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u/Bob_Pthhpth Feb 06 '23
And they’ll probably re-elect him +11 again.
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u/Ramble81 Feb 06 '23
Because the people without power aren't his voters so he doesn't care. It mainly hit urban areas which lean democrat.
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u/Daveinatx Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
Only 25% of Texan voters actually voted. His vote count was similar to his first election.
Edit: "In Texas, 8.1 million people, or 45.7% of the 17.7 million registered voters, cast ballots in the 2022 midterm election. That’s 7.3 percentage points lower than the state's total turnout in 2018"
It was pointed out my percentage was based on eligible vs registered voters. Thanks for the clarification!
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u/blaykerz Feb 06 '23
The idiotic negligence of Abbott and Cruz are actually driving factors in why I make it a point to vote.
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u/KaecUrFace Feb 06 '23
Along with the idiotic Texans who vote for these nut jobs are the actual driving factors in why I decided not to move to Texas. I was so close to moving there too because of family.
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u/Suck_Me_Dry666 Feb 06 '23
You really dodged a bullet. It's a horrid place.
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u/LnStrngr Feb 06 '23
And maybe even literally dodged a bullet.
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u/ViciousMihael Feb 06 '23
I laughed and then realized there’s a very morbid truth to that.
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u/mindspork Feb 06 '23
No that's Chicago dontcha know?
/every GQP idiot ever
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u/RTalons Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
Chicago has been a post apocalyptic gang wasteland since the 90s if you only listen to right wing sources.
Have been there many times. It’s fine.
Edit: as others are saying, most cities have good and bad areas. None are paradise or wasteland throughout.
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u/HighMont Feb 06 '23
Same with California. Always described by conservatives as a lawless liberal hellscape.
I lived their for a couple years. Not perfect, but a lot better than some red states I've lived in. And certainly not lawless or a hellscape.
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u/Suck_Me_Dry666 Feb 06 '23
So I live in a rural place but I've lived in cities big and small and what really gets me is how they (conservatives) talk about drug addict wastelands in cities while conveniently ignoring Terry down the road with a literal dump in his back yard complete with 8 cars who's selling stolen catalytic converters to feed his meth and or pill habit. Per Capita I'd reckon there's more drug users here than in the closest large city (Portland.)
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u/DonsDiaperIsFull Feb 06 '23
according to my parents who live in a chicago suburb, chicago is basically burned down to the ground by BLM.
also burned down completely: Portland, Boston, NY, SF, LA, Houston, Minneapolis, Miami, and every single city that anyone ever called a "sanctuary city"
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u/TwoManShoe Feb 06 '23
I was born and raised in Texas and moved to Chicago this passed August. I've been having a great time.
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u/Steed1000 Feb 06 '23
No way man! The air in Chicago is 80% bullets, didn't you hear?
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u/nolandz1 Feb 06 '23
Just like literally any city it can vary neighborhood to neighborhood or even block by block.
In terms of crime statistics we're usually not even top 10. Those would be the cities in red states.....curious
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u/jaxonya Feb 06 '23
Texan checking in. Texas is an amazing place that is working on turning blue. The diversity is so awesome, we just need time to fix things. Where we go as a state can shift the dynamic of the entire united states, so jump on board with us leaning left. Yes, the right is fighting tooth and nail to keep this a red republic because they know that they are fucked if it shifts, so PLEASE take every opportunity to encourage Texas to finally push this country forward. If Texas shifts, the whole country shifts and Republicans are basically fucked.
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u/hotsizzler Feb 06 '23
Then it needs to be attractive go live there. Aka. Not living for days without power regularly
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u/Ok_Beacher Feb 06 '23
4th generation German Texan here, I’m leaving at the end of my current lease and you are dead on. The straw that broke the camels back is that we can’t keep the goddamn lights on for days at a time. 2nd richest state in the richest country on earth and we just don’t get to have ELECTRICITY for a week every year.
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u/str8bliss Feb 06 '23
I sympathize for your woes, truly. But respectfully, by what metric is Texas the second most wealthy state?
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u/austin06 Feb 06 '23
Was there with my husband for a couple of decades for work. Dallas and then outside of Austin. By the time we left after the 2021 terrible freeze, to me, it was getting way worse. In my middle upper class neighborhood where I'd happily stood in line in 2008 with a long line of Democrats to vote for Obama, I now drove past trump and q signs to leave my neighborhood. I felt like a foreigner. Just to the west in New Braunfels there was an almost daily trump parade and I was told that one of the key planners of January 6th lived there.
Many, many people from other states including CA and CO have moved in -because- of crazy abbot and others. I wouldn't step foot back there now with the reproductive rights ban alone. Throw in the weather and days of 100+ degrees in the summer and yet another dire situation in the winter and there is simply zero appeal other than jobs. I know people have ptsd from 2021 and now this? Who wants to live in fear if the weather is too cold or too hot that they won't have power or food?
I always have defended TX metro areas as they are blue, but it just does not seem to be getting better but worse. If I were a younger person I would cross TX off the list because of it's radical govt same with Fl. I hope it does change as I hope other places change, but it seems to be headed down a different path.
