Abbott being Abbott

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[Biff Tannen 45,742]

Why was that even a bill?  Who stands to benefit?

[Post Oak 20,276]

33 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Why was that even a bill?  Who stands to benefit?

The people who gave him money. 

Cunts.

[cactusflinthead 27,603]

 

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1 hour ago, Post Oak said:

The people who gave him money. 

Cunts.

I was gonna make the wisecrack, "Big Water" is behind this.  Then I saw your post.  

The people behind this are "Big Cunt"  (not be to be confused with wide vagina) 

[StassneyHorn 6,638]

Abbott just doesn’t have a donor from Big “Bottled Water” yet

[StassneyHorn 6,638]

The state of Texas  will not allow an outsider agitator from big “Gatorade” to outperform the sustenance of GregDonorSupportWater LLC the single most healthy, replenishing, and nutrient friendly means of sustenance.

[CooterBrown 18,031]

Why was that even a bill?  Who stands to benefit?

It wasn’t specific to construction. Basically the bill banned cities from passing local ordinances and rules in areas that are under state authority: business, education, labor, natural resources, finance, agriculture, etc. Basically everything except zoning for now. Any existing local ordinances related to these areas become null and void September 1st.

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Damn shame that lazy ass, dry tree limb was taking too many water breaks.  Oh wait...

[Biff Tannen 45,742]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

It wasn’t specific to construction. Basically the bill banned cities from passing local ordinances and rules in areas that are under state authority: business, education, labor, natural resources, finance, agriculture, etc. Basically everything except zoning for now. Any existing local ordinances related to these areas become null and void September 1st.

Oh, so yet another way to completeley fuck blue counties/cities in Texas, specifically Austin.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Biff Tannen

[atomheartbevo 89,805]

2 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

 

The fear and desperation emanating from Abbott just takes your breath away. 

But he's fucking with Patrick and with the rural counties.  And he's bringing the Streisand Effect into the equation - he should have let this fight die for now and nobody outside of Texas would have noticed, and not many in Texas would have cared, outside of some donors and some small groups. Instead, he's decided that this is the hill he is going to die on.  Not a bill that liberals oppose, yet can't do anything about it.  Nope, a bill that a bunch of  Republicans oppose, including many representing the vast majority of rural areas who would get fucked by this or have to pay for it.

And his vetoing a bunch of stuff is going to get it out there in the public conscious in a way that's not going to help him.

He still doesn't understand simple fucking math and that the rural areas do not have private schools and will never have private schools.

I can't decide if it's between this

Or this (which would be funny to photoshop some faces on)

[jimmyjazz 46,141]

Looks like a fun ride.  Is that wrong?

[landman 559]

9 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

 

 

 

It’s stupid, but hot wheels is an idiot.  

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2 hours ago, landman said:

It’s stupid, but hot wheels is an idiot.  

But wait, there's more!  

From my source which is not nearly as entertaining as other sources Surly posters have because there's no sex involved (or if there is, he's not saying anything), said everybody's getting really fucking pissed off at Abbott - Patrick is pissed and will probably start saying a lot more publicly (supposedly he's "showing restraint"), legislators who spent a long time on some of that legislation that he's vetoing and are pissed that Abbott is liable to keep calling them back and fucking with their normal jobs, donors who wanted certain legislation to go through, as well as various special-interest groups, etc. 

I don't know why he's picked this hill (or technically two hills if you throw in vouchers) to roll down, but damn, he's liable to get spanked and look like an impotent little twerp in front of the MAGA crowd, who doesn't even give a shit about him.  And people are also pissed that he's being such a huge drama queen about it now rather than the normal session (when he grumbled, but didn't fuck with the legislature like this).

Somebody is making him dance, and I'd love to know who - maybe it's those West Texas fracking billionaires, but then if they can make Abbott dance like a puppet, they should have been able to make all of the (R) legislators come together and do what they want as well as shut down the Paxton investigation. On some fucking level he has to be self-aware and see polling that shows he'll be lucky to come in third in the Texas primaries, and he'll be in the single digits (and more likely fourth).

