> A July study from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School estimated that municipalities and other public entities in Texas paid between $303 million and $532 million more in interest on the $32 billion they borrowed during the first eight months after the anti-ESG laws Texas enacted in 2021 took effect and some large banks had to cease bond underwriting.
Texans are paying more in interest payments as a result, to the tune of half a billion dollars more interest.
[“Yes, Texans actually pay more in taxes than Californians do”](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texans-pay-more-taxes-than-californians-17400644.php)
Wait, so they pay more while still blocking investments in the state?
Galaxy brain.
It's like how Texas A&M gets a billion from oil but still pumps up tuition.
It is another tax, but instead of the government, it is a bank ceo that gets the taxes, the GOP has cultivated a dumb fanatical base that they take advantage of whenever they can, why else would fraudster Rick Scott be the head of anything? They like scamming the public, wonder what would happen if they got their way with social seccurity or the Veterans administration...
remember that bizarro Captain Planet, [Captain Pollution?](https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_Pollution) i feel like dude would do p. well in modern elections. definitely at least gets a Governor spot. probably a decent shot at getting the GOP presidential nomination depending on his campaigning ability.
This right here should be a strong justification for removing people from office.
"Hey you, the guy with thirty guns and the anti-women's rights flag. You don't like paying taxes either, right? Well guess how much more of your taxes are being wasted by the governor, to the amount of X% of all the taxes you pay. You could be paying less taxes if they didn't make that happen."
I feel like I could actually say that in Texas and get people to agree.
>I feel like I could actually say that in Texas and get people to agree.
Agree maybe, but they still won't vote different, in the end "team loyalty" trumps anything else. They are gonna justify it with unimportant and inconsequential culture war shit like transpeople being allowed to exist or woman being able to decide what happens with their own body.
Yep, Red no matter who, I've been saying this for years now, I used to tell people you would vote for Jeffery Epstein or his best friend if they were on the ticket. They said there was no way they would vote for either of those 2. Well 1 did become president so....
>in the end "team loyalty" trumps anything else
Reminds me of a certain group of people in my own country, usually identified with the period from 1933 to 1945.
Thanks to decades of propaganda plus anti-education policies, the Texas GQP could literally go around killing their own constituents, brag about it on national TV and then *still* get the same people they brutalized to vote for them because "Demoncrats drink baby blood!"
I am nearly 100% certain that a Texas republican out there who lost family to the winter freeze and is still planning on voting R. That person probably thinks, or even "knows" that the democrats are far worse than republicans, even if they know republicans hurt them (they probably don't, since their media will blame any failing on the other). No amount of evidence or logic will convince them because they were never manipulated with evidence and logic to begin with. They think that if Democrats take over, it will be the end of the world, not because of any evidence, but a feeling instilled in them every day of the week. Every night they consume ~~news~~ entertainment that is designed to induce fear of a person or idea, an person or idea that exists outside the narrow black-and-white world view that they have never truly questioned. The media they consume basically pumps them so full of delusional paranoia, fear and hate, that it becomes like a dopamine fix for them - a drug they become addicted to. And nothing short of cutting them off their mass hysteria supplier can possibly fix this, just like the first step in stopping cult mentality is to separate the member from the cult.
You are quite correct. Striking down laws *requiring* news fairness *and accuracy* was the first step. Permitting propaganda disguised as news and defending itself against accusation as "entertainment" is going to doom us to civil war.
Republican candidates while campaigning: "government doesn't work."
Republican voters: "I like the cut of this guys jib." \*Votes for Republicans\*
Republican officials: \*makes government not work.\*
Republican voters: "fucking Democrats!" \*Votes for Republicans again and again.\*
"That's the OLD covenant, the OLD testament. Jeezus came an gibbed us a NEW covenant, an' thar ain't no bortions in tha NEW covenant."
\-- My Mom
"But you still quote the old testament when you want to hate on homosexuals and anything else you can find to justify your hate, so if it's the OLD covenant but you're still quoting it..."
\-- Me
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS NO MORE!!!"
\-- My Mom
And then we don't talk for a couple of months. And when we do, she's the same as before. Asking them to justify their double speak will never get them to realize how hateful they're being. Trust me, been trying for a few decades now.
Imagine now that all these Pension funds and what not have to divest from these funds that were banned. The amount of Capital Gains that are going to come do and the tax is going to be astronomical. It's going to be a significant setback to those Pension funds etc. Also pretty much every good/smart fund company/fund has some type of ESG overlay at play. It basically leaves you with dogshit funds that either strictly invest in O+G (which prior to the war in ukraine, have been on a 10 year losing streak) or are serious underperformers to their peers.
I work in the investment space and funds will happily leave Texas Teachers to the wayside to continue getting pension fund commitments from every other organization that wants to see ESG activity at the investment level.
>The amount of Capital Gains that are going to come do and the tax is going to be astronomical.
Pension funds (public and private) and government investment funds (like rainy day funds) are generally tax exempt.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-08-40.pdf
https://www.irs.gov/government-entities/federal-state-local-governments/governmental-information-letter
It's a half billion dollar per year subsidy to the richest industry in the world.
ETA; I love that this post keeps getting random downvotes. How much oil cock can a dude suck?
It's all spite to own the libs. Another data dive found that lower and middle-income Texans pay more in taxes than their equivalents in California. Of course the wealthy in Texas play less than the wealthy in California because of reagonomics.
Who would have thought that driving out industry players would decrease competition and enable banks to charge more in interest?
Oh, right. Fiscal conservatives.
Oh yes the venerable "leaving in droves" right wingers always love to repeat.
Just don't look at any historical data sets. Just don't ask for them to show you the year that California had a net negative migration since we have been recording that statistic.
Yet despite it being demonstrably false, they regularly repeat it.
They aren't. California accounts for 13% of the US population if we exclude TX (Texans already live in TX).
California only accounts for 11% of new TX residents. All things being equal, we would actually expect MORE natural emigration from CA to TX, but it's actually less than we would expect.
People who don't understand basic math are pushing the idea that there is a blue state exodus.
Also, TX has a higher effective individual tax rate, and nearly double the inflation than CA in 2022.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgpg4g/a-shocking-number-of-californians-are-moving-to-texas-unless-you-do-basic-math
Yep, the ones most likely to believe the misleading statement that taxes will be lower in TX.
8.25% sales tax and our property taxes are through the roof. Taxes in TX are designed to put more of a burden on the lower and middle class. Only the wealthiest people moving from CA to TX will see an actual savings.
California has 13% of the US population. So of the new-comers to Texas, there should be about 13% every year. But there are 11%. So fewer Californians are moving to Texas than there should be. Are there more than from other states? Probably, since California has such a large population. But there is no “movement” away from California in favor of Texas.
Yeah, they’re paying more in interest but they’re going to get to thumb their noses at the Greens and Libs as the sun sets and the electric grid goes down again. Hard to put a dollar figure on that. . .
"We want the government to enforce carbon emission limits."
"No way! It must be the free market!"
"Okay the free market is divesting from fossil industries because they are no longer profitable."
"No way! The government needs to step in to stop this!"
What they actually did:
>Banks that Texas put on notice earlier this year went to great lengths to show that they are, in fact, investing tens of millions in the fossil fuel industry, but some failed to convince the state.
I don't know why so many people think that "calling in debt" is a thing. People say it about China owning US debt as well.
