Make Texas Great Again

[atomheartbevo 89450]

28 minutes ago, burntorangebongos said:

We are truly a banana republic. The corruption runs so very deep. I don't know that there is a way to fix it that is socially acceptable.

It's clear that the only solution is to find somebody from another state that hates Texas, have them move here, have them be committed to a mental asylum, have them end up on talk radio and then parlay that into a Texas Senate seat and then the Lieutenant Governor's seat, and then...

[RDCanecutter 26284]

1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

It's clear that the only solution is to find somebody from another state that hates Texas, have them move here, have them be committed to a mental asylum, have them end up on talk radio and then parlay that into a Texas Senate seat and then the Lieutenant Governor's seat, and then...

I don't hate Texas, else I'd step up.

[StassneyHorn 6540]

I cant fucking believe after X years some of you still believe gerrymandering doesn't affect statewide races. Jesus Christ. The damage is already done in the voters psyche along with a myriad of other tangible,  concrete reasons.

[Satchel 6908]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

It's clear that the only solution is to find somebody from another state that hates Texas, have them move here, have them be committed to a mental asylum, have them end up on talk radio and then parlay that into a Texas Senate seat and then the Lieutenant Governor's seat, and then...

What is crazy Ken Paxton? 

[royiv 9164]

5 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah....I dunno.  I feel like we've crossed a rubicon.  Young, high-income/educated people really aren't interested in coming here or staying here.  I've talked with too many people whose kids are at the "I'm gonna leave for college somewhere else, and I'm not coming back."  Yes, there are plenty of young people who are still here, and go to college here, but I think your "most likely to be politically engaged and motivated" group overlaps heavily with the "we can already see what a shitshow this place is, peace out" group.

I truly have no idea how to motivate young people (particularly women) to stay in this state and fight to make it better.  If someone has a real-deal plan, and there's something the rest of us can do to support it, lemme know and count me in.

I hear you loud and clear. My wife and I have talked a lot about leaving this state and, potentially, going even further. The more I think about it, it kills me a little bit. I loved growing up in Texas. The outdoors, the dove hunting, the watching my retrievers work, the four wheelers, the fireworks, etc., Just all bad ass stuff. I find myself finding myself figuring out if I can help figure out how to revert back to that point or if we've just lost this place to fascist morons.

[royiv 9164]

4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Well, the elephant in the room is that the current Democratic leadership ain't going to get the job done.  Republicans are constantly attacking women and minorities, and during the worst parts of the pandemic the state government was trying to fuck over local school districts to please rural MAGA idiots, and even now our government keeps flirting with destroying public education until the rural folks realize that it'll destroy their school districts as well. Our governor was afraid of a fucking Mogwai and is now afraid of a meatball (who is not even from Texas), and our elected officials obsess over children's genitalia and who is in the bathroom. 

These things should all be playing right into the hands of the Democrats, but Texas Democrats fucking suck and there is no LBJ or Ann Richards on the horizon.

All of this, but I find it hard to believe we can't find a charismatic Blue Dog Democrat somewhere in this state to try to turn the tide. 

[tx 3 putt 76404]

22 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

mobilize young voters and that shit can happen. i honestly don’t know how y’all keep electing those dopes. 

keep electing them, and none of that shit happens, including you becoming the king of a state. 

 

texas maga gqp is working like hell to snuff out the university vote for a reason 

[atomheartbevo 89450]

39 minutes ago, royiv said:

All of this, but I find it hard to believe we can't find a charismatic Blue Dog Democrat somewhere in this state to try to turn the tide. 

Maybe Matthew McConaughey - him being Woody Harrelson's secret brother might help some.  Maybe somebody like Greg Popovich.

I can't think of too many people that can get some traction going statewide.  It seems like we get some solid people in Texas who are only well known on a very local level, while everybody else bails.  Was Beto not enough and we need a Stacey Abrams who can get people out to vote?

