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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.

     

     


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    Pato del Muerto

    Posted

    If $6000 per student is all they get now and all they need per republicans, why aren’t private school vouchers $6000?  Why the extra 67%?  Aren’t private businesses more efficient than public systems, again per republicans?  Or, why aren’t they increasing the public school per child to the same $10,000 they just approved for private school kids?

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    DDD Dad

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    If $6000 per student is all they get now and all they need per republicans, why aren’t private school vouchers $6000?  Why the extra 67%?  Aren’t private businesses more efficient than public systems, again per republicans?  Or, why aren’t they increasing the public school per child to the same $10,000 they just approved for private school kids?

    I think you know the answer. 

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    South Austin

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    If $6000 per student is all they get now and all they need per republicans, why aren’t private school vouchers $6000?  Why the extra 67%?  Aren’t private businesses more efficient than public systems, again per republicans?  Or, why aren’t they increasing the public school per child to the same $10,000 they just approved for private school kids?

    It was Abbott’s understanding there would be no math.

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    HenryJames

    Posted

    1 hour ago, South Austin said:

    It was Abbott’s understanding there would be no math.

    • Haha 1
    sasquatch69

    Posted

    7 hours ago, DDD Dad said:

    I think you know the answer. 

    Yass, Wilks, Dunn all told Abbott he’d get this done or they’d primary him. He did the same to all our R legislators (and followed through last election cycle). And here we are. 

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    Gap03

    Posted

    Yeah, this is definitely going to be adopted because the Texas lege is that corrupt and/or stupid ...

     

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    Captainant

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Gap03 said:

    Yeah, this is definitely going to be adopted because the Texas lege is that corrupt and/or stupid ...

     

     

    56 minutes ago, troph said:

    Pure insanity 

    "Well it's not against the law, so that means it's perfectly fine to do" - oil barons, probably

    South Austin

    Posted

    1 minute ago, troph said:

    don't worry, the feds and the clean water act will save us... oh. wait...

    spacer.png

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    Eskimohorn

    Posted

    don't worry, the feds and the clean water act will save us... oh. wait...

    When we run out of water, the problem will fix itself.
    wild_turkey

    Posted

    Regarding our public schools, I get all the frustration regarding the lack of funding increases, the existence of vouchers, and discrepancy in public allotment vs. vouchers.

    I’m curious though, how does this actually stack up compared to other states? What financial metrics are available to know where Texas falls compared to everyone else? Are there a lot of other states that are doing better, or is everyone slipping in similar fashion?

    Perhaps more importantly, what reliable indicators of overall state academic performance are there?

    I’m not very well informed on these, so despite my frustrations about the first point, I’d like to better understand the big picture. Suppose I want to move one day and I want K-12 education to be a factor in deciding, how to I begin to evaluate that in the least biased way possible?

    Pescado_Rojo

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

    Regarding our public schools, I get all the frustration regarding the lack of funding increases, the existence of vouchers, and discrepancy in public allotment vs. vouchers.

    I’m curious though, how does this actually stack up compared to other states? What financial metrics are available to know where Texas falls compared to everyone else? Are there a lot of other states that are doing better, or is everyone slipping in similar fashion?

    Perhaps more importantly, what reliable indicators of overall state academic performance are there?

    I’m not very well informed on these, so despite my frustrations about the first point, I’d like to better understand the big picture. Suppose I want to move one day and I want K-12 education to be a factor in deciding, how to I begin to evaluate that in the least biased way possible?

    Some decent graphs here

    • Like 1
    LCHorn

    Posted

    Looks like Vikki Goodwin is first out of the gate on the Dem side to run against Patrick for Lt Gov.  

    First impression is she’ll lose badly and put district 47 in play as the conservative-moderate alliance in west audience unites over not wanting to be represented by someone named Pooja.

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    LCHorn

    Posted

    25 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

    Looks like Vikki Goodwin is first out of the gate on the Dem side to run against Patrick for Lt Gov.  

    First impression is she’ll lose badly and put district 47 in play as the conservative-moderate alliance in west audience unites over not wanting to be represented by someone named Pooja.

    Ugh, west Austin. 

    Larry T. Spider

    Posted

    The most widely used data to compare between states is the NAEP test that is given to 4th graders and 8th graders. Overall, our scores are meh, but so are a lot of other states.

    I would argue that school funding is more about everything other than math and reading. Those are the last things to get cut. It’s band, art, music, bus routes, GT, special ed services, more elective options, teacher retention, higher level courses in HS, and any other extras that get cut.

