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Posted

If I’m governor of a neighboring state, I’m putting up inspection stations at the state line and charging $1,000 to inspect your shit heap before you drive on my state’s roads.

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Posted

I think I read on here that the recommended tax for EV's was like $70/year (to offset gas taxes they don't pay).  So of course the Lege rounded up to $400.

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Posted

I feel like Dell Children's needs to fucking say something. This is so horrible it makes me want to cry. Kids are going to die or end up with lifelong problems and no one seems to fucking care unless it directly affects them. As the parent of an adolescent boy, I find it personally terrifying as well... that's what it feels like --terrorism by the government.

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Posted

the eating disorder and menstrual cycle nightmares hit home hard.

man...FUCK TEXAS LEADERS. and FUCK EVERY TEXAN that continues to vote for them. gotdamn.

 

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Posted

Kudos to Abbott, he's hell-bent on making Texas last-place in everything whether it be medical care or education, but he's also hell-bent on making us the laughing stock of America. A year from now after he starts wining 1%-2% of the votes in various primaries, and is left out of the debates, he'll have already damaged Texas and its reputation enough that instead of "Florida Man", there will be "Texas Man", and instead of the GIF of Bugs Bunny cutting off Florida, it'll be Bugs Bunny cutting out Texas.

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Posted

How Abbott cant see, probably because he is sitting down, that everyone on stage will turn the border from a Joe Biden problem to a Greg Abbot problem is hilarious.

his ass is gonna walk out there as a publicly elected leader for 20+ years and have an even worse “oops” than Perry did for the last 25 years to fix this and done nothing orobl

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Posted
How Abbott cant see, probably because he is sitting down, that everyone on stage will turn the border from a Joe Biden problem to a Greg Abbot problem is hilarious.
his ass is gonna walk out there as a publicly elected leader for 20+ years and have an even worse “oops” than Perry did for the last 25 years to fix this and done nothing orobl

Simpler than that. Abbott can’t see that the fear and hate crowd he is pandering to won’t vote for him because he’s a cripple.
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Posted

All of this misery visited upon our state because he moronically thought he had a chance this cycle.  And then he thinks when he drops out that the GOP nominee will give him a prominent appointment In exchange for delivering Texas.  Yeah Greg, that state that’s totally a battleground state in 2024 where every vote counts so it doesn’t go Blue.  
 

You fucking four wheeled failure. 

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Posted
On 5/17/2023 at 7:59 AM, Captainant said:
On 5/17/2023 at 6:33 AM, YGIFS said:

I don't know if more kids being homeschooled is an intentional or intentional consequence.

Idk, I for one think it's an intentional consequence. 

Like anyone could even know that

Posted
2 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

Texas and Florida are actually crazier than Alabama. Congratulations!

I actually have a theory.

Alabama is SO red that the crazy fringe doesn’t decide elections here, so our “leaders” don’t have to pander to them all the damn time.

The closeness - or the purpleness - of Texas and Florida give the nutters power. Thus, the pandering to their nuttiest desires.

Sure, Alabama will enact draconian abortion laws and laws about trans athletes but our legislators and Governor MeeMaw aren’t fucking around with UAB or Children’s Hospital or statewide book bans or university administrations etc.

If you’re winning elections by 10-15 points, the crazy QAnon 3-5% of the electorate staying home on Election Day doesn’t matter.

But if you’re only winning by 5 points or 30,000 votes in DeSantis’s case?

That 3-5% fucking matters.

Makes sense.

Posted
8 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:


Simpler than that. Abbott can’t see that the fear and hate crowd he is pandering to won’t vote for him because he’s a cripple.

you just blew my fucking mind. 

it's so obvious. he's basically a minority "other" who has to identify other "others" and turn up the hate machine to hand wave away his wheelchair. all because he has to find a way to appeal to voters keen on hate and cruelty. 

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Posted
44 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

you just blew my fucking mind. 

it's so obvious. he's basically a minority "other" who has to identify other "others" and turn up the hate machine to hand wave away his wheelchair. all because he has to find a way to appeal to voters keen on hate and cruelty. 

The worst thing, and he's too fucking stupid to realize this, is that him being disabled would actually give him a chance to make one helluva legacy. He attended a world-class institution that's basically in his backyard here in Austin that could back him, and tapping into those resources, and his resources as governor, he could do some amazing fucking things for disable people - the kinds of things that would cement a legacy for decades to come, that would get some important legislation named after him (at the national level no less), that could get parks, schools, buildings, etc. named for him.  Dude could have made a huge name for himself nationally, including things like paralympics stuff, etc.

