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  • Texas -- a failed state


    Brisketexan

    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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    https://mwareanews.com/2024/03/06/glenn-rogers-pens-response-to-election-loss/

     

    Good to see a politician mentioning Yass's name, it should be brought up at every discussion about school vouchers, Greg Abbot is a billionaire Yankee's puppet

    Quote

    First, I want to thank my supporters, those who voted for me and those who supported me prayerfully, financially, and in so many other ways. It has been the greatest honor to serve this district.

    The corruption that exists at the highest level of Texas state government would have made Governor “Pa” Ferguson blush.

    Governor Greg Abbott has defiled the Office of Governor by creating and repeating blatant lies about me and my House colleagues, those who took a stand for our public schools. I stood by the Governor on all his legislative priorities but just one, school vouchers. For just one disagreement, and for a $6 million check from Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvanian TikTok investor, and voucher vendor, Abbott went scorched earth against rural Texas and the Representatives who did their jobs-representing their districts. 

    My tenure in the Texas House included two general sessions, seven special sessions, redistricting, Covid, winter storm Uri, a Democrat quorum break, expulsion of a House member and the impeachment of Ken Paxton. It also includes a litany of conservative victories that made Texas safer, reigned in out-of-control government bureaucracy, lessened what had become a crushing tax burden on our families and businesses, and fostered economic growth.

    I am not a good politician. I am just a Texas rancher who wanted to make a difference in my community. Who knew this simple mission would have resulted in three brutal campaigns?

    Throughout my three campaigns, because of my unwillingness to be compliant with the two billionaire, “Christian” Nationalist, power brokers that run this state, I have been unmercifully slandered through the politics of unwarranted personal destruction on social media, radio, post mail, streaming sites, and cable television. 

    In my first race the opposition was the Wilks, Tim Dunn, Empower Texans, and the entire enterprise of dozens of PACs and “non-profits” they financed. The race ended in a hard fought Covi-delayed runoff victory against Farris Wilks ‘son-in-law.

    In my second race, my opposition was Wilks and Dunn, Empower Texans (rebranded to Defend Texas Liberty), and the Voucher Lobby, including the American Federation for Children and the School Freedom Fund (based in Virginia). In that race, we dealt with a runoff and an expensive, unnecessary recount.

    In my third race the opposition was all the above, but now included a rebranded Defend Texas Liberty (Texans United for a Conservative Majority), vastly greater money from the Voucher Lobby, and Governor Greg Abbott. 

    This time the millions of dollars spent spreading lies about my record and the non-stop false impugning of my integrity were just too much to overcome. The real losers in this race are:

    1)Texas Public Schools; 

    2) Rural Texas; and 

    3) Representative Government.

    This morning, I have no regrets. I believe in the words of Sam Houston, “Do right and risk the consequences.”

    History will prove Ken Paxton is a corrupt, sophisticated criminal. History will prove vouchers are simply an expensive entitlement program for the wealthy and a get rich scheme for voucher vendors. History will prove Governor Greg Abbott is a liar.

    History will prove that our current state government is the most corrupt ever and is “bought” by a few radical dominionist billionaires seeking to destroy public education, privatize our public schools and create a Theocracy that is both un-American and un-Texan.

    May God Save Texas!

     

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    Speaking to Newsweek, Miller said: "This was a big night for us. It means that we are virtually guaranteed to see the Texas Independence Referendum Act filed in the next session of the Texas Legislature, putting Texans one step closer to a vote on TEXIT. It shows that we are winning the battle for the future of Texas."

    https://www.newsweek.com/texas-nationalists-celebrate-independence-vote-virtually-guaranteed-1877318

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    On 3/5/2024 at 11:33 AM, tx 3 putt said:

     

     

    There is a 0% chance that the n word is not spoken at that table. The woman is probably polite enough to whisper or even mouth the word, at least until the third drink hits.

    i wonder if the Fox News now has a safe word that then the producers say to the reporters to abandon a live interview. In case the reporter is not realizing the danger. 

