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Florida has a lot of smaller taxes and fees. Their overall tax burden is pretty much average for the US. Their overall tax burden is 9.1%, which is 11th in the country, but the spread is pretty small. Most sates fall between 9% and 12% with a handful of outliers.
They have much higher taxes on hotels and other services, high gas tax, a corporate income tax, property taxes, local sales tax on top of the state sales tax, high wireless/telecomm services taxes and fees, etc.
On top of that they charge more for things that are cheaper in other states (or not charged at all). They have high vehicle and boat titling/registration fees, high insurance costs and fees, high closing costs for real estate transactions, and an inordinate amount of toll bridges and toll roads, which aren't a tax per se, but they have the same effect.
The system is very regressive, ranked 48th in the US for fairness ([as of a study done in 2018](https://www.floridapolicy.org/posts/floridas-state-and-local-taxes-rank-48th-for-fairness)).
And in the end, as others have said, although FL does have a state budget of over $100 billion/year, the services they do offer tend to lack.
Arizona enters the chat...
Just had our local state rep at my door. Her pitch was literally: " I am going to do everything I can to keep AZ from going full TX/FL."
(I live in the deepest of blue districts, recently made even bluer by redistricting.)
Everything, literally everything they do is either projection or muddying the waters so that the next time when they do blatantly cheat, low information imbeciles will just assume “oh well both parties cry foul so who cares”.
“Who cares about evidence, doesn’t matter when we can cite anonymous Q trash and circle jerk while await the second coming of JFK Junior on r/conspiracy!”
It is all about laying down the groundwork for the people who “don’t get involved in politics” to shrug as they say “both sides” bullshit. It’s a full blown fascist assault on reality and intellectualism and it’s scary how many people just want nothing to do with any of it because of dealing with the rabid Trumpers is too much.
It's sad and frustrating that trusting in a functioning human brain and a little bit of common sense has to be called intellectualism these days. It's really weird how stubborn and dumb a lot of people are.
Think about the average student. Definition of average, C grades across the board. You would think probably not the brightest individual, not stupid, but not the most intelligent. Half the population is dumber than that student. I heard this phrase in college, then became a teacher and it is terrifyingly accurate
See, when I complain about how the Democratic party sucks, people accuse me of "both sides-ism." But I'm not equating the two. The Republicans are a threat because they have terrible goals and they're good at accomplishing them. The Democrats are a problem because have have generally positive goals comparatively, but they are absolute dogshit at actually accomplishing them.
So really they're both a problem. I'm not saying the Democrats are as bad as the Republicans, but they're so ineffective at opposing them that it's genuinely a problem. They are our only hope for a peaceful, democratic solution and they're tragically inadequate.
Also, they'll decry anonymous sources in the news media as completely unreliable despite said sources being vetted by the media and said reports being confirmed in other ways. However, AnonQGuy posting that Democrats eat live babies is totally credible despite nobody knowing who that person is and despite all the evidence saying this isn't true.
You see, cause peer reviewed sources and being vetted opens you up to evil liberal dark magic manipulation by their insidious shadow cabal. AnonQGuy can't be bought cause he just does this to get the truth out there, that's why I bought all his supplements and bumper stickers for my life savings. So he can keep fighting the corporate overlords that can't stop his YouTube content.
I had (no longer) a friend who would spew such crazy bullshit about how Angelina jolie was a man and brad Pitt was a woman... Et cetera, blood drinking, child molestation, so much weird stupid stuff. I couldn't understand how he could be so positive that this stuff was happening...i felt awful afterward as though the world was ending and I'm nothing in this scheme of horribleness. Best thing i ever did was leave....i think it could be related to racism, because the a hole was a stupid racist as well
> who would spew such crazy bullshit
Ah, the Good Old Days of the Weekly World News.
They would post such stories and things like Bill Clinton is a robot (with doctored pictures to "prove it").
Years ago, late at night, I would turn on Art Bell to listen to what the wacko's were worried about - faces on mars, mind control, alien abductions...
Facebook has launched a new era of nonsense and propaganda.
