Barry Smitherman Picks Door Number Crazy
Barry Smitherman is currently the Railroad Commissioner for the Ex-Great State of Texas. Oddly, the Texas Railroad Commissioner regulates oil and gas in Texas.
Barry is currently running for Attorney General because the Attorney General is running for Governor. Yeah, it’s musical chairs in Texas.
If you will recall, last week Barry said that the problem with Texas is that we women aren’t having enough babies. And that aborted fetuses would have voted Republican. And that all state employees should get free license to carry classes. And that the women who protested at the State Capitol are “satanic, evil, and crude.”
Honey, honey, honey, that child is on a roll and there ain’t no bottom to his hill.
This week he’s got a new one.
Texas is becoming its own Doomsday Preppers.
Listen to his plan for Texas —
“One of the things I’ve focused on in the last 10 years of my public sector life is preparing Texas to be a prosperous and safe place to work, regardless of what happens outside our borders,” he said.
“We are uniquely situated because we have energy resources, fossil and otherwise, and our own independent electrical grid. Generally speaking, we have made great progress in becoming an independent nation, an ‘island nation’ if you will, and I think we want to continue down that path so that if the rest of the country falls apart, Texas can operate as a stand-alone entity with energy, food, water and roads as if we were a closed-loop system.”
Holy food stockpile, this guy thinks Texas can be its own nation.
Now how we’re going to keep Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico from invading us is a whole ‘nother problem, but I suspect he has a solution for that, too, and it probably involves permit to carry licenses for all state employees and a whole mess of babies.
You know I love my Texas but I gotta say something here. Every time one of these jackbutted idiots starts talking about Texas seceding, I want to holler, “Hell, we’re gonna be expelled first!”
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
From what I saw last year of the cattle dying from lack of water and grazing land, I would like to know where he thinks all this food is going to come from if the rest of the country falls apart. I don’t think anyone is planning to survive eating oil and electricity…not to mention…well, maybe he plans to drink oil and eat all those babies Texas women will be forced to have.
1So. if Texas our Texas just drops out of the whole rest of the United States, do you reckon the federal government would want all the money back they have paid to Texas farmers to subsidize them not growing stuff? And, would they want all the rest of the money that Rick Perry has begged, borrowed, and well…. you know… stolen, from the taxpayers in the rest of the country?
I’d be just curious to know how that would work.
And if we weren’t part of the U.S., would we really need Cornyn, Cruz, Gohmert, et al… to not represent us in the U.S. Congress.
There may be an upside to this after all.
2There is a very good chance that next year’s Texas GOP primary will be dominated by tea-party true believers who will nominate an entire slate of candidates like this paranoid psychopath. Unfortunately, for the last twenty-five years or so, voters in the Texas general election have bought into their paranoia. Here is a personal commitment: This time, I will be engaged in registering voters. This time, I will going contribute more time and more money to the election of Democratic candidates, locally and state-wide. This time, I am going to do, what I can, to end the embarassment Texas has endured because of Smitherman, Perry, Dewhurst, Cruz, Cornyn, Gohmert, Farenthold……..
3“Generally speaking, we have made great progress in becoming an independent nation, an ‘island nation’ if you will …”
Forgive me, but he sounds an awful lot like a secessionist.
4Yeah Uncle Dave! Git your T shirts online! I’m sure there’s a bunch of good ones. I am truly proud of Dave’s commitment and believe that if all of us go and do likewise we can make a huge difference.
5Where does the fresh water in Texas come from?
6Roads? Yeah, Texas got roads … of course, they’ll all be gravel, but we’ll have roads…
7The man is a jacka$$$$$$$$$…… but then again, so is Abbott, Dewhurst, and let’s not forget those ding-a-lings in the Statehouse like Jodie Laubenberger, et al…. The slate needs to be cleaned. Get out and become a volunteer deputy registrar with your county, and GET BUSY!
8Fresh water comes from T Boone Pickens-from hated Oklahoma. He owns the largest water rights in Texas and maybe America. You need water,you pay the Booner.
9Dave, I’m with you, I have been too quiet for too long. Its time to get to work.
10As soon as the Gulf Coast ship yards, Sam Houston Hospital, S.Padre C.G. Station, Brooke Army Hospital, Ft. Hood, Ft.Bliss and all those AirForce bases close down; ROTC money, ROTC staffs, federal research grants, Agricultural Price Supports, Federal Employees, Defence Dept Employees and Medicare support for hospitals and clinics disappear, Texas is freaking broke. Don’t forget you’ll now have to pay for the property at Ft.Wolters and Carswell AFB.
11Secede my ant’s fanny?!
Pity there’s no common sense or sanity included in that closed-loop system.
12Smitherman reminds me of my cousin who is a surgical nurse who lived in her mother’s house and was always complaining about my long suffering aunt. For the ten years she lived with her mother she didn’t pay a bill, bought a house full of furniture she stored it in her mother’s basement for when she “left” and saved the rest of her money–when she wasn’t going on crazy extravagant vacations.
She got home from work one day and my smiling aunt said she had two weeks to get her an apartment because with all of that furniture and goods she had hoarded in the basement—she seemed ready. My aunt said my cousin cried for a week and accused her mother of not wanting to help her get on in the world.
You cannot fix some kinds of crazy. Well,–I suppose you could kick it out of your house.
13He’s not just a secessionist, he’s a frickin’ survivalist.
