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I think that it’s now safe to say that we Texans now live in a failed state.  30 years of GOP rule, setting our own standard, living the “Texas Dream,” which they’ve bragged about relentlessly…and let’s see where we are:

A majority of the state in complete failure, unable to deliver the most BASIC of services (things that are called “utilities,” not “luxuries,” for a reason).  No power.  No water.  No means of clearing roads (that one, I can’t fault the state so much….but it wouldn’t be as big a crisis if people weren’t stuck in their homes with no power and water).  So citizens are stuck in their homes, some of them dying there. 

Water resource planning?  After pretending for decades that a drought would never happen again, and not doing ANYTHING to develop resources in the state water plan (a document actually developed using science and mathematical projections), we had several locations, including actual cities, down to a few days of water supply.  We’ve finally gotten on our horse a bit, but it may be too late if the next drought comes anytime soon.  

State rank in key categories:

Education – 34

Health Care - 37

Infrastructure - 33

Opportunity - 39

Environment - 44

Infrastructure - 33 

In overall quality of life ranking by US News, we are now #38, down from #36 just two years ago.  At that rate, we’ll be in the bottom 3 within ten years.

We are SUPER independent, and FUCK the feds….but we have requested federal disaster assistance more than any other state in the past decade or so.

But hey, our economy is ranked #15!

That’s right, we have a “roaring economy” and the “Texas Miracle!”  But we can’t deliver the basics for our citizens.  The economy is VERY efficient at funneling bazillions to the very few…..with little of it “trickling down” to most Texans.  Yeah, the people on this board generally do fine, but face the facts – we’re the top 10% or so.  We are educated, older, and fortunate.

Our federal system allows for state-by-state experiments.  Texas is the poster child for near anarcho-capitalism and zero regulation or oversight.  We have tested that approach, for over a generation now (30 years of Republican rule).  That approach is a failure.  The evidence is undeniable, and overwhelming.  It doesn’t matter how many River Oaks millionaires you produce if the rest of your people are dying in their homes.  Shit, some of those River Oaks millionaires might be freezing to death today, too.

The kids of a middle class family can hardly afford to go to a good state school.  Their prospects for employment are mediocre.  Their prospects of suffering crippling medical debt at some point are significant.  Their chances of not having basic utilities needed for life safety at some point – all but certain.  Their chances of becoming ill or dying from a pollution-caused illness are material.

What’s the result?  Our leaders have sold Texas as a paradise – move here!  Bring your business here!  And some businesses have done so, adding opportunity…..but providing little to no tax support for the infrastructure we all depend on.  To the contrary, over the past few years, I know more and more people – educated people, people who can do their jobs elsewhere, who are looking to bail on this state.  It’s people with young kids, who want them to grow up in a better place.  It’s people in their working years, who simply want a better path.  It’s retirees, who want a safe and secure place to live.

We have consumed our seed stock.  We have burned through our reserves.  We are now consuming ourselves.  The ability to pitch Texas as the land of opportunity is done.  Seeing what we have become, the tentative thought/plan my wife and I had of wrapping up our careers here and then getting the hell out of Dodge is becoming much more concrete.  My children are already unlikely to make their future in this state.  Now we are, too.

But the response from the Republican leadership and their sycophants – “how are you gonna pay for it?  Taxes?  That’s socialism!  You want that stuff, you have to pay for it!”

Fuck yes I do, and I’m okay with that.  I want groceries…so I have to pay HEB.  I want a car…so I have to pay Ford.  I want clothes…..so I have to pay Dillards.  I want my population educated….so I have to pay the school district.  I want electricity, with enough capacity to keep us running when we need it…..so I have to pay my bill, maybe with a capacity surcharge.  I want water to come out of the taps….so I have to pay for development of resources and maintenance of infrastructure.  I want roads….so I pay taxes to build and maintain them.  YES, I have to pay for all of those things, and “nothing is free” – no fucking shit.  So, let’s pay for it.  We have the #15 economy….we HAVE the funds in this state.  An economy with the flow of funds that ours has can produce and maintain all of those results.  But we have chosen a different path; funnel all the dollars to the top, and spend next to nothing for the public good.  We have privatized profit….we have socialized the costs.  And we are dying because of it.

