First MAGA family member laid off

[SARose]

First cousin’s daughter called into HR Friday. Large insurance company she’s been with for about 15 years or so.

She works in a relatively small field of oil company insurance. Her company laid off a ton of folks due to rising claims in Texas. Oil company insurance encompasses everything from fleet autos to well blow outs to contaminated ground water to fracking earthquakes.

Too much risk in Texas. Company is downsizing and may leave Texas altogether.

I never thought she would be first. I thought the teachers, social workers, VA employees, etc would be among the first.

Texas is waking up - slowly, slowly. Folks in the Valley are furious Trump is again using eminent domain to “steal land for a wall.” Folks all over Texas are furious over ICE.

Don’t even get me started on food prices.

Saw a poll that Abbott is underwater. 😬 Cornyn still losing to the little weasel Paxton. The Kerr County commissioners looked like a bunch of yahoos testifying in Austin over floods.

Dan Patrick still wants to ban CBD “for the children” while vets and seniors are adamant about Patrick butting his nose out of our business!

Epstein? Everybody is talking about this mess. A parking lot in the Rose Garden, an expensive plane that will be Trump’s in 3 years, tacky gold embellishments to the Oval Office? Well folks here have just about had enough.

This is what they voted for.

[multigraincracker]

1. Afraid it's about to get ugly.

[Texin]

22. Yeah, I think it'll really sink in when they get a load of the price of a bunch of bananas, or strawberries

and what the cost of an avocado is going to be in the coming weeks (months?) due to the toad god's beautiful tariffs. Don't even get me started on the price of coffees. To make matters worse, many Texas homeowners are now getting information on the cost of their house insurance. It's gone up drastically over the last year (or at least for us it has and haven't even had a casualty loss). It's risen because of the flooding and storm damages throughout Texas over the past year and hasn't even factored the flooding in the Hill Country in July. Oh, and I noticed last week that the price of regular gas was hovering at $3 a gallon. Making America "great" again, indeed.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

49. Avocados. Sigh.

My current favorite meal is tuna salad and avocado slices from Panera. No bread, no lettuce, no tomato, just tuna and avocado. Try it. I think you'll like it.

[Grins]

41. "About...?" I've been saying it for years.

And the rest of the world knows it, too!

[oasis]

2. Too bad, so sad.

[msongs]

3. maga losers are just venting. they will never give up their hatreds shared by politicians for whom they vote nmt

[hamsterjill]

4. I retired in March from a national homebuilder

I presume you are in SA????

The homebuilder has been in the news of late for dastardly deeds, and they've been laying people off recently. The majority of the employees there are rabid Trumpers, and I really have very little compassion left to give for that.

Like another SA company's commercials used to say - "You asked for it, you got it!"

[SARose]

14. Yes I am near SA

Don’t even get me started on home builders here. Blap houses are going up everywhere. Million dollar homes - who can afford that?

In my neighborhood, not a single home has sold or leased since last Fall.

How long will the Edward’s Aquifer support unlimited growth?

[hamsterjill]

19. It's truly frightening.

Plus, all of the tract homes are being sold to investors. The investors rent to people who cannot qualify to purchase the home, and the rents are exorbitant. The builders don't care where their money comes from.

We've seen that movie before, and it will ultimately come to the market collapsing.

The aquifer issue is scary beyond belief. No one is going to stop it either. It's all about greed and power. I'm sure you are aware of the situation in Helotes, and I can guarantee you that TCEQ will ultimately issue the permit for the builder. The stalling tactics are just to make it look like the residents were being heard, when in reality, the fix is already in.

I was SO glad to get away from all of that. I got out as soon as I possibly could. It all just made me (and continues to make me) sick to my stomach.

[Bluebelle76]

36. Can you fill me in?

I'm in San Antonio, but I don't know what happened in Helotes besides Walmart wanting to build there. And a newish neighborhood that started collapsing. And I don't know what's going on with builders except their basic shadiness.

[Dock_Yard]

23. TX new home inspections, shockingly poor quality & workmanship

I occasionally watch youtube videos of NEW home inspections across Texas.
These are to be sold at (or are pending closing for) $800K and up.
Each home has a bevy of incredibly bad defects.
Many are structural, or weather-penetrating ... not just cosmetic.
And almost every home has a couple of empty alcoholic beverage cans stashed in attics, wall cavities.

[Farmer-Rick]

27. They were building McMansions

Right up to the housing crash of 2007-2008. No one bought them. Many were left unfinished and gutted. Many unsold properties were abandoned and technically owned by the banks. New owners were just walking away from their underwater properties.