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    When people are lemmings for team politics, the ruling party gets more bought and more corrupt.

     

    https://www-dallasnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2024/03/14/defeated-republican-calls-texas-state-government-the-most-corrupt-ever/?outputType=amp&amp_js_v=0.1&amp_gsa=1#webview=1

    After his stunning defeat in the recent Republican primary, State Rep. Glenn Rogers unloaded on the corruption of Texas government that reaches, he says, to “the highest level.”

    Rogers, 68, wrote that he agrees with the statement by others that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is “a corrupt sophisticated criminal.”

    He continued, “Our current state government is the most corrupt ever and is bought by a few radical billionaires seeking to destroy public education” and also “create a theocracy.”

     

    Q: When you say “corruption at the highest level,” what do you mean?

    Rogers: Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks are the two most powerful men in state politics. And they’ve created a compliant Senate for the most part. And they’re seeking to have a compliant House. The election results go a long way to a compliant House. That should be very alarming to Texans. Having a few billionaires have that much control over state government is not the Texas way or the American way. They finally spent enough money and told enough lies to defeat me.

     

    Q: In your column, you wrote that current activities would make Gov. Pa Ferguson blush. Pa is considered Texas’ worst governor.

    Rogers: It’s not the same corruption that occurred with Pa Ferguson. Now it’s more widespread. This is not targeted at Gov. Abbott. It’s targeted at the level of corruption that exists throughout the Texas state government right now — and with the way leaders, state officials and legislators are manipulated by Dunn and Wilks.

    Q: You wrote that aside from privatizing public schools, the billionaires want to turn America into a theocracy.

    Rogers: Lord knows we need God today with all the problems we have. But we don’t need these radical Christian nationalists’ beliefs that are really dangerous to democracy and religious freedom.

    Q: You wrote that Paxton is a corrupt sophisticated criminal. You voted to impeach him.

    Rogers: That’s a quote from State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano. The House was acting as a grand jury. There was compelling evidence that this needed to be moved to the Senate for trial.

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    Unchecked power corrupts is not just conventional wisdom. It's a demonstrable trait of human nature. Democracies have a compelling social interest thru progressive taxation and enforcement not to "punish success" but to check totalitarianism.

    Billionaires or Democracy

    Choose one.

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    Put some thought tonight to the MAGA premise, focused solely on Texas. What would it take to make Texas great again? What are the glory years I would like to see again? For me, and I acknowledge from the start my answer is merely a data point, those years were my formative years. The 70s. Texas had become part of the modern era, it offered, as it always has, opportunity, resources, and elbow room. It wasn’t, by any stretch, ideal, due to its baggage, not to mention the corruption of the political party holding the reins. But, in the 70s, Texas did the minimum to look towards the future and it abided, nominally, to the structure of common understanding and law; that, to me, is the sweet spot.

    Texans elected folk who funded public projects, such as highways and schools. And it raised the money to get that done. Accessibility and opportunity were a source of state pride.

    There is no debate that we have swapped pride in our future, and our state, to political ends. For example, the cheapest way to design, build, and maintain state roads and highways is through the collective effort known as government. No question. No debate. The smartest way to honor our love for our land and it’s future. Get it done right, and don’t spend more than you must.

    There is no political will to so address Texas’ future. Too many people think they can use without giving something back. Fuck every last one of you ingrates. Take it from your wives and kids, there is a flaw in your soul.

    I was unable to find a source confirming the quote I have heard often, that Willie Nelson claimed he always knew when he had crossed the border back into Texas, for the highways were always smoother here. But I came across another Willie quote, where he claims the enduring reason he loves the Lone Star State is that there is no one in control. All you damaged goods voting to create such control, diaf with the knowledge that you are not one of us. I you are no Texan.