Nope, he helped pull up the ladder after he got his payout so that others in his situation won't get a similar payout, and he's wasting his time and energy trying to appeal to people who look down upon him for being disabled, and his reputation nowadays is about cruelty towards people he doesn't agree with politically, and it's about hate and tapping into the hate to try to appeal to MAGA, who looks down upon people like him.

He's not going to get a cabinet position in the White House, he's never going to sniff the Supreme Court unless he visits as a tourist. He's too fucking stupid to understand that though.

Here's a nice little article from 2014 highlighting that:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2014/11/05/greg-abbott-disability-governor-wheelchair/81224030/

Quote

One of Greg Abbott's favorite lines on the campaign trail is that politicians often like to say they have a spine of steel, but he literally has one.

The Texas Republican, paralyzed from the waist down, is the first elected governor to be in a wheelchair since George Wallace of Alabama in 1982. Abbott's disability has been a mainstay of his campaign since he formally entered the governor's race more than a year ago on July 14. On that date in 1984, Abbott was jogging when a tree fell on his back and crushed his spine.

Quote

Advocates say Abbott could serve as an inspiration as the nation prepares next year  to mark the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Quote

"Visibility is always good," said Lawrence Carter-Long, a public affairs specialist at the National Council on Disability. "Having more disabled people everywhere is a good thing and having them in different jobs is a good thing. It opens the mind about what the possibilities are."

Abbott, the Texas attorney general, easily defeated Democratic state Sen.  Wendy Davis to become Texas' first new governor in 14 years. Toward the end of the race, she defended a campaign commercial that opened with an image of a wheelchair.

Instead, everybody just thinks of him as a fucking asshole politician.

If MAGA came out and said get rid of the ADA and stop making buildings, etc. ADA-compliant, Abbott would join them in a heartbeat.

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Posted
15 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

Texas and Florida are actually crazier than Alabama. Congratulations!

I actually have a theory.

Alabama is SO red that the crazy fringe doesn’t decide elections here, so our “leaders” don’t have to pander to them all the damn time.

The closeness - or the purpleness - of Texas and Florida give the nutters power. Thus, the pandering to their nuttiest desires.

Sure, Alabama will enact draconian abortion laws and laws about trans athletes but our legislators and Governor MeeMaw aren’t fucking around with UAB or Children’s Hospital or statewide book bans or university administrations etc.

If you’re winning elections by 10-15 points, the crazy QAnon 3-5% of the electorate staying home on Election Day doesn’t matter.

But if you’re only winning by 5 points or 30,000 votes in DeSantis’s case?

That 3-5% fucking matters.

Pipe down, woman.

uPpD-PvV_400x400.jpg

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Posted
With all due respect to you and Rep. Johnson, that speech sums up the problem with the Democrats: total weak sauce. That little speech is not gonna have any effect on MAGA-GQP seizing elections in Houston. Zip. Nada. None. Sounded like the speech of the losing team!
When in the hell are Democrats gonna take off the gloves and announce they will not let fascists and theocrats take over the state of Texas? Clearly, bluntly, proudly. 
I submit that until MAGA and the GOP become synonymous with fascism/theocracy in the minds and words of Democrats, the Dems are doomed to lose.
You cannot defeat what you fail to identify. Failure to identify means a failure understand. You cannot defeat what you fail to understand. End of story. And likely the end of democracy in Texas.
 
 

This. Every member of the GQP lies and calls democrats Marxists and communists. I’d just like the Dems to speak the TRUTH, and call the GQP what it is, a fascist religious zealot death cult.
Posted
51 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

With all due respect to you and Rep. Johnson, that speech sums up the problem with the Democrats: total weak sauce. That little speech is not gonna have any effect on MAGA-GQP seizing elections in Houston. Zip. Nada. None. Sounded like the speech of the losing team!

When in the hell are Democrats gonna take off the gloves and announce they will not let fascists and theocrats take over the state of Texas? Clearly, bluntly, proudly. 

It's annoying as shit, and yeah as an independent I bash the Dems a lot, but it's fully deserved - these are not the Dems of LBJ or even Ann Richards' times.

The only bright spot is that the Republicans are completely scared shitless of the Dems, which is why they are pulling this shit and why Abbott is trying so hard to impose his will on the larger counties.  If the Republicans weren't seeing data that scares them in 2024, they might have pushed this stuff off to 2025. They were desperate to push this through at all costs.