Could Texas somehow follow the Georgia model?  Figure out why 5-6 million registered voters didn't both voting in 2020 when Trump won the state by 700,000, and why they didn't vote and who would they have voted for.  Figure out how many of the 13 million who aren't registered to vote in Texas are actual eligible adults.

I would run Eva Longoria, but that's just me. I think she could win.

[Massive Horn 41]

23 hours ago, royiv said:

 

Marijuana

-Legalize it and tax it. Use tax proceeds to fund mental health and addiction services for homeless and un/under-insured Texans.

-Pardon all inmates that are serving a sentence for only simple possession. I would listen to ideas of how far that should go. As a bonus, it would be great if this would help Texas get out of the private prison business. I would include expunging the records of those who have already served sentences under the same terms

Mental health and drug treatment are scams that don't work. This isn't even a discussion. Over 90% of people who go to treatment will be out fucking up within the year. And I'm being generous. 

Drug dealers are predatory, lazy pieces of shit. Fuck em.

 

What kind of fucking world do some you people live in? You sound as clueless as our pussy assed DA. 

[royiv 9164]

7 minutes ago, Massive Horn said:

Mental health and drug treatment are scams that don't work. This isn't even a discussion. Over 90% of people who go to treatment will be out fucking up within the year. And I'm being generous. 

Drug dealers are predatory, lazy pieces of shit. Fuck em.

 

What kind of fucking world do some you people live in? You sound as clueless as our pussy assed DA. 

 

Hey, are you okay?

[Massive Horn 41]

8 minutes ago, royiv said:

Hey, are you okay?

Just texted my mental health professional. So I'm good. 

[Massive Horn 41]

4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

It's clear that the only solution is to find somebody from another state that hates Texas, have them move here, have them be committed to a mental asylum, have them end up on talk radio and then parlay that into a Texas Senate seat and then the Lieutenant Governor's seat, and then...

You forgot mentioning being in the closet and going around looking like you were the best lesbian softball player in the world back in 1992 while making your bones demonizing the gays and transgendered. 

[956 Worldwide 34444]

I am for a lot of these, but I’m out on the legalized gambling. Way out. I don’t think the idea ever works out as it is promised. 
 

In the first place, we’re pointing to Oklahoma and Louisiana, which are if anything shittier and more poorly run than Texas.  What has the industry done there? When I’m in Shreveport, I never have the thought that Texas needs to be more like that. 
 

With the maybe minor exception of Las Vegas, I have never once seen gambling as an industry do things like fund schools and make the cities that host them nicer places to live. Nearly every gambling destination is a shithole. I’ve also seen article after article show that the “out of state/town” funds they bring in come close to counter-balancing the social issues they create in local communities from problem gambling.  We see this story every time, like any industry this will kick off an incentive war between communities that most need the tax revenue, driven mostly by wealthy property owners who want to sell their land. The casino developers will get all sorts of tax breaks and maybe even get paid to build and they’ll claim that the jobs give back to the community are enough. “We will do it differently, this time” isn’t convincing. 
 

And I’ll freely admit to being a super NIMBY on this one, as a part-time South Padre resident, I don’t want it there and I don’t want the people it would bring. One of the few things Texas does mostly right is public beaches and casinos will not be a value-added to those. 

In short, if you can point to me somewhere outside of Las Vegas where legal gambling has helped lead to better schools, nicer parks and public spaces, better public services, boosted local wages, lower crime, good affordable housing, developed public transport, and all the things that make a city or region a nice place to live— l will hang up and listen. But I think it’s a chimera. 

[Massive Horn 41]

So you don't want Three Dog Night and Foghat playing in Padre every six months? Nice to know where you stand. 

[royiv 9164]

1 minute ago, Massive Horn said:

So you don't want Three Dog Night and Foghat playing in Padre every six months? Nice to know where you stand. 

You are a complete piece of shit. Go fuck yourself into eternity tepid piece of excrement.