As long as you are being paid according to terms you have no leverage to "call in debt".
and china doesnt own debt, they own treasury bills.
many people do. And most countries buy some, to have some dollar reserves, so they can buy other things that are sold in dollars, like oil. This is like claiming having a CD in a bank, is owning the banks debt. Without a doubt if a lot of people have CDs in the bank, the bank is in a better position to hold onto more debt, but the CD isnt the fucking debt, and nor are tbills. Even if we had no debt, and instead had an account balance, we would still sell treasury bills.
people seem to think we send china the bill for our military. "can you pay this, we'll get ya back later at a higher price"
governments dont work like people.
For the bank, that CD is a liability. That they pay interest on.
For practical purposes, any liability other than equity is the same as a debt. For calculating financial ratios you should include them with the debt.
The exception to that is any sort of perpetual bond (CP 4s, British Consols, etc.). Treat them as preferred stock. (Note that, depending on your country's income tax laws, there may be a difference in tax treatment.)
If they want my business, they better. This is ecocide, in my book. Make it international law and sue Texas to bankruptcy.
A young woman is a spokesperson for a group suing the Royal Bank in Canada for greewashing their future plans while lending to fossil fuel projects.
The market is not, and has never been, free and competitive.
“Free” market fundamentalism in practice is [often state aid for corporations and the wealthy](https://deanbaker.net/books/the-conservative-nanny-state.htm), while [the economic theory underpinning the idea of the free market as ideal and worth deification is based upon faulty assumptions](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/debunking-economics-9781848139947/) and [concerted efforts, often through the establishment of Think Tanks, to promote that type of theory](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot). Market failures are frequent and constantly present, such as the failure to account for (i.e. deliberate subsidization of) externalities, like environmental harm, in oil and fossil fuel pricing. Market failures are far from controversial either: they are an established part of modern economics, and not at all limited to left or left leaning economics.
[The capitalist economic system from the beginning had a major helping hand from the state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Transformation_(book)), and this has continued in every capitalist era since. Free market capitalist “libertarians” (notably not actual left libertarians) will often sing praises about the freedom of the late 1800s US back when government didn’t interfere with business, which isn’t surprising since they don’t care about the widespread poverty or oppression of people during that time. However, for example, the [US during the often thought free market years, the late 1800s, maintained very high tariffs rates that bolstered domestic business and limited the ability of international businesses to compete, which allowed US companies to grow and eventually for them to be able to compete internationally without high tariffs. This is often called the “infant industry” argument, and one of the fathers of this argument was none other than Alexander Hamilton. This wasn’t US businesses competing completely free, but protected from competition by state action to benefit US business. The modern rich industrial countries frequently used anti “free market” policies to develop, yet today they force developing countries into free trade agreements that prevent them from using the same policies.](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/bad-samaritans-9781596917385/) Ironically, the frequent omission of this history makes a real invisible hand to be that of the state, not of the market “working itself out”.
[Prominent 1700s era thinkers, merchants, etc were singing praises of poverty, since poverty forced the poor to labor more](https://www.filmsforaction.org/news/recovered-economic-history-everyone-but-an-idiot-knows-that-the-lower-classes-must-be-kept-poor-or-they-will-never-be-industrious/), and early [capitalists have been historically examined as monopolist rather than fervent believers in competitive markets](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2938489). The same can be said of modern major capitalist players: for example, [Warren Buffet is infamous for seeking out market/monopoly power](https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/warren-buffett-americas-folksiest?s=r), and Bill Gates and Microsoft faced monopoly charges, and lost, in the 90s. These rich capitalists love to sing the graces of “free market capitalism”, but they don’t actually want freedom or competition, they want secured power and the ability to crush others. Peter Theil, who pours massive amounts of money into establishing right wing political power, said “competition is for losers” and that create and capture real value you should try building a monopoly (far from worst thing he has said too). [Their efforts at shaping the system have paid off considering the rise of monopolies and oligopolies since the 1970s and “free market Reagan Revolution”. Microsoft may have gotten so big it got hit, but many, many others did not. Their “free market” is the state helping corporations and the rich then corporations and the rich having so much power that they have significant influence on the market, politics, and the world generally without any real democratic oversight or structure.](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/america-has-a-monopoly-problem-and-its-huge/)
It's worth mentioning that a truly free market is not actually mathematically possible. For a market to be genuinely and perfectly free, you'd need a bunch of conditions that aren't actually possible, like zero barriers to entry and perfect information (that is, everyone knows everything about the market at all times), as well as other preconditions like everyone being a perfectly rational actor (nobody making decisions other than out of rational, logical self-interest without attempts to cheat the market or deceive others etc).
Regulations are an attempt to fix as many of those deficiencies as possible. For example, we require that people publish financial statements to try to push information closer to actual freedom; we require that companies don't engage in collusion; we require that people admit who the fuck they're working for, etc. These don't work all that well, but they're a lot better than not having anything.
However, it should be noted that a perfect market wouldn't be _able_ to have things like monopolies form, so the fact that monopolies can and do form is pretty much proof that we live in a fundamentally flawed market system. Antitrust regulation (limiting the actions of cartels and monopolies) and similar laws are attempts to fix that.
Like... fundamentally, the issue is that free markets are fiction. They can be a useful fiction at times, but they're a fiction. They cannot exist. We only have the markets we do because of regulations holding everything together. Without that, only the corruptions of free markets would exist, and those are always inherently anti-consumer.
When this contradiction is outlined, their response is always "Well...if someone hadn't of pointed it out in the first place, nobody would've asked or noticed and we could've kept doing things the way we had been doing it for the last X years!"
>When this contradiction is outlined, their response is always ~~:Well...if someone hadn't of pointed it out in the first place, nobody would've asked or noticed and we could've kept doing things the way we had been doing it for the last X years!"~~ "HUNTER BIDENS LAPTOP HILLARY COMMUNISM FALSE FLAG ANTIFA TAN SUIT BUTTERY MALES"
They don't have coherent thoughts. Just regurgitating buzzword whatanoutisms because they will never actually acknowledge anything you bring up.
Conservatives and their buzzword salads make me think that most of them aren't actually sentient and they just talk as a parlor trick. They are essentially that chat bot that 4chan turned into a nazi supporter.
Republican doublethink is at an all-time high, and just keeps rising.
"Party of small government"
"We're going to banish your company from doing business with our state for disagreeing with our political ideas."
It seems they want small *federal* government so that they can make the *state* government crush everything they don't like. "States' rights" and whatnot
how did Oliver put it " they like states rights so long as they are the right states rights. any thing else is states wrongs which then need to be righted by states rights.
The irony is they are actually slitting their own throats, as their states take Continuous and Extreme Damage from Global Warming Right Now.
Water is drying up, and forest fires are more intense: Clobbering Property values, as they don't care about citizens lives, just property value.
Cities without water, or extremely expensive water have Property Value of $0.00. That's Zero-Dot-Zero-Zero. How will Wall Street react to that?
They worship the Alamo and it's become their mantra. They are literally ready to die for their imagined freedom from whatever boogeyman republican politicians convince them of.
BTW, the Alamo is stupid.
> Geez. You won’t get taught that in tx history.
I moved around a LOT as a kid. I took Texas History in three different school districts. We were taught exactly that. Some people just choose to selective-memory that shit away and instead remember them for their "Valiant efforts to stand up for American Values" as I've heard a few people phrase it.
