Rude Pundit: Texas Learns That Government Has to Do Something Other Than Restrict Abortion

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/02/texas-learns-that-government-has-to-do.html

In his State of the State address at the beginning of February, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott laid out five "emergency items" that the legislature can vote on within 60 days of the start of the session. These included passing a weak bail reform measure, punishing cities that "defund the police," protecting companies from lawsuits related to COVID-19, and doing something something "election integrity." The one infrastructure measure that was given emergency status was a genuinely good one: expanding broadband access for rural communities. Of course, it's hard to use broadband when your power is out.

The rest of Abbott's agenda was the usual conservative culture war bullshit. "In this session, we need a law that insures that the life of every child will be spared from the ravages of abortion," Abbott said. And "we need to erect a complete barrier against any government official anywhere from treading on gun rights in Texas. Texas must be a Second Amendment sanctuary state." Oh, and don't worry. Your right to get coronavirus at church will be protected: "I want a law this session that prevents any government entity from shutting down religious activities in Texas." In other words, mostly cruel and dumb garbage that benefits no one except the politicians who have lied so much that the truth looks like a liberal conspiracy to their idiot hordes.

There was no talk about using tax funds from the economy Abbott bragged about to shore up the energy grid in Texas. There was actually nothing else about infrastructure other than making sure that Pornhub streams smoothly on the ranches of West Texas. But Abbott did say one other thing that is pretty relevant to the frozen clusterfuck the state has become in the last two days: "Texas prides itself on low regulations, but our response to the crisis revealed even more regulations that can be cut... I’m asking the legislature to make permanent some of the regulatory relief that are authorized. This will cut red tape and unleash the full might of the Texas economy."

I'm going to guess that the blackouts, low or no water, frozen and burst pipes, and the damage all that causes will have a greater economic impact on Texas than the "red tape" of regulations. And, to state the blatantly obvious, it was lack of regulation enforcement or regulations themselves that created this ice dildo Texas fucked itself with. See, Texas had a similar situation in 1989 and decided, "Ah, fuck it, we'll be fine." Then it happened again in 2011 and Texas decided, "Ah, fuck it, we'll be fine."

*snip*

[Blue Owl]

1. K and fucking R

[Cirque du So-What]

2. I have a feeling

that people in Texas want more than, ‘Ah, fuck it, we'll be fine’ this time.

[gratuitous]

7. Anything's possible, I guess

But people's memories can be quite short when they survive a cataclysm like this. From what I can see of the state's voters, all a Republican has to do is squawk "Abortion! Taxes!" and the voters will elbow each other out of the way to be the next to cast their ballot for him.

[CrispyQ]

3. "...it was lack of regulation...that created this ice dildo Texas fucked itself with..."

I would use a rofl smilie but it's no laughing matter. When are people going to wake the fuck up?

[SledDriver]

4. Not sure, but this part kind of explains it

"...mostly cruel and dumb garbage that benefits no one except the politicians who have lied so much that the truth looks like a liberal conspiracy to their idiot hordes."

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Texas is super Gerrymandered

But it seems like we are inching closer and closer to Texas eventually going Purple/Blue. We have the same problems here in Indiana. The Republicans have a death grip on our state for much the same reason.

[localroger]

8. The problem with gerrymandering is it can turn on you quite suddenly

The more aggressively a gerrymander is engineered, the more sensitive it becomes to small demographic changes which can suddenly go from freezing the excluded party out to giving them supermajorities. The Texas gerrymander is probably more at risk for this than any other state, and I suspect the math wonks are having trouble explaining the problem to the pols who just want to do whatever it takes to win the next election.

[dalton99a]

5. And fake patriotism bullshit

[ProfessorGAC]

9. K&R!

Rudey nailed it.