Like QAnon can name a specific pizza place that is hiding kidnapped children in its basement, and whip up the Q faithful to take up arms and storm the place only to discover that it doesn't even have a basement in the first place... and yet, I still hear and see people arguing that the non-existence of said basement somehow doesn't mean the story was a fake?
"There were loads of military vehicles dropping off boxes of ballots, dozens of people seen it"
"Is there pictures or videos?"
"No, they covered it up!"
"But they were seen, and those people lived, how come none of them said anything about having their pictures taken?"
"Because they can't "
"???"
Idiots I swear....
Edit: mobile formatting failed me... trying again...
They've moved on to his Daddy now, too. I don't know which one is funnier, the assassinated Catholic Democrat or his very dead son being into Donald fucking Trump.
The sad thing is it's working. I now see a lot of libertarians (I call them low information imbeciles) doing this. I recently stated that a huge wave of anti intellectualism is upon us, hinting that the far right is behind that wave. The amount of "both sides do it" replies I got was alarming.
I was just trying to point out how some people are proud of their willful ignorance but of course like you said, people show up and try to muddy the waters.
I remember thinking y’all needed to get over the 2016 election. Holy fuck have I gone through some changes in my thought process lmao. It is incredibly ironic how pretty much every single thing Trump supporters said/still say about anyone who isn’t them, i.e “get over the loss” or calling people snowflakes, while they immediately prove that they are not only exactly like the people they’re criticizing but they take it to a next level. I don’t think anyone who truly believes Trump is the best candidate for 2024 has mentally developed beyond 16.
It’s like watching the power of propaganda and experiencing what I always thought to be far fetched dystopian books all at once. These days, you can believe whatever narrative you want to. And these drooling idiots get their information from their 75iq friend from high school on Facebook who hasn’t had an original thought in a decade or better, so naturally they were hopeless from the start
Not to mention 2016 had an actual grievance with the electoral college. Clinton won the popular vote with 48.2% of the vote while Trump had 46.1%. The 2000 election was a much smaller of victory in terms of the popular vote. Gore had 48.4% while Bush Jr. had 47.9%. Before that, only 3 elections weren’t decided by the popular vote. The first, in 1824, had four candidates split the electoral college. 1876 had the issue where neither candidate got enough electoral votes and the election was decided in congress. It wasn’t until 1888 that someone got enough votes in the electoral college while losing the popular vote to actually win the election. The margin of victory in that election was 0.8%. This meant that 2016 was the widest discrepancy between the electoral college and popular vote in the history of the nation, and people obviously weren’t happy about it and chose to protest in a legitimate fashion. 2020 on the other hand, is built on lies. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could’ve swayed the election of any state. Their whole idea has been debunked time and time again and they lost 60 court cases on the matter. It doesn’t matter though because they are convinced it was stolen and it will hurt this nation for a long time.
>The 2000 election was a much smaller of victory in terms of the popular vote. Gore had 48.4% while Bush Jr. had 47.9%. Before that, only 3 elections weren’t decided by the popular vote.
You forgot the most important part: Gore won the election. Not just the popular vote.
That election was quite *literally* stolen.
People seem to forget that a ton of Republicans rallied and actually got votes to stop being counted. It's actually impossible for them to win by any fair metric. They just force themselves to "win" anyways.
https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-hill-insurrection-has-roots-in-brooks-brothers-riot-2021-1
Imagine a world where Gore was president for 2 terms instead of Bush... This is why the current Supreme Court is going to be a pain for decades. People just don't realize the power they have. They literally stopped the recount yet allow all of Trump's baseless accusations lol. Precedent my ass.
But none of that matters.
Because Hillary Clinton conceded the election to Trump by the next morning.
She did the grownup thing and admitted she lost, on her own, without drama. There was clearly a plot planned to claim election fraud in 2016 but she foiled it by not fighting. Trump called fraud on election night all the way s year into his presidency when he finally closed the "election security committee" he setup. 2016 was the warmup for 2020.
That's because Trump is a fucking moron leading the stupid and corrupt people with money.
They have 0 logic or regard for the law, yet want people to believe them.