[StassneyHorn 6540]

There were only 8 places that had a smaller margin than Texas you crybaby fucks. Man or Woman Up

[tx 3 putt 76404]

Casinos work out for two groups, the corps that own the casinos and the politicians that get kick backs 

 

[956 Worldwide 34444]

I also want to add that with any policy stuff— you can’t unwind it from a lege and exec branch that is determined to make Texas shittier and to make public services and institutions worse. 
 

Take the idea of legalizing pot and using it to pay for education. As a non-pot smoker who doesn’t give much of a shit about other people smoking, this has appeal. But nothing in the world is easier for me to imagine that a GOP lege might promise to do that, and at the end of the day they’ll use all the new tax revenue for private school vouchers or charter schools run by their buddies and the local elementary school won’t see a dime. 
 

And that to me is a worse outcome, because I don’t smoke pot, but I do have tacky dispensaries all around town and unless I want to send my kids to a fundagelical private school (I don’t)— then the only outcome is the same or shittier school. Fuck that, I’d vote for decriminalization before I ever vote a new revenue stream for a government in the hands of the GOP. 
 

It’s long been my take that voting for character and shared vision of what a well-governed society is (outcomes like good schools, low crime, affordable housing, affordable medical,  and infrastructure) is at least as important as specific policies that may get us there. 
 

The Texas GOP WANTS shitty public schools and shuttered libraries and a state where only rich white people can afford to live decently. That IS the desired outcome and they can use any new policy initiative to further that goal. 

[RomaVicta 29795]

On the gambling issue, recall when so many states thought they could reap huge dividends by allowing betting on horses. Beautiful racetracks were built. Nobody came. Genius.

It's a strange balance between liberty (why should a citizen be stopped from doing this?) and the common good (gambling leads to all kinds of bad things including criminal activity).

I prefer not to allow gambling. Nothing good comes of it. 

 

As for the rest, the op has great ideas. Others have been added. If we were in a functioning democracy, you could take those ideas to the public forum and present powerful arguments for instituting everyone. Opponents would argue in good faith that they oppose and tell you why. Reason would carry more sway than unrelated, pre-programmed, constantly encouraged emotion.

Thus my malaise. 

We're in a world where cataclysm is coming. It's no secret. Things could have been done to ameliorate to impact. Things could be done. Instead, we steer for the iceberg. We should call it climatic cataclysm because calling it "change" is akin to calling WWII a "disagreement." We should be on a war footing to face this problem. We should be making sacrifices, rerouting resources, enlisting the best minds in the country because losing a war is such a disaster. 

I feel like I'm the crazy guy in a ragged robe with matted hair walking into a school board meeting and shouting about everybody being doomed.  

The tie to this discussion on Texas government is that you're talking about people who deny reality, promote hate and fear, and act as sociopaths at every step. They're in the open and they still hold office. If they get voted out, they still operate the same way and will seek to regain power using the same tactics. 

They will never have a good faith discussion of the public good.

[horn4life 3755]

All we really need to do is get funding for a shit ton of billboards simply saying:

"Please vote Young People! Save Us from Rural Racist Republican Rule!"

Young new voters are the only chance we have.  The districts are so gerrymandered that nearly every slice of a city is diluted to where the rural (usually racist) vote can usurp the votes of the city dwellers.  All the while Abbott and company praise the growth of the very areas they do not want self determination for.  The reason that young people are the only way forward is fairly simple.  There is no longer any accountability at all from Republicans regarding elected politicians.  And because there is no accountability to can elect and re-elect an Attorney General under felony indictment avoiding his day in court for years upon years.  

So young people are the only hope.

Edited April 14, 2023 by horn4life

[Nice Guy Eddie 13414]

Not that Odessa is a major component of Texas, it's scary when you read what has happened there since a new, ultra-conservative group has taken over the city. 

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/right-wing-cabal-took-over-odessa-municipal-government/

A few stories that indicate the state of Odessa. While the first two do not reflect policy, it demonstrates an attitude and how we're turning back the calendars to the 1800s.

• the new mayor refused to call an employee by her preferred last name, as he said it was ungodly to not use a woman's married last name
• a city council member flipped out when he was referred to as a councilperson and not councilman, on a parade banner
• they fired or scared away many of the top non-partisan, city employees. Somehow I doubt that Odessa had many liberal city workers in the first place. But they weren't conservative enough.