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u/kimlion13 Feb 06 '23
I’ve lived in FL since 2016 & DeathSantis fans have been pouring in the last few years, as if the state needed any help in the assclown department. I totally agree: if I were younger, or had school age kids, there’s no way in hell I’d live here, & may leave regardless. What’s especially sad is the “conservatives” moving here are finding out that affordable housing is almost nonexistent in much of the state, & homeowners insurance is equally expensive. The GOP is a nightmare
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u/austin06 Feb 06 '23
I grew up in fl and we still have friends there, none of whom can stomach the gov. Same in tx- the “no tax” state is certainly not cheap with extremely high property taxes and other taxes. Metro areas are expensive. Unfortunately as long as there are jobs and companies moving in people will still move there. The “migration” of nuts to these areas has got to push a lot of people out along with the policies. How sad.
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u/tunaburn Feb 06 '23
Turning blue?
2022- Abbott got 55% of the vote
2018- abbott got 55% of the vote
2014- abbott got 59% of the vote
2010- perry got 55% of the vote
2006- perry only got 39% of the vote but still won
2002-perry got 57% of the vote
It looks like nothing is changing to me
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u/SH92 Feb 06 '23
Presidential elections:
2000 - 38% for Al Gore
2004 - 38.2% for Kerry
2008 - 43.7% for Obama
2012 - 41.4% for Obama
2016 - 43.2% for Clinton
2020 - 46.5% for BidenPart of the reason that Democrats haven't been able to move the needle in Governor's race is that there hasn't honestly been a strong contender for a while.
How many of these names do you know? Tony Sanchez Jr., Chris Bell, Bill White, Wendy Davis, Lupe Valdez, Beto O'Rourke. I bet only one, maybe two.
The other part of the reason is that for all of the gains that Democrats made in the cities, they lost an equal amount along the boarder. The southern border has continued to get redder and redder as they get poorer and deal with more illegal immigration.
And there has never been an acceptable position in the last 10 years from a Democrat on how to tackle the oil industry in the state. Many people in the oil business believe a vote for the Democrats in the state is a vote to lose their own job.
So things are changing, but there is just a lot that needs to change before you'll see a truly blue Texas.
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u/confessionbearday Feb 06 '23
“Lost an equal amount at the boarder”
Someone needs to ask Abbott what he’s doing with the money then, because no competent adult would need more than he’s getting to solve this problem.
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u/canadiancreed Feb 06 '23
"There hasnt been a strong canidate..."
Therein lies tge problem for the left and centre leaning voters. The left requires perfection. Tge right only requires a pulse. We had tge same reasons here in Ontario for why peiple didnt vote and now have a bloated gasbag running the province into tge ground.
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u/tunaburn Feb 06 '23
If I'm still alive in 30 years I'm sure Texas will still be "turning blue" like it was 30 years ago.
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u/peon2 Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
Turnout was still bad but you are incorrect. 25% of the Texas POPULATION, voted. 8 million votes cast, and they have 30 million people, but there are also people under 18 and people ineligible to vote.
There are 17.7 million registered voters in Texas so the voter turnout was 46%
For reference in the US presidential elections usually about 55-60% of eligible voters turn out, which the 2022 election being a good outlier at 67%
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u/Thatmadmankatz Feb 06 '23
Texans need to vote if they actually give a shit about getting rid of him which they don’t so they must not.
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u/Ocularias Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
It's rough, they made voting as impossible as humanly possible in a lot of urban areas. Hours long lines that the poor can't afford to wait in.
Edit because people keep saying "I had no issues": Cool. Many, many did.
https://www.kxan.com/news/political-news/voters-face-long-lines-few-problems-at-polls-so-far/
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/texas-election-day-lines-17569158.php
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u/Schneetmacher Feb 06 '23
Didn't they also have only one drop box for the entirety of Houston? Millions of people, one ballot drop box...
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u/SoCuteShibe Feb 06 '23
I really hope people can get out of that terrible state. Even at the peak of the day I can vote in 15 minutes or less every time. Live in a very population-dense area too.
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u/NorthImpossible8906 Feb 06 '23
Friends of ours moved to Texas years ago. They claim to have voted for Abbot because he is "tough on crime" and apparently "crime" is the very very worst problem they have in Texas.
Spoiler: they are very religious, attend church constantly several days a week, and their church told them to vote republican. So that's the real reason, they just made up some fake reason to pretend they were not just obeying orders from Jesus.
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u/taws34 Feb 06 '23
Ask them if crime has been getting worse since they moved.
If they say yes, tell them the Texas state government has been in complete Republican control for 20 years. If crime is worse, maybe look into what those politicians are actually voting for, instead of what they talk about in press releases and Twitter.
If they say no, ask them why 80+ Texas cops were afraid to go into a school where a crazy guy was murdering 4th graders for more than an hour? They were trained to immediately try to engage the shooter.
And that Republicans have been paying for them, their training, and their incompetence for the last 20 years.
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u/ertyertamos Feb 06 '23
They’ll just blame democrats, the border, and other federal policies for all their crime issues. And then they’ll say, “think of how much worse it would be if not for the bulwark of our glorious Republican governors.”
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Feb 06 '23
They need a magic sky man to spoon feed them a value system.