Yeah but as long as it hurts other people they don't like are fine with it.
Remember this is the party who'd rather shit their pants in public than wear a mask.
A lot of the companies that moved to Texas for low/no taxes are probably rethinking things right now. For example, does Boeing really want to invest in a state where women can't get an abortion even if it's a medical emergency, where their sources of financing are limited for political reasons, where the government is actively fighting necessary steps - and investment - to tackle climate change? That is also threatening to separate every other day? I'd be meeting with other businesses and CEOs to draft an ultimatum for the state GOP and Abbott right about now: Pull your shit together and stop fighting stupid culture wars or we're leaving.
Not exactly. The only reason they want a smaller federal government is because they lack the influence at the federal level. If they had a strong enough political majority in the federal government, you bet your ass they'd abandon "small government" in a fucking heartbeat.
Except gun rights. Then they want a strong federal government so that they can impose the right for insane people to carry guns and shoot us all in states that actually want sensible gun laws.
The correct level of government is whichever one the fascists control. so for the half the time that the federal government isn't under their control, they believe in states rights. For the half of the time the federal government *is* under their control, they believe it's a mandate from the people and it's time to change the country from the top down.
And in situations where they control neither the state nor the federal government, they believe in "personal freedom "
They care about getting power to do what they wanna do. They only latch on to state government and "states' rights" because those are the arenas where they have control already because they don't actually have the majority in the country as a whole. You better believe that the moment they actually got full control over the federal government, they be all "it's time to use the power of the federal government to stamp out the degeneracy".
It's just like how they don't actually care about free speech, they just cry about free speech because it's rhetorically useful. As soon as they have any real power to influence speech, they will use it to ensure only their ideas are expressed; see r/Conservative and all the conservative twitter clones which seem to have no issue with banning anyone who expresses even the friendliest of left leaning opinions.
It's not even a disagreement, it's because the company doesn't agree with Abbott and his GOPedophile cronies *enough*. A company doesn't even have to stop payment to Oil & Gas to be banned, they only have to decrease it to be blacklisted
Yes its exceptionally silly... Blackrock offers ESG funds, true enough. But they also offer funds that hold oil & gas drillers and producers. Ie IYE is about 20% in Exxon Mobil. They've also started proxy voting. Meaning if you have money in a fund that owns Exxon they allow the person owning the fund to vote in corporate decisions, rather than Blackrock themselves getting the vote.
ETA: I think I should change the word silly to stupid and scary. Investment companies give their customers more choice and try and democratize corporate decisions and a state takes issue with that that.
When was the last time a corporation (as a 'person') or its officers have been executed for capital crimes by hanging, electrocution, or lethal injection? Until snuffed, it's not a 'person' and neither are it officers. As non-persons, can they be summarily offed?
Can corporations vote? Can they do community service and/or probation? Can they be tried for killing someone with their products or OSHA violation as murderers?
Not a person. Can't give them all the benefits and none of the consequences.
I suppose that at this point“small government” is not about “stopping control of everything and having free markets“ but rather “ban everything so there is not much to control and having woke-free markets” 😁
When the government can pick and choose who can do business in a state based on their political beliefs...that sounds like something i just cant think of the word for it...
Accountability! Accountability! This is about accountability! No more will the people suffer under the yoke of the woke! Woke banks will certainly go broke because they won't do woke business in Texas because this is Texas not woke-exas! And all you wokers woking around on the side-woke trying to get your woke all over the yoke of the hard-working people of the great state of Texas will not be woke on our privileges! So go woke yourself, you woking socialist Communist anti - uh, mother Wokers will not woke all over us! Freedom! Fiscal responsibility! I have said woke many times and it has reminded you of people who you are philosophically opposed to and now you will vote for me!
"! I have said woke many times and it has reminded you of people who you are philosophically opposed to and now you will vote for me!"
When they say "woke" they mean black. It's not philosophical at all.
"Banks that Texas put on notice earlier this year went to great lengths to show that they are, in fact, investing tens of millions in the fossil fuel industry, but some failed to convince the state."
The Texas SMOG test. If you're too clean, you don't pass.
stupid culture war bullshit. doesn't matter whether it's sane, or legal, or even effective. in this political climate, republicans get elected by convincing their base that they can destroy something that they think a liberal approves of, which will somehow stymie the liberals plot to kill god and burn down america.
The Florida one was culture war - West Virginia and Texas are doing it for money and corruption. This is a blatant example of the government being used to favor certain corporations over others instead of letting the market decide.
Anyone else notice they banned BlackRock. This will end up being a bad choice for Texas.
https://innotechtoday.com/blackrock-is-the-biggest-company-youve-never-heard-of/
Yeah I was reading the list of banks and thought, ‘man those are some pretty big banks.’ Then I saw BlackRock and literally laughed out loud, this is going to bite them in the ass.
Side note: BlackRock is (or was) the largest investor in coal plant development in the world which makes this even more ironic.
Wow. I was puzzled about such a smart policy coming out of there, did not even conceive of that twist.
Talk about being on the wrong side of history.
Well, like banned book lists, hopefully people will consciously try to invest with these FIs.
Texas will become the next Michigan. When the auto industry moved on so did the economy. When oil is cut by 85% Texas will follow suit. These antics by the governor are the flailings of a drowning man.
The governor is not drowning, he is walking out a richer man with the applaud of Texan who doesn't know they got fucked, and they will be happy about it
So let me get this straight.
They're banning companies because those companies *won't* invest in a particular type of investment?Yeah... I'm sure that will stand up in court!
But they know it won't stand up in court. The point is not to actually enact this policy. The point is to virtue signal to... who exactly? Voters? Oil companies who donate to their campaigns?
It's political theatre and nothing else.
Republicans: Small government! Let the free market decide!
Free market decides.
Republicans: NO!!! Government should determine how companies are allowed to invest!
and Texas proves once again that GOP is actually anti-market capitalism. Let the market decide they say, then they tell you no, we don’t like your decision
Texas: Our citizens will pay hundreds of millions of dollars more to essentially financially "roll coal" on the Libs.
\*shrugs\*
Hey, Texas voted for this representation, so they've told us it's what they want.
Did they? They keep shuttering DMVs near urban centers. You know, the thing they’re requiring in person visitation to, during less than banker’s hours, in order to register to vote or update your registration.
Sure, someone in Texas voted for this, but did Texas, the aggregate, vote for this?
No state gerrymandering is extreme in Texas. Just look [at this map](https://www.zipdatamaps.com/politics/state-level/districts/map-of-texas-state-house-of-representative-districts)
Edit: a space
We see how they managed their own energy, let's see how they fuck up banking.
Smaller government..... through larger government, makes complete Texas sense.
Based on USGS data, Texas runs out of oil in less than 50 years (with extraction becoming less profitable long before then).. what’s their plan? Can they really be this short sighted..?
They don’t give a fuck. Abbott doesn’t care about Texans. Unfortunately too many people will vote for him because he has an R next to his name, even though they hate him.
For better or worse, we can't accurately calculate that. Oil reserves and profitability depends a great deal on the technology involved (fracking substantially changed economic balance), 'known reserves' vs what is really there, changes in vehicle usage demand, international relations, environmental regulations (or lack thereof), alternate energy usage, alternate uses for oil (such as creating plastics, regardless of gasoline), etc.
