Political Ramblings 5/11/2022

May 11, 2022

Greg Abbott Yet Again

Their is a teacher shortage here in Texas. Granted, a lot of the issues that have led up to this shortage have occurred long before Greg Abbott became governor. Teachers are overworked, underpaid. and generally underappreciated while constantly receiving flak from the three P's; parents, preachers, and politicians. For the Hell that they go thru, they should be given combat pay! Yet, Greg Abbott has made the problem exponentially worse. Teachers and librarians are his latest punching bag.

Teachers couldn't protect themselves from Covid as Abbott punished schools that enforced mask mandates. Mandates passed on the local level by those representing the community and motivated by public health were overridden by a state government imposing its own will. Actual small government was trampled on by an entity that screamed "small government" at the top of its lungs. Abbott placed politics first instead of general welfare for people's safety. Combined this with teachers and librarians operating in a much more politicized climate certainly hasn't helped matters either.

Something that wouldn't have been a controversy two years ago is now at the forefront because of attention seekers with too much time on there hands are now manufacturing this "controversy" to stay relevant. We all are paying the price for it.

Apparently, simply saying that racism is a bad thing is well......a bad thing for many. Saying the wrong thing (the truth) about slavery and racism can land teachers in hot water now. Librarians are now facing pressure from parents who are out to control the political narrative of their children's literature while passing off there actions as a quote "moral crusade". Those who claim to be victims of a politically-motivated witch-hunt are partaking in one themselves.

Those partaking in this witch-hunt have presenting there actions as a defense of democracy. What they've instead done is infringing on the rights of readers who use to have access to books once considered acceptable but now don't. Books that cater to readers who are often marginalized by society, but yet, still have rights like you and me. The rights of no one was infringed on before this "controversy" took place. Nothing was forced upon the offended. If one was offended by such books, then they could have instead choose not to read the books in question and go on with there lives instead of forcing there will upon others. How is that democracy? How is the book removal different from what the Nazis did with there book-burnings?

In other states, there is a bounty on librarians who have "offending" books in there collection. How is that different from Stalinist Russia where children were encouraged to turn in there parents and teachers if they had content considered offensive by the state. Just because one decides to use "liberty" as a label while screaming "freedom" at the top of there lungs doesn't justify the action.

I guess one person's idea of freedom is restricting the rights of others. It's funny how freedom works for many though.

For those partaking in this witch-hunt, things are going to backfire when those who see the absurdity of this "controversy" will start flagging books that the instigators hold dear just to illustrate how pointless this manufactroversy is. Yet, something tells me that when this happens, then those who initiated the "controversy" will claim persecution while playing the victim card.

Many teacher in this state have said "The Hell With This" while looking for anther line of work. You can't blame them. They have much more important things in there lives then being punching bags for ill-informed, selfish, and ungrateful fools! Yet, we all suffer as a society when those who render a valuable public service leave there line of work because of the abuse that we inflicted upon them. We only have ourselves to blame.

The Unhealthy Attention Seeker

It's at this point, I've gotten the impression that Greg Abbott is by all definitions an unhealthy attention seeker. The reason why Greg Abbott constantly pulls various stunts is because he wants to stay relevant in the headlines. The very second people stop talking about him, then he becomes forgotten, which is a very bad thing for someone with very massive ambitions during an election cycle.

While immigration is a very serious issue that requires examination, Greg Abbott has hijacked it for his own self-serving purpose. When Covid was still raging, it was downplayed as he used the immigration issue to distract people of his horrible mishandling of the outbreak. Since then, he pinned his ambitions into a program that was already unnecessary to begin with. While the Federal Government has already allocated $16 billion along with thousands upon thousands of soldiers, it apparently wasn't enough according to Abbott though. Operation Lone Star now requires an additional $531 million to operate, along with the $2 billion already spent on it.

This initiative has been ineffective, and hasn't accomplished any of its stated goals. Yet, will Greg Abbott accept responsibility for Lone Star's failures? No, because in his eyes, the operation that was of his making and execution failed because of quote "pesky liberals and Antifa". Nothing is ever his fault! Does that include the $4 billion in damages that have been a result of the disruption of trade?

Mexico was going to build a rail line through Laredo that was going to bring trade and business into the state. However, that line is now being diverted thru New Mexico instead. They don't want trade disrupted by a unpredictable cannonball of a governor who is much more interested in playing politics than doing what's best for the state. I can't blame them either. Thank you Greg Abbott for driving away much needed commerce from this state! His hard-core supporters will still blindly support his actions, unaware that the loss of trade will hurt them as consumers while creating a budget deficit in the state economy. If damaging the economy was Abbott's intention, then he has accomplished something!

At this point though, I'm convinced that Greg Abbott doesn't care about the fallout from his actions because in his world, nothing is ever his fault. Abbott's policies aren't designed to help the state, but to fail so he can then divert blame and make his opponents look bad, even though such policies are of his making and execution. He can divert blame knowing that his supporters will accept whatever he says at face-value, regardless of actual reasons.