[jimmyjazz 46,141]

Shouldn't OSHA have guidelines on this?

[Updawg 2,286]

Shouldn't OSHA have guidelines on this?

That’s big government

[Brisketexan 105,349]

But wait, there's more!  
From my source which is not nearly as entertaining as other sources Surly posters have because there's no sex involved (or if there is, he's not saying anything), said everybody's getting really fucking pissed off at Abbott - Patrick is pissed and will probably start saying a lot more publicly (supposedly he's "showing restraint"), legislators who spent a long time on some of that legislation that he's vetoing and are pissed that Abbott is liable to keep calling them back and fucking with their normal jobs, donors who wanted certain legislation to go through, as well as various special-interest groups, etc. 
I don't know why he's picked this hill (or technically two hills if you throw in vouchers) to roll down, but damn, he's liable to get spanked and look like an impotent little twerp in front of the MAGA crowd, who doesn't even give a shit about him.  And people are also pissed that he's being such a huge drama queen about it now rather than the normal session (when he grumbled, but didn't fuck with the legislature like this).
Somebody is making him dance, and I'd love to know who - maybe it's those West Texas fracking billionaires, but then if they can make Abbott dance like a puppet, they should have been able to make all of the ® legislators come together and do what they want as well as shut down the Paxton investigation. On some fucking level he has to be self-aware and see polling that shows he'll be lucky to come in third in the Texas primaries, and he'll be in the single digits (and more likely fourth).

Abbott is doing a great job of insuring that the Patrick wing of the GOP and the Phelan wing of the GOP unite to pick a candidate who can mop the floor with him in the primary.
In short, Abbott has presented them a simple choice: if you want to actually govern, you’ll have to get rid of me.
I suspect they are seriously considering taking him up on that.

[Tuco 5,077]

37 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Shouldn't OSHA have guidelines on this?

Probably, although the local laws are probably more restrictive.  And any decent size contractor has a strong motivation in keeping their Recordable Incident Rate low.  But, the unions may be pushing rules that provide some additional break time.  And that's not a terrible thing.   

[C-Man 27,263]

What an asshole.

[mdmost 43,052]

Edited June 18, 2023 by mdmost

[Post Oak 20,276]

 

 

[mdmost 43,052]

Well no disaster declarations until he gets his school voucher scheme approved by people who aren't going to approve it. 

[Brisketexan 105,349]

At this point, I’m guessing that Abbott’s strategy is “I’m going to be so shitty that I make Dan Patrick look good in comparison?” That’s really all I can come up with.

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2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Abbott is doing a great job of insuring that the Patrick wing of the GOP and the Phelan wing of the GOP unite to pick a candidate who can mop the floor with him in the primary.
In short, Abbott has presented them a simple choice: if you want to actually govern, you’ll have to get rid of me.
I suspect they are seriously considering taking him up on that.

He's working against his own best interests and openly waging war on his fellow Republicans. If Paxton somehow survives, it's clear he and the West Texas frackers are going to wage war against Republicans in both chambers of the legislature.  

This next year of Republican politics in Texas is going to be off the rails more than usual. 

"May you live in interesting times" is not just a UT football fan proverb.

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

At this point, I’m guessing that Abbott’s strategy is “I’m going to be so shitty that I make Dan Patrick look good in comparison?” That’s really all I can come up with.

He couldn't/didn't always read the room before, but he's taking it to new levels.

There's a lot of cracks starting to show in the state GOP, and it's happening at a time where the votes are now available to flip the state, and only the incompetence/lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Democrats is keeping it from happening.

 

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1 hour ago, Post Oak said:

 

 

Eh, but but but...it's Solar's fault because there's no sun in East Texas.  Or no wind.  Dammit, we had something for this.  

[Bozo_Casanova 26,565]

3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Abbott is doing a great job of insuring that the Patrick wing of the GOP and the Phelan wing of the GOP unite to pick a candidate who can mop the floor with him in the primary.