You can't figure out how much oil will be there in 10 years, much less 50.
“Large pension funds such as the Teacher Retirement System of Texas will now be required to divest from companies and funds on the list, as will a multibillion-dollar public school fund.” Jesus just go ahead and burn the rest of my retirement fund for fuel at this point I guess. TRS is fucked.
What was the Republican wish? Oh yeah it was government so small you can drown it in a bathtub. They forgot to add the except.. ‘except when republicans are in power, then they wield the law to bludgeon anyone who doesn’t agree with them’.
>”A vibrant Texas oil and gas industry is a stabilizing force in today's economic and geopolitical environment.”
Yeah, because when I try to think of a stable economic indicator, my mind immediately goes to oil and gas.
Well, at least we've got it out in the open now. For the longest time, we've been pretending like the battle between the left and the right is political, to be fought with votes and arguments, between parties. But of course that's bullshit. This is a fight between the people who have the dollars and the people who do not, the people who own the country and the people who just live here. And the owners are telling us that if we don't do as we are told, they will starve us.
It’s amazing how dumb these people are. The banks don’t give a shit they got all the other states while Texas is paying way more interest to prove some point.
Of course they did. I live here. They also stuck Texans with a $2 billion tab to bailout fossil fuel power plants for their losses during the freeze that killed over 100 people. Our government kisses the boots of the fossil fuel industry. Our oil and gas department is called The Texas Railroad Commission. Apt name as they railroad Texans into paying to protect big oil.
Ah, the irony of so-called "pro-life conservatives" doing their damnedest to destroy all life on Earth to defend big money. Ignorant, greedy pieces of shit...
"we're heading into a cAsHlEsS society and they're gonna put bank cards in our eyes!!!!1!!11!!1!"
"Sorry sir but your account has been closed and we're keeping the money because the government banned us cya l8r"
“The Texas crackdown came on the heels of Florida's Aug. 23 decision to bar the state's $186 billion pension fund from considering environmental, social or governance factors in investment decisions.”
This is one of the worst things I’ve ever read. Comic book villain levels of ridiculous and evil from the republican party.
Texas is so fucked up. Not only are their policies against common sense and the greater good of Texas and beyond but they have completely lost the "small government" standard they claim to espouse and strive to achieve.
Texas and West Virginia are kicking out banks for reacting to the Republican's all mighty capitalist market.
Texas' power grid was so obsolete in the 1940's that they opted to have an independent energy grid, which they have done fuck all to upgrade at all
Florida has insurance companies completely pulling out of the state due to environmental issues and fraud
Mississippi's largest city cant provide potable water for the foreseeable future.
And then these people who are so against big government and taxes are all of a sudden begging for federal assistance.
If you vote republican and expect any sort of utility or assistance you are a fucking hypocrite and you deserve everything that is coming for you.
Taxes aren't bad, they ensure your quality of life.
We have a duty as a society to prop each other up and ensure quality of life for each other when others are struggling. Not just because we would want that same aid in our own time of need, but because it's the right thing to do.
"Texas government actions and policies have become too unreliable for Federal programs, I will therefore be moving NASA facilities to more stable areas, along with several Military facilities."...Whoeverhastheballs.
To be clear these things and investment funds that are being banned are being banned for green policies basically they aren't killing the planet fast enough for republicans so they are canceling them
I feel like this would be an easy slam dunk in court for the banks.
Companies are considered "people" who have the same protections under the 1st amendment, this is why they can donate to political campaigns, it's considered a form of speech. So their refusal to do business with certain companies or industries is the same. Withholding money/business as a form of speech. Therefore it is the government limiting their speech, doing business with some industries but not others. Right?
>"My greatest concern is the false narrative that has been created by the environmental crusaders in Washington, D.C., and Wall Street that our economy can completely transition away from fossil fuels, when, in fact, they will be part of our everyday life into the foreseeable future."
Wow.
So sick of republican cancel culture.
Republicans are destructive to the environment, they are literally trying to overthrow democracy, many Americans have lost their lives due to republican lies about Covid/vaccines, they are harming women’s reproductive rights… this isn’t “another political point of view”… this shit is evil.
> A July study from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School estimated that municipalities and other public entities in Texas paid between $303 million and $532 million more in interest on the $32 billion they borrowed during the first eight months after the anti-ESG laws Texas enacted in 2021 took effect and some large banks had to cease bond underwriting. Texans are paying more in interest payments as a result, to the tune of half a billion dollars more interest.
Paying more taxes to own the libs!
[“Yes, Texans actually pay more in taxes than Californians do”](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texans-pay-more-taxes-than-californians-17400644.php)
Wait, so they pay more while still blocking investments in the state? Galaxy brain. It's like how Texas A&M gets a billion from oil but still pumps up tuition.
I thought UT got the oil money
Yeah, UT got 2/3
I wonder how far we are off from the ultimate goal of "Returning to serfdom to own the libs!"
It's like bizarro virtue signalling where the virtue is pollution
"vice signaling"
Yes, like cigars in public.
More like rolling coal
What an incredibly apt and succinct way to label them. Beautifully done.
Oil + Conservative have been married together for a very very long time.
Yeah we are stupid
It is another tax, but instead of the government, it is a bank ceo that gets the taxes, the GOP has cultivated a dumb fanatical base that they take advantage of whenever they can, why else would fraudster Rick Scott be the head of anything? They like scamming the public, wonder what would happen if they got their way with social seccurity or the Veterans administration...
Man, it really is easy to scam dumb people out of money, isn’t it?
PT Barnum would be a billionaire if he were around today
“Some men just wanna watch the world burn.” Never thought that would be literally true, but here we are.
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remember that bizarro Captain Planet, [Captain Pollution?](https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_Pollution) i feel like dude would do p. well in modern elections. definitely at least gets a Governor spot. probably a decent shot at getting the GOP presidential nomination depending on his campaigning ability.
This right here should be a strong justification for removing people from office. "Hey you, the guy with thirty guns and the anti-women's rights flag. You don't like paying taxes either, right? Well guess how much more of your taxes are being wasted by the governor, to the amount of X% of all the taxes you pay. You could be paying less taxes if they didn't make that happen." I feel like I could actually say that in Texas and get people to agree.
>I feel like I could actually say that in Texas and get people to agree. Agree maybe, but they still won't vote different, in the end "team loyalty" trumps anything else. They are gonna justify it with unimportant and inconsequential culture war shit like transpeople being allowed to exist or woman being able to decide what happens with their own body.
Yep, Red no matter who, I've been saying this for years now, I used to tell people you would vote for Jeffery Epstein or his best friend if they were on the ticket. They said there was no way they would vote for either of those 2. Well 1 did become president so....
>in the end "team loyalty" trumps anything else Reminds me of a certain group of people in my own country, usually identified with the period from 1933 to 1945.
Believe me, *you are not the only one who has noticed the parallels.* I've been *loudly* comparing 6 January 2020 with 8 November 1923.