    These are often where good public schools excel, and often on the backs of people getting a 3k/year stipend for countless hours of work. Quite a few private school families come back for HS because of these things and AP courses that will be challenging enough for their college bound kids.

    Insert the Texas legislature to intentionally sabotage all of that with a 10k voucher and funding that will necessitate cuts to all of the above. Parents are about to get asked for way more money for supplies and various programs

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    ABZ

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Kyrie Eleison said:

    LO-fucking-L

     

    "And the obsession with freedom, bro?

    You have a thousand laws about what you can do with your own body.

    You can buy a rifle faster than you can get a library card.

    That’s not freedom, that’s live-action satire"

     

    "The heat is unbearable. You’re not sweating, you’re slow roasting in cowboy purgatory,

    and Texans are out here in denim and boots like its springtime in Paris."

     

    "Texas is not a place; its a coping mechanism disguised as a state."

     

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    Texas Jeff

    Posted

    On 5/19/2025 at 9:43 PM, Pato del Muerto said:

    If $6000 per student is all they get now and all they need per republicans, why aren’t private school vouchers $6000?  Why the extra 67%?  Aren’t private businesses more efficient than public systems, again per republicans?  Or, why aren’t they increasing the public school per child to the same $10,000 they just approved for private school kids?

    They get more than that.  School funding is so complicated that it is almost impossible to understand.

    Austin ISD gets about $13,800 to spend per student *after* recapture, which is about $2000 per student more than peer districts.  But their basic allotment is around $6100.  They get extra money because of carve outs and special allocations above the basic allotment.

    And spending per student within Austin ISD varies wildly, depending on the school.  LBJ HS spends about $10,000 per student from the general fund and about $21,000 per student from all funds, per year.  At LASA HS, a magnet school close to LBJ that used to be part of LBJ, the district spends about $6700 per student from the general fund and about $7900 from all funds, per year.

    LBJ is a smaller school (which means more money per kids spend on admin and building maintenance) with a harder to educate population, which means more money spent per kid trying to help them succeed.

    There is no one answer to school funding.  You can spend $8000 per year on an A rated school, if you get to pick the population, and you can spend $21,000 per year on an F rated school, if you have a hard to educate group.

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    Willfully Horn

    Posted

    37 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

     

    so dumb and jail time for possession is just idiotic 

     

    Government dollars to private companies. For reasons.

    tx ind

    Posted

    Who benefits financially from the proposed THC ban?

    MissingInAction

    Posted

    Private prisons, booze lobby, corrupt Texas cocksucker politicians.

    The usual.

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    Larry T. Spider

    Posted

    46 minutes ago, bluto said:

    The biggest losers will be the retail strip owners losing 25% of their tenancy by year end. 

    Developers and large corporations landlords hold a lot of power with Texas republicans. But the top of their conservatard hierarchy will always be feigned religious outrage. Helping the poor need not apply.

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    Brisketexan

    Posted

    Finally.  Texas can bet back to what it does best: imprisoning black and brown people at absurdly disproportionate and high rates for a harmless activity that white people engage in at a similar rate, but somehow, are only 25% as likely to be arrested for.  Because at the end of the day, the important thing is that those folks be kept as a perpetual near-slave class (can't get a good job with a conviction) and this is SUPER-IMPORTANT: they can't mess up Texas with their votes anymore.

    Voting is only for white folks.  Jim Crow out front shoulda told ya.  And once we renamed Jim Crow ("the War on Drugs" rebranding was quite successful), it took right off again.

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    DaysOff

    Posted

    If this queer bait fucks up my 65th birthday/ retirement party I'm climbing a clock tower. Waited almost 40 years for this.f3eaa46f03e14455c0e395249f0f8258.jpg

    • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
    GreenspointTexas

    Posted

    1 hour ago, tx ind said:

    Who benefits financially from the proposed THC ban?

    Alcohol industry

     

    but its only a matter of time before weed passes alcohol in usage. Likely before 2050

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    kevwun

    Posted

    If the people of Texas enjoy something, Abbot and Goeb will eventually ban it.

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    UTCzech III

    Posted

    11 minutes ago, kevwun said:

    If the people of Texas enjoy something, Abbot and Goeb will eventually ban it.

    Coming soon - post oak, mesquite, hickory and pecan wood give you cancer.  Henceforth, all brisket must be prepared "a la Cornyn".