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    13 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

    Jesus titty-fucking Christ we have the dumbest, most evil cunts alive in charge of Texas. 


    that ‘law’ is beyond stupid 

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    20 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

    But they're not banned from promoting the injection of bleach

    Because that makes people whiter.

    Edited by HenryJames
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    You know... someone dropped a Clayton Williams reference elsewhere on a different thread.  Thinking back to the fact that Claytie was the GOP candidate for Governor against Ann Richards, why are we surprised by any of this???

    image.png.c319f65b17e671c640f936f5c7e164ca.png

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    1 hour ago, texasdago said:

    You know... someone dropped a Clayton Williams reference elsewhere on a different thread.  Thinking back to the fact that Claytie was the GOP candidate for Governor against Ann Richards, why are we surprised by any of this???

    image.png.c319f65b17e671c640f936f5c7e164ca.png

    Shit....at this point, I'd give my left nut for a statewide Republican leader with the intelligence, decency, and spine of Claytie.

    But he wouldn't even have a chance of winning a primary - he'd be a libtard RINO.

    That's where we are.

    Edited by Brisketexan
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    "Texas Tough" is the dumbest god damn slogan going.  Everyone that spouts it is a raging pussy that needs their pew pew pews to leave their house.

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    38 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    "Texas Tough" is the dumbest god damn slogan going.  Everyone that spouts it is a raging pussy that needs their pew pew pews to leave their house.

    And yet so appropriate for the inferiority complexes and tiny dicks these people walk around with.

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    50 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    "Texas Tough" is the dumbest god damn slogan going.  Everyone that spouts it is a raging pussy that needs their pew pew pews to leave their house.

    Texas tough is the good HEB trash bags 

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    3 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

    ... because freedom of speech won't exist in an independent Texas. Or Medicare. Or Social Security. Public education and electricity are kinda iffy too. 

    Half of those don’t exist in Texas right now. 

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    51 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

    Half of those don’t exist in Texas right now. 

    We wouldn’t exist for very long anyways.  I don’t think our 20,000 National Guard troops (many of whom will bail for the US and not stay in Texas) will not keep out the 130 million Catholic Mexicans living next door.  Because MAGA believes they will invade.

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    On 3/31/2024 at 8:56 AM, atomheartbevo said:

    We wouldn’t exist for very long anyways.  I don’t think our 20,000 National Guard troops (many of whom will bail for the US and not stay in Texas) will not keep out the 130 million Catholic Mexicans living next door.  Because MAGA believes they will invade.

    Why would Mexicans want to come to an independent Texas?  It will be a bigger cluster fuck than their current country.

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    30 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    Why would Mexicans want to come to an independent Texas?  It will be a bigger cluster fuck than their current country.

    To take it back?  La reconquista. 

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    1 hour ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    Why would Mexicans want to come to an independent Texas?  It will be a bigger cluster fuck than their current country.


    unprotected border, then walk into bexar or harris county. no way in hell bexar or harris is leaving the US. Ill guess the top 10 to 12 Texas counties (by population) stay in the US 

    now, does abbott / patrick / paxton have the balls to ‘retire’ the county/city leadership in those counties, then install a puppet local govt before succession ?

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    1 hour ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    Why would Mexicans want to come to an independent Texas?  It will be a bigger cluster fuck than their current country.

     

    Why does Putin want Ukraine (and Georgia), why does china want Taiwan, the Norks want to reunify

    I have no idea what the sentiment in Mexico is right now about wanting i historical/ancestorial land back but if the giant obstacle called the US military is no longer an obstacle, would it surprise you to see them make a play?

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    Texans have had 26,000 rape-related pregnancies since Roe v. Wade was overturned, study finds

    Spoiler

    More than 26,000 Texans are estimated to have become pregnant as a result of a rape since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022 — the highest number among the 14 states that enacted total abortion bans after the high court ended the federal right to terminate a pregnancy, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    The study, published Wednesday, estimates that 5,586 of the rape-related pregnancies, or 9%, occurred in states with rape exceptions to their bans, and 58,979, or 91%, occurred in states with no exceptions. Texas, which allows abortions only when the life of the mother is at risk, had the most pregnancies resulting from rapes — 26,313, or 45% of the 14 states' combined total. Texas has the largest population of the 14 states studied.