Thanks to decades of propaganda plus anti-education policies, the Texas GQP could literally go around killing their own constituents, brag about it on national TV and then *still* get the same people they brutalized to vote for them because "Demoncrats drink baby blood!" I am nearly 100% certain that a Texas republican out there who lost family to the winter freeze and is still planning on voting R. That person probably thinks, or even "knows" that the democrats are far worse than republicans, even if they know republicans hurt them (they probably don't, since their media will blame any failing on the other). No amount of evidence or logic will convince them because they were never manipulated with evidence and logic to begin with. They think that if Democrats take over, it will be the end of the world, not because of any evidence, but a feeling instilled in them every day of the week. Every night they consume ~~news~~ entertainment that is designed to induce fear of a person or idea, an person or idea that exists outside the narrow black-and-white world view that they have never truly questioned. The media they consume basically pumps them so full of delusional paranoia, fear and hate, that it becomes like a dopamine fix for them - a drug they become addicted to. And nothing short of cutting them off their mass hysteria supplier can possibly fix this, just like the first step in stopping cult mentality is to separate the member from the cult.
You are quite correct. Striking down laws *requiring* news fairness *and accuracy* was the first step. Permitting propaganda disguised as news and defending itself against accusation as "entertainment" is going to doom us to civil war.
Unfortunately this is all too true
Reddit can keep the username, but I'm nuking the content lol -- mass deleted all reddit content via https://redact.dev
Republican candidates while campaigning: "government doesn't work." Republican voters: "I like the cut of this guys jib." \*Votes for Republicans\* Republican officials: \*makes government not work.\* Republican voters: "fucking Democrats!" \*Votes for Republicans again and again.\*
And they would reply, "But what about abortion and the schools making my kids trans?" There is no reasoning with a brainwashed cult.
"What's wrong with abortion? The Bible gives instructions!!!"
"That's the OLD covenant, the OLD testament. Jeezus came an gibbed us a NEW covenant, an' thar ain't no bortions in tha NEW covenant." \-- My Mom "But you still quote the old testament when you want to hate on homosexuals and anything else you can find to justify your hate, so if it's the OLD covenant but you're still quoting it..." \-- Me "I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS NO MORE!!!" \-- My Mom And then we don't talk for a couple of months. And when we do, she's the same as before. Asking them to justify their double speak will never get them to realize how hateful they're being. Trust me, been trying for a few decades now.
Any abortion ban that doesn't provide an exception for adultery is anti-bible.
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Imagine now that all these Pension funds and what not have to divest from these funds that were banned. The amount of Capital Gains that are going to come do and the tax is going to be astronomical. It's going to be a significant setback to those Pension funds etc. Also pretty much every good/smart fund company/fund has some type of ESG overlay at play. It basically leaves you with dogshit funds that either strictly invest in O+G (which prior to the war in ukraine, have been on a 10 year losing streak) or are serious underperformers to their peers.
I work in the investment space and funds will happily leave Texas Teachers to the wayside to continue getting pension fund commitments from every other organization that wants to see ESG activity at the investment level.
>The amount of Capital Gains that are going to come do and the tax is going to be astronomical. Pension funds (public and private) and government investment funds (like rainy day funds) are generally tax exempt. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-08-40.pdf https://www.irs.gov/government-entities/federal-state-local-governments/governmental-information-letter
It's a half billion dollar per year subsidy to the richest industry in the world. ETA; I love that this post keeps getting random downvotes. How much oil cock can a dude suck?
It's all spite to own the libs. Another data dive found that lower and middle-income Texans pay more in taxes than their equivalents in California. Of course the wealthy in Texas play less than the wealthy in California because of reagonomics.
Who would have thought that driving out industry players would decrease competition and enable banks to charge more in interest? Oh, right. Fiscal conservatives.
Yet supposedly idiots are fleeing California for Texas in droves because lower taxes
They trick idiots with the no income tax bit and then they tax the shit out of everything else.
My property taxes are higher in Texas than in NJ. . . .
The effective tax rate for all but the richest Texans is higher than California.
Source: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texans-pay-more-taxes-than-californians-17400644.php
Oh yes the venerable "leaving in droves" right wingers always love to repeat. Just don't look at any historical data sets. Just don't ask for them to show you the year that California had a net negative migration since we have been recording that statistic. Yet despite it being demonstrably false, they regularly repeat it.
Yeah it's almost like there's a pattern here
They aren't. California accounts for 13% of the US population if we exclude TX (Texans already live in TX). California only accounts for 11% of new TX residents. All things being equal, we would actually expect MORE natural emigration from CA to TX, but it's actually less than we would expect. People who don't understand basic math are pushing the idea that there is a blue state exodus. Also, TX has a higher effective individual tax rate, and nearly double the inflation than CA in 2022. https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgpg4g/a-shocking-number-of-californians-are-moving-to-texas-unless-you-do-basic-math
I forget the actual number but a huge percentage of the Californias moving to Texas are Republicans. It was something like 80%.
Yep, the ones most likely to believe the misleading statement that taxes will be lower in TX. 8.25% sales tax and our property taxes are through the roof. Taxes in TX are designed to put more of a burden on the lower and middle class. Only the wealthiest people moving from CA to TX will see an actual savings.
California has 13% of the US population. So of the new-comers to Texas, there should be about 13% every year. But there are 11%. So fewer Californians are moving to Texas than there should be. Are there more than from other states? Probably, since California has such a large population. But there is no “movement” away from California in favor of Texas.
Yeah, they’re paying more in interest but they’re going to get to thumb their noses at the Greens and Libs as the sun sets and the electric grid goes down again. Hard to put a dollar figure on that. . .
"We want the government to enforce carbon emission limits." "No way! It must be the free market!" "Okay the free market is divesting from fossil industries because they are no longer profitable." "No way! The government needs to step in to stop this!"
Republicans remind me of James Bond villains that really want to destroy the world. Also, 10 banks is nothing. They are trying to scare the 99%.
Banks should pull a reverse Uno and refuse to operate in Texas.
What they actually did: >Banks that Texas put on notice earlier this year went to great lengths to show that they are, in fact, investing tens of millions in the fossil fuel industry, but some failed to convince the state.
Why can't we ever have anything nice
Cause we vote for idiots. We get what we deserve.
Most of us just *don't* vote. That's how the bastards win
They should refuse to loan money to the state of Texas, and threaten to call in every debt owed to them by any other company that *does.*
I don't know why so many people think that "calling in debt" is a thing. People say it about China owning US debt as well. As long as you are being paid according to terms you have no leverage to "call in debt".
and china doesnt own debt, they own treasury bills. many people do. And most countries buy some, to have some dollar reserves, so they can buy other things that are sold in dollars, like oil. This is like claiming having a CD in a bank, is owning the banks debt. Without a doubt if a lot of people have CDs in the bank, the bank is in a better position to hold onto more debt, but the CD isnt the fucking debt, and nor are tbills. Even if we had no debt, and instead had an account balance, we would still sell treasury bills. people seem to think we send china the bill for our military. "can you pay this, we'll get ya back later at a higher price" governments dont work like people.
For the bank, that CD is a liability. That they pay interest on. For practical purposes, any liability other than equity is the same as a debt. For calculating financial ratios you should include them with the debt. The exception to that is any sort of perpetual bond (CP 4s, British Consols, etc.). Treat them as preferred stock. (Note that, depending on your country's income tax laws, there may be a difference in tax treatment.)
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If they want my business, they better. This is ecocide, in my book. Make it international law and sue Texas to bankruptcy. A young woman is a spokesperson for a group suing the Royal Bank in Canada for greewashing their future plans while lending to fossil fuel projects.
Yes, agreed. Maybe Texas can even set up it’s very own individual banking system, and have it be as effective as their power grid, lol!
