Tag Archives: Texas

California’s Governor Blames Texas for California’s Policies That Caused the Homeless Crisis, by Mac Slavo

Posted on August 25, 2019 | 1 comment

Yes, and the reason stupid kids get bad grades is because there are smart kids in the class. From Mac Slavo at shtfplan.com:

California’s authoritarian governor, Gavin Newsom, blamed the state of Texas for California’s homeless crisis. Rather than put the blame directly on the policies California has instituted that stifle free enterprise and punish heavily those who produce, Newsom said it’s the fault of Texas.

Newsom said many homeless people on the streets of San Francisco are from Texas. in an attempt to shift the blame from himself and the polices of socialists (who get rich peddling socialism to the masses as everyone else becomes impoverished.)

Former California assemblyman turned Texas resident Chuck DeVore reacted to Newsom pushing the blame onto others. The vice president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Chuck DeVore, said Wednesday that Gavin Newsom is “responsible for the policies that have created California’s homeless crisis,” in the wake of the governor blaming Texas for San Francisco’s homeless crisis. “What you’re seeing here are the words of a desperate man that we should almost feel sorry for,” DeVore, who served as a California assemblyman for six years, told “Fox & Friends.”

“Governor Gavin Newsom has been in office now for 22 straight years, starting at the San Francisco board of supervisors,” DeVore added. Homelessness has been rampant across the state of California in the past few years and merchants and homeowners have become increasingly vocal and incredibly irate at how things are going in the socialist dystopia.

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Texas wants to make sex jokes illegal, by Simon Black

Posted on June 23, 2019 | Leave a comment

There are so many idiotic laws and regulations being passed or under consideration that Simon Black can run a week column detailing them. From Simon Black at sovereignman.com:

Here’s our Friday roll up of the most absurd and concerning articles we came across this week.

UK bans advertisement with “harmful gender stereotypes”

UK bureaucrats will now decide if ads and commercials are too offensive.

New regulations ban advertisements with gender stereotypes “that are likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offence.”

So a woman cleaning while a man is being lazy– banned.

Suggesting a poor physique caused other failures– banned.

Emphasizing energetic boys compared to caring girls– banned.

It seems that, in 2019, consumers are far more capable of regulating a company’s advertising decisions.

If people don’t like a company’s ads, they’re free to boycott the product. And if enough companies catch grief over their ads, they’ll change the ads or go out of business.

Having a government commission to regulate this sort of thing is going to be simply comical.

We have a feeling this isn’t what the Brexiters had in mind when they voted to leave.

Click here for the full story.

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Texas Police Made Over $50 Million in 2017 From Seizing People’s Property, by Edgar Walters and Jolie Mccullough

Posted on January 3, 2019 | Leave a comment

This is a fine example of a dying art: real journalism. Edgar Walters and Jolie Mccullough have written an in-depth story about civil asset forfeiture. It’s clear where their sympathies lie. However, they also give due account to the other side and let readers make up their own minds. From Walters and Mccullough at the Texas Tribune via theantimedia.org:

In February 2016, prosecutors in Houston filed a lawsuit against a truck: State of Texas vs. One 2003 Chevrolet Silverado.

Houston police had seized the vehicle after surveilling its driver, Macario Hernandez, and pulling him over after he left his house. They took the truck to court, hoping to keep it or sell it at auction to fund their operations, claiming the vehicle was known to be involved in the drug trade.

But the truck’s owner, Oralia Rodriguez, was never charged with a crime. She wasn’t at the scene when officers pulled over Hernandez, her son, and found 13.5 grams of marijuana in his pocket. In fact, Rodriguez said she had recently loaned him the car so he could drive his pregnant girlfriend to the doctor. The girlfriend was having difficulty with her pregnancy and was at risk of losing the baby, Rodriguez said. She was desperate not to lose her truck, which had recently had new tires installed among other repairs, which she was still working to pay off.

“My sole intention was to help out. … Now I am in this situation of losing what I have worked very hard for,” she wrote to local prosecutors. “I am begging you please allow me to have my truck back.”

 

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Crime, Cronyism, Government, Law, Politics

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Tele-Prompter Boy and Obamacare, by Eric Peters

Posted on December 16, 2018 | 1 comment

Much of what TV newscasters read as news is actually editorializing. From Eric Peters at theburningplatform.com:

Listen to this lead-in by a CNN Tele-Prompter readerabout a federal judge in Texas ruling that the Affordable Care Act’s mandate to buy health insurance is unconstitutional:

“The law that brought health care to millions of Americans has been struck down by a federal judge.”

First words out of his mouth.

