Reluctantly — Fuck Texas

I was going to revive this thread this morning, so thanks for the assist.


Texas has so far removed 2.1 million Medicaid recipients from its rolls, which works out to 49% of the cases it has reviewed, more than twice the national average and a higher proportion than all but six other states, according to analysis by the San Francisco-based nonprofit KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The highest rates of Medicaid recipients losing coverage are in Republican-controlled states such as Texas, many of which had relatively low participation rates to begin with because of their decision not to expand Medicaid coverage beyond children, pregnant women and those in extreme poverty under the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act.

Most affected are children, who represent 65% of those dropped in Texas thus far.

Driving the high drop rate in Texas and other Republican-led states has been the practice of requiring Medicaid recipients to submit forms and documentation instead of using automated systems to check income and other factors to determine eligibility, Corallo said.

Once Medicaid coverage is lost, it can take up to a year to get it reinstated. Without health care coverage, many low-income families are forced to go without medical care for their children …

We loved those kids when they were still cute, tidy, undemanding fetuses, but once those danged children got born-ded, they became a drain on the state, and they and their parents are on their own.

Have they tried blaming undocumented immigrants yet? That always works.

I believe you meant this as a rhetorical statement but I can’t resist replying as if you were serious …

You might get that impression.

I get the impression the so-called “leaders” are deliberately failing to plan for energy challenges.

Doctrinally speaking, the “free market” always works ideally, and especially in situations where demand for [whatever] is short, spikey, and inelastic. By “free market” I don’t mean the boring business of generating and delivering electricity, but the exciting business of financial speculation in electricity. That’s where the real money is made. Either as a business insider or as a politician / regulator collecting bribes to ensure the speculation situation continues.

Poor people dying of heat or cold? “Baah! Who cares!” sez they.

If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

In case I wasn’t clear …

Poor people dying of heat or cold? “Baah! Who cares!” sez they the fatcats luxuriating in their own home-generated electricity. Besides, those doing the dying are mostly brown people who don’t matter anyway.

You snark, but that’s literally what some previous ERCOT folks said and what a lot of them still believe, i.e. that people would somehow learn to use less energy or be more efficient during peak summer to save some money. And that it would encourage producers to make more plants to take advantage but only if it’s a sustained thing, i.e. short spikes will just sometimes happen.

Yeah, when it’s 110 degrees outside and the grid is pushed to capacity, sure, it’s just the market reacting efficiently. It’s not people literally dying for lack of electricity.

You’re right I snark, but you’re spot-on that these doctrinaire dingbats believe that shit.

Enron made (and stole) billions that way. Some states learned that was a bad idea and altered their laws to prevent that. Texas said

Somebody hold my beer! Hey y’all! Watch this!!!11!11!!!

Don’t forget the Deep State. And they should work “woke” into it…and DEI and CRT. What the hell, the fans come to hear the greatest hits.

This is the way - if they didn’t have those people working at power plants, all would be fine.

A by-all-accounts peaceful student protest of the war in Gaza at the University of Texas today was met with a massive police show of force and mass arrests of those involved – including a reporter who’s crime seems to have been tripping and bumping into an officer. Of course, the police response was abetted by the completely-cowed UT administration and cheered on by Abbott and Patrick.

Speaking of Abbott:


“This person, a man, dressing as a woman in a public high school in the state of Texas, he’s trying to normalize the concept that this type of behavior is okay,” Abbott said Friday, according to an audio recording captured by the Texas Observer. “This type of behavior is not okay, and this is the type of behavior that we want to make sure we end in the state of Texas.”

State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, responded by writing, “Perverts should not be teachers.”

:roll_eyes:

Instead they should be POTUS.

Ah, yes, but thats a hetero pervert. The reechest kind.

Jeebus loves him some hetero-perverts. Or so says the Religious Right wackos.

Which demonstrates they’re as clueless about the religion they claim to follow as they are about human nature, modern society, human kindness, and … well … just about everything.

Bastards the lot of 'em.

As expected…

So murder is officially okay now in Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and a bunch of other red states if you’re the right color and the victim is, well, not.

And the Orange Anus wants to give police absolute immunity. That sounds promising for the ammosexuals.

Actually the victim was white in this case. Its just that the year long open season on blacks has been expanded to include all liberals regardless of complexion.

If it were a murder of a non white person I doubt there would have been a conviction or jail time to pardon in the first place .

Slightly off topic but how are fellow Houstonian all doing , everyone OK? Still out of power here in Spring Branch area, which is fine, lack of internet is the main issue for our youngest but they seem to have got cellular networks running at a decent rate.

Everything’s been ok in the Fort Bend area. Power didn’t even flicker once during the storm, though the wind was pretty heavy (not as heavy as up north though).

It’s incredibly odd how much of the extreme weather the last few weeks has been along and north of I-10.

In Spring. Was only extra rainy here. Lost power for a couple hours the other day but we have a whole house generator.