14And he wants to be your Attorney General? God help you.
What fresh water? You are letting the fracking industry dry out whole towns so how the hell are you going to stay independent with no water?
15Being somewhat familiar with the electric generating/distribution system in these United States, I woiuld ask this nut if he has ever heard of cascading failure. Perhaps he should ask the Northeast AND southeastern Canada. Not knowing is one thing but, that can be corrected. Stupidity cannot be.
16Praying or doing a raindance will not solve Texas’ water problems. Forward thinking has a good chance. This turkey knows not of what he speaks.
If he thinks Texas or any other state can make it alone when climate-triggered disasters hit, he’s in for a rude awakening.
I have a (Texan) friend who ranches and farms down on the Guadalupe. He’s lucky to be able to pump water in some areas but is selling off his herd because he can’t raise enough hay to feed them, because of the drought.
17He gardens extensively and they freeze and can the produce. His comment was “I have way more than I need, as long as the trucks keep running. When the trucks stop, I won’t have anywhere near enough”.
All y’all asking about where Texas gets its water? Well, a heckuva lot of it is (stolen) from New Mexico! So Texas thinks it’s a self-sustaining island? Oooookaaaay, dumb*sses, watch what happens when we slam shut the gates on the Rio Grande and the Pecos River! And stand watch on the aquifer under southern New Mexico that El Paso has been Making goo-goo eyes over for decades. I. Don’t. THINK. So!!!
18Demagogue. I love the following description which introduces the article in the subject in Wikipedia. From the examples that Wikipedia gives, Smitherman is in good company.
“A demagogue /ˈdɛməɡɒɡ/ or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who appeals to the emotions, prejudices, and ignorance of the less-educated citizens in order to gain power and promote political motives. Demagogues usually oppose deliberation and advocate immediate, violent action to address a national crisis; they accuse moderate and thoughtful opponents of weakness. Demagogues have appeared in democracies since ancient Athens. They exploit a fundamental weakness in democracy: because ultimate power is held by the people, nothing stops the people from giving that power to someone who appeals to the lowest common denominator of a large segment of the population.”
19Try not to laugh maniacally when I say this. Let Texas secede. All of those federal government type folks – including military – can just exodus out of there and be absorbed elsewhere. Let all the government handout $$ stop immediately. It won’t take long at all for the remaining secessionists to come crying to the US of A for help. But the leverage will not be on secessionists side. It will be in someone else’s whip hand. And that hand will talk “Here is how we are going to do it my way . . .” The resulting state may even have a new name!
20Secessionists are exiling the grandparents of every Texas family. When medicare leaves, so does Grand Pa. Imagine the sociological impact of exporting everyone over 65.
21Roads?! I thought I recently read an article that had roads in Texas being replaced by gravel because it was cheaper than maintaining them.
22Gindy51 @15
And what water fracking isn’t drying out, it’s poisoning. As in not usable.
23Sure, we can be an “island nation”—kind of like Haiti.
24I may be missing something but I don’t see anything about upholding the law. Did he just see “general” and miss that “attorney” part?
25glf-Texas rethuglicans don’t need driver’s training or sex education,so they have no need for the automobile at all. No cars=no roads=more tax breaks for the awl companies. It is all in your perspective.
26Most islands I’m familiar with are surrounded by water – not desert.
However, I’m sure this plays well with the “keep government away from my crop subsidies, Medicare, etc.” crowd. Kind of like Siskiyou County in California – they want to secede from California even though their main source of income is cashing unemployment checks…http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-county-secession-20130904,0,607131.story
27Saw today that San Antonia passed a law giving benefits to same sex partners. There are some enclaves of hope in Texas.
28Any of y’all take a look at the Doomsday Preppers link? He prolly already has his own cave built and stocked. Remember when all that was so popular about 40 years ago? You reckon he has his year’s supply of dried food?
29As always, JJ is correct — Texas could be expelled. How about if the USA moves the fence north of Texas? S’pose Mexico wants Texas back? (And I don’t want any Texas repubs trying to sneak back over the fence, either.)
30When Texas seceeds from the union (again), Mexico wants San Antonio back… it seems to be almost sane.
31Assuming secession would be in the form of an armed insurrection, the resulting call to arms for the military to come to Texas would be about as popular as bombing Syria. I’m pretty sure the other 49 would just say good riddance and be done with it.
No Fed = no FDIC so that might be interesting. On the other hand we could become the next Grand Cayman style tax shelter. Industry could stay and pollute to their stockholder’s content so they’d likely stick around.
I wonder if that would mean that UT and A&M would be forced to play each other again?
32In case of emergency, everyone meet outside Smitherman’s house. He has plenty to carry the rest of us through the crisis.
33So he seems to be against abortion at least in part because those babies would have voted Republican.
Conservatives are starting to sound more and more like the communists of old they claimed to hate. Forget about whether a policy is good for some people, or the country as a whole, but instead look at how it affects the party.
“Patriot” is the new “comrade”.
34What a blessing this could be for non-Texans – think about it! John Cornyn, Steve Strickland, Louie Gohmert and Brad Farenthold would be gone from Congress, along with Ted Cruz, whose presidential aspirations would be in the crapper! Perry, Abbott and Dewhurst all could have their visa applications rejected! The only thing these political cannibals would have left to gnaw on is each other.
35Sorry … Steve Stockman.
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