That’s what they used to call editorializing – as opposed to the statement of fact without the color of opinion you read just above it, in the lead to this story – about the same subject.

The Tele-Prompter reader leaves no doubt as to his view about both the Texas judge’s ruling and the Affordable Care Act, which is annoying right out of the gate because who cares what this Tele-Prompter reader’s opinions are about anything? It’s one thing to listen to a veteran newsman who’s earned some bona fides offer up his slant on an issue, especially if it’s something he’s been covering for decades and maybe thus the man has something to say that’s worth listening to.

But this kid?

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Ex-DEA Spokeswoman: ‘Marijuana Is Safe,’ Kept Illegal Because It’s a ‘Cash Cow’, by Alex Thomas

Posted on April 21, 2017 | 1 comment

The biggest beneficiary of the drug rackets is the US government. From Alex Thomas at theantimedia.org:

Before the heroin epidemic became a nationwide problem, claiming thousands of lives, Plano, Texas, was already entrenched. And like many of the places caught in the crosshairs of the continuing heroin crisis, Plano is the last place that one would expect to be swept into the opioid tidal wave.

Anti-Media recently interviewed Texas-native Belita Nelson, who has had an interesting few decades. For six years she termed herself the “chief propagandist” — or spokeswoman — for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Before that, as a Plano mother and teacher, Belita noticed what was happening in her community. She described Plano as an area rivaling Newtown, Connecticut, or Cape Cod — tight-knit regions where tragedy strikes hard and deep.

She explained that “[Plano] has the best school districts in the state of Texas…it’s a gated community. And in 1998, for heroin to be that prevalent in the community was stunning. Stunning. We got all the media attention because we were this upscale Texas neighborhood that nobody thought would be inundated with heroin.”

Nelson decided to take action, saying, “I decided I’d had it. I was going to organize my community and fight this thing at the grassroots level. But we were never grassroots because the first thing I did was go on the Oprah show for the DEA.”

Belita stresses that she was never officially employed by the DEA but traveled for six years as a sort of unofficial spokeswoman for the agency.  The group recruited her because their goals aligned, and in many ways, she was perfect for the role. She was a mother who had witnessed the toll of heroin first-hand. She was passionate and knew what she was talking about. Belita spoke to schools and parent groups and appeared on television networks.

With the help of a former Dallas Cowboy, she founded the Starfish Foundation to tackle heroin addiction. That organization ran until 2004 when one of the employees pocketed the donation money and left the foundation scrambling in the dark.

To continue reading: Ex-DEA Spokeswoman: ‘Marijuana Is Safe,’ Kept Illegal Because It’s a ‘Cash Cow’

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California Is Exporting Its Poor To Texas, by Tyler Durden

Posted on March 12, 2017 | Leave a comment

If you have the misfortune to be poor in California, you won’t be able to afford it and you’ll have to move somewhere else. Sorry. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

California exports more than commodities such as movies, new technologies and produce. As The Sacramento Bee reports, it also exports truck drivers, cooks and cashiers.

Every year from 2000 through 2015, more people left California than moved in from other states. This migration was not spread evenly across all income groups, a Sacramento Bee review of U.S. Census Bureau data found. The people leaving tend to be relatively poor, and many lack college degrees. Move higher up the income spectrum, and slightly more people are coming than going. About 2.5 million people living close to the official poverty line left California for other states from 2005 through 2015, while 1.7 million people at that income level moved in from other states – for a net loss of 800,000. During the same period, the state experienced a net gain of about 20,000 residents earning at least five times the poverty rate – or $100,000 for a family of three.

“There was really nothing left for me in California,” said Kundurazieff, who also writes a blog about his cats. “The cost of living was high. The rent was high. The job market was debatable.”

Not surprisingly, the state’s exodus of poor people is notable in Los Angeles and San Francisco counties, which combined experienced a net loss of 250,000 such residents from 2005 through 2015.

The leading destination for those leaving California is Texas, with about 293,000 economically disadvantaged residents leaving and about 137,000 coming for a net loss of 156,000 from 2005 through 2015. Next up are states surrounding California; in order, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon.

To continue reading: California Is Exporting Its Poor To Texas

 

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Five-Year Retail Boom in Texas Implodes, by Wolf Richter

Posted on February 18, 2016 | Leave a comment

From Wolf Richter at wolfstreet.com:

The Oil Bust Bites.

Retail sales in Texas were a boom machine after March 2010, their low point during the Great Recession. It lasted over five years. Sales tax collections, reported by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, jumped 46% from the first half of 2010 to the first half of 2015. Blinding growth for a mature market!