In my rural area, I drive by about 7 abandoned homes in a 10 mile area (Not McMansions but simple middle class homes) Mother nature is trying to recycle them. Then there are the failing malls and shuttered businesses left abandoned. This is what happens when capitalism fails....yet again.

[orleans]

5. hope they don't forget about the $200 million ballroom so donald can do his handjob dance

with his wealthy investors/doners

donnie 2 dick dance
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CHN4FZdJ7Pp/

(just saw this on instagram, it's a little song. omg!)

[Skittles]

9. *SNORT*

"handjob dance"

[SARose]

15. Isn't that disgusting?

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi

Read this earlier

A Man Who Hates Dogs: What Trump's Sterile World Reveals About His Soul

There's something deeply unsettling about a man who systematically removes every trace of life from his surroundings. Donald Trump's latest assault on the White House Rose Garden—paving over JFK's historic lawn with concrete—isn't just vandalism. It's a window into a soul that finds comfort only in sterile, lifeless environments.

From Gardens to Graveyards

The Rose Garden transformation tells the whole story. What was once a living symbol of American history, designed by Bunny Mellon for JFK and Jackie Kennedy, is now a concrete patio. Trump's justification? "Women, with the high heels, it just didn't work."

Because apparently, accommodating footwear is more important than preserving a century of presidential history.

Critics have called the result "devoid of life" and resembling "a parking lot." One observer noted it looks like "the tombstone he has put on the US economy."

Snip

More

[BidenRocks]

45. Outside of right wing tv bimbos,

Do women still wear high heels?

[SARose]

48. I'm retired but I can tell you this

After 9/11 most women I know had tennis shoes or flats under their desks or in their gym bags.

Some women do wear stilettos. Not me - I was 20 once upon a time and very proud of my heels. Not so much the blisters on my heels and squashed toes. Then I changed to heels only at night. Then I changed to flats and loafers. Now it is bare feet, sandals and slip on Skechers. 😂

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

50. I can guarantee you that women were doing exactly that

as far back as the 70s.

[usonian]

6. Do ya remember?

Well, THIS went down, while everything has increased in price.

Snapshot from CA Department of Cannabis Control (PDF)
https://cannabis.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/03/California-Cannabis-Market-Outlook-FNL.pdf

[Cha]

7. TY for your OP, SARose...

Hope they get beyond waking up and Do Positive Actions to get Rid of that Fucked UP Despot Killing our Country One day at a Time.

[SARose]

17. Don't hold out much hope, sadly

I love them all but my husband and I decline most family invites right now.

The MAGA hats, the RFK, Jr lies(“such a good man,”)🤢…

[Cha]

37. Sorry...

[Callie1979]

40. Speaking of that, Didnt "Q" tell us JFK Jr was supposed to be alive & trump's VP?

I saw it talked about by the cultists the last 2+ years

[Beartracks]

8. "This is what they voted for." And for those who didn't want Trump but also didn't cast a ballot...

... it's what they voted for, too, by their inaction.

================

[SARose]

18. This

Texas Party Registration

Total Registered Voters: 17,323,617
Democrats: 8,054,976 (46.50%)
Republicans: 6,574,201 (37.95%)
Third Party/Other: 0 (0.00%)
Unaffiliated: 2,694,440 (15.55%)

Voters do not officially register with a political party
Here

[patphil]

26. Democrats outnumber Republicans in Texas by about 1.5 million voters?

And yet the state government is heavily Republican.
Either the Independents are voting overwhelmingly Republican, or the Democrats aren't voting, or the election system is heavily rigged.
Or maybe some of all 3.
And they're planning to gerrymander 5 more seats in the House of Reps to the Republican side.
That would also increase the percentage of Republicans in the state legislature.
Its a disaster for Democracy.

[Shipwack]

39. Gerrymandering is much of the reason.

Austin, which is a big splotch of blue in the state (along with most other cities), has been split a few different ways. Of course, each piece is packed with a bunch of red voters.

Apathy and ignorance are also to blame. There are other causes, but I don’t know them and I don’t care.


😉

[BComplex]

33. Democrats in Texas need to QUIT registering as Democrats, so re-districting becomes more of a crap shoot

for the republicrooks.

[Bluebelle76]

38. Worth considering.

[patphil]

46. My wife and daughter are both registered Republicans who vote Democrat.

Me, I prefer to let my freak flag fly.

[3auld6phart]

10. Whoosh

My gawd, they were warned. … I have no empathy for the magats…

[regnaD kciN]

11. There's nothing the leopards find funnier...

…than victims who repeatedly vote for a known habitual liar, and then cry “I didn’t vote for this!” just before their face gets eaten.

