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Texas -- a failed state


Brisketexan

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57 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Senate Bill 14 – Texas DOGE – Improving Government Efficiency

This could be the worst of them all.  

 

We already have a process where each government employee has to justify his or her existence every couple years. I am not sure what else they think they could do.

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1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

My priorities in bold. I only bolded the bitcoin one because I own some. :)

Senate Bill 23 – Removing the Cap on the Rainy Day Fund to Secure Texas’ Long-term Financial Future

Care to enlighten me on this one? Really don't see how letting Abbott, Lt Goeb, and the rest of our state political heros amass unlimited funds via over collection of taxes to do whatever they want with is a good idea...

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2 minutes ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Senate Bill 23 – Removing the Cap on the Rainy Day Fund to Secure Texas’ Long-term Financial Future

Care to enlighten me on this one? Really don't see how letting Abbott, Lt Goeb, and the rest of our state political heros amass unlimited funds via over collection of taxes to do whatever they want with is a good idea...

You think the state should be capped at a paltry 27bn in reserves?! This is up from 10bn in 2022

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26 minutes ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Senate Bill 23 – Removing the Cap on the Rainy Day Fund to Secure Texas’ Long-term Financial Future

Care to enlighten me on this one? Really don't see how letting Abbott, Lt Goeb, and the rest of our state political heros amass unlimited funds via over collection of taxes to do whatever they want with is a good idea...


Shouldn’t the cap be tied to our overall budget? (Maybe it is, IDK to be totally honest)

But once you’ve got say 1/2 of the states project two year budget (so essentially the amount to cover 1 whole year’s budget), you have to do 2 things:

1.) 2/3 Use it for education

2.) 1/3 Put it in the water infrastructure fund

Any interest earned off of the rainy day fund over that amount must be used for:

3.) Property tax relief or a refund to every citizen.


 

Edit- I googled it and the rainy day fund is capped at 10% of the last biannual budget.

So I still think my plan is workable no?

Edited by Dnaguy
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30 minutes ago, Dnaguy said:


Shouldn’t the cap be tied to our overall budget? (Maybe it is, IDK to be totally honest)

But once you’ve got say 1/2 of the states project two year budget (so essentially the amount to cover 1 whole year’s budget), you have to do 2 things:

1.) 2/3 Use it for education

2.) 1/3 Put it in the water infrastructure fund

Any interest earned off of the rainy day fund over that amount must be used for:

3.) Property tax relief or a refund to every citizen.


 

Edit- I googled it and the rainy day fund is capped at 10% of the last biannual budget.

So I still think my plan is workable no?

I don't like the idea of the state sitting on that much cash, but if that's what they want to do they are going to do it anyway.... I think your ideas of putting whatever is deemed the excessive amount towards education and water infrastructure and eventually property tax refunds would be acceptable. 

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9 minutes ago, bluto said:

Wonder how local pd and metro police chiefs feel about being required to assist in the deportations

 

6 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

um, you do know the makeup of most of those squads, right? they're probably giddy.

A lot safer work than defending elementary schools that’s for sure.

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1 hour ago, Dnaguy said:


Shouldn’t the cap be tied to our overall budget? (Maybe it is, IDK to be totally honest)

But once you’ve got say 1/2 of the states project two year budget (so essentially the amount to cover 1 whole year’s budget), you have to do 2 things:

1.) 2/3 Use it for education

2.) 1/3 Put it in the water infrastructure fund

Any interest earned off of the rainy day fund over that amount must be used for:

3.) Property tax relief or a refund to every citizen.


 

Edit- I googled it and the rainy day fund is capped at 10% of the last biannual budget.

So I still think my plan is workable no?

The cap forces them to spend money where they don't want to.  They'd rather horde the cash and say fuck all y'all. 

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53 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

The cap forces them to spend money where they don't want to.  They'd rather horde the cash and say fuck all y'all. 

I feel like anything they will try to pay for will either go to their rich donors or religious organizations anyway with this group.

Best let them horde the $ now and pray for  more reasonable politicians in the future.

 

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30 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

If Paxton honestly thought Cosco's policies actually discriminated based on race, he would have sued them a long time ago. Or enforced the laws. This is just political intimidation.

Paxton can get fucked.

Costco is one of the few stores that I frequent that has serious talent in their workforce. 
Northside SA locations have some latinas working there with nice balconies and a caboose to match.

That lazy eye twat rocket better not mess with one of the last simple pleasures I get on my busy ass weekends.

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Wife says this became official this week. The lpc board seemingly felt the law gave them no choice. Note, one can't be a therapist without having the capability of empathy for other cultures regardless of personal opinion. Commitment to learning about those different from you is part of the job, ensuring you can delete very quality service. This didn't stop the worst therapists from celebrating this change.

