# Texas



## Joe

This thread is just for stupid and idiotic things my State does. 

Gov. Abbott just announced on 3/10 that the State will lift the mask mandate and everything will open at 100%

Why was I born here?


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## shadow puppet

My brother in Austin texted me earlier about this.  He's normally a pretty chill and go with the flow type of person.  But he thinks this is stark raving nuts.

As someone else stated:  

“We can't give you power or water, but we sure as hell can give you Covid!”


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## Joe

shadow puppet said:


> My brother in Austin texted me earlier about this.  He's normally a pretty chill and go with the flow type of person.  But he thinks this is stark raving nuts.
> 
> As someone else stated:
> 
> “We can't give you power or water, but we sure as hell can give you Covid!”




Yeah, everyone I have messaged and all of my coworkers say they are still wearing their masks and taking precautions. At least I have been vaccinated, but most of the state has not.


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## Alli

I think Abbott just wants a cool nickname like DeathSantis.

I think instead of a nickname you should give him a new title: former governor.


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## lizkat

shadow puppet said:


> My brother in Austin texted me earlier about this.  He's normally a pretty chill and go with the flow type of person.  But he thinks this is stark raving nuts.
> 
> As someone else stated:
> 
> “We can't give you power or water, but we sure as hell can give you Covid!”




Not only that but Texas can now give you every currently known variant of Covid, not just the standard issue one used to develop the vaccines now avalable.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1366857288909287424/


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## lizkat

What I really don't get is the timing.    TX just achieved unwanted notice as hitting top of the USA's list for % rise in new cases last week. Texas is not a sparsely populated place overall, so we're not talking about a couple dozen new cases.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1366842947845705730/


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## DT

JagRunner said:


> This thread is just for stupid and idiotic things my State does.
> 
> Gov. Abbott just announced on 3/10 that the State will lift the mask mandate and everything will open at 100%
> 
> Why was I born here?





Geez dude, you should move to my state ... oh wait ...


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## Thomas Veil

Texans resent being thought of as a bunch of ignorant yahoos.

It would help if they’d just stop doing _unbelievably_ dumb and reckless stuff.

Abbott needs to be kicked to the curb ASAP.


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## lizkat

Thomas Veil said:


> Texans resent being thought of as a bunch of ignorant yahoos.
> 
> It would help if they’d just stop doing _unbelievably_ dumb and reckless stuff.
> 
> Abbott needs to be kicked to the curb ASAP.




Abbot's trying to thread a needle and avoid trips to court vs people getting ready to sue over the mandate being unconstitutional --as some were wanting to do last summer.  So he says ok let's open up for business... and at the same time he mentions that it's still a personal responsibility to observe appropriate guidelines against covid exposure.    

That way he figures everyone including himself is off the hook, but meanwhile the coronavirus will have its way until more people are immune to (or dead via) whatever strain is going around in a given location at a time.


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## Scepticalscribe

Alli said:


> I think Abbott just wants a cool nickname like DeathSantis.
> 
> I think instead of a nickname you should give him a new title: former governor.




I laughed aloud, reading this.


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## JayMysteri0

Texas - 10% of citizenry vaccinated * +*  Texas - 1 of 10 states with greatest infection rates in the country =






Greg Abbot telling Ron Desantis, "Hold my beer".


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## Huntn

JagRunner said:


> This thread is just for stupid and idiotic things my State does.
> 
> Gov. Abbott just announced on 3/10 that the State will lift the mask mandate and everything will open at 100%
> 
> Why was I born here?



Well, the first time I lived in Texas was 1978. It was a pretty good place. I was Republican leaning Navy Officer, but the Democrats were in charge of the State. I was amazed at how good the roads were, and discovered it was oil revenue that powered Texas.

I would have never chosen to come back here to live, too hot, except my wife talked me into it so she could be closer to her parents. Since the mid 80s I have been leaning Left, and the farther right,  the Right matches, the farther Left I end up leaning just to hold my  position. 

Living in a Red State is tough. I listen to the good ole boys rail about liberals and democrats while praising Trump and end up biting my tongue, responding to  one old geezer the age of my father, _I don’t talk politics at the gym. _This or I would have let him have it and found myself surrounded. 

Now Abbott appears to be on the defensive after the Winter storm disaster and appears to throwing some red meat to the anti-mask Rumpsters. It’s very discouraging because wearing a mask does nothing to harm busines, but it does help us climb out of the COVID hole faster, but since when in the last 20 years have Repubkicans done anything not based on a partisan twist?


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## Huntn

lizkat said:


> Abbot's trying to thread a needle and avoid trips to court vs people getting ready to sue over the mandate being unconstitutional --as some were wanting to do last summer.  So he says ok let's open up for business... and at the same time he mentions that it's still a personal responsibility to observe appropriate guidelines against covid exposure.
> 
> That way he figures everyone including himself is off the hook, but meanwhile the coronavirus will have its way until more people are immune to (or dead via) whatever strain is going around in a given location at a time.



Stupid is as stupid does... 

Yesterday I was at a very cool plant nursery with my wife in Seabrook, Texas and some yahoo 30‘ away started praising me loudly, telling me how cool I was. I had forgotten to wear my mask getting out of the car!  And he was all excited about Abbott dropping the State mask requirement which was for  today.  I promptly turned around and went to the car, put on my mask, and passing him, pointed at my face wearing a mask. He just waved his hand at me dismissively, and dissapointed. Lol.


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## Joe

Yeah, people are saying he did this to take the heat off of him for the whole power grid failure. Get his supporters to forget about that mess and praise him for opening the state back up and getting rid of masks. Lets face it, he only cares about conservatives in this state. Democrats are going to not like him regardless. He thinks he can at least win back conservative anti mask people in this state by lifting the restrictions. And just from reading comments conservatives in this state are already happy and forgot about the power grid. Plan worked. SMH


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## Thomas Veil

DT said:


> Geez dude, you should move to my state ... oh wait ...



How about Ohio?

It’s just Texas without the cattle.


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## DT

Huntn said:


> Well, the first time I lived in Texas was 1978. It was a pretty good place. I was Republican leaning Navy Officer, but the Democrats were in charge of the State. I was amazed at how good the roads were, and discovered it was oil revenue that powered Texas.
> 
> I would have never chosen to come back here to live, too hot, except my wife talked me into it so she could be closer to her parents. Since the mid 80s I have been leaning Left, and the farther right,  the Right matches, the farther Left I end up leaning just to hold my  position.




You live it TX?   I thought you lived lived up north, like around the Great Lake area, WI, etc.

Duh.


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## Joe

DT said:


> You live it TX?   I thought you lived lived up north, like around the Great Lake area, WI, etc.
> 
> Duh.




We're both in the Houston area.


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## DT

JagRunner said:


> We're both in the Houston area.




Me am dumb.


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## Clix Pix

Around three years ago the two guys who owned the condo unit above mine decided to move to Texas, as one had a promotional job opportunity there and the other was pretty sure he could find something pretty quickly, too, given his degree in engineering.....  Sold their condo, moved off to San Antonio, where they bought a house....  They lasted there not quite two years before they decided to move back to this area.  Sold the house in Texas, bought a new one here and I daresay are much happier.  Haven't really had a lot of opportunity to chat with them about their Texas experience, but I'm guessing it was just not the kind of life that they had been expecting.  Fortunately for them they had moved out of there and back to this area right before the whole COVID-19 pandemic thing started so their timing was great!


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## Joe

Clix Pix said:


> Around three years ago the two guys who owned the condo unit above mine decided to move to Texas, as one had a promotional job opportunity there and the other was pretty sure he could find something pretty quickly, too, given his degree in engineering.....  Sold their condo, moved off to San Antonio, where they bought a house....  They lasted there not quite two years before they decided to move back to this area.  Sold the house in Texas, bought a new one here and I daresay are much happier.  Haven't really had a lot of opportunity to chat with them about their Texas experience, but I'm guessing it was just not the kind of life that they had been expecting.  Fortunately for them they had moved out of there and back to this area right before the whole COVID-19 pandemic thing started so their timing was great!




I'm only here because my family has been in this area since before Texas was even a State. My mother is getting older and more fragile. I'm 1.5 hours away from her so that is another reason to stay close.


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## DT

JagRunner said:


> I'm only here because my family has been in this area since before Texas was even a State. My mother is getting older and more fragile. I'm 1.5 hours away from her so that is another reason to stay close.




Have you mostly lived elsewhere and back because of family, or been in TX most of your life?


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## lizkat

DT said:


> Me am dumb.




Nah you had it right for an earlier time, think it was Minnesota...  but then @Huntn moved to TX.


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## lizkat

Thomas Veil said:


> How about Ohio?
> 
> It’s just Texas without the cattle.




Aren't cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati pretty ok though?


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## Joe

DT said:


> Have you mostly lived elsewhere and back because of family, or been in TX most of your life?




I've lived in Texas my whole life. I was born in Austin, but grew up in a small town about 2 hours from Austin. I lived in San Antonio for 4 years when I was in college. Then I moved to Dallas and stayed there 4 years. I hated Dallas so I moved to Houston and love it. I have been in Houston for 10 years already. Time flies.


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## DT

Thomas Veil said:


> How about Ohio?
> 
> It’s just Texas without the cattle.






lizkat said:


> Aren't cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati pretty ok though?




We've actually talked about moving to Pittsburgh (where the wife is from, went to college).  Talking in/around downtown (or dohn-ton in the local parlance ).  It's a very cool, big-ish city, and affordable (relatively speaking), we'd have lots of very awesome family close by (none of mine, *snicker*), it would be a huge change, but fun.


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## lizkat

DT said:


> We've actually talked about moving to Pittsburgh (where the wife is from, went to college).  Talking in/around downtown (or dohn-ton in the local parlance ).  It's a very cool, big-ish city, and affordable (relatively speaking), we'd have lots of very awesome family close by (none of mine, *snicker*), it would be a huge change, but fun.




I have some kin who met while at Carnegie Mellon and both of them had really enjoyed living in Pittsburgh...  but they later on ended up living in Cincinnati ro raise their kids.   They still speak fondly of Pittsburgh though.    Carnegie Mellon's computer science graduate study programs are supposed to be pretty great.


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## hulugu

Texans are largely a plague here. I find myself absolutely loving Texans—my wife's from Dallas, and my best friend grew up in "East Ass Texas"—and also thinking they're the worst combination of bombastic attitude, and pigheaded thinking ever made on God's Green Earth outside of the Hindu Kush.


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## Huntn

DT said:


> We've actually talked about moving to Pittsburgh (where the wife is from, went to college).  Talking in/around downtown (or dohn-ton in the local parlance ).  It's a very cool, big-ish city, and affordable (relatively speaking), we'd have lots of very awesome family close by (none of mine, *snicker*), it would be a huge change, but fun.



6M in Houston, too much. Minneapolis is closer to my size, 1.5M in the metropolitan area including suburbs when we lived there. Probably larger now.


----------



## Huntn

DT said:


> You live it TX?   I thought you lived lived up north, like around the Great Lake area, WI, etc.
> 
> Duh.



DC, then Maryland, Texas, Guam, Maryland then, Minneapolis 3 decades, moved to Texas 2010, arm twisted by my Honey.


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## Joe

On social media, all the Trumpers are happy as a pig in mud. 

Trumpers: If you're so scared stay home!
Also Trumpers: I need all of these guns! I can't leave the house without my gun!


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## lizkat

hulugu said:


> Texans are largely a plague here. I find myself absolutely loving Texans—my wife's from Dallas, and my best friend grew up in "East Ass Texas"—and also thinking they're the worst combination of bombastic attitude, and pigheaded thinking ever made on God's Green Earth outside of the Hindu Kush.




Texas is where I learned what it's like to be discriminated against (legally, no less) for skin color.  1960, dusty diner outside San Antonio, guy wouldn't serve me because he thought I was Mexican, which he was proud to say he didn't serve,  "nor mix either"...   well I was sixteen and hungry and the next stop on the bus would be Tulsa OK, a long haul, so I flashed an inch of pale skin over the belt line of my jeans, and that turned my money green enough for him to stop swabbing the counter with a dirty rag and ask me what I wanted "to take out,  'cuz that bus will be leavin'  right quick."   Meanwhile a couple women seated at the counter for lunch were talking about me like I was a dairy goat at a county fair, "He shoulda known she was no mix, even the mix they all have the straight black hair".  Jesus Christ! 

The experience was a radicalizing set of revelations for a teenager from upstate New York, to be sure.   Anyway my favorite Texas song is still Ernie Payne's "Nothin' Wrong with Texas that Leaving Won't Fix."   I kept thinking I should give Texas another shot decades after the civil rights laws were passed,  and was always curious about Austin,  but  time has slipped away and now I'm inclined to let Ernie's song stand as the punctuation to my brief Texas adventures.  I hasten to say that I have had great friends who hailed from Texas..  not sure they went back there though, and I met them in NY or Chicago.


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## Joe

lizkat said:


> Texas is where I learned what it's like to be discriminated against (legally, no less) for skin color.  1960, dusty diner outside San Antonio, guy wouldn't serve me because he thought I was Mexican, which he was proud to say he didn't serve,  "nor mix either"...   well I was sixteen and hungry and the next stop on the bus would be Tulsa OK, a long haul, so I flashed an inch of pale skin over the belt line of my jeans, and that turned my money green enough for him to stop swabbing the counter with a dirty rag and ask me what I wanted "to take out,  'cuz that bus will be leavin'  right quick."   Meanwhile a couple women seated at the counter for lunch were talking about me like I was a dairy goat at a county fair, "He shoulda known she was no mix, even the mix they all have the straight black hair".  Jesus Christ!
> 
> The experience was a radicalizing set of revelations for a teenager from upstate New York, to be sure.   Anyway my favorite Texas song is still Ernie Payne's "Nothin' Wrong with Texas that Leaving Won't Fix."   I kept thinking I should give Texas another shot decades after the civil rights laws were passed,  and was always curious about Austin,  but  time has slipped away and now I'm inclined to let Ernie's song stand as the punctuation to my brief Texas adventures.  I hasten to say that I have had great friends who hailed from Texas..  not sure they went back there though, and I met them in NY or Chicago.




The town I grew up in had 2 high schools. The original HS was the white HS for decades, and the 2nd HS was built in the 60s after desegregation. My mom was the 1st to attend the new HS (which was mainly black and hispanics) and she has told me stories about the kids from the original HS coming over to their side during football games and spitting on them and calling them racist names. 

Fast forward to the early 90s when I'm old enough to remember things lol - my older brother played football for the 2nd HS. They were horrible. At one point they had the state's longest losing streak in football. The school district didn't care about the 2nd HS. All the best coaches and resources went to the original HS. The original HS is winning games and going on long playoff streaks, but the 2nd HS has lost 40+ games in a row.  You may think it is just football, but it was EVERYTHING. Everything was bigger and better at the original school. 

Everyone in my family graduated HS from the 2nd HS so imagine their surprise when I went to the original HS LOL At the time, I was a teenager. I wanted to go to the "good" HS. I wanted to be cool I guess lol I think my older brother teased me all 4 years of HS because they went to all the football games because I was a band nerd. I teased him back saying it was the first time he got to go to a playoff game LOL

But the point of my long winded story, is that eventually all of this caught up with the school district. The school district technically desegregated but in reality it really wasn't. The State came in and told our school district that they needed to fix this and to racially balance the 2 schools because a town that size shouldn't have 2 schools that are so racially segregated. So my senior year of HS (99-00) the school board voted to CONSOLIDATE both of the schools into 1 HS to fix this problem. So I was actually part of the last class to graduate from the original HS before they combined them the next year. They could have just redrawn the boundaries but so many people didn't want to send their kids to the 2nd HS. The new consolidated school was a cluster. It stayed consolidated for 10 years before they voted to de-consolidate and build 2 new high schools. One on the west side of town and one on the east side of town and they basically split the boundaries down the middle to racially balance them. It's been like that the last decade and it seems to have helped with some of those racial issues that town has had in the past. It's not perfect, but its better. For starters, both schools are exactly the same with just different names and mascots so there doesn't seem to be any favoritism. And these kids attending now weren't even born back in the 60s-90s so they don't even know how segregated and racists the 2 original schools used to be and how much they hated each other when it came to rivalries.


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## Thomas Veil

And he says it with such _pride_.

You know, like the Three Stooges: “We are morons tried and true! And we’ll do our yell for you! _Eyuuuuuhhh!_” 

Idiot. 



lizkat said:


> Aren't cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati pretty ok though?



Cleveland’s okay. Cincinnati is more conservative, though. Statewide, Ohio is red and highly gerrymandered to keep it that way. Our legislature has passed some really questionable laws lately, including one of those fetal heartrate abortion bills, and another that says that answers on tests cannot be considered wrong if their religion says they’re right. 



DT said:


> We've actually talked about moving to Pittsburgh (where the wife is from, went to college).



Uh-oh. Lifelong Browns fan here. You and I will have to become bitter enemies.


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## Thomas Veil

New TV show: _Texas Fire_.

In the opening scene, a family runs out of their burning home and counts themselves lucky to have escaped alive.

Then the Fire Department rolls up to the still burning building, led by Fire Chief Gregg Abbott. Before the truck has even stopped, Abbott assures the distraught family. 

ABBOTT
(to family)
It’s okay, folks! You can
go back inside. We’ve
got it under control.​


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## User.45

Thomas Veil said:


> View attachment 3819​
> And he says it with such _pride_.



Our libertarian babysitter used to looove this guy, like he's so cool. For me, every step of the way this dude just does stuff that is bad. From limiting ballot boxes in urban areas, to his petty as fuck whining about renewable energy, his fossil fuel statement was so blatant they could pass as commercials with a scrutiny of conflicts of interest. So seeing this is of no surprise and the timing is clear as fuck=> he tries to redirect the attention from the power grid blunder. Just imagine people going unmasked into packed bars. The nasty thing about COVID is the mortality rises happen with 2-3x of an infection courses delay (i.e. 20-30 days) because the bar goers will have a runny nose, then they infect their partners, and then this large net of infected start spreading it to the vulnerable. 

Opening should be gradual and mask mandates should go away last.


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## Scepticalscribe

hulugu said:


> Texans are largely a plague here. I find myself absolutely loving Texans—my wife's from Dallas, and my best friend grew up in "East Ass Texas"—and also thinking they're the worst combination of bombastic attitude, and pigheaded thinking ever made on God's Green Earth outside of the Hindu Kush.




I so completely get that reference to the Hindu Kush.

Very, very, funny, yet very, very, apt.

Some years ago, I spent the best part of two years in Afghanistan, and feel pretty much - actually, very much - the same way about Afghans.

Wonderful people, lovely people, but suffused with pig-headed thinking, and yes, bombastic attitudes, at times, yet leavened with, (and enriched by, and redeemed by) a knowing, bitter, ironic, self-deprecating - yet hilarious - wit.  As an Afghan friend said to me, "shooting ourselves in the foot is our specialty in foreign policy."


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## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1366942588767404036/


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## Chew Toy McCoy

I feel bad for the average Texan as this is clearly going to lead to confrontations, especially considering some businesses are still going to insist customers still wear masks. Personally I feel if he felt he had to do anything in this direction he should have either ended the mask mandate or opened 100%, not both. But I guess for some people when you are going to let willful ignorance be your guide there’s no reason to half-ass it.

I look forward to some legislation being proposed that attempts to offset the covid deaths that will give an advantage to the Democrats whose voters don’t live by the legendary “fuck it” Texan spirit.


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## SuperMatt

Joe Biden decided to speak his mind on the issue:









						Joe Biden calls Gov Abbott's end of mask mandate 'Neanderthal thinking' | Boing Boing
					

When asked today about Texas’ and Mississippi’s illogical decision to lift the mask mandates, President Biden told reporters that it was a “big mistake.” Emphasizing that we…




					boingboing.net
				




Agreed!


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## JayMysteri0

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I feel bad for the average Texan as this is clearly going to lead to confrontations, especially considering some businesses are still going to insist customers still wear masks. Personally I feel if he felt he had to do anything in this direction he should have either ended the mask mandate or opened 100%, not both. But I guess for some people when you are going to let willful ignorance be your guide there’s no reason to half-ass it.
> 
> I look forward to some legislation being proposed that attempts to offset the covid deaths that will give an advantage to the Democrats whose voters don’t live by the legendary “fuck it” Texan spirit.



Yup, I read on Twitter that the Alamo Drafthouse didn't care what the governor said, they were following CDC guidelines.  No mask, no entry.

It will be interesting if we return to when this was earlier, and people suddenly didn't believe in the rights of businesses. 

They can decide NOT to bake a cake, but they have no right to make you wear a mask when entering their premises.


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## User.45

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> *But I guess for some people when you are going to let willful ignorance be your guide there’s no reason to half-ass it.*



It's more than willful. It's calculated ignorance. Actual real evil thing. You can argue about the economic impacts of closing and you can strike a calculated balance on that, but what's the economic impact of wearing masks? Practically nothing.


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## User.45

SuperMatt said:


> Joe Biden decided to speak his mind on the issue:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Joe Biden calls Gov Abbott's end of mask mandate 'Neanderthal thinking' | Boing Boing
> 
> 
> When asked today about Texas’ and Mississippi’s illogical decision to lift the mask mandates, President Biden told reporters that it was a “big mistake.” Emphasizing that we…
> 
> 
> 
> 
> boingboing.net
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Agreed!



Dunno...as we learn more about them, neanderthals may have been smarter than homo sapiens...


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## Thomas Veil

"I hate it here" trends on Twitter in Texas after Greg Abbott lifts mask mandate
					

The state's Republican governor has also said that businesses can reopen at 100 percent capacity from March 10




					www.newsweek.com
				




The below, however, is not funny. Not at all.



> Twitter user Em wrote: "I hate it here. catch me double masking from now on." Kimmie shared an AP tweet on the mask mandate being lifted, posting: "So much for a 'Pro-lifer.' I can't even imagine the fear of restaurant workers, families with children with disabilities and the 97 percent of Texans that haven't received the vaccine yet. I hate it here #TurnTexasBlue #VoteHimOut"


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## User.45

Thomas Veil said:


> "I hate it here" trends on Twitter in Texas after Greg Abbott lifts mask mandate
> 
> 
> The state's Republican governor has also said that businesses can reopen at 100 percent capacity from March 10
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.newsweek.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The below, however, is not funny. Not at all.



That's 87% not 97%, but yeah TX is the 3rd or 4th lowest vaccinated state. Even though they have a good excuse for this, this is exactly why it's bad to do reopen now.


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## Chew Toy McCoy

JayMysteri0 said:


> Yup, I read on Twitter that the Alamo Drafthouse didn't care what the governor said, they were following CDC guidelines.  No mask, no entry.
> 
> It will be interesting if we return to when this was earlier, and people suddenly didn't believe in the rights of businesses.
> 
> They can decide NOT to bake a cake, but they have no right to make you wear a mask when entering their premises.




Speaking of business rights, read an article earlier saying how the right’s campaign against cancel culture is actually a campaign against business and the free market. In summary these are business decisions being made, not government decisions, and if they turned out to be bad decisions via the reaction from the free market then those decisions would be reversed. So far the market isn’t having a problem with those decisions.

I feel like this has become like high school and the outcasts (Republicans) think the cool kids (Democrats) owe them stuff, but when they get a taste they clearly don’t know what to do with it or abuse it.  One things for sure. They will never be the cool kids, and I don’t know which they resent more, having their cool kid toys taken away or knowing they will never be a member of the cool kids.


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## Chew Toy McCoy

P_X said:


> What amazes me about the GOP's
> 
> It's more than willful. It's calculated ignorance. Actual real evil thing. You can argue about the economic impacts of closing and you can strike a calculated balance on that, but what's the economic impact of wearing masks? Practically nothing.




He's being like a minor Trump, trying to wash his hands of all responsibility and let the businesses and citizens battle it out.


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## lizkat

Thomas Veil said:


> and another that says that answers on tests cannot be considered wrong if their religion says they’re right.




Seriously?!  So if the answer is actually "climate change" then some poor sod of a teacher in Ohio learns never to ask a question with that answer again because of having to accept "Jesus Christ" or "Almighty God" as also correct?  Great.   

What about some smartass kid who decides to affirm that he worships combustion engines...  and his dad backs him up in a parent-teacher conference...

Ohio is far more weird than I had imagined.


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## lizkat

JayMysteri0 said:


> Yup, I read on Twitter that the Alamo Drafthouse didn't care what the governor said, they were following CDC guidelines.  No mask, no entry.
> 
> It will be interesting if we return to when this was earlier, and people suddenly didn't believe in the rights of businesses.
> 
> They can decide NOT to bake a cake, but they have no right to make you wear a mask when entering their premises.




About the size of it.   And no coincidence if they're all fond of pretzels, ya think?

But kudos to the Alama Drafthouse in the meantime.  Hope other businesses have that much sanity.  I think there are probably plenty of voters who would prefer that guidelines be followed and who intend to continue following them personally.


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## Joe

Some companies have already come out and said they are still going to follow CDC guidelines and require a mask. Of course all the Trumpers are up in arms. I have seen some people begin circulating lists of businesses that will require a mask so they can avoid/boycott them. There's even a list going around of those that will not require a mask so they can go there and support them. It's crazy. People are crazy.


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## JayMysteri0

JagRunner said:


> Some companies have already come out and said they are still going to follow CDC guidelines and require a mask. Of course all the Trumpers are up in arms. I have seen some people begin circulating lists of businesses that will require a mask so they can avoid/boycott them. There's even a list going around of those that will not require a mask so they can go there and support them. It's crazy. People are crazy.



WHAT?!  They can't do that!  "CANCEL CULTURE". They hate that!



https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367167920024002560/


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## Joe

JayMysteri0 said:


> WHAT?!  They can't do that!  "CANCEL CULTURE". They hate that!
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367167920024002560/




Yup, they are trying to cancel the businesses that will still require a mask 

I'm glad I got vaccinated and my mom gets her 2nd dose next week.


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## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367490136284557335/


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## User.45

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367490136284557335/



Again, he's not this stupid, which means he thinks his constituents are...


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## JayMysteri0

All I know is if your Florida or Georgia, you're loving the shift in attention from your own stupid shit

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367203677577089026/


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

This is the second time in several weeks I’ve heard a Republican politician claiming to be speaking for all Texans and I thought are you sure about that? The first being the claim that Texans would rather risk freezing to death for days than have more federal regulation.

Joe Walsh on his show said this might actually backfire economically. If more informed people think a business could have a bunch of maskless freedom chest thumpers meandering around then they might go fuck that, I’m not going there. Similarly if they think there could be a Beat It video style confrontation between the masked and maskless.


----------



## User.45

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> * Similarly if they think there could be a Beat It video style confrontation between the masked and maskless.*



LOL


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> This is the second time in several weeks I’ve heard a Republican politician claiming to be speaking for all Texans and I thought are you sure about that? The first being the claim that Texans would rather risk freezing to death for days than have more federal regulation.
> 
> Joe Walsh on his show said this might actually backfire economically. If more informed people think a business could have a bunch of maskless freedom chest thumpers meandering around then they might go fuck that, I’m not going there. Similarly if they think there could be a Beat It video style confrontation between the masked and maskless.




I'm curious to see how it's going to go down next week. 

Trumpers that are happy about it are saying things like "Businesses can still follow CDC Guidelines if they want to. It's about CHOICE" - but I can guarantee those same people will be crying when Walmart still requires them to wear a mask inside the store. They are going to be ranting and raving about Abbott saying they don't have to. It's about choice, but they are already making lists to boycott those requiring masks. 

I have a friend that works retail and she said they are not going to force the customers to wear a mask because they are tried of fighting it with customers. They are going to continue wearing masks as employees and keep all their current precautions in place....but people are just tired of fighting these antimask folks.


----------



## Joe

This pandemic has really showed me how selfish Americans are. I mean, I knew it already, but damn, it's bad. Something as easy as wearing a mask causes a meltdown.


----------



## JayMysteri0

JagRunner said:


> I'm curious to see how it's going to go down next week.
> 
> Trumpers that are happy about it are saying things like "Businesses can still follow CDC Guidelines if they want to. It's about CHOICE" - but I can guarantee those same people will be crying when Walmart still requires them to wear a mask inside the store. They are going to be ranting and raving about Abbott saying they don't have to. It's about choice, but they are already making lists to boycott those requiring masks.
> 
> I have a friend that works retail and she said they are not going to force the customers to wear a mask because they are tried of fighting it with customers. They are going to continue wearing masks as employees and keep all their current precautions in place....but people are just tired of fighting these antimask folks.



Which ultimately demonstrates how   ing stupid this all seems to me.

The employees who can be called "essential workers" will be the ones wearing masks for the protection of others who don't want to wear a mask and/or give a  about possibly infecting others.






Is there still a wonder why their power infrastructure collapsed because it got cold again and the powers that be were warned?  Really?!


----------



## JayMysteri0




----------



## Joe

JayMysteri0 said:


> Which ultimately demonstrates how   ing stupid this all seems to me.
> 
> The employees who can be called "essential workers" will be the ones wearing masks for the protection of others who don't want to wear a mask and/or give a  about possibly infecting others.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Is there still a wonder why their power infrastructure collapsed because it got cold again and the powers that be were warned?  Really?!




These anti mask people are some of the most awful people I have encountered. Just the comments I have read on social media show how awful they are and how they do not give a shit about anyone else but themselves. I hope some karma comes their way when shit opens up next week.

I saw a lady say she was going to continue to wear a mask because she has had 7 family members pass away from Covid over the last year, and the first comment is some idiot lady saying "That's sad, but I'm still not going to wear mine" like wtf? Just don't say anything if you're going to be a dick, but she just wanted to throw it in her face that she wasn't going to wear hers still. F everyone else. 

I'm still going to wear mine. These Trumpers better not mess with me in public for choosing to wear one. I'm not the one.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JagRunner said:


> I'm curious to see how it's going to go down next week.
> 
> Trumpers that are happy about it are saying things like "Businesses can still follow CDC Guidelines if they want to. It's about CHOICE" - but I can guarantee those same people will be crying when Walmart still requires them to wear a mask inside the store. They are going to be ranting and raving about Abbott saying they don't have to. It's about choice, but they are already making lists to boycott those requiring masks.
> 
> I have a friend that works retail and she said they are not going to force the customers to wear a mask because they are tried of fighting it with customers. They are going to continue wearing masks as employees and keep all their current precautions in place....but people are just tired of fighting these antimask folks.




The bad news is you put on a mask to not infect others, less so to protect yourself.

I heard something like a little over 50% of white Republicans don’t want to get vaccinated. It didn’t say why. I’m assuming it’s something like believed Bill Gates mind control.  The irony is nothing put in the vaccine could make you more stupid or ignorant than a Trump worshipper and they did that if their own free will.


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> The bad news is you put on a mask to not infect others, less so to protect yourself.
> 
> I heard something like a little over 50% of white Republicans don’t want to get vaccinated. It didn’t say why. I’m assuming it’s something like believed Bill Gates mind control.  The irony is nothing put in the vaccine could make you more stupid or ignorant than a Trump worshipper and they did that if their own free will.




Yeah, they think the vaccine is tracking them like their cell phones don't already do that lol


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JagRunner said:


> Yeah, they think the vaccine is tracking them like their cell phones don't already do that lol




Probably the same people who don’t think they’re social media posting is public record.   It’s like they are proactively trying to scale back their job and public office opportunities.


----------



## JayMysteri0

For a group that believes libs are soft & prone to cancel culture & things are too PC now...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367547769632743424/

Y'all some touchy ass MFers.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367556304206761984/


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> For a group that believes libs are soft & prone to cancel culture & things are too PC now...
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367547769632743424/
> 
> Y'all some touchy ass MFers.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367556304206761984/



Republicans: we will literally act like cavemen, and then act extremely offended when people accuse us of acting like cavemen. Same with racism: “it‘s so unfair they call us racists!” 5 minutes later: The Georgia voting bill…


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JayMysteri0 said:


> For a group that believes libs are soft & prone to cancel culture & things are too PC now...
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367547769632743424/
> 
> Y'all some touchy ass MFers.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367556304206761984/




One of the problems with tribalism is people feeling they need to defend every individual idiot in their tribe or every insult hurled at one idiot is hurled at the entire tribe.  Now every slight and disagreement is responded to with the same blind tunnel vision as a 2nd amendment supporter.   

Unfortunately for the right Trump has given them an endless list of how they can, and will be, instant top tier hypocrites.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

JayMysteri0 said:


> For a group that believes libs are soft & prone to cancel culture & things are too PC now...
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367547769632743424/
> 
> Y'all some touchy ass MFers.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367556304206761984/




I know.

This is hilarious; such thin skin, and strange sensitivity.  

They still dwell - nursing their hurt and bruised pride - on how Secretary Clinton referred to them as "deplorables", and now sulk when the current White House (with exquisite precision) makes a reference to how their beliefs & conduct re masks can best be described as the "behaviour of Neanderthals".

Wonderful.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Uh...



> Texas Attorney General Sues Griddy for False Advertising in Wake of Winter Storm Price Hikes
> 
> 
> Griddy, the Texas power supplier that’s made headlines recently for customers’ sky-high energy bills in the wake of widespread winter storm outages, has racked up another lawsuit. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the company for “false, misleading, and deceptive advertising and...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> earther.gizmodo.com




They are suing a company that exists basically because of their chosen approach to infrastructure?

Did the state NOT look into this when they authorized the company to operate, that this was a possibility?

Seems a lot like more looking for someone else to blame for the state's complete lack of oversight on this matter.


----------



## SuperMatt

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/05/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/
		




> Despite the warnings, some states with still-growing outbreaks, such as Texas and Mississippi, have relaxed restrictions. “I don’t know why they’re doing it but it’s certainly, from a public health standpoint, ill-advised,” infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci told CNN on Thursday. Citing what he said was a high baseline for new infections, Fauci called the decision to pull back on precautions “inexplicable.”




Texas removing the restrictions truly is inexplicable.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

SuperMatt said:


> https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/05/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas removing the restrictions truly is inexplicable.




Unless they assume (hope? pray - as in that awful, vomit inducing, cliché - "thoughts and prayers") that only the poor (and less well off - in other words, those less likely to cast a ballot for the GOP) will susceptible to this virus, or become infected and then proceed to die from it.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Scepticalscribe said:


> Unless they assume (hope? pray - as in that awful, vomit inducing, cliché - "thoughts and prayers") that only the poor (and less well off - in other words, those less likely to cast a ballot for the GOP) will susceptible to this virus, or become infected and then proceed to die from it.



That would be Florida / Desantis' approach.



> Florida officials call for FBI to investigate governor Ron DeSantis ‘for linking vaccines to donations’
> 
> 
> Only 8.4% of Florida’s citizens have been fully vaccinated
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.independent.co.uk




If you are looking at it strictly from a numbers approach, you can see how Ron may see there is a greater supply of poor to provide replaceable "essential workers", but a limited number of wealthy donors to help keep him in office.


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> One of the problems with tribalism is people feeling they need to defend every individual idiot in their tribe or every insult hurled at one idiot is hurled at the entire tribe.  Now every slight and disagreement is responded to with the same blind tunnel vision as a 2nd amendment supporter.
> 
> Unfortunately for the right Trump has given them an endless list of how they can, and will be, instant top tier hypocrites.




This is true. Because with Ted Cruz Conservatives defended him to the death when he fled to Cancun because of tribalism.


----------



## User.45

JayMysteri0 said:


> For a group that believes libs are soft & prone to cancel culture & things are too PC now...
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367547769632743424/
> 
> Y'all some touchy ass MFers.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367556304206761984/



"Literally extinct".

That mic is dropped so hard it is rumored to be seen launching into orbit on the other side of the planet. 

But seriously, if a litany of whining can be summed by 2 words, that means maybe the efforts are orbitally misplaced?!


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367944567094403074/


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367944567094403074/




Free market baby!

However, if that money was owed by just a handful of millionaires and billionaires the regulator would apologize profusely and reverse the charge immediately.


----------



## User.45

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Free market baby!
> 
> However, if that money was owed by just a handful of millionaires and billionaires the regulator would apologize profusely and reverse the charge immediately.



This is poor strategy no matter who the victim is. It sounds like both a class action lawsuit and people systematically saying fuck you and your bullshit, I’m not paying.


----------



## SuperMatt

Liberals are always accused of ”virtue signaling” and maybe Greg Abbott was envious. So he would like to present:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367699473703579652/

Sure, pass a law that clearly violates the first amendment and will be lit on fire by the courts the instant it passes. The important thing is that all the right-wing voters know you oppose cancel culture!!!


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

P_X said:


> This is poor strategy no matter who the victim is. It sounds like both a class action lawsuit and people systematically saying fuck you and your bullshit, I’m not paying.




You can't sue freedom!

However, you can shoot it which is probably more appropriate for Texas.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> Liberals are always accused of ”virtue signaling” and maybe Greg Abbott was envious. So he would like to present:
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1367699473703579652/
> 
> Sure, pass a law that clearly violates the first amendment and will be lit on fire by the courts the instant it passes. The important thing is that all the right-wing voters know you oppose cancel culture!!!




If that works then we should file a class action lawsuit against MR.


----------



## SuperMatt

Greg Abbott is truly stupid:



			Greg Abbott Blames Biden Border Policies for Spreading COVID, Days After Lifting Mask Mandate
		


The sad thing is, right-wingers are totally buying this BS… despite the facts in the article that strict COVID protocols are in place at the border, unlike the complete lack of COVID protocols in Texas. You’re in FAR more danger from COVID if you’re near a Texan than if you’re near a Mexican.

F him for using xenophobia for political points, and F the people that lap this  up because they are racist turds.


----------



## Joe

SuperMatt said:


> Greg Abbott is truly stupid:
> 
> 
> 
> Greg Abbott Blames Biden Border Policies for Spreading COVID, Days After Lifting Mask Mandate
> 
> 
> 
> The sad thing is, right-wingers are totally buying this BS… despite the facts in the article that strict COVID protocols are in place at the border, unlike the complete lack of COVID protocols in Texas. You’re in FAR more danger from COVID if you’re near a Texan than if you’re near a Mexican.
> 
> F him for using xenophobia for political points, and F the people that lap this  up because they are racist turds.




Conservatives in this state are already eating it up. They need someone to blame when Covid spikes next week after the mandate is lifted. Looks like they already found the scapegoat. SMH


----------



## SuperMatt

JagRunner said:


> Conservatives in this state are already eating it up. They need someone to blame when Covid spikes next week after the mandate is lifted. Looks like they already found the scapegoat. SMH



Can we put checkpoints around Texas and make them get tested before they enter the rest of the US?


----------



## JayMysteri0

SuperMatt said:


> Can we put checkpoints around Texas and make them get tested before they enter the rest of the US?



What we do is we tell those in charge that the checkpoints are actually power grid checkpoints to insure that none of the rest of the country's nasty energy renewable or otherwise sneaks in.  In return the country asks that EVERYONE leaving Texas is checked to make sure they aren't smuggling out good ol' Texas energy into the rest of the country.  The nasal swabs are just conductive tips to check for energy.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> What we do is we tell those in charge that the checkpoints are actually power grid checkpoints to insure that none of the rest of the country's nasty energy renewable or otherwise sneaks in.  In return the country asks that EVERYONE leaving Texas is checked to make sure they aren't smuggling out good ol' Texas energy into the rest of the country.  The nasal swabs are just conductive tips to check for energy.



If you get Trump to say it, they will believe it.


----------



## Joe

People threaten to call ICE on staff of Houston Mexican restaurant after choice to keep mask requirement​








						People threaten to call ICE on staff of Houston Mexican restaurant after choice to keep mask requirement
					

Earlier this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the end of the state’s mask mandate — the decision was met with acclaim from some and condemnation from others.




					www.kxan.com


----------



## User.168

.


----------



## Eric

JagRunner said:


> People threaten to call ICE on staff of Houston Mexican restaurant after choice to keep mask requirement​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> People threaten to call ICE on staff of Houston Mexican restaurant after choice to keep mask requirement
> 
> 
> Earlier this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the end of the state’s mask mandate — the decision was met with acclaim from some and condemnation from others.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.kxan.com



Wait, so they're not pro free market now? I'm confused.

Next thing you know they'll be advocating for a woman's right to affordable reproductive care and preventative contraception.


----------



## MarkusL




----------



## Zoidberg

Scepticalscribe said:


> Safety belts in cars?



Spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair to own the libs.


----------



## shadow puppet

Pumbaa said:


> Karen: Police brutality right here people!
> Everyone: No. No it’s not.
> 
> Love that part.



No one else could be bothered.  They were all "Eh.  Just another Karen having a hissy fit."
Pretty wild this is what we've come to over the past year.


----------



## SuperMatt

Zoidberg said:


> Spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair to own the libs.




Yup.


----------



## User.45

SuperMatt said:


> View attachment 3994
> Yup.



tell me this is photoshop....


----------



## Runs For Fun

SuperMatt said:


> Something tells me EVERYTHING takes a long time for her. I’ve met the type before. They’ll spend 30 minutes arguing about how many pickles were on their Big Mac. You see them coming and you go on a lunch break immediately.



AKA Karen


----------



## SuperMatt

P_X said:


> tell me this is photoshop....



Not that I’m aware of... I think I saw other photos from the same “hunting trip” when I grabbed that one.

Just to be clear, I’m not sure if he was wearing a seatbelt or not during his accident, but they did say he had his seat reclined all the way and his feet were on the dashboard… nothing a seatbelt is gonna do for you one way or another if you’re doing that.


----------



## User.45

SuperMatt said:


> Not that I’m aware of... I think I saw other photos from the same “hunting trip” when I grabbed that one.



It's just so absurd. Is that pistol strapped to his chest going to make the forest more accessible so he can murder animals in equity?

Oh..keeps on giving:



> A photo of Cawthorn in his wheelchair carrying a military-style rifle and wearing a bandolier holster with a pistol also has drawn the attention of his political critics. The holster, which rests on his chest, bears the outline of a Spartan soldier’s helmet. It’s a symbol popularized by a far-right gun-advocacy group called the Oath Keepers and often includes the motto Molon Labe. The translation from ancient Greek is akin to the phrase “Come and take them from me.” The words were attributed the Spartan King Leonidis in response to a demand from a much-larger enemy to order his soldiers to lay down their weapons and surrender.











						#NC11: Cawthorn Takes A Hard-Right Turn
					

When then 24-year-old Madison Cawthorn easily defeated a Trump-backed rival to capture the GOP nomination in Western North Carolina’s 11th congressional…




					www.bpr.org


----------



## Joe

This should have been in the Texas thread


----------



## Edd

JagRunner said:


> This should have been in the Texas thread



My bad.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

SuperMatt said:


> View attachment 3994
> Yup.






SuperMatt said:


> Not that I’m aware of... I think I saw other photos from the same “hunting trip” when I grabbed that one.
> 
> Just to be clear, I’m not sure if he was wearing a seatbelt or not during his accident, but they did say he had his seat reclined all the way and his feet were on the dashboard… nothing a seatbelt is gonna do for you one way or another if you’re doing that.






P_X said:


> It's just so absurd. Is that pistol strapped to his chest going to make the forest more accessible so he can murder animals in equity?
> 
> Oh..keeps on giving:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> #NC11: Cawthorn Takes A Hard-Right Turn
> 
> 
> When then 24-year-old Madison Cawthorn easily defeated a Trump-backed rival to capture the GOP nomination in Western North Carolina’s 11th congressional…
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.bpr.org






JagRunner said:


> This should have been in the Texas thread






Edd said:


> My bad.




My bad, as well; @ericgtr12, perhaps we could consider moving this section of the discussion of the thread to the Texas thread?


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Scepticalscribe said:


> My bad, as well; @ericgtr12, perhaps we could consider moving this section of the discussion of the thread to the Texas thread?




Thanks, @ericgtr12.


----------



## Zoidberg

Scepticalscribe said:


> My bad, as well; @ericgtr12, perhaps we could consider moving this section of the discussion of the thread to the Texas thread?



All threads lead to Texas.


----------



## Thomas Veil

SuperMatt said:


> View attachment 3994
> Yup.



Jesus Christ. The wheelchair already says it all. You're not fooling anyone shouldering the world's biggest fucking gun.


----------



## Yoused

Some _good_ news from Texas,









						Museum Removed Wax Statue Of Trump Because People Kept Punching It
					

The wax figurine had to be moved to storage for its own safety after visitors inflicted damage, including "deep scratches" on its face.




					uproxx.com


----------



## thekev

P_X said:


> Again, he's not this stupid, which means he thinks his constituents are...




That is roughly how I view a lot of these guys. I wouldn't dislike them at a personal level if I thought it could be explained away by their just being dumb.



Yoused said:


> Some _good_ news from Texas,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Museum Removed Wax Statue Of Trump Because People Kept Punching It
> 
> 
> The wax figurine had to be moved to storage for its own safety after visitors inflicted damage, including "deep scratches" on its face.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> uproxx.com




They should have just given him a pair of boxing gloves.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Texas diner will add $50 to bill of any patron who needs to be told to wear a mask​








						Texas diner will add $50 to bill of any patron who needs to be told to wear a mask | Boing Boing
					

There’s a new sign in the window of Legends Diner in Denton, Texas. It reads: “Our new surcharge. $50 if I have to explain why masks are mandatory” and “$75 if I have to hear why you disagree…




					boingboing.net


----------



## Pumbaa

thekev said:


> They should have just given him a pair of boxing gloves.



That reminds me of something...









						Trump posted a picture of himself as Rocky. No one knows what to make of it
					

The president’s bizarre tweet prompted jokes about Russia, white insecurity and less-than-inspiring leadership




					www.theguardian.com


----------



## Huntn

JagRunner said:


> Some companies have already come out and said they are still going to follow CDC guidelines and require a mask. Of course all the Trumpers are up in arms. I have seen some people begin circulating lists of businesses that will require a mask so they can avoid/boycott them. There's even a list going around of those that will not require a mask so they can go there and support them. It's crazy. People are crazy.



Everyone heading into every business I go to (in Houston) seem to dutifully wear masks. The exception is the gym, where the employess all wear masks, and people coming in and going out wear masks, but when on the machines, no mask.


----------



## Huntn

Pumbaa said:


> That reminds me of something...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Trump posted a picture of himself as Rocky. No one knows what to make of it
> 
> 
> The president’s bizarre tweet prompted jokes about Russia, white insecurity and less-than-inspiring leadership
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.theguardian.com



Pathetic, pitiful, and dangerous as a viper in your toilet bowl.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Wow!

Talk about trying to skip the line



> Gunman ambushes National Guard convoy carrying COVID vaccine in Texas, cops say
> 
> 
> He held an unarmed soldier at gunpoint.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> amp.star-telegram.com



A National Guard convoy transporting doses of the COVID-19 vaccine was ambushed Monday morning in west Texas, according to police.

Larry Lee Harris, 66, allegedly started following the three National Guard vans, en route to Matador, Texas, after they stopped at a Love’s gas station in Lubbock, and “attempted multiple times” to run their vehicles off the road, Idalou Police Chief Eric Williams said in a statement.

After those attempts failed, Harris then turned his truck in front of the convoy, forcing it to stop. He got out of his truck and aimed his .45 caliber handgun at one of the guardsmen, who was unarmed.

Claiming to be a detective, he ordered all 11 soldiers to exit the vans so he could search them, Williams’ statement said.