My fellow Texans are dying in their homes….and there’s nothing I can do about it today.  And I am enraged.

I love Texas.  I am 6th generation here.  My ancestors have Texas historical markers on their graves.  We helped make this state, and this state helped make us.  It educated us (back when college was affordable).  But it’s time to face the fact – this state is a failure, and on its current path, with its current leadership and philosophy, it will only get worse.  This state has a terrible future, unless we dramatically change our path.   Chances of that happening?  0.0% -- because we’ll continue to vote for the guys who make our leadership priorities bathroom bills, and transgender sports, and requiring the national anthem be played at certain events.  Any bill that has been proposed to improve emergency preparedness of gov’t entities has been crushed by the Republicans controlling the lege….but we will definitely stick with those guys.  No taxes.  No government functionality.

What we are seeing happening right now is our system working EXACTLY AS IT WAS DESIGNED AND INTENDED TO WORK.  And we will, I guarantee it, collectively decide to stick with that.  This state is in free-fall, and anyone with eyes can see it.  And anyone with a brain is starting to think of ways to make their life elsewhere.  It breaks my goddamned heart to see us commit collective suicide, but here we are.

 

 

User Feedback

Recommended Comments

speed817

Legacy Members
(edited)

Double post

Edited by speed817

Kel Varnsen

Legacy Members

What if I'm going in the men's room and it's a shrinkage day?

Freaking Out George Costanza GIF

Foosters

Certifiably Surly

Go To Jail GIFs | Tenor

Horn Under a Bad Sign

Legacy Members

Remember Colony Ridge, the massive development (some say 100,000 people are already there, with the possibility of 200,000 being there shortly) in Liberty County?  It's comprised mostly of illegal aliens. The builder gave 1.5 million dollars to Greg Abbott's re-election campaign. There have already been huge drug busts, mass shootings etc ... 

It has grown massively.  This helicopter footage is pretty dramatic.

https://x.com/CollinsforTX/status/1703871577341735050



 

Colony Ridge.jpg

mchookem

Certifiably Surly

im sure ICE is all over that

Bullneck

Certifiably Surly
(edited)
On 2/10/2025 at 2:54 PM, Disco Strangler said:

Hilarious!  That's Dan Patrick's office number.

I'm fucking hammered so I called and left a message.  

11 minutes ago, mchookem said:

im sure ICE is all over that

If there was a problem, yo, they'd solve it.

 

Edited by Bullneck

royiv

Legacy Members
1 hour ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Remember Colony Ridge, the massive development (some say 100,000 people are already there, with the possibility of 200,000 being there shortly) in Liberty County?  It's comprised mostly of illegal aliens. The builder gave 1.5 million dollars to Greg Abbott's re-election campaign. There have already been huge drug busts, mass shootings etc ... 

It has grown massively.  This helicopter footage is pretty dramatic.

https://x.com/CollinsforTX/status/1703871577341735050



 

Colony Ridge.jpg

With CFPB being dismantled, I’m sure this will be going nowhere.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-and-doj-sue-developer-and-lender-colony-ridge-for-bait-and-switch-land-sales-and-predatory-financing/

DreadHead

Burnt Ends
22 minutes ago, royiv said:

"Foreclosure and property deed records show that Colony Ridge flipped at least 40% of all the properties it sold between September 2019 and September 2022, selling approximately 8,237 properties twice, 3,267 properties three times, and 2,067 properties four or more times in three years."

Damn... what rotten little racket they have going there. The developer donates to Abbott to build there, the Republicans blame Democrats for an "open border' that allows people to settle there, and the in-house financing from the developer offers immigrants no credit, no down payment, high-interest loans.

And now Republicans will send in ICE, round everyone up, and send them off to private detention centers built by other Abbott donors, to rake in that nice Fed money Elon is "finding".

I hate this state.