 

[gmr548 16517]

I cant fucking believe after X years some of you still believe gerrymandering doesn't affect statewide races. Jesus Christ. The damage is already done in the voters psyche along with a myriad of other tangible,  concrete reasons.

People who understand the concept of gerrymandering can differentiate between a presidential, statewide, or local race and legislative races.

There are plenty of people on the sidelines who don’t vote because they feel the outcome is already decided, absolutely. As we saw in 2018 and 2020 that’s a two-way street. Democrats have greatly expanded their vote totals in higher turnout elections and more Republicans come out of the woodwork.

As for the rest of the non voting public, again, bold assumption to think someone who decides not to vote after the past six years has much of a position on anything. “Gays are icky” from the GOP is as likely to get that person on board as anything Democrats put forward.

Y’all overestimate this state.

[TexPx 2319]

I am for a lot of these, but I’m out on the legalized gambling. Way out. I don’t think the idea ever works out as it is promised. 
 
In the first place, we’re pointing to Oklahoma and Louisiana, which are if anything shittier and more poorly run than Texas.  What has the industry done there? When I’m in Shreveport, I never have the thought that Texas needs to be more like that. 
 
With the maybe minor exception of Las Vegas, I have never once seen gambling as an industry do things like fund schools and make the cities that host them nicer places to live. Nearly every gambling destination is a shithole. I’ve also seen article after article show that the “out of state/town” funds they bring in come close to counter-balancing the social issues they create in local communities from problem gambling.  We see this story every time, like any industry this will kick off an incentive war between communities that most need the tax revenue, driven mostly by wealthy property owners who want to sell their land. The casino developers will get all sorts of tax breaks and maybe even get paid to build and they’ll claim that the jobs give back to the community are enough. “We will do it differently, this time” isn’t convincing. 
 
And I’ll freely admit to being a super NIMBY on this one, as a part-time South Padre resident, I don’t want it there and I don’t want the people it would bring. One of the few things Texas does mostly right is public beaches and casinos will not be a value-added to those. 

In short, if you can point to me somewhere outside of Las Vegas where legal gambling has helped lead to better schools, nicer parks and public spaces, better public services, boosted local wages, lower crime, good affordable housing, developed public transport, and all the things that make a city or region a nice place to live— l will hang up and listen. But I think it’s a chimera. 

Don’t know about anyplace else but I know someone on the Oaklawn Foundation in Hot Springs. They have pumped a bunch of money into the community.


As far as our public beaches, we are trying to fuck them up too.

https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/opinion/letter-lawmaker-tries-to-grab-public-beaches-for-private-owners/article_4d65e004-d4d1-11ed-941c-6f1965ddb8c9.html

[TexPx 2319]

These are all really good ideas but nothing is going to change until there is a shift at the top and sadly don't think Hot Wheels, or the man who is really stopping most of these things from happening Lt Dan are going anywhere anytime soon. Wheels might try to run for El Prez again but don't see his peen measuring contest with the Florida Meatball or Trump going very well and highly doubtful he wins so will keep rolling around Texas. Lt Dan is more interesting in that I think he wants Wheels job but won't actually challenge him straight up for it because he is a cuck. Until the Lt Dan shaped roadblock is removed in the Texas Senate don't see any sort of positive movement on these state wide issues such as gambling, marijuana, medicaid, any sniff of common sense firearms restrictions, school funding formula, etc.  
Eventually there will be enough of the olds and rural folk (sorry to resident blue hairs and country bumpkins) being removed from the voter rolls (6 feet under) that the state-wide races will flip and give more state-wide control back to the cities and population centers despite voter suppression efforts in said areas, but flipping individual representatives/senators and local officials will take longer. Just hope by the time these things start to occur and give more encouragement for some more rational voters to show up regularly and vote that it isn't too late. 