[hatrack]

12. This is fascinating - and not the MAGA component, since leopard feasts are daily thing now . . . .

It's that the company they work for won't insure oil operations - in Texas.

The fracking bills have been piling up for about 15 years now, and it appears they're about to come due.

When cattle die from drinking poisoned water, and toxic groundwater geysers blow out of the ground, and vast oily pits open up on ranches, and the only thing the fracking industry can say is "More, more MORE!!', you know they're running on fumes.

[Johnny2X2X]

13. MAGA neighbor accros the street

He told me his warehouse where he works is laying people off, he's been spared so far, but he's scared.

There's a few factors at play, all Trump's fault. You cannot play games of chicken indefinitely with our trade partners, it creates too much uncertainty and businesses pull back because they can't deal with the risk. This much uncertainty also causes consumers to save and not spend, and that's really the biggest issue, that drives the whole economy. And of course the tariffs themselves drive up costs for businesses who then have to lay people off to cut costs.

It's usually been folly predicting recessions and high unemployment, but things are looking really dark right now, like 2008 level of bad on the way or worse.

[Brainfodder]

16. Do you love the corporate layoffs for payoffs plan?

They do, gotta pay that CEO way too much their whole tenure, what the fuck would they do without 1M+ a month pay?


Greed.

[travelingthrulife]

20. And so many of these brilliant business leaders are shooting themselves in the foot

by adhering themselves to Trump. Although the plan could be to rid themselves of human workers and replace them with AI.

[Brainfodder]

21. Can see it is Vegas already, KIOSKS madness per seeing it.

Reduced staff at some table games, CRAPS in particular, 1 human as croupier and bets now done on individual screens.

Check in KIOSKS though that create and give the room key, sterile but effective?

[Farmer-Rick]

29. Newsweek had an article about Vegas crashing

"The party may soon be over for Las Vegas, as economic challenges and a steady outflow of both visitors and residents threaten to strip the town of its title as the "entertainment capital of the world."" https://www.newsweek.com/las-vegas-economic-troubles-casino-gambling-2104219

You are witnessing a failing economic system crumbling precipitated by pedo Trump.

[Brainfodder]

30. Strip corps are begging for it with fees and prices, correction time or just for the rich who don't care?

As FAFO continues!

[Pototan]

24. Every time a MAGA voter loses his (or her) job

an angel gets his (or her) wings.

[Tree Lady]

25. My son n law got laid off

They live in San Antonio. He is retired military but had job after that for government where he got laid off. He is mid 40's too young to retire but there is a freeze on all civilian military jobs and he has had a few interviews but no offers and that was for half the pay of last job.

I heard a lot of people were laid off in Texas so I imagine it's tough to find anything.

They were hoping to leave the state after my grandson graduates next year since they both had online jobs but now not sure. They just stayed there after last military assignment to keep kids in same schools.

Now every family video chat my daughter in Texas scolds my other daughter who voted for Trump so I don't have to say anything. This last weekend was a real long rant since he didn't get job he was trying for.

[Beowulf42]

28. Sadly that won't make any....

difference at the polls. DNJ has been an uneducated, unfeeling, selfish sh*t stain since he attacked Obama for his birth certificate, and it hasn't made a whit of difference anywhere at any time. My disgust for the average American is just about on a par with my distaste for the MAGA Mussolini.

[republianmushroom]

31. America's education, living and learning

and your non-voting does have consequences is happening, now.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

32. New member of the Leopards Eating My Face Party

[Dan]

34. Your family member is blessed

That there are so many job opening as a result of Trump’s deportation policies. That family member will have their choice on whether to work inside or outside. I would recommend that they seek out those opportunities now rather than later when the competition for those jobs will be greater once Trump’s great society is in full swing.

[SARose]

43. Yep

Hmm wonder if her next job will be in a Swift meat packing facility in North Texas or a roofing job in Houston? Sarcasm…

I feel bad for her and everyone else losing their jobs now. It’s just gonna get worse, in my opinion.

As these job losses continue our small business family members will also be hurt. Plumbers, office supply, office furniture, gas stations and more.

Sad.

[Old Crank]

35. Meanwhile the Texas GOP are

bowing and scraping to a crooked NYC pedophile.

[samsingh]

42. they voted for this

[SARose]

44. Every last one of them on both sides

They truly believe Trump is their savior because he is a “man of the people.”🙄

I said before that our family members voted for this ugliness and cruelty because they genuinely believed it would never affect them.

FAFO.

[BidenRocks]

47. Then they go to church?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

51. If she's MAGA then this is EXACTLY what she voted for.

Sucks to be a MAGA.