    Fewer than 10 abortions per month are reported in each of the states analyzed, the study says, suggesting that even in states with exceptions for rape, survivors are not accessing abortion services.

    In Texas, an average of nine abortions per month occurred between July 2022 and June 2023, according to the Society for Family Planning. In 2021, the year when the state banned abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, more than 50,000 pregnancies were terminated in Texas; in 2020, nearly 54,000 abortions occurred, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Department.

    President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have made abortion rights, and Texas' ban in particular, a focus of their reelection campaign, featuring plaintiffs of a major Texas abortion lawsuit over medical exceptions in campaign ads. The White House has also invited Kate Cox, a Dallas woman whose request to terminate a pregnancy with a fatal fetal diagnosis was rejected by the Texas Supreme Court in December, to attend Biden's State of the Union address in March.

    “It is unconscionable that this is happening in America. The overturning of Roe v. Wade has already led to 21 dangerous abortion bans in effect in states across the country, many of which have no exceptions for rape or incest," White House spokesperson Kelly Scully told the American-Statesman. "This is the extreme agenda that Republican elected officials want to impose in every state in the country through a national abortion ban. President Biden and Vice President Harris will continue to fight for the right to choose and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law.”

    To form the basis of the study, researchers used confidential survey data on sexual assault from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and crime data from the FBI and the Justice Department to estimate rape numbers. Researchers then applied state-level data on the percentage of completed rapes that resulted in pregnancies. They projected that 519,981 completed rapes and 64,565 resulting pregnancies occurred during the four to 18 months the abortion bans have been in effect in all 14 states.

    Five of the states studied have exceptions for rape but require the assaults to be reported to law enforcement. Women are most likely to experience sexual assault at the hands of intimate partners or acquaintances; only about 1 in 5 rapes are committed by strangers, according to Justice Department statistics. White said that, under those circumstances, seeking abortion care is more complicated for many survivors. 

    "No woman anywhere should be forced to birth her rapists’ baby," state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, wrote in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, after the report was published. "No child anywhere should be forced to birth her rapists’ baby."

    Determinants such as race and economic status often further complicate abortion care for many women and girls seeking to end a rape-related pregnancy in states with abortion bans, experts say.

    “It's very difficult for people who may not even have control of their own financial resources to get to another state to get abortion care, or to get out from under the person who caused it, (and) to travel for hundreds of miles or overnight to get the kind of health care that they need,” Dr. Kari White, the report's co-author and director of the Austin-based Resound Research for Reproductive Health, told the Statesman. 

    White estimates that rape-related pregnancies in Texas will likely increase, with no sign from the Republican-controlled Legislature of budging on the state's ban.

    “With the abortion ban still being in place in Texas, the large numbers that we're seeing now are likely to continue to grow,” she said.  

    How many rape-related pregnancies have there been in states with total abortion bans?

    States with rape exceptions:

    Idaho — 1,436

    Indiana — 1,098

    Mississippi — 1,409

    West Virginia — 1,255

    North Dakota — 388

    States with no rape exception:

    Alabama — 4,130

    Arkansas — 4,655

    Kentucky — 2,965

    Louisiana — 4,287

    Missouri — 5,825

    Oklahoma — 4,529

    South Dakota — 1,282

    Tennessee — 4,993

    Texas — 26,313

     

    https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2024/01/25/texas-rape-statistics-pregnancies-roe-v-wade-overturned-abortion-ban/72339212007/

     

    Way to go Texas repulicans 

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    On 3/5/2024 at 10:34 AM, crash_davis said:

    This sums up everything.

    dcr49pmadfmc1.png?auto=webp&s=5a21ff8382

    I'd definitely vote for Max Headroom over dumbfuck Trump.  