Idalou police received a call and rushed out to the scene, roughly 2 miles east of town along Highway 62/82.

Two officers arrived to find the uniformed National Guard soldiers and Harris, who they arrested “without further incident.”

He had an extra loaded pistol magazine on him and a third in his truck, according to the officers.

After he was taken into custody, Harris — who is from Wilcox, Arizona — told police he thought “the people in the vans had kidnapped a woman and child,” the police chief’s statement said.

No injuries were reported.

"He was..."


----------



## User.45

JayMysteri0 said:


> Wow!
> 
> Talk about trying to skip the line
> 
> 
> A National Guard convoy transporting doses of the COVID-19 vaccine was ambushed Monday morning in west Texas, according to police.
> 
> Larry Lee Harris, 66, allegedly started following the three National Guard vans, en route to Matador, Texas, after they stopped at a Love’s gas station in Lubbock, and “attempted multiple times” to run their vehicles off the road, Idalou Police Chief Eric Williams said in a statement.
> 
> After those attempts failed, Harris then turned his truck in front of the convoy, forcing it to stop. He got out of his truck and aimed his .45 caliber handgun at one of the guardsmen, who was unarmed.
> 
> Claiming to be a detective, he ordered all 11 soldiers to exit the vans so he could search them, Williams’ statement said.
> 
> Idalou police received a call and rushed out to the scene, roughly 2 miles east of town along Highway 62/82.
> 
> Two officers arrived to find the uniformed National Guard soldiers and Harris, who they arrested “without further incident.”
> 
> He had an extra loaded pistol magazine on him and a third in his truck, according to the officers.
> 
> After he was taken into custody, Harris — who is from Wilcox, Arizona — told police he thought “the people in the vans had kidnapped a woman and child,” the police chief’s statement said.
> 
> No injuries were reported.
> 
> "He was..."



Clear mental health problems...which takes us to: how did he get a gun? Wending machine?


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

P_X said:


> Clear mental health problems...which takes us to: how did he get a gun? Wending machine?




Then you have the “As long as they pass the background check, get the gun legally, and get proper training then I think they should be able to have a gun without issues.” people, as if everybody who shoots their cheating spouse couldn’t possibly get a gun through those requirements or every suicide shooting must be people who were suicidal their entire life and therefor wouldn’t pass the background check.


----------



## Alli

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Then you have the “As long as they pass the background check, get the gun legally, and get proper training then I think they should be able to have a gun without issues.” people, as if everybody who shoots their cheating spouse couldn’t possibly get a gun through those requirements or every suicide shooting must be people who were suicidal their entire life and therefor wouldn’t pass the background check.



Everyone is fine until the moment they're not.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Alli said:


> Everyone is fine until the moment they're not.




Having a gun is the one thing they all have in common, but let's not look at that.  Let's instead look at 300 possible other things that caused the shooting.  Make that 301, having a bad day.  We must put an end to people having a bad day!


----------



## Pumbaa

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Having a gun is the one thing they all have in common, but let's not look at that.  Let's instead look at 300 possible other things that caused the shooting.  Make that 301, having a bad day.  We must put an end to people having a bad day!



Yeah, you’re right, let’s not look at that. Correlation does not imply causation.

Not so sure about your solution to 301 though. If people never have a bad day they won’t recognize when they have a good day. Imagine never having a good day... Sure does sounds like something that easily could cause a shooting, doesn‘t it?


----------



## User.45

Pumbaa said:


> Yeah, you’re right, let’s not look at that. *Correlation does not imply causation.*



Oh the good ol' correlation does not imply causation phrase. It's the Darth Vader of statistical terms, as it used to be a good way to teach people about the classical bias of confounding (e.g. concluding that ice cream causes drownings, whereas it's just people swim and eat ice cream in the summer... or when claiming more guns increase safety when there is a concurrent decline in violent crime).  But some Trump nuts started using it to deny association when events occur in the same context, time-locked and happen conditionally.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

P_X said:


> Oh the good ol' correlation does not imply causation phrase. It's the Darth Vader of statistical terms, as it used to be a good way to teach people about the classical bias of confounding (e.g. concluding that ice cream causes drownings, whereas it's just people swim and eat ice cream in the summer... or when claiming more guns increase safety when there is a concurrent decline in violent crime).  But some Trump nuts started using it to deny association when events occur in the same context, time-locked and happen conditionally.




As I said in another thread, no evidence of any massive voter fraud is clearly evidence of massive voter fraud.  This is one of the fundamentals of redneck quantum physics, the lack of proof is definitive proof.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Having a gun is the one thing they all have in common, but let's not look at that.  Let's instead look at 300 possible other things that caused the shooting.  Make that 301, having a bad day.  We must put an end to people having a bad day!



The solution to #301 is the simplest.  

Give everyone a gun, and let God sort it out.

After all, all those "good Christians" believe God looks out for them.  And nothing bad ever happens to good people.  Right?


----------



## JayMysteri0

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> As I said in another thread, no evidence of any massive voter fraud is clearly evidence of massive voter fraud.  This is one of the fundamentals of redneck quantum physics, the lack of proof is definitive proof.



That isn't redneck quantum theory.  That's conspiracy craft #101

If something doesn't look like it's a conspiracy, it's because it's been made NOT to look like a conspiracy by the guilty parties.

It's why conspiracies NEVER end.  If something is resolved, it's resolved because THEY wanted you to resolve it.  If you can't find proof, it's because THEY have hidden the truth from you.

"Stop being sheep!"  I believe is the term.

That's why a recent post from some random nobody in PRSI had me laughing.  Something about we shouldn't believe what we read.  Which left me wondering if the poster realized they just told people to not believe what they wrote.


----------



## Pumbaa

JayMysteri0 said:


> The solution to #301 is the simplest.
> 
> Give everyone a gun, and let God sort it out.
> 
> After all, all those "good Christians" believe God looks out for them.  And nothing bad ever happens to good people.  Right?



Obviously we should only give “good Christians” guns, anything else is the work of the Devil. If you can’t even pick the correct religion you are obviously mentally incompetent and not fit to have guns.

Bad things happen to others because they are bad people. Bad things happens to ”good Christians” because God is testing them and will reward them later for their faith.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JayMysteri0 said:


> The solution to #301 is the simplest.
> 
> Give everyone a gun, and let God sort it out.
> 
> After all, all those "good Christians" believe God looks out for them.  And nothing bad ever happens to good people.  Right?




Also God created guns, unlike vaccines, minorities, and vegetables which were all created by the devil on the 7th day when God rested.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JayMysteri0 said:


> That isn't redneck quantum theory.  That's conspiracy craft #101
> 
> If something doesn't look like it's a conspiracy, it's because it's been made NOT to look like a conspiracy by the guilty parties.
> 
> It's why conspiracies NEVER end.  If something is resolved, it's resolved because THEY wanted you to resolve it.  If you can't find proof, it's because THEY have hidden the truth from you.
> 
> "Stop being sheep!"  I believe is the term.
> 
> That's why a recent post from some random nobody in PRSI had me laughing.  Something about we shouldn't believe what we read.  Which left me wondering if the poster realized they just told people to not believe what they wrote.




Along those lines if abortion was made illegal across the board nationally by federal law that still wouldn’t end it.  They’d put just as much energy and rhetoric claiming evil forces are about to make it legal again any minute now.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Pumbaa said:


> Obviously we should only give “good Christians” guns, anything else is the work of the Devil. If you can’t even pick the correct religion you are obviously mentally incompetent and not fit to have guns.
> 
> Bad things happen to others because they are bad people. Bad things happens to ”good Christians” because God is testing them and will reward them later for their faith.



The comic book storyline reason of why you couldn't do that, is because it makes a paradox available.

If another "good christian" shoots another "good christian" even by accident, that causes a space time continuum breach, as neither should have been shot.

Which means that either the "good christian" that shot the other, was in fact NOT good.  They were in fact a bad gun owner, which is NOW a "bad christian".  Or in fact a good person shot another good person, and it raises questions about one's belief.

Not in guns of course.

So you really need to make sure one type of place ( say Chicago ) gets all the guns, because even though they have gun laws, neighboring states that would profit will NOT have gun laws.  Thus while Chicago shoots itself up, it shows what happens when the WRONG people have guns.  Not the people who sell such guns knowing that an order of multiple guns probably isn't really for "good christians".  That's good business, which "good christians" also love.


----------



## Pumbaa

JayMysteri0 said:


> The comic book storyline reason of why you couldn't do that, is because it makes a paradox available.
> 
> If another "good christian" shoots another "good christian" even by accident, that causes a space time continuum breach, as neither should have been shot.
> 
> Which means that either the "good christian" that shot the other, was in fact NOT good.  They were in fact a bad gun owner, which is NOW a "bad christian".  Or in fact a good person shot another good person, and it raises questions about one's belief.
> 
> Not in guns of course.
> 
> So you really need to make sure one type of place ( say Chicago ) gets all the guns, because even though they have gun laws, neighboring states that would profit will NOT have gun laws.  Thus while Chicago shoots itself up, it shows what happens when the WRONG people have guns.  Not the people who sell such guns knowing that an order of multiple guns probably isn't really for "good christians".  That's good business, which "good christians" also love.



Your first mistake is making a lot of sense. Your second mistake is bringing logic to a religious fight.

There is no such thing as a paradox for ”good Christians” — God works in mysterious ways. Mere humans can’t possibly get the big picture, can’t understand God’s plan. Trials and Tribble-ations are part of the faith. The space time continuum is safe, Q is looking out for us.


----------



## Yoused

In an effort to give Louie Gohmert a run for his money,









						Texas’ Rep. Pat Fallon cites satire site to falsely accuse SPLC of labeling American Legion a hate group
					

At a hearing on extremism in the military, freshman Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Sherman, accused the Southern Poverty Law Center of labeling two of the nation’s oldest...



					www.dallasnews.com
				




Pat Fallon uses "Duffel Blog", a military-based satire site, to support his complaint (based on their story) that the Southern Poverty Law Center had labeled veterans organizations as hate groups. The people shouting "fake news!" are unable to actual fake news.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

From an investigation into Cares Act fraud.

In one Texas case, a man pleaded guilty to seeking $24.8 million in PPP loans using the names of 11 different companies to make loan applications to 11 lenders. He managed to obtain $17.3 million in forgivable loans and used the money to buy homes, jewelry and luxury cars.


----------



## SuperMatt

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> From an investigation into Cares Act fraud.
> 
> In one Texas case, a man pleaded guilty to seeking $24.8 million in PPP loans using the names of 11 different companies to make loan applications to 11 lenders. He managed to obtain $17.3 million in forgivable loans and used the money to buy homes, jewelry and luxury cars.



That’s what you get from the “bipartisan” bill. Republicans insisted there be money for businesses. Funny, you don’t see many fraud cases against average people who needed money to pay their rent.



> The Justice Department has charged 474 people over the past year with trying to swipe more than $569 million by using criminal fraud schemes connected to the coronavirus pandemic and seized at least $580 million in civil proceedings, officials announced Friday, demonstrating how taxpayer-funded programs meant to ease the economic burden of the crisis have become susceptible to scammers.



The above quote is from The Washington Post. Didn’t Tom Brady get tons of money from this program too? Lots of rich people who didn’t need it got money from PPP.

And the Republicans dared to whine about how somebody making $200K would get a few thousand in stimulus money from the Biden plan. Rank hypocrisy from them.



			https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/coronavirus-fraud-justice-department/2021/03/26/db1fca10-8e27-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html
		


Really, direct payments to average people was the way they should have done the entire thing from the beginning. Anytime there is money for businesses from the government, the crooks feast.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> That’s what you get from the “bipartisan” bill. Republicans insisted there be money for businesses. Funny, you don’t see many fraud cases against average people who needed money to pay their rent.
> 
> 
> The above quote is from The Washington Post. Didn’t Tom Brady get tons of money from this program too? Lots of rich people who didn’t need it got money from PPP.
> 
> And the Republicans dared to whine about how somebody making $200K would get a few thousand in stimulus money from the Biden plan. Rank hypocrisy from them.
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/coronavirus-fraud-justice-department/2021/03/26/db1fca10-8e27-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html
> 
> 
> 
> Really, direct payments to average people was the way they should have done the entire thing from the beginning. Anytime there is money for businesses from the government, the crooks feast.




I’m pretty sure Republicans also demanded there be zero oversight, or close to zero in exactly where the money was going.

To be fair there was a lot of individual fraud involving people in prison and it was deliberate, not some oops I didn’t know they didn’t qualify.  It was taking advantage of an overburdened system erring on the side of just sending money out, investigate later...maybe.


----------



## Yoused

Rafael does it again



Spoiler: rule 34?












						Ted Cruz is selling 'spring break' tank tops featuring himself with a mullet: 'McConnell in the front, MAGA in the back'
					

This comes a month after Cruz faced widespread backlash for vacationing in Mexico during Texas' winter storm crisis.




					currently.att.yahoo.com
				







Some one should teach him about word-meanings (or he should stop hiring people who strive to make him look stupid).


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Yoused said:


> Rafael does it again
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler: rule 34?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ted Cruz is selling 'spring break' tank tops featuring himself with a mullet: 'McConnell in the front, MAGA in the back'
> 
> 
> This comes a month after Cruz faced widespread backlash for vacationing in Mexico during Texas' winter storm crisis.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> currently.att.yahoo.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Some one should teach him about word-meanings (or he should stop hiring people who strive to make him look stupid).




I hope the same promotions team releases a Lindsey Graham wind sock.   I might even buy one.


----------



## Pumbaa

Yoused said:


> In an effort to give Louie Gohmert a run for his money,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas’ Rep. Pat Fallon cites satire site to falsely accuse SPLC of labeling American Legion a hate group
> 
> 
> At a hearing on extremism in the military, freshman Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Sherman, accused the Southern Poverty Law Center of labeling two of the nation’s oldest...
> 
> 
> 
> www.dallasnews.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Pat Fallon uses "Duffel Blog", a military-based satire site, to support his complaint (based on their story) that the Southern Poverty Law Center had labeled veterans organizations as hate groups. The people shouting "fake news!" are unable to actual fake news.



But doesn’t ”fake news” just mean “something I don’t like” rather than “not true” nowadays?


----------



## Yoused

Pumbaa said:


> But doesn’t ”fake news” just mean “something I don’t like” rather than “not true” nowadays?




This is "fake news":








						‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
					

ISLA VISTA, CA—In the days following a violent rampage in southern California in which a lone attacker killed seven individuals, including himself, and seriously injured over a dozen others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded...




					www.theonion.com
				




which is a problem inasmuch as it heavily smears the boundary between reality and satire – the only genuinely fake part of the story is where they quote a fictional person.


----------



## Yoused

some good news, at least for the moment









						Texas Judge Rules Against State in Power Struggle Over Masks
					

A state judge said she did not understand the logic of giving Texas business owners authority to mandate masks but not local health officials.




					www.courthousenews.com


----------



## JayMysteri0

A good ol' blast from the past returns to share some more stupidity

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1380610937560915974/


----------



## User.45

JayMysteri0 said:


> A good ol' blast from the past returns to share some more stupidity
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1380610937560915974/



And then who bailed them out when their unwinterized power grid crumbles?


----------



## Huntn

JayMysteri0 said:


> A good ol' blast from the past returns to share some more stupidity
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1380610937560915974/



I’ve wondered if this guy goes home at night and washes off the black face?


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1381302846105255941/


----------



## User.45

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1381302846105255941/



Ouch.


----------



## Edd

Texas Wind Energy Set a Record—Yet Republicans Are Trying to Squash It
					

Despite recent baseless attacks on wind power as unreliable and unneeded from Texas politicians, wind was the number one source of electricity on the state’s grid last month. Awkward!




					earther.gizmodo.com
				




I wonder if Texas republicans will do a sloooow turnaround on wind, someday claiming that renewable energy was their idea all along. Trump is on record as knowing everything about wind.


----------



## Alli

Edd said:


> Trump is on record as knowing everything about wind.



He told us it causes cancer.


----------



## User.45

Edd said:


> Texas Wind Energy Set a Record—Yet Republicans Are Trying to Squash It
> 
> 
> Despite recent baseless attacks on wind power as unreliable and unneeded from Texas politicians, wind was the number one source of electricity on the state’s grid last month. Awkward!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> earther.gizmodo.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I wonder if Texas republicans will do a sloooow turnaround on wind, *someday claiming that renewable energy was their idea all along*. Trump is on record as knowing everything about wind.



Spot on...


----------



## fooferdoggie

and now Texas wants to ban public camping. so of course abbot said it will force city's to find compassionate solutions. sure thats how it works.


----------



## Edd

Alli said:


> He told us it causes cancer.



He has a degree in oncology from Trump University. It’s a 3 hour course but he left after 15 minutes.


----------



## Huntn

Edd said:


> Texas Wind Energy Set a Record—Yet Republicans Are Trying to Squash It
> 
> 
> Despite recent baseless attacks on wind power as unreliable and unneeded from Texas politicians, wind was the number one source of electricity on the state’s grid last month. Awkward!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> earther.gizmodo.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I wonder if Texas republicans will do a sloooow turnaround on wind, someday claiming that renewable energy was their idea all along. Trump is on record as knowing everything about wind.



These poor Texarse politicians being drenched in oil has addled their brains.


​


----------



## Huntn

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1381302846105255941/



Is Faux News trying to become Fox News?


----------



## SuperMatt

Alli said:


> He told us it causes cancer.



The real reason he doesn’t like wind:


----------



## Edd

SuperMatt said:


> The real reason he doesn’t like wind:
> 
> View attachment 4464



He is the weirdest fucker alive.


----------



## Yoused

Now the lege wants to levy a tax on BEVs because they do not burn the gasoline/diesel and thus are not paying their road tax. Which, on the face of it, is not entirely unreasonable, but the time to impose a burden on EV drivers is when they have reached critical mass. Not now, as they are only just starting to catch on.


----------



## lizkat

SuperMatt said:


> The real reason he doesn’t like wind:
> 
> View attachment 4464






Edd said:


> He is the weirdest fucker alive.




I call that his Winged Mercury style, as on the USA's old dime coin.   Probably cost him more than a dime though... just to get embarrassed every time the wind blows.  He was never cool enough to be done with it and just shave his head.

​


----------



## User.45

Yoused said:


> Now the lege wants to levy a tax on BEVs because they do not burn the gasoline/diesel and thus are not paying their road tax. Which, on the face of it, is not entirely unreasonable, but the time to impose a burden on EV drivers is when they have reached critical mass. Not now, as they are only just starting to catch on.



Ohio was considering something similar. I love the irony though. I thought it's called Texas because they don't like Taxes.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Yoused said:


> Now the lege wants to levy a tax on BEVs because they do not burn the gasoline/diesel and thus are not paying their road tax. Which, on the face of it, is not entirely unreasonable, but the time to impose a burden on EV drivers is when they have reached critical mass. Not now, as they are only just starting to catch on.



Wait.

Isn't this state that Musk is threatening to move his Tesla plant to FROM California?   

What?


----------



## lizkat

JayMysteri0 said:


> Wait.
> 
> Isn't this state that Musk is threatening to move his Tesla plant to FROM California?
> 
> What?




Yeah...    for some reason I've started getting this image of Alfred E. Neuman in my head whenever Musk opens his mouth these days.

"What, me worry?"​​​​​​







						Alfred E. Neuman – ‘The What-Me-Worry Kid’ | MADtrash.com - The MAD Collectibles Database
					

Article by Dave Robinson (writer-illustrator, British MAD 1978-94) Alfred E. Neuman – ‘The What-Me-Worry Kid’ – Introduction 1950s MAD Editor Harvey Kurtzman was in the editor’s office a...




					madtrash.com
				



I visualize the iconic image as the backdrop for one of those spinner boards you stick up on a wall,  where the arrow pinned into the center is given a whirl and the point lands on a suggestion about what to do next:   quit, have lunch, fire someone, go shopping... tweet some BS...

The thing is, most of us would know such a spinner board is like a game, not something with far-reaching consequences.   Elon Musk, I dunno.


----------



## SuperMatt

What is wrong with the Governor of Texas?









						Covid News: India Reports Highest Daily Death Toll of Any Country
					

More than 4,500 people died of Covid-19 in India on Tuesday.




					www.nytimes.com
				






> Most government entities in Texas will soon be prohibited from requiring people to wear masks, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday, days after federal health officials announced new guidance that encourages people who have been completely vaccinated to forego masks in most situations.






> Only a third of Texans are fully vaccinated, below the U.S. average of 37 percent, according to a New York Times database. No Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized yet for children under 12.




There better be a special place in hell for people willing to sacrifice others’ lives for their own political gain. And heaven better be laughing at them when they beg for somebody to take a leak on them to cool off for even a second.


----------



## Pumbaa

SuperMatt said:


> What is wrong with the Governor of Texas?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Covid News: India Reports Highest Daily Death Toll of Any Country
> 
> 
> More than 4,500 people died of Covid-19 in India on Tuesday.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nytimes.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There better be a special place in hell for people willing to sacrifice others’ lives for their own political gain. And heaven better be laughing at them when they beg for somebody to take a leak on them to cool off for even a second.



Well, they had zero covid-19 deaths, so the pandemic is over! The strategy of opening up is working!

It is absolutely not a problem with the reporting of deaths, no sirree! They really had zero deaths one day. Twice as many as traditional the next day, but that’s just a blip. It was zero deaths! Really!


----------



## Yoused

Pumbaa said:


> Well, they had zero covid-19 deaths, so the pandemic is over! The strategy of opening up is working!
> 
> It is absolutely not a problem with the reporting of deaths, no sirree! They really had zero deaths one day. Twice as many as traditional the next day, but that’s just a blip. It was zero deaths! Really!
> 
> View attachment 5249




Hey, last summer Washington state had COVID-Z


----------



## Pumbaa

Yoused said:


> Hey, last summer Washington state had COVID-Z
> View attachment 5258​



Sweden had some of those too. Individual days with low reported numbers of deaths combined with issued corrections.

Nah, who am I kidding. People literally rose from the dead!


----------



## Huntn

SuperMatt said:


> What is wrong with the Governor of Texas?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Covid News: India Reports Highest Daily Death Toll of Any Country
> 
> 
> More than 4,500 people died of Covid-19 in India on Tuesday.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nytimes.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There better be a special place in hell for people willing to sacrifice others’ lives for their own political gain. And heaven better be laughing at them when they beg for somebody to take a leak on them to cool off for even a second.



Answer: White, often racist GOP.

I live here but don’t call myself a Texan. My IQ did not meet their inverse IQ standards of the long time embedded racists and other negative labels these days that more appropriately define conservative. In fact it’s so bad they need another label, because conservative: _Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change_, just does not adequately describe what the racist, psycho, fantasyland teeth gnashing Psycho Old Party has become.

It is those people in charge of the State. I’m hoping they are on borrowed time.


----------



## lizkat

Yeah so the latest and greatest about what's wrong with Texas is that the governor just signed a bill that bans all abortions after six weeks without any exception for rape or incest.   Not to mention that most women wouldn't even know they had become pregnant before six weeks after conception had elapsed.    This bill was passed by TX legislature despite massive objection from legal and medical professionals on grounds it weaponizes the judicial system.  Among other things it does not require the state to enforce the ban but permits any citizen to file suit against a provider if the citizen believes the new law has been violated.  Go figure.    Professional say this is a legal nightmare for society in general.   Surely headed to courts before  people start clogging said courts with zillions of lawsuits against the few providers Texas still has, as well as suits against entities that may make referrals or even just offer information about providers etc. 









						The Governor Of Texas Has Signed A Law That Bans Abortion As Early As 6 Weeks
					

The new law prohibits abortion the moment a fetal heartbeat has been detected, before many women are even aware that they are pregnant. Enforcement of the law relies on private citizens.




					www.npr.org


----------



## Huntn

lizkat said:


> Yeah so the latest and greatest about what's wrong with Texas is that the governor just signed a bill that bans all abortions after six weeks without any exception for rape or incest.   Not to mention that most women wouldn't even know they had become pregnant before six weeks after conception had elapsed.    This bill was passed by TX legislature despite massive objection from legal and medical professionals on grounds it weaponizes the judicial system.  Among other things it does not require the state to enforce the ban but permits any citizen to file suit against a provider if the citizen believes the new law has been violated.  Go figure.    Professional say this is a legal nightmare for society in general.   Surely headed to courts before  people start clogging said courts with zillions of lawsuits against the few providers Texas still has, as well as suits against entities that may make referrals or even just offer information about providers etc.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Governor Of Texas Has Signed A Law That Bans Abortion As Early As 6 Weeks
> 
> 
> The new law prohibits abortion the moment a fetal heartbeat has been detected, before many women are even aware that they are pregnant. Enforcement of the law relies on private citizens.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.npr.org



I’m sorry but this is definitely heinous, bankrupt, _but we want to please God is our excuse, _POS territory.   This save the unborn is a scam designed to keep the sheep at the trough. The thing is with Despicable Donny on the scene this becomes such a transparent scam foisted on their suckers who stay drunk on Trump’s poison piss, as if they might notice otherwise.


----------



## SuperMatt

lizkat said:


> Yeah so the latest and greatest about what's wrong with Texas is that the governor just signed a bill that bans all abortions after six weeks without any exception for rape or incest.   Not to mention that most women wouldn't even know they had become pregnant before six weeks after conception had elapsed.    This bill was passed by TX legislature despite massive objection from legal and medical professionals on grounds it weaponizes the judicial system.  Among other things it does not require the state to enforce the ban but permits any citizen to file suit against a provider if the citizen believes the new law has been violated.  Go figure.    Professional say this is a legal nightmare for society in general.   Surely headed to courts before  people start clogging said courts with zillions of lawsuits against the few providers Texas still has, as well as suits against entities that may make referrals or even just offer information about providers etc.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Governor Of Texas Has Signed A Law That Bans Abortion As Early As 6 Weeks
> 
> 
> The new law prohibits abortion the moment a fetal heartbeat has been detected, before many women are even aware that they are pregnant. Enforcement of the law relies on private citizens.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.npr.org



These types of barbaric laws are going backwards, approaching cavemen with wild superstitions instead of modern people who understand science. Isaac Asimov observed this anti-intellectual disease in 1980. I wonder if he would be surprised that it has grown so much in the last 40 years.


----------



## lizkat

SuperMatt said:


> These types of barbaric laws are going backwards, approaching cavemen with wild superstitions instead of modern people who understand science. Isaac Asimov observed this anti-intellectual disease in 1980. I wonder if he would be surprised that it has grown so much in the last 40 years.




So the GOP is going full bore on NO ABORTION...    yet they could not care less what happens to the mother or to a fetus she carries to term and delivers.  Once it's born, well hey, shrug...   at that point,  the kid suddenly stops being precious and becomes something she shouldn't have had if she couldn't afford to raise it so clearly she should not have allowed herself to become impregnated yada yada.  

That's leaving aside the matter of not making exceptions for rape or incest, never mind the absurdity of focusing on the idea of a heartbeat at six weeks as if fetal viability outside the womb ever depended solely upon that function.

The GOP and their zealous anti-choice followers are not just anti-science.  They are against female autonomy.   

And it does not faze them that all this is illogical, immoral, vastly impractical and leads to revival of illegal and less safe abortion providers anyway. 

What's next in taking women back to barefoot and pregnant house arrest, anyway?    Revoking women's right to have credit in their own name?  To work outside the home, drive a car?  Even the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lets women drive nowadays...  we're going in the wrong direction in the USA.


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1395202857549324296/


----------



## Huntn

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1395202857549324296/



Abbott targets a specific clientele.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Well.    

This is going to fuck with a narrative

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1396555310727196675/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1396555949612044292/



> Wait, California Has Lower Middle-Class Taxes Than Texas?
> 
> 
> Ultra-high earners can cut their tax bills a lot by moving from a high-tax state to a low-tax one. For most other people, that's not at all a sure thing.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.bloomberg.com


----------



## Yoused

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1395202857549324296/



The image in that Abbot tweet is straight up wrong, because both subjects are clearly born.


----------



## lizkat

File under Texans talk back:  a high school valedictorian scrapped her school-approved graduation speech and instead delivered a scathing critique of the state's new and super-restrictive abortion law.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1400560441206710278/


----------



## SuperMatt

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1406386823748804609/


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1414925320478724100/


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1414925320478724100/



“We’re gonna arrest.... er we got work to do!” Nice...


----------



## Yoused

Damn, as soon as she bleaches her hair, she will be on FauxNews before you can take a second breath.


----------



## B S Magnet

I’m not so surprised no one here yet has made mention of Texas, in their special session, trying to ramrod through a statute to regulate trans children’s participation from extracurricular activities such as sports. Because control over what trans kids do, such as existing, breathing, speaking, etc., is a clear and present threat to the good, normal, and pure(-blooded) cis children. Texas, above all else (except voting), must safeguard the cis kids from those sullied, corrupted, and perverse trans kids who probably should be subjected to conversion “therapy” forever and ever, amen.

“How dare you say such horrible things, B S M, you aren’t even from Texas!”

Yes I am. And yes, I survived professionalized conversion therapy as a child in 1986, in Texas City, just five days after my parents learnt I was trans.


----------



## Alli

I applaud the Dem Congress members from Texas. They knew what they were doing and are in it for the long haul. Abbott can go suck eggs.


----------



## JayMysteri0

B S Magnet said:


> I’m not so surprised no one here yet has made mention of Texas, in their special session, trying to ramrod through a statute to regulate trans children’s participation from extracurricular activities such as sports. Because control over what trans kids do, such as existing, breathing, speaking, etc., is a clear and present threat to the good, normal, and pure(-blooded) cis children. Texas, above all else (except voting), must safeguard the cis kids from those sullied, corrupted, and perverse trans kids who probably should be subjected to conversion “therapy” forever and ever, amen.
> 
> “How dare you say such horrible things, B S M, you aren’t even from Texas!”
> 
> Yes I am. And yes, I survived professionalized conversion therapy as a child in 1986, in Texas City, just five days after my parents learnt I was trans.



In the defense of others, this is Texas we are talking about.  We've already covered faux concern for the unborn over those already born, failing power grids, voting, Fled Cruz, Covid, anything that nonsensically spills out Marsha Blackburn's mouth & her need of T Swift for some kind of relevancy, and trying to pass a bill limiting 1A...

I'm sorry that's a lot.  Even for Florida.  That's so much especially for those of us NOT in Texas ( who may have only visited ) that it's possible we will miss things.  Texas has an awful lot shit going on.

Speaking of sh-



> Ken Starr, Brett Kavanaugh, Jeffrey Epstein and Me
> 
> 
> As a former professional partisan, I never thought I’d look back decades to my political beginnings and find the map that points to our…
> 
> 
> 
> 
> medium.com





> I can date the beginning of my own rebirth to July 9, 2018, the day Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court. I sent Starr a text saying, “You said to me 20 years ago, that Brett was ‘going places’ Clearly!” [punctuation sic] It was my first communication to Starr in memory that went unanswered, and I wondered if he picked up that my message had a bit of an edge. I had met Kavanaugh in 1998 when he was a 33-year-old member of then, Independent Counsel Starr’s team investigating Bill Clinton, and I was a 39-year-old strategic communications consultant hired to help prep Starr to present Congress with his legendary report detailing President Bill Clinton’s sexual interactions with a Monica Lewinsky. One day after a meeting at the independent counsel offices, I was alone in a conference room collecting materials when Kavanaugh entered. He began berating me and invading my personal space in a deranged fury that sent me into flight around the table.
> 
> After I invoked “Judge Starr” a few times, a deflated Kavanaugh left, but I felt duty bound to report the incident to Starr. As my client, he needed to be informed about anything that might raise a red flag, and my pulse rate told me this was one. Starr reacted with seeming surprise, saying Brett was probably being protective of him, and moreover was destined for great things — possibly the Supreme Court. “Not if he treats women like that he won’t,” I replied. I then asked Ken to seek an apology from Brett on my behalf and was told, “I’m apologizing to you for him. This is it.” Hence my text to Starr in 2018 acknowledging his prediction.
> 
> As Kavanaugh’s confirmation process proceeded, I had no plans to come forward about that encounter. Though I found Christine Blasey Ford credible when she described being assaulted by Kavanaugh as a teenager, I wasn’t sure about the relevance of my experience, which, though quite aggressive and unsettling, was not physically violent and I did not suspect it was alcohol-fueled because at the time I didn’t know that Kavanaugh had been a well-known blackout drunk in college. It was only when I saw his snarling “refutation” of Blasey Ford that I realized that his almost feral belligerence in that conference room more than 20 years earlier had not been a one-off.






> There was the time in January 2010 when I saw him in California — he was then dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law — and he asked me, if on my next visit to South Florida, I could extend myself to counsel a “very wealthy, very smart businessman who got himself into trouble for getting involved with a couple of underage girls who lied about their ages.” I confess I did not recognize Jeffrey Epstein’s name at the time, but I knew what statutory rape was and I couldn’t understand why Ken Starr would be involved with him. “Is this a church thing?” I asked. “Are you trying to ‘cure’ him? Why would you do this!” It did not occur to me that he might have been part of the legal team that executed a secret and egregious sweetheart deal for the convicted pedophile or that the stickler for details I knew Starr to be might be grossly undercounting the victims in question. “Everyone deserves representation, Judi,” he said, adding, “He promised to keep it above 18 from now on.” According to an alleged victim statement after the fact, the middle-aged, child molestor, Jeffrey Epstein, did not keep his sex with girls above the age of 18.






> Our affair ran its course after a year or so of occasional encounters and a steady exchange of affectionate texts and emails. No fireworks, no drama. I remained his adviser and supporter and he mine and we continued to talk frequently. Later, when I was living and working in Texas, I tried to help him weather his beleaguered tenure at Baylor and then in 2016, when he was fired as a result of a rape scandal involving the college football team, I ran interference for him as best I could. It was a an interview I watched in 2020 with one of Baylor’s aggrieved accusers that helped me understand how I could have been blind for so long to the pattern of misogyny coursing through Starr’s career. Describing a meeting with Starr about her ordeal, she said that he shed a tear along with her, made her feel heard, but did nothing to help get justice for her or the many other female students who came forward with allegations. Unless you count what he said in one interview, “We grieve for what happened. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t say it’s a new day. That’s the biblical perspective that we try to live up to here at Baylor University.” Shamelessly and effectively, he shoved rape allegations under the carpet in the name of Christianity.
> 
> It took me 20 years to pull my head out of the proverbial sand, but I can see clearly now all the harm Ken Starr has done from the 1990s and now beyond as he reaches for Mike Pence’s presumed coattails. Seeing him lend his practiced piety to a president who lies so much that he was considered by his previous lawyers to be a walking perjury machine along with his sanctimonious “Religious Liberty in Crisis” campaign that he is presently stumping around the country, has made my story suddenly feel urgent. It’s not just the hypocrisy, it’s the damage Starr’s sham moral authority has done to — our nation, to our people, and remember those children his client separated from their parents and put in cages at the border?




A man whose latest chapter in his 'legacy' involves having hired Kavannaugh, being warned of his shit, and predicting he'd be on the supreme court.  Also being tied with Epstein.  That's quite the downward spiral.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Alli said:


> I applaud the Dem Congress members from Texas. They knew what they were doing and are in it for the long haul. Abbott can go suck eggs.



I believe they've stated they will stay out 1 month.  While Abbot in his fanaticism has declared he will keep declaring sessions until the next election if he has to.  Then have the Dems arrested and forced to the session & detained when they eventually return.  Because that's how it's done in Texas it seems.



> NAACP will offer to pay bail for Texas Dems who fled state to block GOP-back voting restrictions
> 
> 
> "War has been declared on democracy ... we will support anyone who stands up to defend it," NAACP's president said.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.axios.com




https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1415097945343594502/


----------



## Edd

Yoused said:


> Damn, as soon as she bleaches her hair, she will be on FauxNews before you can take a second breath.



Looking at her Twitter account, I’m thinking this is a parody.


----------



## User.168

.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Edd said:


> Looking at her Twitter account, I’m thinking this is a parody.



Yes, she's a comedian. 

Her last bit I posted was when she was the bride who's wedding the former president crashed.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1376376396969353221/

The one before the Abbot one where she's a rep for Amazon was okay

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1414696481504866313/


----------



## Huntn

JayMysteri0 said:


> I believe they've stated they will stay out 1 month.  While Abbot in his fanaticism has declared he will keep declaring sessions until the next election if he has to.  Then have the Dems arrested and forced to the session & detained when they eventually return.  Because that's how it's done in Texas it seems.
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1415097945343594502/



It seems inconceivable that a State Congress man/woman could be arrested for not going to work. Talk about wrong headed, or maybe absent headedness…


----------



## Huntn

JagRunner said:


> This thread is just for stupid and idiotic things my State does.
> 
> Gov. Abbott just announced on 3/10 that the State will lift the mask mandate and everything will open at 100%
> 
> Why was I born here?



There is always hope the majority will prevail in Texas. And in Texas there is a lot of brown and significant black, but  lot of effort is required. What pisses me off is that it was a group of white people who have gone off the rails to cling to power across the country and they are getting enough votes from like minded whites to still hold power, so I’m not impressed with whites as a group, even though I am white. Is it good enough to say 50% of whites have their heads on straight?   

However to be fair and not just pick on whites, I think it is clear observing the world that prejudice, and _hanging on to what I got at your expense _is a primary motivator of human prejudice and can be found across all races, a lot boils down to who has the advantage.


----------



## B S Magnet

Huntn said:


> There is always hope the majority will prevail in Texas. And in Texas there is a lot of brown and significant black, but  lot of effort is required. What pisses me off is that it was a group of white people who have gone off the rails to cling to power across the country and they are getting enough votes from like minded whites to still hold power, so I’m not impressed with whites as a group, even though I am white. Is it good enough to say 50% of whites have their heads on straight?
> 
> However to be fair and not just pick on whites, I think it is clear observing the world that prejudice, and _hanging on to what I got at your expense _is a primary motivator of human prejudice and can be found across all races, a lot boils down to who has the advantage.




Again, the Texas political condition, hardly new, is an instance of conserving _whiteness _through legislation, law enforcement, and executive action, and _anyone_ unfortunately can work to maintain that structure of whiteness — even as doing so works materially against their own best interests in the long run.


----------



## Herdfan

Huntn said:


> There is always hope the majority will prevail in Texas. And in Texas there is a lot of brown and significant black, but  lot of effort is required.




So why do you think that heavily Latino counties in TX are turning towards the GOP?

For example, Zapata County on the Mexican border is 93% Latino and voted 65-32 for Hillary in 2016.  They voted Trump 52-47 in 2020.

Source for the 93% Latino stat:








						How Texas' Longtime Democratic And Heavily Latino County Flipped Red
					

One of the most unexpected election results happened in Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border. President Trump made inroads in the longtime Democratic stronghold and flipped one Latino county red.




					www.npr.org
				




Source for the voting results:








						Trump Won Heavily Latino Texas Border County He Lost to Clinton by Huge Margin | National Review
					

Trump won Zapata County 52-to-47 percent over Joe Biden. The president lost the county in 2016 by 32 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 65 percent.




					www.nationalreview.com


----------



## B S Magnet

Herdfan said:


> So why do you think that heavily Latino counties in TX are turning towards the GOP?




I don’t know, and I also don’t care. I know what Texas represents at its core.


----------



## Herdfan

B S Magnet said:


> I don’t know, and I also don’t care. I know what Texas represents at its core.




You should care, if for no other reason that even a small movement of Latino's to the GOP would be a huge impediment to Dems winning elections.


----------



## Yoused

B S Magnet said:


> ... _anyone_ unfortunately can work to maintain that structure of whiteness — even as doing so works materially against their own best interests ...



My guess is that the minorities see what happens when the white people get pissed off, so they work against their own best interests because they do not want to deal with white-ugly.



Herdfan said:


> So why do you think that heavily Latino counties in TX are turning towards the GOP?
> 
> For example, Zapata County on the Mexican border is 93% Latino and voted 65-32 for Hillary in 2016. They voted Trump 52-47 in 2020.



You know what I see there? In 2016, Ms Clinton was of the in-party; in 2020, Individual-ONE was of the in-party. There does not seem to be a major trend happening there. The Latinos are merely voting TPTB.


----------



## B S Magnet

Herdfan said:


> You should care, if for no other reason that even a small movement of Latino's to the GOP would be a huge impediment to Dems winning elections.




I _don’t_ care, because Texas is a place I consciously left during the 1990s, despite being, like, born and raised there (with up to seven generations of ancestors who were born and raised there).

Whether some niche demographic votes for one party there or another won’t improve my general safety; my ability to have a secure, over-the-table job; or access to equitable, informed health care. That’s why I got tf out and as far away from there as I could.

Further, joke’s on you: I’m not a democrat.


----------



## lizkat

Herdfan said:


> You should care, if for no other reason that even a small movement of Latino's to the GOP would be a huge impediment to Dems winning elections.




Uh...  Even John Cornyn has said that Texas is no longer reliably a red state.. which of course has led to new efforts to design stronger chances for redness back into the polling places in time for 2022 congressional races.  

Texas may not flip for a Democrat in the White House really soon now (didn't happen in 2020 even after a lot of excitement about the chances) but it's finally edging towards giving Rs the boot on control of state politics.  We'll have to stay tuned to see how Latinx choices affect near term outcomes.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Yoused said:


> My guess is that the minorities see what happens when the white people get pissed off, so they work against their own best interests because they do not want to deal with white-ugly.
> 
> You know what I see there? In 2016, Ms Clinton was of the in-party; in 2020, Individual-ONE was of the in-party. There does not seem to be a major trend happening there. The Latinos are merely voting TPTB.



What's being ignored is that Latinos as a group have voted more & more for republicans, but it wasn't just 2020.  It was in 2016 as well, as it's believed that some are attracted to candidates who present themselves as authoritative figures.  In each case though the numbers didn't exceed what the democratic candidate got.  The largest support was of course with Cuban Americans in Florida who consistently favor republican candidates, because of the issue of Cuba.  It isn't as if Texas was some outlier or signal of things to come in the last election, it's a trend that's been going on for awhile.  It's something that you will hear from those on the right when not worried about triggering their dwindling base, that they have made some gains in anyone that isn't conservative White.



> Chart: How U.S. Latinos Voted in the 2020 Presidential Election
> 
> 
> There’s a lot more to see when you look beyond Florida.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.as-coa.org


----------



## Yoused

B S Magnet said:


> ... joke’s on you: I’m not a democrat




It occurs to me, if we had viable middle/middle-left options, the Republiopaths would genuinely be terrified. They are able to maintain traction because, _eww, Democrats_, but if they were to get cheated out of the binary, the R party would fade to the strength-level of, say, the Natural Law Party.


----------



## B S Magnet

Yoused said:


> It occurs to me, if we had viable middle/middle-left options, the Republiopaths would genuinely be terrified. They are able to maintain traction because, _eww, Democrats_, but if they were to get cheated out of the binary, the R party would fade to the strength-level of, say, the Natural Law Party.




I mean, there’s also the way the presidential republic model of governance in U.S. politics sort of hard-bakes the inevitability of two major parties as the only applied model of governance. The moment one major party disintegrates, historically, another major party fills in its stead.


----------



## lizkat

Yoused said:


> It occurs to me, if we had viable middle/middle-left options, the Republiopaths would genuinely be terrified. They are able to maintain traction because, _eww, Democrats_, but if they were to get cheated out of the binary, the R party would fade to the strength-level of, say, the Natural Law Party.




Well this is after all why the Rs had no platform in their 2020 convention.  They focused on solely on Trump as the candidate because Trump! -- and because to do anything else might have split the party formally right then and there. 

They haven't resolved that problem yet, and to me it's just a treading-water movement that the RNC  reiterated support for him as nominal leader of the party in their winter meetings.   They're hell bent on retaining his base as part of an electorate they can count on, despite unlikelihood of that, and so are trapped in a policy-free Trump-mode unless and until it becomes clear that Trump no longer holds that much appeal even to his die-hard base.

It's not a great look and feel for the Rs heading into the House races at midterms,  and I would expect there to be an effort by Republicans NOT to nationalize those contests but to focus on state-by-state and district-by-district wish lists and pet peeves.   And hope Trump is still distracted by his ever more irrelevant focus on how to correct the fact that he lost the 2020 race.   Trump out on the hustings in 2022 sounds like an ill-advised dice roll.

Anyway one hopes that cartoon about Trump's incitement as the ignition source for the waiting bombs in his rally audience is a nightmare behind us as of the debacle of January 6th.   In a way he defused them in part by letting down the side after saying he'd be right there with them but not showing up as they invaded the Capitol building.  But it doesn't solve the problem of the RNC regarding how the hell to detach the party from the husk of Trumpism.


----------



## B S Magnet

lizkat said:


> Anyway one hopes that cartoon about Trump's incitement as the ignition source for the waiting bombs in his rally audience is a nightmare behind us as of the debacle of January 6th.   In a way he defused them in part by letting down the side after saying he'd be right there with them but not showing up as they invaded the Capitol building.  But it doesn't solve the problem of the RNC regarding how the hell to detach the party from the husk of Trumpism.




Even if they unhitch that guy, they still have a white supremacy problem.


----------



## Hrafn

B S Magnet said:


> Even if they unhitch that guy, they still have a white supremacy problem.



And both the massive stupidity and every conspiracy theory in the book problems.  And the anti-science stance. And the sheer hypocrisy.  And the general lying.  And the specific lying.  And the inability to see that they don't want to play fair, and that's ok.


----------



## B S Magnet

Hrafn said:


> And the inability to see that they don't want to play fair, and that's ok.




The trick is to not play with them. At all.


----------



## lizkat

B S Magnet said:


> Even if they unhitch that guy, they still have a white supremacy problem.




Without that problem they don't have enough votes any more to fend off the Dems in national contests.  So they need to ditch Trump and the white nationalists who came up strong after Trump put a few of their own into the White House as advisors.   But they also need to reach out to Hispanics and Asians and they've messed that up --while pandering to xenophobes--   by stereotyping Americans in those groups as foreigners and prone to spreading covid.

It does not look like an easy road to try to rebuild before 2022.  Particularly with idiots like Cawthorn and Jordan now carrying on about vaccination information programs as stealth preludes to taking your guns and Bibles.     Do they really think they're making hay for the midterms this way?   They're going to lose more suburbanites and women this way. 

I often think the Dems are terrible at messaging (or else obsessed with national messaging and forgetting to run for town council) but the Republicans in the House lately are terrible in stepping on any practical plans the RNC might have for rebuilding a conservative electorate for the future.


----------



## B S Magnet

lizkat said:


> Without that problem they don't have enough votes any more to fend off the Dems in national contests.




_Whiteness_ is what conservatives work doggedly to conserve.


----------



## Yoused

B S Magnet said:


> _Whiteness_ is what conservatives work doggedly to conserve.




It may be an issue that eludes clear resolve. The biggest problem I have is "conservatives". When I was in HS, we (of a certain clique) participated in a mock Democratic Convention, about 3 months before the actual one (before our state had even voted). I think my school was playing Oklahoma, and we were pledged to Fred Harris, but he was dropping out, so our votes were being transferred. By rule, at the time, the Harris camp could direct our votes on the first ballot, and I was not happy to be told to vote for that Carter guy. He was just too _conservative_.