Screenshot_20250131-180816.png

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So is Abbott and the Texas government just going to sit by while this dude puts a 25% tariff on Texas' biggest trading partner?

If they do nothing we know they don't work for us.

The legislature is meeting so at least somebody in Austin might mention it.

Edited by Valmy77
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37 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

So is Abbott and the Texas government just going to sit by while this dude puts a 25% tariff on Texas' biggest trading partner?

If they do nothing we know they don't work for us.

The legislature is meeting so at least somebody in Austin might mention it.

Abbott and the lege are scheming up how to tack on an extra layer of tariffs bc djt is right, so more must be better. 
 

there are no adults left in the room

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As posted in the hotwheels thread…what’s the plan?  Texas imports from Canada are predominantly oil and energy products used by the refineries.  How is Abbott gonna hurt Canada with his “huge economy”?  By not importing oil to refine??  Thats like threatening to punch yourself in the nuts if you don’t get your way.

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My understanding (admittedly limited) is refineries are configured to refine oil from specific regions.  Those configured to refine Canadian crude can’t just start using oil from elsewhere and reconfiguring a refinery is expensive and time consuming.  So I guess Abbotts plan is to just mothballl those refineries to appease his orange daddy.

IMG_3430.gif.cd32b58d9c356a00d0c6edf8f8305e8b.gif

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5 minutes ago, Horn Dog said:

My understanding (admittedly limited) is refineries are configured to refine oil from specific regions.  Those configured to refine Canadian crude can’t just start using oil from elsewhere and reconfiguring a refinery is expensive and time consuming.  So I guess Abbotts plan is to just mothballl those refineries to appease his orange daddy.

IMG_3430.gif.cd32b58d9c356a00d0c6edf8f8305e8b.gif

I guess we didn't need their precious fucking Keystone pipeline so badly after all.

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4 hours ago, Horn Dog said:

As posted in the hotwheels thread…what’s the plan?  Texas imports from Canada are predominantly oil and energy products used by the refineries.  How is Abbott gonna hurt Canada with his “huge economy”?  By not importing oil to refine??  Thats like threatening to punch yourself in the nuts if you don’t get your way.

 

make them take ted cruz back !

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9 minutes ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

1885453928713572454

So when do they start removing those pesky eyesore DEI Wheelchair ramps from the State Capitol grounds and Governors mansion??

Totally unrelated: anyone know how much a jackhammer rental would run in Austin...


Surprised he didn’t manage to misquote MLK Jr. like republicans do every January. 

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9 hours ago, Superhero said:

As if the Texas education system isn't already one of the worst.

 

So fucking infuriating.  My son will start high school in August, and I'm worried about a rough four years.  At least my oldest is in college, far away from this fucking place.

Edited by South Austin
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On 2/1/2025 at 9:14 PM, Horn Dog said:

My understanding (admittedly limited) is refineries are configured to refine oil from specific regions.  Those configured to refine Canadian crude can’t just start using oil from elsewhere and reconfiguring a refinery is expensive and time consuming.  So I guess Abbotts plan is to just mothballl those refineries to appease his orange daddy.

IMG_3430.gif.cd32b58d9c356a00d0c6edf8f8305e8b.gif

 

On 2/1/2025 at 9:21 PM, bolverk said:

I guess we didn't need their precious fucking Keystone pipeline so badly after all.

 

On 2/2/2025 at 1:40 AM, tx 3 putt said:

canadian oil is heavy and dirty 

I’ve been out of the oil / petrochemical game for a while but this is what I at least think I know about the subject. (Please surly Petro bosses correct what I get wrong)

Canada’s main ‘crude oil’ is bitumen. Bitumen is like asphalt or tar and in Canada more or less solid. Hence tar sands. You don’t drill for it, You open pit mine it. It’s designated an extra heavy crude.

Venezuela also has extra heavy crude as well. It’s pretty damn close to bitumen and at least a super close cousin to it.

So in Texas there were a lot of refineries set up for Venezuelan crude. We used to be super tight with them before Chavez. So that Citgo shit came here. Then when Venezuela turned, it was about the time Canada turned in the spigot of tar sand oil. 
Boom! We could replace the lost oil with an analog.

But without Venezuelan oil or Canadian tar sands, the need / economics of heavy crude refineries is pretty nil 

The stuff coming out of the eagle ford or Permian is light crude which you don’t send to a heavy crude refinery. It would require a lot of retrofitting / mods. Which probably isn’t economically feasible. Better to just send it to another refinery build for light crude and add capacity there.

