Abbott being Abbott

[YGIFS 19452]

I get it.  Anybody that lives in Austin just accidentally knows people who work at the Capitol.  And in sessions past, even if I disagreed with the agenda, there really is just shit they didn't get to and have to press on through the summer/autumn.  Politics aside, it's a big state with a big budget and days of the week are what they are.  

But any special session now, this year, this cycle.  It's just performative theater to boost Greg's hollow ego chase down DeSantis and other also-rans to make him seem like a viable option for FCOA/SCOTUS or Cabinet.  I'd respect it more if the play were purely for governor re-election, fundraising, or debasing the base.

[Stilicho 1397]

2 hours ago, 'stache said:

Bwahahahahaha! The Great State of Texas is now stealing ideas from little old Oklahoma. Gov. Shitt has been doing this for weeks now. Even vetoed a bill to allow Native American students to wear tribal regalia at graduation ceremonies. It has one nay vote in the legislature, so I guess it'll get overridden.  He also vetoed an NIL bill, whoda thunk that even fucking with the sacred cow of ou football wouldn't move the needle with our dipshit voters. These fucking people. When Texas secedes I bet Oklahoma joins them, and OU and Texas can just play each other a dozen times and declare a champion.

Don't forget vetoing funding for PBS because the Republican supermajority lege told him to fuck off with his own school voucher program. They can wallpaper over it and try to claim it as "woke," but it's really just naked political retaliation, albeit his constituents are the ones who get to suffer through this shit.

I tell myself Oklahoma has a chance because it is sparsely populated, incredibly poor in most places, and come the next election, we will have gone through 16 years of conservative utopia (though they continue to bitch) with nothing tangible to show for it. Time to try something different.

I also have a medical card and am well aware of the delusion involved with this line of thinking, so YMMV.

[atomheartbevo 89762]

5 hours ago, 'stache said:

Bwahahahahaha! The Great State of Texas is now stealing ideas from little old Oklahoma. Gov. Shitt has been doing this for weeks now. Even vetoed a bill to allow Native American students to wear tribal regalia at graduation ceremonies. It has one nay vote in the legislature, so I guess it'll get overridden.  He also vetoed an NIL bill, whoda thunk that even fucking with the sacred cow of ou football wouldn't move the needle with our dipshit voters. These fucking people. When Texas secedes I bet Oklahoma joins them, and OU and Texas can just play each other a dozen times and declare a champion.

 

[atomheartbevo 89762]

5 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Tuned in to some of the education hearings going on now and you can tell the legislators taking part are pissed at Abbott for basically turning their hearing into a meaningless task since he's already said he's not going to allow it since they legislated out what he wants. He's losing his own party in his own state over an issue they told him not to run on.

He's lost all political self-awareness and he's once again desperately chasing a group of people who don't give a shit about him.  

He had a chance at leaving politics with a legacy of some sort, and now a lot of us are going to remember him for chasing after that Mogwai Don Huffines, and then chasing DeSantis.  Sorry Greg, you're not going to be able to shed two decades off of your age, or claw back the COVID/anti-woke bullshit that DeSantis has latched onto.

It's just fucking pathetic that the Governor of Texas can't be his own man.  He's defining himself by other people.  

2 hours ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

One of those staff members has told me that rumor is Abbott isn't going to call a special session on School Vouchers till September for fear of thousands of teachers who have nothing better to do descending on the capitol for a summer special session. 

 We have a neighbor who works with one of the legislators (not as a staffer, but in his law firm) and he's said that Republicans in the legislature mock him over the Presidential stuff behind his back.  I asked him if they've called him Hot Wheels, and he laughed, but didn't answer.

[YGIFS 19452]

First I'm hearing of it...Rick Perry is deeply considering running for the GOP nomination again in 2024.  I have to admit, did not see that coming..........

[MonkeyDoughnut 10336]

Abbott pissing off the rural folks who don't want their money going to pay for wealthy city dwellers to send their kids to private school.  There is so much ammunition for future opponent media ads here.

[Ghost of LL 15539]

9 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Abbott is threatening to veto the school bill and start calling special sessions if he doesn't get his voucher bullshit.

Once again, he's chasing the MAGA crowd who give no fucks about him, and not realizing that he's going to piss off rural legislators who don't want vouchers, because you know, they aren't building for-profit private schools in Butt Fuck, Texas.

Oh, good--because Abbott always has so much success in special sessions.

Was it the last Legislature or the 86th that gaveled itself out sine die within ten minutes of the beginning of the special because it wasn't going to do anything on Abbott's list?  Because unless there's the budget left to do or something like that, I could see that happening again.