 

Posted
27 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


This. Every member of the GQP lies and calls democrats Marxists and communists. I’d just like the Dems to speak the TRUTH, and call the GQP what it is, a fascist religious zealot death cult.

Who exactly is the audience for this, though?  Do you think MAGA folks are shamed by the criticism?  Do you think the center-right Republicans who only want to preserve their economic might cringe at being called fascist?  What about the so-called “Christian” conservatives who agree little with the other two groups but have eaten heavily from a table that glorifies traditional gender roles, traditional marriage, and has been told that LGBT abortionists are the source of all their problems.  To them zealot is a compliment.  
 

And on the left, do you think they are somehow in the dark about the basket of deplorable making up today’s GOP?  Will publicly calling out the other side in the manner you describe excite them enough to vote for someone less charismatic than a once in a generation candidate like Obama?

I mean this sincerely as an inquiry into political tactics; who is the audience?  What is the objective of calling them out?  If it moves neither side then what purpose does it serve?

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Posted
Who exactly is the audience for this, though?  Do you think MAGA folks are shamed by the criticism?  Do you think the center-right Republicans who only want to preserve their economic might cringe at being called fascist?  What about the so-called “Christian” conservatives who agree little with the other two groups but have eaten heavily from a table that glorifies traditional gender roles, traditional marriage, and has been told that LGBT abortionists are the source of all their problems.  To them zealot is a compliment.  
 
And on the left, do you think they are somehow in the dark about the basket of deplorable making up today’s GOP?  Will publicly calling out the other side in the manner you describe excite them enough to vote for someone less charismatic than a once in a generation candidate like Obama?
I mean this sincerely as an inquiry into political tactics; who is the audience?  What is the objective of calling them out?  If it moves neither side then what purpose does it serve?

1) they need to be shamed. And harassed. Relentlessly. Drive a handful to suicide, if we can. There are a handful on whom this would still work. If we drive one of them to suicide from despair, that’s a win.
2) galvanize and invigorate their opposition. Hate is the currency that buys enthusiasm these days. Fail to transact in that economy at your peril. Get Dems fired up to fight against an actual force of evil…because that’s what they are.
Posted
4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


1) they need to be shamed. And harassed. Relentlessly. Drive a handful to suicide, if we can. There are a handful on whom this would still work. If we drive one of them to suicide from despair, that’s a win.
2) galvanize and invigorate their opposition. Hate is the currency that buys enthusiasm these days. Fail to transact in that economy at your peril. Get Dems fired up to fight against an actual force of evil…because that’s what they are.

I’d rather respond quickly rather than research and provide citations, but I’ve read plenty on #2 that argues that’s bad tactics with the Dems.  As a group they just don’t respond to fear based political messaging in the way that righties do.  
 

It’s unfortunate that the GOP elites have just nailed it when it comes to creating a platform that keeps their core constituents highly engaged.  We can argue that the Dems need to play rougher on the margins but let’s be honest, the failure on the Dem side isn’t because of messaging, it’s because they are just fucking terrible at playing the long game.  The small, subtle surrender in the rural areas begat state house losses.  The attempt to mollify their most socially progressive members alienated center right seniors, further compounding the loss in the rural areas and sparsely populated states and they keep pounding the table yelling “demographics will save us!” while the GOP knee caps them on voting rights.  
 

If you want to turn that around, you don’t do it by becoming opposite to Republicans but more righteous, you figure out how to win marginal elections in swing districts, groom state candidates that offer more than membership in a minority group, and grass roots the shit out of everything.  It’s labor intensive and expensive but unfortunately your voters don’t drink Fox-style Koolaid and you’ll have to actually work for their vote.  

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Posted
I’d rather respond quickly rather than research and provide citations, but I’ve read plenty on #2 that argues that’s bad tactics with the Dems.  As a group they just don’t respond to fear based political messaging in the way that righties do.  
 
It’s unfortunate that the GOP elites have just nailed it when it comes to creating a platform that keeps their core constituents highly engaged.  We can argue that the Dems need to play rougher on the margins but let’s be honest, the failure on the Dem side isn’t because of messaging, it’s because they are just fucking terrible at playing the long game.  The small, subtle surrender in the rural areas begat state house losses.  The attempt to mollify their most socially progressive members alienated center right seniors, further compounding the loss in the rural areas and sparsely populated states and they keep pounding the table yelling “demographics will save us!” while the GOP knee caps them on voting rights.  
 