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    BearSchlong

    Posted

    Alcohol industry
     
    but its only a matter of time before weed passes alcohol in usage. Likely before 2050

    I may be wrong, but the alcohol industry is poised to buy/distribute THC infused drink manufacturers the same way they did microbrewers. They see it as an opportunity.
    Nice Guy Eddie

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    Finally.  Texas can bet back to what it does best: imprisoning black and brown people at absurdly disproportionate and high rates for a harmless activity that white people engage in at a similar rate, but somehow, are only 25% as likely to be arrested for.  Because at the end of the day, the important thing is that those folks be kept as a perpetual near-slave class (can't get a good job with a conviction) and this is SUPER-IMPORTANT: they can't mess up Texas with their votes anymore.

    Voting is only for white folks.  Jim Crow out front shoulda told ya.  And once we renamed Jim Crow ("the War on Drugs" rebranding was quite successful), it took right off again.

    It doesn't take much to interpret that actions by Abbott and Goeb are solely about keeping the GOP in power in the face of changing demographics. Even the school voucher program might harm some of their constituency, there is an element to have kids educated in private schools that can be openly hostile to actual history and liberal ideas.

    The top priority is always about keeping Democrat stronghold (youth, non-white, and big city) votes as suppressed as possible. 

    Bozo_Casanova

    Posted

    If the Democrats can’t win with this setup, they are fundamentally broken and we need a different opposition party. 
     

    Spoiler

    They are fundamentally broken and we need a different opposition party

     

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    Nice Guy Eddie

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    If the Democrats can’t win with this setup, they are fundamentally broken and we need a different opposition party. 
     

      Hide contents

    They are fundamentally broken and we need a different opposition party

     

    There's a false narrative that there's a Texas Democratic Party. Obviously they exist but do they do anything but work to keep themselves in the minority?  If they were secretly run by a GOP operative, would the outcome be any worse?

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    Fudge Nuggets

    Posted

    I'm sure the usual suspects will come out a month or so before the next statewide election saying it's only another couple of cycles before demographics takeover and TX turns blue.  Same old shit they've been saying for 20+ years.

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    Evil Bill Obrien

    Posted

    Called my state representative Jolanda Jones this morning to try and get an explanation why a Democrat is voting in lock step with Dan Patrick on the full THC ban and am appalled to report according to whoever answered on her staff said l it’s because she was “confused” about the amendment that made SB 3 a full ban… what in the ever loving fuck are our dumb ass bitch state representatives doing voting blind on something as big as a full ban of a whole industry???

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    Bozo_Casanova

    Posted

    33 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    There's a false narrative that there's a Texas Democratic Party. Obviously they exist but do they do anything but work to keep themselves in the minority?  If they were secretly run by a GOP operative, would the outcome be any worse?

    The funny thing is that you aren’t wrong. It’s not conscious, but they’ve institutionalized the process of losing. It’s what they are organized to do, like the Washington Generals.

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    Hefeweizen

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

    Looks like Texas is toast

    Fixed for you.

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    • Like 1
    NoRagrets

    Posted

    Sucks. I know a lot of people whose lives were helped by being able to replace alcohol with thc. 

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    hobbes2702

    Posted

    This state is such a joke lol. Guess I’ll keep getting my stuff sent in from Vegas.

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    Eskimohorn

    Posted

    This state is such a joke lol. Guess I’ll keep getting my stuff sent in from Vegas.

    You just made the list
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    hookem2010

    Posted

    Imagine being such a fucking dork that not only did your high school and college peers refuse to invite you to parties, share their joints, or sleep with you, but half a century later you are still so obsessed with this rejection that you work tirelessly to ban porn and weed. I can only imagine sex not for the purposes of procreation is next.

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    Iceman

    Posted

    19 hours ago, UTCzech III said:

    Coming soon - post oak, mesquite, hickory and pecan wood give you cancer.  Henceforth, all brisket must be prepared "a la Cornyn".

    So Dickeys playin the long game with the bag boilin and all?

    Nice Guy Eddie

    Posted

    4 hours ago, hookem2010 said:

    Imagine being such a fucking dork that not only did your high school and college peers refuse to invite you to parties, share their joints, or sleep with you, but half a century later you are still so obsessed with this rejection that you work tirelessly to ban porn and weed. I can only imagine sex not for the purposes of procreation is next.

    Im not a fan of thc products and you know my solution that works 100% of the time: I don’t use them. Ridiculous to ban the industry.

    the trouble with Texas is that it’s full of Texans.

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    Larry T. Spider

    Posted

    Colorado is making about 20 million a month in weed taxes. Texas has about 5x the population. Could help with reducing property taxes or funding schools…..but nah. We will just keep funding Colorado’s schools with our weed tourism. They have a fund that uses the excise tax money to renovate old schools or build new ones. 

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