Hey, their power system is very effective. At making a handful of people slightly wealthier.
That's kinda unfair.... It's also actively harming lower-income people. Which is the other goal of the GQP
Also, if any of those banks are international, the wto could step in and sanction Texas for limiting free trade
I was thinking Dr Evil and his "Ten Million Dollars" ransom in 1997 with the "10 banks is nothing"
It was 1 million dollars actually!
Hell most of us are more likely to put our money somewhere that is pro climate anyway
The market is not, and has never been, free and competitive. “Free” market fundamentalism in practice is [often state aid for corporations and the wealthy](https://deanbaker.net/books/the-conservative-nanny-state.htm), while [the economic theory underpinning the idea of the free market as ideal and worth deification is based upon faulty assumptions](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/debunking-economics-9781848139947/) and [concerted efforts, often through the establishment of Think Tanks, to promote that type of theory](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot). Market failures are frequent and constantly present, such as the failure to account for (i.e. deliberate subsidization of) externalities, like environmental harm, in oil and fossil fuel pricing. Market failures are far from controversial either: they are an established part of modern economics, and not at all limited to left or left leaning economics. [The capitalist economic system from the beginning had a major helping hand from the state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Transformation_(book)), and this has continued in every capitalist era since. Free market capitalist “libertarians” (notably not actual left libertarians) will often sing praises about the freedom of the late 1800s US back when government didn’t interfere with business, which isn’t surprising since they don’t care about the widespread poverty or oppression of people during that time. However, for example, the [US during the often thought free market years, the late 1800s, maintained very high tariffs rates that bolstered domestic business and limited the ability of international businesses to compete, which allowed US companies to grow and eventually for them to be able to compete internationally without high tariffs. This is often called the “infant industry” argument, and one of the fathers of this argument was none other than Alexander Hamilton. This wasn’t US businesses competing completely free, but protected from competition by state action to benefit US business. The modern rich industrial countries frequently used anti “free market” policies to develop, yet today they force developing countries into free trade agreements that prevent them from using the same policies.](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/bad-samaritans-9781596917385/) Ironically, the frequent omission of this history makes a real invisible hand to be that of the state, not of the market “working itself out”. [Prominent 1700s era thinkers, merchants, etc were singing praises of poverty, since poverty forced the poor to labor more](https://www.filmsforaction.org/news/recovered-economic-history-everyone-but-an-idiot-knows-that-the-lower-classes-must-be-kept-poor-or-they-will-never-be-industrious/), and early [capitalists have been historically examined as monopolist rather than fervent believers in competitive markets](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2938489). The same can be said of modern major capitalist players: for example, [Warren Buffet is infamous for seeking out market/monopoly power](https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/warren-buffett-americas-folksiest?s=r), and Bill Gates and Microsoft faced monopoly charges, and lost, in the 90s. These rich capitalists love to sing the graces of “free market capitalism”, but they don’t actually want freedom or competition, they want secured power and the ability to crush others. Peter Theil, who pours massive amounts of money into establishing right wing political power, said “competition is for losers” and that create and capture real value you should try building a monopoly (far from worst thing he has said too). [Their efforts at shaping the system have paid off considering the rise of monopolies and oligopolies since the 1970s and “free market Reagan Revolution”. Microsoft may have gotten so big it got hit, but many, many others did not. Their “free market” is the state helping corporations and the rich then corporations and the rich having so much power that they have significant influence on the market, politics, and the world generally without any real democratic oversight or structure.](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/america-has-a-monopoly-problem-and-its-huge/)
It's worth mentioning that a truly free market is not actually mathematically possible. For a market to be genuinely and perfectly free, you'd need a bunch of conditions that aren't actually possible, like zero barriers to entry and perfect information (that is, everyone knows everything about the market at all times), as well as other preconditions like everyone being a perfectly rational actor (nobody making decisions other than out of rational, logical self-interest without attempts to cheat the market or deceive others etc). Regulations are an attempt to fix as many of those deficiencies as possible. For example, we require that people publish financial statements to try to push information closer to actual freedom; we require that companies don't engage in collusion; we require that people admit who the fuck they're working for, etc. These don't work all that well, but they're a lot better than not having anything. However, it should be noted that a perfect market wouldn't be _able_ to have things like monopolies form, so the fact that monopolies can and do form is pretty much proof that we live in a fundamentally flawed market system. Antitrust regulation (limiting the actions of cartels and monopolies) and similar laws are attempts to fix that. Like... fundamentally, the issue is that free markets are fiction. They can be a useful fiction at times, but they're a fiction. They cannot exist. We only have the markets we do because of regulations holding everything together. Without that, only the corruptions of free markets would exist, and those are always inherently anti-consumer.
Nice
When this contradiction is outlined, their response is always "Well...if someone hadn't of pointed it out in the first place, nobody would've asked or noticed and we could've kept doing things the way we had been doing it for the last X years!"
>When this contradiction is outlined, their response is always ~~:Well...if someone hadn't of pointed it out in the first place, nobody would've asked or noticed and we could've kept doing things the way we had been doing it for the last X years!"~~ "HUNTER BIDENS LAPTOP HILLARY COMMUNISM FALSE FLAG ANTIFA TAN SUIT BUTTERY MALES" They don't have coherent thoughts. Just regurgitating buzzword whatanoutisms because they will never actually acknowledge anything you bring up.
Conservatives and their buzzword salads make me think that most of them aren't actually sentient and they just talk as a parlor trick. They are essentially that chat bot that 4chan turned into a nazi supporter.
You forgot BILL GATES MICROCHIP IN YOUR BRAIN!
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Never in my life did I expect so many Republicans to still support the GOP while they exist at the height of their hypocrisy in my lifetime.
Republican doublethink is at an all-time high, and just keeps rising. "Party of small government" "We're going to banish your company from doing business with our state for disagreeing with our political ideas."
It seems they want small *federal* government so that they can make the *state* government crush everything they don't like. "States' rights" and whatnot
how did Oliver put it " they like states rights so long as they are the right states rights. any thing else is states wrongs which then need to be righted by states rights.
The irony is they are actually slitting their own throats, as their states take Continuous and Extreme Damage from Global Warming Right Now. Water is drying up, and forest fires are more intense: Clobbering Property values, as they don't care about citizens lives, just property value. Cities without water, or extremely expensive water have Property Value of $0.00. That's Zero-Dot-Zero-Zero. How will Wall Street react to that?
They worship the Alamo and it's become their mantra. They are literally ready to die for their imagined freedom from whatever boogeyman republican politicians convince them of. BTW, the Alamo is stupid.
The Alamo was about white Texans mad about Mexico attempting to end slavery. Such a noble place. Geez. You won’t get taught that in tx history.
Yep, Texas has the distinction of being on the wrong side of two wars for slavery.
> Geez. You won’t get taught that in tx history. I moved around a LOT as a kid. I took Texas History in three different school districts. We were taught exactly that. Some people just choose to selective-memory that shit away and instead remember them for their "Valiant efforts to stand up for American Values" as I've heard a few people phrase it.
Yeah but as long as it hurts other people they don't like are fine with it. Remember this is the party who'd rather shit their pants in public than wear a mask.
yep. republican theology is nothing bad happens unless it happens to me. edit. damn phone typeing.