[YGIFS 19452]

He definitely puts the "Special" in Special Session, the fucking four-legged fucking-legislator.  

[tchookem 3905]

Imagine being such an insufferable prick that you lick the boots (wheels?) of Abbott over school vouchers.

Stop kissing his ass, Tom. He's never going fuck you... because he can't.

[CooterBrown 18019]

Can’t take credit for this hashtag I saw but…

#WheelchairHitler

[atomheartbevo 89762]

5 hours ago, tchookem said:

12 hours ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Imagine being such an insufferable prick that you lick the boots (wheels?) of Abbott over school vouchers.

Stop kissing his ass, Tom. He's never going fuck you... because he can't.

[atomheartbevo 89762]

8 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Abbott pissing off the rural folks who don't want their money going to pay for wealthy city dwellers to send their kids to private school.  There is so much ammunition for future opponent media ads here.

Maybe for gubernatorial races, although the GOP is clearly scared of Harris County and better have a strategy that maybe doesn't involve Abbott.

Presidential races?  Trump and DeSantis if Abbott enters the room:

 

7 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

Oh, good--because Abbott always has so much success in special sessions.

Was it the last Legislature or the 86th that gaveled itself out sine die within ten minutes of the beginning of the special because it wasn't going to do anything on Abbott's list?  Because unless there's the budget left to do or something like that, I could see that happening again.

Maybe the tree gave him a head injury that didn't manifest for 40 years.

[Evil Bill Obrien 3286]

Pretty much already knew this but getting some more official reporting. What a fucking gutless, legless coward.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10336]

34 minutes ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Pretty much already knew this but getting some more official reporting. What a fucking gutless, legless coward.

He decides to do that I wouldn't be surprised if teachers decide to walk out and protest.

[YGIFS 19452]

Yep, don't count on your kids getting an education this September you fucking dipshits.  

[atomheartbevo 89762]

56 minutes ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Pretty much already knew this but getting some more official reporting. What a fucking gutless, legless coward.

21 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

He decides to do that I wouldn't be surprised if teachers decide to walk out and protest.

He's going to get Republican legislators pissed off even more at him, because none of them want this publicity shitshow, none of them want their rural constituents pissed at them, and come September, most of them have other jobs that they are doing.

Speaking of, when I was dropping my kids off at school this morning, I talked to the neighbor that works with one of the legislators, and long story short, he said Abbott doesn't seem to understand that nobody in the legislature signed up for his Presidential campaign, and that Abbott didn't care about this stuff 4-5 years ago and it's blatantly obvious to everybody why Abbott is playing this game.

[kevwun 15812]

And the opposition to vouchers was 100% predictable.  You know what the one thing every person in small town Texas has in common?  They love the shit out of their local ISD.  They were never going to be on board with this.

[atomheartbevo 89762]

21 minutes ago, kevwun said:

And the opposition to vouchers was 100% predictable.  You know what the one thing every person in small town Texas has in common?  They love the shit out of their local ISD.  They were never going to be on board with this.

Private schools don't have state championships that you can paint on the side of the town's sole water tower.

I have a lot of problems with a lot of rural voters in this state who vote against their own best interests in order to own the libs.

But at the end of the day, those rural folks know that nobody is beating down their doors to build a private school in the middle of nowhere, else it would have already happened.  They know the school voucher shit is for the MAGA in the suburbs of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, etc.

[YGIFS 19452]

One of y'all posted a year or so ago this study that was done about Texas ISD's, and how in like 70% of our counties, the local ISD is the largest economic engine (not 70% of population but maybe it was 70% of voter districts or something along those lines).  Between real estate, construction, employees, G&A budget, food, utilities, myriad metrics..  The local ISD means so much to so many swatches of Texas.  Nevermind the community aspects of sport and social fabric.  You pull the plug on so much as 20% of that money, those towns are fucked.  And they're already beyond fucked.  To AHB's point.  even the most own ourselves to own the libs MAGA dipshits would realize, "Wait, what?  They're closing part of the school and no football this year?  Wait, hang on..."

[Pescado_Rojo 19427]

6 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

One of y'all posted a year or so ago this study that was done about Texas ISD's, and how in like 70% of our counties, the local ISD is the largest economic engine (not 70% of population but maybe it was 70% of voter districts or something along those lines).  Between real estate, construction, employees, G&A budget, food, utilities, myriad metrics..  The local ISD means so much to so many swatches of Texas.  Nevermind the community aspects of sport and social fabric.  You pull the plug on so much as 20% of that money, those towns are fucked.  And they're already beyond fucked.  To AHB's point.  even the most own ourselves to own the libs MAGA dipshits would realize, "Wait, what?  They're closing part of the school and no football this year?  Wait, hang on..."

