll bitch. I have 10th, 8th and 6th graders. I’ve heard nobody speaking of this and I speak daily with a school board member. My kids certainly would mention it. 

    I’m not concerned about them because they’re largely past the indoctrination stage. It’s just a waste of time. 

    $60 a head adds up pretty quick for a school district, especially if they need the money so have fun thinking that won't become part of the calculus...

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    2 hours ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

    Need to go find it but defiantly read from either Texas Tribune or some other reputable source that the power brokers in Austin were going dangle the carrot of extra school funding to districts who added religious/biblical curriculum...which sounds about right for the current lot running the state and their christio-fascist big money donors in West Texas 

    North, West and East Texas school districts will be all over that. 

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    I want to give Texas a shout out for a woman I met last night. The family was from Copperas Cove. This is a town I spent plenty of time in growing up in Lampasas. I mentioned how I had read last year that Fort Hood had its name changed to Fort Cavazos and that I was late to realizing the name changed.  TRUE TO TEXAS FORM one of the two older women at the table says in a decidedly disgusted tone that “We’re hoping the new guy changes the name back.” 

    Had it not been the 21st birthday of someone at that table I would have gladly cursed her out and quit on the spot. Being that I did not want to ruin that young lady’s birthday I pretended not to hear that comment.

    Thank you again to the state I grew up in for having such kind and NOT RACIST people representing you in the world. What a complete dumpster fire of an existence you have to have to make that comment about an actual TEXAN who fought for America and wasn’t a traitor. 

    Edited by UpperWestside
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    1 hour ago, UpperWestside said:

    I want to give Texas a shout out for a woman I met last night. The family was from Copperas Cove. This is a town I spent plenty of time in growing up in Lampasas. I mentioned how I had read last year that Fort Hood had its name changed to Fort Cavazos and that I was late to realizing the name changed.  TRUE TO TEXAS FORM one of the two older women at the table says in a decidedly disgusted tone that “We’re hoping the new guy changes the name back.” 

    Had it not been the 21st birthday of someone at that table I would have gladly cursed her out and quit on the spot. Being that I did not want to ruin that young lady’s birthday I pretended not to hear that comment.

    Thank you again to the state I grew up in for having such kind and NOT RACIST people representing you in the world. What a complete dumpster fire of an existence you have to have to make that comment about an actual TEXAN who fought for America and wasn’t a traitor. 

    Well, he had brown skin and all...

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    I really wish people would quit calling them Christian Nationalists.  The one thing they are not is Christian

    Neither are Christians.
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    19 hours ago, Rex Kramer said:

    No I won’t. It’s not in my district, and if it becomes any part of their curriculum I’ll bitch. I have 10th, 8th and 6th graders. I’ve heard nobody speaking of this and I speak daily with a school board member. My kids certainly would mention it. 

    I’m not concerned about them because they’re largely past the indoctrination stage. It’s just a waste of time. 

    This is amazing.

     

    "It doesn't affect me or mine, so who gives a shit?"

     

    Gary Vaynerchuk Hot Ones GIF by First We Feast

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    24 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

    This is amazing.

     

    "It doesn't affect me or mine, so who gives a shit?"

     

    Gary Vaynerchuk Hot Ones GIF by First We Feast

    Have you never met an O&G finance bro before? That mindset is the foundation of their entire industry lol. Uncapped wells spewing H2S out back shoulda told ya

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    From the Friendly State to the Rapine Republic of Texas.

    Taking the enlightened out of enlightened self-interest one education dollar from the electorate at a time. 

    I've never experienced a military rout. But I am experiencing that sensation watching an unchecked enemy sweep across my country. In the fight, I was determined and passionate. In defeat, I feel like a resigned refugee.

    A watcher and only a watcher. 

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    This is amazing.
     
    "It doesn't affect me or mine, so who gives a shit?"
     
    200.gif

    “Look, as long as they sweep up the glass promptly, this whole kristallnacht thing doesn’t bug me, I ain’t Jewish.”
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    18 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

    TRUE TO TEXAS FORM one of the two older women at the table says in a decidedly disgusted tone that “We’re hoping the new guy changes the name back.” 

    Here’s a fun way to handle this situation, which I have used to great effect in person:

    ”have you ever considered the possibility that Ft Hood was named Ft Hood to make fun of Texas joining the confederacy to our face? He wasn’t born here, he didn’t die here, and in between he was one of the worst generals on the losing side of the war. Richard Cavazos was a native Texan and an American hero. No REAL Texan would ever want them to change the name back.”

    Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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    11 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    Here’s a fun way to handle this situation, which I have used to great effect in person:

    ”have you ever considered the possibility that Ft Hood was named Ft Hood to make fun of Texas joining the confederacy to our face? He wasn’t born here, he didn’t die here, and in between he was one of the worst generals on the losing side of the war? Richard Cavazos was a native Texan and an American hero. No REAL Texan would ever want them to change the name back.”

    "Cavazos doesn't sound American"

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    21 hours ago, Rex Kramer said:

    No I won’t. It’s not in my district, and if it becomes any part of their curriculum I’ll bitch. I have 10th, 8th and 6th graders. I’ve heard nobody speaking of this and I speak daily with a school board member. My kids certainly would mention it. 

    I’m not concerned about them because they’re largely past the indoctrination stage. It’s just a waste of time. 

    HAHA HAHA HAHA

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    3 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

    “This terrible policy doesn’t affect me directly in the short term, so I don’t care.”