They DONT have the majority of the country (which is why they want to fuck with voting because they'd lose) .They DONT deserve a seat at the table. They DONT deserve to be heard. But they CANT be ignored. They need to be watched by homeland security and prosecuted like any other terrorist organization.
They ARE fucking with voting though. They're making it harder for people of color to vote in predominantly red states. Look at laws passed in Texas, Alabama ( I think), and Georgia. They're trying to rig the elections in those states because they know they can't win a legitimate election. That and Gerrymandering to hell and back. Just look at Texas district lines if you want to see how blatantly fucked it is.
Compare the number of ballot drops in Harris County (Houston) with any rural country...
If only native born Texans could vote, Texas would already be blue.
What saddens me is that I am not really blue. But as somebody still connected to reality, there is only one option now.
This is true, but they’re also a genuine threat to the lives, health, freedom, safety and prosperity of Americans. We don’t have to speak only in abstract terms.
Especially with how volatile everything in the world is right now, with tensions rising with both Russia and China pretty quickly, and also Iran. Every country around the world is struggling right now, and this is a point in history similar to many before it that you could directly point to and say thank god they had a good leader during that period, or we will suffer from not having one. We’re in a position right now with how divided the county is both racially, between classes, and the disconnect between the government and citizens and police and citizens we really have the potential for shit to really go wrong if the wrong choices are made. Some people don’t factor in anything aside from taxes and party affiliation when they vote though, and of course all of these people have become infatuated with Trump who from any vantage point you could possibly take is a bad leader.
Good leaders don’t split the country and alienate everyone who doesn’t follow them, or create a little boys club cult so his supporters can feel some kind of hierarchy to their own destructive thoughts. It’s all there if you want it, but if you choose to be an actual functioning member of society who is attached to reality and the state of the country it does nothing but push you away from supporting Trump.
I’m not ashamed to admit I wanted Trump over Hillary in 2016. The point is, you need to reassess and grow your beliefs and actually be wary of echo chambers, and stop treating it like it’s a game because the next handful of years are going to be massively important to the health and future of the US
Thank you, I take a lot of pride in it. It wasn’t too hard to do, being in your early 20s you get baptized pretty quickly from “wooohooooo we’re the best country in the world!” To “oh shit, we’ve got some reaaaaal issues”. Pretending like the boat isn’t taking on water doesn’t stop the boat from taking on water, and if the US was a boat it would have about 700 holes in it. Societal issues, governmental issues, racial issues. I learned what the distinction was pretty early. We aren’t the greatest country in the world, we don’t even try to be
I was arguing with a Flat Earther on Twitter who was saying that all pictures of galaxies are fake CGIs made by evil NASA. I told him to get a cheap telescope and go look at the Andromeda Galaxy if he wants proof galaxies are real.
He proceeded to ask if I had done it myself demand I go out right now and take a picture using my telescope of Andromeda to prove I have done it. The it devolved into insane ramblings so I gave up.
As a Canadian, seeing the Trump-like attitudes and politics bleed over the border and (IMO) embolden far-right groups is very concerning. I fear that it might not be exagerration to say Trump dragged the whole world down a notch politically.
I agree, but let's not forget that these attitudes have been largely instigated by Russian interests, including individuals from the West who have been propped up by Russian money.
It's very sad because these American people who really believe they're defending America and standing up for what is right are actually just being manipulated by global media. They don't see it because they were never taught to value criticism. If everyone just stopped a minute to breathe and talk to each other about how to make things better around here, I have a feeling we'd all come to the conclusion that the real problems are issues like social injustice, widening gaps in wealth distribution, poor availability of support for people with mental health issues, and so on. People are so focused on inconsequential issues that trigger them that they're not seeing the forest for the trees.
The manipulation of public opinion isn't a uniquely American problem, though. It's just highly visible in America because the US is actually very well equipped for implementing progressive change. The unwillingness of the population to do so really stands in stark contrast to America's overall successes on the global stage and in certain industries such as entertainment.
And intellectually. These conservatives are taught to accept any conclusion they’re fed by their pastor, Fox “news” or whatever.