FF to the '80s and we have a pool of scum telling us "'conservative' means this thing we tell you it means", oh, and "liberals are evil". Carter was by no means a "liberal" in the era – some of Reagan's worst fuck-ups were actually policies put in place before he shuffled into the WH. And, of course, by today's  standard, Reagan would be called a flaming liberal.

So this is a non-small thing that needs to be fixed. Rs are not even sorta  conservatives. They are some other thing, Alt-White or White-Wing or Tories or whatever, but we absolutely must not allow them to continue to well-poison and defy reason by calling themselves "conservatives"


----------



## B S Magnet

Yoused said:


> It may be an issue that eludes clear resolve. The biggest problem I have is "conservatives". When I was in HS, we (of a certain clique) participated in a mock Democratic Convention, about 3 months before the actual one (before our state had even voted). I think my school was playing Oklahoma, and we were pledged to Fred Harris, but he was dropping out, so our votes were being transferred. By rule, at the time, the Harris camp could direct our votes on the first ballot, and I was not happy to be told to vote for that Carter guy. He was just too _conservative_.
> 
> FF to the '80s and we have a pool of scum telling us "'conservative' means this thing we tell you it means", oh, and "liberals are evil". Carter was by no means a "liberal" in the era – some of Reagan's worst fuck-ups were actually policies put in place before he shuffled into the WH. And, of course, by today's  standard, Reagan would be called a flaming liberal.
> 
> So this is a non-small thing that needs to be fixed. Rs are not even sorta  conservatives. They are some other thing, Alt-White or White-Wing or Tories or whatever, but we absolutely must not allow them to continue to well-poison and defy reason by calling themselves "conservatives"




I stand by what I wrote.

I bear witness to people calling themselves “liberal” — the “white moderate” — and then pulling off hostile acts of whiteness stuff to my face — which is why the Loudon County news incident comes to me with no surprise in the slightest, or why folks who think of themselves as “oppositional to conservatives” still don’t want me to be able to use the toilet in the public realm.

In several ways, I see the “liberal” or “white moderate” as a much graver threat to my basic welfare than whiteness-defending “conservatives”: with the latter, there leaves no ambiguity with what they’re upholding to conserve, whilst with the former, they will attempt to engage with fascism, as if fascism can be somehow negotiated, debated, or reasoned with. They’ll “defend the fascist’s right to say” or do a fascism. No thanks.


----------



## User.45

B S Magnet said:


> I bear witness to people calling themselves “liberal” — the “white moderate” — and then pulling off hostile acts of whiteness stuff to my face — which is why the Loudon County news incident comes to me with no surprise in the slightest, or why folks who think of themselves as “oppositional to conservatives” still don’t want me to be able to use the toilet in the public realm.



I'm so frustrated by the toilet thing on many levels. 
1) Instead of people worrying about others' _equipment_ used to deposit waste, we should worry about people successfully using the _equipment designed to collect that waste_. The bar is so fucking low. 
2) Cis hetero people can get a hint of how gendering of bathrooms can get unnecessarily stressful when you are taking out your small opposite sex kid without your partner... 
3) Male bathrooms without diaper changing stations are still the norm. Men. Do. Change. Diapers. 

(Most of y'all know my opinion on the US political spectrum).


----------



## B S Magnet

P_X said:


> I'm so frustrated by the toilet thing on many levels.
> 1) Instead of people worrying about others' _equipment_ used to deposit waste, we should worry about people successfully using the _equipment designed to collect that waste_. The bar is so fucking low.




Spoiler: _it’s not about the toilet.

It’s about having control and domain over our bodies in the private sphere and control and domain over our presence/participation in the public sphere._

If they had their druthers, they would eagerly and completely erase us from existence.


----------



## SuperMatt

B S Magnet said:


> I stand by what I wrote.
> 
> I bear witness to people calling themselves “liberal” — the “white moderate” — and then pulling off hostile acts of whiteness stuff to my face — which is why the Loudon County news incident comes to me with no surprise in the slightest, or why folks who think of themselves as “oppositional to conservatives” still don’t want me to be able to use the toilet in the public realm.
> 
> In several ways, I see the “liberal” or “white moderate” as a much graver threat to my basic welfare than whiteness-defending “conservatives”: with the latter, there leaves no ambiguity with what they’re upholding to conserve, whilst with the former, they will attempt to engage with fascism, as if fascism can be somehow negotiated, debated, or reasoned with. They’ll “defend the fascist’s right to say” or do a fascism. No thanks.



I don’t doubt that a lot of “moderates” and “liberals” intentionally uphold racist systems. Even on the MR forums, we had people who loudly insisted they were “independent” but somehow they always agreed with everything Trump did. However, I’m not sure that is the situation in Loudoun.

Loudoun county has always been a very conservative area, at least by reputation among us DC residents. The region’s voting habits haven’t changed because the largely white, conservative residents became “woke” - it’s because a lot of non-white people moved to Loudoun as DC housing prices kept climbing.

In 2000, Loudoun went 56% for Bush and 40% for Gore. By 2008, it went 53% Obama and 45% McCain.

In 2000, it was 169,000 people and 82% white. In 2010, 312,000 people and 69% white, and 2019, 413,000 people and 67% white, but if you exclude Latinos, about 55% white.

That is a massive shift, and the conservative whites are not happy about losing their dominance, which IMHO is the reason you see insane outbursts at school board meetings.

As for the “liberals” they quoted in the newspaper article... As long-time white Loudoun residents whining about CRT, I promise you they aren’t liberal and never were. I especially noted the one lady who claimed to be liberal because she voted for Clinton… think about that - it means she voted against Obama, or she would have mentioned it. They are full of  just like the fake moderates on MR.


----------



## B S Magnet

SuperMatt said:


> I don’t doubt that a lot of “moderates” and “liberals” intentionally uphold racist systems. Even on the MR forums, we had people who loudly insisted they were “independent” but somehow they always agreed with everything Trump did. However, I’m not sure that is the situation in Loudoun.




I cite Loudon in the context of it being recently in the news.

But whether it’s Loudon County or Los Angeles or _Quillette_ or Hillary Clinton, I run across no dearth of cis people whose entire take is the invective: “I’m a liberal, a Democrat, but this transgenders _[sic]_ thing is just one extreme too far for me… if your _[sic]_ born with mAlE pLuMbInG you use the mens room… these transgenders _[sic]_ are erasing females _[sic]_ and confusing young girls into becoming men… and they want us normal people to indulge in their delusional fantasy and force us into cOmPeLlEd SpEeCh… and now, because Biden supports this delusion I’m never voting ‘D’ ever again…”

I have fielded and listened to every single permutation of these takes over the past thirty years. They are always predictable, always intellectually lazy by choice, always can be spotted from ten miles away, and when their softer takes get dismissed by their more enlightened, more compassionate peers, they always double-down by leaning hard into more overtly fascist rhetoric.

Loudon is but one example, but what social media and major newspapers of record see in that now is, chapter and verse, the same ugly performance which played out at the Anoka school board PTA meeting in November 1998, in Minnesota, months after the district hired a music teacher who was trans: the teacher was forced out of her job before she could even begin because _whiteness _and reactionary white cis people in the audience who angrily compared her existence to (in the deepest of historical ironies ever) “Hitler’s Germany”.


----------



## SuperMatt

B S Magnet said:


> I cite Loudon in the context of it being recently in the news.
> 
> But whether it’s Loudon County or Los Angeles or _Quillette_ or Hillary Clinton, I run across no dearth of cis people whose entire take is the invective: “I’m a liberal, a Democrat, but this transgenders _[sic]_ thing is just one extreme too far for me… if your _[sic]_ born with mAlE pLuMbInG you use the mens room… these transgenders _[sic]_ are erasing females _[sic]_ and confusing young girls into becoming men… and they want us normal people to indulge in their delusional fantasy and force us into cOmPeLlEd SpEeCh… and now, because Biden supports this delusion I’m never voting ‘D’ ever again…”
> 
> I have fielded and listened to every single permutation of these takes over the past thirty years. They are always predictable, always intellectually lazy by choice, always can be spotted from ten miles away, and when their softer takes get dismissed by their more enlightened, more compassionate peers, they always double-down by leaning hard into more overtly fascist rhetoric.
> 
> Loudon is but one example, but what social media and major newspapers of record see in that now is, chapter and verse, the same ugly performance which played out at the Anoka school board PTA meeting in November 1998, in Minnesota, when the district hired a music teacher who was trans: the teacher was forced out of her job before she could even begin because _whiteness _and reactionary white cis people in the audience who angrily compared her existence to (in the deepest of historical ironies ever) “Hitler’s Germany”.



We can hope that, as with gay marriage, that opinions on this change rapidly and that anti-trans bigots become the marginalized ones.


----------



## User.45

B S Magnet said:


> Spoiler: _it’s not about the toilet.
> 
> It’s about having control and domain over our bodies in the private sphere and control and domain over our presence/participation in the public sphere._
> 
> If they had their druthers, they would eagerly and completely erase us from existence.



 You shouldn't think I'm unaware. The way I approach problems is by offering practical solutions, so those who use problems as an excuse for their bigotry are to either forced decide whether to try  (fake) solving the issue, or or confess on their bigotry.


----------



## B S Magnet

SuperMatt said:


> We can hope that, as with gay marriage, that opinions on this change rapidly and that anti-trans bigots become the marginalized ones.




I’ve heard that one for most of the last, idk, 22 years — including from the white cis gay community, who told us to “wait our turn”.

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to live long enough to see “anti-trans bigots become the marginalized ones”.



P_X said:


> You shouldn't think I'm unaware. The way I approach problems is by offering practical solutions, so those who use problems as an excuse for their bigotry are to either forced decide whether to try (fake) solving the issue, or or confess on their bigotry.




My point isn’t to determine whether you or anyone else here is unaware.

My point is nothing about this conversation is novel for someone like me. And when it’s the same conversation, year in and decade out, we get tired. Very tired.


----------



## Huntn

Herdfan said:


> So why do you think that heavily Latino counties in TX are turning towards the GOP?
> 
> For example, Zapata County on the Mexican border is 93% Latino and voted 65-32 for Hillary in 2016.  They voted Trump 52-47 in 2020.
> 
> Source for the 93% Latino stat:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> How Texas' Longtime Democratic And Heavily Latino County Flipped Red
> 
> 
> One of the most unexpected election results happened in Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border. President Trump made inroads in the longtime Democratic stronghold and flipped one Latino county red.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.npr.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Source for the voting results:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Trump Won Heavily Latino Texas Border County He Lost to Clinton by Huge Margin | National Review
> 
> 
> Trump won Zapata County 52-to-47 percent over Joe Biden. The president lost the county in 2016 by 32 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 65 percent.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nationalreview.com



Stupidity, ignorance, and self serving is not limited to whites?   I’d ask how Trump faired with Hispanics overall in Texas, and Nationally?

Trump appeal has to include perceptions of economic benefit. As a racist (Trump), I really can’t imagine what appeal he could have to any minority communities other than possibly an economic benefit while putting zero importsnce on any other factor, such as electing a crook who would turn us into a fascist state in a heartbeat if that’s what it takes to hold power...and if we let him.

I’ve got a Son, an Hispanic brother in law and nephew, plus a white trailer trash woman who married into the family who are Trump fans.

For the woman, she’s racist, considering her background it’s no surprise. In her early life, she grew up poor and wanted to know why she did not qualify for a free apartment when she was an unwed mother, but begrudged seeing a black family who appeared more prosperous than herself. They must have gotten more welfare (her perspective). Trump is right down her Confederate flag waving alley.

The Hispanic brother in-law makes a high income in the oil industry. Trump- pro oill. The Hispanic nephew is an all around loser, my impression somewhere between anti-govt and Anarchist. He grew up in an upper middle class household. Of note, most of my wife’s immediate side of the family (her mother is white, father Hispanic) are venimently anti-Trump, however her cousins (mostly white with some Indian blood) up by Dallas are Trumpettes. 

My Son is military and part of the Cult of Gun, so Trump seems to be a natural. Of note, most US politicians are pro-military and I‘m a veteran, but as you know I regard Trump as one sick, self serving, mental, incompetent mother fucker who just serves himself.

Trump was for liberal issues for decades, including voting for Democrats. With zero foundation other than self benefit, he is for your issues, until some better opportunity comes along. That is the nature of being a sociopath.  He votes for where he senses advantage and he was quite able to see where he could pick up followers, racists, anarchists, anti-government, polluting industries. In a nutshell, he sensed The Right in this country was ripe for plucking.  And the country is there for him to consume if we let him.


----------



## User.45

Huntn said:


> Stupidity, ignorance, and self serving is not limited to whites?   I’d ask how Trump faired with Hispanics overall in Texas, and Nationally?



This reminds me of someone mentioning  here recently how Trump did "well" with Blacks missing only 85-90% of Black vote.


----------



## SuperMatt

P_X said:


> This reminds me of someone mentioning  here recently how Trump did "well" with Blacks missing only 85-90% of Black vote.



If you set the bar low enough, anybody can be a high jumper.


----------



## Herdfan

B S Magnet said:


> Loudon is but one example, but what social media and major newspapers of record see in that now is, chapter and verse, the same ugly performance which played out at the Anoka school board PTA meeting in November 1998, in Minnesota, months after the district hired a music teacher who was trans: the teacher was forced out of her job before she could even begin because _whiteness _and reactionary white cis people in the audience who angrily compared her existence to (in the deepest of historical ironies ever) “Hitler’s Germany”.




Perhaps you can help me here, but what does being white have to do with being trans.  You always blame white cis people.  Just trying to understand what being white has to do with it?

Is there a reason black/brown cis people can't be against transgenders?


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> Perhaps you can help me here, but what does being white have to do with being trans.  You always blame white cis people.  Just trying to understand what being white has to do with it?
> 
> Is there a reason black/brown cis people can't be against transgenders?



I believe @B S Magnet may have already addressed this in a post in another thread:









						So what makes me a racist/white supremacist?
					

But unlike some posters here, at least by their screen name here, we (you and I plus Jay, Huntn, Eric, lizkat and a few more) have been going at each other for years. So you can get away with more than someone who has seen fewer than a handful of my posts.  Give me a real situation and we can...




					talkedabout.com


----------



## Herdfan

SuperMatt said:


> I believe @B S Magnet may have already addressed this in a post in another thread:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So what makes me a racist/white supremacist?
> 
> 
> But unlike some posters here, at least by their screen name here, we (you and I plus Jay, Huntn, Eric, lizkat and a few more) have been going at each other for years. So you can get away with more than someone who has seen fewer than a handful of my posts.  Give me a real situation and we can...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> talkedabout.com




Perhaps, but this poll suggests something different:

Democrats’ views also differ by race and ethnicity. Some 55% of black Democrats and 41% of Hispanic Democrats say a person’s gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth, a view shared by just 24% of white Democrats.  - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-ta...nder-issues-divide-republicans-and-democrats/

They didn't break out Republican Black or Hispanic respondents.

Wikipedia says Pew is non-partisan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pew_Research_Center


----------



## Yoused

Herdfan said:


> Perhaps you can help me here, but what does being white have to do with being trans. You always blame white cis people. Just trying to understand what being white has to do with it?




To put it simply, white people control the dialog. And in many cases, White people are controlling the dialog (e.g., Murdoch). Blacks are a small minority, hispanics a little less of one (larger fraction), but as of right now, white folks have their hands on the levers of culture, others not so much.


----------



## B S Magnet

Herdfan said:


> Perhaps, but this poll suggests something different:
> 
> Democrats’ views also differ by race and ethnicity. Some 55% of black Democrats and 41% of Hispanic Democrats say a person’s gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth, a view shared by just 24% of white Democrats.  - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-ta...nder-issues-divide-republicans-and-democrats/
> 
> They didn't break out Republican Black or Hispanic respondents.
> 
> Wikipedia says Pew is non-partisan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pew_Research_Center




Watching you do mental acrobatics to avoid seeing what’s staring you right square in the face is both expected and boring.



Herdfan said:


> Is there a reason black/brown cis people can't be against transgenders?




STOP SAYING “TRANSGENDERS”. STOP IT.

_Transgender_ is an adjective, not a noun, not an object.

You are welcome to say “trans people”.


----------



## User.45

B S Magnet said:


> My point isn’t to determine whether you or anyone else here is unaware.
> 
> My point is nothing about this conversation is novel for someone like me. And when it’s the same conversation, year in and decade out, we get tired. Very tired.



Sure we can sum it all up in like 5 bullet points. We can still express solidarity, willingness to do our part, vent frustrations etc. 
Or poke Pepe...


----------



## User.168

.


----------



## B S Magnet

theSeb said:


> The major reason for this in Texas was because many Latino people live hand to mouth and believed that a Trump led government would quicken the reopening of businesses, so people could get their badly needed regular income again. The other reasons are clearly stated in the npr link that you provided.
> 
> "Joe Gutierrez ranches and owns an oil field construction company in town."
> 
> That pretty much sums it up. Some of your comments on this sort of stuff has always struck me as naive. Just because it's right on the border with Mexico it does not mean that the Latino community living there are ready to welcome Mexican refugees with open arms. Clearly this particular county is of full of Latinos that have established themselves and are likely to have lived there for multi-generations by now. I am quite sure that Joe did not recently jump over the wall along with his cattle, tools and construction company vehicles. I am also quite sure that Joe employs undocumented Mexican refugees for a pittance whilst he chews tobacco, just like a good Republican should, because I have seen this behaviour first hand in the other parts of the US within the Eastern European immigrant community.
> 
> It will probably surprise you to learn that immigrants can be racist against other people from their own countries. That's just humanity and that "fuck you, the country is full, I got mine already" attitude isn't reserved for US born whites only.




Spoiler alert (mostly for Herdfan, who isn’t grapsing the basic concept of whiteness):

Some Latine folks are white. Some Latine folks are Black. And some Latine folks are brown, Indigenous, or a mix of _all_ these. Colourism — another flavour of racism — within the Latine world is alive and pretty rampant, and shares the same roots of settler-colonialism as the choking vines of racism in the U.S. and Canada.

Which is why, “My family came from from Honduras,” doesn’t describe much beyond, well, the geography of your immediate ancestors. You’re comfortable enough in your whiteness to describe yourself as a “redneck” (which connotes far more beyond a congenital inability to tan under heavy sunlight) — just as I can (and do) experience white privilege despite being mixed and my family name coming directly from pre-colonized Angola.


----------



## User.45

B S Magnet said:


> Spoiler alert (mostly for Herdfan, who isn’t grapsing the basic concept of whiteness):
> 
> Some Latine folks are white. Some Latine folks are Black. And some Latine folks are brown, Indigenous, or a mix of _all_ these. Colourism — another flavour of racism — within the Latine world is alive and pretty rampant, and shares the same roots of settler-colonialism as the choking vines of racism in the U.S. and Canada.
> 
> Which is why, “My family came from from Honduras,” doesn’t describe much beyond, well, the geography of your immediate ancestors. You’re comfortable enough in your whiteness to describe yourself as a “redneck” (which connotes far more beyond a congenital inability to tan under heavy sunlight) — just as I can (and do) experience white privilege despite being mixed and my family name coming directly from pre-colonized Angola.




Reminded me of this paper...just because some neonazis used Africa to justify their homophobia (they usually mean it in a way that even such low people like Africans hate LGBTQ+ folks...if they actually read...).


			https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/nicep/documents/working-papers/2020/nicep-2020-04.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2G5D_5zEBHDBm8ixUs7lCP-9ms5Vnw2fJJFEeO2vXM27a8YjyfK_gLQeg


----------



## B S Magnet

P_X said:


> Reminded me of this paper...just because some neonazis used Africa to justify their homophobia (they usually mean it in a way that even such low people like Africans hate LGBTQ+ folks...if they actually read...).
> 
> 
> https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/nicep/documents/working-papers/2020/nicep-2020-04.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2G5D_5zEBHDBm8ixUs7lCP-9ms5Vnw2fJJFEeO2vXM27a8YjyfK_gLQeg




Daaaaaaaamn someone finally broke out the geospatial data to assist on pinpointing the locus and historical origin of institutional homophobia in colonized parts of Africa. I love this research already. Thanks for the link.


----------



## User.45

B S Magnet said:


> Daaaaaaaamn someone finally broke out the geospatial data to assist on pinpointing the locus and historical origin of institutional homophobia in colonized parts of Africa. I love this research already. Thanks for the link.



Definitely changes the narrative which has been fubar. The prevalence of androgynous deities like Obatalá really hints to a much more complex history outsiders assume.


----------



## B S Magnet

P_X said:


> Definitely changes the narrative which has been fubar. The prevalence of androgynous deities like Obatalá really hints to a much more complex history outsiders assume.




The relationship between colonialism and institutional homophobia/transphobia (e.g., “buggery” and “cross-dressing” laws) is well-established in queer studies. What I find doubly intriguing here, however, is not only the due diligence paid to plot those causative origins spatially and temporally, but also how much of this originated from _pre-_nation-state colonialism — namely, the religious-institutional complex from those colonizing kingdoms-cum-nations which permitted the missions to “convert” Indigenous communities which never needed “conversion”.

Everything about the praxis of induced conversion makes me physically ill.

It also brings into better resolution the context of that religious-institutional complex and nation-state building with the really screwed-up, violent legacy of the residential school system finally (finally) being condemned here by _white people_ who had downplayed it for decades. I guess it really _was_ the literal producing of (hundreds of) dead Native children’s bodies turning up suddenly with radar-penetrating tech which finally jolted their conscience awake.


----------



## JayMysteri0

For anyone from the CRT still unsure about the fragility of those old White men in office so concerned about what Texas' school children are taught...

I present...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1417298474761134087/



> Texas Senate votes to nix teaching requirement calling white supremacy ‘morally wrong’
> 
> 
> The Texas state Senate has passed legislation that would repeal requirements to teach the history of white supremacy and the ways “in which it is morally wrong,” among other lessons pertaining to p…
> 
> 
> 
> 
> thehill.com





> The Texas state Senate has passed legislation that would repeal requirements to teach the history of white supremacy and the ways “in which it is morally wrong,” among other lessons pertaining to prominent people of color and women.
> 
> The Republican-led upper chamber passed the measure, known as Senate Bill 3, in a 18-4 vote on Friday.
> 
> The legislation now awaits consideration in the House, also led by Republicans, where Democratic lawmakers left earlier this month to deny their colleagues on the other side of the aisle the quorum necessary for a special legislative session in an effort to block a sweeping elections bill.
> 
> The bill recently passed by the upper chamber seeks to repeal certain teaching requirements that were included in legislation passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in June.
> 
> The law was praised by Abbott and other proponents as an attack on critical race theory, though the legislation doesn’t outright name the concept, which asserts that racism is embedded in the country’s institutions.
> 
> However, among other provisions laid out in that bill, House Bill 3979, was a section requiring students be equipped with the understanding of “historical documents related to the civic accomplishments of marginalized populations.”
> 
> That section included “the Chicano movement,” “women's suffrage and equal rights,” “the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong,” Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech,  “the history and importance of the women's suffrage movement” and “the works of Susan B. Anthony,” among other requirements.
> 
> But none of those requirements are mentioned in the new bill passed by the Senate last week, which would still keep in place previous language outlining how race can be discussed in classrooms but would repeal a chunk of the section in question from House Bill 3979.
> 
> It instead includes more vague provisions requiring students learn about “the history and importance of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964," as well as the “Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”
> 
> It would also take out a portion of the earlier bill requiring students be taught “about the writings of and about the founding fathers and mothers and other founding persons of the United States,” which included the writings of women like Sally Hemings and Ona Judge, with the new bill requiring instruction cover “the writings of the founding fathers of the United States.”




We see you Texas.

We see you.


----------



## Thomas Veil

Looks like the racist politicians in Texas are applying the Fox News model to teaching. 

“Racism is evil.”

“And now, for the opposing perspective…”


----------



## JayMysteri0

Know what Texas has also?

Reporters.  Journalists.

They aren't liked in Texas also, by politicians doing shit they don't want to explain clearly.  For some reason.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1419015215732101123/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1418989778033422338/
Get ready for an old forum tactic flashback
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1418990220129837059/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1419006652561432581/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1419026094032887817/


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Know what Texas has also?
> 
> Reporters.  Journalists.
> 
> They aren't liked in Texas also, by politicians doing shit they don't want to explain clearly.  For some reason.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1419015215732101123/
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1418989778033422338/
> Get ready for an old forum tactic flashback
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1418990220129837059/
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1419006652561432581/
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1419026094032887817/



I clicked on Briscoe Cain’s Twitter feed… what a piece of work he is. With people like him in charge, I’m not surprised their power went out when a bit of snow fell... I’m surprised they have an electric grid at all.



			https://twitter.com/BriscoeCain/status/1418954567287508999
		




			https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1418545924524187648


----------



## thekev

JayMysteri0 said:


> For anyone from the CRT still unsure about the fragility of those old White men in office so concerned about what Texas' school children are taught...
> 
> I present...
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1417298474761134087/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> We see you Texas.
> 
> We see you.




Does actually teaching that they're "morally wrong" really teach anything though? This is the racism equivalent to saying "drugs are bad". The KKK's hatred extends to some degree beyond Black people. They hate anyone who isn't White (using a much narrower definition than the census one) and Protestant. It might be better to expose some of the idiotic reasoning and show where it really falls apart (edit: ) before kids buy into it to the point where they're willing to rationalize everything to fit their world view. If kids recognize the idiocy for what it is early on, we might see less of a racists' renaissance next time a Republican takes the Oval Office.


----------



## B S Magnet

SuperMatt said:


> I clicked on Briscoe Cain’s Twitter feed… what a piece of work he is. With people like him in charge, I’m not surprised their power went out when a bit of snow fell... I’m surprised they have an electric grid at all.
> 
> 
> 
> https://twitter.com/BriscoeCain/status/1418954567287508999
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1418545924524187648




Thank you for posting the version of Twitter links which show whose account from which the links are originating. I don’t click on the stripped /i/web/status/ ones, because their URLs have no context at all.


----------



## User.191

Thomas Veil said:


> How about Ohio?
> 
> It’s just Texas without the cattle.



‘Huh… We have Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia bordering us. We got you beys beat!

Sad to think we were once a solid Union state that welcomed the slaves… Fucking GOP has cheated their way into controlling the entire place now.


----------



## JayMysteri0

thekev said:


> Does actually teaching that they're "morally wrong" really teach anything though? This is the racism equivalent to saying "drugs are bad". The KKK's hatred extends to some degree beyond Black people. They hate anyone who isn't White (using a much narrower definition than the census one) and Protestant. It might be better to expose some of the idiotic reasoning and show where it really falls apart (edit before kids buy into it to the point where they're willing to rationalize everything to fit their world view. If kids recognize the idiocy for what it is early on, we might see less of a racists' renaissance next time a Republican takes the Oval Office.



You don't 'teach' anyone they are morally wrong.  It's like trying to teach someone they are a hateful idiot.  That only truly happens with self discovery.

The point is this thing, like other monuments to the confederates were fetish items put up decades AFTER what they supposedly commemorate.  What you can teach though, is WHY this monument to a person is something so repulsive to a majority of the country.  Why it's embraced by a small minority who envision such things, who only publicly talk about a fantasy version of that time that including ladies & gentlemen, and unpaid lifetime servants who were happy for some reason.

It isn't about the KKK, it's about these abominations placed from 50's, 60's & beyond as a symbol & a retcon of slavery & Jim Crow, that can only stand when you can limit what's known about their true history & intention.  It's about WHY these monuments exist, why they were allowed to be put, why a small dwindling group wanted them put up.  Most importantly why it was wrong to put them up in the first place.  There's an awful lot people who don't know the story of the person that statue was erected for, if a current crop of pandering republicans had their way it's something that no one would learn unless by accident.


----------



## JayMysteri0




----------



## B S Magnet

JayMysteri0 said:


>




Texas public education has been this way for the entire time there has been a Texas public education system. (And I say this definitively as someone who was schooled through three of their ISDs.)


----------



## lizkat

Republican legislators in Texas these days are going out of their way to provide a model for any state hellbent on ignoring the US Constitution's stipulations as to ...  just about everything.   A piece in the Washington Post dissected what's in Texas SB 8, which is about regulation of abortion, but which goes farther than making law about that, also delving way into how that law can be enforced.  It's a nightmarish agglomeration of any American's worst fears about a state not only shrugging over but actually blueprinting vigilante justice,  and it's not just Democrats or women seeking access to abortion who should be concerned.   This is a transferable blueprint and could just as easily pertain to any law now enforced by the state and subject to the courts.



			https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/19/texas-sb8-abortion-lawsuits/
		


Bolding is mine in the quotes below.



> S.B. 8 is radically different. Every other state charged government officials with enforcing the penalties for their attempted abortion bans; courts ensured those bans never took effect by prohibiting the defendant officials from enforcing them. So the Texas legislature has taken a different tack: *S.B. 8 authorizes “any person” other than the government to sue someone who provides an abortion after six weeks, helps someone obtain an abortion after six weeks or “intends” to do these things. (Abortion patients themselves cannot be sued.) *






> This means that any antiabortion activist, ex-boyfriend, disapproving neighbor or random stranger can sue. And, to incentivize a flood of lawsuits, S.B. 8 offers up a bounty of _at least_ $10,000 per violation proven, payable by the abortion provider or assister to the person who sued them.






> But S.B. 8’s malice does not stop there. Once abortion providers and supporters are dragged into state courts, S.B. 8 then changes the courthouse rules to make these lawsuits as costly and burdensome as possible. For instance, S.B. 8 allows suits to be brought in any of Texas’s 254 counties and bars the courts from transferring the case to a more appropriate location.






> *The law also allows abortion providers to be sued multiple times over a single abortion, while prohibiting them from defending on the ground that another court already found in their favor.*






> Abortion providers will be forced either to stop providing care after six weeks — when approximately 85 percent of Texas abortions occur today — or else risk ruinous penalties. *Abortion patients will be isolated from loved ones, abortion funds, counselors, clergy and others to whom they would normally turn for advice and financial and logistical support, for fear that these allies might be sued as “aiders or abettors.”* Countless Texans will suffer the pains and risks of forced pregnancy.




Naturally this is meant to clog up the courts...

Welp.  Guess we stay tuned to see how US constitutional scholars figure to get this monster back in a box.


----------



## B S Magnet

lizkat said:


> Republican legislators in Texas these days are going out of their way to provide a model for any state hellbent on ignoring the US Constitution's stipulations as to ...  just about everything.   A piece in the Washington Post dissected what's in Texas SB 8, which is about regulation of abortion, but which goes farther than making law about that, also delving way into how that law can be enforced.  It's a nightmarish agglomeration of any American's worst fears about a state not only shrugging over but actually blueprinting vigilante justice,  and it's not just Democrats or women seeking access to abortion who should be concerned.




tl;dr: Red caps are the new brown shirts.


----------



## lizkat

B S Magnet said:


> tl;dr: Red caps are the new brown shirts.




Encouragement of vigilante efforts does seem redolent of the era when the USSR's satellite state officials and agents of the KGB had installed block-by-block "minders" of conversations among ordinary citizens.


----------



## B S Magnet

lizkat said:


> Encouragement of vigilante efforts does seem redolent of the era when the USSR's satellite state officials and agents of the KGB had installed block-by-block "minders" of conversations among ordinary citizens.




The history of minders in the Soviet Union borrow heavily from both the SA in 1920s and early 1930s Germany and also 1940–50s Red Scare America under the Hoover FBI.


----------



## lizkat

Meanwhile let's not just let Texas skate on the immediate purpose of their SB 8 law...   where are the ancillary laws to help shore up care for women raising the children bound to be one outcome of a practically total ban on abortion?

Keep in mind the evident tendency of the Republican Party all these years on that score.


----------



## B S Magnet

lizkat said:


> where are the ancillary laws to help shore up care for women raising the children bound to be one outcome of a practically total ban on abortion?




There have never been ancillary state laws in Texas to materially support women’s welfare, full-stop.

I say this as a former clinic defender for Houston’s PP clinics.


----------



## Joe

Keep people ignorant and stupid is what the school districts here are aiming for.

I had an acquaintance post about hating California and all the people moving to Texas. I asked her if she’s ever been to California because most of the people that post anti California stuff have never been.  She said she’s never been lol. It’s part of the curriculum here to teach people to hate California. The funniest stuff is when someone posts how California is a shithole from their trailer park in the middle of nowhere Texas


----------



## JayMysteri0

THIS MF'er

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1420891330192961540/

Sit the F' down.  Preferably in Cancun where you were just as useful.


----------



## thekev

JayMysteri0 said:


> THIS MF'er
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1420891330192961540/
> 
> Sit the F' down.  Preferably in Cancun where you were just as useful.




Cruz is really fucking annoying. The entire rant is a waste of time and ignores that this stuff is not absolute. As I recall, clinical trials suggested that rates of infection among vaccinated individuals were roughly 95% lower than those among  unvaccinated people within the same cohort. This isn't the same as it being over.


----------



## Huntn

JayMysteri0 said:


> THIS MF'er
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1420891330192961540/
> 
> Sit the F' down.  Preferably in Cancun where you were just as useful.



When a mainstream party elects these kind of vile, dysfunctional, anti democratic POSs to Congress, that’s when I say we, the country are likely fucked. We need to be hitting on all cylinders, not half of us trying to limp backwards.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Now we are specifically targeting with some truly petty spiteful shit, demonstrating who the elites & who isn't now.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421366619050233866/


> When Tonya Galvan spent three months in a Houston jail this year, she said she felt hopeless.
> 
> "I'm thinking about my grandkids. Like, this is not where I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be out to be able to help with my family, my grandchildren," Galvan said.
> 
> When she was charged with assault in a family dispute and held on $15,000 bond, she couldn't afford to get out. When she learned about the nonprofit organization the Bail Project and they put up the money for her, Galvan was floored.
> 
> "They don't know me from Adam, but they're willing to put the faith in me enough to do this," Galvan said.
> 
> Now Texas lawmakers are considering a measure to limit charitable bail funds by restricting who they're allowed to help. That means, in the future, the Bail Project may not be able to help someone in Galvan's shoes. Or someone like Hervis Rogers, the Houston voter accused of voting illegally.
> 
> This month, at a hearing at the Texas Capitol, State Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican, said the goal of the legislation they're working on is to keep habitual and violent offenders in jail.
> 
> "This is not going to lead to mass incarceration," Huffman said. "Instead, it should keep those who need to be in jail, in jail, so that our citizens can go about their everyday activities on the streets of Texas."





> But State Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat, said the bill would likely keep others in jail, too, like Rogers. During the 2020 presidential primary, Rogers stayed in line past midnight, waiting to vote at Texas Southern University. He is now facing charges of voting illegally. Rogers was still on parole when he voted.
> 
> "Under this bill, because he has felony convictions in his past, a charitable bail organization couldn't help Mr. Rogers," Moody said. "He didn't commit a crime of violence here. He unknowingly voted.
> 
> State Attorney General Ken Paxton's office is prosecuting the voting case and held Rogers on $100,000 bond. Paxton himself is currently out on $35,000 bond while awaiting trial on securities fraud charges.
> 
> Rogers's attorney, Andre Segura with the ACLU of Texas, said Rogers didn't have the money to get out of jail.
> 
> "He still spent three nights in jail," Segura said, "but if it weren't for charitable funds, he could have spent a long time there."
> 
> Segura has asked Rogers not to give interviews yet because of the complexities in his case.





> The Bail Project's CEO, Robin Steinberg, said when she heard about Rogers's case, they immediately stepped in.
> 
> "I would argue that any kind of cash bail would be outrageous in Mr. Rogers's situation," Steinberg said. "But the idea that somebody would set $100,000 bail was literally obscene."
> 
> In fact, Steinberg argued the measure at the state legislature is about punishment, not public safety.
> 
> "It's an example of how cash bail can criminalize poverty," Steinberg said.
> 
> Steinberg also pointed out the proposed limitations wouldn't apply to the for-profit bail bond industry. That means a low-income person charged with a violent offense couldn't go to a charitable organization to bail them out, but they could still go to a bail bondsman.
> 
> As for Tonya Galvan, the woman helped by the Bail Project, she's hoping others will get the same chance she got.
> 
> "These people give you the opportunity of knowing — hey, you do have another chance. But you also have to put in the work too," Galvan said.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Now we are specifically targeting with some truly petty spiteful shit, demonstrating who the elites & who isn't now.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421366619050233866/



A state that got smacked down by a federal judge for their unfair bail practices is now doubling down on them. F Texas.









						A Judge Halted This ‘Unconstitutional’ Cash Bail System. The Status Quo Fought Back.
					

Harris County, Texas, brought on a powerhouse conservative attorney to defend its money-based detention system before a federal appeals court.




					www.huffpost.com


----------



## Huntn

JayMysteri0 said:


> Now we are specifically targeting with some truly petty spiteful shit, demonstrating who the elites & who isn't now.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1421366619050233866/



These people have no business being in elected office and sadly they are reflective of the chunk of the electorate that put them into power. The courts already have the power to hold without bail and make those judgements.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Huntn said:


> These people have no business being in elected office and sadly they are reflective of the chunk of the electorate the put them into power. The courts already have the power to hold without bail and make those judgements.



At this point for SOME republicans like in Texas, it's about punching down, and being proud being seen punching down.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Didn't seem right that the Florida thread was being kept active due to gov deathantics, so here's Texas vying for your attention.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1423577598790193155/



https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1423578356948348931/

Uh, wha?

How is it the group that would foster a lack of trust in gov't, continually demonstrate why there should be a lack of trust?


----------



## Alli

JayMysteri0 said:


> How is it the group that would foster a lack of trust in gov't, continually demonstrate why there should be a lack of trust?



Lice are so much more dangerous than Covid! Besides, anyone can get Covid and lice are far more biased.


----------



## Huntn

I was walking into the store with my mask on, I assume a father and child were walking out maskless. The child asked the father about masks, and was told ”_that’s such a scam_.”


----------



## SuperMatt

Huntn said:


> I was walking into the store with my mask on, I assume a father and child were walking out maskless. The child asked the father about masks, and was told ”_that’s such a scam_.”



Just in case stupidity didn’t pass to the child through his genes, he’s making sure the next generation of his family will be dumb.


----------



## lizkat

TX governor Abbott, wow....    so far won't reverse his bans on mandated masks or vaccination, but meanwhile now in the face of a surge in covid infections, urges hospitals to delay elective surgical procedures and also tries to import workers from out of state to help staff covid treatment centers...  [  meanwhile neighboring Arkansas for instance is nearly out of ICU beds due to a covid spike and is strained for medical resources ]









						Texas Gov. Abbott asks hospitals to delay elective procedures as COVID cases surge
					

Abbott has opposed measures that would mitigate the virus' spread, such as vaccine and mask mandates.




					www.axios.com


----------



## Alli

lizkat said:


> TX governor Abbott, wow....    so far won't reverse his bans on mandated masks or vaccination, but meanwhile now in the face of a surge in covid infections, urges hospitals to delay elective surgical procedures and also tries to import workers from out of state to help staff covid treatment centers...  [  meanwhile neighboring Arkansas for instance is nearly out of ICU beds due to a covid spike and is strained for medical resources ]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Abbott asks hospitals to delay elective procedures as COVID cases surge
> 
> 
> Abbott has opposed measures that would mitigate the virus' spread, such as vaccine and mask mandates.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.axios.com



The other part that kills me is how they’re asking for help from medical people. I think nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, etc. should ban together and agree to come help if Abbott will agree to enforcing masking in schools.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Alli said:


> The other part that kills me is how they’re asking for help from medical people. I think nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, etc. should ban together and agree to come help if Abbott will agree to enforcing masking in schools.



I think Desantis & Abbot have demonstrated that they believe the responsibility for anything Covid falls on anyone else.

So Abbot is consistent on the calls for others to help those he's responsible for, since he doesn't want to have any part of that.


----------



## Huntn

lizkat said:


> TX governor Abbott, wow....    so far won't reverse his bans on mandated masks or vaccination, but meanwhile now in the face of a surge in covid infections, urges hospitals to delay elective surgical procedures and also tries to import workers from out of state to help staff covid treatment centers...  [  meanwhile neighboring Arkansas for instance is nearly out of ICU beds due to a covid spike and is strained for medical resources ]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Abbott asks hospitals to delay elective procedures as COVID cases surge
> 
> 
> Abbott has opposed measures that would mitigate the virus' spread, such as vaccine and mask mandates.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.axios.com



I heard this morning that the Dallas School District among others are defying his politically motivated stupidity.


----------



## lizkat

Huntn said:


> I heard this morning that the Dallas School District among others are defying his politically motivated stupidity.




I think the schools and assorted companies are starting to realize they can take Abbott to court and win on this issue.


----------



## JayMysteri0

In older news, came back around...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1425132244650319880/


----------



## JayMysteri0

In some better news



> In win for San Antonio and Bexar County, judge temporarily overrides Texas governor's ban on mask mandates
> 
> 
> In win for San Antonio and Bexar County, judge temporarily overrides Texas governor's ban on mask mandates
> 
> 
> 
> 
> news.yahoo.com





> Officials in San Antonio and Bexar County can temporarily issue mask mandates, despite Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) order prohibiting local governments and school districts in the state from imposing mask requirements, Judge Antonia Arteaga ruled on Tuesday.
> 
> San Antonio and Bexar County filed a lawsuit on Tuesday morning requesting a temporary restraining order blocking Abbott's action, with officials wanting to make masks mandatory inside public schools and municipal buildings. Arteaga said she did not take her decision lightly, _The Texas Tribune_ reports, citing the school year starting and public guidance from Dr. Junda Woo, health director of San Antonio's Metropolitan Health District, who said masks are necessary in schools as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads in the state.
> 
> Another hearing on the matter is set for Monday, but Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzalez said during a press conference that "for now, we're going to take a victory lap, we're very happy with the result that we got today." Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Abbott's office, said the governor's "resolve to protect the rights and freedoms of all Texans has not wavered."


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> In some better news



I heard about this on the radio this morning. More areas of Texas are basically daring the Governor to try and stop them from protecting their children.   They interviewed people in Austin and they are going to mandate masks at school regardless of his statements. I believe he has already jumped the shark on this anti-mask, anti-vaxx BS and just hasn’t realized it yet.


----------



## lizkat

How to get a GOP measure to the floor in Texas House.  Just fake the presence of a quorum.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1428501448388759563/


----------



## Alli

By 2024 we won’t even have to vote in places like Texas and Georgia because the R’s who now control the state will simply appoint their slate of winners, regardless of the will of the people. That is their goal.


----------



## Herdfan

Alli said:


> By 2024 we won’t even have to vote in places like Texas and Georgia because the R’s who now control the state will simply appoint their slate of winners, regardless of the will of the people. That is their goal.




I would love to know what specifically in Georgia's voting law is a problem?

Is there a thread on it?

As for TX, I think Abbott, and DeSantis for that matter, are wrong to prohibit masks.  I think they should have let the local governments, school boards, etc decide.   Then when the voters didn't like those policies, they could vote those people out.  I will say that school board elections will be getting more scrutiny in the next couple of cycles.  Voters are going to want to know who these people are.


----------



## Alli

Herdfan said:


> I would love to know what specifically in Georgia's voting law is a problem?



Mostly it’s the fact that under the new law, they control who counts the ballots and if they don’t like the way they’re counted they will have the ability to change the count without any oversight. Kinda like Trumpy wanted them to do in November.


Herdfan said:


> As for TX, I think Abbott, and DeSantis for that matter, are wrong to prohibit masks. I think they should have let the local governments, school boards, etc decide. Then when the voters didn't like those policies, they could vote those people out. I will say that school board elections will be getting more scrutiny in the next couple of cycles. Voters are going to want to know who these people are.



That’s all well and good, but how many deaths will occur before the next election?


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> I think they should have let the local governments, school boards, etc decide.



No, it should be a national mask mandate, and a vaccine mandate too. There is no “freedom” to infect other people... just like there’s no “freedom" to drive drunk, fire guns randomly around the neighborhood, etc, etc. Does a local school board member in rural Texas know more about infectious diseases than the CDC?


----------



## Huntn

Herdfan said:


> I would love to know what specifically in Georgia's voting law is a problem?
> 
> Is there a thread on it?
> 
> As for TX, I think Abbott, and DeSantis for that matter, are wrong to prohibit masks.  I think they should have let the local governments, school boards, etc decide.   Then when the voters didn't like those policies, they could vote those people out.  I will say that school board elections will be getting more scrutiny in the next couple of cycles.  Voters are going to want to know who these people are.




THE PROBLEM??
If they don’t like the election outcome, they claim fraud just like they did this year based on their big fat fib, but unlike this year they will be able to appoint cronies to void the election, that’s how. The only reason that did not happen this year was because the independent election board told them there was no fraud. Next time look out, our Democracy will be flushed, without a doubt.









						Georgia Republicans Just Passed a Law to Make It Easier to Overturn Elections
					

The bill hands the GOP-controlled legislature far-reaching control over election administration and who gets to vote.




					truthout.org


----------



## SuperMatt

Huntn said:


> THE PROBLEM??
> If they don’t like the election outcome, they claim fraud just like they did this year based on their big fat fib, but unlike this year they will be able to appoint cronies to void the election, that’s how. The only reason that did not happen this year was because the independent election board told them there was no fraud. Next time look out, our Democracy will be flushed, without a doubt.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Georgia Republicans Just Passed a Law to Make It Easier to Overturn Elections
> 
> 
> The bill hands the GOP-controlled legislature far-reaching control over election administration and who gets to vote.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> truthout.org



Exactly. In 2020 they cried “fraud fraud!” without evidence but they had no power to invalidate the results they claimed were fraudulent. In future elections, they will have that power. Look at what happens in countries where they invalidate election results. It’s not pretty.


----------



## Herdfan

SuperMatt said:


> No, it should be a national mask mandate, and a vaccine mandate too. There is no “freedom” to infect other people... just like there’s no “freedom" to drive drunk, fire guns randomly around the neighborhood, etc, etc. Does a local school board member in rural Texas know more about infectious diseases than the CDC?




Well neither Abbott or Desantis has anything to do with that.  And Biden has already admitted he doesn't have that power.  

However, the examples you just posted, are state laws, not federal.


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> Well neither Abbott or Desantis has anything to do with that.  And Biden has already admitted he doesn't have that power.
> 
> However, the examples you just posted, are state laws, not federal.







__





						What Is a Federal DUI? + Charges, Laws & Penalities | Federal Charges.com
					

Although driving under impairment (DUI) is considered a crime in all 50 states, the offense rises to the level of a federal crime in some situations. The legal and social consequences of a federal DUI conviction can be severe. Despite the seriousness of the charge, it is possible for a federal...



					www.federalcharges.com
				












						10 Ways Murder Becomes a Federal Crime | Wallin & Klarich
					

In certain circumstances, murder becomes a federal crime. Our experienced federal attorneys explain how you could face federal murder charges.



					www.wklaw.com


----------



## Huntn

Herdfan said:


> Well neither Abbott or Desantis has anything to do with that.  And Biden has already admitted he doesn't have that power.
> 
> However, the examples you just posted, are state laws, not federal.



Abbott signed a frick’n Executive Order banning mask mandates and trying to  ban required  proof of vaccination, which is directly related because  he is also not insisting on vaccines.