Abbott's not going to run for reelection and he wants to resign before his term is up with some kind of federal appointment in a Trump administration as a consolation prize. This is very likely his only motivation for anything at this point - to curry favor with the activist fringe.
If, inshallah, Biden wins and Abbott finishes his term, Patrick will definitely run and Hegar is considering a run, which incidentally is why he has been throwing the odd bit of red meat lately. P is going to run for Gov lite assuming Patrick stands for Governor or is finishing Abbott's unexpired term and Hegar could hypothetically do the same thing. A bunch of real crazies are also going to run at every level.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Bozo_Casanova

[atomheartbevo 89,805]

5 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Abbott's not going to run for reelection and he wants to resign before his term is up with some kind of federal appointment in a Trump administration as a consolation prize. If, inshallah, Biden wins and Abbott finishes his term, Patrick will definitely run and Hegar is considering a run, which incidentally is why he has been throwing the odd bit of red meat lately. P is going to run for Gov lite assuming Patrick stands for Governor or is finishing Abbott's unexpired term and Hegar could hypothetically do the same thing. 

Burning all of his bridges and pissing off Texas Republicans doesn't seem like the best way to get a federal appointment (and Trump ain't winning). It seems like a good way to instead finish out his time as Governor of Texas being trashed by his fellow Republicans and even potentially speeding up the flipping of the state.

I do like the idea that somebody has conned Abbott into believing Trump will win and that Trump cares enough about Abbott to give him an appointment.

[Grade of D as in David 13,253]

19 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Abbott's not going to run for reelection and he wants to resign before his term is up with some kind of federal appointment in a Trump administration as a consolation prize. This is very likely his only motivation for anything at this point - to curry favor with the activist fringe.
If, inshallah, Biden wins and Abbott finishes his term, Patrick will definitely run and Hegar is considering a run, which incidentally is why he has been throwing the odd bit of red meat lately. P is going to run for Gov lite assuming Patrick stands for Governor or is finishing Abbott's unexpired term and Hegar could hypothetically do the same thing. A bunch of real crazies are also going to run at every level.

[Biff Tannen 45,742]

2 hours ago, Post Oak said:

 

 

If only we could be connected to people, I don’t know, DIRECTLY ACROSS THE BORDER, who had power and could share it. Nope, we don’t do that. Because we’re texas dammit!

and we won’t…be…pushed…around 

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2,682]

3 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

If only we could be connected to people, I don’t know, DIRECTLY ACROSS THE BORDER, who had power and could share it. Nope, we don’t do that. Because we’re texas dammit!

and we won’t…be…pushed…around 

they may be on a different grid though? I know a friend in Longview was.

[jimmyjazz 46,141]

4 minutes ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

they may be on a different grid though? I know a friend in Longview was.

As far as I know, pretty much all of Texas except El Paso, the Panhandle, and the Beaumont area are served by ERCOT.

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41 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

As far as I know, pretty much all of Texas except El Paso, the Panhandle, and the Beaumont area are served by ERCOT.

Family in East Texas is on the non-Texas grid.

Edit: There's been talk a few times of  Harris County leaving ERCOT as well.

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by atomheartbevo

[shakahorn 1,645]

As far as I know, pretty much all of Texas except El Paso, the Panhandle, and the Beaumont area are served by ERCOT.

What about Bandera?

[jimmyjazz 46,141]

16 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Family in East Texas is on the non-Texas grid.

Good map, thanks.  I didn't know that east Texas area extended so far north.

[Biff Tannen 45,742]

26 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Family in East Texas is on the non-Texas grid.

Edit: There's been talk a few times of  Harris County leaving ERCOT as well.

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Biff Tannen

[atomheartbevo 89,805]

12 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Good map, thanks.  I didn't know that east Texas area extended so far north.

If Harris County/Houston area bailed on ERCOT (and I'm assuming they'd be bringing along surrounding counties who didn't have a choice), that would be huge.  With that said, they don't quite seem to have the authority thanks to the legislature.  At most, they can build more transmission lines between their area and the eastern grid.