If you want to turn that around, you don’t do it by becoming opposite to Republicans but more righteous, you figure out how to win marginal elections in swing districts, groom state candidates that offer more than membership in a minority group, and grass roots the shit out of everything.  It’s labor intensive and expensive but unfortunately your voters don’t drink Fox-style Koolaid and you’ll have to actually work for their vote.  

Counterpoint: the GQP are fascists, and we should treat them as such. In every way. Every way.
Posted
Pipe down, woman.
uPpD-PvV_400x400.jpg

Civics lesson time - he doesn’t have fuck to do with shit when it comes to state laws.

Also - pot, kettle etc.
giphy.gif

At least we elected a Democrat in a state election in the last decade.

Face it - as much as y’all like to portray Alabama as the poster child for red state craziness and being assbackward, Texas has lapped us in that race over the last three years.

We used to make ourselves feel better by exclaiming “Thank goodness for Mississippi!”.

Now it’s, “We may be crazy but at least we ain’t Florida and Texas crazy!”.

Roll Tide.
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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, LCHorn said:

Who exactly is the audience for this, though?  Do you think MAGA folks are shamed by the criticism?  Do you think the center-right Republicans who only want to preserve their economic might cringe at being called fascist?  What about the so-called “Christian” conservatives who agree little with the other two groups but have eaten heavily from a table that glorifies traditional gender roles, traditional marriage, and has been told that LGBT abortionists are the source of all their problems.  To them zealot is a compliment.  

And on the left, do you think they are somehow in the dark about the basket of deplorable making up today’s GOP?  Will publicly calling out the other side in the manner you describe excite them enough to vote for someone less charismatic than a once in a generation candidate like Obama?

I mean this sincerely as an inquiry into political tactics; who is the audience?  What is the objective of calling them out?  If it moves neither side then what purpose does it serve?

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:


1) they need to be shamed. And harassed. Relentlessly. Drive a handful to suicide, if we can. There are a handful on whom this would still work. If we drive one of them to suicide from despair, that’s a win.
2) galvanize and invigorate their opposition. Hate is the currency that buys enthusiasm these days. Fail to transact in that economy at your peril. Get Dems fired up to fight against an actual force of evil…because that’s what they are.

Here's a big part of the problem:

Trump won Texas by 5.6% of the votes.  A lot of people think that's a big percentage.  It's not - Trump only won Texas by 630,000 votes in 2020, and that 630,000 votes could be covered by Harris County and one or two other counties if they got off their asses and got more of the registered voters out to vote.  

The Republicans know how close things are. They know if they don't appeal to the lowest-common denominator, that they won't show up.  That if they don't scare the lowest common denominator, and not just the Cletuses (Cletii?) in the trailer parks, but some of the middle-class rednecks, etc., and if they don't get out the nutso Qanon types who weren't voting a lot prior to Trump arriving on the scene, then the Democrats will cover that 630,000 votes.

@LCHorn the Republican politicians also know that if they go batshit hard right-wing/fascist, whether it's taking control of Harris County's elections or trying to shove "unlicensed" chaplains in schools, that the "center-right Republicans who only want to preserve their economic might" will still pull that lever for Republicans.

That's the fucking problem.   The center-right Republicans will still vote Republican no matter how crazy things are, so the Republican politicians give no shits about moderate/center-right Republicans because they are already in the bag - they are focusing on trying to round up the "Oprah's drinking the fluids of children to stay young and JFK Jr is going to run with Trump" mentally ill types as well as the nutso Christian types who clearly haven't read a Bible in years.

The only good thing on the horizon is they can't stop the demographic changes that have them spooked about next year and 2028, and they are setting up fights with moderate Republicans who don't want Abbott or Patrick's views on Christianity shoved down their kids' throats, not to mention the majority Catholics who will not be pleased if a bunch of evangelical fuckheads show up in the schools. Religion is a very personal thing for most people, and the Republicans trying to shove their brand of Christianity into the public schools will get pushback once more people realize what's happening.

Edited by atomheartbevo
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Posted
6 hours ago, Bama Chick said:


Civics lesson time - he doesn’t have fuck to do with shit when it comes to state laws.

Also - pot, kettle etc.
giphy.gif

At least we elected a Democrat in a state election in the last decade.

Face it - as much as y’all like to portray Alabama as the poster child for red state craziness and being assbackward, Texas has lapped us in that race over the last three years.

We used to make ourselves feel better by exclaiming “Thank goodness for Mississippi!”.

Now it’s, “We may be crazy but at least we ain’t Florida and Texas crazy!”.