As reported by National Public Radio, the good news in Texas the business organizations not wrapped up in politics are mandating vaccines, or proof of vaccines, Live Nation who does concerts across the country, the Austin Music festival, and Houston Methodist Hospital has fired nurses who refused vaccines just because they did not want a vaccine. These would be the absolute worst people to have working in a COVID ward.

Businesses have a certain reality and pragmatism based on business reality, while the numskull politicians just feed their red headed step children sweet little poisons because this is what the children want.


----------



## Herdfan

Huntn said:


> Abbott signed a frick’n Executive Order banning mask mandates and trying to  ban required  proof of vaccination, which is directly related because  he is also not insisting on vaccines.
> 
> As reported by National Public Radio, the good news in Texas the business organizations not wrapped up in politics are mandating vaccines, or proof of vaccines, Live Nation who does concerts across the country, the Austin Music festival, and Houston Methodist Hospital has fired nurses who refused vaccines just because they did not want a vaccine. These would be the absolute worst people to have working in a COVID ward.
> 
> Businesses have a certain reality and pragmatism based on business reality, while the numskull politicians just feed their red headed step children sweet little poisons because this is what the children want.




As I posted, he should not have done that.  Leave it up to the local governments to do it.

The Feds have no power to enforce a mask mandate except on federal land.  Which they have.  Or unless Congress approves it.  Which they won't.


----------



## Renzatic

Herdfan said:


> Or unless Congress approves it.  Which they won't.




Well, they might, but it'd take 6 months.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Again Texas says hold my beer.
If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It​A Texas law banning abortion at six weeks is set to go into effect in just a few days. And while the ban will make it nearly impossible for women to get abortions in the state, the six-week ban — abortion opponents’ garden-variety tactic of late — is not the most concerning part. 
What makes this Texas statute particularly troubling is that it deputizes private citizens to actively seek out and sue people “aiding or abetting” women who are attempting to get abortions in the state of Texas. If you successfully sue that person — whether it’s an abortion provider, a pregnant woman’s friend, or even the rideshare driver who dropped her off at a clinic — you receive a $10,000 bounty. 








						If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It
					

Advocates and providers worry if S.B. 8 becomes law on Sept. 1, it will become a blueprint for other red states looking to end legal abortion.




					www.huffpost.com


----------



## SuperMatt

fooferdoggie said:


> Again Texas says hold my beer.
> If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It​A Texas law banning abortion at six weeks is set to go into effect in just a few days. And while the ban will make it nearly impossible for women to get abortions in the state, the six-week ban — abortion opponents’ garden-variety tactic of late — is not the most concerning part.
> What makes this Texas statute particularly troubling is that it deputizes private citizens to actively seek out and sue people “aiding or abetting” women who are attempting to get abortions in the state of Texas. If you successfully sue that person — whether it’s an abortion provider, a pregnant woman’s friend, or even the rideshare driver who dropped her off at a clinic — you receive a $10,000 bounty.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It
> 
> 
> Advocates and providers worry if S.B. 8 becomes law on Sept. 1, it will become a blueprint for other red states looking to end legal abortion.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.huffpost.com



What could go wrong?


----------



## Renzatic

SuperMatt said:


> What could go wrong?




Wish I lived in Texas. I love having a readily available excuse to sue people.


----------



## Runs For Fun

SuperMatt said:


> What could go wrong?



This








						TikTok Is Using Shrek Porn to Fight an Anti-Abortion Website
					

Because of course this happened.




					www.vice.com


----------



## Runs For Fun

fooferdoggie said:


> Again Texas says hold my beer.



I swear it’s a competition between Texas and Florida on who can come up with the stupidest and dangerous laws.


----------



## Renzatic

Runs For Fun said:


> I swear it’s a competition between Texas and Florida on who can come up with the stupidest and dangerous laws.




From what I understand, anyone can sue anyone if they believe they've enabled an abortion, right? It doesn't require that you have a personal stake in the matter, only that you have a suspicion of involvement?

...so how can someone be rewarded a settlement if they haven't been damaged by the actions of the person they're suing?


----------



## SuperMatt

Renzatic said:


> From what I understand, anyone can sue anyone if they believe they've enabled an abortion, right? It doesn't require that you have a personal stake in the matter, only that you have a suspicion of involvement?
> 
> ...so how can someone be rewarded a settlement if they haven't been damaged by the actions of the person they're suing?



This is full-on Nazi crap. Reporting your fellow citizens to the government and getting paid for it.


----------



## Huntn

fooferdoggie said:


> Again Texas says hold my beer.
> If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It​A Texas law banning abortion at six weeks is set to go into effect in just a few days. And while the ban will make it nearly impossible for women to get abortions in the state, the six-week ban — abortion opponents’ garden-variety tactic of late — is not the most concerning part.
> What makes this Texas statute particularly troubling is that it deputizes private citizens to actively seek out and sue people “aiding or abetting” women who are attempting to get abortions in the state of Texas. If you successfully sue that person — whether it’s an abortion provider, a pregnant woman’s friend, or even the rideshare driver who dropped her off at a clinic — you receive a $10,000 bounty.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It
> 
> 
> Advocates and providers worry if S.B. 8 becomes law on Sept. 1, it will become a blueprint for other red states looking to end legal abortion.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.huffpost.com



Pregnant women who do not want give birth, will be much more cautious about who they confide in. If your single and accidentally get pregnant it’s not something you advertise anyway. My guess such a law could be challenged in court.  Buy beyond all that, this is the sad state of priorities of the GOP, hold power at any cost and have a surplus of Koolaid ready to hand out.


----------



## Thomas Veil

This is how I manage to not dwell on the horrible things going on in Afghanistan. I remind myself we have our _own_ Taliban we need to deal with.


----------



## shadow puppet

Even if Abbott never sees it, I'm proud of my big brother telling him off in the Austin Statesman.


----------



## Alli

The fact that you seldom know you’re pregnant before 6 weeks just doesn’t register with them. So maybe we need to open up D&C clinics so that women can go once a month right after ovulation … just to make sure.


----------



## SuperMatt

Alli said:


> The fact that you seldom know you’re pregnant before 6 weeks just doesn’t register with them. So maybe we need to open up D&C clinics so that women can go once a month right after ovulation … just to make sure.



It absolutely registers to them. That’s the entire point. They want abortion to be completely illegal, but they assume such a law would not pass constitutional muster. So they put in a law that makes abortion _de facto_ illegal.


----------



## Thomas Veil

SuperMatt said:


> They want abortion to be completely illegal, but they assume such a law would not pass constitutional muster.



Wouldn’t it? In the eyes of _this_ Supreme Court, it might. They just refused to hear a last-ditch challenge to the law. 

*Texas 6-week abortion ban takes effect after Supreme Court inaction*









						Texas 6-week abortion ban takes effect after Supreme Court inaction
					

A controversial Texas law that bars abortions at six weeks went into effect early Wednesday morning after the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court failed to rule on pending emergency requests brought by abortion providers.




					www.cnn.com


----------



## SuperMatt

Thomas Veil said:


> Wouldn’t it? In the eyes of _this_ Supreme Court, it might. They just refused to hear a last-ditch challenge to the law.
> 
> *Texas 6-week abortion ban takes effect after Supreme Court inaction*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas 6-week abortion ban takes effect after Supreme Court inaction
> 
> 
> A controversial Texas law that bars abortions at six weeks went into effect early Wednesday morning after the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court failed to rule on pending emergency requests brought by abortion providers.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.cnn.com



The GOP is the American Taliban.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Alli said:


> The fact that you seldom know you’re pregnant before 6 weeks just doesn’t register with them. So maybe we need to open up D&C clinics so that women can go once a month right after ovulation … just to make sure.



Maybe after the state deals with a rash of "vigilante" suits going after people supposedly involved in abortion start filling the courts.

After all, it isn't like we aren't one of the more litigious societies.



> This Interactive Map Shows Which States Sue Doctors The Most
> 
> 
> We mapped the one downside to a career in healthcare -- how many times medical practitioners get sued.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> research.zippia.com




What could go wrong?

Discover that judge / business partner  or rival / neighbor / political rival you don't like who went against you once, has a daughter who WAS supposedly pregnant but isn't now after a trip out state?

SUE!  The judge, the person who drove her to the airport, the airline, the...

What could go wrong?

No one would ever use the legal system for the wrong reasons right?






Who would do that?

Oh wait. Texas just did, to intentionally circumvent outside involvement.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Maybe after the state deals with a rash of "vigilante" suits going after people supposedly involved in abortion start filling the courts.
> 
> After all, it isn't like we aren't one of the more litigious societies.
> 
> 
> 
> What could go wrong?
> 
> Discover that judge / business partner  or rival / neighbor / political rival you don't like who went against you once, has a daughter who WAS supposedly pregnant but isn't now after a trip out state?
> 
> SUE!  The judge, the person who drove her to the airport, the airline, the...
> 
> What could go wrong?
> 
> No one would ever use the legal system for the wrong reasons right?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Who would do that?
> 
> Oh wait. Texas just did, to intentionally circumvent outside involvement.



I think a very likely scenario would be a man suing a woman he impregnated if she gets an abortion.


----------



## JayMysteri0

SuperMatt said:


> I think a very likely scenario would be a man suing a woman he impregnated if she gets an abortion.



You're thinking too small, the repubs can't be concerned with such small stuff.  They're okay with that.

This was intentionally crafted to be weaponized against abortion.

Like any weapon though, anyone can pick it up & use it once they figure out how.

Someone WILL use this in a fashion they hadn't intended, and the finger pointing will come out faster than the guns.


----------



## Pumbaa

SuperMatt said:


> I think a very likely scenario would be a man suing a woman he impregnated if she gets an abortion.



Another very likely scenario is a man suing a woman he dated if she doesn’t want a relationship with him after learning that he’s an asshole. Surely it must be because she had an abortion, right?


----------



## Alli

SuperMatt said:


> I think a very likely scenario would be a man suing a woman he impregnated if she gets an abortion.






Pumbaa said:


> Another very likely scenario is a man suing a woman he dated if she doesn’t want a relationship with him after learning that he’s an asshole. Surely it must be because she had an abortion, right?




The new get rich quick scheme in Texas. Perfect for the incel. Rape a woman, get her pregnant and then sue so that you can benefit from your crime. I can see it now.


----------



## Thomas Veil

These parts of the story really stood out to me:


> Instead, the law allows private citizens -- *anywhere in the country* -- to bring civil suits against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking an abortion in violation of the ban.





> Opponents say the law is part of *a new wave of laws put forward by states hostile to abortion rights and will inspire other states to follow suit.*



My bold.

So you can be a grandparent living in Alaska and sue your granddaughter in Vermont to stop her from having an abortion.  

Heck, you don’t even have to be related.

And let’s say a 16 year old girl tries to run away on her own, and takes a bus to another state to get an abortion.  I guess you can sue the bus driver. 

It also sounds like the invisible but heavy hand of ALEC has been at work again. 

Theoretically enough of these laws could all but overturn Roe vs. Wade…and we have a Supreme Court which thus far has shown no inclination toward intervening.


----------



## lizkat

A piece in The Guardian about some of the consequences of the Texas law in wake of high court's failure to act.









						Most extreme abortion law in US takes effect in Texas
					

US supreme court fails to act to block near-total ban that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers




					www.theguardian.com


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

lizkat said:


> A piece in The Guardian about some of the consequences of the Texas law in wake of high court's failure to act.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Most extreme abortion law in US takes effect in Texas
> 
> 
> US supreme court fails to act to block near-total ban that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.theguardian.com




It is the duty of every woman to produce more children for the Reich.  If she is unable to take care of the child they will be adopted by a party member.


----------



## Alli

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> It is the duty of every woman to produce more children for the Reich.  If she is unable to take care of the child they will be adopted by a party member.



Only they won’t, because they only care about fetal material.


----------



## lizkat

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> It is the duty of every woman to produce more children for the Reich.  If she is unable to take care of the child they will be adopted by a party member.




Draconian state laws against termination of pregnancy are a tail wagging the dog in the USA. 

Only 19% of Americans favor a complete ban on abortion.   58% oppose overturn of Roe v Wade.









						Americans Still Oppose Overturning <em>Roe v. Wade</em>
					

Nearly six in 10 Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, similar to their stance since 1989. Laws banning abortion after 18 weeks, in the case of fetal disability or once a heartbeat is detected, also spark majority opposition.




					news.gallup.com
				




At state level,  so-called "heartbeat" laws and others making no exception for rape or incest are typical examples of where the Republican Party's accommodation of extreme views in hopes of retaining a majority electorate is backfiring.   The extremists are more vocal in the era of social media, and *it's not working any more for the party to have a platform distinct from its lawmaking*.  

The GOP used to count on a platform plank being sufficient recognition of anti-choice sentiment.  That's long gone and doubled down on now with the current GOP's cult of personality...  and the states are painting the Republican Party into a corner,  where new state laws invariably end up challenged in the court and are aimed at taking on Roe v Wade at the federal level.

Meanwhile voter registation by party continues to drop, more districts are purple and their congress critters are increasingly like most of the Americans they represent nowadays.  They may say that they oppose abortion personally or as a matter of personal adherence to religious doctrine,  but will not allow those views to affect their legislative oaths of office.  And so they do support Roe v Wade and a personal choice in legal access to legal abortion, and sometimes particularly when it comes to matters of rape or incest.


----------



## JayMysteri0

I honestly never thought of this...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1432865331878502404/



> Jews, outraged by restrictive abortion laws, are invoking the Hebrew Bible in the debate
> 
> 
> GOP lawmakers often point to the Bible as proof that abortion should be illegal. But Jews read the same texts and have different interpretations.
> 
> 
> 
> www.usatoday.com





> But for many leaders in the Jewish faith, such interpretations are problematic and even insulting.
> 
> “It makes me apoplectic,” says Danya Ruttenberg, a Chicago-based rabbi who has written about Jews' interpretation of abortion. “Most of the proof texts that they’re bringing in for this are ridiculous. They’re using my sacred text to justify taking away my rights in a way that is just so calculated and craven.”
> 
> Across the country, as a wave of anti-abortion legislation reinvigorates the fight over reproductive rights, Jewish religious leaders, activists and women are speaking out in favor of a woman's right to choose, buoyed by their faith.
> 
> It’s not just that the U.S. shouldn’t be deriving law from poetic language, Ruttenberg said. It’s that the Jewish tradition has a distinctly different reading of the same texts. While conservative Christians use the Bible to argue that a fetus represents a human life, which makes abortion murder, Jews don’t believe that fetuses have souls and, therefore, terminating a pregnancy is no crime.
> 
> While some Orthodox rabbis have denounced abortion, within Jewish communities there’s considerable support for keeping it legal. Studies from the Pew Research Center show that Jews overwhelmingly (83%) support abortion rights. The National Council of Jewish Women, a 126-year-old organization that helped establish some of the first birth control clinics across the country, considers reproductive rights a cornerstone issue and has publicly condemned the strict abortion bans recently handed down in Alabama and Mississippi.




Which makes all of this seem even less representative of the will of the people, and just catering to the whims of the few.

If only we had A separation of Church & State, perhaps this could be avoided, since NOT everyone is of the same belief system.  So making laws based on ONE belief system wouldn't seem so anti U.S.


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433124828098273280/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433123676182953988/

To see it spelled out, forces asking the obvious question

Didn't some people hate "frivolous" lawsuits, or are we carving a new exception based on personal beliefs?

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433083143574233097/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433072170188611592/


----------



## JayMysteri0

Finally, a little something more to 'lighten the mood'






Have 'fun'.


----------



## SuperMatt

It’s impossible to register to vote online in Texas. You can fill something in online, but then you have to print it and mail it to them. Considering the fact that you can look up your status online *and* update your registration online (if you move within the same *county*), there appears to be no technical reason for this. It’s simply meant to make the process more difficult.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

lizkat said:


> Draconian state laws against termination of pregnancy are a tail wagging the dog in the USA.
> 
> Only 19% of Americans favor a complete ban on abortion.   58% oppose overturn of Roe v Wade.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Americans Still Oppose Overturning <em>Roe v. Wade</em>
> 
> 
> Nearly six in 10 Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, similar to their stance since 1989. Laws banning abortion after 18 weeks, in the case of fetal disability or once a heartbeat is detected, also spark majority opposition.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> news.gallup.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> At state level,  so-called "heartbeat" laws and others making no exception for rape or incest are typical examples of where the Republican Party's accommodation of extreme views in hopes of retaining a majority electorate is backfiring.   The extremists are more vocal in the era of social media, and *it's not working any more for the party to have a platform distinct from its lawmaking*.
> 
> The GOP used to count on a platform plank being sufficient recognition of anti-choice sentiment.  That's long gone and doubled down on now with the current GOP's cult of personality...  and the states are painting the Republican Party into a corner,  where new state laws invariably end up challenged in the court and are aimed at taking on Roe v Wade at the federal level.
> 
> Meanwhile voter registation by party continues to drop, more districts are purple and their congress critters are increasingly like most of the Americans they represent nowadays.  They may say that they oppose abortion personally or as a matter of personal adherence to religious doctrine,  but will not allow those views to affect their legislative oaths of office.  And so they do support Roe v Wade and a personal choice in legal access to legal abortion, and sometimes particularly when it comes to matters of rape or incest.




I think we mistranslated the GOP’s “small government” platform. We thought they meant they want a smaller government. What they really meant was minority rule, lots of government still all up in your shit, just controlled by fewer people and based on their priorities.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JayMysteri0 said:


> Finally, a little something more to 'lighten the mood'
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Have 'fun'.




Can’t remember who, but some comedian did a bit where he imagined Mike Pence meeting with the Taliban during Trump’s negotiations and concluding they are a great bunch of guys with a lot of good ideas.


----------



## Thomas Veil

It's been said for a long time now that if conservatives ever succeed in banning abortion, it will be the end of the Republican party. We are very close to seeing that put to the test.

On the other hand, if the GOP ever wanted to hand a loaded weapon to Democrats, they are in the process of doing it. This will likely draw even more Democrats to vote or to register for the first time.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Thomas Veil said:


> It's been said for a long time now that if conservatives ever succeed in banning abortion, it will be the end of the Republican party. We are very close to seeing that put to the test.
> 
> On the other hand, if the GOP ever wanted to hand a loaded weapon to Democrats, they are in the process of doing it. This will likely draw even more Democrats to vote or to register for the first time.




I’m still pretty shellshocked by Trump’s win, his narrow loss to Biden, and the fairly even split in Congress even after 4 years of Trump. So I don’t put much weight on theories on what will destroy the Republican party or if it will even happen. A scary breed of voter feels they are finally being represented and aren’t going to go back under their rock peacefully. The Republican party has become their home.


----------



## SuperMatt

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I’m still pretty shellshocked by Trump’s win, his narrow loss to Biden, and the fairly even split in Congress even after 4 years of Trump. So I don’t put much weight on theories on what will destroy the Republican party or if it will even happen. A scary breed of voter feels they are finally being represented and aren’t going to go back under their rock peacefully. The Republican party has become their home.



I read some right-wing message boards and their biggest worry is “culture.” They literally consider it a war. By culture, they mean people of other cultures and races supplanting WASPs as the dominant force in America. They are HIGHLY motivated to vote and hold power by any means necessary, because they openly admit the demographics are changing, and not in their favor. Their stance is basically zero immigration of any kind, and if they come, they cannot be allowed to vote, and their kids shouldn’t gain citizenship.

The voter turnout of these folks is extremely high. It took 4 years of Trump taking a dump on women, minorities, and everybody BUT white evangelicals for them to go out in force and vote against him. They knew they were under threat. These right-wing culture warriors literally feel under threat constantly. You can’t keep them away from the polls, and they are getting more and more extreme.


----------



## Thomas Veil

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> ...So I don’t put much weight on theories on what will destroy the Republican party or if it will even happen. A scary breed of voter feels they are finally being represented and aren’t going to go back under their rock peacefully.



True that. The abortion prediction was made several years ago, when most of the country was still sane. I believed it then, but I don't think I believe it now. We're living in a different world.


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433098599336873986/


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433278805498646528/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433311805498068996/


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> I read some right-wing message boards and their biggest worry is “culture.” They literally consider it a war. By culture, they mean people of other cultures and races supplanting WASPs as the dominant force in America. They are HIGHLY motivated to vote and hold power by any means necessary, because they openly admit the demographics are changing, and not in their favor. Their stance is basically zero immigration of any kind, and if they come, they cannot be allowed to vote, and their kids shouldn’t gain citizenship.
> 
> The voter turnout of these folks is extremely high. It took 4 years of Trump taking a dump on women, minorities, and everybody BUT white evangelicals for them to go out in force and vote against him. They knew they were under threat. These right-wing culture warriors literally feel under threat constantly. You can’t keep them away from the polls, and they are getting more and more extreme.




Tucker Carlson’s show is basically a nightly klan meeting.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433278805498646528/
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433311805498068996/



Pack the courts


----------



## Thomas Veil

That’s not an ideal solution, but between voting rights and abortion, it’s starting to look better all the time.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433278805498646528/
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433311805498068996/



Congratulations Mitch McConnell. Your political ruthlessness when it comes to the Supreme Court has led to a country that bans abortion. You’ve really improved America. 

Conservative members of the Supreme Court: You are not dumb. You know history. You know people will get abortions illegally and people will die unnecessarily because of it. That blood is officially on your hands now.


----------



## JayMysteri0

SuperMatt said:


> Congratulations Mitch McConnell. Your political ruthlessness when it comes to the Supreme Court has led to a country that bans abortion. You’ve really improved America.



https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433434147880673282/


SuperMatt said:


> Conservative members of the Supreme Court: You are not dumb. You know history. You know people will get abortions illegally and people will die unnecessarily because of it. That blood is officially on your hands now.




Which leads us to this line of thought
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433384638030958594/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1433400280683581440/

There's a saying about being careful what you wish for.

Critics bitched about being in Afghanistan, NOW those same critics are bitching about us leaving.  Why?  Because of who pulled us out, and any political points that may come from it, not out of concern for the lives involved.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

I’m starting to see these moves as a wartime strategy to keep more liberals from moving to Texas and inspire the liberals who already live there to leave. It seems any legislation they determine will piss off liberals gets fast-tracked to top priority, the desperate flailing of a dying party.


----------



## Huntn

This law undermines Roe vs Wade. SCOTUS refused the first attempt to block it on technical grounds which could be valid, or it could just be the result of having a conservative Court.  





__





						Supreme Court refuses to block Texas abortion law on technical grounds
					





					www.msn.com
				




My question is on what basis is there to sue a woman or someone who helps facilitate an abortion can be sued, just because you have a personal objection?

I’ve always thought in the United States you can sue for any reason, but you need to rely on the Court system to reject ridiculous claims and I‘m not sure of what defines ridiculous in terms of civil suits. There could be an assumption by the shit heads, that any jury formed in Texas will be anti-abortion and will find for the plaintive. This is just fucked up, another nail in the progressive agenda part of the master plan to return to the 1950s and create a Christian theocracy.


----------



## Scepticalscribe

Huntn said:


> This law undermines Roe vs Wade. SCOTUS refused the first attempt to block it on technical grounds which could be valid, or it could just be the result of having a conservative Court.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> __
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Supreme Court refuses to block Texas abortion law on technical grounds
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.msn.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> My question is on what basis is there to sue a woman or someone who helps facilitate an abortion can be sued, just because you have a personal objection?
> 
> I’ve always thought in the United States you can sue for any reason, but you need to rely on the Court system to reject ridiculous claims and I‘m not sure of what defines ridiculous in terms of civil suits. There could be an assumption by the shit heads, that any jury formed in Texas will be anti-abortion and will find for the plaintive. This is just fucked up, another nail in the progressive agenda part of the master plan to return to the 1950s and create a Christian theocracy.




@Huntn, an excellent post (and not just because I agree completely with it).

Why not (also) post it in a separate thread that has been created by @SuperMatt to discuss these court rulings specifically?


----------



## Huntn

SuperMatt said:


> Pack the courts



I’d say increase SCOTUS to 11 but can Biden and Congress get that done? I think the GOP will block.


----------



## Huntn

Scepticalscribe said:


> @Huntn, an excellent post (and not just because I agree completely with it).
> 
> Why not (also) post it in a separate thread that has been created by @SuperMatt to discuss these court rulings specifically?



Done, did not notice that thread when I posted.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Huntn said:


> I’d say increase SCOTUS to 11 but can Biden and Congress get that done? I think the GOP will block.




If the GOP tried to pass a law to reduce the Supreme Court to 1 judge who must lean conservative the Democrats would fail to block it because they have no teeth. And no balls.  And at least several closeted Republicans in their ranks.  At best they’d issue a collective sour puss face in response.


----------



## lizkat

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I think we mistranslated the GOP’s “small government” platform. We thought they meant they want a smaller government. What they really meant was minority rule, lots of government still all up in your shit, just controlled by fewer people and based on their priorities.




I stuck a laughing emoji on that one so I wouldn't cry.

The other day I woke up at 3 in the morning out of a nightmare --not a lucid dream with do-over options--  where I was in line to vote in person at the polling place and when I stepped up to sign the book and said my name, the clerk looked it up, then said Oh you can't vote,  we have you down for a charge of "having listened to speech deemed treasonous."

Yeah.  Woke me right up.  I've decided not to read any political news after 7pm, give my brain time to focus on something else until bedtime...


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

lizkat said:


> I stuck a laughing emoji on that one so I wouldn't cry.
> 
> The other day I woke up at 3 in the morning out of a nightmare --not a lucid dream with do-over options--  where I was in line to vote in person at the polling place and when I stepped up to sign the book and said my name, the clerk looked it up, then said Oh you can't vote,  we have you down for a charge of "having listened to speech deemed treasonous."
> 
> Yeah.  Woke me right up.  I've decided not to read any political news after 7pm, give my brain time to focus on something else until bedtime...




Yeah, I'm starting to question spending so much time on these subjects.  I sometimes feel like if I woke up in the morning and out my window I witnessed the explosion of a foreign missile on the horizon it might improve my mood.  At least the end would be quick and so many things not to have to worry about anymore.


----------



## Thomas Veil

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I’m starting to see these moves as a wartime strategy to keep more liberals from moving to Texas and inspire the liberals who already live there to leave.



By all means, I think Biden should send a shitload of Chinooks to rescue all of those who want to leave Texas before Austin falls and the entire state is taken over by the American Taliban.

I _think_ I'm joking...


----------



## Yoused

Before you wipe Texas off the map, I have this to say




There are decent people there, and interesting places. I think we should make more of an effort toward rehab.


----------



## Alli

Yoused said:


> There are decent people there, and interesting places. I think we should make more of an effort toward rehab.



But how?


----------



## SuperMatt

Alli said:


> But how?



They could elect a Democratic governor. I think with gerrymandering it is impossible for them to have a Democratic legislature though.

But unless Congress passes voting rights legislation, states like Texas could stay Republican forever. Such legislation should forbid partisan gerrymandering.


----------



## Alli

SuperMatt said:


> They could elect a Democratic governor. I think with gerrymandering it is impossible for them to have a Democratic legislature though.
> 
> But unless Congress passes voting rights legislation, states like Texas could stay Republican forever. Such legislation should forbid partisan gerrymandering.



Look what happened in KY when they got a Dem governor. The state just changes laws to prevent the governor from being able to do anything. Kinda like when the POTUS is a Dem and the House and Senate are R controlled.


----------



## SuperMatt

Alli said:


> Look what happened in KY when they got a Dem governor. The state just changes laws to prevent the governor from being able to do anything. Kinda like when the POTUS is a Dem and the House and Senate are R controlled.



Agreed, which is why I think the voting rights law is so important. Gerrymandering (by both parties) needs to go the way of the dodo. States with over 50% voting Democrat should not have a legislature that is 2/3 Republican. It’s plainly undemocratic.


----------



## Huntn

Yoused said:


> Before you wipe Texas off the map, I have this to say
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There are decent people there, and interesting places. I think we should make more of an effort toward rehab.



It’s the same story as in many Republican controlled states, 51-60% of those who bothered vote broke bad. Of the total this leaves some large % of those who don’t seem to care which ass-hats lead us, and 30-40% by my rough calculation decent folks. I feel sure that that numbers required to take control of the Statehouse is much less than 50% of the total.

To qualify, are there no decent Republicans left? I’m sorry to say that if you support today’s GOP you are supporting an anti-democratic, racist, pushing us to fascism so they can hold control at the cost of our demicracy. And whether you are  ignorant or drinking the Koolaid, by definition you either are not decent or you have become so selfish and living in a fantasy you can no longer see the reality of what your selfishness means to the Nation.

The first time I lived in Texas, 1978-1980, Ann Richards had not so long ago been the Democratic Governor and it seemed to be a much better place than it is today,


----------



## Huntn

Alli said:


> Look what happened in KY when they got a Dem governor. The state just changes laws to prevent the governor from being able to do anything. Kinda like when the POTUS is a Dem and the House and Senate are R controlled.



Holding and wielding power no matter what is the game for this mob.   We are currently (1980-forward) witnessing the fight for the soul of this country, and as far as I can tell, Beelzebub is up 20. We focus on elected officials as the pieces of shit many of them are, but they just reflect the neighbors, that surrounds many of us. They might seem decent during a casual conversation, but when you get into a subject of substance then it all becomes clear.

At the pool yesterday living in enemy territory:
_Me: I’ve not seen you in a while._
74 year old white man:_ Yeah it’s been 3 weeks, had some things to take care of, you know life happens._
Me: <shrug> in acknowledgment.
Man: _We’ll it was COVID, the entire family._
Me: _Were you vaccinated?_
Man: _No, I chose not too. _
Me: <silent>
Man: _It’s my freedom to not get vaccinated if I don’t want to._
Me: <Nods head with an I’m not going to engage, but you are an idiot expression.>
Man: <Walks away>

This is the same reason why when the 93 year old white WWII vet, geezer tries to talk to me about the evil Democrats, I advise him,  _I don’t talk politics at the gym. _


----------



## lizkat

Yoused said:


> Before you wipe Texas off the map, I have this to say
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There are decent people there, and interesting places. I think we should make more of an effort toward rehab.




Already happening.   Harris County having elected so many new female Black judges in the 2018 midterms, for instance.   Of course that very event underlies part of the voter suppression backlash, but media focus on the backlash ignores the relentless push forward by progressives in Texas.  









						Texas county swears in 17 new black female judges
					

A historic moment took place on New Year's Day in Harris County, Texas — the swearing in of 17 African-American women judges with a combined total of 200 years of experience. The 17 newcomers join two other black women who won re-election




					www.cbsnews.com


----------



## Joe

Huntn said:


> Holding and wielding power no matter what is the game for this mob.   We are currently (1980-forward) witnessing the fight for the soul of this country, and as far as I can tell, Beelzebub is up 20. We focus on elected officials as the pieces of shit many of them are, but they just reflect the neighbors, that surrounds many of us. They might seem decent during a casual conversation, but when you get into a subject of substance then it all becomes clear.
> 
> At the pool yesterday living in enemy territory:
> _Me: I’ve not seen you in a while._
> 74 year old white man:_ Yeah it’s been 3 weeks, had some things to take care of, you know life happens._
> Me: <shrug> in acknowledgment.
> Man: _We’ll it was COVID, the entire family._
> Me: _Were you vaccinated?_
> Man: _No, I chose not too. _
> Me: <silent>
> Man: _It’s my freedom to not get vaccinated if I don’t want to._
> Me: <Nods head with an I’m not going to engage, but you are an idiot expression.>
> Man: <Walks away>
> 
> This is the same reason why when the 93 year old white WWII vet, geezer tries to talk to me about the evil Democrats, I advise him,  _I don’t talk politics at the gym. _




I don't even ask people that get sick if they're vaccinated or not because the majority of them are unvaccinated. I just say "Thoughts and Prayers" in my sarcastic tone lol

I could give 2 shits if unvaccinated people that can take the vaccine die. Good riddance. Maybe that makes me heartless but if they don't care about their health and everyone around them then good riddance. Play stupid games win stupid prizes. 

I feel for the ones that can't get vaccinated for whatever reason and end up sick.


----------



## MEJHarrison

JagRunner said:


> I could give 2 shits if unvaccinated people that can take the vaccine die. Good riddance. Maybe that makes me heartless but if they don't care about their health and everyone around them then good riddance. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.




Actually, I don't think this attitude makes you heartless at all.  In my opinion, it does quite the opposite.

I _*suspect*_ this attitude comes from frustration that they won't do the right thing.  It tells me you care more about protecting innocent lives than they do.  And I agree 100%.  If you still won't do anything to protect yourself, collect your Darwin Award and piss off so the rest of us can get past this.  I don't want to see people die.  But I also don't want the stupid to continue making things worse for the rest of us.  As they've shown they won't change, perhaps they _*should*_ be removed from the gene pool.


----------



## Joe

MEJHarrison said:


> Actually, I don't think this attitude makes you heartless at all.  In my opinion, it does quite the opposite.
> 
> I _*suspect*_ this attitude comes from frustration that they won't do the right thing.  It tells me you care more about protecting innocent lives than they do.  And I agree 100%.  If you still won't do anything to protect yourself, collect your Darwin Award and piss off so the rest of us can get past this.  I don't want to see people die.  But I also don't want the stupid to continue making things worse for the rest of us.  As they've shown they won't change, perhaps they _*should*_ be removed from the gene pool.




I've know a few people that have gotten really really sick and thought they were going to die. They were unvaccinated. Now they are preaching to everyone to get vaccinated...only because they nearly died.


----------



## MEJHarrison

JagRunner said:


> I've know a few people that have gotten really really sick and thought they were going to die. They were unvaccinated. Now they are preaching to everyone to get vaccinated...only because they nearly died.




Obviously, that's a better outcome than them not learning.  It's a shame it had to come to that to open their eyes.  But that's awesome that their eyes are opened now.


----------



## Thomas Veil

Yes, but why for so many do they have to get figuratively slammed upside the head with a grand piano...to learn something?


----------



## lizkat

Thomas Veil said:


> Yes, but why for so many do they have to get figuratively slammed upside the head with a grand piano...to learn something?




Extreme politicization of any issue results in a kind of tribalism that's pretty hard to break out of, even if a part of one's brain is willing to acknowledge at least in private that there's more to the issue than a totally binary thumbs-up or thumbs-down on it.


----------



## Yoused

Huntn said:


> The first time I lived in Texas, 1978-1980, Ann Richards was the Democratic Governor and it seemed to be a much better place than it is today,




Pardon me for being pedantic, but you would be off by about a decade. She was the one who said (in reference to the elder one), "George Bush was born with a silver foot in his mouth" at the D convention; a few years after that, she lost her re-election to, of all worms, W.


----------



## Yoused

Alli said:


> But how?




Mockery.

Every time they do/say ignant shit, make them look like the idiots they are being. It needs to be done with pure levity, no denigration, but it needs to be relentless, until they are afraid to spew bilious roils lest they end up in stocks. We absolutely must not allow the RWers to barf on us at will, but they have to be reined in judiciously, that we make no martyrs of them.

(This might work 'Bama as well.)


----------



## Alli

JagRunner said:


> I've know a few people that have gotten really really sick and thought they were going to die. They were unvaccinated. Now they are preaching to everyone to get vaccinated...only because they nearly died.



Whatever works. Live or die.


----------



## Huntn

MEJHarrison said:


> Actually, I don't think this attitude makes you heartless at all.  In my opinion, it does quite the opposite.
> 
> I _*suspect*_ this attitude comes from frustration that they won't do the right thing.  It tells me you care more about protecting innocent lives than they do.  And I agree 100%.  If you still won't do anything to protect yourself, collect your Darwin Award and piss off so the rest of us can get past this.  I don't want to see people die.  But I also don't want the stupid to continue making things worse for the rest of us.  As they've shown they won't change, perhaps they _*should*_ be removed from the gene pool.






JagRunner said:


> I've know a few people that have gotten really really sick and thought they were going to die. They were unvaccinated. Now they are preaching to everyone to get vaccinated...only because they nearly died.




It was reported on NPR yesterday that the Delta varient is much more virulent. That it can be spread by those vaccinated, which is different than previous versions and why it is vital to still wear a mask. However, the key to arresting this pandemic is to still talk the dummies into getting their shots.


----------



## Huntn

Yoused said:


> Pardon me for being pedantic, but you would be off by about a decade. She was the one who said (in reference to the elder one), "George Bush was born with a silver foot in his mouth" at the D convention; a few years after that, she lost her re-election to, of all worms, W.



So much for my memory. Ok, she was still around…


----------



## JayMysteri0

Someone right now in Texas is taking notes, for future culture wars

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1434019945365614592/


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Someone right now in Texas is taking notes, for future culture wars
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1434019945365614592/



See also:









						China to ban effeminate men from TV
					

Since no one on the left seems to care about China's horrible human rights record, maybe this will get them fired up.  https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-entertainment-business-religion-china-62dda0fc98601dd5afa3aa555a901b3f




					talkedabout.com


----------



## Alli

Huntn said:


> It was reported on NPR yesterday that the Delta varient is much more virulent. That it can be spread by those vaccinated, which is different than previous versions and why it is vital to still wear a mask. However, the key to arresting this pandemic is to talk the dummies into getting their shots.



Which basically means those of us who have been vaccinated are wearing masks to protect the idiots who refuse to get vaccinated.


----------



## Thomas Veil

And us, too. Don't forget breakthrough infections happen. Some of us can still get sick, if less severely.

Personally, I have a moderately serious lung condition. Getting infected at all is not a good option for me.


----------



## Alli

After all this time calling Florida’s governor “DeathSantis,” I heard a great one yesterday for the governor of the great state of Texas - “Abbottoire.”


----------



## JayMysteri0

Seriously!  How can anyone back this collection of shitty assholes?

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1435344616539131905/

Individuals of this sort have repeatedly shown they're both corrupt & inept.

The very things individuals like this would burst blood vessels claiming others are doing to them without any evidence, but first chance they get they actually go do it.


----------



## Huntn

JayMysteri0 said:


> Seriously!  How can anyone back this collection of shitty assholes?
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1435344616539131905/
> 
> Individuals of this sort have repeatedly shown they're both corrupt & inept.
> 
> The very things individuals like this would burst blood vessels claiming others are doing to them without any evidence, but first chance they get they actually go do it.



I’m so fucking disgusted by the SHIT HEADS in charge of this state.


----------



## Thomas Veil

Alli said:


> After all this time calling Florida’s governor “DeathSantis,” I heard a great one yesterday for the governor of the great state of Texas - “Abbottoire.”




Speaking of epithets,_ this_ story is at once hilarious/clueless/hypocritical/you-name it:









						Dems' #TexasTaliban slander of pro-lifers is downright obscene — New York Post
					

A new Texas law that drastically restricts abortion didn’t just spawn outrage from progressives. It also created a Twitter hashtag — #TexasTaliban — that trended as liberal celebrities and their followers vented their outrage at the prospect of the end of legal abortion in the Lone Star State...




					apple.news
				




It’s not a slander. This is how it starts. #TexasTaliban sounds pretty spot on to me.


----------



## SuperMatt

Thomas Veil said:


> Speaking of epithets,_ this_ story is at once hilarious/clueless/hypocritical/you-name it:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dems' #TexasTaliban slander of pro-lifers is downright obscene — New York Post
> 
> 
> A new Texas law that drastically restricts abortion didn’t just spawn outrage from progressives. It also created a Twitter hashtag — #TexasTaliban — that trended as liberal celebrities and their followers vented their outrage at the prospect of the end of legal abortion in the Lone Star State...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> apple.news
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It’s not a slander. This is how it starts. #TexasTaliban sounds pretty spot on to me.



If the author wanted to be taken seriously about not demonizing the other side, maybe he should have rethought this paragraph:



> But the analogy between the Texas law and the Taliban — who, *thanks to President Joe Biden*, have returned to power in Afghanistan — isn’t just a stray epithet. It’s an obscene moral equivalence that delegitimizes one side of a debate over which reasonable Americans disagree.



Yes, the failed 20-year Afghan war is all Joe Biden’s fault. You are doing exactly the same thing you are excoriating others for doing!

The NY Post already has a pretty bad reputation, but publishing a piece written by Jonathan Tobin actually seems to have worsened it… not a small feat.

By the way, Jonathan Tobin runs a site called the Jewish News Syndicate, which claims to have high-quality reporting, but also includes a button you can push to submit your own article. I wouldn’t suggest reading too many of its articles if you have a weak stomach… but I can sum them up for you. Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is anti-Semitic.


----------



## lizkat

SuperMatt said:


> If the author wanted to be taken seriously about not demonizing the other side, maybe he should have rethought this paragraph:
> 
> 
> Yes, the failed 20-year Afghan war is all Joe Biden’s fault. You are doing exactly the same thing you are excoriating others for doing!
> 
> The NY Post already has a pretty bad reputation, but publishing a piece written by Jonathan Tobin actually seems to have worsened it… not a small feat.
> 
> By the way, Jonathan Tobin runs a site called the Jewish News Syndicate, which claims to have high-quality reporting, but also includes a button you can push to submit your own article. I wouldn’t suggest reading too many of its articles if you have a weak stomach… but I can sum them up for you. Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is anti-Semitic.





Your points are well taken but they don't smash the pretty reasonable analogy of Taliban to Texas anti-choice legislators if you ask me.    Ironic that right wingers often rail on about Sharia law coming to the USA...  when  legislation from their own in Texas now surpasses the facts on that score by inviting vigilante behavior and makes a mockery of American rule of law.   Eventually It won't survive scrutiny by our court system but meanwhile if likely shores up votes in parts of GOP-leaning Texas.  It's a dice roll though whether the state legislature has gone too far for moderate voters including some Republicans.

Still this is all down to the RNC in the end -- because they rashly decided that "policy" and "platform" were to be subsumed to worship of Donald Trump.  Not everyone agrees in the state ranks, apparently, and  in Texas (and now in hastily copycat red states as well)  Republican legislators are renewing and expanding traditional party planks of the GOP,  outside of Trump-centered rally or convention arenas.    Highly controversial legislation and ensuing social media frenzy are the new venue for buttressing the reach of the GOP's potential electorate.


----------



## SuperMatt

lizkat said:


> Your points are well taken but they don't smash the pretty reasonable analogy of Taliban to Texas anti-choice legislators if you ask me.    Ironic that right wingers often rail on about Sharia law coming to the USA...  when  legislation from their own in Texas now surpasses the facts on that score by inviting vigilante behavior and makes a mockery of American rule of law.   Eventually It won't survive scrutiny by our court system but meanwhile if likely shores up votes in parts of GOP-leaning Texas.  It's a dice roll though whether the state legislature has gone too far for moderate voters including some Republicans.
> 
> Still this is all down to the RNC in the end -- because they rashly decided that "policy" and "platform" were to be subsumed to worship of Donald Trump.  Not everyone agrees in the state ranks, apparently, and  in Texas (and now in hastily copycat red states as well)  Republican legislators are renewing and expanding traditional party planks of the GOP,  outside of Trump-centered rally or convention arenas.    Highly controversial legislation and ensuing social media frenzy are the new venue for buttressing the reach of the GOP's potential electorate.



I did find his arguments just plain silly, so I went straight to his obvious biases and lack of any journalistic credibility instead of attacking his arguments. You’ve done that superbly above. Thanks!


----------



## lizkat

SuperMatt said:


> I did find his arguments just plain silly, so I went straight to his obvious biases and lack of any journalistic credibility instead of attacking his arguments. You’ve done that superbly above. Thanks!




I used to glance at the Post now and then even after I left NYC (where I read it over other people's shoulders on the subway).   But my look-ins there now are pretty few and far between.   And yeah, Jonathan Tobin's site is a bridge too far for me.  Worth warning people off it...


----------



## Deleted member 215

The New York Post is just an absolute trash rag. It's as bad as Breitbart but at least Breitbart doesn't try to be taken seriously.


----------



## Alli

Thomas Veil said:


> Speaking of epithets,_ this_ story is at once hilarious/clueless/hypocritical/you-name it:






SuperMatt said:


> The NY Post already has a pretty bad reputation, but publishing a piece written by Jonathan Tobin actually seems to have worsened it… not a small feat.






TBL said:


> The New York Post is just an absolute trash rag. It's as bad as Breitbart but at least Breitbart doesn't try to be taken seriously.



And this, children, is why we don’t read the Post.


----------



## JayMysteri0

WTF?!!





https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1438838411918516228/

I have a feeling that "they aren't sending their best" will be making a come back, without involving anything Mexico.


----------



## Joe

People are trash.


----------



## Yoused

Governor Abbot is so unpopular that Matthew McConaughey leads him in polling by 9 percentage points. Not sure if the actor has actually made any moves towards running for office, but maybe he should, since he  leads Beto by a lot as well.


----------



## SuperMatt

Yoused said:


> Governor Abbot is so unpopular that Matthew McConaughey leads him in polling by 9 percentage points. Not sure if the actor has actually made any moves towards running for office, but maybe he should, since he  leads Beto by a lot as well.



Reagan and Trump didn’t scare people off from voting for yet another entertainer?

How did Carrot Top do in the polling?


----------



## SuperMatt

*Serial killer caught in Texas*



> …police allege Thornburg’s room is where, in a matter of days, he killed three people, dismembered their bodies and stored their remains in plastic containers. Police also said Thornburg, 41, is believed to have transported the remains to a dumpster 25 miles away from the inn where he set them on fire, according to an arrest affidavit. He described the killings to police as “sacrifices,” the affidavit states.



He is also believed to have murdered a former roommate and then burning their house to the ground, but the cops completely missed it.



> But the killings were not Thornburg’s first, he told police in an interview before his arrest on Monday, according to the affidavit. Thornburg said that, in May, he sacrificed his roommate by slicing his throat in Fort Worth and setting their home ablaze, the affidavit states.





> In May, Thornburg was considered a person of interest after the house he shared with Jewell exploded, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. But the medical examiner did not rule Jewell’s death a homicide, saying the cause was inconclusive, and police did not seek Thornburg’s arrest.
> Thornburg spoke at Jewell’s funeral, the Star-Telegram reported. He called his roommate, and fellow student of scripture, a “good friend.”




Speaking at the funeral of the person you murdered? Wow, now that is some real evil…



			https://wapo.st/3mnAbdE


----------



## lizkat

SuperMatt said:


> *Serial killer caught in Texas*
> 
> 
> He is also believed to have murdered a former roommate and then burning their house to the ground, but the cops completely missed it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Speaking at the funeral of the person you murdered? Wow, now that is some real evil…
> 
> 
> 
> https://wapo.st/3mnAbdE




His victims "needed to be sacrificed?"   How far does one get to take religious freedom in the USA, anyway?

Guy is a psychopath, plus whatever else he is in the eyes of the law,  and the country is short of adequate mental health care access.


----------



## Thomas Veil

Alli said:


> And this, children, is why we don’t read the Post.


----------



## lizkat

Alli said:


> And this, children, is why we don’t read the Post.




Well at least not since Pete Hamill livened up that paper in the good old and bad days of the city (and the New York Post) before he moved on to slots at the likes of The Herald Tribune, Daily News, Village Voice and Newsday...