This should be the entire message. Simple messages win. 

[kevwun 15812]

That is why I knew it would fail when Abbott first started pushing it.  Fucking with high school football is a deal breaker for anything.

Edited May 16, 2023 by kevwun

[Beau Vine 54322]

1 hour ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

He decides to do that I wouldn't be surprised if teachers decide to walk out and protest.

I would be very disappointed if they don't.

[jimmyjazz 46001]

1 hour ago, kevwun said:

And the opposition to vouchers was 100% predictable.  You know what the one thing every person in small town Texas has in common?  They love the shit out of their local ISD.  They were never going to be on board with this.

I would wager most small towns don't even have any private schools to choose from.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I would wager most small towns don't even have any private schools to choose from.

Exactly right. I went to a 3A school and to get that big, it drew from around 5 different small towns. Nobody is putting a private school out there.

[Beau Vine 54322]

36 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I would wager most small towns don't even have any private schools to choose from.

Muenster and Shiner, and that's all I can think of.  

[atomheartbevo 89762]

51 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I would wager most small towns don't even have any private schools to choose from.

I think it’s close to, or over 200 counties don’t have any private schools either in the county or nearby,

Harris County has hundreds of private schools.  Hell, Collin County has over 60.  And many private schools are smaller, religious, and trend towards younger students.

And out of the 1,031 school districts in Texas, 770 have no private schools and 100 districts have one private school, and those smaller districts are doing good to support one elementary, one junior high one high school.  They couldn’t support a private school, or they’d already have one.

One of the reports looking at the data mentioned that the previous legislative proposals limiting it to the 18 largest counties did so for a reason - those 18 counties have 76 percent of the state’s private schools, and enroll 83 percent of the state’s private students.

It’s not surprising that Abbott is totally fucking this up - his background is not even close to being rural, so of course he doesn’t understand those folks or that their public schools keep their towns and counties running. If those smaller areas lose their schools, young families with kids would move away and then those areas are on a timer and it’s just a matter of time before they are ghost towns.

Edited May 16, 2023 by atomheartbevo

[fattyflattie 4638]

20 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Muenster and Shiner, and that's all I can think of.  

Yep, most of my people that way all send their kids to Shiner.  

[YGIFS 19452]

^  this.  pos rep.  I think that 770/1031 ISD's was where I got the 70% number of no other option but the local ISD and its massive, almost immeasurable impact on the local economy and town attitude.  

I forget sometimes, particularly during 2 years of Covid when we barely traveled around Texas, that so many towns once you leave the prospering cities are just hemorrhaging people and jobs and homes and businesses.  A voucher program will take their hospice-level ass out back and put two rounds in its head.    

I cannot be the only one that wants to see this play out in real time to see what a September Special Session on gutting small schools plus MAGA/GOP infighting for primary season will do to a large portion of this state.  I'll be watching from my ivory tower while the stupids do combat. 

[kevwun 15812]

Church schools aren't uncommon, but they might only be for elementary school. They you run in to the problem where half or 2/3 of the town is a different denomination or much less if it's an evangelical school run by crazies.  Catholics aren't sending their kids to a Lutheran school and vice versa and both sure as shit aren't sending them to a school run by the moved in nuts who probably handle snakes and speak in tongues.

Edited May 16, 2023 by kevwun

[Guest]

Is this also just not exactly what we've seen with student loans and skyrocketing tuition?

Oh, the Texas government wants to give you $7,000 for tuition? Well, our tuition is is $10,000... er, I mean, $17,000.

[kevwun 15812]

Yes, the for profit school would charge a ridiculous amount for tuition and the student to teacher ratio would be awful.  I expect it would be worse than private prisons.

Edited May 16, 2023 by kevwun

[jimmyjazz 46001]

Somebody explain how a voucher system would work, please, because it's one issue I haven't paid much attention to.  Would there be any effect on local property taxes?  Would the kids attending private schools via voucher pay any additional tuition, or would that be funded by property taxes, effectively stealing money from the public schools?

[UpperWestside 6174]

If anyone here honestly believes that Greg Abbott was ever a good person and that this is not who he actually is, well, you need to be committed to an asylum in Siberia. This is who he is. You do not wake up one day and become a horrible human being, especially to the most vulnerable among us. 