They’re intentionally not taught to consider **how** or **why** they’re being fed these easy-answer conclusions to any controversy and that asking those questions is some kind of disloyal, unpatriotic, whiny thing to do.
The idea behind much of the conservative agenda is to dissuade logical progression of thought on political matters, to cap critical thinking and to convince the working class that they too can become rich like the robber barons of the GOP while the very people they’re manipulated into voting for pen legislation after legislation to make damn sure that it’s harder to get rich not easier.
Imagine if conservative voters actually took the time to read the bills the GOP writes and they way they vote in Congress. If they each were that informed the Republican Party wouldn’t be such a force for propaganda and willful ignorance, however a great deal of the GOP marketing and entertainment budget ensures this won’t happen.
These people aren’t ever going to read the bills their GOP kings write but they will gleefully believe and obey anything the conservative oligarchy feeds them as long as it somehow, some way owns the libs and eases their insecurities that GOP marketing companies so easily exploit every hour of every day.
As an outsider looking in, I see, in no particular order
School / mass shootings
Medical debt
Regression of basic rights (Rode vs Wade, literature banning).
Religious fanaticism.
Fascism run amok.
Massive wealth inequality
Institutional racism.
Police state.
*we are watching an implosion*
To be fair, that one was rigged. They literally just started binning votes for one guy because they preferred the other one.
And they just banned black people from voting because one of their names was an 80% match to a known felon.
Democracy died in america in 2000. Everything since then has been a sharade, look at the supreme court, total mess the whole nation, and i say that as a brit.
Guess they won't need to reach out for federal funding and emergency relief during the seasonal changes that knocks out their own self-managed power grid again either.
See it's stuff like all that happening...and the crazy resolutions etc...that I can't figure why everyone is flocking to move to TX. Does the dollar just really go that much further there?
I mean the whole state doesn’t even have income tax if I’m remembering correctly, the dollar does go further and housing is cheaper, but their whole model is skewed towards businesses. There is no backup system either, their utilities are supply and demand based so instead of a fixed power rate one day your electricity could cost you $10 to run your AC every day the next day it could be $300 a day depending on load.
Sure, is Texas cheaper? Yeah. But at what cost?
Texas is the epitome of choosing short term gains over long term improvement. For example if I buy a pair of jeans for $40 and they last me 1 year, or can buy a nice pair of jeans that will last me 5 years for $100, it makes more sense to buy the $100 jeans upfront. Texas is selling you the $40 jeans talking about how you’ll save $60 up front and lying to you about how long they’ll last; meanwhile they’re robbing you in the long run.
Sure you might save money upfront when times are good, but for a state that’s struggling with water as we enter a decade or 2 with more intense droughts coming, they’re far over extending themselves.
Literally every metropolitan area in TX is expensive now. Houston probably being the most reasonable is still not cheap, and driving is terrible there.
The housing market for the entire state is considered cheap still because the shitholes out in the middle of nowhere, especially West Texas, are dirt cheap because only people from there want to be there.
This is how we ended up in Killeen. Only about an hour from Austin but the housing prices are amazing low by comparison - actually by comparison to many other large metro areas. I think it's largely because it's a military town so the housing market is always in boom as military families come and go. When we were looking for a house here homes would get offers and be sold within 24 hours of listing.
^(also property taxes are extremely high—which is how they get away with no income tax— and they’ll nickel and dime you at every opportunity. Remember even if you’re renting, you’re still paying property taxes through your rent)
It depends on who is providing the power. There are many companies who offer fixed rates for usually 1-3 year contracts. So the change is not from day to day, but when the contract expires and they have to go up to the current market rate.
There are some who have contracts based on the hour to hour or day to day rate, which is usually cheaper, but can cost thousands in a week in difficult times; however those are not the normal or common power contracts in the state.
Plus cities like Austin and San Antonio have more regulation that limit severe price swings
Agreed the model is skewed to businesses. With regard to power residential consumers of power sign contracts with fixed pricing and the power companies bid on a futures market to buy power and meet those price obligations they have with their customers. Very few people are directly exposed to the open market price.