[ wrong thread for this, but if one has never watched the epic 2018 HBO docu _*Breslin and Hamill:  Deadline Artists*_, it's worth the watch. Two legendary, flawed and sometimes dueling columnists (when Jimmy Breslin was at the NY Post and Pete Hamlin at the Daily News) were always a good read whether one agreed, disagreed or was completely outraged by what either or both of them had most recently penned. They remain among my favorite memories of an era in New York that is now usually roundly badmouthed --and deserved a lot of the criticism, but you know the young overlook almost everything and I was no different, so the city was always my pearl no matter how deep we were all mired in the muck of it back then. ]


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

I wonder how recent California to Texas transplants feel about their decision now. If they lived in CA for a long time and are under the age of 50 I can’t imagine they are a far-right leaner. One of the reasons often given for the move is politics but they traded in SJWs, cancel culture, and sanctuary cities for people running amuck with guns like it’s the old west, abortion bounty hunters, and giving covid the opportunity to spread as much as is humanly possible. You’re also a lot more likely to have a mask related altercation and run into religious nuts and white people as the biggest victims on the planet every time you leave the house.

Abbott also seems 100% dedicated to passing legislation that will piss off liberals and for that reason alone, as if the state has no other issues. Democrats should learn a lesson here. Ram your agenda through and see if it can be reversed, or if the people even want it to be reversed. The biggest problem Republicans have with the Democrat agenda is it is wildly popular. Once the people experience it, regardless of political leaning, good luck reversing it.

“Hey, I just got paid work leave, child tax credits and free pre-k, expanded healthcare coverage, and free junior college. Fuck that! Reverse it! And lower my taxes. That extra $100 a month will more than makeup for taking away all those things I just mentioned.”


----------



## SuperMatt

This could have gone into the Police Brutality thread, but it’s specifically about juvenile detention centers in Texas and how the kids are being abused by the guards.









						Justice Dept. to Investigate Reports of Abuse in Texas’ Juvenile Prisons (Published 2021)
					

Accusations of excessive force, sexual misconduct, and the use of isolation and pepper spray prompted the inquiry into the treatment of incarcerated children.




					www.nytimes.com
				



(paywall removed)



> Ms. Clarke said that the Justice Department investigation into Texas’ five secure juvenile facilities came after at least 11 staff members were arrested and accused of sexually abusing the children in their care, with one arrest as recently as last week. Other staff members reportedly shared pornography with children and paid them in cash and drugs to assault their peers.
> 
> “There are also reports of staff members’ use of excessive force on children, including kicking, body-slamming and choking children to the point of unconsciousness,” Ms. Clarke said. She added that there was also an incident last February in which “a staffer reportedly pepper-sprayed a child and placed him in full mechanical restraints, including handcuffs, a belly chain, shackles and a spit mask, and then body-slammed him onto a bed.”


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> This could have gone into the Police Brutality thread, but it’s specifically about juvenile detention centers in Texas and how the kids are being abused by the guards.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Justice Dept. to Investigate Reports of Abuse in Texas’ Juvenile Prisons (Published 2021)
> 
> 
> Accusations of excessive force, sexual misconduct, and the use of isolation and pepper spray prompted the inquiry into the treatment of incarcerated children.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nytimes.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (paywall removed)




if Abbott finds out this pisses off liberals he’ll make it standard operating procedure.


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I wonder how recent California to Texas transplants feel about their decision now. If they lived in CA for a long time and are under the age of 50 I can’t imagine they are a far-right leaner. One of the reasons often given for the move is politics but they traded in SJWs, cancel culture, and sanctuary cities for *people running amuck with guns like it’s the old west*, abortion bounty hunters, and giving covid the opportunity to spread as much as is humanly possible. You’re also a lot more likely to have a mask related altercation and run into religious nuts and white people as the biggest victims on the planet every time you leave the house.
> 
> Abbott also seems 100% dedicated to passing legislation that will piss off liberals and for that reason alone, as if the state has no other issues. Democrats should learn a lesson here. Ram your agenda through and see if it can be reversed, or if the people even want it to be reversed. The biggest problem Republicans have with the Democrat agenda is it is wildly popular. Once the people experience it, regardless of political leaning, good luck reversing it.
> 
> “Hey, I just got paid work leave, child tax credits and free pre-k, expanded healthcare coverage, and free junior college. Fuck that! Reverse it! And lower my taxes. That extra $100 a month will more than makeup for taking away all those things I just mentioned.”




Born and raised in Texas and in reality you don't really see anyone running around with guns like its the Wild West. I can't remember the last time I saw someone open carry even though it's legal here. Most people own guns in their home for protection and conceal carry so you don't see it. The only people that open carry are the idiots at rallies trying to prove a point. Other than that most people just live their lives not waving their guns everywhere, myself included. 

I feel like the biggest issue for Californians moving to Texas would be just the sheer amount of fucking stupid people lol - our education system sucks and it shows. I mean, just yesterday I saw a car with anti-vaccine stickers on the back, and "Stop the Steal" stickers. This state is full of stupid and religious people.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JagRunner said:


> Born and raised in Texas and in reality you don't really see anyone running around with guns like its the Wild West. I can't remember the last time I saw someone open carry even though it's legal here. Most people own guns in their home for protection and conceal carry so you don't see it. The only people that open carry are the idiots at rallies trying to prove a point. Other than that most people just live their lives not waving their guns everywhere, myself included.
> 
> I feel like the biggest issue for Californians moving to Texas would be just the sheer amount of fucking stupid people lol - our education system sucks and it shows. I mean, just yesterday I saw a car with anti-vaccine stickers on the back, and "Stop the Steal" stickers. This state is full of stupid and religious people.




I was being a bit hyperbolic with my wild west comment.  Still, with the voter law changes over completely unproven massive voter fraud, it seems like Texas is doing much of the same in response to "They're coming for your guns!"

We used to have a vendor come to my work who had 3 Trump stickers on his car.  The condition of the car screamed poor life decisions and no amount of Trump was going to undo that.


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I was being a bit hyperbolic with my wild west comment.  Still, with the voter law changes over completely unproven massive voter fraud, it seems like Texas is doing much of the same in response to "They're coming for your guns!"
> 
> We used to have a vendor come to my work who had 3 Trump stickers on his car.  The condition of the car screamed poor life decisions and no amount of Trump was going to undo that.




Abbott and Republicans are getting desperate. They know Texas is changing and will eventually flip blue. It's only a matter of time. And they are doing everything in their power to stop it right now or at least slow it down.

They tried to get votes turned over in Harris County (Houston) last election because they were "Drive-thru" voting because of Covid. There is absolutely no difference between waiting in your car and standing in line. They still verify all of your information before handing you a tablet to vote in your car. Republicans don't want to make it easy to vote because they'll lose a lot easier. They'd rather you stand and wait in a line for hours.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JagRunner said:


> Abbott and Republicans are getting desperate. They know Texas is changing and will eventually flip blue. It's only a matter of time. And they are doing everything in their power to stop it right now or at least slow it down.
> 
> They tried to get votes turned over in Harris County (Houston) last election because they were "Drive-thru" voting because of Covid. There is absolutely no difference between waiting in your car and standing in line. They still verify all of your information before handing you a tablet to vote in your car. Republicans don't want to make it easy to vote because they'll lose a lot easier. They'd rather you stand and wait in a line for hours.




Honestly I think they are hastening their own demise with these actions.  But when a good part of your party's platform is based on known and well-covered lies you can't exactly pivot to the truth to be your savior.  Just double down on lies, more of them and bigger.


----------



## JayMysteri0

I'm going to need help here, with something NOT covered

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1448741745584480259/

What IS the opposing perspective of the Holocaust, that you WANT to OPENLY share with anyone publicly?

Do you REALLY want to be that person who tries that?


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> I'm going to need help here, with something NOT covered
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1448741745584480259/
> 
> What IS the opposing position of the Holocaust, that you WANT to OPENLY share with anyone publicly?
> 
> Do you REALLY want to be that person who tries that?



Will they have people offer opposing views on everything?

”Welcome to math class kids. 2+2=4. But per Texas law, let us now offer an opposing perspective!”


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> I'm going to need help here, with something NOT covered
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1448741745584480259/
> 
> What IS the opposing perspective of the Holocaust, that you WANT to OPENLY share with anyone publicly?
> 
> Do you REALLY want to be that person who tries that?



Interesting side note here: The superintendent in charge of this school system which thinks we need Holocaust deniers in the classroom doesn’t seem to be in any danger of losing her job. That’s a pretty sharp contrast to other principals and superintendents who DARED say that racism is a bad thing and that maybe we should do something about it… and lost their jobs.

When Palestinian members of Congress challenge Israel’s policies, they are called anti-Semitic by the right. Yet I see NOBODY on the right saying anything similar in this situation of Holocaust denial.









						Texas School Official Apologizes For 'Opposing' Views On Holocaust Comment
					

The remarks were "in no way to convey the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history," said the superintendent.




					news.yahoo.com


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Texas man who fatally shot Moroccan man in unfamiliar car in driveway charged with murder
					

Terry Duane Turner, 65, was arrested Friday and charged with murdering Adil Dghoughi.




					www.nbcnews.com


----------



## SuperMatt

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Texas man who fatally shot Moroccan man in unfamiliar car in driveway charged with murder
> 
> 
> Terry Duane Turner, 65, was arrested Friday and charged with murdering Adil Dghoughi.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nbcnews.com











						Murders the police tried to ignore
					

I was going to make a thread to talk about the Ahmaud Arbery trial. But then I saw this:  https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-man-terry-turner-finally-arrested-over-murder-of-moroccan-driver-adil-dghoughi?ref=scroll  Once again, a white guy murders a member of a minority group and the cops don’t...




					talkedabout.com


----------



## Joe

I'm not surprised with that guy getting shot because he was parked in their driveway. 

I have the NextDoor app but I only download it and post when I'm looking for someone to help with something I need done on my home. Other than that it's not on my phone. I got tired of all the racism and trigger happy people on there. All the antivaxxers posting conspiracy theories. 

I remember when Pokemon Go was popular people were threatening to shoot people that got to close to their home trying to catch Pokemon. I've seen people post videos of someone just using their driveway to back in and out to turn around and they are already threatening to shoot them if they come back. I'm all for the right to protect your home but some of these gun owners give good gun owners a bad name. 

I live in a boring quiet neighborhood, but if you read the NextDoor app you'd think I lived in a 3rd world country. These people are afraid of EVERYTHING. Fox News has these people thinking Antifa is roaming our boring neighborhood.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JagRunner said:


> I'm not surprised with that guy getting shot because he was parked in their driveway.
> 
> I have the NextDoor app but I only download it and post when I'm looking for someone to help with something I need done on my home. Other than that it's not on my phone. I got tired of all the racism and trigger happy people on there. All the antivaxxers posting conspiracy theories.
> 
> I remember when Pokemon Go was popular people were threatening to shoot people that got to close to their home trying to catch Pokemon. I've seen people post videos of someone just using their driveway to back in and out to turn around and they are already threatening to shoot them if they come back. I'm all for the right to protect your home but some of these gun owners give good gun owners a bad name.
> 
> I live in a boring quiet neighborhood, but if you read the NextDoor app you'd think I lived in a 3rd world country. These people are afraid of EVERYTHING. Fox News has these people thinking Antifa is roaming our boring neighborhood.




Never used NextDoor.  Was thinking about it, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that it would be just as venom filled as social media.  Plus you get the bonus of evil shit is supposedly going on all around you at all times.  I'll pass.


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Never used NextDoor.  Was thinking about it, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that it would be just as venom filled as social media.  Plus you get the bonus of evil shit is supposedly going on all around you at all times.  I'll pass.




Yeah, it's not worth your time. Like I said, I only download/use it when I'm looking for someone to help me fix something in my home that I can't do myself. Other than that it is trash. It's the Facebook for your neighborhood.

I got suspended once because this girl claimed this suspicious black guy followed her from the store down the street to the park in our neighborhood. I started asking questions and then it came out that the black guy was at the park FIRST. They were both at the store, but he walked to the park first and was sitting on the bench minding his own business until she started to feel uncomfortable. So then I asked her what made him suspicious and she goes "Well, he's just looking at his phone not making eye contact with anyone" lolololololol - I got suspended for calling her out. It was MacRumors that day.

Another time, this guy posts that a suspicious African American male was walking down the main street into our neighborhood. I was like "what makes him suspicious?" and he goes "He didn't make eye contact with me as I drove by" lololololol

I just wish people would admit they're fucking racist.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs law restricting transgender students in school sports
					

Supporters have said the law is aimed at protecting girls, while critics have called it discriminatory.




					www.nbcnews.com
				




"So I was following this Netflix controversy and I saw another opportunity to be on the wrong side of history, which as you know, is about the only thing I do as governor of the great state of Texas.  Greg Brick Wall Against Progress Abbott is what my friends call me.  Now back to Senator Cruz for some Vaudeville humor."


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs law restricting transgender students in school sports
> 
> 
> Supporters have said the law is aimed at protecting girls, while critics have called it discriminatory.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nbcnews.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "So I was following this Netflix controversy and I saw another opportunity to be on the wrong side of history, which as you know, is about the only thing I do as governor of the great state of Texas.  Greg Brick Wall Against Progress Abbott is what my friends call me.  Now back to Senator Cruz for some Vaudeville humor."




I have lived in Texas my whole life. I follow High School football like the religion it is in Texas...I follow HS sports in general here. I grew up in a small town where Friday Night Lights was real. I am a gay male, and I have yet to see transgendered athletes running all over the sports scene here. Like I said, Transgendered are the new bogey man for Republicans. They need something to keep their base angry and scared. I'm not saying there aren't any transgendered in sports. It's just not this BIG issue like Republicans make it out to be. 

I was talking to a friend of mine (straight girl) about this. And I told her I have been out for over 20 years, since I was 18. I have been all over the gay scene and I have yet to meet any transgendered athletes....so I know straight people don't know more than I do. 

Now what I have noticed following HS football the last 3 decades was that more and more boys are joining the dance teams, and the cheerleading teams. They're not transgendered. They're just boys that want to dance and cheer. I remember the first time I saw a guy on a dance team I was back in my podunk hometown and the visiting team had a boy on the dance team. I heard chuckles and jokes in the stands from insecure men when they noticed him. But then when they realized he was fucking good their tune changed. I heard them say "dang, he's the best on the team" LMAO

Long story short, Republicans just need a bogeyman so their base can have someone to blame for their shitty lives.


----------



## SuperMatt

Texas working hard to ban books discussing sexuality and/or race:



			https://wapo.st/3BqaEps
		


(paywall removed)



> Krause also wants superintendents to identify “any other books or content” in their districts that may “address or contain” topics of human sexuality, STDs, AIDS, HIV or material that might make students “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex or convey that a student, by virtue of their race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive.”



So… learning about sex and STDs is illegal now in Texas?


> Books that touch on these subjects violate the state’s H.B. 3979, a law that went into effect last month that limits how race-related subjects are taught in the state’s schools. It is known as the “critical race theory law.” In December, this law will be superseded by S.B. 3, which establishes that teachers can’t be forced to discuss current controversial topics in their classrooms.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> Texas working hard to ban books discussing sexuality and/or race:
> 
> 
> 
> https://wapo.st/3BqaEps
> 
> 
> 
> (paywall removed)
> 
> 
> So… learning about sex and STDs is illegal now in Texas?




Texas should just build a picket fence on the entire border and declare a state holiday once a year when they will whitewash the fence.


----------



## Yoused

Texas School Censors All Of ‘Huck Finn’ Except The N-Words
					

PLANO, TX—In a purported effort to stop the rise of woke, leftist Critical Race Theory in the classroom, a local school district issued a decision Thursday censoring all of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain except for its copious use of the n-word. “This move will allow educators...




					www.theonion.com
				




(note the site … but, still … )


----------



## Yoused

However, the Onion did not manufacture this: the Texas House Freedumb Caucus made a list of books that young people ought not be exposed to because of squicky themes like homosexuality and wokeness that might make them uncomfortable. The list was then sent to 17 school districts in the state demanding information about whether their libraries have these books in them.

*The Austin school district, one of the largest in the state, will not comply with a request from the Republican leader of the Texas House General Investigating Committee to confirm whether it carries certain books in its libraries. “After doing more legal research, we've decided that a response is not necessary, especially since anyone can search our library catalogs,” said district spokesman Jason Stanford.*​
"Do your own damn legwork," they said, "We might even teach you what this 'alphabet' thing is."


----------



## fooferdoggie

a real problem for sure.​Texas Gov. Decries 'Pornography' In School Libraries As GOP Targets LGBTQ Books​








						Texas Gov. Decries 'Pornography' In School Libraries As GOP Targets LGBTQ Books
					

Gov. Greg Abbott’s letter railing against “pornographic or obscene material” in school libraries follows state lawmakers targeting books by LGBTQ authors.




					www.huffpost.com


----------



## JayMysteri0

Ookay, I'm done for the day if not week.  So before a new thread is started...



> QAnon supporters in Dallas for ‘return of JFK Jr., Trump reinstatement’
> 
> 
> The return of JFK Jr. in the city and spot where his father died in 1964 is meant to begin the reinstatement of former Pres. Donald Trump, according to several QAnon-affiliated social media account…
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.kxan.com





> DALLAS (KXAN) — As state and local elections continue into the evening on Nov. 2 across Texas, QAnon conspiracy theorists gathered in downtown Dallas to await the return of John F. Kennedy, Jr., who died in 1999.
> 
> The gathering began at Dealey Plaza Monday night, The Dallas Morning News reports. The return of JFK Jr. in the city and spot where his father died in 1963 is meant to begin the reinstatement of former Pres. Donald Trump, according to several QAnon-affiliated social media accounts.
> 
> Rolling Stone explains a popular QAnon influencer on Telegram repeated to their over 250,000 followers debunked claims of widespread fraud resulting in the election of Pres. Joe Biden. The influencer theorizes that not only will JKF Jr., who died in a plane crash at the age of 38, return but that one QAnon theory will be proven true: that every U.S. president and law since 1871 is illegitimate.






> The “1871” theory relates to the passage of the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871, which theorists believe turned transitioned the U.S. into a corporation. “_The theory is based on a false interpretation of the Organic Act,”_ writes BBC’s Shayan Sardarizadeh. _“[The act] merely turned the District of Columbia into a municipal corporation, better known as a local governing body, and has no relation to a president or the US as a whole.”_
> 
> This “loophole” is believed to make Trump’s reinstatement possible — after which he would make JFK Jr. (who’s believed to have been in hiding) his vice-president before stepping down, making Kennedy Jr. president. The influencer, RS reports, says once Trump steps down, he will become “1 of 7 new Kings. Most likely the King of Kings.”




I don't know what to make of any of that.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1455597102973784076/


----------



## shadow puppet

...and to tag on to @JayMysteri0 's post with more of the delusional cray.
What crack are these people smoking?





https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1455679278146899980/


----------



## SuperMatt

Whatever happened to giving kids candy on Halloween instead of trying to shoot them? Ah, Texas.









						Texas woman points gun at 7-year-old for trick-or-treating outside her home
					

Monica Ann Bradford, 35, reportedly exited her home with a loaded weapon and pointed it at a 7-year-old child who was walking in front of her property.




					www.fox5atlanta.com


----------



## Herdfan

shadow puppet said:


> ...and to tag on to @JayMysteri0 's post with more of the delusional cray.
> What crack are these people smoking?
> 
> View attachment 9537
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1455679278146899980/



Oh, FFS!


----------



## SuperMatt

I just saw another post about Ted Cruz in the COVID stupid thread, but I am gonna make another Cruz post anyway.  Here’s his genius secession plan from Texas, which involves installing Joe Rogan as President.









						Ted Cruz lays out the scenario for Texas to secede from the United States and appoint Joe Rogan president | Boing Boing
					

Ted Cruz spoke at Texas A&M University about the possibility of Texas picking up its ball and leaving the United States. Cancun Cruz told his constituents “we’re not there yet,” but warned if c…




					boingboing.net


----------



## Joe

Travis Scott has a history of inciting violence at his concerts. IDK why people look up to these trash celebrities. Him and Kylie Jenner are trash. #Astroworld

Kylie and Scott are TRASH


----------



## Joe

Beto O'Rourke announced he's running for Governor of Texas. Yee Haw. Lets get it!


----------



## JayMysteri0

JagRunner said:


> Beto O'Rourke announced he's running for Governor of Texas. Yee Haw. Lets get it!



I sickly fascinated to see what Abbott tries to conjure up now.

He's got a primary challenge from an even bigger nut in Alan West, and Beto is popular.

Both of those things make for some serious desperation down the road.


----------



## ronntaylor

JayMysteri0 said:


> I sickly fascinated to see what Abbott tries to conjure up now.
> 
> He's got a primary challenge from an even bigger nut in Alan West, and Beto is popular.
> 
> Both of those things make for some serious desperation down the road.



It appears the Abbott campaign was waiting for Beto to make it official. They already had ads running tying him to Biden. And while holding a press conference announcing a Dem switching to the GQP, Abbott responded to Beto's announcement. They'll play up Beto's ill-advised anti-gun rants a sickening amount of times, but they'll need much more than that. I'm sure anti-CRT ads are being polished (can you really polish turds?), ready to air any second.

Not sure he'll beat Abbott, but hoping he'll get Dem voters out and help Dems downstream in the face of extreme gerrymandering that tilts the playing even more to the GQP.


----------



## Thomas Veil

*Gavin Newsom calls for bill modeled on Texas abortion ban to crack down on gun manufacturers*



> California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Saturday he will push for a new law modeled on Texas’ abortion ban that would let private citizens sue anyone who makes or sells assault weapons or ghost guns.




Unlike the Texas abortion law, conservatives will scream bloody murder about this. 

Well played, governor!









						Gavin Newsom calls for bill modeled on Texas abortion ban to crack down on gun manufacturers — The Sacramento Bee
					

California Governor Gavin Newsom said he will push for a new law modeled on Texas’ abortion ban to let private citizens sue people who make or sell assault weapons or ghost guns.




					apple.news


----------



## SuperMatt

Thomas Veil said:


> *Gavin Newsom calls for bill modeled on Texas abortion ban to crack down on gun manufacturers*
> 
> 
> 
> Unlike the Texas abortion law, conservatives will scream bloody murder about this.
> 
> Well played, governor!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Gavin Newsom calls for bill modeled on Texas abortion ban to crack down on gun manufacturers — The Sacramento Bee
> 
> 
> California Governor Gavin Newsom said he will push for a new law modeled on Texas’ abortion ban to let private citizens sue people who make or sell assault weapons or ghost guns.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> apple.news



I will bet you one million dollars that if the law passes, the Supreme Court WILL put a stay in place, unlike with the Texas abortion law. Because the constitution is a joke to them (apparently).


----------



## Thomas Veil

The important thing, however, is that if the SC has any sympathy regarding the supposed constitutionality of that whole vigilante-lawsuit thing, this will certainly give them second thoughts.


----------



## SuperMatt

Thomas Veil said:


> The important thing, however, is that if the SC has any sympathy regarding the supposed constitutionality of that whole vigilane-lawsuit thing, this will certainly give them second thoughts.



It is obvious that the liberal justices and Justice Roberts see the constitutional problem with a law like the Texas law. The conservative justices are “oh think of all the babies that will LIVE because of this, praise Jesus!”

Ending the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees was a shrewd move by McConnell. That’s how he got a bunch of extreme right-wingers on the court. It also tells you just how stupid Manchin is; he is not a strategic thinker like McConnell. He thinks if he keeps the filibuster, that the Republicans will follow suit if/when they get into power. He is taking the short-term fame route, instead of thinking long-term. Pretty pathetic for the other Democrats to have to deal with somebody like him when they have the chance to do so much good for the country.

Whoops… sorry got a bit off topic. Ok then… Well, speaking of Senators who crave attention, how’s Ted Cruz doing?


----------



## JayMysteri0

SuperMatt said:


> It is obvious that the liberal justices and Justice Roberts see the constitutional problem with a law like the Texas law. The conservative justices are “oh think of all the babies that will LIVE because of this, praise Jesus!”
> 
> Ending the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees was a shrewd move by McConnell. That’s how he got a bunch of extreme right-wingers on the court. It also tells you just how stupid Manchin is; he is not a strategic thinker like McConnell. He thinks if he keeps the filibuster, that the Republicans will follow suit if/when they get into power. He is taking the short-term fame route, instead of thinking long-term. Pretty pathetic for the other Democrats to have to deal with somebody like him when they have the chance to do so much good for the country.
> 
> Whoops… sorry got a bit off topic. Ok then… Well, speaking of Senators who crave attention, how’s Ted Cruz doing?



I would disagree on Manchin.  I do believe he is thinking long term, but long term based on his own interests.  The filibuster when used in the way after it's initial intention, has been a tool to thwart things besides voting rights.  That's what Manchin cares about.  He sees the filibuster as a regular tool of congress now, that allows the minority from being steamrolled.  Like how you see on the state level where 'r' dominated state legislatures are doing things that even disregard things that the citizens of the state ( like non partisan organizations to draft voting precincts fairly, not along party lines ) definitively voted for.  For Manchin the filibuster is his ultimate "what about me" card, and no one's taking that away from him ever.  

I do keep hearing how dems should be grateful for Manchin because he's likely the only dem who could win in congress in Va.  But seriously who gives a fuck at this point?  If his interest is solely in what's good for Manchin over the party, he might as well be a 'r', since his voting is just as dependable as a partisan 'r' on things of true importance to the party.  Manchin can't even use "country over party" as a shield, because he's shown his own interests trump those of the rest of country.  Boot this MFer, and make him the latest 'Joe Lieberman', so he can't stop riding the resources & benefits of the dem party.  Want to play "independent" when it personally suits you?  Play "independent" 24/7 elsewhere.



Thomas Veil said:


> The important thing, however, is that if the SC has any *sympathy* regarding the supposed constitutionality of that whole vigilante-lawsuit thing, this will certainly give them second thoughts.




Sympathy ( or empathy ) is the key word here.

In both cases, you're dealing with entities shielded from the effects their actions or inactions cause.  So they imagine themselves ( as some posters like to do in forums ) as objectively seeing something.  Which is completely wrong, it's just being an uncaring dick because you won't suffer the consequences of one's actions / inactions.  Manchin's voting rights aren't going away.  Manchin's lifestyle won't be changed if he gets Build Back Better passed with everything progressives wanted or he whittles it down to the size of a small town school lunch program. Barret was able to raise her seven kids & have a career, so what's the big deal about adoptions?  Thomas has always been a partisan sell out asshole.

When shit doesn't affect you, it's a hell of a lot easier to ignore the filth & stench you've left for others.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> The filibuster when used in the way after it's initial intention, has been a tool to thwart things besides voting rights. That's what Manchin cares about. He sees the filibuster as a regular tool of congress now, that allows the minority from being steamrolled.



My issue is: does he REALLY think that by keeping the filibuster when Dems are in power, that Mitch will follow suit? Mitch killed the Supreme Court Justice filibuster when it suited him (using Harry Reid’s ending of filibuster for lower court appointments as his excuse). McConnell constantly changed his tune on every Senate rule when it suited him. 10 *months* before the end of Obama‘s term was “too late” for him to get a Supreme Court justice. 10 *days* before the end of Trump’s term was NOT too late to have Amy Coney Barrett step over RBG’s corpse.

If Manchin (or any other Democrat) thinks that keeping the filibuster in place when they have power means that Republicans will reciprocate… well I’ve got a bridge to sell them.


----------



## JayMysteri0

SuperMatt said:


> My issue is: does he REALLY think that by keeping the filibuster when Dems are in power, that Mitch will follow suit? Mitch killed the Supreme Court Justice filibuster when it suited him (using Harry Reid’s ending of filibuster for lower court appointments as his excuse). McConnell constantly changed his tune on every Senate rule when it suited him. 10 *months* before the end of Obama‘s term was “too late” for him to get a Supreme Court justice. 10 *days* before the end of Trump’s term was NOT too late to have Amy Coney Barrett step over RBG’s corpse.
> 
> If Manchin (or any other Democrat) thinks that keeping the filibuster in place when they have power means that Republicans will reciprocate… well I’ve got a bridge to sell them.



Manchin does NOT care!

If muscomitch tosses the filibuster, Manchin will go into his "tormented Jan" performance about it being gone.  But with onions the size of basketballs nearby to help with the tears.  Manchin, his family, and donors will still be fine & that's what ultimately matters.

I think like muscomitch, Manchin believes true political hacks will keep the filibuster around for their own needs when they are on the wrong side of the political fence.  Each side of the selfish prick scale knows that long term the filibuster is best for them.  If the country does make it's way into authoritarianism as the 'r's seem to want to go, then musco will see the filibuster's passing as a necessity.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Manchin does NOT care!
> 
> If muscomitch tosses the filibuster, Manchin will go into his "tormented Jan" performance about it being gone.
> 
> I think like muscomitch, Manchin believes true political hacks will keep the filibuster around for their own needs when they are on the wrong side of the political fence.  Each side of the selfish prick scale knows that long term the filibuster is best for them.  If the country does make it's way into authoritarianism as the 'r's seem to want to go, then musco will see the filibuster's passing as a necessity.



Agreed. That being said, with the Republicans taking the “government = bad“ position for the past few decades, they probably will keep the filibuster. They are ok with gridlock, so they value the filibuster more than being able to pass an agenda… especially since their agenda is not supported by a majority of Americans.


----------



## JayMysteri0

The results from the CA governor

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1470893929579139079/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1470872247934103556/


I've said it before, "short term thinking, long term consequences".


----------



## fooferdoggie

Texas man convicted of "providing material support to terrorism" for giving money to a friend who wanted to join ISIS. Judge gave him 18 months, Prosecutors appealed pointing out he isn't white. TX Appeal court agrees, gives him 12 years instead








						Texas man gets 12 years on terrorism charge at resentencing
					

A Texas man convicted of providing material support to the Islamic State group was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in federal prison after the government appealed his previous sentence, saying it was too lenient.  U.S. District Judge Charles R. Eskridge in Houston sentenced Asher Abid Khan, 27...




					news.yahoo.com


----------



## SuperMatt

fooferdoggie said:


> Texas man convicted of "providing material support to terrorism" for giving money to a friend who wanted to join ISIS. Judge gave him 18 months, Prosecutors appealed pointing out he isn't white. TX Appeal court agrees, gives him 12 years instead
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas man gets 12 years on terrorism charge at resentencing
> 
> 
> A Texas man convicted of providing material support to the Islamic State group was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in federal prison after the government appealed his previous sentence, saying it was too lenient.  U.S. District Judge Charles R. Eskridge in Houston sentenced Asher Abid Khan, 27...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> news.yahoo.com



Trump-appointed white judge, member of the Federalist Society.

Meanwhile, we have people who actually COMMITTED TERRORISM at the Capitol not even being charged with terrorism.

Just say it: only Muslims ever get convicted of “terrorism” because that’s what it’s all about.

Anybody that gave money to proud boys should do 12 years in prison too then.

Double standard. You see why the racists insisted on the term “radical Islamic terrorism” because they don’t give 2 shits if white people commit terrorism.

This guy deserves punishment, but he cooperated with prosecutors, under an agreement that they wouldn’t seek a long jail sentence. That was a big fat lie, as they’ve spent a long time appealing sentences until they got a longer one.









						Texas man admits material support to Islamic State group
					

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston-area man pleaded guilty Monday to providing material support to the Islamic State group under a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors. Under terms of the agreement, Asher Abid Khan, 23, of Spring, Texas, must fully cooperate with any further federal...




					apnews.com
				




Do you think the prosecutors will go through years of appeals to get a longer sentence for the Proud boys conspirator who is cooperating with them with a guilty plea? Hell no.


----------



## SuperMatt

Texas is abusing its National Guard troops, resulting in 4 recent suicides.









						Wave of suicides hits Texas National Guard’s border mission
					

Operation Lone Star's sudden and rapid expansion has left many Texas guardsmen struggling to balance their military and civilian lives, sometimes with tragic results.




					www.armytimes.com
				




All for a useless mission - “Operation Lone Star." The NG hasn’t helped with any abductions of migrants at the border. It’s all political, and these soldiers are pawns in a political game.

The Texas governor isn’t “pro-life” at all. This blood is on his hands.


----------



## Herdfan

SuperMatt said:


> Meanwhile, we have people who actually COMMITTED TERRORISM at the Capitol not even being charged with terrorism.




Why do you think that is?  Biden "controls" the DOJ so why hasn't Garland charged them?


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> Why do you think that is?  Biden "controls" the DOJ so why hasn't Garland charged them?



Research current American laws concerning terrorism. Come back when you’re done with your homework. Hint: Patriot Act.


----------



## Alli

Herdfan said:


> Why do you think that is?  Biden "controls" the DOJ so why hasn't Garland charged them?



The DOJ is a separate branch of government, it is not controlled by the president. Something the current POTUS clearly understands, and the former guy did not understand at all.


----------



## Hrafn

Alli said:


> The DOJ is a separate branch of government, it is not controlled by the president. Something the current POTUS clearly understands, and the former guy did not understand at all.



And, apparently someone else, as well.


----------



## Yoused

Herdfan said:


> Why do you think that is?  Biden "controls" the DOJ so why hasn't Garland charged them?



This has been explained elsewhere


Yoused said:


> There is a sort strategic reason for this. The conductors of the symphony of lies are almost entirely, if not entirely, Republicans. Because of this, attacking them directly from a government run by Democrats could (and probably would) be painted as using their position of power (such as it is) to persecute the opposition. Hence "_Tyranny!_" It is a dangerous position in which to put oneselves.
> 
> Meanwhile, the civil courts provide a serviceable venue. The terrortsars can be sued with abandon by anyone who can establish standing. Such actions would not be seen as a political attack by agents of the government and, even if unsuccessful, could serve to drain significant resources from the coffers of the aspiring autocrats.
> 
> Thus, in a very real way, Garland's strategy is probably the best approach.


----------



## SuperMatt

Something missing in the discussion which I thought @Herdfan might have reported back on… is that it’s basically impossible to label a domestic group a “terrorist organization” so you cannot get any kind of domestic terrorism charges. The Patriot Act was written to target foreigners. The entire word “terrorist” doesn’t apply to Americans no matter how heinous their crimes… when it comes to the Patriot Act. (Sorry the “USA Patriot Act” to be precise.)

This needs to be fixed.

Here’s a good explanation from various experts:









						No, the U.S. Capitol rioters can’t be charged with domestic terrorism for Jan. 6 insurrection
					

During a committee hearing on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, #GOPDomesticTerrorists trended on Twitter. But, the rioters can’t be charged with terrorism.




					www.verifythis.com
				






> According to the CRS report, “an individual may commit criminal acts that are widely considered domestic terrorism and be prosecuted for the criminal acts themselves, but an individual cannot be charged with committing an act of domestic terrorism under current federal law.”
> “For example, Timothy McVeigh, widely considered a domestic terrorist, was convicted of murder, conspiracy, and using a weapon of mass destruction in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people, but he was not convicted of domestic terrorism,” the report said.



If Timothy f-ing McVeigh isn’t a terrorist… well it just goes to show how xenophobic the anti-terror laws are in America. Thanks Dubya…


----------



## Yoused

SuperMatt said:


> Thanks Dubya…



I think most of the USA PATRIOT Act was authored by Darth Cheney. But, Dubya was the one who totally ignored the infamous August 6th PDB.


----------



## SuperMatt

Alli said:


> The DOJ is a separate branch of government, it is not controlled by the president. Something the current POTUS clearly understands, and the former guy did not understand at all.



Thank you for this. Does @Herdfan not recall that the AG is supposed to be independent? Maybe he thinks Bill Barr’s inexcusable conduct was the norm. Just another tenet of our democracy destroyed by Trump.


----------



## Herdfan

Alli said:


> The DOJ is a separate branch of government, it is not controlled by the president. Something the current POTUS clearly understands, and the former guy did not understand at all.





SuperMatt said:


> Thank you for this. Does @Herdfan not recall that the AG is supposed to be independent? Maybe he thinks Bill Barr’s inexcusable conduct was the norm. Just another tenet of our democracy destroyed by Trump.




I understand that it is supposed to be.  But I also know that the AG serves at the will of the President, as do all members of the cabinet.  So if the AG isn't doing what the President wants, they can simply be replaced.  

I guess I am just a bit more cynical that some of you.  I mean JFK picked his BROTHER.  Tell me there was an arms length relationship there.  Of course we know how that ended so maybe it wasn't a great idea.


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> I understand that it is supposed to be.  But I also know that the AG serves at the will of the President, as do all members of the cabinet.  So if the AG isn't doing what the President wants, they can simply be replaced.
> 
> I guess I am just a bit more cynical that some of you.  I mean JFK picked his BROTHER.  Tell me there was an arms length relationship there.  Of course we know how that ended so maybe it wasn't a great idea.



You prefer autocracy over the rule of law? Not surprising, based on your support of Trump.

And no mention of the actual terrorism laws in America that prevent even Timothy McVeigh from being charged with terrorism?


----------



## Herdfan

SuperMatt said:


> Meanwhile, we have people who actually COMMITTED TERRORISM at the Capitol not even being charged with terrorism.






SuperMatt said:


> Research current American laws concerning terrorism. Come back when you’re done with your homework. Hint: Patriot Act.




Ok, so if they can't be charged with terrorism, why are you complaining about them not being charged?  



SuperMatt said:


> If Timothy f-ing McVeigh isn’t a terrorist… well it just goes to show how xenophobic the anti-terror laws are in America. Thanks Dubya…




Also, Dubya had nothing to do with McVeigh.  The OKC bombing was in 1995 so he could have been charged under the laws in effect at that time.  Plus he was given a lethal injection and is no longer walking the planet, so does it really matter what he was or wasn't charged with?


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> Ok, so if they can't be charged with terrorism, why are you complaining about them not being charged?
> 
> 
> 
> Also, Dubya had nothing to do with McVeigh.  The OKC bombing was in 1995 so he could have been charged under the laws in effect at that time.  Plus he was given a lethal injection and is no longer walking the planet, so does it really matter what he was or wasn't charged with?



On the first point, the law should be changed. Why does “terrorism” only apply to foreigners in the eye of American law?

Good point on the second - but the fact that Dubya and friends passed anti-terror laws in 2001, knowing that events like the Oklahoma city bombing had recently occurred, and did NOT allow for Americans to be charged as terrorists… tells you how xenophobic the USA Patriot Act was.


----------



## Yoused

SuperMatt said:


> You prefer autocracy over the rule of law?



The President has nearly absolute control over the Executive Branch which is a dubious situation. I am not even convinced that the "Chief Executive" concept works well in private industry, much less in the government, and is a notion that probably should be revisited.


----------



## SuperMatt

Yoused said:


> The President has nearly absolute control over the Executive Branch which is a dubious situation. I am not even convinced that the "Chief Executive" concept works well in private industry, much less in the government, and is a notion that probably should be revisited.



All the discussion of the DoJ encouraged me to do a bit of research. The DoJ was founded in 1870, and was initially focused on arresting members of the KKK, who were considered terrorists at the time.

The current AG is having to do basically the same thing (Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are 21st century KKK). Now THAT is sadly appropriate.


----------



## Huntn

I heard a report recently on NPR that apparently buying fake temporary paper tags is a thing in the Houston area. I guess if you do this to avoid paying for tag renewal, you’d better hope that you are not pulled over?


----------



## SuperMatt

Huntn said:


> I heard a report recently on NPR that apparently buying fake temporary paper tags is a thing in the Houston area. I guess if you do this to avoid paying for tag renewal, you’d better hope that you are not pulled over?



Thanks @Huntn ... This sounded interesting, so I started perusing the inter-webs. Sounds like Texas has an online portal, and people can sign up as a “dealer” and print unlimited tags. Some unsavory characters have taken advantage of this. So, the tags themselves are not fake; they are official Texas tags, but they are being made and sold fraudulently by people who do not own a car dealership. These tags number in the hundreds of thousands.









						Three charged in nationwide scheme to sell hundreds of thousands of fraudulent Texas paper tags
					

Authorities are searching for two men indicted for using fictitious car dealerships to issue nearly 600,000 automobile paper tags and selling them on the internet without selling any cars




					www.justice.gov
				




The Texas DMV system makes it very easy for people to take advantage of it:



> In Texas, used car dealers must have an independent GDN license to buy, sell or exchange used vehicles, according to the charges. To obtain such a license, applicants must access the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles’ (TxDMV) online eLicensing application portal to apply. Once an applicant obtains a GDN license, they can buy, sell or exchange used cars and create temporary buyer tags for the transaction through the TxDMV’s online eTag portal. The portal is web-based and password protected, and only licensed GDN holders can access it, according to the indictment. However, *the GDN holder can create other users on their account to allow access to the portal to create and issue buyer tags.
> 
> There is no restriction on the vehicle, buyer or vehicle identification number inputted into the portal,* according to the indictment.
> 
> According to the charges, these three knowingly participated in the scheme to issue and sell more than 580,000 fraudulent tags to buyers across the United States. They allegedly provided false information such as fraudulent identities, drivers’ licenses, lease agreements and business signs in the online application portal to obtain GDN licenses for fictitious car dealerships. The indictment further alleges they advertised the sale of Texas buyer tags on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and used email to communicate and deliver fraudulently-obtained tags. They also received and shared proceeds from the fraudulent sale of Texas buyer tags via electronic payment services like Cash App and Zelle, according to the charges.


----------



## Huntn

Huntn said:


> Well, the first time I lived in Texas was 1978. It was a pretty good place. I was Republican leaning Navy Officer, but the Democrats were in charge of the State. I was amazed at how good the roads were, and discovered it was oil revenue that powered Texas.
> 
> I would have never chosen to come back here to live, too hot, except my wife talked me into it so she could be closer to her parents. Since the mid 80s I have been leaning Left, and the farther right,  the Right matches, the farther Left I end up leaning just to hold my  position.
> 
> Living in a Red State is tough. I listen to the good ole boys rail about liberals and democrats while praising Trump and end up biting my tongue, responding to  one old geezer the age of my father, _I don’t talk politics at the gym. _This or I would have let him have it and found myself surrounded.
> 
> Now Abbott appears to be on the defensive after the Winter storm disaster and appears to throwing some red meat to the anti-mask Rumpsters. It’s very discouraging because wearing a mask does nothing to harm busines, but it does help us climb out of the COVID hole faster, but since when in the last 20 years have Repubkicans done anything not based on a partisan twist?



*Are you Fool’d Yet? *
Regarding last February‘s Winter Storm in Texas that almost collapsed the electrical grid, a report out of Austin on NPR reveals that nothing has been done except superficial acts and lip service such as firing the CEO of Ercot which is just a superficial act,  a sacrificial lamb, to make it look like something was done. Note, it’s the industry that controls the grid, not ERCOT or its CEO. Now the Governor has made an announcement that the issue was addressed although this reports notes nothing substantial was done. None of the natural gas power plants have been winterized.

It was point per out that some time in the past, in the name of efficiency that the operating margin, excess power was cut to the bare minimum for… profits.









						Opinion: No, the Texas power grid is not fixed
					

Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed that "everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas." On what planet?



					www.statesman.com
				












						Gov. Abbott, the Texas electrical grid is not fixed
					

This editorial is part of a series published by The Dallas Morning News Opinion section to explore ideas and policies for strengthening electric...



					www.dallasnews.com
				












						Will Texas Ever Fix the Grid?
					

Rather than call a special session at the time to appropriately and immediately address grid issues the Governor then provided a “directive” - a two page letter focused on “reliability” asking the PUC and ERCOT to take certain actions designed to make it easier for power generation to provide...



					www.sierraclub.org
				












						Texas governor says power grid fixed; experts cite problems
					

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says new power grid reform “fix all the flaws” that caused February’s deadly winter blackout that left more than 4 million people without power and heat




					abcnews.go.com


----------



## Huntn

SuperMatt said:


> Thanks @Huntn ... This sounded interesting, so I started perusing the inter-webs. Sounds like Texas has an online portal, and people can sign up as a “dealer” and print unlimited tags. Some unsavory characters have taken advantage of this. So, the tags themselves are not fake; they are official Texas tags, but they are being made and sold fraudulently by people who do not own a car dealership. These tags number in the hundreds of thousands.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Three charged in nationwide scheme to sell hundreds of thousands of fraudulent Texas paper tags
> 
> 
> Authorities are searching for two men indicted for using fictitious car dealerships to issue nearly 600,000 automobile paper tags and selling them on the internet without selling any cars
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.justice.gov
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Texas DMV system makes it very easy for people to take advantage of it:



In essence they are fake, false tags.


----------



## SuperMatt

Huntn said:


> In essence they are fake, false tags.



I don’t disagree, but they are actually issued by the Texas DMV... so if a cop runs the plate, it would come up as valid. A fake tag would come up as fake. So this is a major failure by the Texas DMV. They didn’t notice the hundreds of thousands of tags being issued from dealers that didn’t sell any cars? Makes you wonder if they are clueless or if they have people on the inside.


----------



## Joe

Huntn said:


> I heard a report recently on NPR that apparently buying fake temporary paper tags is a thing in the Houston area. I guess if you do this to avoid paying for tag renewal, you’d better hope that you are not pulled over?




It's a problem here that needs to be fixed. So many people that are committing crimes are committing them with fake paper tags.


----------



## lizkat

Huntn said:


> In essence they are fake, false tags.




What they are, is fraudulent...  and fraud is prosecutable.   So... a lot of "somebody" should be going to the slam.


----------



## Eric

lizkat said:


> What they are, is fraudulent...  and fraud is prosecutable.   So... a lot of "somebody" should be going to the slam.



Can't they just never update their tags and never get pulled over for it like they do in CA?


----------



## lizkat

Eric said:


> Can't they just never update their tags and never get pulled over for it like they do in CA?




Lawdy lawdy...  please tell me the Texas portal bothered to record the numbers of the plates they were issuing.

Of course anyone with half a brain [organized criminals sometimes qualify there]  would supply a name and address that existed but didn't belong to them...  and didn't matter anyway since they could print out the tags themselves.


----------



## Yoused

lizkat said:


> Lawdy lawdy...  please tell me the Texas portal bothered to record the numbers of the plates they were issuing.
> 
> Of course anyone with half a brain [organized criminals sometimes qualify there]  would supply a name and address that existed but didn't belong to them...  and didn't matter anyway since they could print out the tags themselves.



Motor vehicles can be at least as deadly as firearms, so lax regulation is entirely fitting.


----------



## Yoused

Rafael demonstrates his lack of neurons









						Ted Cruz is, once again, a moron - National Zero
					

It appears that the Brilliance of Ted Cruz has again shined on us, as he got into a Twitter battle decrying the oppressive Democratic governor of Washington State for instituting a ban on dancing on New Year’s Eve:  “Blue-state Dems are power-drunk authoritarian kill-joys.  Washington State: NO...




					nationalzero.com
				




He points to a ban on dancing in Washington state, failing to discern that the "WA" in question is Western Australia (the huge state with Perth in it).


----------



## Herdfan

Eric said:


> Can't they just never update their tags and never get pulled over for it like they do in CA?




Or just use the Steve Jobs method and get a new car every 6 months and never have to put tags on it.


----------



## Eric

Herdfan said:


> Or just use the Steve Jobs method and get a new car every 6 months and never have to put tags on it.



My iPhone is 2 years old and I feel shamed.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Now Texas is begging after making poor life choices.



