Here’s 4 items regarding how government and politics often do not work in Texas.
1. The Dallas Police
and Fire Pension system is seriously failing due to the managing board’s reckless,
unprofessional and possibly bribe-induced investments in real estate, esp. in Idaho, of all places. The feds are investigating. The state has approved a partial bailout, but
city taxpayers will end up paying huge amounts and benefits will be cut. The City finally wrested control from the pension
board (which included fire and police personnel). Before the city took over, the board agreed
to a full-year salary as severance benefits to 3 top fund officials if they
lost their jobs. They wrecked the pension fund and now the 3 will get a total
of almost $900,000 from a fund that is basically bankrupt. Are you kidding me? Let’s hope the feds get
justice for the city and the police and firefighters in the end.
2. Texas has been in
a continuing legal fight with the federal courts over its disgraceful treatment
of neglected and abused children taken into state custody. Many children had to sleep-over at Department
offices. In one incident two girls ran
away from an office and one was killed.
The state supposedly made emergency moves to fix the problem and the
legislature appropriated money to fix the problem. Yet, sleep-overs and going up, not down. Go figure!
This situation and similar lack of concern for the unfortunate,(almost
always humans without money and
political support, and/ or, “unpopular” minorities to white, traditional,
Christian supremacists) shows that when ideology and money talks, ethics and
human values walk.
3. Here’s another
unbelievable story from Dallas County regarding letting groups of juvenile sex
offenders sleep together unsupervised on the floor in a large room. I don’t have to tell you what happened.
4.
Time does not allow for full exposition of the insanity, chaos, pushing
and shoving and threats that accompanied the latest TX legislative session, the
failure complete their business on time, and the calling of a special session
to deal with, among other things, Texas’ ludicrous bathroom bill. This is what happens what a hard-core group
of ideologues take a ‘full-speed ahead, damn the torpedoes” attitude. What a joke and embarrassment. With billions of dollars in the budgets,
millions of residents, and pressing problems, the Texas legislature only meets
every other year. At the end of regular sessions there is a mad rush to pass
bills that many members have not read and are poorly worded and thought out. The latest word is that the far-right
ideologue Lt. Governor who heads the Senate deliberately sabotaged the finish
of the regular session so that there would be a special session where some of
his pet bills that did not pass (e.g. bathroom bill) would have to be heard and
possibly pass because legislators are worn out, tired and want to get back to
work and home. Search the Dallas Morning
News or google the topics.
ALL those involved in these 4
events should be ashamed and taxpayers and voters should be “mad as hell.” Where do they find these people? Unfortunately too many voters and taxpayers
cannot escape from their echo chambers or smart phones to care.
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