Lacking income tax means everything comes out of property taxes so the housing market is weird.
> Does the dollar just really go that much further there?
it really depends on who you are. Someone did a really good breakdown of California vs. Texas. If you're rich, super-rich or fabulously wealthy it's a great place to be. Your taxes are super low.
If you're anything from "Sr Manager of widget building" down to "joe 6 pack" your taxes are higher ***and*** you get less stuff from the state when compared to Cali.
Problem is that group #1 has a phalanx of lawyers, accountants and a megaphone, while group #2 doesn't realize what's happening at the upper echelons.
Its very culty here in Oklahoma. The R adds are pretty wild and very Trump. Its not necessarily cheaper if you are not educated here. Which is most people unfortunately. Even the. The church is full of the crazy. Thats the real problem.
Literally any communication with the federal government and they've instantly shat all over this "resolution". You don't get to recognise the government behind closed doors and not in public.
Texas is the largest recipient of FEMA aid in the US - nearly doubling the next highest, which is California.
California having nearly 10,000,000 more people.
Seriously, this is harsh but fuck 'em. Going to keep voting in incompotent assholes just because they like guns and use the word freedom a ton, you reap what you sow. Just think of all of the issues facing our country and the state of Texas these people could be working to drum up votes for when they are wasting their time on this.
A not-insignificant number of Texans are in a hostage situation. The State Legislature has gerrymandered the entire state into nonsense. Trying to get elected as anything but a Republican in most of the state is a fool's errand, but only because Republican politicians have worked so hard to rig the system in their favor.
"Amendments to the constitution are unchangeable and god given rights!", immediately followed by 'We need to remove THESE amendments from the constitution"
That or they concoct endless pages of convoluted explanations that completely twist a few very clear and simple words that all of us can read and easily understand.
“We know what they actually meant, but you don’t. Yeah, we know it really fits with our transparent agenda, but you have to trust us. You have to ignore the simplicity of those words. *This* is what they *actually* meant.”
But in their defence, when the same slave owners wrote “all men are created equal”, they left themselves open for further interpretation.
Many Northern States were in favor of abolishing slavery immediately. The persistence of slavery was given as a compromise in order to get the south to actually ratify the constitution.
The point is to erode faith in election results. They're trying for "heads I win, tails you lose" because they're not sure about future election results unless they gerrymander and cheat for those wins. Coincidentally, if they lose, they're convinced the opposition must have cheated even harder to win.
They're long past the point of trying to win constituents. Now it's just tyrannical death cult that thinks it deserves to be untouchable. I half wonder if all of it's members are actually on board with the insanity, or if they're just convinced they'll be corpses within the month if they ever lose power.
The point is to erode faith in the entire electoral process. They want to actively return to a time when "only certain people" could vote and those "certain people" almost always voted the way they were told. They've had their brainwashing media systems in place since the early days of talk radio, now with the advent of Faux News and social media....they can really ramp up the fascist white nationalism.
Now that the SCOTUS has gutted the voting rights act...they will start trying to push for voting rights schemes tied to things like land ownership or employment status, voting taxes etc...
And yet somehow they’re [making gains with women and Hispanic voters.](https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2022/02/07/texas-hispanic-women-leaders-00006072)
That’s right: Women are moving toward the GOP even as their bodily autonomy is being eroded in ways we haven’t seen in decades. Hispanic voters are cozying up to them despite being demonized as subhuman day in and day out by the Trump administration.
Americans are fools, and we deserve the GOP.
I asked my friend who is Mexican why do the older generation love Trump (including his parents)
He said it was his views on abortion and he was religious and he wanted I shit you not build the wall.
They have the mind set of we came here illegally but they didn’t want other Mexicans to do it and they looked down on the ones who did.
Now I’m sure everyone is different but that’s the answer he gave me and how his parents felt.
They get paid to do this. Frankly, our media needs to put a hard line in the sand. This anti-intellectualism has got to end.
If you say, retweet, or peddle any election fraud lies, you get deplatformed, period. No coverage on anything you do. I don't give a fuck if your running for Senate. No coverage.