Texas Gov. Asks For Federal Help With COVID Testing, Treatments As Cases Climb​








						Texas Gov. Asks For Federal Help With COVID Testing, Treatments As Cases Climb
					

Greg Abbott has fought against vaccine mandates and accused the Biden administration of "bullying" private businesses to implement them.




					www.huffpost.com


----------



## Huntn

fooferdoggie said:


> Now Texas is begging after making poor life choices.
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Asks For Federal Help With COVID Testing, Treatments As Cases Climb​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Asks For Federal Help With COVID Testing, Treatments As Cases Climb
> 
> 
> Greg Abbott has fought against vaccine mandates and accused the Biden administration of "bullying" private businesses to implement them.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.huffpost.com



Wants his cake and eat it too. Sigh…


----------



## Huntn

Eric said:


> Can't they just never update their tags and never get pulled over for it like they do in CA?






lizkat said:


> Lawdy lawdy...  please tell me the Texas portal bothered to record the numbers of the plates they were issuing.
> 
> Of course anyone with half a brain [organized criminals sometimes qualify there]  would supply a name and address that existed but didn't belong to them...  and didn't matter anyway since they could print out the tags themselves.



That’s a great question about the database of temporary tags. I know, but don’t know a lot about it that law enforcement has a device that can read tags. In one example they use it in Galveston (according to what I have been told) to drive up and down the seawall and verify the cars parked in metered parking areas, have used the Online system to pay for their parking. If this equipment was in police cars driving up and down the highway, it could scan for cars with outdated tags, that is  if the dealers actually send their paperwork out to the State. Maybe they don’t? 

This does not directly related to temp tags, but In Minnesota a colored sticker with a month and date was put on a regular tag, making it relatively easy to spot when it is out of date, but in Texas the only indicator of an up to date sticker is in your front windshield making it impractical for police to check this while driving down the road,


----------



## SuperMatt

fooferdoggie said:


> Now Texas is begging after making poor life choices.
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Asks For Federal Help With COVID Testing, Treatments As Cases Climb​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Asks For Federal Help With COVID Testing, Treatments As Cases Climb
> 
> 
> Greg Abbott has fought against vaccine mandates and accused the Biden administration of "bullying" private businesses to implement them.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.huffpost.com



Reminds me of the members of Congress who voted against the infrastructure bill and then went home and took credit for passing it when it benefitted their constituents.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Huntn said:


> Wants his cake and eat it too. Sigh…



I think you mean ivermectin.


----------



## Joe

Every year the Karens and Kyles cry about the Houston Rodeo having any other genre of concerts besides country music. Back when I had Facebook it was a favorite pastime for me to troll these racist idiots in the comment section. The funny thing is almost all of them didn’t live in Houston. Their profile was always a small town outside Houston. Anyway, I don’t have Facebook anymore but I saw this article which tells me things still haven’t changed!


----------



## Joe

They get really mad about Go Tejano Day and Black Heritage Day


----------



## Yoused

Journey, Gwen Stefani, Khalid, Marshmello, all good solid down-home country acts.


----------



## Joe

Yoused said:


> Journey, Gwen Stefani, Khalid, Marshmello, all good solid down-home country acts.




I wanna see George Strait even though I'm pretty sure he's a Trumper. lol

I grew up on his music.


----------



## DT

Journey?  Andy Cohen would like a word with you ...


----------



## Yoused

DT said:


> Journey?  Andy Cohen would like a word with you ...



Wait, is he from South Detroit?


----------



## Herdfan

JagRunner said:


> I wanna see George Strait even though I'm pretty sure he's a Trumper. lol
> 
> I grew up on his music.




Love George.

His _I Cross My Heart_ was the first dance at our wedding.  Her mom was annoyed that we used a country song, so that was an added benefit. 

I've seen him twice, he puts on a good music show.  But it isn't, or at least wasn't the last time I saw him, a huge light and FX production.


----------



## Eric

About all that "freedom"...


----------



## JayMysteri0

Remember all the nonsense we had with school board meetings?  Then we had warnings that the nuttery planned to join such school boards?

Well, this is what the fuck you get for all of that.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1481269231870267394/

There's a Youtube video of the meeting online.  If you haven't seen racism up front & in your face, start at minute 49.  Be aware the guy laughingly starts out telling you he's a "data guy", and data can be taken anyway & skewed.  Which should make you go  for anything he says after that.  Do you trust a guy who admits that data can be taken anyway someone want, then presents his own data?


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Remember all the nonsense we had with school board meetings?  Then we had warnings that the nuttery planned to join such school boards?
> 
> Well, this is what the fuck you get for all of that.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1481269231870267394/
> 
> There's a Youtube video of the meeting online.  If you haven't seen racism up front & in your face, start at minute 49.  Be aware the guy laughingly starts out telling you he's a "data guy", and data can be taken anyway & skewed.  Which should make you go  for anything he says after that.  Do you trust a guy who admits that data can be taken anyway someone want, then presents his own data?



Trump got lots of racists to “come out of the closet” in the past few years. It’s time for them to be punished by society for publicly stating their views. Sorry, we don’t want you working here. Sorry, we don’t want you in our church. Sorry, we don’t want you coaching our soccer team.

They have freedom of speech to say whatever hateful, racist things they want. Society has freedom to exclude them from every activity they want to be a part of. Time to “CANCEL CULTURE” their butts back to the Stone Age.


----------



## Joe

Cy Fair is a suburb of Houston. Houston is diverse AF so I'm surprised he hasn't resigned yet. He may eventually resign for this. You can't say that shit in such a diverse city. This isn't lily white fake liberal Austin.


----------



## Herdfan

JagRunner said:


> Cy Fair is a suburb of Houston. Houston is diverse AF so I'm surprised he hasn't resigned yet. He may eventually resign for this. You can't say that shit in such a diverse city. This isn't lily white fake liberal Austin.




He just got elected.


----------



## SuperMatt

The Republican leaders in Texas wrap themselves in the flag and crow about supporting the troops. When it comes down to it though, they treat them like utter garbage, refusing to even pay them, and all for a political stunt on the border? Why does anybody vote for this party?









						Suicide attempts, delayed pay prompt calls for probe into Guard’s Texas mission
					

The letter comes as another service member, based in the city of Pharr, survived a suicide attempt on Sunday, according to an incident report obtained by Army Times and The Texas Tribune.




					www.armytimes.com


----------



## SuperMatt

More news about the Texas National Guard. Soldiers losing their jobs and homes to put on a show at the border.









						Texas Denying Most Guard Troops at Border Chance to Help Families Suffering Hardships at Home
					

A review of 150 hardship requests from Texas Guard troops deployed on Gov. Greg Abbott's border mission found that the majority of the applications between October and November were denied.




					www.military.com
				




I hope this gets massive news coverage in Texas and that voters there see the cruelty and hypocrisy of Abbott and company.


----------



## Joe

Herdfan said:


> He just got elected.




Yeah, he ran against Critical Race Theory so I am not surprised by his comments lol


----------



## Joe

In other news, did y'all see Ted Cruz daughter "come out" as bisexual on Tik Tok and said she disagrees on pretty much everything with her dad LOL


----------



## Joe

SuperMatt said:


> The Republican leaders in Texas wrap themselves in the flag and crow about supporting the troops. When it comes down to it though, they treat them like utter garbage, refusing to even pay them, and all for a political stunt on the border? *Why does anybody vote for this party?*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Suicide attempts, delayed pay prompt calls for probe into Guard’s Texas mission
> 
> 
> The letter comes as another service member, based in the city of Pharr, survived a suicide attempt on Sunday, according to an incident report obtained by Army Times and The Texas Tribune.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.armytimes.com




Because they're good at scaring people.


----------



## JayMysteri0

I hate making new threads, so someone else can start one later.

But, hostage situation in Texas involving terrorism

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1482447756342050821/


----------



## shadow puppet

I also hate making new threads so just wanted to ask.  Does no one in Texas wear a mask anymore?  Taken at today's SF vs DAL game.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1482796933223694343/


----------



## Hrafn

shadow puppet said:


> I also hate making new threads so just wanted to ask.  Does no one in Texas wear a mask anymore?  Taken at today's SF vs DAL game.



In my town, I'd say we're at less than 50% mask-wearing.


----------



## Yoused

shadow puppet said:


> I also hate making new threads so just wanted to ask.  Does no one in Texas wear a mask anymore?  Taken at today's SF vs DAL game.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1482796933223694343/



Hey, looks somewhat possible that Dallas could get the tying TD late in the game and it would go to OT. All that much more time for everyone to spread around the big O.


----------



## JayMysteri0

I wonder if they will think this was worth it?



> Cy-Fair ISD trustee ‘no longer employed’ with IT company after comments made regarding Black teachers
> 
> 
> The Cy-Fair ISD trustee who has been under recent criticism for race-related comments he made regarding Black teachers in the district has been released from the technology company where he worked, his former employer announced.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.click2houston.com




They are still elected though.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> I wonder if they will think this was worth it?
> 
> 
> 
> They are still elected though.



Excellent news. Let these people whine about cancel culture all they want… but keep “cancelling” their butts.

BTW - the comments on that article… lots of racists in Houston I guess?


----------



## SuperMatt

In today’s episode of *Saying The Quiet Part Out Loud*, please welcome Texas Attorney General... Ken Paxton!

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1483844755226337284/

Admitting you can only win by cheating... Priceless.


----------



## lizkat

SuperMatt said:


> Admitting you can only win by cheating... Priceless.




Every time I hear the words "Texas" and "Attorney General" in the same sentence,  I am reminded of the bizarre fact that among the many other March 2022 primary contestants for Paxton's job is the redoubtable Republican Representative from Texas district 1, Louis Gohmert. 

Even Fox News has called Gohmert "the stupidest man in Congress".

Whether that beats the fact that Ken Paxton serves as Attorney General for the great state of Texas while being under indictment for securities fraud (as well as being under investigation for bribery, abuse of office and other crimes) is a fairly entertaining question.


----------



## SuperMatt

Dan Crenshaw is a member of Congress representing Texas. He passed a law that makes it illegal for local election officials to send out unsolicited mail-in ballots. The supposed reason for this was that mail-in ballots are likely to be fraudulent.



> U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, doubled down on the claim that expanding voting by mail is not secure, saying it was like “playing with fire” in a conversation that aired Monday as part of the 2020 Texas Tribune Festival.




If that is truly the reason, then why was there an exception in the law for politicians to send out unsolicited mail-in ballots, an exception Mr. Crenshaw is taking advantage of himself?









						U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw sends mail-in ballot applications to voters after Texas banned the practice for local election officials
					

The GOP-backed voting law — passed under the banner of ensuring election integrity — banned local election officials from sending out unsolicited mail-in ballot applications. But Crenshaw and other politicians can still do it.




					www.texastribune.org
				






> U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, is taking heat this week for sending out campaign mailers containing unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to voters who are 65 and older.
> 
> Last year, Texas Republicans in the Legislature passed an elections law that banned local election officials from that very same practice under the banner of protecting election integrity. However, the law made an exception for candidates and political parties to continue the practice, which has long been a popular get-out-the-vote tactic typically employed by both parties, but especially by Republicans.
> 
> Democrats this week said Crenshaw’s mailer highlights hypocrisy in the new voting law and shows that Republicans who railed against vote-by-mail expansion efforts last year were only concerned about the ways it could benefit Democrats. Crenshaw’s mailer includes a prefilled mail-in application and instructions that tell the recipient to “simply sign, stamp, and mail” it and to “be sure to vote for Dan Crenshaw” when the ballot comes.




I guess the mail-in voting isn’t in danger of being fraudulent if it’s being sent to senior citizens on the Crenshaw campaign mailing list.


----------



## lizkat

SuperMatt said:


> Dan Crenshaw is a member of Congress representing Texas. He passed a law that makes it illegal for local election officials to send out unsolicited mail-in ballots. The supposed reason for this was that mail-in ballots are likely to be fraudulent.
> 
> If that is truly the reason, then why was there an exception in the law for politicians to send out unsolicited mail-in ballots, an exception Mr. Crenshaw is taking advantage of himself?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw sends mail-in ballot applications to voters after Texas banned the practice for local election officials
> 
> 
> The GOP-backed voting law — passed under the banner of ensuring election integrity — banned local election officials from sending out unsolicited mail-in ballot applications. But Crenshaw and other politicians can still do it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.texastribune.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I guess the mail-in voting isn’t in danger of being fraudulent if it’s being sent to senior citizens on the Crenshaw campaign mailing list.




Ha ha!  You're not supposed to remember stuff for more than ten minutes unless reminded by an R ad, and definitely not supposed to start connecting dots and putting things in context.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Deplorable conditions, unclear mission: Texas National Guard troops call Abbott’s rushed border operation a disaster
					

The governor has sent waves of troops to the border as Guard officials scramble to execute a massive mobilization that would normally take months to plan. Some Guard members say the operation has set back their income, education and well-being.




					www.texastribune.org


----------



## SuperMatt

A winter storm has people worried about the electric grid in Texas again. There are some reasons to be hopeful though.

1. The storm is expected to pass fairly quickly, unlike the deadly one last year that lingered.
2. The strong winds have increased wind turbine electrical output to 17.5 gigawatts.
3. Ted Cruz has not booked a trip to Cancun yet.


----------



## Joe

It's currently below freezing where I am at....31 degrees. It shouldn't be as bad as last year. Temps are supposed to go above freezing tomorrow at noon. Nothing like the 2+ days straight of below freezing temps like last year. That being said, I have prepared as much as I can.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Let's check in with Texas to see how their new permitless concealed carry law is going: Good Guy With A Gun™ shoots at robber, kills 9-year-old girl instead
A 9-year-old girl died after a man who was held up at a Houston ATM fired at her family's pickup truck while attempting to shoot the robbery suspect, police said.

The suspect in the shooting, identified by police as Tony Earls, 41, was making a transaction at a drive-thru ATM at 2900 Woodridge Dr. in southeastern Houston with his wife Monday shortly before 10 p.m. when he was robbed at gunpoint, according to police.









						9-year-old girl struck by bullet in truck dies, suspect says he was chasing robber
					

A 9-year-old girl died after a man who was held up at a Houston ATM fired at her family's pickup truck while attempting to shoot the robbery suspect, police said.




					abcnews.go.com


----------



## Joe

Welp, he's going to do some time. 

His bond is too low.


----------



## ronntaylor

fooferdoggie said:


> Let's check in with Texas to see how their new permitless concealed carry law is going: Good Guy With A Gun™ shoots at robber, kills 9-year-old girl instead
> A 9-year-old girl died after a man who was held up at a Houston ATM fired at her family's pickup truck while attempting to shoot the robbery suspect, police said.
> 
> The suspect in the shooting, identified by police as Tony Earls, 41, was making a transaction at a drive-thru ATM at 2900 Woodridge Dr. in southeastern Houston with his wife Monday shortly before 10 p.m. when he was robbed at gunpoint, according to police.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 9-year-old girl struck by bullet in truck dies, suspect says he was chasing robber
> 
> 
> A 9-year-old girl died after a man who was held up at a Houston ATM fired at her family's pickup truck while attempting to shoot the robbery suspect, police said.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> abcnews.go.com



How the fuck does he get such a low bond?


----------



## fooferdoggie

ronntaylor said:


> How the fuck does he get such a low bond? its Texas



ammosexuals are low risk I guess.


----------



## SuperMatt

The domain governorabbott.com was available, so somebody made this:









						GOVERNOR GORG ABBOTT
					

Do you like saying you're for small government then building a hate based platform around exerting power over other people whose lives are none of your business? I do too! Do you claim to care about...



					www.governorabbott.com


----------



## Huntn

How would you like to time travel? _Come visit Texas where we’ll take you on a great adventure back in time 70 years! _









						Texas AG declares pediatric gender-affirming procedures to be child abuse, legal opinion says
					

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote addressed his opinion to the Texas House Committee on General Investigating.




					www.cnn.com
				












						Texas governor calls on citizens to report parents of transgender kids for abuse
					

Gov. Greg Abbott said those who fail to report instances of minors receiving gender-affirming medical care could face “criminal penalties.”




					www.nbcnews.com
				












						Outrage after Texas attorney general calls gender-affirming surgery ‘child abuse’
					

Rights groups argue the attorney general’s opinions, which have no legal bearing, will spread fear and misinformation




					www.theguardian.com


----------



## SuperMatt

Huntn said:


> How would you like to time travel? _Come visit Texas where we’ll take you on a great adventure back in time 70 years! _
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas AG declares pediatric gender-affirming procedures to be child abuse, legal opinion says
> 
> 
> Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote addressed his opinion to the Texas House Committee on General Investigating.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.cnn.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas governor calls on citizens to report parents of transgender kids for abuse
> 
> 
> Gov. Greg Abbott said those who fail to report instances of minors receiving gender-affirming medical care could face “criminal penalties.”
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nbcnews.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Outrage after Texas attorney general calls gender-affirming surgery ‘child abuse’
> 
> 
> Rights groups argue the attorney general’s opinions, which have no legal bearing, will spread fear and misinformation
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.theguardian.com



Why do Texans vote for leaders who beat up on already marginalized groups of people? I hope the fact that their leaders are working overtime to make voting harder are doing so because they see a groundswell against their hateful policies. I also hope the numbers against such disgusting policies will be overwhelming enough that the attempted voter suppression fails.


----------



## SuperMatt

The primaries are underway. I found this statistic interesting:



> Early voting turnout remained low, which is standard for Texas primaries. Roughly 9 percent of voters cast a ballot early or in person this year, according to the secretary of state. That is nearly identical to the 2018 primaries.




So, you get just the most-engaged, probably hyper-partisan people showing up for primaries. Is it any wonder that the candidates to choose from in the general election are so extreme? If we had decent primary participation, we might not have as many crazy people in Congress.


----------



## Yoused

In my state, the primary is about 8 or nine weeks ahead of the general – and it is 100% open, with the top two from the primary facing off in November. It does not seem to help with the extremism, though: the contender in the 2020 governor's race was a magaty moron.


----------



## GermanSuplex

More BS from backwoods republicans in Texas. I don't see how upending the lives of families doing their best to deal with socially and emotionally sensitive issues furthers their agenda, but I don't think concern for the families or children was ever the real issue with such laws instigating these types of "investigations".









						Texas has 'initiated investigations' into trans kids' families, lawsuit says
					

The governor called on “licensed professionals” and the “general public” to report parents of minors who are receiving gender-affirming medical care.




					www.nbcnews.com


----------



## Yoused

I just thought this was an odd image that Kos chose to depict primary voting





I mean, what does it look like he is doing? I get an image of corn, barbecue sauce, little shreds of cabbage and several unidentifiable I-think-I-don't-even-want-to-know-what-those-were.


----------



## ronntaylor

SuperMatt said:


> The primaries are underway. I found this statistic interesting:
> 
> 
> 
> So, you get just the most-engaged, probably hyper-partisan people showing up for primaries. Is it any wonder that the candidates to choose from in the general election are so extreme? If we had decent primary participation, we might not have as many crazy people in Congress.



This!! And there will a ton of whining later when there are no viable candidates. Too many talk about November when several months before is the right time to engage. By the time many voters look up the primaries are just around the corner and for most races the primary winners are the eventual general election winners. That's how we got AOC here in NYC, and probably how she may lose in the future: voter apathy.


----------



## SuperMatt

ronntaylor said:


> This!! And there will a ton of whining later when there are no viable candidates. Too many talk about November when several months before is the right time to engage. By the time many voters look up the primaries are just around the corner and for most races the primary winners are the eventual general election winners. That's how we got AOC here in NYC, and probably how she may lose in the future: voter apathy.



A crazy example was the latest Buffalo mayoral race. A far-left candidate won the Democratic primary, but she was so unpopular that the incumbent, who lost the primary, won as a write-in.









						2021 Buffalo mayoral election - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


----------



## ronntaylor

SuperMatt said:


> A crazy example was the latest Buffalo mayoral race. A far-left candidate won the Democratic primary, but she was so unpopular that the incumbent, who lost the primary, won as a write-in.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 2021 Buffalo mayoral election - Wikipedia
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> en.wikipedia.org



I wouldn't say she was unpopular, after all she won the primary as an avowed socialist. The corrupt Dem incumbent (still being investigated) was assisted by the Republican, Conservative and Libertarian parties, and together they scared voters, portraying Walton as a crazy communist. Had Brown actually tried a competent primary campaign, he probably would have won outright to become the longest serving mayor in Buffalo's history with the November general a mere formality.


----------



## Huntn

Yoused said:


> In my state, the primary is about 8 or nine weeks ahead of the general – and it is 100% open, with the top two from the primary facing off in November. It does not seem to help with the extremism, though: the contender in the 2020 governor's race was a magaty moron.



Open as in you can be of any party and vote for anyone? If so from a philosophical standpoint, that kind of interferes with the ability of a political party to elect who represents them.


----------



## ronntaylor

Huntn said:


> Open as in you can be of any party and vote for anyone? If so from a philosophical standpoint, that kind of interferes with the ability of a political party to elect who represents them.



Right, with ample evidence of the GOP employing shenanigans to confuse primary voters about party affiliations. Most recently in Florida for the 2020 elections.


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1499981280611422212/
Awwwwwkward!


----------



## Yoused

Huntn said:


> Open as in you can be of any party and vote for anyone? If so from a philosophical standpoint, that kind of interferes with the ability of a political party to elect who represents them.



You misunderstand, though. The general has the top two candidates going to the general. There is no party-line ticketing. The primary ballot states a party preference expressed by each candidate, but there is no strict requirement that the November ballot include a D and a R, only that the top two from the single primary vote be on it. Thus, for instance, if a particular district is very blue or very red, the general election ballot for that district might have two candidates from the same party for that district rep. Which, to me, seems to make more sense than having a candidate from the other party be there just as a placeholder.

A couple decades ago, we had a party-based open primary, in which the voter would request a party ballot at the polling place. In the governor's race, a lot of Democrats requested Republican ballots (no one registers party affiliation here, so all they had to do is say I want that ballot) and the R candidate ended up being a crazy woman with no realistic hope of being elected. So we went through a few lawsuits and gyrations and ended up with this. And the most recent R candidate for governor was a crazy bonehead MAGAt who really had no hope of winning, but at least we knew that the primary vote was as honest as one could hope for, because we vote for people, not for parties.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

"My children love being Texans": A father of a trans teen weighs whether his family can stay
					

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants parents investigated for child abuse over seeking gender-affirming care for their children.




					www.vox.com


----------



## SuperMatt

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> "My children love being Texans": A father of a trans teen weighs whether his family can stay
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants parents investigated for child abuse over seeking gender-affirming care for their children.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.vox.com



Thanks for sharing this. How can the governor and attorney general be so heartless?


----------



## SuperMatt

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> "My children love being Texans": A father of a trans teen weighs whether his family can stay
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants parents investigated for child abuse over seeking gender-affirming care for their children.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.vox.com



Breaking news on this: a Texas court has shut down this program, which it ruled as improperly adopted and unconstitutional. I’m sure the piece of  governor will try again though. F him.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> Breaking news on this: a Texas court has shut down this program, which it ruled as improperly adopted and unconstitutional. I’m sure the piece of  governor will try again though. F him.





At some point I feel even Trump is going "WTF is wrong with these people?  Focus on the Mexicans, idiot."


----------



## JayMysteri0

FFingS
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1502744602054475783/

There is little to no legitimate concern for human life involved here anymore.   Just "feels" for those put in danger.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> FFingS
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1502744602054475783/
> 
> There is little to no legitimate concern for human life involved here anymore.   Just "feels" for those put in danger.



Sad to me is that the doctor(s) are more scared of a lawsuit than of saving the woman’s life. The consequence of the abortion in Texas is… just a lawsuit - to be clear. So they think somebody would be enough of an a-hole to sue them for saving a woman’s life. And they’d probably be right, but to be honest, they chose “save myself from a lawsuit” over “save this woman’s life.”

Granted, the law is pure evil and the doctor(s) never should be forced to make that choice…. But no excuse for the doctor for the choice they made.

Everybody EXCEPT the woman about to die had a choice in this story.


----------



## Joe

The sad part is that Abbott will win again. Because Republicans have successfully scared the fuck out of white people.


----------



## Joe

I just can't get over how much of a fucking cult the Republican party has turned into. It's rodeo time in Houston and for a month all of the rednecks flock to the city for the rodeo. So many trucks with "Trump" and "Lets go Brandon" stickers and flags. You need to evaluate your life if you're driving around town with "lets go brandon" on the back of your truck or a flag. No one should be idolizing these fucking politicians. It's crazy.


----------



## SuperMatt

Joe said:


> I just can't get over how much of a fucking cult the Republican party has turned into. It's rodeo time in Houston and for a month all of the rednecks flock to the city for the rodeo. So many trucks with "Trump" and "Lets go Brandon" stickers and flags. You need to evaluate your life if you're driving around town with "lets go brandon" on the back of your truck or a flag. No one should be idolizing these fucking politicians. It's crazy.



Where I come from, we reserve that level of fandom for sports teams.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Listened to an interview with somebody who went to SXSW and has been going there for quite a long time. They said Austin is starting to remind them of the Bay Area during the dot com days – gentrification with a rapidly increasing cost of living and homeless problem. Meanwhile you also have Abbot and his goons there turning Texas into the country’s test lab for the most regressive and oppressive far right legislation. There’s also a serious dose of LA style artificially attractive people. Sounds like a lot of people walking about with their head up there ass completely oblivious to the many bigger pictures.


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Listened to an interview with somebody who went to SXSW and has been going there for quite a long time. They said Austin is starting to remind them of the Bay Area during the dot com days – gentrification with a rapidly increasing cost of living and homeless problem. Meanwhile you also have Abbot and his goons there turning Texas into the country’s test lab for the most regressive and oppressive far right legislation. There’s also a serious dose of LA style artificially attractive people. Sounds like a lot of people walking about with their head up there ass completely oblivious to the many bigger pictures.




Starting? Austin has been California for years already. 

It's the worst city in Texas filled with fake white racist liberals. 

And it sounds like this guy has finally figured it out too.


----------



## Yoused

Joe said:


> It's the worst city in Texas



Huh. We drove through Lubbock on a Sunday afternoon. The sidewalks were rolled up and the dust storm was blowing russian thistle through the empty streets. That was creepy as hell, probably why Buddy wanted to get the hell outta there.


----------



## Herdfan

Joe said:


> I just can't get over how much of a fucking cult the Republican party has turned into. It's rodeo time in Houston and for a month all of the rednecks flock to the city for the rodeo. So many trucks with "Trump" and "Lets go Brandon" stickers and flags. You need to evaluate your life if you're driving around town with "lets go brandon" on the back of your truck or a flag. No one should be idolizing these fucking politicians. It's crazy.




Why is "Let's Go Brandon" not OK, while Robert Di Niro saying "Fuck Trump" at an award's show on national TV is not only OK, but celebrated?

I do agree that no one should idolize politicians, celebrities or athletes.  Very few are worthy.


----------



## Joe

Herdfan said:


> *Why is "Let's Go Brandon" not OK, while Robert Di Niro saying "Fuck Trump" at an award's show on national TV is not only OK, but celebrated?*
> 
> I do agree that no one should idolize politicians, celebrities or athletes.  Very few are worthy.




People can say "Lets go Brandon" all they want...or "Fuck Trump" all the want and it doesn't bother me. I just draw the line at decorating your vehicle or home with signs that say those things. I don't idolize anyone that much to put crap all over my truck or home.


----------



## Yoused

Joe said:


> People can say "Lets go Brandon" all they want...or "Fuck Trump" all the want and it doesn't bother me. I just draw the line at decorating your vehicle or home with signs that say those things. I don't idolize anyone that much to put crap all over my truck or home.



I do not object to people declaring "_*I'm an ASSHAT!*_". It gives me a slight edge, knowing straight up what to expect from them.


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> Why is "Let's Go Brandon" not OK, while Robert Di Niro saying "Fuck Trump" at an award's show on national TV is not only OK, but celebrated?
> 
> I do agree that no one should idolize politicians, celebrities or athletes.  Very few are worthy.



Fuck Robert De Niro. Is everybody happy now? 

I guess the entirety of all liberals of all time is bad because Robert De Niro (who isn’t even a politician) said fuck?

Meanwhile, millions of right-wingers chant “Let’s Go Brandon” and you even put it in your own signature. What a steaming pile of hypocrisy. If you want to call out De Niro, great. Don’t lump all liberals in with him. But the “let’s go Brandon” bullshit - YOU put in your own signature, so you have to own it.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Joe said:


> Starting? Austin has been California for years already.
> 
> It's the worst city in Texas filled with fake white racist liberals.
> 
> And it sounds like this guy has finally figured it out too.




I have no doubt a good percentage of the liberal transplants to Austin will be migrating to Ukraine as soon as military action simmers down and there’s a sizable population of unsightly homeless in Austin. They’ll be making the world a better place by healing the war-ravaged masses with their artisanal hemp pastry puffs, 300% increase in housing costs, and turning the bomb cratered streets into world-class mountain bike trails.


----------



## Herdfan

SuperMatt said:


> Fuck Robert De Niro. Is everybody happy now?
> 
> I guess the entirety of all liberals of all time is bad because Robert De Niro (who isn’t even a politician) said fuck?
> 
> Meanwhile, millions of right-wingers chant “Let’s Go Brandon” and you even put it in your own signature. What a steaming pile of hypocrisy. If you want to call out De Niro, great. Don’t lump all liberals in with him. But the “let’s go Brandon” bullshit - YOU put in your own signature, so you have to own it.




I have no problem owning it.  But for people to complain about that while ignoring or even celebrating when similar things are said about Trump is hypocrisy at its finest.

You have noticed it has been gone from my sig for a while now right?



Joe said:


> People can say "Lets go Brandon" all they want...or "Fuck Trump" all the want and it doesn't bother me. I just draw the line at decorating your vehicle or home with signs that say those things. I don't idolize anyone that much to put crap all over my truck or home.




And it is not on my truck because I have both conservative and liberal clients.  No need to offend away a job.


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> I have no problem owning it.  But for people to complain about that while ignoring or even celebrating when similar things are said about Trump is hypocrisy at its finest.



You are asking others to “own” something done by Robert De Niro. Sorry, I don’t care about him one way or the other. If it was Clint Eastwood who said “F <insert politician here>” and NOT you, then you could be making a reasonable comparison. However, that’s not what’s happening: *you* said something, and in response to criticism for it, you claim others are hypocrites because* Robert De Niro* said something. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Herdfan said:


> I have no problem owning it.  But for people to complain about that while ignoring or even celebrating when similar things are said about Trump is hypocrisy at its finest.
> 
> You have noticed it has been gone from my sig for a while now right?
> 
> 
> 
> And it is not on my truck because I have both conservative and liberal clients.  No need to offend away a job.




My grandfather believed you should have respect for the President regardless of party affiliation. He died in the late 90’s and I’m glad he wasn’t around for the Trump era to push that belief to its limits, going back to Trump’s birther movement through present. I could be wrong but I feel the loud public disrespect of the President based on nothing tangible started with Obama. I know people on the right feel Trump was treated the same and for no good reason, but the fact is that Trump went into office with a heavy amount of baggage constantly firing insults at women, minorities, and half the country/liberals. He also insulted a great deal of Republicans, part of his drain the swamp schtick, which Republicans seemed to have forgotten the minute he took office.

Then we have Biden. I disagree with him on many things, mainly couching most progressive policies he ran on, but right out the gate the right came swinging with saying he’s a socialist and nothing about his record shows that. He’s probably closer to a Republican than a Progressive. Based on policy review you could say the same about Obama. Yet, the right gets all worked up based entirely on trigger words propaganda with zero critical thinking about it. It’s really a false equivalency to say all these men are the same because they happened to be President at some point in their life and therefore are equally deserving/undeserving of a “fuck you!”.

If nothing else, it’s completely lost all meaning.


----------



## Yoused

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I feel the loud public disrespect of the President based on nothing tangible started with Obama



I think you should look at the _first_ black president, 16 years earlier. That guy unseated Bush, which was an utter outrage after St. Ronnie showed us the WH belonged to the Rs. The Clinton-haters were very loud, and impotent until they managed to BS their way into control of Congress. That was when the RWBS ramped up to its contemporary state of intransigence. Before the mid-'90s, Rs were mostly tolerable but already on this disgraceful trajectory.


----------



## ronntaylor

Yoused said:


> I think you should look at the _first_ black president, 16 years earlier.



That's offensive as shit as Clinton used racism to win the White House. Pure and simple. And he threw Black folk under the bus every fucking chance he got. So he was in no way, shape or form the first Black president. Just another typical white president.


----------



## Yoused

ronntaylor said:


> That's offensive as shit



tell that to Toni Morrison


----------



## ronntaylor

Yoused said:


> tell that to Toni Morrison



#1 she's dead.

#2 Critical thinking skills are... ahem, critical



> I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. *I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp.* I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race. -- _*Toni Morrison*_






> Most Americans understand race as indelible—as a thing which you really are—and thus Morrison’s point went right over the heads of even relatively educated people. This is convenient. As long as “race” can be considered as who you are, and not what someone else did to you, then Americans can see themselves as heroic do-gooders in struggling against our more ignorant and animalistic impulses. -- *Tan-Nehisi Coates*


----------



## Herdfan

ronntaylor said:


> That's offensive as shit as Clinton used racism to win the White House. Pure and simple. And he threw Black folk under the bus every fucking chance he got. So he was in no way, shape or form the first Black president. Just another typical white president.




Good thing that “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.” decided to put him on the ticket to be VP.


----------



## SuperMatt

Herdfan said:


> Good thing that “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.” decided to put him on the ticket to be VP.



Clinton was president, not VP... and the VP was Al Gore...

????


----------



## Yoused

ronntaylor said:


> #2 Critical thinking skills are... ahem, critical



Yes. Aside from being the black President, what, of substance, did Barack Obama do for black people? I sure did not see much. He barely touched the crap policies of his predecessor. He may have been to the left of Reagan, but, barely. In practical terms, being the first African-American president was mostly window dressing.

I mean, I liked the guy on  personal type level, and he was excellent at what he did, but what he did was not much. That is what genuine critical thinking skills will get you.


----------



## JayMysteri0

> Texas’ Governor Brags About His Border Initiative. The Data Doesn’t Back Him Up.
> 
> 
> Arrests of U.S. citizens hundreds of miles from the border. Claiming drug busts from across the state. Changing statistics. We dug into the data Texas leaders use to boast about Operation Lone Star, and it raises more questions than answers.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.propublica.org




Bonus frightening bullshit


> “We’re Going to Be Conservative.” Official Orders Books Removed From Schools, Targeting Titles About Transgender People.
> 
> 
> The North Texas superintendent’s comments, made on a leaked recording, raise constitutional concerns, legal experts said.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.propublica.org




I guess liberals & anyone else should just move?  Should they take their shit with them?


----------



## Herdfan

SuperMatt said:


> Clinton was president, not VP... and the VP was Al Gore...
> 
> ????




Biden said that about Obama.  

It was in reference to @ronntaylor saying he was offended by Clinton being called the "first Black President", as he should have been.  The actual first Black President put someone who said that about him on the ticket.  Guess he thought he needed a racist on the ticket to win in the south.


----------



## lizkat

Herdfan said:


> Biden said that about Obama.
> 
> It was in reference to @ronntaylor saying he was offended by Clinton being called the "first Black President", as he should have been.  The actual first Black President put someone who said that about him on the ticket.  Guess he thought he needed a racist on the ticket to win in the south.




The remark Biden made back then wasn't in his finest hour, that's for sure, although to me it rang out as typical of his (my) generation of Democrats inadvertently patronizing Blacks even while proclaiming themselves true believers in "all men are created equal".

In the past few days we've seen some Republicans skip any finest hour awards as well.  If you want to look at patronizing, need look no further than Marsha Blackburn's approach to addressing Jackson.  In the beginning of her opening remarks, Blackburn came right out of some antebellum novel in a chapter where the plantation owner's wife gently schools a new house slave on how to behave in a kitchen.






No party has a lock on the American institution of racism, no matter how, where, when or why it is made manifest yet again.    All the more reason to educate ourselves about it from the get go.


----------



## Herdfan

lizkat said:


> No party has a lock on the American institution of racism, no matter how, where, when or why it is made manifest yet again.    All the more reason to educate ourselves about it from the get go.




That is very true.

The difference is if you have a "D" beside your name, it is largely excused.


----------



## lizkat

Herdfan said:


> That is very true.
> 
> The difference is if you have a "D" beside your name, it is largely excused.




I don't remember Biden being excused while Harris was a presidential candidate....


----------



## Yoused

Herdfan said:


> The difference is if you have a "D" beside your name, it is largely excused.




The Ds at least make some nominal effort in the direction of reducing institutional racism, while the Rs work in the opposite direction and become outraged when "_No, I'm not racist. Not at all. No one told me it was not ok to use 'jigaboo' anymore, so stop persecuting me_." They try to hide their bigotry behind faux outrage while the Ds at least apologize for it.


----------



## Herdfan

lizkat said:


> I don't remember Biden being excused while Harris was a presidential candidate....




Yet after what she said to him and about him, he still got Black votes.  Lots of them.  And this was in the primary.  I sort of understand him getting them in the General, but it was as if they didn't care what he said or what he did previously, ie crime bill.



Yoused said:


> The Ds at least make some nominal effort in the direction of reducing institutional racism, while the Rs work in the opposite direction and become outraged when "_No, I'm not racist. Not at all. No one told me it was not ok to use 'jigaboo' anymore, so stop persecuting me_." They try to hide their bigotry behind faux outrage *while the Ds at least apologize for it.*




Biden does apologize  And then turns around and says something else just as bad.  Like he either didn't learn, or the apology was a sham.


----------



## lizkat

Herdfan said:


> Yet after what she said to him and about him, he still got Black votes.  Lots of them.  And this was in the primary.  I sort of understand him getting them in the General, but it was as if they didn't care what he said or what he did previously, ie crime bill.




Gee, it almost certainly had something to do with the fact that Biden's opponent was Donald J. Trump.


----------



## Yoused

Austin SD has been holding Pride Week for a decade and a half,


> Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused the Austin school district of holding “immoral and illegal” Pride Week celebrations, claiming school officials are spreading liberal propaganda to brainwash children on LGBTQIA+ issues. In a letter to the district that he shared on Twitter, he claimed the event was akin to sex education which is illegal in Texas if it’s done without parental consent. “The Texas Legislature has made it clear that when it comes to sex education, parents—not school districts—are in charge …”



Gee, you would think he might have noticed before this.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Yoused said:


> I think you should look at the _first_ black president, 16 years earlier. That guy unseated Bush, which was an utter outrage after St. Ronnie showed us the WH belonged to the Rs. The Clinton-haters were very loud, and impotent until they managed to BS their way into control of Congress. That was when the RWBS ramped up to its contemporary state of intransigence. Before the mid-'90s, Rs were mostly tolerable but already on this disgraceful trajectory.




The Clinton era was when the Democrats decided to join the Republicans in selling their souls to corporations and then told their base to STFU if they don’t have a college degree. For the base’s part they decided activism is more of an extracurricular activity to put on their resume. They won’t so much die on a hill as plant a flag on a hill, take a selfie with the flag, and then move on to something else.


----------



## Herdfan

lizkat said:


> Gee, it almost certainly had something to do with the fact that Biden's opponent was Donald J. Trump.




In the General, yes.  But it doesn't explain why Blacks voted for him in the Primary given things he had said and done in the past.



Chew Toy McCoy said:


> The Clinton era was when the Democrats decided to join the Republicans in selling their souls to corporations and then told their base to STFU if they don’t have a college degree. For the base’s part they decided activism is more of an extracurricular activity to put on their resume. They won’t so much die on a hill as plant a flag on a hill, take a selfie with the flag, and then move on to something else.




Nailed it.  And most of the base has yet to figure it out.  The Hispanics, especially in TX, are figuring it out and the midterms may be an absolute bloodbath for the Dems.  Of course they will seek cover by saying that they didn't explain their positions well enough.  Rinse, Repeat.


----------



## Yoused

Herdfan said:


> Nailed it. And most of the base has yet to figure it out. The Hispanics, especially in TX, are figuring it out and the midterms may be an absolute bloodbath for the Dems. Of course they will seek cover by saying that they didn't explain their positions well enough. Rinse, Repeat.



So we end up with Rs, who are stupid, reckless MFing pinheads out to bring the country to Vlad's knees. Great alternative, that. Though I expect it would please you no end.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Herdfan said:


> Nailed it.  And most of the base has yet to figure it out.  The Hispanics, especially in TX, are figuring it out and the midterms may be an absolute bloodbath for the Dems.  Of course they will seek cover by saying that they didn't explain their positions well enough.  Rinse, Repeat.




I read earlier about all the Texas style abortion legislation being passed all over the country. I’m sure the left protest machine will get right back on that as soon as they are done creating their Zelenskyy fan art.


----------



## SuperMatt

Somebody from West Virginia walks into the Texas thread and somehow makes it into a discussion about Clinton... oops make that Joe Biden being a racist.



Why even put titles on the threads anymore?

In other news, Ted Cruz is still a Senator from Texas, and gave the state a bad name during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.


----------



## lizkat

Herdfan said:


> In the General, yes. But it doesn't explain why Blacks voted for him in the Primary given things he had said and done in the past.




Biden won the South Carolina primary.  That was the turning point.

So, two words:   Jim Clyburn. That's why.  His endorsement of Biden in SC was like a Fort Knox worth of gold.

Also why Clyburn was annoyed that his home state suggestion of Judge Childs for the high court didn't get the nod from Biden.  I mean the guy would not be president today if not for Clyburn's endorsement in the 2020 primary.   The Dems don't like to acknowledge that there are Black voters who are pretty conservative on social issues.   They may have seen Childs as their potential version of a David Souter.​
But back to the primaries of 2020:   aside from Clyburn's endorsement in South Carolina, there was the fact that the Ds were and still are wary of progressives like Warren.   The DNC went all in on Biden in that SC primary.



SuperMatt said:


> Somebody from West Virginia walks into the Texas thread and somehow makes it into a discussion about Clinton... oops make that Joe Biden being a racist.
> 
> 
> 
> Why even put titles on the threads anymore?
> 
> In other news, Ted Cruz is still a Senator from Texas, and gave the state a bad name during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.




It was just a digression, it's ok..  we've already worked our way back to Texas.   All roads lead to Texas lately anyway.


----------



## lizkat

Sheesh.









						Rare pink grasshopper found in East Texas
					

A man ended up with an unusual pet when he made an unusual discovery among the Texas foliage -- a pink grasshopper.




					www.upi.com


----------



## Herdfan

lizkat said:


> Also why Clyburn was annoyed that his home state suggestion of Judge Childs for the high court didn't get the nod from Biden.  I mean the guy would not be president today if not for Clyburn's endorsement in the 2020 primary.   The Dems don't like to acknowledge that there are Black voters who are pretty conservative on social issues.   They may have seen Childs as their potential version of a David Souter.




Not only Clyburn, but Lindsey Graham as well.  She would have sailed through the Senate.  Who knows, maybe she will get a shot if Manchin or Sinema balk.




SuperMatt said:


> Somebody from West Virginia walks into the Texas thread and somehow makes it into a discussion about Clinton... oops make that Joe Biden being a racist.




Perhaps you need to go back and read exactly who started the Clinton tangent in the TX thread.  Hint: It wasn't me.


----------



## ronntaylor

Yoused said:


> Yes. Aside from being the black President, what, of substance, did Barack Obama do for black people? I sure did not see much. He barely touched the crap policies of his predecessor. He may have been to the left of Reagan, but, barely. In practical terms, being the first African-American president was mostly window dressing.
> 
> I mean, I liked the guy on  personal type level, and he was excellent at what he did, but what he did was not much. That is what genuine critical thinking skills will get you.



Nice deflection from your praise of "the first Black president." If you want to believe that President Obama did nothing for Black people you're either being obtuse or willingly shutting your eyes.


----------



## ronntaylor

Herdfan said:


> Good thing that “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.” decided to put him on the ticket to be VP.



Shit worked as he kicked Republican ass two presidential elections in a row.


----------



## SuperMatt

Over 12% of mail-in ballots in Texas were rejected in the recent primary contest. Over 24,000 people whose votes didn’t count because of absurd new rules governing the ballots. In 2020? Only 1% of mail-in ballots were rejected. But, since slightly more Democratic than Republican ballots were rejected, I’m sure the fascists in charge of Texas think they did something good.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1511738497069207555/


----------



## JayMysteri0

Seriously, WTF?!  



> Starr County woman arrested for “self-induced abortion”
> 
> 
> STARR COUNTY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A woman has been charged with murder after authorities say she performed a “self-induced abortion.” Lizelle Herrera, 26, was arrested on Thur…
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.valleycentral.com




Her bond is a half mil, meanwhile...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1512075242931326980/

His bond?  250K.  He actually killed someone who's led a life!

But wait, before anyone says it, race isn't a factor.  Or sex.  Or...


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Seriously, WTF?!
> 
> 
> 
> Her bond is a half mil, meanwhile...
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1512075242931326980/
> 
> His bond?  250K.  He actually killed someone who's led a life!
> 
> But wait, before anyone says it, race isn't a factor.  Or sex.  Or...



Here is some more information on the abortion case. They are not releasing many details right now.









						Woman in Texas Charged With Murder in Connection With ‘Self-Induced Abortion’
					

Whether the woman had the abortion or was aiding one was unclear.




					www.nytimes.com
				



(paywall removed)


----------



## SuperMatt

SuperMatt said:


> Here is some more information on the abortion case. They are not releasing many details right now.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Woman in Texas Charged With Murder in Connection With ‘Self-Induced Abortion’
> 
> 
> Whether the woman had the abortion or was aiding one was unclear.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nytimes.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (paywall removed)



So, they have dropped all the charges. The county police department refused to admit wrongdoing though, saying they were correct to investigate. Could be a big wrongful arrest lawsuit coming. That “novel” Texas law avoided some judicial review because it specifically prevents “the state” from getting involved.

So now what happens if lawsuits pile up from concerned citizens opportunists that saw this news story? Or perhaps that was the point. The police make a wrongful arrest, the story makes the news, and the lawsuits follow?

The fact that a judge would be so completely ignorant of the law that they would set a bond of $500,000… that’s really over the top. Seems like the people involved intentionally did this to make an example of her.









						After pursuing an indictment, Starr County district attorney drops murder charge over self-induced abortion
					

Texas law exempts a pregnant person from being charged with murder or any lesser homicide charge for an abortion.




					www.texastribune.org


----------



## Joe

JayMysteri0 said:


> Seriously, WTF?!
> 
> 
> 
> Her bond is a half mil, meanwhile...
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1512075242931326980/
> 
> His bond?  250K.  He actually killed someone who's led a life!
> 
> But wait, before anyone says it, race isn't a factor.  Or sex.  Or...




He's white. She's Hispanic.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Joe said:


> He's white. She's Hispanic.


----------



## SuperMatt

Joe said:


> He's white. She's Hispanic.



Get ready for a shock. 

Some people discriminate against Hispanics.


----------



## Joe

SuperMatt said:


> Get ready for a shock.
> 
> Some people discriminate against Hispanics.




Yes, that was the point.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Seriously.  

WTF?!

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1515346169517510658/


----------



## SuperMatt

You may recall Greg Abbott trying to “own the libs” and/or punish the federal government for ending Title 42 by sending migrants to Washington, DC.