TL;DR: Fuck Abbott and Lt Dan 
 

FWIW
Our city straddles two house districts. According to Balotpedia the combined candidate’s expenditures of the last election were:
Rs-1,247,280
Ds-151,378

[BevoAbyss 2057]

2 hours ago, horn4life said:

Young new voters are the only chance we have. 

This is true ... plus the non-religious voters.

Among GenZ, the non-religious are almost 50% (see circles). That is reason for some hope! Most of GenZ non-religious might already vote D, but it is nowhere enough in Texas. Sadly, "non-religious" could also mean they believe Ancient Aliens are our saviors and all kinds of idiot pseudoscience. 

The non-religious Texans (and Americans) need to organize politically, around the banner of philosophically fighting fascism and theocracy on all fronts. Plus, fighting for universal human rights grounded in science and human existence, affordable secular education via state schools, and sustainable policies/renewables to counter the climate catastrophe, etc. Front and center needs to be directly challenging religious claims to facts, history, moral supremacy, and ruling America. Citizens and voters need to know about the wall between church and state as stated at the very top of the First Amendment—even before religious freedom!  Almost no one knows this. 

— Of course, all of these will trigger massive MAGA-GQP freakouts and all kinds of faslehoods and propaganda. Plus, the fossil fuel industry will jump in on any challenge to oil/gas by renewables ("Texans will lose jobs!"). 

One thing is certain, the Beto charismatic nice guy (leaving religion/fascism/theocracy off the table) is a proven losing strategy. Proven twice. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by BevoAbyss

[crash_davis 23084]

It's not just the politics anymore. If you travel, you realize for the most part, Texas is ugly as shit. If you have the means and opportunity to leave, besides family, there's very little about this state which would make you stay.

My eldest daughter GTFO of this state immediately after graduating from Texas. She and her close knit group of friends (about 10 of them, guys and gals) all GTFO of this state (either for college or immediately after) and are not coming back. They have one in their friend group who stayed in Texas but only because it's Austin. If it were a job in Houston or Dallas, she too would have GTFO.

Youngest daughter graduates next year from Texas. She loves Austin so may stay, but will depend on her friend group. If they all GTFO, she will too. Right now, half are intending to stay in Austin and other half are GTFO of Texas.

Wife and I are leaving when we retire in 5 years. 

In my early 30s, I realized life is too short to live in a shitty city and GTFO out of Dallas for Austin.

In my early 50s, I realize that life is too short to live in a shitty state and will GTFO of Texas for Colorado, or some place with mountains and elevation. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13414]

I love to gamble and somewhat hate having to go to Louisiana or Vegas to get my fix but I've NEVER wanted to see casinos in Texas. Striving to be like some of these states should not be the goal. There are a ton of negative aspects to legalized gambling. People have problems with gambling that hurt everyone around them. Why do we want to encourage it?

And screw the "Legalize _______, regulate it and tax it" crowd.  The concept behind this thought is that everything is ok as long as the state gets revenue out of it. If you want to legalize something, great but stop with the reasoning that tax revenues are the reason behind it.  Not to mention that as soon as the state gets new revenue from a new source, they normally offset that with tax cuts to others. There is never any new funding to schools or highways.

[956 Worldwide 34444]

1 hour ago, TexPx said:

Don’t know about anyplace else but I know someone on the Oaklawn Foundation in Hot Springs. They have pumped a bunch of money into the community.


As far as our public beaches, we are trying to fuck them up too.

https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/opinion/letter-lawmaker-tries-to-grab-public-beaches-for-private-owners/article_4d65e004-d4d1-11ed-941c-6f1965ddb8c9.html

That’s really good of them…and most large business have foundations and charitable programs. The “vice” industries are really visible, liquor and beer distributors are super generous. 15 million since 2007 in that county of 100,000 is neither miserly or amazingly generous and it’s going to help many individual people but not make a big community impact. This is not a criticism of them. 
 

But with all these policy decisions, when it comes to encouraging development you can’t make decisions based off of foundations and charity. You want to consider structural factors like jobs and how well they pay, contributions to the tax base, environmental and social impact, attracting further good development and investment, and keeping revenue generated local.