[UpperWestside 6174]

9 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Somebody explain how a voucher system would work, please, because it's one issue I haven't paid much attention to.  Would there be any effect on local property taxes?  Would the kids attending private schools via voucher pay any additional tuition, or would that be funded by property taxes, effectively stealing money from the public schools?

Why not both? Break the backs of public schools AND get people to take out loans to attend schools that are actually a subpar choice to just attending a public school.

[RomaVicta 29951]

3 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

He decides to do that I wouldn't be surprised if teachers decide to walk out and protest.

They hold some cards. A lot of teachers are leaving the profession because of pay, responsibilities beyond teaching, and the scorn of so many people who won't take responsibility for raising their own kids.

There is no longer a flood of people, mainly women, looking to teach.

The teachers have rational arguments. Sadly for everybody, they won't face even marginally rational opposition. It's another money grab for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and poor. We know the drill. They always win.

Of course, I'm joking, but wouldn't it be fun to lead the special session as a pro-republic Saddam Hussein for an afternoon. That would be a terrible thing that not one of us would want to see.

[jimmyjazz 46001]

3 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

They hold some cards. A lot of teachers are leaving the profession because of pay, responsibilities beyond teaching, and the scorn of so many people who won't take responsibility for raising their own kids.

The constant fuckery regarding curriculum is a big deal, too.  My kids went to pretty good AISD schools, and in the years where we naturally had a lot more contact with teachers (basically, elementary school) I was always impressed with their teachers' professionalism and commitment to the job.  It seemed like every couple of years they were forced to learn new processes/theories, because why not mess up something that was working perfectly well?  And then there's the whole "teach to the standardized test" approach that was foisted on them . . .

[UpperWestside 6174]

2 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

They hold some cards. A lot of teachers are leaving the profession because of pay, responsibilities beyond teaching, and the scorn of so many people who won't take responsibility for raising their own kids.

There is no longer a flood of people, mainly women, looking to teach.

The teachers have rational arguments. Sadly for everybody, they won't face even marginally rational opposition. It's another money grab for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and poor. We know the drill. They always win.

Of course, I'm joking, but wouldn't it be fun to lead the special session as a pro-republic Saddam Hussein for an afternoon. That would be a terrible thing that not one of us would want to see.

The goal, as I am sure everyone here already knows, is to completely drain public schools, especially in the large metro areas, to the point that they will almost cease to exist. It is entirely about money. It should be illegal to profit off of the education of children. I just find that to be one of the most egregious things human beings do.

When you have reached the point to where turning a profit for investors off of schooling is normalized, you are completely lost as a person and society is as well. I cannot voice more strongly than that how opposed I am to it in Texas as well as here in New York. We have ghouls here in the mayor and now the governor who want to see more charter schools. These people all deserve to sit next to each other for all of eternity while hearing Gilbert Gottfried’s voice on a never ending loop.

[tchookem 3905]

I would be very disappointed if they don't.

You say that, but you also may not realize/ know that teachers lose certification if they walk out/strike.

Losing certification is a very real threat.

[Brisketexan 105183]

25 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

If anyone here honestly believes that Greg Abbott was ever a good person and that this is not who he actually is, well, you need to be committed to an asylum in Siberia. This is who he is. You do not wake up one day and become a horrible human being, especially to the most vulnerable among us. 

Here's the thing - I don't think that guys like Abott and DeSantis are true believers in the evil that they do.

It's actually worse than that.  The truth is that they are true believers in just one thing: their ambition and thirst for power.  So, it's not that they actually hate puppies or somesuch.  They really don't care about puppies one way or the other.  But if either one of them believed that the base would reward them with votes if they slaughtered every living puppy, each of them would immediately pour effort into building the most efficient puppy-killing machinery humanity has ever seen.  They would choke a puppy with their bare hands on live TV, and promise "I'm the puppy-killing governor!" over and over.

If either one of them thought that 1) shooting you in the face would get them +1 vote, and 2) they could get away with it, they would shoot you in the face without a moment's hesitation.  Because they have no ethics, no morals, no compass, other than "do what is good for my ambition."  That's it.  They are worse than "evil" -- they are willing to do unspeakable evil without giving it a second thought, because they just don't care.

[Anwar Namtut 344]

http://twitter.com/GovernorLittle/status/1658244671775313921?s=20

Why is he dragging us into his shit?

(I guess I don't know how to do the twitter embed.)