						Gov. Abbott sends 2nd bus of migrants to Washington DC to protest end of Title 42
					

The Biden administration will lift Title 42 restrictions in May.




					abcnews.go.com
				




Well, it’s turned out very well for the migrants!









						Texas’ Busing of Migrants to D.C. Isn’t Having Abbott’s Intended Effect Yet
					

The plan, meant to rattle President Biden, fits into his strategy for addressing record numbers of border crossings. The migrants said they were grateful for the chartered bus ride.




					www.nytimes.com
				



(paywall removed)



> “I would like to say thank you to the governor of Texas,” Chadrack Mboyo-Bola, 26, said on Thursday morning, after he and 13 other migrants stepped off one of the chartered buses that had provided a 33-hour ride paid for by the State of Texas. Blocks from the U.S. Capitol, they were greeted by volunteers who would help them reach their desired destinations around the country to await their day in immigration court.
> 
> Three days earlier, Mr. Mboyo-Bola and his family had crossed into the United States from Mexico along the border in Central Texas after an eight-week journey from Brazil. After spending a day in Border Patrol custody in Eagle Pass, Texas, they and about 20 other new immigrants accepted an offer to board a Washington-bound bus in nearby Del Rio.




When the best thing you can do for people is to ship them out of your state, what does that say about how you’re doing as governor?


----------



## Joe

JayMysteri0 said:


> Seriously.
> 
> WTF?!
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1515346169517510658/




I'm sure some idiot was trying to get an Instagram moment riding a dolphin. smh


----------



## JayMysteri0

Texas, I know it's hard, but be better...



> Texas School District Bars Black Student Over Braids
> 
> 
> East Bernard Independent School District still has a racist dress code
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.theroot.com





> A Texas family says their son hasn’t been able to enroll in his local public high school because of a racist and arbitrary policy that bans braids and other natural hairstyles common among Black people.
> 
> *The East Bernard Independent School District’s handbook–which CNN reports was removed from the district’s web site after reporters started asking questions about the policy–bans the styles as part of its dress code, despite the fact that hairstyles have nothing to do with what someone wears*. That’s a problem for Dyree Williams, a 17-year-old student whose family just moved from Cincinnati to East Bernard, which is near Houston.
> 
> Williams wears his hair in braids and considers the style a tie to his culture and ancestors. His family has appealed local school officials decision not to allow him to enroll, to no avail. The family says cutting his hair isn’t an option, but they also don’t have another option for a public school to send him to because East Bernard is the closest district to their home.






> It’s not the first time a Texas school district has faced controversy over how it treats Black students over their hair. In 2020, a judge ruled that Barbers Hill Independent School District in Mont Belvieu, Texas, had to allow then junior student Kaden Bradford full access to school and extracurricular activities without cutting off his dreadlocks.


----------



## Joe

That has to be a culture shock going from Cincinnati to a podunk town like East Bernard. 

If I had Facebook, I’m pretty sure the comments are full of white people saying “just comply”


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1520794568584802306/


> Mexico to Route Rail Line Through New Mexico, Not Texas
> 
> 
> Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border crackdown is generating fresh backlash, with Mexico’s economy minister announcing that a new rail line to the U.S. would now go via New Mexico instead of the Lone Star State.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.ttnews.com


----------



## JayMysteri0

This is so fucking on brand for abbott



> How federal pandemic aid helped Texas pay for Greg Abbott’s border mission
> 
> 
> State officials freed up cash for Operation Lone Star with the help of federal funds meant to respond to the coronavirus crisis.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.texastribune.org





> Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and top state lawmakers shifted around roughly $1 billion in federal coronavirus aid to help pay for their campaign to arrest migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, exposing gaps in a law meant to bolster the country’s response to the ongoing pandemic.
> 
> Relying on the availability of generous federal relief funds, Texas repeatedly in recent months rerouted state money toward its controversial immigration crackdown — all without leaving a massive hole in its budget. But critics say the money would have been put to better use tending to a public health crisis that has killed more than 86,000 people in the state.
> 
> The trouble centers on Operation Lone Star, an initiative announced by Abbott last year, when he promised that law enforcement would “start arresting everybody” crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The campaign, which detains migrants on state trespassing and other charges, relies on extensive and expensive deployments of National Guard troops.
> 
> 
> Civil rights groups have widely derided the effort as discriminatory — and some have urged the Biden administration to intervene — calling it a harmful political stunt by a Republican governor who harbors aspirations for the presidency. The operation even has seen Texas send buses of arrested migrants to other cities, including Washington, as Abbott argues his state “should not have to bear the burden” at the border.
> 
> But the program also has been expensive, and to help pay for it, Texas has eased the financial burden using money received under a 2020 law meant to help states battle the coronavirus. The state did so through a series of little-noticed “swaps,” in the words of one aide to the governor, who explained the setup to state lawmakers at a hearing in early April.
> 
> Essentially, Texas this year transferred money away from its public health and safety agencies and to the governor’s office to administer Operation Lone Star. That cash, totaling nearly $1 billion, was available because the state had backfilled those same public health and safety agencies with stimulus funds it received from Washington, according to interviews with local officials, submissions to the Texas legislature and missives from the governor’s office itself.
> 
> The moves appear to be legal under the stimulus law known as the Cares Act, enacted in March 2020. Congress never prohibited states from rejiggering their budgets to take full advantage of a program called the Coronavirus Relief Fund, which aimed to help cities and states pay front-line workers, purchase supplies and tend to other pandemic needs. The approach helped states save their money, which some local governments later reinvested in their efforts to arrest the spread of the virus. Others, like Texas, however, seized on the federal program to redirect their newly found savings for unrelated uses — including immigration enforcement.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> You may recall Greg Abbott trying to “own the libs” and/or punish the federal government for ending Title 42 by sending migrants to Washington, DC.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Gov. Abbott sends 2nd bus of migrants to Washington DC to protest end of Title 42
> 
> 
> The Biden administration will lift Title 42 restrictions in May.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> abcnews.go.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Well, it’s turned out very well for the migrants!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas’ Busing of Migrants to D.C. Isn’t Having Abbott’s Intended Effect Yet
> 
> 
> The plan, meant to rattle President Biden, fits into his strategy for addressing record numbers of border crossings. The migrants said they were grateful for the chartered bus ride.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nytimes.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (paywall removed)
> 
> 
> 
> When the best thing you can do for people is to ship them out of your state, what does that say about how you’re doing as governor?




Even more hilarious is I heard they were grateful that they were taken closer to their desired destination, Miami.  Sticking it to that libtard extremist DeSantis.


----------



## SuperMatt

The child welfare agency of Texas was blocked by a court from investigating the parents of a transgender child for child abuse simply for providing gender-affirming care to their child. This block applied to ALL parents of transgender children.

The Texas Supreme Court heard the case, and although they are keeping the block in place for the one case being litigated, they decided the state can go after all other parents of transgender children, effective immediately.









						Texas Supreme Court allows child abuse investigations into families of transgender teens to continue
					

The high court also raised questions about why the state opened these investigations in the first place, noting that the child welfare agency is not bound by directives from the governor.




					www.texastribune.org


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> The child welfare agency of Texas was blocked by a court from investigating the parents of a transgender child for child abuse simply for providing gender-affirming care to their child. This block applied to ALL parents of transgender children.
> 
> The Texas Supreme Court heard the case, and although they are keeping the block in place for the one case being litigated, they decided the state can go after all other parents of transgender children, effective immediately.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Supreme Court allows child abuse investigations into families of transgender teens to continue
> 
> 
> The high court also raised questions about why the state opened these investigations in the first place, noting that the child welfare agency is not bound by directives from the governor.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.texastribune.org




I think it's pretty obvious by now that the goal is to keep more liberals from moving to Texas.   Have kids or plan to (or not to)?   Then you don't want to move to Texas.  It's a minefield of government sanctioned emotional abuse for anybody who isn't a straight white male.

Your experience as a minority isn't real.  Your identity isn't yours to decide.  Your reproductive ability isn't yours to control.  You know, freedom!!


----------



## Clix Pix

Three or four years ago my upstairs neighbors here in the condo community decided to move to San Antonio, Texas.  They're a married gay couple and, well....  they quickly found that San Antonio wasn't quite as welcoming as they'd assumed it would be, plus one of them had trouble finding a new job, which didn't help matters any.   After about a year and a half, maybe two years, they gave up, sold the house down there and moved back to this area.  I can imagine that they are really relieved that they got out of there when they did!


----------



## Yoused

The 5th Circuit Court lifted an injunction on a social media regulation law passed by the Texas Lege and immediately enjoined by a district judge.
* Texas Republicans passed their internet censorship bill, known as H.B. 20, in the fall of 2021. Its sponsors said that the legislation was necessary to prevent “West Coast oligarchs” from silencing “conservative viewpoints and ideas.” … The bill applies to social media companies with “more than 50 million active users” in the U.S. each month, like Twitter, YouTube, and Meta, that operate in Texas. … It states that these companies may not “censor” a user’s expression on the basis of their “viewpoint,” whether that “viewpoint” is expressed on the company’s platform or somewhere else. …

… also bars social media companies from labeling posts on their own websites—with, for instance, a warning that they contain violence, vulgarity, or disinformation. … And one baffling provision sharply restricts email service providers’ ability to block spam, allowing users to collect $25,000 for each day that their provider impedes “the transmission of an unsolicited or commercial electronic mail message.”*​
As if that does not go far enough,

*The only way out of this mess, then, would be for social media companies to cease all operations in Texas. But H.B. 20 orders them to continue providing their services in Texas.*​
They want to *require* companies to do business in Texas. Because, _Free Market!_ Or something. How could they possibly expect to force a company to provide their service in Texas if the company does not want to? Are these people insane?


----------



## SuperMatt

Texas is continuing investigations into parents of transgender kids after winning a court case. 









						Texas DFPS resumes investigations into parents of trans kids — The Texas Tribune
					

Lawyers representing families under investigation said they heard from the agency Thursday about continuing the investigations that had previously been halted by a statewide injunction.




					apple.news


----------



## JayMysteri0

Before we start...




Okay, lets go...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1528272636572078085/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1528273327822802944/




https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1528584111128039427/

I know what you are thinking, "why make up such a story involving Texa..."


> Loving County judge arrested for cattle theft
> 
> 
> A special ranger confirms Judge Jones and three others are accused of picking up estray cattle and selling them.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.newswest9.com





> WINKLER COUNTY, Texas — The top seated official in the least populated county in the state of Texas was arrested Friday. Loving County Judge Skeet Jones is accused of livestock theft and organized criminal activity.
> 
> A special ranger with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association confirmed Judge Jones and three others, including a county employee, are accused of picking up estray cattle and selling them.
> 
> Judge Jones, Cody Williams, Jonathon Alvarado and Leroy Medlin were all booked into the Winkler County Jail before they bonded out Friday night.
> 
> Special rangers have been investigating for more than a year.
> 
> By law, if an estray (loose) livestock animal roams onto a property, the property owner must report the livestock to the the sheriff. The sheriff's office would then contact the livestock's owner and work toward reunification.




I really appreciate this one line.



> Jones and Williams are officially charged for theft of three head of cattle and organized crime. Alvarado is charged for theft of one head of cattle and organized crime. *Medlin is charged for organized crime.*




From Skeet, to Medlin, Fuchs, and cattle rustling, this story has it ALL.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Just trying to distract from the massive shittiness & evil of today, with petty evil & shittiness of the day.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1528923362357129216/


> Businesses that help employees get abortions could be next target of Texas lawmakers if Roe v. Wade is overturned
> 
> 
> Fourteen GOP legislators warned Lyft that they’d seek to ban companies that pay for abortions from doing business in Texas. The extent of support for the idea is unclear.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.texastribune.org




Hate that big gummint, amirite?    Go business!


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Just trying to distract from the massive shittiness & evil of today, with petty evil & shittiness of the day.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1528923362357129216/
> 
> 
> Hate that big gummint, amirite?    Go business!



They spent 50 years of aggressive political activism to get their far-right Supreme Court. The reason is supposedly that saving kids’ lives is the most important thing in the world.

But when little kids are gunned down with assault weapons?

”It’s sad, but there‘s nothing we can do…”


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Right now I’d probably feel safer and more sympathetic sitting in a bar as an American in Russia with ultra nationalists justifying the invasion of Ukraine than sitting in a bar in Texas with MAGA patriots defending Texas.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Now attention is turning to the police during this

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529687298094379009/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529826405667717120/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529652093354536961/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529689677749534721/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529708434995683329/

There's one wild accusation that I can't find back up to that a cop got their kids out, while parents were kept out.

It's understandable they aren't letting more people into a chaotic active scene, but the optics of the effort to keep the parents out while less effort in getting the kids out is not a good one.  These are frightened parents & confronting them like you should the shooter, perhaps isn't the best choice.



> Police response to Texas school shooting questioned
> 
> 
> Frustrated onlookers say officers didn't enter the school quickly enough but authorities praised the courage of those who went inside and said they did so as soon as circumstances allowed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.cbsnews.com




Texas is in for a storm after this, and it's just getting started.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Now attention is turning to the police during this
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529687298094379009/
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529826405667717120/
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529652093354536961/
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529689677749534721/
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529708434995683329/
> 
> There's one wild accusation that I can't find back up to that a cop got their kids out, while parents were kept out.
> 
> It's understandable they aren't letting more people into a chaotic active scene, but the optics of the effort to keep the parents out while less effort in getting the kids out is not a good one.  These are frightened parents & confronting them like you should the shooter, perhaps isn't the best choice.
> 
> 
> 
> Texas is in for a storm after this, and it's just getting started.



How many heavily armed “good guys with guns” does it take to stop one teenager?

Every single argument against gun control from the NRA and Republicans falls apart like a piece of wet toilet paper.

Choose: guns or kids. It’s that simple. We see what the Republicans are choosing. NOBODY should vote for them.


----------



## SuperMatt

WTF Greg Abbott is pressuring family of victims to say they don’t want gun restrictions????

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529933105359753218/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529933108182515713/


----------



## Yoused

SuperMatt said:


> WTF Greg Abbott is pressuring family of victims to say they don’t want gun restrictions????



There is some suggestion that that posting may be fiction

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529954166663151616/


----------



## JayMysteri0

A little more about the questions concerning the police






This was something being discussed, that I believe the poster's think they covered.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529710536169910272/

This has the unproven rumor I mentioned earlier

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1530021082308440064/

The missing 18 minutes begins to become it's own conspiracy

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1529956774379413508/

There maybe quite the reckoning.  Besides what the police did or didn't do, what story they can & cannot get right, it's also clear that the plans put in place earlier ( "hardening schools" ) isn't the solution it was peddled to be.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Texas + Police, do better



> The Uvalde police keep changing their story
> 
> 
> Law enforcement noted they made the "wrong decision" when they didn’t confront the gunman sooner.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.vox.com






> At 12:36, about an hour after police first entered, a child called 911. She was told to stay quiet.
> 
> At 12:47, she begged them to “please send the police now.”




Police were OUTSIDE in the hallway for minutes, and this little girl is BEGGING for the police to be sent.  Police that are OUTSIDE.

They stood there waiting for a FUCKING key to open a door.

To me, it sounds like a greater concern for the lives of the officers, over the lives of the children they were supposed to save.



> The Border Patrol tactical team did not enter the classrooms until after that moment, McCraw explained. What the police were doing inside the school during the nearly 90 minutes after the gunman entered, why they delayed so long even while children called 911, and what happened to the “eight to nine students” who were still alive at 12:15 pm is still unclear.






Yeah, guns are NOT the problem.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> Texas + Police, do better
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Police were OUTSIDE in the hallway for minutes, and this little girl is BEGGING for the police to be sent.  Police that are OUTSIDE.
> 
> They stood there waiting for a FUCKING key to open a door.
> 
> To me, it sounds like a greater concern for the lives of the officers, over the lives of the children they were supposed to save.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, guns are NOT the problem.






They only have 13,000 people in Uvalde, but they have a SWAT team. They spend 40% of their municipal budget on police. And they couldn’t stop one 18-year-old from killing 19 children and 2 teachers.

Maybe if they told them there were doughnuts getting stale inside they would have shown some urgency?

Firefighters know their job is to run in immediately and risk their lives to save others. These police don’t seem to share that professional ethic.

I saw a timeline (link below). The cops first encountered the shooter 4 minutes after he entered the school. I don’t believe he’d killed any kids at that point. So they got scared and ran away and let him kill kids?









						Photos show cops rescuing Texas schoolchildren from windows in Uvalde
					

New photos have emerged depicting part of the law enforcement response to the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, as questions mount about why police didn't engage the shooter more quickly.




					www.dailymail.co.uk


----------



## Yoused

SuperMatt said:


> They only have 13,000 people in Uvalde, but they have a SWAT team. They spend 40% of their municipal budget on police. And they couldn’t stop one 18-year-old from killing 19 children and 2 teachers.



The thing I am given to understand is that the job of the police is to catch bad guys so that they can be punished. But you cannot idenify a bad guy until he actually does a bad thing (such as exiting the womb with the wrong ethnicity). Police are absolutey not tasked with _preventing_ crime, only with catching criminals.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Yoused said:


> The thing I am given to understand is that the job of the police is to catch bad guys so that they can be punished. But you cannot idenify a bad guy until he actually does a bad thing (such as exiting the womb with the wrong ethnicity). Police are absolutey not tasked with _preventing_ crime, only with catching criminals.




I remember back at the other place, there were a handful of characters who liked to remind others what the role of the police were.  It wasn't what many of us were supposedly led to believe.  Which is why to this day when see vehicles with the slogan & think of those characters I wince a little.  






It was made worse after the concerns about police in Uvalde.  They manage to do what the characters really like which was harass the wrong people, and out of seeming "fear for their lives" not harass the right person.

I should clarify, I am not "completely" faulting the police alone.  Along with the governor's obsession to do everything but anything with involving guns, he helped create an industry for _hardening_ schools.  Which made entry MORE difficult for the police.  NOT so difficult though that they needed to run around looking for a custodian's key, like they were looking for a mop to use in the cafeteria.  The screwups here ALL over the place with ALL eyes on Texas now, and everyone running to avoid blame that well deserves it.


----------



## Cmaier

JayMysteri0 said:


> I should clarify, I am not "completely" faulting the police alone.  Along with the governor's obsession to do everything but anything with involving guns, he helped create an industry for _hardening_ schools.  Which made entry MORE difficult for the police.  NOT so difficult though that they needed to run around looking for a custodian's key, like they were looking for a mop to use in the cafeteria.  The screwups here ALL over the place with ALL eyes on Texas now, and everyone running to avoid blame that well deserves it.




Yep. When I was a kid, my classroom door didn’t lock.  

Just wait until a bunch of kids die because of republicans now super-charging the “hardening“ theory by removing doors. Fires are a lot more common than school shooters.

(By the way, if you *are* going to have locks on classrooms, why don’t they all use the same key, like elevators, so that every first responder has it?)

also, honest question: is a locked door much of a hindrance to a guy with a couple of semi-automatic rifles?


----------



## Yoused

Cmaier said:


> also, honest question: is a locked door much of a hindrance to a guy with a couple of semi-automatic rifles?



There is an old saying, "_A lock keeps honest people honest, but anyone who really wants to get past it will get past it_".


----------



## Cmaier

Yoused said:


> There is an old saying, "_A lock keeps honest people honest, but anyone who really wants to get past it will get past it_".



Relatedly, how come when police want to serve a no-knock warrant on the wrong address they seem to have no problem getting through doors with deadbolts, locked doorknobs, and chains.  But they are completely stymied by a classroom door lock for 45 minutes and have to wait for someone to deliver them a key?>


----------



## JayMysteri0

Cmaier said:


> Relatedly, how come when police want to serve a no-knock warrant on the wrong address they seem to have no problem getting through doors with deadbolts, locked doorknobs, and chains.  But they are completely stymied by a classroom door lock for 45 minutes and have to wait for someone to deliver them a key?>



You mean the Louisville No Knock warrant.

That's a special warrant, for a special police.


----------



## Cmaier

JayMysteri0 said:


> You mean the Louisville No Knock warrant.
> 
> That's a special warrant, for a special police.



Louisville wasn’t the first time, by the way. Usually, thank god, faulty no knock warrants only result in terror, false arrest, and not grievous bodily injury and death.


----------



## Yoused

Cmaier said:


> Relatedly, how come when police want to serve a no-knock warrant on the wrong address they seem to have no problem getting through doors with deadbolts, locked doorknobs, and chains.  But they are completely stymied by a classroom door lock for 45 minutes and have to wait for someone to deliver them a key?>



Apartment doors are private property, which is SEP. Classroom doors are public property, which costs the taxpayers money, and the police would rather not piss off the taxpayers (we shall not speak of those large legal settlements for police misbehavior, paid for with public funds – they can just gin up a bunch of civil asset forfeitures and traffic fines to make up the difference).


----------



## JayMysteri0

Cmaier said:


> Louisville wasn’t the first time, by the way. Usually, thank god, faulty no knock warrants only result in terror, false arrest, and not grievous bodily injury and death.



They weren't the first, but they've become the most synonymous with abuse of the no knock warrant.

Then being protected for that abuse.


----------



## Herdfan

Cmaier said:


> also, honest question: is a locked door much of a hindrance to a guy with a couple of semi-automatic rifles?




Certainly will slow them down.  

Technology these days is cheap.  Really easy to have automatic closers on door triggered by an alarm (just like fire doors), then a magnetic lock, locks the door from the hallway.    

I did read that he was able to enter the school because a teacher propped the rear door open.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Herdfan said:


> Certainly will slow them down.
> 
> Technology these days is cheap.  Really easy to have automatic closers on door triggered by an alarm (just like fire doors), then a magnetic lock, locks the door from the hallway.
> 
> I did read that he was able to enter the school because a teacher propped the rear door open.



I would take that with a grain of salt, as that was part of the police's revised story, NOT the original accounting.  I fear that teacher is being offered up as a scapegoat for what later happened with the police.

It really can't be stressed enough about how a new very lucrative industry has sprung up based on an unproven concept.  A concept eagerly embraced & championed by the Texas governor, that may have backfired and prevented children from being saved.

After all it was a supposed hardened door the shooter would have closed that kept the children from escaping, and the police from entering.  Provided you ignore the several minutes they could have used things that SWAT teams have or Fire departments.

As I've said before, it's always going to be something else to address, and not the core issue staring one blatantly in face like a gun barrel.  It's then going to become addressing issues created by addressing something else ( like your common sense answer or the answer of universal keys for one school so a police dept is not fumbling around looking for an understandably frightened janitor's keys ) instead of still addressing the issue staring everyone in the face.  At which point there will be another shooting sadly, and still calls to address EVERYTHING but the obvious.

I get it.  A majority doesn't want to be punished for the actions of a minority.  Reality is though as long as guns are so easy to access for the majority, it will be easy for the minority that wants to use those guns for what they really are intended for.  To kill people.  In this country in the hands of civilians like that minority though, ...it's to kill innocent people.  Buffalo.

Bonus QFT
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1530328429983408128/


----------



## JayMysteri0

A little bonus aside about Buffalo, that OF COURSE involves Texas somehow

This is why PoC are tired.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1530667605312172037/

But let some PoC act up, and you damn well better believe some agents will step up like their asses are on fire.

If true.  Fuck.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1530671604182695936/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1530674177878810625/

Please don't let this become a pattern.  Because after reading this, it destroys your faith

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1530562484658229249/


----------



## JayMysteri0

Let's not leave that @$$hat of a governor out of any of this derision.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1530657044432289795/

Keep that in mind, next time someone wants to carry on about some politician's gaffe.

DaFuq?!!


----------



## Cmaier

JayMysteri0 said:


> Let's not leave that @$$hat of a governor out of any of this derision.
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1530657044432289795/
> 
> Keep that in mind, next time someone wants to carry on about some politician's gaffe.
> 
> DaFuq?!!




Why is he wearing a shirt with his own name on it, and some phony badge? 

What’s next, a fake admiral’s uniform?

What the fuck is up with all these MAGA clowns who want to play dress up?


----------



## JayMysteri0

Cmaier said:


> Why is he wearing a shirt with his own name on it, and some phony badge?
> 
> What’s next, a fake admiral’s uniform?
> 
> What the fuck is up with all these MAGA clowns who want to play dress up?



It's a thing, like Gaetz's best boy, who liked to play dress up, carry a badge & a gun, and pull people over.

Yes.  Because he got himself a badge made, carried a gun, that suddenly gave the tax collector the power to pull over a motorist.  Because...



> Seminole County tax collector accused of impersonating police officer
> 
> 
> The Seminole County State attorney says tax collector Joel Greenberg did not break the law when he followed and confronted a driver about speeding.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.wesh.com




These guys have the weirdest fantasies about being some kind of uniformed official with all these great powers, but unwilling to take the risks that real uniformed officials do.


----------



## Cmaier

JayMysteri0 said:


> It's a thing, like Gaetz's best boy, who liked to play dress up, carry a badge & a gun, and pull people over.
> 
> Yes.  Because he got himself a badge made, carried a gun, that suddenly gave the tax collector the power to pull over a motorist.  Because...
> 
> 
> 
> These guys have the weirdest fantasies about being some kind of uniformed official with all these great powers, but unwilling to take the risks that real uniformed officials do.



I guess if you’re the sort of person who watches Indiana Jones movies and roots for the Nazis, you figure “hey, we need uniforms too!”


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> It's a thing, like Gaetz's best boy, who liked to play dress up, carry a badge & a gun, and pull people over.
> 
> Yes.  Because he got himself a badge made, carried a gun, that suddenly gave the tax collector the power to pull over a motorist.  Because...
> 
> 
> 
> These guys have the weirdest fantasies about being some kind of uniformed official with all these great powers, but unwilling to take the risks that real uniformed officials do.



Even governor Kathy Hochul of NY had on something with her name on it when she spoke in front of Tops. As a western New Yorker, I figured she would be a bit more modest… oh well.


----------



## Cmaier

SuperMatt said:


> Even governor Kathy Hochul of NY had on something with her name on it when she spoke in front of Tops. As a western New Yorker, I figured she would be a bit more modest… oh well.




New York has had a string of weirdo governors.


----------



## Yoused

Yoused said:


> The 5th Circuit Court lifted an injunction on a social media regulation law passed by the Texas Lege and immediately enjoined by a district judge.
> * Texas Republicans passed their internet censorship bill, known as H.B. 20, in the fall of 2021. Its sponsors said that the legislation was necessary to prevent “West Coast oligarchs” from silencing “conservative viewpoints and ideas.” … The bill applies to social media companies with “more than 50 million active users” in the U.S. each month, like Twitter, YouTube, and Meta, that operate in Texas. … It states that these companies may not “censor” a user’s expression on the basis of their “viewpoint,” whether that “viewpoint” is expressed on the company’s platform or somewhere else. …
> 
> … also bars social media companies from labeling posts on their own websites—with, for instance, a warning that they contain violence, vulgarity, or disinformation. … And one baffling provision sharply restricts email service providers’ ability to block spam, allowing users to collect $25,000 for each day that their provider impedes “the transmission of an unsolicited or commercial electronic mail message.”*​
> As if that does not go far enough,
> 
> *The only way out of this mess, then, would be for social media companies to cease all operations in Texas. But H.B. 20 orders them to continue providing their services in Texas.*​
> They want to *require* companies to do business in Texas. Because, _Free Market!_ Or something. How could they possibly expect to force a company to provide their service in Texas if the company does not want to? Are these people insane?




Update: SCotUS reinstated the injunction that was lifted by an apellate court by a 5-4 vote. This was not an actual ruling on the legitimacy of the law itself, just a vote on the injunction. They will probably not rule on the law itself for a year or two.


----------



## rdrr

Herdfan said:


> Certainly will slow them down.
> 
> Technology these days is cheap.  Really easy to have automatic closers on door triggered by an alarm (just like fire doors), then a magnetic lock, locks the door from the hallway.
> 
> I did read that he was able to enter the school because a teacher propped the rear door open.



So with the recent news that the teacher didn't prop the door open.  Can we remove this fallacy?


----------



## fooferdoggie

rdrr said:


> So with the recent news that the teacher didn't prop the door open.  Can we remove this fallacy?



plus it is easy to shoot through a door with such a weapon.


----------



## SuperMatt

Cmaier said:


> Why is he wearing a shirt with his own name on it, and some phony badge?
> 
> What’s next, a fake admiral’s uniform?
> 
> What the fuck is up with all these MAGA clowns who want to play dress up?






If Trump wins again, he can go full General Admiral Aladeen!


----------



## JayMysteri0

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1531625547104673794/

Jesus



https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1531702083841314823/


----------



## fooferdoggie

he did it for free. Plus its not the first time he has done this for mass shooting victims.


----------



## Joe

My neighbors on NextDoor want to start taking turns patrolling the schools in the area where their kids go. I said Good luck with that, I won't be there.


----------



## rdrr

Joe said:


> My neighbors on NextDoor want to start taking turns patrolling the schools in the area where their kids go. I said Good luck with that, I won't be there.



Patrolling as in with guns?   Are they going to stop people and question them?  I am pretty sure that is illegal.


----------



## Joe

rdrr said:


> Patrolling as in with guns?   Are they going to stop people and question them?  I am pretty sure that is illegal.




Pretty much stand guard armed at their children's school. 

This lady said she would do it on her days off. Have fun with that lady.


----------



## rdrr

Joe said:


> Pretty much stand guard armed at their children's school.
> 
> This lady said she would do it on her days off. Have fun with that lady.



How the heck does that School administration feel about it?   Who is vetting these people?  What about parents that don't agree with random people with guns standing at their kids school?   Seems like there are a lot of questions to be answered.


----------



## Joe

rdrr said:


> How the heck does that School administration feel about it?   Who is vetting these people?  What about parents that don't agree with random people with guns standing at their kids school?   Seems like there are a lot of questions to be answered.




They won't do anything. I told them they will end up not doing anything and they got mad lol


----------



## rdrr

Joe said:


> They won't do anything. I told them they will end up not doing anything and they got mad lol



Nextdoor, the Neighborly version of the Twitter gutter.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Oh for F- sake!!  This can get worse?!!

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1531967491852976130/

A reminder of the list inconsistencies so far from the police.



> Uvalde shooting's evolving narrative: Here are the details police have walked back
> 
> 
> Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.nbcnews.com


----------



## SuperMatt

Texas is all about freedom?









						Texas' Anti-Business, Pro-Fossil Fuel Law Is Spreading
					

Legislation in several states aims to punish companies for moving away from fossil fuels.




					gizmodo.com
				




Unfortunately, Texas is showing themselves to be a leader (with other states eagerly following) when it comes to removing freedoms while simultaneously destroying the planet.



> Elsewhere in the country, lawmakers in other oil and gas states are also eyeing the Texas law as a model. West Virginia passed a bill earlier this year that would restrict the state from working with banks that “have been shown to refuse, terminate or limit commercial activity with coal, oil or natural gas companies.” Meanwhile, a similar bill introduced this year in Indiana would prohibit the state from making investments in companies that “boycott energy companies.” And a bill working its way through the Louisiana House would establish the state as a “fossil fuel sanctuary” and forbid enacting certain policies that would specifically tax or financially hamper the industry.


----------



## Alli

rdrr said:


> Nextdoor, the Neighborly version of the Twitter gutter.



I reported someone on NextDoor just a day or two ago. Asshole started a thread about how Biden wanted to take away all the 9mm guns. WTF?!


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

The focus on the door is reminding me of part of Jim Jefferies' bit on guns in the US in reference to the “I need it for security” excuse. “Security? None of these guys are going to padlock conventions or posting images on social media of them rocking the devil horns next to a securely locked door.”


----------



## Joe

I just found out there’s a Trump Burger in a small town outside Houston. Loard, these people really need help lmaoaoaoao


----------



## Cmaier

Joe said:


> I just found out there’s a Trump Burger in a small town outside Houston. Loard, these people really need help lmaoaoaoao



When Trump finds out he’ll sue ‘em. 

The defense, of course, is that the name is merely descriptive: the burgers are made of ground-up Trump meat.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Joe said:


> I just found out there’s a Trump Burger in a small town outside Houston. Loard, these people really need help lmaoaoaoao



a puke burger made from skunk meat roadkill.


----------



## Cmaier

fooferdoggie said:


> a puke burger made from skunk meat roadkill.




That’s not skunk. It’s miniature striped cow.  Stop spreading fake news.


----------



## JayMysteri0

As if the Uvalde police haven't shown everyone enough of a reason not to trust them...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1532395626603991040/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1532490155004727296/



> Uvalde Police Enlist Bikers to Block Reporters Covering Funerals: Report
> 
> 
> Members of biker groups reportedly demanded that journalists "stay on the sidewalk" as mourners paid their respects to 10-year-old Eliahana Torres on Thursday.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.newsweek.com




Wait.  NOW the police care about the kids?  They had an hour to care about the kids & didn't.


----------



## JayMysteri0

OUCH!


----------



## JayMysteri0

BWAH HA HAHA HAH HA HA
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1532933693668483072/


----------



## JayMysteri0

Reminder that you don't F' with Moms.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1532853860737372161/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1533091630118486018/



> Uvalde mom who was handcuffed says police warned her to stop sharing her story
> 
> 
> She alleged that they threatened legal trouble for obstruction of justice.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.motherjones.com




Because a Mom will get that shit done that cops are afraid too.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1533179820280057857/

AND  IT'S  NOT  HER JOB!  She did that shit, THEN went back to HER job.

D@MN!!!


----------



## JayMysteri0

In _brighter_  news, water is still wet, and Fled Cruz is still lying

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1533624719299297280/

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1533653254801965058/

Sheesh


----------



## Joe

He’s been saying that since the grid failed. And he has millions of people blaming AOC and The Green New Deal for our grid problems. 

It’s scary how stupid people are. 

If things get really bad here I am prepared to move.


----------



## JayMysteri0

This story never gets better.

For a guy that was upset the police gave him bad info that he relayed to the public, Abbot hasn't held anyone responsible or fired anyone over any of this.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1533970597822320640/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1533971833627807745/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1533976423597318144/

For more than a hour?!  

When the police "think" someone has a gun, "fear for their life" makes them shoot them.  Here when the police KNOWS someone has a gun, they just want to talk & won't hurt them.

Dafuq?!!


----------



## Joe

Texas lawmaker wants to make it illegal for minors to be at drag shows. Mass shootings, power grid issues…..but let’s focus on drag queens.  No one is forcing you to take your kids to drag shows. When I was in Chicago last week a friend that lives there brought her 14 yr old daughter to Drag Brunch. We had a blast but Tx wants to ban it. SMH


----------



## JayMysteri0

Perspective
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1534237219514466304/

For that guy
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1534247004238381062/


----------



## Yoused

Tacos are Mezzcan, guns are Murcan.


----------



## Joe




----------



## SuperMatt

God is love.









						Texas pastor says gay people should be 'shot in the back of the head' in shocking sermon — NBC News
					

Pastor Dillon Awes of Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga said gay people "are dangerous to society” and “all homosexuals are pedophiles.”




					apple.news
				




Except in Texas, where this pastor tells his followers God wants us to shoot gay people in the back of the head.


----------



## fooferdoggie

SuperMatt said:


> God is love.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas pastor says gay people should be 'shot in the back of the head' in shocking sermon — NBC News
> 
> 
> Pastor Dillon Awes of Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga said gay people "are dangerous to society” and “all homosexuals are pedophiles.”
> 
> 
> 
> 
> apple.news
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Except in Texas, where this pastor tells his followers God wants us to shoot gay people in the back of the head.



another pastor that worships satin. they think they are doing gods work but they are preaching hate just like the devil approves of.


----------



## Joe

And the people in the audience that cheered that. Smdh


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

My new favorite Texan.


----------



## Herdfan

JayMysteri0 said:


> It really can't be stressed enough about how a new very lucrative industry has sprung up based on an unproven concept.  A concept eagerly embraced & championed by the Texas governor, that may have backfired and prevented children from being saved.




There was a story after Parkland about a school in IN.  It had all the new technology to keep kids safe.  I will try to find it.

But every classroom had a magnetic lock, the school's cameras also fed the local PD, there was a switch in each classroom for the teacher to indicate Safe, there was a line on the floor for the kids to get behind where a shot through the door window could not get to them, flashing lights and sounds to disrupt the shooter.  It was really well done.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Herdfan said:


> There was a story after Parkland about a school in IN.  It had all the new technology to keep kids safe.  I will try to find it.
> 
> But every classroom had a magnetic lock, the school's cameras also fed the local PD, there was a switch in each classroom for the teacher to indicate Safe, there was a line on the floor for the kids to get behind where a shot through the door window could not get to them, flashing lights and sounds to disrupt the shooter.  It was really well done.



But stop for a moment, and read back what you wrote.  What you described.

Doesn't that sound a lot like a penitentiary?  Is that what we want our schools to be?  Is that the school you went to?  Would have wanted to?

All for the love of some's guns, we'd turn schools into something they didn't need to be before.  It's more important to dramatically change the lives of ALL children in the name of 'protecting' them, because to SOME their guns are more important than anything else.


----------



## Herdfan

Alli said:


> I reported someone on NextDoor just a day or two ago. Asshole started a thread about how Biden wanted to take away all the 9mm guns. WTF?!




Well he did kind of say that.  The WH had to walk it back.

But probably not something that should be on NextDoor.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Herdfan said:


> Well he did kind of say that.  The WH had to walk it back.
> 
> But probably not something that should be on NextDoor.



When you say "kind of", do you mean he actually said that, or that's what the gun fanatics took a comment he made after Uvalde & twisted it to?

The reason the WH would walk it back understandably is because the new "version" of what Biden said, became the new talking point instead of what he actually said.  Hoping to course correct an intentional misrepresentation on the part of the fanatics.

Because if I am recalling what you are referring to, the actual comment revolved around *9mm bullets & lungs*, which the usual suspects made the usual fanatical leaps needed to say that he's calling for a ban on a type of gun.  I ask because without context, this is the only instance that comes to mind about Biden recently, concerning a supposed ban on 9mm handguns.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> When you say "kind of", do you mean he actually said that, or that's what the gun fanatics took a comment he made after Uvalde & twisted it to?
> 
> The reason the WH would walk it back understandably is because the new "version" of what Biden said, became the new talking point instead of what he actually said.  Hoping to course correct an intentional misrepresentation on the part of the fanatics.
> 
> Because if I am recalling what you are referring to, the actual comment revolved around *9mm bullets & lungs*, which the usual suspects made the usual fanatical leaps needed to say that he's calling for a ban on a type of gun.  I ask because without context, this is the only instance that comes to mind about Biden recently, concerning a supposed ban on 9mm handguns.



The discussion is almost always dishonest, as you lay out above. If we applied this type of argument to other statements?

Biden said he doesn’t like ketchup? He wants to make tomatoes illegal!


----------



## SuperMatt

Texas‘ Department of Public Safety is trying to block the release of body cam footage from Uvalde.









						Texas Police Want Uvalde Bodycam Footage Suppressed Because It Could Expose Law Enforcement ‘Weakness’
					

The Texas Department of Public Safety asked the state's Attorney General to prevent the public release of body camera footage in response to a public records request from Motherboard.




					www.vice.com
				






> the footage could be used by other shooters to determine "weaknesses" in police response to crimes.



An hour of footage of the parking lot is definitely going to show some weaknesses!


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants to block records about Uvalde response
					

Texas public safety officials cite the "dead suspect loophole" to prevent records from being released.




					www.salon.com
				




As important as I feel getting this information out there is, I think it's pretty apparent to everybody that they fucked up big time and no new information is going to dispute that.


----------



## SuperMatt

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants to block records about Uvalde response
> 
> 
> Texas public safety officials cite the "dead suspect loophole" to prevent records from being released.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.salon.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As important as I feel getting this information out there is, I think it's pretty apparent to everybody that they fucked up big time and no new information is going to dispute that.



The fact that they are covering it up makes it seem like it’s even worse than we already know.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> The fact that they are covering it up makes it seem like it’s even worse than we already know.




I don't know how it could be much worse.  Their most aggressive action was preventing those who were willing to risk their lives to save the kids from entering the scene.


----------



## Yoused

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Their most aggressive action was preventing those who were willing to risk their lives to save the kids from entering the scene.



Obviously the police were hesitant because they wanted to be able to report that no firearms had been harmed as a result of their response.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Yoused said:


> Obviously the police were hesitant because they wanted to be able to report that no firearms had been harmed as a result of their response.





Also in Texas as long as you obtained your first firearm legally you are given a celebratory grace period to shoot up whatever you want.  It's usually not school children but somebody had to do it.  It put the police in a bind on which law takes precedent over the other.  While waiting outside the classroom they were probably going "I remember when I got my first gun.  What a rush.  Good for him."


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Texas GOP adopts resolution rejecting 2020 election results
					

The Republican Party of Texas over the weekend adopted a resolution at its state convention that rejects President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, further aligning the state party establishment with former President Donald Trump in pushing false election claims.




					www.cnn.com
				




What a horror show, but probably shouldn't be too surprised in a state where they decided to proceed with a NRA convention a week after a bunch of children got gunned down to a pulp.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Texas GOP adopts resolution rejecting 2020 election results
> 
> 
> The Republican Party of Texas over the weekend adopted a resolution at its state convention that rejects President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, further aligning the state party establishment with former President Donald Trump in pushing false election claims.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.cnn.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> What a horror show, but probably shouldn't be too surprised in a state where they decided to proceed with a NRA convention a week after a bunch of children got gunned down to a pulp.



man they are living in some alternative world. Texas is a lost cause at this point. they down want voting anymore.


----------



## Hrafn

fooferdoggie said:


> man they are living in some alternative world. Texas is a lost cause at this point. they down want voting anymore.



To be fair, they never did if it meant they don't win.  And by they, well, you can guess?


----------



## Yoused

I miss Miss Molly, she was my hero, but if she saw Texas today, I think she might consider moving to Albuquerque.


----------



## JayMysteri0

The problem with Texas is that the 'r' party has gone so far around the ben, when it needs to top itself for attention, it's drifted into monstrous territory.



> Texas Republican party adopts far-right position that homosexuality is ‘abnormal’
> 
> 
> Delegates at biennial convention also approve platform declaring that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.theguardian.com




After rejecting part of their own party, going wacko with the past election, they've decided 'F' and start saying the "quiet parts" out loud.  You hate to hear what's next, but when a party had decided only group is of value to them, all others need not apply.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JayMysteri0 said:


> The problem with Texas is that the 'r' party has gone so far around the ben, when it needs to top itself for attention, it's drifted into monstrous territory.
> 
> 
> 
> After rejecting part of their own party, going wacko with the past election, they've decided 'F' and start saying the "quiet parts" out loud.  You hate to hear what's next, but when a party had decided only group is of value to them, all others need not apply.




It's unfortunate that the Democrats have moved so far to the right that the only way the Republicans can differentiate themselves is by courting the extremists.  Now center right is considered "radical left".


----------



## JayMysteri0

This one's kind of a catch all that makes it difficult to decide where to post.  It's got Joe Rogan ( who was trending because of comments about Canada & guns that were getting him mocked ), blaming "defund the police", progressives, being pro police because you can't blame them or guns for anything, and Uvalde.



> Uvalde cops’ delayed response blamed on Defund the Police movement on 'Joe Rogan Experience'
> 
> 
> Podcast host Joe Rogan and Tim Kennedy blamed the progressive Defund the Police movement for failing to prepare officers for shootings like the one at Uvalde, Texas.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.foxnews.com





> Joe Rogan, host of the popular "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, had on fighter Tim Kennedy who blamed demonization of law enforcement and the "Defund the Police" movement for rising crime rates and recent mass shootings, like the one in Uvalde, Texas.
> 
> The former Green Beret sniper appeared on the podcast to promote his latest book "Scars and Stripes" on Thursday. Their conversation eventually led to the Texas school shooting and the failures of the police to act in a timely manner.
> 
> "An argument that’s, like, missing about the police is that the police don’t train the way special operations train, but yet they’re involved in combat scenarios on a regular basis," Rogan commented.
> 
> "So what we’re experiencing right now is a byproduct of what society's forced the police to become, you know, they’re demonizing military training for law enforcement," Kennedy said. "And, then, obviously, we just experienced Defund the Police. And nearly every large city has seen a crazy rise in crime. And the ones that these large cities that defunded their police to include Austin, you know, we’ve never seen homicides like this."
> 
> Kennedy added that it was ridiculous to assume that providing "less training and less funding" to officers would result in better policing overall.
> 
> "And then the people that they’re protecting, [we're] going to disarm. So the people coming to save them are untrained and unprepared. It’s creating this disastrous situation," he said.




This is the problem with Rogan ( never fact checking or giving a fuck about facts ) and the danger of talking points.  Real quick, Austin's "DTP" lasted a year, and money is being "refunded" back to them.  As if that has shit to do with Uvalde, who spends I believe 40% of their budget on police.  They literally have a SWAT team for a city as small as that, and it did NOTHING.  But yes, let's just grab "DTP" as the problem.  NOT guns.  NOT police & "fear for their life".  It's DTP.  Yes, it's true ordinary police don't train the way special forces do, because they should have to!  That's what Special Weapons And Tactics are for.  Who again, did nothing.  Instead it was as a special unit of the Border Patrol who did the work.  You can shift blame, but at least have some credible argument instead of a fucking talking point.  If 40% of a town's budget is going towards police, you can't really say DTP is to blame, unless you assume that 50% or more of the budget is required.  If you're doing that though, you're giving away your game if you try for the "we need more resources for mental health" talking point after shootings as well.  The guest was stretching things & might have gotten away with his talking point, if Uvalde hadn't been brought up.

Pro tip:  If you aren't going to grasp that the pandemic had an effect on lowering almost everything including crime, you gotta be able to notice when we had a period of zero or low mass shootings.  During the pandemic.  Pandemic is considered over, what began to happen again?


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

JayMysteri0 said:


> This one's kind of a catch all that makes it difficult to decide where to post.  It's got Joe Rogan ( who was trending because of comments about Canada & guns that were getting him mocked ), blaming "defund the police", progressives, being pro police because you can't blame them or guns for anything, and Uvalde.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This is the problem with Rogan ( never fact checking or giving a fuck about facts ) and the danger of talking points.  Real quick, Austin's "DTP" lasted a year, and money is being "refunded" back to them.  As if that has shit to do with Uvalde, who spends I believe 40% of their budget on police.  They literally have a SWAT team for a city as small as that, and it did NOTHING.  But yes, let's just grab "DTP" as the problem.  NOT guns.  NOT police & "fear for their life".  It's DTP.  Yes, it's true ordinary police don't train the way special forces do, because they should have to!  That's what Special Weapons And Tactics are for.  Who again, did nothing.  Instead it was as a special unit of the Border Patrol who did the work.  You can shift blame, but at least have some credible argument instead of a fucking talking point.  If 40% of a town's budget is going towards police, you can't really say DTP is to blame, unless you assume that 50% or more of the budget is required.  If you're doing that though, you're giving away your game if you try for the "we need more resources for mental health" talking point after shootings as well.  The guest was stretching things & might have gotten away with his talking point, if Uvalde hadn't been brought up.
> 
> Pro tip:  If you aren't going to grasp that the pandemic had an effect on lowering almost everything including crime, you gotta be able to notice when we had a period of zero or low mass shootings.  During the pandemic.  Pandemic is considered over, what began to happen again?





