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KEITH TAYLOR's avatar

Aaaaaannnnd Texas AG Paxton (if anything more crooked, slimy and unprincipled than Governor Abbot, which in its way is an achievement) is waxing proud and self-righteous about these Democrat lawmakers clearing out to another state. Swearing to bring down the full awful majesty of the law upon them if they don't return with their heads low and their tails dragging in shame.

Paxton.

The SOB whose ass was only saved from impeachment because a whole bunch of Texan Republicans, as unprincipled as he is, voted AGAINST an impeachment that was fully justified. 20 articles of impeachment, no less, including charges of bribery and using his office to influence his own trial.

Somehow the world-weary advice, "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown," doesn't seem satisfying.

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John Norman's avatar

Mean some bitch.

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Jack A Hessmer's avatar

My Daddy always said-Never trust a cripple.

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DemoCat's avatar

The older I get the more it seems like politics in America is like a Broadway show that never ends about the worst, most cruel and primitive impulses human beings can’t seem to overcome.

It’s like life goes on despite what our elected officials are doing to undermine us, and not doing to advance our interests. That’s a bad feeling. It would be nice to occasionally feel like Congress and our federal government is working for us, and has our best interests in mind.

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Biff52 Lost Canadian's avatar

My fuckheaded maga rep kevin kiley filed a bill to make mid-decade redistricting illegal. Nothing against Texas, he just doesn't want our governor Newsom doing it.

Fuck 'em all, indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6aXujkCjL0

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Goonemeritus's avatar

Why are all the Texas Democrats so mean to Greg, he has feeling too you know?

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TurkeySandwich's avatar

He's a real stand up guy

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Mexfiles's avatar

This kind of thing is why it's so wrong to just blame Texans (not just Texans, though they seem to get the worst of it) for their own misery because the STATE (not those individuals) happens to lean towards the Republican party, and snatched the electoral votes.

For that matter, given the two oligararchial parties in the US both play that game, there's not much point in voting for anyone.

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NH is for 🦡🍄🐍's avatar

Problem is many Blue states (such as CA and NY) have actual laws on the books which are meant to stop gerrymandering. Thus they cannot easily do their own enfuckening of the maps. So again our commitment to democracy is our downfall.

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insert_something_creative's avatar

Here in CA, Newsom is contemplating a special election for November to allow voters to approve new maps and essentially go around our independent redistricting commission: https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/07/california-redistricting-november-ballot/

I voted for the original ballot measure that created it in 2010. If it were up to me, every single state would have good governance laws like a lot of the blue states with independent redistricting commissions and laws that only allow for redistricting once a decade after the census. Gerrymandering would be outlawed nationwide.

But that just isn't the world we live in right now. Red states are not playing by the same rules and haven't been for as long as I can remember. I would vote for the new gerrymandered maps at this point. I think a lot of Californians who voted for the commission in 2010 feel the same way because this is an emergency and very much not 2010 anymore.

I know it feels like a race to the bottom, but we've been unilaterally disarming for too long. Power is all that matters at this point. You see voter-approved ballot measures passed in red states (abortion, min wage increases, etc.) and then their gerrymandered state legislatures being like oops, actually it turns out the voters are stupid and wrong so we're just not gonna do that and there's nothing you can do about it. There's this illusion of democracy in many of these states already and it's just getting worse.

Maybe if we can return to some semblance of democracy and pass good governance laws at the federal level, we can move forward to a better future. But we can have to regain power to even have a chance of doing so.

I know IL and NY have similar good governance laws, but I don't know the specifics well enough to how easy or hard it would be to get around them. You are right that our commitment to democracy has once again come back to bite us in the ass and it sucks that this is the position we find ourselves in, but we have to deal with how things are instead of how they should be.

The one bright spot is that we could actually make a pretty big difference with gerrymandering vs. the current maps BECAUSE of our good governance laws in states like CA, IL, and NY. States like TX are already gerrymandered to hell and back, and there's only so much they can do at this point. If they could actually get a significant number of additional GOP seats, you'd think they'd have already done it by now. Same with other gerrymandered states like OH.

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Paul Riddell's avatar

Now be nice. Apparently the only way Chicken-Fried Davros can get an erection is listening to black and brown children crying, and who are we to keep him from his two-inch chubby three times a week?

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Hank Napkin's avatar

Serious Question: Why doesn't California, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, The Entire Northeast pull this stunt? It's not like the U.S.A. will ever get back to the way we were. (cue strings)

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Biff52 Lost Canadian's avatar

Either everyone plays by the rules, or nobody plays by the rules. Time for the gloves to come off.

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Hank Napkin's avatar

They take the Low Road while we go on ahead and fill the potholes, add some lanes, reinforce the bridges, build rest stops, and make sure there are beautifully maintained turnouts for "Scenic Viewpoints".

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Biff52 Lost Canadian's avatar

I say we elect Cosmo Kramer as Transportation Secretary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKB6lEv10Rs

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coco lurks from home's avatar

They’re looking at it, but there are legal obstacles in place, because it isn’t supposed to be easy to pull this shit.

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Hank Napkin's avatar

And yet, and yet, and yet.

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coco lurks from home's avatar

Right, but that’s why red states are full of fuckery but blue states make it much more difficult. Newsom at least appears to be serious but we’ll see how far he can take it.

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Hank Napkin's avatar

Yer but the fuckery be spilling out everywhere!!!

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Todd A Raffensperger's avatar

Well, they haven't before, but I have a feeling that this is going to change, a lot!

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Hank Napkin's avatar

At least we can count on the Supreme Court to rule against this flagrant... what? WHAT?!?!? WHAAAAAAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!

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archy's avatar

When asked his philosopy on fist fighting, former Yankee manager and notorious bar brawler Billy Martin replied, 'Hit 'em in the head and keep hitting them in the head until they stop moving.'

Epstein is the fist if the left has the smarts and the cojones to use it.

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"M"'s avatar

"𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑."

"𝑁𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑."

I HOPE THE LAWMAKERS TAKE THE POINT THIS TIME.

You STAY until your constituents' rights are fully protected.

ESPECIALLY when once upon a time the state was run by the likes of Ann Richards and right now, the man giving the orders is also held hostage by Russian blackmail tapes of his own pedophilia -- because that is who the vile Greg Abbott is taking HIS orders from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i87Gj-Tnuzw

𝐉𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐮𝐛 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄: 𝐎𝐌𝐆!!! 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐲, 𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐬!!

I mean, at least they've had some practice, and it is known what it's going to take.

Results matter. This is not just a point of principle.

DEMOCRATS - STAY THE COURSE

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Bagels of Doom's avatar

This is how Democracies fail.

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Bagels of Doom's avatar

"Texas vs. voting rights"

It's more like Texas vs. rights (unless you're a gun or a fetus)

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