“Abbott was an ambitious 26-year-old when he went jogging in 1984 in Houston and a 75-foot oak tree fell on him, crushing his spine and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. What made the tree fall was unclear, though it might have been weakened by Hurricane Alicia the previous year.”
“What made the tree fall?” Oh, c’mon! It was Jesus! Everyone knows that.
Yeah. But back then Abbott had no health insurance and no paycheck, but he had a good lawyer and
access to a civil justice system that - back then - was generally hospitable toward plaintiffs. So Abbott sued. And won! MILLIONS! Lots of them. Tax-free.
And then he became Attorney General and pulled up the ladder behind him… He backed court reforms to curb a “rash of frivolous lawsuits”.
“Our legal system was abused in this state. There were many invalid claims that were filed in court, that clogged up the courts, that either denied or delayed access for people who had valid claims.”
His being one of them, but years later, after his tort “reform”, he could shout, “See 'ya suckers!”
Those tort laws changed drastically adding hurdles for people who sue for personal injuries and making it harder for them to win large sums. But Abbott, who didn’t have such legal restrictions when he was injured - got away with it.
I thought Texas has seceded already. Rick oops, thought it would be a damn good idea and so did Abbot, as I remember. I also seem to remember Abbot scaring hell out of the ignorant in Texas with his Jade Helm chatter. Hey, could this be a part of it?
Abbott is such a hypocrite. He has plans to run for Prez in 2020, so everything he is doing now is done through that lens. Sitting smugly in Austin, a city he allegedly hates because of all the librulz, he can call for an evacuation. He has no idea what it takes to evacuate, especially since he has people taking care of him constantly. To leave town, you have to have a way to get out. Of course the state of Texas offers nothing. You have to use your own bootstraps. If you have a car, if you have the money to put gas in the tank, if you have someplace to go (hotels cost money), sure you can get out. But there is no climate change, so we don’t need to think ahead.
This is going on in every state in the union. Texas is just displaying it more clearly. Whenever rural minorities push city dwellers who generate most of the revenue to the government too hard, there has always been very messy revolutions.
Exactly so sandyh. Texas is a perfect template right now for the de facto civil war that is going on between urban, educated, modern America and rural, backwards, scared America.
He obviously wants to conduct his own Walking Dead experiment. The Christian Right socially conservative rich have grown so bored with life since Ayn Rand’s career and the Left Behind series ended.
The political pundits tell us it could never happen in this country, but then they told us that the Nazis would never resurface either, especially in this nation. And lookee where we are at today.
The good news is that a large of majority of Americans have also surfaced to fight this shit.
If you don’t believe me guys, MSNBC just reported a Fox News Poll in which the people were asked if - and these are the words used - the President was tearing the country apart.
56% said yes.
Enjoy your cushy fantasy.
Here in the neighborhoods, we don’t look kindly on big government coming in and telling us what we have to settle for. Especially when it wants us to accept pollution.
We’re liberals. We’ll work it out amongst ourselves. Conservatives, go away.
Honestly, anyone making political hay out of this is scum. A) There was no way of predicting this would happen to Houston so quickly, B) Even if they had more notice, how the hell do you evacuate millions of people? There are no good answers to this particular situation.
Having said that, there are things Houston and Texas could do to mitigate the next time, and there WILL BE a next time.
The Fox News viewers thought that this was a good idea and support it 110%.
Its ironic that he hates Austinites so much when the GOP gerrymandered the Congressional districts so that most of the city is represented by a Republican.
Just another fucking GOP hypocrite who thinks Big Gummint is the problem until it benefits their cronies.
Abbott also thinks the ADA is unconstitutional and a threat to local control. Truly bizarre for a man in his condition.