Humans are stupid.
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u/Joomsie Feb 06 '23
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."
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u/redscull Feb 06 '23
You can't use logic and reason to change the minds of people whose opinions are not based on logic or reason. So as correct as you are, your suggestion is useless.
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u/fungi_at_parties Feb 06 '23
You can have some success by asking questions that lead them to this path, because their own answers trap them in a bubble of cognitive dissonance. Enough of that and sometimes a crack can form- at least that’s how it can work when slowly planting seeds of de-conversion in Mormon friends and family members. That’s also how it worked with my own escape. There were times someone would say something or challenge my faith in a way that made me angry at the time, but only because they hit a nerve. Those little things are mentally stored on what ex-mormons call “the shelf”, and when all those little memories of cognitive dissonance add up the weight causes the shelf to break, and suddenly you realize you don’t believe anymore.
You just have to get their own gears turning a little bit and it will eat at them. Hopefully. You cannot reason them out of it because it can’t be YOU, it has to be THEM. But you can plant seeds of doubt that can take root on their own and facilitate that process.
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u/redscull Feb 06 '23
Thank you for the insight. If you hadn't said it worked on you yourself, i'd find this hard to believe. But I suppose it can't hurt to at least give this a shot when the situation arises.
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u/love_glow Feb 06 '23
Look I’m sick and tired of people saying something to the effect of “just reason with them!” These people are unreasonable, completely unaffected by logic, consistency, shame, or hypocrisy. We really do have to try something else at this point.
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u/taws34 Feb 06 '23
For a friend, it's worth a shot to reason.
I recently ended a 10+ year friendship over politics. Dude would rather make libs cry than vote for someone with solid governance policies.
He knows why I ended the friendship, too.
He wasn't always such a prick... But his alcoholism got bad, and he became an ass.
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u/No_Albatross4710 Feb 06 '23
Yep. Trump is the reason I stopped talking to some of my close relatives. The things they said, the reasons they gave for voting for him, the unbelievable things that were ok to them because they were done in the name of the Republican Party made me sick to my stomach and I realized that my relatives were just bad people parading their bs beliefs as politics and/or religion. My faith in humanity is gone.
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u/maleia Feb 06 '23
Admitting fault for people who's entire life is wrapped up in supporting the hierarchy, is akin to just flat out dying. Their social circle can not tolerate any slippage. So they'll always fall in line, for fear of being completely outcasted.
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u/the_weakestavenger Feb 06 '23
I admire your optimism in trying to reason with religious Republican voters.
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u/KeyanReid Feb 06 '23
Sounds like that church needs to speak with the IRS
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u/Unusual_Pitch_608 Feb 06 '23
Why do you think one of their top priorities is to get rid of the IRS?
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u/frogsgoribbit737 Feb 06 '23
Im honestly ready for all churches to be taxes unless they can qualift as non profit. That has its own set of issues but would be better than what they have.
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u/anand_rishabh Feb 06 '23
If they were actually obeying orders from Jesus, idk how they could vote Republican
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u/AcadianMan Feb 06 '23
They would hate Jesus. He was a brown Jewish guy.
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u/Redsmoker37 Feb 06 '23
who helped the poor, who wasn't judgmental, who did not appreciate the moneylenders (bankers) in the temple...basically the opposite of ALL of these so-claimed religious people.
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u/maleia Feb 06 '23
“Supply-side Jesus” is a convenient person to advocate for. He never makes demands of you; he is morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; he doesn’t resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, he does’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, he doesn’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, he doesn’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; he allows you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when he "comes back" you can rejoice because you'll never have to answer to "the bad people" for anything. You can love "Supply-side Jesus" and advocate for him without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. He is, in short, the perfect person to love if you want to claim you love God, but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for "Supply-side Jesus"
A proper noun swap paraphrase from a Christian about the unborn.
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u/XxForsakenxX Feb 06 '23
My dude!!! This!!! This so much, I feel like as an almost lifetime believer my eyes have finally been pried open to the fact that Southern Christian’s just fall in line the the “American Ideals” which are solely not Christian. I almost 1000% believe Jesus would support communism before Capitalism
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u/OedipusFlecks Feb 06 '23
Don’t forget that they include women’s reproductive health in their definition of “crime”.
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u/KeyanReid Feb 06 '23
I mean, if we want to take things down to how they really feel, they probably do genuinely feel that autonomous property is a crime.
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u/amazinglover Feb 06 '23
Sadly crime stats are easily manipulated and idiots fall for it.
Crime has risen post COVID.
That rise was from the covid years when crime dropped because everyone was indoors.
It is still lower then pre-covid year which was already a record law in some regards.
But all people see is crime is rising and disregard everything else.
All news outlets contribute to this as well as fear sells.
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u/johnwayne2413 Feb 06 '23
Idiots who vote against their own self interests, for $1000 please, Alex...
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u/probablynotaboot Feb 06 '23
It’d be wild if that church lost its tax exempt status for engaging in politics:
“Currently, the law prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches by defining a 501(c)(3) organization as one "which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate”
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u/Adorable_Wolf_8387 Feb 06 '23
Didn't Texas criminalize abortion? When the things your religion dictates are criminalized, and your government follows through, is that really being tough on crime.?