Given the size of the Texas economy, it helped prop up overall retail sales in the US.

But by mid-2015, the retail sales boom came to a screeching halt. In the second half, sharp year-over-year declines set in. And in December, over the crucial holiday period, retail sales sagged.

Sales tax collections aren’t an ideal gauge. Basic food products like flour, sugar, bread, milk, eggs, fruits, or vegetables are exempt. Taxes on motor vehicle sales and rentals are not included in this tally but are reported separately. The data is not seasonally adjusted, so it can only be compared to the same months in prior years. But it’s an unvarnished approximation of the movements of retail sales.

Sales tax collections lag sales one month. So collections reported for January were for sales in December.

June and August 2015 were the first months since March 2010 when sales tax collections actually declined year over year. They were considered outliers. Then in October, sales tax collections plunged 5.4% year-over-year. In November, collections fell 3.3%, in December 1.0%, and in January 3.9%.

Since sales tax collections lag sales one month, that 3.9% drop for January was for December sales. What a sour holiday period!

This chart by “David in Texas” shows how the boom in sales tax collections since the Great Recession began to sag last year. I circled the months of year-over-year declines (yellow = 2014, green = 2015, dark blue = 2016):

The chart also shows just how phenomenal the retail sales boom in Texas was. It coincided with the oil boom, when West Texas Intermediate traded above $100 a barrel for part of the time, when fracking became the new miracle activity that brought billions of dollars from banks and investors from around the world into the state every year.

To continue reading: Five-Year Retail Boom in Texas Implodes

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Writing’s On The Wall: Texas Pulls $1 Billion In Gold From NY Fed, Makes It “Non-Confiscatable,” by Tyler Durden

Posted on June 15, 2015 | Leave a comment

Rehypothecation—the same asset pledged as collateral for multiple loans, is the dirty secret of both financial and commodity markets. The trouble is, when all hell breaks loose, all the lenders want the same collateral at the same time. To forestall that kind of problem, the state of Texas has decided to bring its gold back home from the New York Federal Reserve and HSBC bank. They’ve decided they want to see the gold they own. That’s a policy with a lot to recommend it, for individuals and institutions alike. From Tyler Durden, at zerohedge.com:

The lack of faith in central bank trustworthiness is spreading. First Germany, then Holland, and Austria, and now – as we noted was possible previously – Texas has enacted a Bill to repatriate $1 billion of gold from The NY Fed’s vaults to a newly established state gold bullion depository…”People have this image of Texas as big and powerful … so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold,” and the Bill includes a section to prevent forced seizure from the Federal Government.

From 2011:

“The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board.”

The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

“Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”

And now, after we noted the possibility previously, as The Epoch Times reports, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law on Friday, June 12, that will allow Texas to build a gold and silver bullion depository. In addition, Texas will repatriate $1 billion worth of bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to the new facility once completed.

On the surface the bill looks rather innocent, but its implications are far reaching. HB 483, “relating to the establishment and administration of a state bullion depository” to store gold and silver coins, was introduced by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione.

Capriglione told the Star-Telegram:

“We are not talking Fort Knox. But when I first announced this, I got so many emails and phone calls from people literally all over the world who said they want to store their gold … in a Texas depository. People have this image of Texas as big and powerful … so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold.”

But isn’t New York, where most of the world’s gold is stored, also big and powerful? Why does the state of Texas want to go through the trouble of building its own storage facility?

There are precisely two important reasons. One involves distrust in the current storage system. The second threatens the paper money system as a whole.

To continue reading: Writing’s On The Wall

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-13/writings-wall-texas-pulls-1-billion-gold-ny-fed-makes-it-non-confiscatable

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The Coyote Principle, from Robert Gore’s Email Inbox

Posted on February 9, 2015 | Leave a comment

I found this in my email, sent by a friend. I got a good laugh and thought it should be posted.

The Coyote Principle

California

The Governor of California is jogging with his dog
along a nature  trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the
Governor’s dog, then bites the Governor.

The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the
movie”Bambi” and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is
only doing what is natural.

He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the
coyote and bills the state $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and
bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.

The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting
checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound
bandaged.

The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while
Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now
free of dangerous animals.

The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing
a “coyote awareness program” for residents of the area.

The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to
better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease
throughout the world.

The Governor’s security agent is fired for not
stopping the attack. The state
spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with
additional special training re the nature of coyotes.

PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a
$5 million suit against the state.

Texas

The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a
nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog.

The Governor shoots the coyote with his state-issued
pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $.50 on a .45 ACP
hollow point cartridge.

The buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Texas is not.

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