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    ‘Maybe Texas went too far’ with immigration law, state lawyer tells federal court

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/03/politics/texas-sb4-immigration-5th-circuit/index.html

    Quote

    An attorney defending Texas’ controversial immigration law told a federal appeals court on Wednesday that state legislators may have gone “too far” when they passed a controversial immigration law last year.

    The law, known as SB4, makes entering Texas illegally a state crime and allows state judges to order immigrants to be deported.

    At 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson said that when designing the law, lawmakers sought to go “up to the line” in terms of what Supreme Court precedent allows states to do.

    RELATED ARTICLETexas immigration controversy rekindles fight over Arizona’s ‘show me your papers’ law

    But, Nielson added: “Now, to be fair, maybe Texas went too far.”

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    Nielson is arguing before a circuit panel that has already paused the law from going to effect while the court further examines the statute. Nielson sought to downplay how sweeping the law was and argued it did not interfere with federal authority on immigration.

    On Wednesday, Nielson said that, under the Texas Attorney General’s office interpretation of the state law, the migrants subject to state court deportation orders would be turned over to federal immigration authorities at border ports and then the federal officials would determine whether they should be released by into the United States while they await further proceedings.

    Chief Circuit Judge Priscilla Richman, a conservative judge who was the key swing vote in the 2-1 panel decision last week that temporarily paused the law, was skeptical of Nielson’s attempts to limit the state law’s scope.

    “What has the statute accomplished?” She asked Nielson.

    An attorney for the Justice Department, which brought one of the lawsuits challenging the Texas statute, urged the appeals court not to depart from its previous ruling blocking the law.

    “Nothing that has happened this morning provides any basis for deviating from the analysis set out in this Court’s stay opinion,” DOJ attorney Daniel Tenny told the appeals court Wednesday.

    Judge Andrew Oldham, the only member of the panel who appears ready to uphold the law, peppered an attorney for the Biden administration with questions that sought to undermine the arguments pushed by the administration and other plaintiffs in opposition to the law.

    “Never in the history of the nation has the United States achieved what they’ve achieved in this case, which is a facial invalidation of a statute that never went into effect,” he said at one point. “It’s an extraordinary achievement that the United States has won.”

    Nielson told the court that SB 4 was the state’s attempt to enforce federal immigration laws he claimed the Biden administration was ignoring.

    “Of course, we know that presidents come and go, and different administrations might very well enforce federal law differently,” he said, arguing that the law may not be necessary under a different presidential administration.

    He went on to say that if the court finds that some aspects of the Texas law are invalid, it should not strike down the entire law but instead “sever” those parts to let the other provisions remain on the books.

    kristen-wiig-no-way-wow-kays2mhz2ziikd2d

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    13 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    Some big money donor’s construction company is feeling a labor pinch. 

     

    image.gif.0d3618ae3e1f96e15c66352ad9823529.gif

     

     

    Edited by C-Man
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    20 hours ago, Smax said:

    Texans have had 26,000 rape-related pregnancies since Roe v. Wade was overturned, study finds

      Reveal hidden contents

    More than 26,000 Texans are estimated to have become pregnant as a result of a rape since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022 — the highest number among the 14 states that enacted total abortion bans after the high court ended the federal right to terminate a pregnancy, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    The study, published Wednesday, estimates that 5,586 of the rape-related pregnancies, or 9%, occurred in states with rape exceptions to their bans, and 58,979, or 91%, occurred in states with no exceptions. Texas, which allows abortions only when the life of the mother is at risk, had the most pregnancies resulting from rapes — 26,313, or 45% of the 14 states' combined total. Texas has the largest population of the 14 states studied.

    Fewer than 10 abortions per month are reported in each of the states analyzed, the study says, suggesting that even in states with exceptions for rape, survivors are not accessing abortion services.