PTINS

Burnt Ends
On 2/5/2025 at 8:18 PM, Willfully Horn said:

 No kids, huh?

To be clear, I continue to have an interest in climate change and the balance between an industrialized civil society and having to burn wood to cook.

My not worrying about this shit is reference to be retired and not having to deal hands-on with the idiocy of policy making by individuals with little understanding of the issues they are trying to govern.

The Original Greaser Bob

Certifiably Surly
18 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

This is fucking madness. What.the.fuck. 
 

 

this state sucks ass

Let a transgendered high schooler race in a high school swim meet, fool me once.

Let two more race over the course of the next year, we won't get fooled again.

pacman

Burnt Ends

Oh, Matt..poor little fellah, ignorance doesn't look good on you .

Screenshot_20250218-200519.png

Dnaguy

Certifiably Surly
On 2/7/2025 at 2:16 AM, pacman said:

 

On 2/7/2025 at 9:04 AM, Disco Strangler said:

image.jpeg.5f607af7216ab380919210f1ce233c33.jpeg

 

On 2/7/2025 at 9:27 AM, Kel Varnsen said:

 

 

On 2/10/2025 at 1:32 PM, Schulz2.0 said:

m4o8aav95no81.jpg.cc4a2fd37454f55fd62197c34dd54953.jpg


To protect and get served.

Thin blew line.

 

seriously though, the interviews were so gold I just couldn’t stop laughing.

Quote

Internal Affairs Investigator: So the first one, when you went in with no recording device, was somebody outside? Did they drop you off or did you drive yourself there?
Ofc. Travis Plybon: I drove myself there.
IA Investigator: So, just pulled out of patrol, given some city money, and told to go and see if you can solicit something.
Ofc. Travis Plybon: Yes, sir. I said, I was told, 'hey, make sure you bring some clothes today if you, if you're going to do' - because it was, they asked me like a couple days before. 'Hey, make sure you bring clothes this day.' I showed up to the office, I was given money and given the brief, and it was discussed whether someone would go with me and they said, 'no, no, no, you're fine. You can do it.' 

 

And some more amazingness

Quote

Internal Affairs Investigator: What caused you to go over four minutes of getting a h******, almost five minutes, if your instructions from them were, that once the deal is made and they touch you, you need to break contact.
Ofc. Dunn: I was trying to ask her questions, as far as, like, hey what's your name, trying to get - they didn't ask me to do that. They didn't ask me to get her name, they didn't ask me to get any of the questions I asked in the recording.. that was just me trying to be proactive.

 

mchookem

Certifiably Surly
On 2/20/2025 at 5:42 PM, bolverk said:

 

whoo-ey. man, i was incredibly grateful to have retired from state service just 5 months before covid hit.

i might be even more grateful now reading that^. i've been thru some legislative trauma, this will probably be cranked to 11.

 

Mrs Whiggins

Full Members
On 2/18/2025 at 10:46 AM, pacman said:

If he is successful, I think we all should rip out every ramp and rail at the mansion and his office.

Elevators...

tx 3 putt

Legacy Members

Attorney General Ken Paxton recently testified before the State Senate Finance Committee that his office had to hire outside lawyers on a contingency-fee basis, with rates as high as $3,780 per hour, because his office lacked appropriated funds. #txlege

 

Hungry Dinner GIF

Updawg

Legacy Members

Must be expensive trying to find anyone that wants to work for the asshole

Pato del Muerto

Certifiably Surly

Tx doge gonna be all over that for sure

InkaUtexas

Burnt Ends
5 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Tx doge gonna be all over that for sure

@3500 an hour.

tx 3 putt

Legacy Members
16 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Also Herpes and HPV

but you expect those

Macanudo

Legacy Members
19 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Also Herpes and HPV

Regular herp or the dreaded Simplex 10 variant?

Bozo_Casanova

Legacy Members
18 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

Regular herp or the dreaded Simplex 10 variant?

At the Twin Peaks in San Marcos?

image.png.ddfefc74d2c6f61ce7c3539732e06e53.png

miguelito

Legacy Members

Another case (same person?) at UTSA and riverwalk.