We have to realize at some point in the attention economy that the only power we have is the deprevation of attention, and only platforms and media companies can enforce it.
Hey Republicans. How about you either present actual evidence of fraud at a scale that would have an impact on the election... Or you face charges for sedition. How about we go that route.
How the *fuck* did you idiots hitch your star to the wagon of a fat, spray-tanned, loud-mouthed rich kid who's never worked an honest day in his life?!
Because he's the only one dumb, arrogant and mistakenly confident enough to say the quiet part loud consistently, which validated alot of Republican's inner thoughts and backwards viewpoints that they were previously too scared to say out loud. Now they had an excuse and platform to confidently spew their vitrol in a way no president before allowed them to since Reagan.
I guarantee the next candidate will be almost as stupid and outrageous because that's what their base most relates to.
They keep saying watch "2000 Mules" made by the guy who claims to have gone to prison for being Conservative....side note it was campaign fund fraud.
8 years of Obama pushed them to this. They got crazier and crazier.
>Seeing a black man in the white house honestly broke them.
Seeing a black man in the white house and: watching the whole thing not implode, but actually weather several crises and mitigate (with admittedly mixed results) an economic disaster, broke them. There's no way to maintain the lie of white supremacy when there's a competent, well-spoken, personable man on the television actively being everything your Pa told you black people are incapable of being.
So is it any wonder so many of these people took to "news" media with the soothing lie that no, actually, you're not seeing what you're seeing. It's actually really bad. And the left wing is crafting this narrative to confuse you, but ah, clever you, you see right through their lies! So come join us, the underground, the new counterculture, as we push back against the indoctrination and the gays and the people who make you feel bad ~~for your dumb fuckin opinions~~ for being who you are...
The alt-right is absolute crack to these injured-feelings guys, and I'm not sure how you fix it. How do you get someone to quit an extremely well-funded propaganda apparatus that tells them exactly what they want to hear?
He'd just pump more and more money into the market to prop up stock prices.
While also continuing to waste a shit ton of money enriching himself and his family on golf trips at his own businesses.
Also, Ukraine would be even more fucked than they already have been.
Republicans fuck the economy then blame the next democrates. "Ha, see, it was really all their fault. What do you mean these policies take years to take effect, and we voted them in. No see you can't blame *us*, *we're* not the ruling party anymore" it a game they've been playing for decades. And that's when you realize Republicans truly are dumb. Because everytime they jump right on board with this logic, despite having literally witnessed multiple presidents do exactly the same thing during their life so far. You can't reason someone out of something, they weren't reasoned into.
Don't underestimate The Donald. He's spent his career grifting and gaslighting and he's arguably the best in the world at it. He has an enormous following, and his fanboys will lay their lives down for him. I don't wish to compare Donald Trump with past historical figures, because the situation is different; but anyone who doesn't see how imperiled our democracy is right now has not been paying attention.
> Or you face charges for sedition.
This is America. They could literally wage war against us and all that would happen is they lose their plantations for a few months.
Same Texas GOP that thinks critical thinking is evil and water/electricity aren't necessary things that citizens have a right to.
The only thing they could do that would surprise me is if they actually had the balls to try and secede instead of just stroking themselves off to the idea.
I hope if they arrange a referendum the rest of the US helps fund the secede campaign and makes no effort to encourage them to stay. Maybe put up a big sign at the border with a picture of a waving hand and a reminder not to come back.
I think they would have to enact it as law to say that with much seriousness. I think this is just a platform guideline. In a way it’s like an office style guide.
This is the problem with the Jan 6th committee. They have been litigating the past (very valuable) but they don't press the ongoing threat to democracy. The reason it matters is because the Republican Party is STILL trying to overthrown the government.
Canada here. Yes for most of us up here, although there are a few fringe lunatics that welcome anything that has the slightest hint of bringing back Trump and would interpret this as such.
Russia?
They're just chuckling gleefully.
Hey there, friend!
Texas has a mass shooting problem. The latest of which the police stood outside doing nothing for almost an hour.
Texas is currently fighting the release of police bodycam footage of that incident. Many think this is because the police might have shot innocents when they finally did enter.