    In Texas, an average of nine abortions per month occurred between July 2022 and June 2023, according to the Society for Family Planning. In 2021, the year when the state banned abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, more than 50,000 pregnancies were terminated in Texas; in 2020, nearly 54,000 abortions occurred, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Department.

    President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have made abortion rights, and Texas' ban in particular, a focus of their reelection campaign, featuring plaintiffs of a major Texas abortion lawsuit over medical exceptions in campaign ads. The White House has also invited Kate Cox, a Dallas woman whose request to terminate a pregnancy with a fatal fetal diagnosis was rejected by the Texas Supreme Court in December, to attend Biden's State of the Union address in March.

    “It is unconscionable that this is happening in America. The overturning of Roe v. Wade has already led to 21 dangerous abortion bans in effect in states across the country, many of which have no exceptions for rape or incest," White House spokesperson Kelly Scully told the American-Statesman. "This is the extreme agenda that Republican elected officials want to impose in every state in the country through a national abortion ban. President Biden and Vice President Harris will continue to fight for the right to choose and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law.”

    To form the basis of the study, researchers used confidential survey data on sexual assault from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and crime data from the FBI and the Justice Department to estimate rape numbers. Researchers then applied state-level data on the percentage of completed rapes that resulted in pregnancies. They projected that 519,981 completed rapes and 64,565 resulting pregnancies occurred during the four to 18 months the abortion bans have been in effect in all 14 states.

    Five of the states studied have exceptions for rape but require the assaults to be reported to law enforcement. Women are most likely to experience sexual assault at the hands of intimate partners or acquaintances; only about 1 in 5 rapes are committed by strangers, according to Justice Department statistics. White said that, under those circumstances, seeking abortion care is more complicated for many survivors. 

    "No woman anywhere should be forced to birth her rapists’ baby," state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, wrote in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, after the report was published. "No child anywhere should be forced to birth her rapists’ baby."

    Determinants such as race and economic status often further complicate abortion care for many women and girls seeking to end a rape-related pregnancy in states with abortion bans, experts say.

    “It's very difficult for people who may not even have control of their own financial resources to get to another state to get abortion care, or to get out from under the person who caused it, (and) to travel for hundreds of miles or overnight to get the kind of health care that they need,” Dr. Kari White, the report's co-author and director of the Austin-based Resound Research for Reproductive Health, told the Statesman. 

    White estimates that rape-related pregnancies in Texas will likely increase, with no sign from the Republican-controlled Legislature of budging on the state's ban.

    “With the abortion ban still being in place in Texas, the large numbers that we're seeing now are likely to continue to grow,” she said.  

    How many rape-related pregnancies have there been in states with total abortion bans?

    States with rape exceptions:

    Idaho — 1,436

    Indiana — 1,098

    Mississippi — 1,409

    West Virginia — 1,255

    North Dakota — 388

    States with no rape exception:

    Alabama — 4,130

    Arkansas — 4,655

    Kentucky — 2,965

    Louisiana — 4,287

    Missouri — 5,825

    Oklahoma — 4,529

    South Dakota — 1,282

    Tennessee — 4,993

    Texas — 26,313

     

    https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2024/01/25/texas-rape-statistics-pregnancies-roe-v-wade-overturned-abortion-ban/72339212007/

     

    Way to go Texas repulicans 

    How much raping is going on to end up with 26,000 pregnancies?  I'd like to see that study

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    35 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

    Some big money donor’s construction company is feeling a labor pinch. 

    And some folks in agriculture.  

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    10 minutes ago, babysdaddy said:

    How much raping is going on to end up with 26,000 pregnancies?  I'd like to see that study

    Yeah, that total seems ridiculous.  From a public health perspective 26,000 rapes, period, since 2022 is unacceptable.  

    • Hook 'Em 1
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    2 minutes ago, Satchel said:

    Since harvesting food and building houses will be more difficult without migrants, what’s Abbott’s plan B?

    Enslave ethnics?

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