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u/Horchata_Papi92 Feb 06 '23
They're just racist. Being tough on crime just means being tough on black and brown people
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u/ElToberino Feb 06 '23
Just like the last big freeze, this one happened the February after an election cycle and will be forgotten about by the next one after republicans do nothing to weatherproof the grid.
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u/CharlesPukowski Feb 06 '23
“2 more decades! 2 more decades!”
“We need to finally fix this state after all those democr rats have been ruining it for… checks notes hushed wait it’s been Us for how long?”
-Abbot
“43 years???!”
spits water
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u/Whyamipostingonhere Feb 06 '23
Texas republicans will dig through the trash for food and do without a reliable electrical grid to own the libs.
They will definitely re-elect their Republican leaders while blaming any problems they experience on their fantasy imaginings of immigrants replacing them, the “woke”, transgenders, drag shows, CRT, or liberals breaking down their doors, ransacking their homes and taking away their guns.
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u/ProjectGnova Feb 06 '23
Waiting for Apologists to spam this thread with "ACKTUALLY, Texas isn't that bad compared to COMMIEFORNIA"
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u/Swontree Feb 06 '23
I'm actually considering to move to California. I've been living in Texas since 2011. North of Austin. I would have help with my In-Laws being close. I don't have any family close right now.
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u/BeaconXDR Feb 06 '23
"A sNEak pEEk oF lIfE uNDeR SociAlISm!!"
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u/rootbeerman77 Feb 06 '23
Texas: Land of Socialist Ideals
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u/MisterNiceGuy0001 Feb 06 '23
Those aren't real Texans digging through dumpsters!! It's ANTIFA!! They were sent here from California to pose as crisis actors pretending to be Texans to make us look bad!! Vote republican some more!!
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u/BullCityPicker Feb 06 '23
That’s the way Fox is handling it. “Dem controlled cities”, blah blah.
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u/ThePopDaddy Feb 06 '23
Red State/Blue City = It's the mayor's fault Red city / Blue State = it's the governor's fault Red City/Red State = It's the president's fault. (Same but with a red president) = What problem?
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u/leshake Feb 06 '23
Red president red problem, it's good because we hate those affected by it even if they overwhelmingly vote for us.
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u/BreezyWrigley Feb 06 '23
The last one is always just fabrication by librul media, of course. That damn biased reality always making shit up to make republicans look bad
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u/FlakeyGurl Feb 06 '23
Was born and raised there. My parents still live there and refuse to leave even though my mom 100% had the option to. They think Greg Abbott is appointed by God. No fucking joke. Texans literally bring this shit upon themselves. They think it's perfectly okay living like this.
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Feb 06 '23
Brainwashing by religious means. Fox news and god, a trash combo for a failed society.
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u/NotPortlyPenguin Feb 06 '23
So true. People feel they need to suffer in order to get into Heaven.
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u/Extension_Travel3535 Feb 06 '23
To be fair though I don't know the numbers pertaining to texas schools i do know MANY southern schools are incredibly underfunded which results in a higher percentage of under-educated people living in those states.
Add that to the fact that southern states are still very religious and the religious are very resistant to higher education and well you end up with people so dumb they think horrible politicians are "sent by god"
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u/FlakeyGurl Feb 06 '23
Oh they are even still religious in schools too they are just discreet enough about it the federal government doesn't come down on them fully most of the time. The school I went to was well funded but because religion heavily influenced the curriculum there were a lot of things that just plain didn't get taught. Like proper sex Ed, and unbiased history.
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u/dthains_art Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
Texans as they’re shivering in their unheated houses and eating out of garbage: “At least a high school trans athlete in this state won’t be allowed to compete anymore.”
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u/thegayngler Feb 06 '23
Welp! There is nothing you can do other than dont be there. shrug
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u/SniffCheck Feb 06 '23
Yet they keep voting for shitlords
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u/Machiavvelli3060 Feb 06 '23
Yeah, I think very little of Greg Abbott, but I think even less of people who keep voting for him.
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u/stumpyspaceprincess Feb 06 '23
If someone let an angry raccoon loose in my house and it wrecks the place, yea I want that thing to GTFO and I may have the urge to kick the little bastard, but the real problem is clearly with the dickhead who let the raccoon into the house in the first place.
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Feb 06 '23
They must be masochists
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u/StupidIdiot8989 Feb 06 '23
Nah just dumb, I am sure they blame someone else for their power outages
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u/Fucking_For_Freedom Feb 06 '23
The people without power right now are centered around Austin, which went 72% for Beto. They didn't choose the asshole that is punishing them.
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u/Kalashtiiry Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
Well, 27% of them did. But that's besides the point: even the most unalive in the head don't deserve Abbot.
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u/sagmag Feb 06 '23
Remember that this is the gerrymandered district map of Austin.
100% of people living in Austin could vote Blue, the map is designed to pull in 50% + 1 of "country voters" to ensure that even the Bluest parts of Texas stay Red.
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u/_Ghost_CTC Feb 06 '23
I still struggle to understand how anyone can see Doggett representing a small pocket of east Austin and east San Antonio with the thinnest sliver connecting them and come to the conclusion that's perfectly fine.