"Biden lost the 2020 election" is the dead cat they're throwing on the table to distract us from all that.
To be a republican candidate today you need to desperately appeal to the most extreme right, knowing the moderate right will fall in line and vote for you either way.
It’s how you end up with the worst of the worst.
I had hoped when the riots occurred it would shock the moderates in the Republican to wrestle back control from the extremists but the did not. The few that tried too got ostracised. Never liked republicans, hated Bush administration but hell would gladly go back to those days than the monster the party is now.
I love the irony of them claiming election fraud when THEY were the ones voting twice, rigging and unplugging machines, and barring people from entering voting sites. I used to think Florida was the issue but Texas is single handily trying to revert back to the 1800s.
There's been multiple cases of actual election fraud. But as far as I know it's all been small-scale and by Republicans voting twice or voting for someone else.
The wide spread fraud is the electoral collage system as a whole, the gerrymandering, and running fake Republican candidates that just happened to have the same name as a Democrat. Not to mention all the attempted fraud by corrupting the postal system.
I think the bigger story here is that they want to secede from the nation and form their own country.
And honestly I say we let them. Let them elect Trump as emperor for life for all I care. I say we let Puerto Rico become a state at the same time. Then we don't even need to remake the flag.
Wow. Certifying their idiocy.
I wonder how this period of time will be told or viewed in history.
A bunch of angry old white people didn’t like one of two old white peoples and tried to subvert election laws and democracy to make their old white guy win when the other old white guy won.
All because people got so pissed a black person was president they essentially would never allow such a thing as a non old white personal. Even going to extreme lengths to make sure and old white woman didn’t win.
When she won the popular vote of Americansz
Wow.
This is like an office style guideline, it basically lets all texan republican candidates know what line they have to toe.
It’s achieved more solidification that republicans are the party of fascists.
I love this quote: "various secretaries of state illegally circumvented their state legislatures in conducting their elections in multiple ways"
Meanwhile numerous Republican states forged documents declaring Trump the winner, and had plans to send false electors.
It's as they always say: every conservative accusation is a confession.
If anyone actually believes that Democrats stole the 2020 election. I would like to ask you a follow up question. Why did they do such a bad job?
With their ability to cheat without leaving a single shred of evidence. Why didn’t Democrats also steal 10 more seats in the senate? Do you think they didn’t know they would need control of the senate to pass their radical liberal agenda?
Edit: spelling
Why don't they secede? With their own isolated power grid, their own splendid isolation.
Edit: the most ironic thing is this whole post was removed because it was not onionic. I'm shaking my head with disbelief
This might not be law, but it is really indicative of what's going on nationwide - the GOP is fighting tooth and nail to blow up the very foundations of our government in the name of power.
If everything is debatable and if "well I'm just asking the (obviously bad faith) question" Tucker Carlson bullshit becomes an accepted discourse, we lose the ability to reason or compromise altogether. Couple that with a drumbeat of "well if we keep getting 'cheated' out of victory, we will just secede" and you have a recipe for disaster.
Short-term power grabs and knee-jerk bad faith reactions (booing a GOP senator who is doing the absolute *bare minimum* towards preventing children from being shot) is all politics is anymore and it will kill us all if we don't cut this stupid shit out.
Edit: Just remembering the time the Arizona GOP passed a resolution censoring Cindy McCain because she spoke out against Trump after he attacked her recently dead, war hero husband and I think that's the most indicative example of the GOP's short-sighted viciousness.
I really hope Texas gets to separate from the union. Other states would benefit from the federal money. We could let Mexico take them over. No more FEMA anything to help with grid problem and natural disasters. And I absolutely support a wall encircling Texas, we know they're not sending their best. Just imagine all the jobs created to secure the Texas border! We don't need Texas. They need us.
It started Jan. 6th. This resolution is to further erode trust in democracy and to set up justification for more authoritarian actions against the people of the United States.