BREAKING NEWS: Man with career in war zones fantasizes about utopia where every square inch of land is a war zone.


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> This one's kind of a catch all that makes it difficult to decide where to post.  It's got Joe Rogan ( who was trending because of comments about Canada & guns that were getting him mocked ), blaming "defund the police", progressives, being pro police because you can't blame them or guns for anything, and Uvalde.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This is the problem with Rogan ( never fact checking or giving a fuck about facts ) and the danger of talking points.  Real quick, Austin's "DTP" lasted a year, and money is being "refunded" back to them.  As if that has shit to do with Uvalde, who spends I believe 40% of their budget on police.  They literally have a SWAT team for a city as small as that, and it did NOTHING.  But yes, let's just grab "DTP" as the problem.  NOT guns.  NOT police & "fear for their life".  It's DTP.  Yes, it's true ordinary police don't train the way special forces do, because they should have to!  That's what Special Weapons And Tactics are for.  Who again, did nothing.  Instead it was as a special unit of the Border Patrol who did the work.  You can shift blame, but at least have some credible argument instead of a fucking talking point.  If 40% of a town's budget is going towards police, you can't really say DTP is to blame, unless you assume that 50% or more of the budget is required.  If you're doing that though, you're giving away your game if you try for the "we need more resources for mental health" talking point after shootings as well.  The guest was stretching things & might have gotten away with his talking point, if Uvalde hadn't been brought up.
> 
> Pro tip:  If you aren't going to grasp that the pandemic had an effect on lowering almost everything including crime, you gotta be able to notice when we had a period of zero or low mass shootings.  During the pandemic.  Pandemic is considered over, what began to happen again?



Plus, they refused to give the police Ivermectin.

But as usual for Rogan, it’s all blatant lies. The Uvalde SWAT team ABSOLUTELY did special training, in the school where this happened, specifically for this type of scenario. And they told everybody about it on their Facebook page.









						Uvalde SWAT Team Bragged About Training at Schools on Facebook
					

Uvalde SWAT visited schools to "familiarize themselves with layouts of our local schools and businesses."




					www.vice.com
				




Everybody should cancel Spotify; they made their bed with Rogan, now let them sleep in it with all the money taken out from under the mattress.


----------



## JayMysteri0

THIS will be interesting!!

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1539455303271456768/



> Uvalde resident comes up with plan to remove Pete Arredondo from City Council. Members voted in her favor.
> 
> 
> “You said ‘we don’t have the power to fire him.' Let me give you a simple out.”
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.ksat.com





> *UVALDE, Texas* – A Uvalde resident appeared to discover a loophole in city policy that changed the course of a nationally watched vote during Tuesday’s council meeting.
> 
> Kim Hammond, who lives a few houses away from Robb Elementary School, testified against a motion to grant beleaguered Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo a “leave of absence from future meetings.”
> 
> “You said ‘we don’t have the power to fire him’,” Hammond said while speaking to Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin and the rest of the council. “Let me give you a simple out.”
> 
> Arredondo has been blamed by state police officials for an “abject failure” and delayed response to the massacre that killed 21 people at the school on May 24.
> 
> The embattled Arredondo was elected to represent Uvalde city council district 3 in the May 7 election and was privately sworn in as a city council member on May 31, just one week after the shooting.
> 
> He has largely been in hiding since a few days after the shooting, and has not attended city council.
> 
> “Why the hell would you (grant a leave of absence)? Let him miss! Three meetings, he’s my councilman, let him miss three,” Hammond said. “Don’t waste any more time on him...Don’t give him an out. We don’t want him. We want him out.”




Maybe an official will finally have to face the people he supposedly works for?  Or he rightly does get the boot?



_I added the article because the tweet is kind of vague about what Arredondo would be sacked from_


----------



## SuperMatt

JayMysteri0 said:


> THIS will be interesting!!
> 
> https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1539455303271456768/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe an official will finally have to face the people he supposedly works for?  Or he rightly does get the boot?
> 
> 
> 
> _I added the article because the tweet is kind of vague about what Arredondo would be sacked from_



I cannot figure out why he didn’t just step down from the council. Does he really think he has a future in Uvalde politics?


----------



## JayMysteri0

SuperMatt said:


> I cannot figure out why he didn’t just step down from the council. Does he really think he has a future in Uvalde politics?



In Texas?  Yes.  He was handed the City Council job, I'm sure mechanisms are place to stay in that job if he wants.  With Texas it's about insuring one stays in a position elected or not, if you are a 'r'.


----------



## Joe

The problem is that people don't believe that Republicans have gotten far right and are becoming more and more fascists'. 

You know how many times I have gotten into debates with conservatives and they're like "not all of us are like that. Those are just the extreme ones. Most conservatives aren't like that" .....and then when you point out that no, Republicans are actually putting these things into their agenda they go silent.  You can literally show them GOP platforms and they will still not believe it or they just don't care because they are not the Target. 

That is another reason why I am not friends with current Republicans. They do not care that people are being targeted by GOP platforms.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Joe said:


> The problem is that people don't believe that Republicans have gotten far right and are becoming more and more fascists'.
> 
> You know how many times I have gotten into debates with conservatives and they're like "not all of us are like that. Those are just the extreme ones. Most conservatives aren't like that" .....and then when you point out that no, Republicans are actually putting these things into their agenda they go silent.  You can literally show them GOP platforms and they will still not believe it or they just don't care because they are not the Target.
> 
> That is another reason why I am not friends with current Republicans. They do not care that people are being targeted by GOP platforms.




It’s also probably safe to assume that their only views of Democrats comes from the fearmongering of their right-wing media. No matter how low or despicable the Republican party goes it's somehow still ALWAYS better than Democrats.

I think there is a key difference between the fearmongering from either side.  The fearmongering from the right is almost entirely tied up in what Democrats could do or magical thinking while the fearmongering from the left is largely what the Republicans are doing.


----------



## Joe

The Astros had Pride Night last night and people lost their minds.

The amount of people that think Pride is celebrating sexuality is just mind boggling. This is what you get when proper history isn't taught to people. They think Pride is just celebrating sex between people of the same sex lol - They don't know that Pride started as a riot. People were tired of police raiding gay bars and arresting people for being there and fought back. That is how Pride started. But these people think Pride at the Astros was going to be Justin Verlander having sex with Jose Altuve on the field. People in this country are stupid.


----------



## Cmaier

Joe said:


> The Astros had Pride Night last night and people lost their minds.
> 
> The amount of people that think Pride is celebrating sexuality is just mind boggling. This is what you get when proper history isn't taught to people. They think Pride is just celebrating sex between people of the same sex lol - They don't know that Pride started as a riot. People were tired of police raiding gay bars and arresting people for being there and fought back. That is how Pride started. But these people think Pride at the Astros was going to be Justin Verlander having sex with Jose Altuve on the field. People in this country are stupid.




Verlander is injured. He’s not available for that activity.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Joe said:


> The Astros had Pride Night last night and people lost their minds.
> 
> The amount of people that think Pride is celebrating sexuality is just mind boggling. This is what you get when proper history isn't taught to people. They think Pride is just celebrating sex between people of the same sex lol - They don't know that Pride started as a riot. People were tired of police raiding gay bars and arresting people for being there and fought back. That is how Pride started. But these people think Pride at the Astros was going to be Justin Verlander having sex with Jose Altuve on the field. People in this country are stupid.




Living where I do its rare that I see any sign of rightwing extremism, but it does happen. I can’t imagine living somewhere where you get slapped in the face with it daily. The other morning going to work there was a truck in front of me that had a Trump/Pence bumper sticker on the right side of their bumper and a 2nd Amendment bumper sticker on the left (could you be any more of a cliché?). Once on the open road I made it a point to get as far away from that potential ignorant timebomb-mobile as quickly as possible.


----------



## GermanSuplex

Texas wants to ban abortion, open carry with no background check or permit of any sort, reject homosexuals even from being affiliated with their own party, overturn the 1965 voting rights act...

Yet they will still look you in the eye and say unflinchingly that democrats are racists who try to keep minorities down and that republicans are the party of all people. You've got to be fucking kidding me.


----------



## JayMysteri0

Baby steps
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1539742755739533312/


----------



## fooferdoggie

Texas school district announces that students will not be allowed to wear dresses or skirts to school after the 5th grade. Burqas, baggy bodysuits, full body tents, and other clothing that conceals feminine shame presumably still acceptable

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/us/forney-texas-school-district-dress-code-ban/index.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_farkhttps://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/us/forney-texas-school-district-dress-code-ban/index.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark


----------



## SuperMatt

fooferdoggie said:


> Texas school district announces that students will not be allowed to wear dresses or skirts to school after the 5th grade. Burqas, baggy bodysuits, full body tents, and other clothing that conceals feminine shame presumably still acceptable
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/us/forney-texas-school-district-dress-code-ban/index.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_farkhttps://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/us/forney-texas-school-district-dress-code-ban/index.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark



I would think the right-wingers would lose their minds over a policy banning girls from wearing traditionally “feminine” attire.


----------



## fooferdoggie

SuperMatt said:


> I would think the right-wingers would lose their minds over a policy banning girls from wearing traditionally “feminine” attire.



dresses allow easy access to baby makers and cant have teen pregnancies now.


----------



## JayMysteri0

fooferdoggie said:


> dresses allow easy access to baby makers and cant have teen pregnancies now.



True.

It's always been the fault of young women for tempting men who go after them. 

Thus leading to possible unwanted children, which leads to abor-


----------



## Yoused

Canada has its own Texas

(United Conservative Party moderator Rob) *Anderson and his group tout the Alberta Sovereignty Act, a plan for Alberta to systematically refuse to uphold or enforce any federal policy or act it believes impedes the province's interests, jurisdictionally or otherwise.*​


----------



## Yoused

A group of Texas "educators" are concerned that the word "slavery" might cause discomfort to some students and therefore recommend replacing it with "involuntary relocation".


----------



## SuperMatt

Yoused said:


> A group of Texas "educators" are concerned that the word "slavery" might cause discomfort to some students and therefore recommend replacing it with "involuntary relocation".



I see it is for K-2. How many kids that age even know the words involuntary or relocation? But then again, I guess that’s the point.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Pretty soon Texas will teach American Americans rode on ships voluntarily so they can come over and work for watermelons and fried chicken.


----------



## SuperMatt

Texas State University did a study of the Uvalde shooting. One of their findings? A police officer could have shot the killer before he started killing, but wanted permission first, and didn’t get it.









						Uvalde police officer missed opportunity to fire at gunman while waiting for supervisor's permission, report finds
					

The report also found that some of the 21 victims, which included 19 children, likely "could have been saved" had they received medical attention sooner.




					www.cbsnews.com
				




Wait, cops need permission to shoot people? Since when?

Also, if they had gone in early instead picking their noses for an hour, some kids would have survived.


----------



## Yoused

SuperMatt said:


> Wait, cops need permission to shoot people? Since when?




He was White.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Justice Department is investigating Texas’ Operation Lone Star for alleged civil rights violations
					

Emails obtained by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica confirm that federal authorities are probing discrimination claims involving Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar border initiative.




					www.texastribune.org
				




Chris Christie had his bridge stunt. Abbott said hold my beer and did his stunt on the entire southern border.  

In May the federal government sent 200,000 southern border immigrants packing back to where they came from.  Apparently this fits the definition of an open border to some.


----------



## SuperMatt

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> Justice Department is investigating Texas’ Operation Lone Star for alleged civil rights violations
> 
> 
> Emails obtained by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica confirm that federal authorities are probing discrimination claims involving Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar border initiative.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.texastribune.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Chris Christie had his bridge stunt. Abbott said hold my beer and did his stunt on the entire southern border.
> 
> In May the federal government sent 200,000 southern border immigrants packing back to where they came from.  Apparently this fits the definition of an open border to some.



There is an entire subreddit of national guard members complaining about, trying to avoid, sharing horror stories, etc. about operation lone star. 

Abbott is abusing the troops. Quite fetid from a party that constantly pretends to support them.


----------



## Joe

We received emails and text messages the last couple of days to conserve energy or the grid may fail again.

Currently, Republicans in a red state controlled by Republicans are blaming every democrat in the country for our failed grid issues.  Some people are blaming Tesla and illegal immigrants for our issues LMAO you can't make this shit up. It's exhausting being surrounded by so many idiots.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Joe said:


> We received emails and text messages the last couple of days to conserve energy or the grid may fail again.
> 
> Currently, Republicans in a red state controlled by Republicans are blaming every democrat in the country for our failed grid issues.  Some people are blaming Tesla and illegal immigrants for our issues LMAO you can't make this shit up. It's exhausting being surrounded by so many idiots.




AOC going to Texas for crisis support was just a cover story. Her main mission was sabotaging the Texas power grid. Can you prove that’s not what happened? I’m just asking questions.


----------



## SuperMatt

Joe said:


> We received emails and text messages the last couple of days to conserve energy or the grid may fail again.
> 
> Currently, Republicans in a red state controlled by Republicans are blaming every democrat in the country for our failed grid issues.  Some people are blaming Tesla and illegal immigrants for our issues LMAO you can't make this shit up. It's exhausting being surrounded by so many idiots.



https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1546528825068208128/


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> AOC going to Texas for crisis support was just a cover story. Her main mission was sabotaging the Texas power grid. Can you prove that’s not what happened? I’m just asking questions.




When AOC came to help during the freeze all the conservatives were yelling that it was just a photo op. Conservatives in this state are so used to their Reps doing basically NOTHING for them that helping out seems like a photo op. AOC and Beto were out helping people. Ted Cruz and Abbot sat on their asses until people shamed Cruz enough to where he went out and "helped" Well, I can't really get mad for Abbott sitting on his ass(lol) but Ted Cruz fled like a little bitch. Conservatives in this state want to own the libs so bad that they said Cruz deserved a vacation when he fled lmao


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Joe said:


> When AOC came to help during the freeze all the conservatives were yelling that it was just a photo op. Conservatives in this state are so used to their Reps doing basically NOTHING for them that helping out seems like a photo op. AOC and Beto were out helping people. Ted Cruz and Abbot sat on their asses until people shamed Cruz enough to where he went out and "helped" Well, I can't really get mad for Abbott sitting on his ass(lol) but Ted Cruz fled like a little bitch. Conservatives in this state want to own the libs so bad that they said Cruz deserved a vacation when he fled lmao




I get the impression Abbot spends most of his time glaring at the southern border like a mental patient and then gets pissed off when some crisis reminds him there’s a huge mass of Texas north of that border that needs tending to. Every time I see him speak he has “I need to get back to the border!” face.


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I get the impression Abbot spends most of his time glaring at the southern border like a mental patient and then gets pissed off when some crisis reminds him there’s a huge mass of Texas north of that border that needs tending to. Every time I see him speak he has “I need to get back to the border!” face.




Yes, currently people are blaming our grid failures on the influx of illegal immigrants and Californians moving to Texas. California gets the blame for everything bad happening in Texas. They always seem to find someone else to blame except our shitty politicians. 

I sometimes wonder what it's like to live life so ignorant and stupid because these people sound really confident when they speak. I need the confidence of a mediocre white person in Texas.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Joe said:


> Yes, currently people are blaming our grid failures on the influx of illegal immigrants and Californians moving to Texas. California gets the blame for everything bad happening in Texas. They always seem to find someone else to blame except our shitty politicians.
> 
> I sometimes wonder what it's like to live life so ignorant and stupid because these people sound really confident when they speak. I need the confidence of a mediocre white person in Texas.




"We don't want to be on the national grid because rolling blackouts in California,   We're perfectly capable of screwing our own people without outside influence.  Everything, including fuck ups, is bigger in Texas."


----------



## Joe

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> "We don't want to be on the national grid because rolling blackouts in California,   We're perfectly capable of screwing our own people without outside influence.  Everything, including fuck ups, is bigger in Texas."




There are currently several neighborhoods in the area that are experiencing blackouts and some Trump supporters are like "well, I am fine. It's not an issue" lol


----------



## Yoused

Joe said:


> There are currently several neighborhoods in the area that are experiencing blackouts




better be throwing that lobster on the barbie _right now_


----------



## Joe

Yoused said:


> better be throwing that lobster on the barbie _right now_




I saw that Sunday is supposed to be the hottest day ever for my area. Ugh


----------



## Clix Pix

Seems to me that with Texas' problems with a flaky grid and in general increased demand on the grid in other areas around the US, that adding in a bunch of electric vehicles to this is only going to at some point cause more issues and there will be more incidents of blackouts and brownouts, whatever, around the country?


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Heard about this from somebody who lives in GA but feel it's safe to assume it also happens in TX.  Rolling coal.  This refers to a modification made to a vehicle (most commonly some poor man's iteration of a monster truck) where you press a button and a black plume of smoke comes out of the muffler.  This is sticking it to libs (and the planet) at its finest.


----------



## SuperMatt

Clix Pix said:


> Seems to me that with Texas' problems with a flaky grid and in general increased demand on the grid in other areas around the US, that adding in a bunch of electric vehicles to this is only going to at some point cause more issues and there will be more incidents of blackouts and brownouts, whatever, around the country?



Actually, they curtail wind turbines during the evening hours when they generate unnecessary excess capacity. (It’s much faster and easier to stop/start a wind turbine than to shut down and restart a coal plant.) Most EVs are charged during those off-peak times. So if they need the capacity, they already have it.

What we cannot afford are more carbon emissions (like those from cars) making the planet hotter. THAT is what’s taxing the grid now. Trying to keep cool enough to stay alive in this environment created by such emissions.


----------



## Yoused

This probably does not deserve a thread, so, since Oklahoma is a suburb of Tejas, and they both share the Canadian River with NM and AR, I will put this bit of breathtaking weirdness here:









						Oklahoma Man Says Bigfoot Made Him Kill His Fishing Partner, Police Say
					

Larry Sanders was arrested for the murder of his fishing partner, who he says had “summoned Bigfoot” to off him, according to police.



					www.thedailybeast.com


----------



## fooferdoggie

in Texas if you think a robber is getting away you can pull out your gun and start shooting and if you hit a child and kill her? no big deal. I mean he was not even charged with much in the first place.

Arlene Alvarez killed: Harris Co. grand jury declines to indict robbery victim who shot 9-year-old​








						Arlene Alvarez killed: Harris Co. grand jury declines to indict robbery victim who shot 9-year-old
					

With a grand jury declining to charge the man whom police say fired the deadly shot, the search intensifies for the robber who set this chain of events in motion.




					abc13.com


----------



## SuperMatt

fooferdoggie said:


> in Texas if you think a robber is getting away you can pull out your gun and start shooting and if you hit a child and kill her? no big deal. I mean he was not even charged with much in the first place.
> 
> Arlene Alvarez killed: Harris Co. grand jury declines to indict robbery victim who shot 9-year-old​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Arlene Alvarez killed: Harris Co. grand jury declines to indict robbery victim who shot 9-year-old
> 
> 
> With a grand jury declining to charge the man whom police say fired the deadly shot, the search intensifies for the robber who set this chain of events in motion.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> abc13.com



What a dump of a state. Not even going to let this go to trial? I guess if you were robbed, you now have _carte blanche _to fire your weapon at anybody you think might have been responsible. If innocent people die? Oh well. Hasn’t Texas seceded yet? They keep threatening to, but they never follow through...


----------



## Nycturne

SuperMatt said:


> What a dump of a state. Not even going to let this go to trial? I guess if you were robbed, you now have _carte blanche _to fire your weapon at anybody you think might have been responsible. If innocent people die? Oh well. Hasn’t Texas seceded yet? They keep threatening to, but they never follow through...



Agreed, isn't this sort of negligence why we have manslaughter laws on the books?


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

I heard TX has an extremely low (high?) bar to qualify for medicaid.  If you make more than $200 a month you're out.  I can't really see how that's going to be a motivator to go out and take any job.  Seems really counter productive to getting people off the government tit.


----------



## SuperMatt

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> I heard TX has an extremely low (high?) bar to qualify for medicaid.  If you make more than $200 a month you're out.  I can't really see how that's going to be a motivator to go out and take any job.  Seems really counter productive to getting people off the government tit.



Texas is run by racist jerks. The Medicaid thing is because they wanted to stick it to Obama. They don’t care how many residents suffer for that stupid obsession.

Here’s another blatantly disgusting thing the state does.









						A neighborhood’s new anti-Section 8 rules will push many Black residents out of a North Texas suburb
					

Landlords in Texas don’t have to accept renters who receive federal housing assistance, but a Denton County community is taking it a big step further: making most of the town off limits to Section 8 tenants.




					www.texastribune.org
				






> Threats said she applied to live in more than 100 houses and apartments, but none would accept her. *Texas is one of the few states that allows landlords to reject renters if they receive housing vouchers.*






> In the months after Threats moved in, homeowners began to turn against the neighborhood’s Section 8 renters — who are predominantly Black. In private Facebook groups, they increasingly blamed tenants for a perceived uptick in criminal activity in Providence Village.
> 
> The wave of anti-Section 8 sentiment peaked in June, when the Providence Homeowners Association’s board passed a rule effectively banning Section 8 renters from living in the neighborhood — a move that will displace more than 150 families from the majority-white enclave.
> 
> Black families make up 93% of the 157 households with Section 8 vouchers living in Providence Village, according to the Dallas and Denton housing authorities. Women head all but five of those households.
> 
> Section 8 tenants have to leave Providence when their current leases end, according to the new rule. The homeowners association and the town are legally separate entities but share much of the same territory. That means within a year, an entire Texas town will mostly be off limits to voucher holders.




Seriously, f Texas law and f the people in these neighborhoods who are glad to kick their neighbors out of their houses and into homelessness because they only want rich white people living near them.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

SuperMatt said:


> Texas is run by racist jerks. The Medicaid thing is because they wanted to stick it to Obama. They don’t care how many residents suffer for that stupid obsession.
> 
> Here’s another blatantly disgusting thing the state does.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A neighborhood’s new anti-Section 8 rules will push many Black residents out of a North Texas suburb
> 
> 
> Landlords in Texas don’t have to accept renters who receive federal housing assistance, but a Denton County community is taking it a big step further: making most of the town off limits to Section 8 tenants.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.texastribune.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Seriously, f Texas law and f the people in these neighborhoods who are glad to kick their neighbors out of their houses and into homelessness because they only want rich white people living near them.




In CA they only want rich people too.  We just don't care what race they are.  At some income level everybody is green.  Progress!


----------



## fooferdoggie

Anyone have 149 on their bingo chart as the highest temperature reading found in a Texas prison?
Temperatures inside Texas prison units regularly reach 110 degrees, new report says​








						Temperatures inside Texas prison units regularly reach 110 degrees, new report says
					

A new report released this month found temperatures inside some Texas prison units "have been shown to regularly reach 110 degrees and in at least one unit have topped 149 degrees."




					www.cnn.com


----------



## Alli

fooferdoggie said:


> Anyone have 149 on their bingo chart as the highest temperature reading found in a Texas prison?
> Temperatures inside Texas prison units regularly reach 110 degrees, new report says​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Temperatures inside Texas prison units regularly reach 110 degrees, new report says
> 
> 
> A new report released this month found temperatures inside some Texas prison units "have been shown to regularly reach 110 degrees and in at least one unit have topped 149 degrees."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.cnn.com



Ya know, when I read articles about the horrible conditions in prisons I have to roll my eyes. These people did something wrong and are being punished. Why is it more important for criminals to have comfort than children in schools that have no working heat or a/c to begin with? Most educators would gladly trade their school buildings for a prison.


----------



## Nycturne

Alli said:


> Ya know, when I read articles about the horrible conditions in prisons I have to roll my eyes. These people did something wrong and are being punished. Why is it more important for criminals to have comfort than children in schools that have no working heat or a/c to begin with? Most educators would gladly trade their school buildings for a prison.




I wouldn’t call it more important, but it is possible to care about multiple things at once. I am not in support of allowing prison conditions that kill inmates.

When so many folks are in prison for non-violent offenses that they form the majority, and wrongful convictions can lead innocent people to spend a decade or more behind bars, I’m even less inclined to the idea that prisons are somehow different when it comes to creating humane conditions.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Nycturne said:


> I wouldn’t call it more important, but it is possible to care about multiple things at once. I am not in support of allowing prison conditions that kill inmates.
> 
> When so many folks are in prison for non-violent offenses that they form the majority, and wrongful convictions can lead innocent people to spend a decade or more behind bars, I’m even less inclined to the idea that prisons are somehow different when it comes to creating humane conditions.




I’m not saying other countries do it better, there are some, but in the US there’s heavy emphasis on punishment and almost zero on rehabilitation. Every criminal of every level should experience equally harsh conditions is the mindset. Then we think people return to prison simply because they are habitual criminals, not because the prison system and society has set them up to be little more than that once they're released.  Add to that probation requirements that could land you right back in jail for things that aren't anywhere near a crime for those of us outside the system.  

Think of all the stupid shit we do in our late teens and early 20’s and then learn through maturing and experience that, that was some really stupid shit. Now imagine going through that same growth process in prison. I’d wager it’s a far different outcome than those who didn’t spend those years in that environment.


----------



## ronntaylor

Alli said:


> Ya know, when I read articles about the horrible conditions in prisons I have to roll my eyes. These people did something wrong and are being punished. Why is it more important for criminals to have comfort than children in schools that have no working heat or a/c to begin with? Most educators would gladly trade their school buildings for a prison.



Because punishment should include cruel and unusual punishment. Because everyone found guilty is always guilty without fail. Because we should never uphold humanity for others despite their failings.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Hard to believe this happened in Texas. where were their guns?​Family of four, all wielding knives, stab each other in wild fight, Texas cops say​








						Family of four, all wielding knives, stab each other in wild fight, Texas cops say
					

A mother, father, brother and sister were all stabbed during the struggle, police say.




					www.yahoo.com


----------



## SuperMatt

fooferdoggie said:


> Hard to believe this happened in Texas. where were their guns?​Family of four, all wielding knives, stab each other in wild fight, Texas cops say​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Family of four, all wielding knives, stab each other in wild fight, Texas cops say
> 
> 
> A mother, father, brother and sister were all stabbed during the struggle, police say.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.yahoo.com



One of them did have a gun but was disarmed.

Despite the knife violence, everybody survived… which wouldn’t have been the case if 4 people were firing guns.


----------



## Alli

ronntaylor said:


> Because punishment should include cruel and unusual punishment. Because everyone found guilty is always guilty without fail. Because we should never uphold humanity for others despite their failings.



Don’t misinterpret me. I’m not saying prisons shouldn’t have humane conditions. But they should not be Hilton quality while our children are in Motel 6. The worse we treat our children, the more likely they’ll wind up in prison.


----------



## Pumbaa

Alli said:


> Don’t misinterpret me. I’m not saying prisons shouldn’t have humane conditions. But they should not be Hilton quality while our children are in Motel 6. The worse we treat our children, the more likely they’ll wind up in prison.



The worse we treat our prisoners, the more likely they’ll wind up back in prison.

In any case, it really shouldn’t be a race to the bottom. The US situation as it gets reported horrifies me, both when it comes to schools and prisons.

It’s not like you can’t afford both humane prisons with actual rehabilitation efforts and amazing schools…


----------



## SuperMatt

Pumbaa said:


> The worse we treat our prisoners, the more likely they’ll wind up back in prison.
> 
> In any case, it really shouldn’t be a race to the bottom. The US situation as it gets reported horrifies me, both when it comes to schools and prisons.
> 
> It’s not like you can’t afford both humane prisons with actual rehabilitation efforts and amazing schools…



The affordability of humane prisons is a problem because we lock up WAY too many people for far too long.

Mass incarceration is a huge problem in America. Texas is one of the worst states in this regard. 0.84% of Texans are in prison. 3% of all Black Texans are in prison.

America imprisons WAY more people than other countries. The countries that come closest to America (but still fall short) are El Salvador, Turkmenistan, Rwanda, and Cuba. As you can see, we’re in real good company.

Compared to European countries, the UK is one of the higher-incarceration nations, with 0.13% - America overall is 0.66%. And despite this 5x difference, the UK isn’t overrun with 5x as much crime!

Think of how much tax money we could save if we cut the number of prisoners by 80%. That is a SERIOUS amount of money that could be spent on, oh I don’t know……. Schools maybe?

But idiots see one crime on TV and immediately vote for the “tough on crime” candidates, ignoring all evidence that policies from such candidates don’t decrease crime at all.









						States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2021
					

Criminal justice policy in every region of the United States is out of step with the rest of the world.




					www.prisonpolicy.org


----------



## JayMysteri0

And now, for something completely different



> KGB Photo Deepens Mystery of Texas Couple Who Stole Dead Babies’ Identities, Feds Say
> 
> 
> Walter Glenn Primrose, 67, spent 20 years in the Coast Guard as someone else, and now works as a cleared defense contractor in Hawaii.
> 
> 
> 
> www.thedailybeast.com





> A Texas man spent 20 years in the U.S. Coast Guard using a dead baby’s stolen identity, obtaining a secret-level security clearance and baffling investigators who later uncovered information that the man and his wife—who also lived under an assumed name—may have had ties to Russian intelligence, according to court filings reviewed by The Daily Beast.
> 
> Walter Glenn Primrose, 67, and Gwynn Darle Morrison, also 67, are accused of carrying out a mysterious scheme in which they masqueraded under pilfered personas for decades. Primrose, who retired from the Coast Guard as an avionics technician in 2016, then went on to work as a cleared defense contractor at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii.
> 
> He continues to hold a government-issued security clearance, which investigators say he has had for more than two decades. Last year, a Russian spy ship was observed lurking off the coast of Hawaii for several days. In 2021, a Russian vessel was tracked near Hawaiian waters, in an incident one expert said echoed the activities of the Cold War era.
> 
> Primrose, who was born in Texas, and Morrison, who was born in Virginia, both attended the same high school in Port Lavaca, Texas, then went to the same college in Nacogdoches, graduating in 1979, states a complaint unsealed Friday in Honolulu federal court and obtained first by The Daily Beast. They got married in August 1980, and bought a house together the following year, it says.
> 
> In 1987, investigators allege, Primrose and Morrison “both obtained Texas birth certificate records for deceased American born infants, that they used to unlawfully assume the identities of ‘Bobby Edward Fort’ and ‘Julie Lyn Montague,’ respectively.” The two “have been perpetrating criminal fraud acts ever since,” according to the complaint.
> 
> Fort had been born in Dallas in July 1967, and died that October of asphyxia, according to the complaint. Montague had been born in Burnet, Texas, in 1968 and also died before her first birthday, the complaint states. The two infants were buried in cemeteries 14 miles apart.
> 
> The couple allegedly obtained driver’s licenses and state ID cards under their new, false identities, along with new Social Security numbers as Fort and Montague.
> 
> Within six months, Primrose and Morrison “had successfully assumed the identities” of Fort and Montague, the complaint states.
> 
> “Further, records obtained by your affiant revealed that Primrose and Morrison re-married each other on 08 August 1988 under their respective assumed identities… in Austin, TX,” it says.


----------



## shadow puppet

I get a big grin every time I see their name:  Mothers Against Greg Abbott (MAGA).

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1548034221020655617/


----------



## Yoused

*… I wrote about a new state law there, passed in 2021 but getting renewed focus in the new school year, that requires public schools to display “In God We Trust” posters as long as they’re donated or paid for by outside groups (no taxpayer money involved) and as long as they fulfill the law’s requirements.*​








						Atheist to send Texas schools 'In God We Trust' signs written in Arabic
					

Atheist Chaz Stevens found a loophole in a Texas law requiring 'In God We Trust' signs in public schools, so he created posters in Arabic




					onlysky.media


----------



## Eric

Greg Abbott, nothing but class.


Servers should be honored to serve Governor Abbott, right? from
      antiwork


----------



## Yoused

Eric said:


> Greg Abbott, nothing but class.
> 
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/wzwy6s



I have been in not a few restaurants that specify an 18% gratuity automatically included for parties larger than a certain size, and twenty is always much more than that size. If Rainforest does not do that, they are unusual.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

5-year-old boy, 17-year-old boy gunned down in drive-by shooting; toddler injured
					

A 5-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy were killed and an 18-month-old was injured in a drive-by shooting in Fort Worth, Texas, police said.




					abcnews.go.com
				




I hope the perpetrators at least thank the state of Texas for removing all the red tape that would make this plan less smooth.


----------



## Joe

Armed volunteers in Texas protect a drag event from a bunch of fascist Trump supporters....and get this, they were upset that they were armed LMAO

They got triggered by liberals carrying guns ROFL

Democrats have guns. We just don't worship them and take family photos with them.

Fuck around and find out next time.


----------



## fooferdoggie

Joe said:


> Armed volunteers in Texas protect a drag event from a bunch of fascist Trump supporters....and get this, they were upset that they were armed LMAO
> 
> They got triggered by liberals carrying guns ROFL
> 
> Democrats have guns. We just don't worship them and take family photos with them.
> 
> Fuck around and find out next time.



been listening to armed people protecting homeless camps from having their stuff tossed by cops when they have to move.   guns are only for the right come on man everyone should know that.


----------



## Renzatic

fooferdoggie said:


> been listening to armed people protecting homes camps from having their stuff tossed when they have to move.   guns are only for the right come on man everyone should know that.




Never leave home without a gun! Always be in a position to defend yourself! I don't know about the rest of you, but when I go to Cracker Barrel, I'll do a check throughout the building to get intel on any suspicious, potentially dangerous activity happening on the premise, then I exercise my rights as a free American to be sit at a table where my back is facing a wall, and I have full visual coverage of any entry and exit points.

I REFUSE TO LIVE IN FEAR!


----------



## Yoused

Joe said:


> They got triggered by liberals carrying guns ROFL



It was not just any liberals, it was _*Antifa*! ARRRRRGH!_.

I mean, there is nothing, _nothing_, worse than people who object to fascism. 14! 88!


----------



## Renzatic

Yoused said:


> It was not just any liberals, it was _*Antifa*! ARRRRRGH!_.




ERMAHGERD! NURT ANURFUR!


----------



## Joe

Republicans are trash.


----------



## Joe

Whoops lmaoaoaoao


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

Joe said:


> Whoops lmaoaoaoao
> 
> 
> View attachment 17283




That should be the Texas state motto.


----------



## Joe

That guys opponent needs to plaster that tweet everywhere until election time.


----------



## Yoused

Joe said:


> Whoops lmaoaoaoao
> 
> 
> View attachment 17283



I get this


----------



## DT

Joe said:


> Whoops lmaoaoaoao





Outstanding.

Welcome to the consequences of free speech


----------



## Joe

He deleted his account once the backlash started!


----------



## Alli

Joe said:


> He deleted his account once the backlash started!



How to win an election.


----------



## Joe

They’re scared after seeing what has happened in Alaska and other areas. 

Just need to keep the momentum going!


----------



## Joe




----------



## fooferdoggie

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When Texas’ new abortion law made no exceptions in cases of rape, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott defended it with an assurance: Texas would get to work eliminating rapes. 

One year later, Lindsey LeBlanc is busy as ever helping rape victims in a college town outside Houston. 

“The numbers have stayed consistently high,” said LeBlanc, executive director of the Sexual Assault Resource Center in Bryan, near Texas A&M University. Despite hiring two additional counselors in the past six months, she still has a waitlist for victims. 

“We are struggling to keep up with demand,” she said.

The constant caseloads in Texas are another example of how Republicans have struggled to defend zero-exception abortion bans that are unpopular in public polling, have caused uproar in high-profile cases and are inviting political risk heading into November’s midterm elections. A year since Texas’ law went into effect in September 2021, at least a dozen states also have bans that make no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.









						Texas vow to 'eliminate all rapists' rings hollow at clinics
					

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When Texas' new abortion law  made no exceptions in cases of rape, Republican Gov.




					apnews.com


----------



## fooferdoggie

Texas experienced more power outages than any other state over the past 20 years, report says​Over the past 20 years, Texas experienced more power outages than any other U.S. state, according to a recent study by environmental advocacy group Climate Central. 

What's more, the report's authors warn that blackouts are likely to become more common nationwide as climate change drives an increase in extreme weather events.

The report hits with Texas still reckoning with the causes and effects of 2020's catastrophic Winter Storm Uri. During that disaster — one of the costliest in state history — Texas' power grid collapsed, plunging millions into darkness and leaving hundreds dead.  

Although the Republican-led Texas legislature enacted reforms in the wake of Uri, many critics argue they didn't go far enough or acknowledge the effects of climate change. Many consumers rode out heat waves this summer amid worries the overtaxed grid would flatline again. 

Of the 1,542 weather-related outages documented in the U.S. over the study's 20-year analysis, 180 were in Texas. Michigan ranked second with 132 and California third with 129. 








						Texas experienced more power outages than any other state over the past 20 years, report says
					

The report hits with Texas still reckoning with the causes and effects of 2020's catastrophic Winter Storm Uri.




					www.sacurrent.com


----------



## Yoused

fooferdoggie said:


> AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When Texas’ new abortion law made no exceptions in cases of rape, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott defended it with an assurance: Texas would get to work eliminating rapes.



The easiest way to eliminate rape is to pass a law affirming what Todd Akin of Missouri said about "legitimate rape", and how women's bodies can "_shut that whole thing down_". Hence, if a woman gets pregnant, it was not actually rape, so there is no need for an exception.


----------



## Yoused

Uvalde School District Suspends Its Entire Campus Police Force For Unknown Period
					

Officers in the Texas town remain under intense scrutiny for their response to May's school shooting massacre.




					www.huffpost.com


----------



## fooferdoggie

Federal Judge Tells A Texas County Not To Harass Black Voters​After an NAACP chapter alleged voter intimidation in a predominately Black community in Texas, a federal judge ordered officials at a polling place in Jefferson County not to harass or intimidate voters. This includes refraining from asking them to read their addresses aloud or standing near them as they fill out their ballots. 
The judge, Donald Trump appointee Michael J. Truncale, emphasized that he was not making “a finding of fact.” Still, he did grant a temporary restraining order stopping the reported behavior and instructing the county’s clerk to implement the order by 7 a.m. Tuesday.








						Federal Judge Tells A Texas County Not To Harass Black Voters
					

A lawsuit brought by an NAACP chapter claims white poll workers used “aggressive tones” and followed Black voters around a Beaumont polling place.




					www.huffpost.com


----------



## fooferdoggie

hard to believe he was not promoted.
Texas Teacher Fired After Telling Students He Thinks His Race 'Is The Superior One'​








						Texas Teacher Fired After Telling Students He Thinks His Race 'Is The Superior One'
					

A video taken by a student at Bohls Middle School showed the teacher, who is white, telling students that “deep down in my heart, I am ethnocentric."




					www.huffpost.com


----------



## Yoused

fooferdoggie said:


> hard to believe he was not promoted.
> Texas Teacher Fired After Telling Students He Thinks His Race 'Is The Superior One'​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Texas Teacher Fired After Telling Students He Thinks His Race 'Is The Superior One'
> 
> 
> A video taken by a student at Bohls Middle School showed the teacher, who is white, telling students that “deep down in my heart, I am ethnocentric."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.huffpost.com




On the one hand, what he said was not "_the white race is superior_" but something more along the lines of "_there is a thing called 'ethnocentrism' which is common among people_" and there is truth to that. It is very difficult to study other cultures without seeing them through the lens of the one you grew up in.

On the other hand, he seemed to be saying that we all feel as though our people, our way, is superior to not-our-people/way, which is just one more way of saying that otherism is a natural behavior that is hardwired into humans. Evidence strongly suggests that otherism is _not_ hardwired, that it is a culturally-learned behavior, that it is feasible to all but eradicate it simply by raising our children differently.

In other words, while he was not proclaiming the absolute wonderfulness of the white race, he was essentially normalizing racism, suggesting that it is a natural thing that we cannot ever escape. That is loathsome.


----------



## ronntaylor

Yoused said:


> In other words, while he was not proclaiming the absolute wonderfulness of the white race, he was essentially normalizing racism, suggesting that it is a natural thing that we cannot ever escape. That is loathsome.



He twice said he was a racist. From CNN



> In the audio, a student *asks the teacher to repeat himself*. The teacher says, *“I said, ‘I am a racist.’ That’s what I said. Do you know what that means?”*


----------



## shadow puppet

For anyone who missed the video of the teacher speaking to his students.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1592162000313851904/


----------



## fooferdoggie

Texas where you can carry a gun with no training or license but let your kid walk in a safe neighborhood thats an arresting.​Suburban Mom Handcuffed, Jailed for Making 8-Year-Old Son Walk Half a Mile Home​








						Suburban mom handcuffed, jailed for making 8-year-old son walk half a mile home
					

Heather Wallace was prosecuted for child endangerment after her 8-year-old son walked half a mile home through the Waco, TX suburbs.




					reason.com


----------



## Alli

fooferdoggie said:


> Texas where you can carry a gun with no training or license but let your kid walk in a safe neighborhood thats an arresting.​Suburban Mom Handcuffed, Jailed for Making 8-Year-Old Son Walk Half a Mile Home​
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Suburban mom handcuffed, jailed for making 8-year-old son walk half a mile home
> 
> 
> Heather Wallace was prosecuted for child endangerment after her 8-year-old son walked half a mile home through the Waco, TX suburbs.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> reason.com



This is the most absurd thing ever. Does this also mean children cannot go out to play anymore?


----------



## Yoused

Alli said:


> This is the most absurd thing ever. Does this also mean children cannot go out to play anymore?



Seems as though helicopter parents want to make helicopter parenting the law. Children should never be allowed to do thing one without supervision.


----------



## Clix Pix

Sheesh!  When I was a little girl we neighborhood kids were free to roam, ride our bikes, do whatever we wanted without parental supervision every second.  There was no such thing as a "play date."  If we wanted to play with another child, we went and knocked on their door to see if they could come out and play.   It was a peaceful suburban neighborhood and no one thought a thing about saying, "have fun, be home by suppertime" as the kid(s) ran out the door to play with others or by themselves.  Most of us walked to and from  school, too, usually together but sometimes on our own.  That said, when we were older, if we were planning to go beyond the boundaries of our own neighborhood, say, to go to the mall or the library, we did ask permission so that our parents would know where we were.   Everything was well within walking or bicycling distance.  Times have changed, though....


----------



## Nycturne

Alli said:


> This is the most absurd thing ever. Does this also mean children cannot go out to play anymore?




In my neighborhood, it's pretty empty these days. Nothing like when I was a kid. I'm one of the youngest "kids" out playing (okay, riding a bike/etc) in a suburban neighborhood. It's very weird. It's one reason I'm in favor of making more walkable, safe-for-everyone-not-just-cars spaces for people in cities. A young teen should be able to go to a common space, meet with friends and go home without needing someone giving them a lift in a car, or having to deal with people doing 25mph (or worse) right in front of their house.


----------



## Chew Toy McCoy

fooferdoggie said:


> Texas where you can carry a gun with no training or license but let your kid walk in a safe neighborhood thats an arresting.​Suburban Mom Handcuffed, Jailed for Making 8-Year-Old Son Walk Half a Mile Home​
> 
> 
> 
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> Suburban mom handcuffed, jailed for making 8-year-old son walk half a mile home
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> Heather Wallace was prosecuted for child endangerment after her 8-year-old son walked half a mile home through the Waco, TX suburbs.
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> reason.com




This makes a lot more sense when you realize the residents of every other house on the block are satanic child molesters.  And unlike the slogging along satanic child molesters of the 80's, these fuckers can actually run!  Also they no longer need to first be invited in before they start the molesting.  And they no longer require a full moon to operate.   It's pretty insane.


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## lizkat

Clix Pix said:


> Sheesh!  When I was a little girl we neighborhood kids were free to roam, ride our bikes, do whatever we wanted without parental supervision every second.  There was no such thing as a "play date."  If we wanted to play with another child, we went and knocked on their door to see if they could come out and play.   It was a peaceful suburban neighborhood and no one thought a thing about saying, "have fun, be home by suppertime" as the kid(s) ran out the door to play with others or by themselves.  Most of us walked to and from  school, too, usually together but sometimes on our own.  That said, when we were older, if we were planning to go beyond the boundaries of our own neighborhood, say, to go to the mall or the library, we did ask permission so that our parents would know where we were.   Everything was well within walking or bicycling distance.  Times have changed, though....




That's how it was in suburbs of Rochester NY back in the 50s.  A usual command to one of the girls would be "go run over to Brian's and tell the rest of the boys to come home for supper."  Sending one of the boys already back home was a bad idea:  he'd get over to the neighbor's place and end up shooting hoops.  We walked to and from school, elementary was about a mile, middle and high about 2 miles.  With luck in bad weather we cadged a ride from our dad or the dad of the kids across the way.  But coming home was always the shoe leather express, even in snow when we had to walk in the roads if it had snowed during the day and people weren't home to shovel the walks. 

We rode bikes to the city proper to watch AAA league baseball once we were over age 10. But that did require asking permission from parents.  I learned the hard way it wasn't ok just to say "Tell Mom I went with Leah to the ballgame."    Yeah, no.   I missed a bunch of ballgames after I tried that out once.

Earlier on,  over in a more agricultural area of the Hudson Valley,  the rules were even more lax for even younger ages. For me at age five it went like this:  chores first,  then no wandering off past the next farm over in any direction, keep outta creeks in springtime or after rainstorms, don't be trying to adopt any livestock from a neighbor's farm (that one was aimed at me, after a hijacked duckling incident), and no importing of amphibians or reptiles into the house or barns.  Harsh times!


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## Clix Pix

We walked to elementary school, and then when it was time for Junior High (I think this is now called Middle School?) the distance was a bit further but still walkable.  My mother was a teacher there, though, so we benefitted from that, often getting rides with her in the morning, although on the days she had after-school meetings and such we still had to walk home.  When we were ready for high school,  it was easily walkable, so back to getting ourselves there and back each day, and of course if some kids had after-school activities some days there were few of us walking home together in the evening.   There were some kids from other neighborhoods who once they turned 16 and had a car of their own drove themselves and friends to school, but I don't know if that happened in my neighborhood or not since most of the kids there were around my age or younger.   Also, my family moved from there at the beginning of my junior year. to an entirely different area and for the first time in my life I experienced riding a school bus each day.....


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## Alli

So the city or state will now have to invest in more school busses to prevent children from walking to/from school? Somehow I don’t see that happening in Abbott’s Texas. In my former district in AL, you have to live outside a 2-mile radius in order to qualify for bussing. 

As far as I see, it’s all part of the master plan to do away with public education and keep women in the house.


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## Chew Toy McCoy

I just realized an assumption that a lot of us probably made but were wrong.  Back when conservatives used to walk 15 miles to school in the snow up hill both ways I always envisioned it as a solo journey but it seems they just omitted the "accompanied by an adult" detail.  But I can see why. There’s something less rugged about real Americans needing an escort.


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## Yoused

Chew Toy McCoy said:


> … 15 miles to school in the snow up hill both ways  …
> There’s something less rugged about real Americans needing an escort.




Your escort is there to make sure you do not put your shoes on..


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## Yoused

A banking institution called GloriFi, established to provide service to plumbers, electricians, police officers and others who do not share Wall Street's woke values, is going TU because of startup mistakes, bad press and more bad press (IOW, because, excuses).


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## Chew Toy McCoy

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article269400682.html
		


A man of the law attempts to use his 2nd amendment right to murder his ex girlfriend.   Everybody is a responsible gun owner until they’re not.


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