    Say what you will about Rex, but you can’t question his unblemished record of shitty takes.  

    It’s a waste of time. I don’t like this in the curriculum. I’m not going to get up in arms about it because I haven’t seen it. If I saw it, I’m not that concerned about my own kids. I said in a post I’d bitch about it if I saw it. 

    1 hour ago, Nivek said:

    HAHA HAHA HAHA

    ?

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    Dustin Burrows of Lubbock is your new Texas Speaker of the House.

    He's better than the other option, from what I understand.

    I damn with faint praise, perhaps.

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    All that time effort and money spent by Abbott, Lt Dan, and Kenny P to oust all the "RINOS" and this is what it got them, bravo:
     

    Will take all the small victories I can get

     

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    21 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Dustin Burrows of Lubbock is your new Texas Speaker of the House.

    He's better than the other option, from what I understand.

    I damn with faint praise, perhaps.

    His winning coalition was 36 R and 49 D. 

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    Burrows won 85-55 with the help of Dems but it's good to note that there are 86 republicans and 62 Dems in the Texas House. This wasn't 2 or 3 GOP members joining the Dems in voting in Burrows.

    It creates an interesting situation where the GOP easily has the majority but that majority does not want Burrows as the Speaker. Natural result when the GOP is far from united. As mentioned, those voting for Burrows or abstaining will be targets to remove in 2026. At least we get a minimum of 2 years of Abbott and Patrick not getting everything that they want. 

    Burrows is on the record that he won't stand in the way of school vouchers, so there's an expectation it will pass in some form. 

    Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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    55 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Dustin Burrows of Lubbock is your new Texas Speaker of the House.

    He's better than the other option, from what I understand.

    I damn with faint praise, perhaps.

    Yes, he's the less-shitty one. Guess that's better than the pure evil candidate.

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    2 minutes ago, C-Man said:

    Yes, he's the less-shitty one. Guess that's better than the pure evil candidate.

    It's Texas in 2025.  If your choice is the shit sandwich, or the shit sandwich with bacon....hey, bacon's nice.  But "how about....not a shit sandwich?" is never, ever going to be on offer.

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    3 minutes ago, Nivek said:

    I am pro pure shit sandwich. Let’s stop pretending.

    Hey man, I'm on your team for the most part.  The only way we'll realize that touching the hot stove is bad for us is if we hold our hand on there and really hear and feel the sizzle.  Pain is the only thing we understand.

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    6 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

    I really wish people would quit calling them Christian Nationalists.  The one thing they are not is Christian

    Or are they?

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    10 minutes ago, Nivek said:

    Serious Schitts Creek GIF by CBC

    Yes. My 8th and 10th graders aren’t going to be phased by it. 6th grader would. I’d like you or another bed wetter to point out where this is actually happening. 

    13 minutes ago, Nivek said:

    They are not followers of Christ, but they still call themselves that.

    Agreed. 

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    Pushing Christianity in school is already happening and will only increase once money is involved

    I was surprised by what my kid says about it a large Austin high school. Tons of kids are all wrapped up in it because it’s the cool popular thing now. Normal kids a few years ago now going overboard with it. It’s fine if that’s your family /personal belief but keep it somewhat private like it used to be. It’s actually interesting how it’s become the cool trend - but scary.

    If it’s like that at her school I’m sure it’s the same at most others. And yes the schools will take that $60 for any reason. They are in bad shape.

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    12 minutes ago, Updawg said:

    Pushing Christianity in school is already happening and will only increase once money is involved

    I was surprised by what my kid says about it a large Austin high school. Tons of kids are all wrapped up in it because it’s the cool popular thing now. Normal kids a few years ago now going overboard with it. It’s fine if that’s your family /personal belief but keep it somewhat private like it used to be. It’s actually interesting how it’s become the cool trend - but scary.

    If it’s like that at her school I’m sure it’s the same at most others. And yes the schools will take that $60 for any reason. They are in bad shape.

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of shit going on in America feels a bit like the mid-to-late 1980s. It's crossed my mind a couple of times, but this really brings back that decade when we had fashionable & performative high school popularity contest bullshit like:

    • WWJD bracelets
    • Choose Life T-shirts
    • Prayer around the (flag)Pole
    • A bunch of fucking Alex Keatons running around (this time with podcasts)

    I dunno. Maybe I'm off base and just matching up various memories to get a handle on things, but it does have that overall vibe.

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    it is similar and I was thinking about that. But this seems to be even stronger than it was then. Maybe it’s just a trend like back then. But I don’t think we should be funding it when we can’t even fund the basic systems like hvac, elevators etc at well off schools. Recapture pisses me off so much. Paying taxes on a $1 million dollar house should at least get you a normal functioning school (hvac, elevators etc)

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    1 hour ago, Updawg said:

    I was surprised by what my kid says about it a large Austin high school. Tons of kids are all wrapped up in it because it’s the cool popular thing now. Normal kids a few years ago now going overboard with it. It’s fine if that’s your family /personal belief but keep it somewhat private like it used to be. It’s actually interesting how it’s become the cool trend - but scary.

    I’m sympathetic because I grew up between Houston and Beaumont with a bunch of Baptists who were happy to tell 2nd and 3rd grade me that I was going to hell (at the time this hit a lot harder).  
     

    That said, it seems to keep the kids off the pipe and off the pole.  Once they start making it part of the curriculum it’ll surely become uncool again.  

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