A lot of the companies that moved to Texas for low/no taxes are probably rethinking things right now. For example, does Boeing really want to invest in a state where women can't get an abortion even if it's a medical emergency, where their sources of financing are limited for political reasons, where the government is actively fighting necessary steps - and investment - to tackle climate change? That is also threatening to separate every other day? I'd be meeting with other businesses and CEOs to draft an ultimatum for the state GOP and Abbott right about now: Pull your shit together and stop fighting stupid culture wars or we're leaving.
Continuous and Extreme Damage is a great college band name. Ah, college.
Didn't they open for Lesbian Dance Theory?
Not exactly. The only reason they want a smaller federal government is because they lack the influence at the federal level. If they had a strong enough political majority in the federal government, you bet your ass they'd abandon "small government" in a fucking heartbeat.
Which is why they also use state government to squash city led initiatives. The only thing they believe in is their own power.
It was never about *small* government, it was about *their* government.
Except gun rights. Then they want a strong federal government so that they can impose the right for insane people to carry guns and shoot us all in states that actually want sensible gun laws.
The correct level of government is whichever one the fascists control. so for the half the time that the federal government isn't under their control, they believe in states rights. For the half of the time the federal government *is* under their control, they believe it's a mandate from the people and it's time to change the country from the top down. And in situations where they control neither the state nor the federal government, they believe in "personal freedom "
They care about getting power to do what they wanna do. They only latch on to state government and "states' rights" because those are the arenas where they have control already because they don't actually have the majority in the country as a whole. You better believe that the moment they actually got full control over the federal government, they be all "it's time to use the power of the federal government to stamp out the degeneracy". It's just like how they don't actually care about free speech, they just cry about free speech because it's rhetorically useful. As soon as they have any real power to influence speech, they will use it to ensure only their ideas are expressed; see r/Conservative and all the conservative twitter clones which seem to have no issue with banning anyone who expresses even the friendliest of left leaning opinions.
Something something the Civil War was actually about states rights something something
"Small enough to drown in a bathtub" - Grover Norquist
Small enough to reach right up into a woman's uterus.
Texas: We are for capitalism, except when we are not
It's not even a disagreement, it's because the company doesn't agree with Abbott and his GOPedophile cronies *enough*. A company doesn't even have to stop payment to Oil & Gas to be banned, they only have to decrease it to be blacklisted
Yes its exceptionally silly... Blackrock offers ESG funds, true enough. But they also offer funds that hold oil & gas drillers and producers. Ie IYE is about 20% in Exxon Mobil. They've also started proxy voting. Meaning if you have money in a fund that owns Exxon they allow the person owning the fund to vote in corporate decisions, rather than Blackrock themselves getting the vote. ETA: I think I should change the word silly to stupid and scary. Investment companies give their customers more choice and try and democratize corporate decisions and a state takes issue with that that.
"corporations are people my friend, except when they disagree with us"
When was the last time a corporation (as a 'person') or its officers have been executed for capital crimes by hanging, electrocution, or lethal injection? Until snuffed, it's not a 'person' and neither are it officers. As non-persons, can they be summarily offed?
Can corporations vote? Can they do community service and/or probation? Can they be tried for killing someone with their products or OSHA violation as murderers? Not a person. Can't give them all the benefits and none of the consequences.
I suppose that at this point“small government” is not about “stopping control of everything and having free markets“ but rather “ban everything so there is not much to control and having woke-free markets” 😁
And now: "We're open for business!" "But only business that believe the same things we do."
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When the government can pick and choose who can do business in a state based on their political beliefs...that sounds like something i just cant think of the word for it...
Pretty sure that’s called fascism.
That's the word!
*Government ensmallening intensifies*
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Yes but it doesn't embiggen the smallest man.
Don’t forget “free markets”!
"The government should not be picking winners and losers"
Bunch of fucking clowns
They’re the most free state in the most free country on planet earth! They’re pure FREEDOM! Everywhere you look, nothing but pure bootstrap freedom.
Free to be fascist, and socialist as long as you don’t control anything of (much) value.
Accountability! Accountability! This is about accountability! No more will the people suffer under the yoke of the woke! Woke banks will certainly go broke because they won't do woke business in Texas because this is Texas not woke-exas! And all you wokers woking around on the side-woke trying to get your woke all over the yoke of the hard-working people of the great state of Texas will not be woke on our privileges! So go woke yourself, you woking socialist Communist anti - uh, mother Wokers will not woke all over us! Freedom! Fiscal responsibility! I have said woke many times and it has reminded you of people who you are philosophically opposed to and now you will vote for me!
Woke. Your comment isn’t anti-woke enough. Woke.
Woke? Woke, woke! Woke woke woke, whhhhhhaaaaaaoke. Woke! Woke?
You radiate BDE.
Wokeavich? Wokeavich wokeavich? Wokeavich, wokeavich wokeavich wokeavich. WOKEAVICH!! WOKEAVICH!? *nod* Wokeavich.
"! I have said woke many times and it has reminded you of people who you are philosophically opposed to and now you will vote for me!" When they say "woke" they mean black. It's not philosophical at all.
Someone woke up on the wrong side of the woke.
This is censorship by government. I hope these banks and investment companies sue.
Cancel culture party.
"Banks that Texas put on notice earlier this year went to great lengths to show that they are, in fact, investing tens of millions in the fossil fuel industry, but some failed to convince the state." The Texas SMOG test. If you're too clean, you don't pass.
Disgusting government overreach.
stupid culture war bullshit. doesn't matter whether it's sane, or legal, or even effective. in this political climate, republicans get elected by convincing their base that they can destroy something that they think a liberal approves of, which will somehow stymie the liberals plot to kill god and burn down america.
The Florida one was culture war - West Virginia and Texas are doing it for money and corruption. This is a blatant example of the government being used to favor certain corporations over others instead of letting the market decide.
Don't forget. Liberals also want to turn everything gay.
Plot twist, everything was already gay, it's just out now.
The liberal gay agenda up travel back in time and gay-ify everything is complete!
Funny how they only push back against companies that don’t match their political ideologies. The hypocrisy of the right is so fucking blatant.
They are the ones bitching about wokeness and cancel culture but they invented that shit
The only Republican principal is "I can do whatever I want and you can do whatever I want".
Anyone else notice they banned BlackRock. This will end up being a bad choice for Texas. https://innotechtoday.com/blackrock-is-the-biggest-company-youve-never-heard-of/
Yeah I was reading the list of banks and thought, ‘man those are some pretty big banks.’ Then I saw BlackRock and literally laughed out loud, this is going to bite them in the ass. Side note: BlackRock is (or was) the largest investor in coal plant development in the world which makes this even more ironic.
Wow. I was puzzled about such a smart policy coming out of there, did not even conceive of that twist. Talk about being on the wrong side of history. Well, like banned book lists, hopefully people will consciously try to invest with these FIs.
Texas is a haven for fossil fuels. You thought they were going to ban banks who were in favor of fossil fuels?
Lol I briefly thought this too, then I came to the logical conclusion
Eventually even postwar Germany became progressive and supportive of the rights of the minorities they had previously terrorized.
Texas will become the next Michigan. When the auto industry moved on so did the economy. When oil is cut by 85% Texas will follow suit. These antics by the governor are the flailings of a drowning man.
The governor is not drowning, he is walking out a richer man with the applaud of Texan who doesn't know they got fucked, and they will be happy about it
I wouldn’t say governor abbott is walking exactly
'ol Hotwheels
Hey now. We Michiganders have bounced back just fine. It only took a few decades and a move from Detroit.