[TexPx 2,324]

SWEPCO services most of that area and the outages are due to downed power lines.

[Fudge Nuggets 19,225]

3 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Family in East Texas is on the non-Texas grid.

Edit: There's been talk a few times of  Harris County leaving ERCOT as well.

 

Montgomery county, or at least parts of it, are not on ERCOT. 

[atomheartbevo 89,805]

29 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Montgomery county, or at least parts of it, are not on ERCOT. 

Correct.  Family member there isn't and never had problems during the freezes.

[tx 3 putt 77,434]

4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

If Harris County/Houston area bailed on ERCOT (and I'm assuming they'd be bringing along surrounding counties who didn't have a choice), that would be huge.  With that said, they don't quite seem to have the authority thanks to the legislature.  At most, they can build more transmission lines between their area and the eastern grid.

 

liberty county is next door and not part of ercot. hell texas should encourage it, it would be a huge relief to ercot 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,900]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Correct.  Family member there isn't and never had problems during the freezes.

[Ghost of LL 15,540]

Does Abbott honestly think these vetoes are going to make people more inclined to work with him?

[miguelito 11,312]

Maybe that tree did more damage than we thought. 

[atomheartbevo 89,805]

1 hour ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

A family member in Montgomery County gets their power through a company that's not under ERCOT (I think Entergy or something) that is tied into the Eastern grid.  They did not lose power during either freeze outside of a few hours (and that was due to tree limbs falling on the line and was repaired fairly fast). They had neighbors in the neighborhood who had longer outages, but it was still due to trees coming down.  Other people they knew in Montgomery County that were serviced by Central Point or whatever the ERCOT provider was, had the long-ass outages over multiple days. And they had no tree limbs that they could point to and call in and get it fixed fast.

Edited June 19, 2023 by atomheartbevo

[atomheartbevo 89,805]

41 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

Does Abbott honestly think these vetoes are going to make people more inclined to work with him?

If the idea was to piss off the Senate and piss off the Lt. Governor and have them shit-talking Abbott on social media, it worked. Dan Patrick posted this on twitter yesterday:

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7 hours ago, TexPx said:

SWEPCO services most of that area and the outages are due to downed power lines.

It’s not ERCOT, okay?  Its SWEPCO.  It’s a completely different company, a different quality product.  /GO

[TexPx 2,324]

“Yesterday, Governor Abbott held a briefing and press conference in Perryton to provide an update on the state's ongoing response following severe storms and tornadoes in the region. The Governor also updated his disaster declaration to include additional counties in Northeast Texas impacted by the severe weather to continue to provide the full support of the State of Texas during recovery and rebuilding efforts.”

https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-provides-update-on-states-ongoing-response-to-severe-storms-in-northeast-texas

[miguelito 11,312]

EF-3?

It could have been worse.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,523]

not sure it should be here or the 88th legislature thread but what was the background on eliminating the vehicle safety inspections?

Most of us keep our vehicles safe, but we've all seen plenty of vehicles on the road that appear completely unsafe or not fully functional. There are some who will drive tires to the threads/when the tire disintegrates. While that could point to current flaws (e.g. brother-in-law passing your vehicle) I don't understand blowing up the entire system.

Of all of the real and imagined problems in Texas, how is making the streets less safe a priority. Is there some anti-inspection lobby that I was unaware of?

Edited June 19, 2023 by Nice Guy Eddie

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If it was being pitched as a "NO BIG GOVERNMENT" deal, I could see that.  But we're still gonna be paying the same amount.  Yeah, I just don't get the play.  I mean most of these inspection places are franchises of downstream O&G companies.  Friends of Abbott and RRC has been rather silent on the issue.  I mean yeah, none of us likes standing outside sweating while the inspection takes place but it's 15 minutes once a year.  And then the fun little exercise of trying to place the sticker just right on your window.  The fee is stupid high, but if we're still gonna pay roughly the same amount for shittier vehicles around, what is the fucking point?  

I guess so we encourage vehicles to exist that can't make it to New Mexico for abortions?