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u/Rovember_Baby Feb 06 '23
It's the liberals with solar. Something about Obama. Hilary's emails! Something something.
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u/nanormcfloyd Feb 06 '23
nah, they love guns and supply side Jesus and being racist.
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u/Daveinatx Feb 06 '23
The number of his voters were similar to his previous election. The problem is Democratic voters not voting
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u/Mcdibbles Feb 06 '23
We should keep in mind that Texas isn't a red state. It's a non-voting state. Voter turnout is abysmal, largely due to the roadblocks that conservatives have put up against working class people. If we had like 70% voter turnout, we'd probably flip Texas into a solidly purple state.
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u/cryptoloser1111 Feb 06 '23
It’s really abbot doesn’t care about those people because they didn’t vote for him.
Like how Trump was happy to let COVID spread through liberal areas.
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u/sharpbehind2 Feb 06 '23
That POS was so happy to let his citizens die. Sickening.
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u/ScratchNSniffGIF Feb 06 '23
Trump and his corrupt family deliberately sabotaged efforts to curb the pandemic for political benefit and personal profit. They literally helped Covid kill over a million Americans. And not one of them has even been investigated, let alone prosecuted for it.
Yet Abbot's government sent a black woman to prison for 5 years for attempting to vote after being told she could do so by her Parole Officer.
We have the justice system of a 3rd world country.
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u/PitifulFondant7463 Feb 06 '23
Here’s what I’ll say, when Greg Abbott got elected, only like 17.5% of Texans voted. Abbott won on like maybe 11-14%.
New to Texas, near Dallas, tried to get a Texas ID and I had to schedule out 4 months. Passport was 2. When I went to vote, locations were more churches than libraries or public buildings and a majority of people I saw either registering or voting were 60+ year old white people.
The way the infrastructure is in Texas, it’s a lot harder to vote as a minority than as an old white person. Especially because high minority populations are near major cities where it’s much harder to get appointments than in bum fuck nowhere.
There’s articles about how Black Americans and others are MUCH less likely to have a “valid” government ID. And it’s those 17.5% retired asshole boomers or white ass rural confederates that don’t face that same inaccessibility that are swinging this.
Poverty/socioeconomic status are hella barriers to political involvement, disproportionately affecting minority populations, and Texas shits on programs to promote social equity. Abbott doesn’t give a shit about anyone who isn’t like him
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u/ron_swansons_meat Feb 06 '23
I thought Gov. Abbot was a bonafide Pissbaby, no? Are we still doing Abbot is a Pissbaby? We really should. He is in fact, an adult diaper-wearing fuckstain that lives in a cloud of piss and feces stank. Seriously, Google it.
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u/magus2003 Feb 06 '23
I got temp banned from the texaspilitics subreddit for calling him pissbabby.
I imagine that's why folks are hesitant to keep calling him that.
But yea, he is a giant pissbabby.
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u/LorenaBobbedIt
Feb 06 '23
•
A grocery store in Austin lost power after an ice storm took down power lines and they had to throw out a bunch of food. Somebody posted a “free food” message that went viral. It really hasn’t gone all Mad Max here, guys.
https://amp.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article272080767.html
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u/tippiedog Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
Texan here. Greg Abbott is a piece of sh*t, but this is also wrong:
hundreds of thousands lost power, surpassing the 2021 debacle
In February, 2021, millions of Texans lost power due to systemic issues with the state's power generation and delivery systems--things that are controlled directly at the state level.
Last week, I'm sure hundreds of thousands did lose power, but it was due to very local incidences of things like trees heavy with ice falling on power lines. It's unacceptable for people to be without power for days on end this time, and there are certainly lots of improvements that need to be made in response to last week's ice storm. I'm sure the state could play a role in enacting changes in response to last week's ice storm, but the nature of those changes (mostly local governments and power companies) and who needs to actually make them is fundamentally different from the issues in February, 2021.
Edit: this comment is more thorough than mine: https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/10v4xcv/texas_gov_abbott_is_the_worst/j7g2791/
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u/Grindl Feb 06 '23
Last week, my in-laws neighborhood lost power for 11 hours due to a downed line. In 2021, their city was without power for 36 hours. The two events aren't even in the same ballpark.
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u/Inert_Oregon Feb 06 '23
They literally just made shit up in order to make a political point.
It’s straight misinformation and just from reading the responses you can tell 99% of people at it up without question as it conforms to their existing beliefs.
Remember that the next time you see the “other side” all parroting some talking point that you know is false and wonder “how can they possibly believe that?”
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u/myaccountsaccount12 Feb 06 '23
Numbers I saw were 400k for this storm and 4.5 million for 2021. So yeah, this tweet is pretty far off…
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u/pteridoid Feb 06 '23
This is why I don't follow accounts like this. Very disingenuous and dishonest. I agree with most of their stances, but I don't appreciate being manipulated.
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u/PonyKiller81 Feb 06 '23
So Texans aren't digging through dumpsters for food?
I'm not American by the way. Genuine question, I may be out of the loop.