 

 My own personal observations are that the gambling industry is rarely a good community addition on those fronts and comes with real downsides on the social impact side that tend to get waved aside.  I’m open to the idea that people should be able to do what they want, just don’t like the pretense that whole communities really thrive and benefit when a casino opens. 

[Grade of D as in David 13253]

3 hours ago, horn4life said:

All we really need to do is get funding for a shit ton of billboards simply saying:

"Please vote Young People! Save Us from Rural Racist Republican Rule!"

Young new voters are the only chance we have.  The districts are so gerrymandered that nearly every slice of a city is diluted to where the rural (usually racist) vote can usurp the votes of the city dwellers.  All the while Abbott and company praise the growth of the very areas they do not want self determination for.  The reason that young people are the only way forward is fairly simple.  There is no longer any accountability at all from Republicans regarding elected politicians.  And because there is no accountability to can elect and re-elect an Attorney General under felony indictment avoiding his day in court for years upon years.  

So young people are the only hope.

Is this you?

[LCHorn 2585]

13 hours ago, royiv said:

All of this, but I find it hard to believe we can't find a charismatic Blue Dog Democrat somewhere in this state to try to turn the tide. 

What about the performance of Democrats in statewide elections over the past decade makes you think the missing ingredient is a Dem that's just a little more conservative?

Unless you're talking about Obama level charisma (which is a fantasy), there's going to need to be someone like the Texas Trial Lawyer's Association stepping up to fund grassroots candidate development and use the city mayors as a stepping stone toward state office and not a retirement job for the Watson's, Turner's, and SLJ's.  And frankly, that's how politics really should work--someone who has municipal experience and shined getting promoted, not someone with a radio show getting elected to the state's most powerful office. 

[safe sex 11684]

7 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

, not someone with a radio show getting elected to the state's most powerful office. 

Sounds like someone's just jealous of what a good flour salesman we used to have as a governor

[mchookem 16225]

On 4/12/2023 at 11:11 PM, royiv said:

A couple of posts today have got me thinking about what would it take to fix the shit show that is Texas politics. Nothing is going to change until we figure out a way to remove the GQP's influence from the capitol so what are things that would actually move the needle? That said, I thought I would make a list of things I would do if I were king of Texas. I'm interested to hear what others thoughts are on these issues. These are in no particular order.

Legislative Session

-Institute an annual legislative session. Texas is one of four states with a biennial session, the others being MT, ND and NV. It seems nuts to me that a state as large, complex and important as Texas thinks we can effectively govern meeting once every two years for 140 days. 

Marijuana

-Legalize it and tax it. Use tax proceeds to fund mental health and addiction services for homeless and un/under-insured Texans.

-Pardon all inmates that are serving a sentence for only simple possession. I would listen to ideas of how far that should go. As a bonus, it would be great if this would help Texas get out of the private prison business. I would include expunging the records of those who have already served sentences under the same terms.

Healthcare

-Expand Medicaid. It blows my mind that we as a state leave federal dollars on the table. That means we all pay federal taxes and we're leaving money on the table to be sent to other states that could be coming our way.

-Repeal the anti-abortion law. Allow women and their healthcare provider to make decisions about an individual woman's health.

-Stop the attacks on LGBTQ+ community. 

Guns

-Institute a red flag law. We need to make sure that Texans suffering a mental health crisis don't have access to guns. We need to protect our own.

-Institute a 21 year age minimum to purchase an assault weapon (and, no fatty, I'm not going to get into one of your dumb bullet debates with you - these are all 10k foot ideas).

-Get rid of constitutional carry. You want to carry a gun legally, you're going to need a permit for that.

-Waiting period on the purchase of guns. 7 days for shotguns, sporting rifles, 14 days for handguns, 28 days for assault weapons (again, fatty, don't muck this up with your bullet talk).