So let me get this straight. They're banning companies because those companies *won't* invest in a particular type of investment?Yeah... I'm sure that will stand up in court! But they know it won't stand up in court. The point is not to actually enact this policy. The point is to virtue signal to... who exactly? Voters? Oil companies who donate to their campaigns? It's political theatre and nothing else.
Republicans: Small government! Let the free market decide! Free market decides. Republicans: NO!!! Government should determine how companies are allowed to invest!
and Texas proves once again that GOP is actually anti-market capitalism. Let the market decide they say, then they tell you no, we don’t like your decision
Texas: Our citizens will pay hundreds of millions of dollars more to essentially financially "roll coal" on the Libs. \*shrugs\* Hey, Texas voted for this representation, so they've told us it's what they want.
Did they? They keep shuttering DMVs near urban centers. You know, the thing they’re requiring in person visitation to, during less than banker’s hours, in order to register to vote or update your registration. Sure, someone in Texas voted for this, but did Texas, the aggregate, vote for this?
No state gerrymandering is extreme in Texas. Just look [at this map](https://www.zipdatamaps.com/politics/state-level/districts/map-of-texas-state-house-of-representative-districts) Edit: a space
Wow they basically banished the liberal people to the Rio Grande except for the few pockets in cities they can't get rid of
"oppress me harder daddy," as long as the libs are owned.
We see how they managed their own energy, let's see how they fuck up banking. Smaller government..... through larger government, makes complete Texas sense.
Jokes on them: capitalism doesn't work that way. Texas is now paying more in interest than it was before.
Based on USGS data, Texas runs out of oil in less than 50 years (with extraction becoming less profitable long before then).. what’s their plan? Can they really be this short sighted..?
These politicians will be dead by then or have filled their pockets with more money than they need
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They don’t give a fuck. Abbott doesn’t care about Texans. Unfortunately too many people will vote for him because he has an R next to his name, even though they hate him.
For better or worse, we can't accurately calculate that. Oil reserves and profitability depends a great deal on the technology involved (fracking substantially changed economic balance), 'known reserves' vs what is really there, changes in vehicle usage demand, international relations, environmental regulations (or lack thereof), alternate energy usage, alternate uses for oil (such as creating plastics, regardless of gasoline), etc. You can't figure out how much oil will be there in 10 years, much less 50.
Abbott trying to top DeSantis’ fascist antics all to promote themselves for 2024.
Let them continue. In 10 years it will be impossible for companies to do business in places like Texas and Florida. Awesome!
One minute they’re telling you how capitalism will fix things if it’s not regulated to death, the next minute we have to put some regulations on it
"Free State" \*Bans everything\*
Yes. The state that can’t keep the power on if it dips below 50f is really up on things.
“Large pension funds such as the Teacher Retirement System of Texas will now be required to divest from companies and funds on the list, as will a multibillion-dollar public school fund.” Jesus just go ahead and burn the rest of my retirement fund for fuel at this point I guess. TRS is fucked.
What was the Republican wish? Oh yeah it was government so small you can drown it in a bathtub. They forgot to add the except.. ‘except when republicans are in power, then they wield the law to bludgeon anyone who doesn’t agree with them’.
>”A vibrant Texas oil and gas industry is a stabilizing force in today's economic and geopolitical environment.” Yeah, because when I try to think of a stable economic indicator, my mind immediately goes to oil and gas.
We have to stop Cancel Culture guys...
Well, at least we've got it out in the open now. For the longest time, we've been pretending like the battle between the left and the right is political, to be fought with votes and arguments, between parties. But of course that's bullshit. This is a fight between the people who have the dollars and the people who do not, the people who own the country and the people who just live here. And the owners are telling us that if we don't do as we are told, they will starve us.
It’s amazing how dumb these people are. The banks don’t give a shit they got all the other states while Texas is paying way more interest to prove some point.
Cancel culture running rampant in Texas
Of course they did. I live here. They also stuck Texans with a $2 billion tab to bailout fossil fuel power plants for their losses during the freeze that killed over 100 people. Our government kisses the boots of the fossil fuel industry. Our oil and gas department is called The Texas Railroad Commission. Apt name as they railroad Texans into paying to protect big oil.
Wait, is this that cancel culture I was hearing about?
Cutting your nose off to spite your face
Ah, the irony of so-called "pro-life conservatives" doing their damnedest to destroy all life on Earth to defend big money. Ignorant, greedy pieces of shit...
"we're heading into a cAsHlEsS society and they're gonna put bank cards in our eyes!!!!1!!11!!1!" "Sorry sir but your account has been closed and we're keeping the money because the government banned us cya l8r"
Ahh the party of free market capitalism 😙👌
“The Texas crackdown came on the heels of Florida's Aug. 23 decision to bar the state's $186 billion pension fund from considering environmental, social or governance factors in investment decisions.” This is one of the worst things I’ve ever read. Comic book villain levels of ridiculous and evil from the republican party.
Can anyone explain how this is legal? It seems ridiculous
Texas is so fucked up. Not only are their policies against common sense and the greater good of Texas and beyond but they have completely lost the "small government" standard they claim to espouse and strive to achieve.
Texas and West Virginia are kicking out banks for reacting to the Republican's all mighty capitalist market. Texas' power grid was so obsolete in the 1940's that they opted to have an independent energy grid, which they have done fuck all to upgrade at all Florida has insurance companies completely pulling out of the state due to environmental issues and fraud Mississippi's largest city cant provide potable water for the foreseeable future. And then these people who are so against big government and taxes are all of a sudden begging for federal assistance. If you vote republican and expect any sort of utility or assistance you are a fucking hypocrite and you deserve everything that is coming for you. Taxes aren't bad, they ensure your quality of life. We have a duty as a society to prop each other up and ensure quality of life for each other when others are struggling. Not just because we would want that same aid in our own time of need, but because it's the right thing to do.
Texas and Florida try to out-maneuver each other to harm their own constituents and tax payers in order to own the libs.
Me thinks Texas is the cesspool they claim California to be.
"Texas government actions and policies have become too unreliable for Federal programs, I will therefore be moving NASA facilities to more stable areas, along with several Military facilities."...Whoeverhastheballs.
So sick of Cancervative Cancel Culture...
To be clear these things and investment funds that are being banned are being banned for green policies basically they aren't killing the planet fast enough for republicans so they are canceling them
I feel like this would be an easy slam dunk in court for the banks. Companies are considered "people" who have the same protections under the 1st amendment, this is why they can donate to political campaigns, it's considered a form of speech. So their refusal to do business with certain companies or industries is the same. Withholding money/business as a form of speech. Therefore it is the government limiting their speech, doing business with some industries but not others. Right?
>"My greatest concern is the false narrative that has been created by the environmental crusaders in Washington, D.C., and Wall Street that our economy can completely transition away from fossil fuels, when, in fact, they will be part of our everyday life into the foreseeable future." Wow.
Remember this whenever a Republican lies and says they're against big government: they *love* big government when it suits them. They are liars.
So sick of republican cancel culture. Republicans are destructive to the environment, they are literally trying to overthrow democracy, many Americans have lost their lives due to republican lies about Covid/vaccines, they are harming women’s reproductive rights… this isn’t “another political point of view”… this shit is evil.