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u/Any-Salamander5679 Feb 06 '23
Literally 1 H.E.B was throwing food out due to no power. Someone made a post about it and people showed up for the food thrown outside and in a large dumpster.
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u/PeanutButterSoda Feb 06 '23
Same thing happened in Houston during the freeze two years ago. My store threw out a bunch of frozen food and like 50 people showed up and took everything. The other store I worked at covered all the bins with pallets and tarp, so nobody saw that one. I wasn't against it, everything I threw away was still partially frozen but if they got sick, that's on them.
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u/Left_Alone Feb 06 '23
The power outages also werent even close to what happened in 2021. I'm all for hating Abbott, but this tweet just isn't true.
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u/Ttylery Feb 06 '23
Yep, most of these outages were due to trees rather than the grid or just the temps alone.
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u/kissbythebrooke Feb 06 '23
Yeah, I was wondering what the hell news I had missed because last I checked, there were not widespread outages for more than a week like there were in 2021. It's still pretty unfortunate that any type of bad weather affects our infrastructure like this, but let's not get too sensational about it.
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u/stevethewatcher Feb 06 '23
This tweet is the perfect example of why liberals come off as arrogant and out of touch to conservatives.
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u/StuckInBronze Feb 06 '23
Yea I hate Abbott as much as the next guy but this kinda stuff doesn't help anyone.
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u/marino1310 Feb 06 '23
And shit like this is why politics are so divided in the US. Imagine if you were on the right and only consuming right wing news. You wouldn’t see corrections to things unless you prowled through comments (even then it’s unlikely) but you’ll see shit like this getting called out. The same way we see right wing misinformation being called out. All these people are doing is helping the right keep their sheep
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u/LorenaBobbedIt Feb 06 '23
Not generally, no, it looks more like a surprising number of people in one neighborhood in one town saw an opportunity to get some free stuff. This is a great example of how news media can make you believe crazy things while reporting things that are true. It should make us all a bit more skeptical of everything we read.
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u/pheezy42 Feb 06 '23
if you know the neighborhood, it wasn't all that surprising. but agreed, it's more about people wanting free stuff than "I'm dumpster diving to survive because I don't have power."
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u/JaseAceQ Feb 06 '23
i’ve lived in texas all my life. this tweet is such an exaggeration of the situation. some people lost power yes, but not nearly to the extent that this tweet is trying to pin it as. reddit just has a hate boner for anything texas, and it’s honestly getting a little ridiculous at this point
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u/Haunting-Function547 Feb 06 '23
I'm not an Abbot supporter by any means, but it's kind of disengenous to act like people don't go dumpster diving in other states. There's specially designed dumpsters to prevent this exact event.
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u/OmniManDidNothngWrng Feb 06 '23
No I live in Texas and don't know anyone who lost power. Most people stayed home from work if they could due to ice last Tuesday through Thursday thoigh. I think there were just a few random cases of specific buildings losing power not the actual power generating infrastructure being damaged like the last 2 years or so.
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u/Haunting-Function547 Feb 06 '23
Yeah, this is just kind of silly. Most grocery stores use specialized dumpsters specifically to prevent this. The big difference was that, in this case, they had to pull in massive, open-aired dumpsters like the ones used at construction sites to accommodate the volume being thrown away, and so it was possible for people to actually get into the dumpster.
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u/Butwinsky
Feb 06 '23
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I'll gladly dig through dumpsters to feed my freezing family if it means Texas stays independentish from the rest of the country's power grid.
I'll gladly let my kids get shot to death if it means I can keep my military grade weapons.
I'll gladly look past police brutality as long as it mostly happens to minorities.
I'll gladly advocate against human rights as long as it doesn't affect me personally.
-average Texan view points.
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u/LevPornass Feb 06 '23
Spot on. Maybe add I am totally cool with 11 year old incest victims being forced to give birth, until my daughter misses a period at which point she is going on a “sightseeing” trip with her mom to New York that nobody is going to know about.
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Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
“To own the libs” lol
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u/Upnorth4 Feb 06 '23
Texans be like "California made us lose our power!"
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u/Wazula23 Feb 06 '23
The Green New Deal caused this!
You know, that thing that doesn't exist yet!
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u/MisterNiceGuy0001 Feb 06 '23
Real Texans™ would never dig through dumpsters... Antifas sent from California to make us look bad definitely would though!
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u/BuyDizzy8759 Feb 06 '23
Yeah, I am scrolling down looking for the inevitable "BUT CALIFORNIA..."...it is ALWAYS there.
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u/hxtk2 Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
I'll gladly let my kids get shot to death if it means I can keep my military grade weapons.
To be clear, this is actually more than one opinion wrapped up into one. There are lots of things that could be done to reduce gun violence without banning firearms, like closing the "boyfriend loophole", teaching social-emotional skills in public school (and actually funding that school), guaranteeing equitable access to healthcare (including abortion), decriminalizing certain drugs, or raising the minimum wage.
It's not just that the republican party opposes bans on guns or certain types of guns; it's that they oppose every. single. thing. that could help to reduce violent crime and/or suicide (the latter accounting for nearly a third of gun deaths).