Roll Tide.

No shit. But you come in here acting like your state is immune from the cray  while your state elected probably the dumbest mother fucker ever to the Senate. 
Pipe. Down. 

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Posted
On 5/22/2023 at 5:02 PM, Bullneck said:

I was in Austin last week.  I see he signed into law the $400 a year tax on electric cars. 

 

On 5/22/2023 at 5:19 PM, tchookem said:
On 5/22/2023 at 5:02 PM, Bullneck said:
I was in Austin last week.  I see he signed into law the $400 a year tax on electric cars. 

Can someone explain the rationale behind this? Is there some cost that EVs have that would require a yearly tax?

https://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/effort-to-kill-state-vehicle-safety-inspections-advances-in-texas-senate/3262896/

On 5/22/2023 at 5:24 PM, YGIFS said:

So we're doing away with the fees collected testing the emissions of carbon-emitting cars in order to charge money on cars that have no emissions?  

With this outstanding logic, there'll be no more alcohol taxes on 3.1-7.1% beer but instead will be collected on 0.5% N/A beer to offset that.  

I got...i'm uh........nothing.  We get nothing for this.  I don't even know.  This is weird, even for Texas.  

Not just the fees, the inspections as well.  "Well, there's just too much fraud and corruption with the inspections so we just need to get rid of it.  Oh, we need that revenue?  Let's tax EV's.  Those people aren't supporting our O&G industry.

On 5/22/2023 at 5:27 PM, CTC2 said:

They don't pay gas tax for roads.  But Hot Wheels does not want people to buy EVs.  

 

On 5/22/2023 at 6:02 PM, gmr548 said:


You could rationalize that they’re not paying gas taxes and should chip in for road funding. I believe that’s the official position.

Of course, they’re contributing electric sales taxes at commercial chargers and the new EV tax is several times more than what the average Texas driver pays in gas taxes. That’s before even getting into how backwards it is with regard to climate and the environment.

The purpose is to disincentivize EV adoption. Everything they do is to please their corporate donors and/or the base. This happens to do a little bit of both. Neither constituency is known for thinking about long term societal consequences.

 

On 5/22/2023 at 7:57 PM, miguelito said:

I think I read on here that the recommended tax for EV's was like $70/year (to offset gas taxes they don't pay).  So of course the Lege rounded up to $400.

Probably. 

I mean, if the idea is to make EV's pay for their impact on the roads, I dunno, maybe tie to to annual odometer readings?  No, let's just put a blanket tax on them that far exceeds their contribution to maintenance expenses.

Posted

So EV drivers should pay more in taxes/fees because they don't support the O&G industry, but rather the sustainable energy industry which is unreliable for them because of how much we talk about how unreliable Solar & Wind are?  But their money is totally reliable based on their unreliable cars on our unreliable roads being charged by an unreliable energy mix of sustainable sources backed-stopped by a portfolio of hydrocarbons which are reliably unsustainable?  I have that right? 

Posted

EV drivers do a significant amount support the natural gas industry in texas.  generally, 40-50% texas grid is fed by natural gas.  when people plug their ev's in, the charge received by the car does not arrive by magic.

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Posted

Yes, I realize that.   We still do a decent portion of our business in the O&G space.  Was attempting (poorly) to point out that with solar charging stations, etc.-the EV market is not to be measured like traditional hydrocarbons nor their wear and tear on the roads and air.  Plus, as his former chief of staff-DH-warned Abbott, people will see this as a progressive tax on the rich.  "They can buy that vehicle and avoid taxes, well then they can pay this $400 fee by golly!"  Because that sounds an awful lot like, "They benefit from the same public infrastructure as the rest of us with those fancy cars...then they certainly have the means to pay their fair share!"   

Posted
41 minutes ago, sidis said:

EV drivers do a significant amount support the natural gas industry in texas.  generally, 40-50% texas grid is fed by natural gas.  when people plug their ev's in, the charge received by the car does not arrive by magic.

Happy Good Morning GIF by Curtains Cool

Posted

so Wal-Mart has an inclusive clothing section and now HEB went 'woke'.  

So for probably 51%+ of Texas counties, that means their population has to buy food at Dollar General/Family Dollar?  So they'll die off quicker with no fruits and vegetables?  And we're worried, why?  

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Posted (edited)

They could also die waiting in line at Dollar General.  Has to be the slowest checkout process on Earth.  And the employees don't even bother to restock the shelves.  They just leave shopping carts full of new shit in random aisles.