Edited May 16, 2023 by Anwar Namtut

[RomaVicta 29951]

14 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

@Brisketexan

Here's the thing - I don't think that guys like Abott and DeSantis are true believers in the evil that they do.

It's actually worse than that.  The truth is that they are true believers in just one thing: their ambition and thirst for power.  So, it's not that they actually hate puppies or somesuch.  They really don't care about puppies one way or the other.  But if either one of them believed that the base would reward them with votes if they slaughtered every living puppy, each of them would immediately pour effort into building the most efficient puppy-killing machinery humanity has ever seen.  They would choke a puppy with their bare hands on live TV, and promise "I'm the puppy-killing governor!" over and over.

If either one of them thought that 1) shooting you in the face would get them +1 vote, and 2) they could get away with it, they would shoot you in the face without a moment's hesitation.  Because they have no ethics, no morals, no compass, other than "do what is good for my ambition."  That's it.  They are worse than "evil" -- they are willing to do unspeakable evil without giving it a second thought, because they just don't care.

Yes, this separates them from the villains of the past. Harding, Grant, Nixon, and W all actually cared about the country. Harding almost carried off a huge international disarmament treaty as well as presiding over a den of thieves in his administration. Nixon was as cold-blooded as they come, but I have never been persuaded that he would totally sacrifice the US for his own goals for power. W was an idiot. I don't know enough about Grant's time in office, but I don't think anyone doubts his patriotism.

Now all restraints and bonds are off. We're seeing even the facade of a free democracy being tossed to the ground. We are a capitalist country with holy faith in the market and the generosity of the powerful to do the right things. That adherence makes us take the lead in destroying our world for upcoming generations, destroying education, finding a way to make our disgraceful prisons worse by privatizing them, and turning women back into chattel.

$

Edited May 16, 2023 by RomaVicta

[MonkeyDoughnut 10336]

1 hour ago, tchookem said:

You say that, but you also may not realize/ know that teachers lose certification if they walk out/strike.

Losing certification is a very real threat.

Nope, over 20% of new "teacher" hires aren't certified now. Districts can barely hire warm bodies at this point.

[safe sex 11738]

@RomaVicta you take that back about Grant being a villain

[elfenix 34331]

I think it’s close to, or over 200 counties don’t have any private schools either in the county or nearby,
Harris County has hundreds of private schools.  Hell, Collin County has over 60.  And many private schools are smaller, religious, and trend towards younger students.
And out of the 1,031 school districts in Texas, 770 have no private schools and 100 districts have one private school, and those smaller districts are doing good to support one elementary, one junior high one high school.  They couldn’t support a private school, or they’d already have one.
One of the reports looking at the data mentioned that the previous legislative proposals limiting it to the 18 largest counties did so for a reason - those 18 counties have 76 percent of the state’s private schools, and enroll 83 percent of the state’s private students.
It’s not surprising that Abbott is totally fucking this up - his background is not even close to being rural, so of course he doesn’t understand those folks or that their public schools keep their towns and counties running. If those smaller areas lose their schools, young families with kids would move away and then those areas are on a timer and it’s just a matter of time before they are ghost towns.

How many districts are like Coupland and don't offer high school?

(Coupland will once Samsung employees start to move in)

[UpperWestside 6174]

18 minutes ago, safe sex said:

@RomaVicta you take that back about Grant being a villain

I can say a couple of things with certainty about Grant. He waged war exceptionally better than General McClellan and he was the biggest raging alcoholic to ever hold the office of the presidency. I say that as a person three and a half years removed from drinking so I know the pain that man had to have felt as a human being to drink that much.

Edited May 16, 2023 by UpperWestside

[YGIFS 19452]

I too waged war in the south against stupid deplorable folks in the midst of a drunken binge.  Before recovery, I registered again for Texags.  And was promptly banned.

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

5 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

He decides to do that I wouldn't be surprised if teachers decide to walk out and protest.

 

That ain't gonna happen. They would be fired immediately for cause, and black listed in the state.

 

[safe sex 11738]

22 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

I can say a couple of things with certainty about Grant. He waged war exceptionally better than General McClellan and he was the biggest raging alcoholic to ever hold the office of the presidency. I say that as a person three and a half years removed from drinking so I know the pain that man had to have felt as a human being to drink that much.

One of our greatest presidents, whose alcoholism has been grossly over reported (but was def still present)

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

48 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Nope, over 20% of new "teacher" hires aren't certified now. Districts can barely hire warm bodies at this point.

 

Doesn't matter. They strike, they are fired.

 

[safe sex 11738]

Gotta stand for something