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u/BrilliantApricot1223 Feb 06 '23
They then say that mental health is the cause for the shootings, but block any sort of legislation to improve it because mental health concerns aren’t real
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u/Spare_Farmer_7855 Feb 06 '23
It’s bad that I didn’t immediately know this was satirical after the first sentence.
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u/drawkbox Feb 06 '23
"Texas is a free state, the stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas clap clap clap" -- Texans
"So glad weed is legal and marijuana prohibition is over" -- everyone actually living in freeer states
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u/Hawkeye_x_Hawkeye Feb 06 '23
Every time shit like this happens in Texas, I look to see when their next election is to hold Republicans accountable. It's like a friend with a drug problem. "Okay, Ted Cruz is up for reelection next year. Just show me you can stay off the crackpot, and we'll know you're not beyond saving." Then they do it again.
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u/THftRM1231 Feb 06 '23
They won't kick the habit until they hit rock bottom. Rock bottom of course being that a wealthy donor/well connected person dies, or their relative dies, from these shenanigans.
Used to be they don't install the traffic light at the dangerous intersection until someone dies. Now it's until someone considered to be important dies.
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u/crumbummmmm Feb 06 '23
When money became free speech, and corporations became people, people without money became disposable.
In a Dave Chapelle special, he talks about how a pimp would beat a girl whose trying to leave prostitution, and he would beat her so hard that when he stopped and gave her painkillers - she'd forget it was him beating her and do whatever he says. In a similar fashion I imagine this will strengthen the republicans belief in conservatism, as the pain they feel from their leaders will be soothed by their leaders. (In this case, focus on the illegal immigrants, let your nationalism keep you from examining the material conditions in your life)
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u/humangingercat Feb 06 '23
Nah man. Every time capitalism and conservatism fails, it'll be the libs and socialisms fault. The answer is to go harder
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u/WeirdFlecks Feb 06 '23
I wish you were right, but I don't think rock bottom will change anything. If Covid taught us anything, it's that there is a significant part of the populace that would literally rather die than admit they've been wrong all along.
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u/Haunting-Function547
Feb 06 '23
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Texan, and not an Abbot supporter by any means... But this post is ridiculous on so many levels.
A couple hundred people showed up to dig through some open-aired dumpsters because of a viral post after a particular grocery store lost power.
https://amp.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article272080767.html
I've been part of this kind of thing at a grocery store, where you're an employee just loading up carts full of frozen and refrigerated goods to be thrown away when a power outage occurs. Of course, that was during spring, after a particularly nasty storm, so temps outside in that dumpster were well outside safety parameters.
Winter, in sub-freezing temps? If I were single (because my wife has more sense than I do), I'd probably snag some pizzas or yogurt. And it'd be no different than all the dumpster diving that happens every single day in every single state.
Regarding the power outages: 2021, Texas peaked at 4.3 million outages in 2021
Those outages were caused by a meltdown of ERCOT, and nearly destroyed the whole grid.
This outage? Mostly centered in Austin.
Why?
Because they got a lot of ice, and they didn't take care of their goddamn trees.
Essentially, in 2007, some residents got into a pissing match with Austin Electric around tree-cutting policies, and Austin Electric lost. In 2012, they boasted about how they were the only electrical area in the nation that talks to customers in advance when trimming trees around power lines. Basically, the utility could do it, or you could hire an arborist to do it instead.
Guess what happened? Most people promised to hire an arborist instead, because they wanted to protect their trees. Guess what also happened?
That's right! THEY DIDN'T FUCKING GET AN ARBORIST.
So, in 2019, the city reversed this policy (because it was causing so many problems), but they had a decade of backlog on tree trimming to get through. And, if you've never been to Austin, the south and west sides of the city are COVERED in trees. Couple this with drought conditions for the last few years, and the fact that most people don't actually take care of their trees very well to begin with (no regular prunings, clearly, and probably no regular deep watering during the summer months), and you end up with a shit ton of dead trees that the RESIDENTS begged to be responsible for.
Add ice, and there you go. You've got dead limbs falling on power lines, coupled with dead trees just falling over.
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u/Some_Silver Feb 06 '23
Thanks for the context. I would add it's not just dead limbs and trees, half of the city's trees got absolutely wrecked. I noticed the cedars had a particularly rough time with the ice. Our massive oak out front that we had taken care of less than a year ago lost 2 very large branches.but yeah it's kinda hard to blame Abbott for this one
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u/DunwichCultist Feb 06 '23
Thank you, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills slometimes when people just straight make things up.
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u/SpyPirates Feb 06 '23
This should be top comment. But “this is a bad, but not unprecedented, power outage caused by excessive deference to community input instead of following electric utility industry best practices” doesn’t get as much engagement.
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u/LostWoodsInTheField Feb 06 '23
Just commenting on the electric company and their tree trimming policies.
I've noticed with other companies in my area its 'oh we got complaints because we were over aggressive and just plain annoying to everyone, so now we aren't going to do anything'. It typically went "why did you cut that tree" "because we can!" then someone found out they couldn't, and so they went "well if we can't do whatever we want, we won't do anything."
It probably was the same internal policy for them. Now it is "see we stopped doing our job and everything is going to hell and you're mad at us, so now we can do whatever we want again."