InkaUtexas

Burnt Ends
18 minutes ago, miguelito said:

Another case (same person?) at UTSA and riverwalk.

Looks they went to a lot of places.

A Northwest Texas resident who has tested positive for measles potentially exposed University of Texas at San Antonio students and other residents while visiting San Antonio earlier this month.

The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District said the Gaines County resident tested positive for the virus and traveled to multiple locations here on Feb. 15, including UTSA's main campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day.

Afterwards, the traveler visited the Wax Museum, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and Ripley’s Illusion Lab near the Alamo between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. For dinner, the visitor dined at Mr. Crabby's Seafood and Bar in Live Oak between 6 and 8 p.m.

Earlier Sunday, The Hays County Health Department announced that an Gaines County resident with measles visited San Marcos from 3 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 14., entering several Texas State University buildings and spending the evening at the sports bar Twin Peaks. 

Public health officials urge those who visited these places to review their vaccine records and monitor themselves for symptoms for four to 21 days after initial exposure.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/measles-exposure-in-san-marcos-20183421.php

tx 3 putt

Legacy Members
(edited)
19 hours ago, Constant said:

I’ve always said nothing is more important than identifying and eliminating waste. And I can’t think of a better entity to handle that task than the….

*checks notes*
 

Republicans that have been in total control of the state government for over 30 years. 

 

as always, desantis / FL is ahead of abbott on this .... 

doge focused on university 'waste' with desantis as the lead 

 

DeSantis also said all state universities will be audited for what he calls any unnecessary spending and classes that don't need to be taught.

https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-desantis-doge-task-force/63903133

 

Edited by tx 3 putt

wildcat09

Full Members

This seems fine:

 

Pato del Muerto

Certifiably Surly

No further updates so I assume it’s all contained and no additional infections will result.

Constant

Certifiably Surly
18 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Looks they went to a lot of places.

A Northwest Texas resident who has tested positive for measles potentially exposed University of Texas at San Antonio students and other residents while visiting San Antonio earlier this month.

The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District said the Gaines County resident tested positive for the virus and traveled to multiple locations here on Feb. 15, including UTSA's main campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day.

Afterwards, the traveler visited the Wax Museum, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and Ripley’s Illusion Lab near the Alamo between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. For dinner, the visitor dined at Mr. Crabby's Seafood and Bar in Live Oak between 6 and 8 p.m.

Earlier Sunday, The Hays County Health Department announced that an Gaines County resident with measles visited San Marcos from 3 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 14., entering several Texas State University buildings and spending the evening at the sports bar Twin Peaks. 

Public health officials urge those who visited these places to review their vaccine records and monitor themselves for symptoms for four to 21 days after initial exposure.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/measles-exposure-in-san-marcos-20183421.php

What kind of psychopath goes to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for three hours?

Evil Bill Obrien

Full Members
7 minutes ago, Constant said:

What kind of psychopath goes to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for three hours?

Dunno but if you go to Ripley's on the River Walk in San Antonio you probably deserve to get Measles...and to be called fat by Charles Barkley 

 

charles barkley snl GIF by Saturday Night Live

Eskimohorn

Legacy Members
Also Herpes and HPV

giphy.gif

Bullneck

Certifiably Surly

Random thought: Pearl Beer was from the country of alebmhunert (give that a try) springs. 
I wonder how many of those sprangs are still working.

UTCzech III

Certifiably Surly
10 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

Random thought: Pearl Beer was from the country of alebmhunert (give that a try) springs. 
I wonder how many of those sprangs are still working.

Went to a lot of beer joints with my dad when I was a kid, was always hypnotized by these signs

 

bolverk

Legacy Members
29 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

Random thought: Pearl Beer was from the country of alebmhunert (give that a try) springs. 
I wonder how many of those sprangs are still working.

That word looks like a slangy, kind of a kids' way of saying "eleven hundred" in German or how it might sound like, but it got no hits on Google.

image.png.8895264b44e391b57cdc17fde7202607.png

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