One of the reasons why I despise Greg Abbott so much is that he hasn't accepted responsibility for any of his actions. Party affiliation has nothing to do with it either. If he was a Democrat pulling the same shenanigans, there would still be multiple blogpost describing how much of a piece of crap he is (this blog has already crapped on Obama, Hillary, Biden, and Andrew Cuomo on multiple occasions).

In case one wonders why I haven't (ultra intensely) crapped on Beto (as I've already crapped on him before in one of my other articles. Note to self, I need to start a "Beto sucks" tag for my blog), he's not governor; but Greg Abbott is though.

Instead of accepting blame, he has constantly looked for scapegoats knowing that his supporters and those unaware of his failures will eat up whatever he says. Instead of holding Greg Abbott accountable for whatever happened in the freeze for example, they will just blame "evil Socialism and Liberals", and let him off the hook.

When the policies of California Democrats led to the energy crisis in that state during the early 2000's, people rightfully held them responsible. When the energy policies dictated by the Republicans here in Texas leads to the same suffering, the people in this state need to hold them responsible as well. The Republicans have ran this state for the last 20-30 years now. There is no one else to blame for there failures except them.

Greg Abbott disrupted international trade because of his nonsensical political stunts. This is similar to how he disrupted people's lives in response to the Covid Outbreak here in Texas because he decided to play politics instead of doing what was best for public health. Over 88,000 died here in Texas as a result. Similar to how he played politics by not mandating power plants to winterize even though a intense freeze was only a matter of when, not if. Over 100 people died as a result of that freeze. Not to mention that since Operation Lone Star started, several soldiers committed suicide as a result. For someone who proclaims himself to be Pro-Life, there seems to be a lot of death coming from his policies.

The money used to fund Operation Lone Star has to come from somewhere. Since the tax rate has been unaffected, that means the money to fund the operation has probably been pulled from welfare programs and public schools. For Greg Abbott, this is a easy sell as he has already demonized teachers and librarians by painting them as secret Communist out to destroy the system.

For someone who claims to be pro-family, countless families have suffered from his policies. This ranges from those who lost loved one from Covid because of policies of his making, to those from the freeze, and now children who might lose there education. Greg Abbott thinks that the access to high-quality education isn't a universal right. The children of immigrants shouldn't be punished because of circumstances that weren't of there making.

Also, what about women who lose there pregnancy. Are they going to be held automatically guilty until proven innocent by zealots who are much more consumed by there misguided cause than they are about the general welfare of women? Will women who accidentally lose there newborns due to unfortunate circumstances be branded criminals at the hands of fundamentalist who are passing off there witch-hunt as "justice"?

Why Should I Reward Failure?

Those latching on to every word that he says as the gospel truth while slapping there hands together like happy seals are unaware that Greg Abbott failed them too; just that they haven't realized it yet. Many will scream about the wonderful things he has done as governor. After several years, I'm still waiting to hear those wonderful things that he's done for me.

Anyone can claim to uphold freedom and democracy. Anyone can also claim to uphold the border, especially the presidents who signed onto the budgets that protect our borders on a national level, Democrat and Republican alike. I have yet to see any actual and tangible results from Greg Abbott though, unless if one's benchmark for success is failure.

Yet, many think that I'm suppose to take one for the team and support him blindly while rewarding his incompetency (putting it nicely). For many, you have to support the team, regardless! I'm not a true supporter unless if I reward failure! This is the mindset that lead to the dysfunctional state of politics today. People just accepted whatever there party crapped out without demanding better, and then blindly went along with the choices because they felt that they had to support the team. This applies with the Republicans with Trump and Greg Abbott and it applies with the Democrats with Biden and the Clintons. The Democrat leadership here in Texas could have found someone much better than Beto. Yet, the party embraced one of the most unlikable people in this state as there answer to Abbott. No wonder why things here in Texas sucks. The Democrat leadership is this state is as much brain-dead as there Republican counterpart!

Regardless of party. They were far better candidates then what we were given. We we given the worst choices and then ate it up without demanding better. We then proceed to Facebook posting pointless, one-sided memes while being blind to our own ignorance and failure to realize that our preferred side has massive shortcomings too. We are our own worst enemy. This is the environment that propelled embarrassments like Trump, Biden, Beto and Greg Abbott to the forefront. There is no righteous among preferences who are equally prone to corruption while being defined by there moral and ethical shortcomings. As humans, we are all defined by our predefined shortcomings, and whatever labels we decide to attach to ourselves won't change that either.

But at the end of the day, who am I to speak. Greg Abbott has done many amazing things like...............................

...........

.......

and.....

..........

........

......................................

and ummmm............................................

.................................................

.......................

................

Fact-checking Texas leaders’ claims about Operation Lone Star (Texas Tribune) :