Where they should have had a policy of 'we can cut them or you can hire your own guy, but if it isn't done in x months we will be coming in to take care of it'. Which is pretty much the policy the local power company is taking in my area after they had a huffy and stopped trimming trees for the last decade.
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u/envision83 Feb 06 '23
The problem here is this reply…. That calls out the bullshit of the Twitter post…. Gets buried under the comments of people shit talking Texas and Abbott. This should be pinned at the top. I think Abbott is a piece of shit too but facts are facts.
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u/RegularMixture Feb 06 '23
Yeah 💯 spot in. Everyone wants to shit on Abbot, and this isn’t about his political policies.
Good to see some truth spotlighted in this. Thank you!
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u/00Fart Feb 06 '23
Well someone has to stop the illegals from getting the dumpster food before proud Americans!
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u/Texasjt Feb 06 '23
I live in Austin, where people still have no power, and it is sunny and 74 degrees out. We are not his voting base so he could care less about us. The legislature hates Austin, and the feeling is mutual.
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u/DunwichCultist Feb 06 '23
Blame Austin. Y'all tied Austin Electric's hands for over a decade and they were saying the first time a freeze made enough ice there were going to be significant outages. There physically aren't enough arborists to trim all the trees and there was no recourse for the electric company if residents elected to hire an independent arborist and didn't follow through. I happened to be in DFW and SA over the weekend and nobody else had issues.
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u/owsoooo Feb 06 '23
This...is not true. At least in most of Texas, it isnt. I live in Bryan county (which is pretty rural) and haven't had any problems with power at all
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u/foppishmanabouttown Feb 06 '23
This is so misleading. There was an HEB grocery store that lost power as a result of frozen power lines, not grid failure. They had to throw away frozen food outside into the dumpster in freezing temperatures. Free frozen food that regular people were taking advantage of. Abbott is a dick but this had nothing to do with him. But yeah, believe some dipshit with an agenda, in Philly no less.
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u/Poorlilhobbit Feb 06 '23
Well Texans can’t read the tweets without power so… no harm done to his constituents right?
I don’t get how these guys keep getting re-elected when they obviously don’t give a shit about the people they are supposed to serve. They only care about pleasing the alt right extremists and putting blame on easy targets for everyone’s troubles.
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u/magus2003 Feb 06 '23
Gerrymandering + religious brainwashing + poor education + voter apathy.
It was like, less than half the state voted in the governor race.
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u/Someoneoverthere42 Feb 06 '23
And now we watch as every right wing bobble head posts "this is life under Bidens America" comments and articles
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u/Aggie956 Feb 06 '23
This is not why they were going through the dumpsters . It was because there was perfectly good food just being thrown away. Because of a power outage . This tweet makes it seem we were starving or hoping to find food which wasn’t the case at all. It was one H‑E‑B that did this . The real question is why didn’t they just give it away with out throwing it in the dumpster .
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u/Xesyliad Feb 06 '23
Honestly, Texans would continuously punch themselves in the nuts if a Republican leader told them it was to own the libs and stop them from stealing their guns.
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u/Sensitive_Tax4664 Feb 06 '23
I'm in Texas. Born and raised. I tried to vote to get these assholes out, but guess what... the old, religious, racist people full of hate because anything new scares them... They keep them in power. I'm ready to leave. I love Texas, but I can't grow old here. I miss my home.
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u/Aggressive-Expert-69 Feb 06 '23
I bet if the power outage affected his wheelchair he'd give a shit
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u/GregorSamsaa Feb 06 '23
I dislike Abbott as much as the next rational Texan but that’s not what happened at all.
People showed up for free food, not because they were without power and couldn’t find anything else to eat. The grocery store lost power and threw out a bunch of food, word got out that it was in the dumpster and people made a run at it because they had power at home and figured they could save it by taking it home.
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u/AsherTheFrost Feb 06 '23
Maybe his plan is to make Texas so shitty nobody will ever want to cross the border to get there? Only thing that makes sense at this point.
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u/Jasole37 Feb 06 '23
That's the problem. Texas is freezing because they are blocking all the warm air that flows from Mexico.
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u/that-bro-dad Feb 06 '23
2021: this is the worst mismanagement of a natural disaster in Texas history
2023: so far
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u/biotechknowledgey Feb 06 '23
Good for them.
We've been here before. There's nothing republicans can do to lose support in Texas, so who cares? Why a liberal would choose to live in Texas is beyond me. No state feels the pain of republican leadership as much as Texas.
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u/Old_Statistician_307 Feb 06 '23
Yet he was re-elected, and they will probably re-elect him again if they get the chance. The majority of my fellow Texans are a bunch of fucking morons.🤷🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
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u/Sleepylimebounty Feb 06 '23
They’ll vote republicans again. At some point pity runs out Unfortunately I think I’m there. They’re getting what they consistently vote for. I just feel bad for kids and the elderly and ppl who can’t vote.
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u/Jsomer50 Feb 06 '23
The people of texas keep voting republican. What did they expect? He didn’t do shit last year either.
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u/CaryWhit Feb 06 '23
I was under the impression that they were dumpster diving because the grocery store was throwing out perfectly good meat because their freezers were out.