Education

-Reevaluate Robin Hood. I admit that I'm not an expert in how to equitably fund education in this state, but I'm smart enough to know our current system is broken. We have bright people in this state, let's get them together and figure out a fix.

-Improve funding for higher education. California kicks our ass up and down the field on this one. We are woeful for a state of our stature.

-Get God out of the public schools. End the book ban BS. Return sanity to the classroom so that kids can learn. Listen to our best and brightest educators and fix standardized testing.

Gambling

-Why do we let so many dollars cross state lines into LA and OK? Lots of other states have figured out to regulate and tax casino gambling. Let's quit donating money to LA and OK.

-Legalize sports gambling. See above.

TABC

-Burn it to the ground and start over. It's an oversized agency with oversized power in this state. It needs to be overhauled. 

Taxes

-This is probably the biggest bogeyman. Our hands are tied w/r/t an income tax in this state so we have got to figure out how we fix the regressive propert tax burden placed on Texans. I'm not the guy to figure it out, but I'd love to brainstorm with some smart economists.

What am I missing? Transportation? Other agencies that need to be completely overhauled? I'm really interested in hearing people's thoughts. I'm hoping this turns into a thread of healthy discussion on ideas how to change the current course of our state, but it will probably turn into monkeys flinging shit at each other by the fourth post.

 

[Disco Strangler 1865]

5 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Not that Odessa is a major component of Texas, it's scary when you read what has happened there since a new, ultra-conservative group has taken over the city. 

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/right-wing-cabal-took-over-odessa-municipal-government/

A few stories that indicate the state of Odessa. While the first two do not reflect policy, it demonstrates an attitude and how we're turning back the calendars to the 1800s.

• the new mayor refused to call an employee by her preferred last name, as he said it was ungodly to not use a woman's married last name
• a city council member flipped out when he was referred to as a councilperson and not councilman, on a parade banner
• they fired or scared away many of the top non-partisan, city employees. Somehow I doubt that Odessa had many liberal city workers in the first place. But they weren't conservative enough.

 

I grew up in SlowDessa and couldn't imaging that it could be any bigger of a shit-hole than it was when I left the minute that I could.  Sounds like the mayor is running on the platform of Make Odessa an Even Bigger Pile of Shit.

['stache 21777]

If I had any idea that TX/OK would turn into this, I would have gotten the fuck out out of high school or at least college. Two kids in school now, I desperately want to leave, but it's not easy. Still struggling, and I figure if I don't decide to leave in the next two years, I'll just need to stick it out here for the long term.

[atomheartbevo 89450]

8 hours ago, 'stache said:

If I had any idea that TX/OK would turn into this, I would have gotten the fuck out out of high school or at least college. Two kids in school now, I desperately want to leave, but it's not easy. Still struggling, and I figure if I don't decide to leave in the next two years, I'll just need to stick it out here for the long term.

I feel like if we are going to move, it needs to be in the next two years as well, before the kids get to junior high.  My biggest hold-up has been wife's retirement stuff, and I didn't want to move the kids because I didn't want them losing their friends, etc., (I hated moving as a kid) but surprisingly both kids seem to be getting more and more on board with the idea.  And thankfully they've grown tired of Texas/Austin and visiting relatives in East Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas is already a fucking process in and of itself that won't matter if we visit from Austin or visit from somewhere out east.

I'm actually pretty pissed at myself that we didn't move sooner - we really should have been moving around the US every so often - if we do it the way want to, we aren't moving to shithole towns like I had to do as a kid (oilfield brat, go Texaco).

Anthony Bourdain was right about moving around.

[Beau Vine 54004]

Plus, I learned the hard way that if you stay in a place 20 years, your wife will accumulate an absurd amount of shit that has no value and no meaning.  

[atomheartbevo 89450]

18 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Plus, I learned the hard way that if you stay in a place 20 years, your wife will accumulate an absurd amount of shit that has no value and no meaning.  

That's something else that's a problem and that we didn't solve when we moved around Austin, but it would get solved moving a few states over.  Of course, the irony is that if we move elsewhere, we'll end up with a bigger house that can store more stuff...