So if this thing really comes to pass, you’ll likely see closures in gulf coast refineries due to lack of raw material and reverberations in the supply chain as C4 monomers and product streams dry up even more than they already have (a lot more C2’s and c3’s now due to crackers coming online and the lighter feed sticks from fracking since the 2010’s)

This will have a significant effect on the petrochemical industry and downstream petrochemical market IMO.

 

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17 minutes ago, Dnaguy said:

 

 

I’ve been out of the oil / petrochemical game for a while but this is what I at least think I know about the subject. (Please surly Petro bosses correct what I get wrong)

Canada’s main ‘crude oil’ is bitumen. Bitumen is like asphalt or tar and in Canada more or less solid. Hence tar sands. You don’t drill for it, You open pit mine it. It’s designated an extra heavy crude.

Venezuela also has extra heavy crude as well. It’s pretty damn close to bitumen and at least a super close cousin to it.

So in Texas there were a lot of refineries set up for Venezuelan crude. We used to be super tight with them before Chavez. So that Citgo shit came here. Then when Venezuela turned, it was about the time Canada turned in the spigot of tar sand oil. 
Boom! We could replace the lost oil with an analog.

But without Venezuelan oil or Canadian tar sands, the need / economics of heavy crude refineries is pretty nil 

The stuff coming out of the eagle ford or Permian is light crude which you don’t send to a heavy crude refinery. It would require a lot of retrofitting / mods. Which probably isn’t economically feasible. Better to just send it to another refinery build for light crude and add capacity there.

So if this thing really comes to pass, you’ll likely see closures in gulf coast refineries due to lack of raw material and reverberations in the supply chain as C4 monomers and product streams dry up even more than they already have (a lot more C2’s and c3’s now due to crackers coming online and the lighter feed sticks from fracking since the 2010’s)

This will have a significant effect on the petrochemical industry and downstream petrochemical market IMO.

 

Last week, I read an article about refining in the Midwest (yes, apparently, there are refineries up there), which stated that Midwestern refineries are almost entirely dependent on Canadian oil. So, I imagine those will also feel the pain, if not worse.

Edit: I hope I'm not stepping on any toes, but I believe that @Schulz2.0 works at one in Denver. What say you?

Edited by bolverk
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1 hour ago, bolverk said:

Last week, I read an article about refining in the Midwest (yes, apparently, there are refineries up there), which stated that Midwestern refineries are almost entirely dependent on Canadian oil. So, I imagine those will also feel the pain, if not worse.

Edit: I hope I'm not stepping on any toes, but I believe that @Schulz2.0 works at one in Denver. What say you?

Yes, the company is work for is Canadian. They make a ton of money off open pit mining tar sands, processing it to the point it can go into pipelines, and send it to the US to get processed by refineries. I'm not an engineer or have anything to do with crude blends, but it'll increase the costs for refineries to get heavier, sour crude they need. That's particularly true for Midwest refineries. They still blend heavier crude with lighter crude, depending on their refinery specs and what products they want to produce. @PTINS might have more knowledge.

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Well at least there are a few other counties with Harris County in the fight on this one and it's not just Harris County alone vs State Republicans...

Had a crazy idea that I kinda want to see happen just to watch our States Republicans squirm and waive their hands around to try and make go away: What if Elon in his quest to make X the "Everything App" gets our dear leader Donald onboard with the idea that he can make X secure enough thru some sort of blockchain tech to allow for voting by phone/over the internet? Would they throw a total shit fit in defiance of Dotard and Elmo?

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Well at least there are a few other counties with Harris County in the fight on this one and it's not just Harris County alone vs State Republicans...
Had a crazy idea that I kinda want to see happen just to watch our States Republicans squirm and waive their hands around to try and make go away: What if Elon in his quest to make X the "Everything App" gets our dear leader Donald onboard with the idea that he can make X secure enough thru some sort of blockchain tech to allow for voting by phone/over the internet? Would they throw a total shit fit in defiance of Dotard and Elmo?

Are you kidding? They would love it, because “every accusation is a confession.” Want to see an electronic voting system that is ridiculously rigged? Turn that process over to Elon and Twitter, and prepare for election results like in North Korea, “Trump wins 4th consecutive term with 98% of the vote.”
At this point in the timeline, this has a better than even chance of happening.
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My friends who either currently work or have worked in the lege in the past always have to remind the rest of us whenever we bring up the crazy town bills like this that get filed every two years that the way the lege is designed its far, far easier to find ways to kill a bill than it is to successfully pass one and get it to the Governor's desk to be signed into law. It still does get me aggravated that there are elected representatives out there that think some of these are good ideas and should be laws...

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