Edited by kevwun
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Posted
Just now, kevwun said:

They could also die waiting in line at Dollar General.  Has to be the slowest checkout process on Earth.

That's because there's usually a fist fight in front of you. Sometimes it's a cashier and a customer, others it's two cashiers. 

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Posted
6 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

So for probably 51%+ of Texas counties, that means their population has to buy food at Dollar General/Family Dollar?  So they'll die off quicker with no fruits and vegetables?  And we're worried, why?  

You are confusing idiots bitching about stores being woke with people actually boycotting them.   Our target hasn’t missed a beat.   HEB won’t either.  I know BUD has taken a hit, but then again, I didn’t know a single BL drinker, so maybe uninsulated from that.   But I’m in a community surrounded with folks that bitch about Target and now HEB now I guess, and not a single person will stop shopping there.  Kroger and Randall’s?  Yeah right. 

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Posted

Yeah, good point.  It's like an Aggie boycott.  Lotta noise and no follow-thru.  

People will literally bitch and moan about HEB rainbows as they're walking in and say, "Oh hey, bbq wood chips are on sale!"  

Ralph's Grocery of California is a very progressive company that donates lots of money to Democrats as one would expect.  If you were to tell Texas Republicans that, they'd happily boycott that store.  And then happily shop at Tom Thumb and Randall's without any sense of irony.  

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Posted
20 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Yeah, good point.  It's like an Aggie boycott.  Lotta noise and no follow-thru.  

People will literally bitch and moan about HEB rainbows as they're walking in and say, "Oh hey, bbq wood chips are on sale!"  

Ralph's Grocery of California is a very progressive company that donates lots of money to Democrats as one would expect.  If you were to tell Texas Republicans that, they'd happily boycott that store.  And then happily shop at Tom Thumb and Randall's without any sense of irony.  

And iirc (and I may be wrong) isn’t Trader Joe’s, other than the name, a progressive store?   The same guys that are sending me stupid memes, every single one of their wives shop there.   

Posted

It's a long story of how Trader Joe's came to be owned by a subsidiary of Aldi U.S.  And it remains complicated to this day.  But Aldi does have National Socialist roots in Germany, but was not an active participant in Nazism.  In the U.S., Trader Joe's largely has carte blanche to operate as they please.  But to your point, the company is more progressive and egalitarian than most grocers, and most any retailer for that matter.  So many Texas Republicans would be repulsed and refuse to shop at Trader Joe's if they knew their corporate model, politics, and environmental policies.  But as the Albrecht Brothers used to tell us, "Only time you worry about shopper volume dropping off is when they quit shouting about boycotts."  

We quietly tested out battery powered tractor-trailers for Aldi and Volvo many years ago to help transform fleet replacement's environmental impact on the supply chain and interstate transportation.  And we had to sign NDA's to not talk about it for several years because Aldi thought their middle-America shoppers would get pissy about them "going green."  In the end, the economics of the battery just didn't work taking up so much space in the trailer.  But we're at the point now where it works and it'll be deployed more and more across the market.  I only wish the Albrecht brothers would have lived long enough to see Abbott welcoming Musk's batteries to Texas only for Musk to go insane and Abbott's voters having their minds warped by a love of Musk but a hate for EV's.  But Karl and Theo were really ahead of their time.  

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Posted

Our little town was graced with an Aldi in the late 1970's.  That place was a dump.  My mom shopped there because the prices were good, but I hated it.  A Walmart is stylish by comparison.

It's still going strong.

Posted

that's their whole schtick.  Completely low-frills, borderline depressing.  Shitty lighting, no displays, skeleton staff, bag your own shit, 25 cents for a cart, no samples, etc.  It's literally designed to deliver quality sustenance at bare bones pricing.  Highest margins in the grocery industry for a reason.  At one point, the Albrecht brothers were the actual richest men in the world.  They didn't top any billionaires lists, but in reality they could activate more money than anyone else ahead of them because they were liquid.  Bill Gates may have been on top with $50bn but if he were to try to actually get $50bn, he'd end up with $10bn because he'd tank his own stock at sale.  But Karl & Theo could get their $30bn on a day's notice because they were all cash.  And it was precisely because of their shittastic shopping model.  

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Posted
2 hours ago, kevwun said:

They could also die waiting in line at Dollar General.  Has to be the slowest checkout process on Earth.  And the employees don't even bother to restock the shelves.  They just leave shopping carts full of new shit in random aisles.

Didn't one of our posters here get their Whataburger stolen from their truck when they went into a dollar general?

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