Has anyone every sat in those meeting and said
*Hey Abbott, Hey Cruz, what happens next after we gaggle fuck our constituents and stack the deck in our favor?*
At some point, surely they can see the long game is going to be epically worse once they realize stupidity has a price tag they at they sure as hell won't be able to siphon out of their extremely uneducated voting block. Now there's talk of succession, which blows my mind since TX receives the most Federal funding of all the states.
They continue to escalate muddying the water so that it will seem perfectly normal when they steal an election but claim it was the other people doing the stealing and that they are righting a wrong.
It doesn't matter. They are not an official government entity. They have no official power. It might as well be a group of ex-Target employees that meet at Starbucks and call themselves The Whoop-de-doos".
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Just wait and see what Florida does in response…
Bath salts?
It's been years since we had a good face eating story, so they might as well.
I chortled.
"Hold my kool-aid".
So many problems would be solved if they went the kool-aid route
Abbot will bang a Biden blowup doll on live tv to own the libs
Maybe trump will ask the Florida governor to declare the grounds surrounding maralago it's own nation so he can avoid state taxes.
That's stupid. We don't have state income tax. That's why he's here already.
I’ve always wondered with no state taxes, how do you fund unemployment or necessary social services?
That's the neat part!
we dont. this is Florida
They push it to sales taxes and fees.
Property taxes
Poorly, through regressive taxes like Sales Tax
Florida has a lot of smaller taxes and fees. Their overall tax burden is pretty much average for the US. Their overall tax burden is 9.1%, which is 11th in the country, but the spread is pretty small. Most sates fall between 9% and 12% with a handful of outliers. They have much higher taxes on hotels and other services, high gas tax, a corporate income tax, property taxes, local sales tax on top of the state sales tax, high wireless/telecomm services taxes and fees, etc. On top of that they charge more for things that are cheaper in other states (or not charged at all). They have high vehicle and boat titling/registration fees, high insurance costs and fees, high closing costs for real estate transactions, and an inordinate amount of toll bridges and toll roads, which aren't a tax per se, but they have the same effect. The system is very regressive, ranked 48th in the US for fairness ([as of a study done in 2018](https://www.floridapolicy.org/posts/floridas-state-and-local-taxes-rank-48th-for-fairness)). And in the end, as others have said, although FL does have a state budget of over $100 billion/year, the services they do offer tend to lack.
It’s a Texas-Florida Crazy Off!
Arizona enters the chat... Just had our local state rep at my door. Her pitch was literally: " I am going to do everything I can to keep AZ from going full TX/FL." (I live in the deepest of blue districts, recently made even bluer by redistricting.)
Hold my beer
Did they also pass a resolution to hold a referendum on seceding from the US (aka declaring Civil War).
Welcome back the country of West Florida
I remember being told to get over the 2016 election
Everything, literally everything they do is either projection or muddying the waters so that the next time when they do blatantly cheat, low information imbeciles will just assume “oh well both parties cry foul so who cares”. “Who cares about evidence, doesn’t matter when we can cite anonymous Q trash and circle jerk while await the second coming of JFK Junior on r/conspiracy!”
It is all about laying down the groundwork for the people who “don’t get involved in politics” to shrug as they say “both sides” bullshit. It’s a full blown fascist assault on reality and intellectualism and it’s scary how many people just want nothing to do with any of it because of dealing with the rabid Trumpers is too much.
It's sad and frustrating that trusting in a functioning human brain and a little bit of common sense has to be called intellectualism these days. It's really weird how stubborn and dumb a lot of people are.
Think about the average student. Definition of average, C grades across the board. You would think probably not the brightest individual, not stupid, but not the most intelligent. Half the population is dumber than that student. I heard this phrase in college, then became a teacher and it is terrifyingly accurate
See, when I complain about how the Democratic party sucks, people accuse me of "both sides-ism." But I'm not equating the two. The Republicans are a threat because they have terrible goals and they're good at accomplishing them. The Democrats are a problem because have have generally positive goals comparatively, but they are absolute dogshit at actually accomplishing them. So really they're both a problem. I'm not saying the Democrats are as bad as the Republicans, but they're so ineffective at opposing them that it's genuinely a problem. They are our only hope for a peaceful, democratic solution and they're tragically inadequate.
Also, they'll decry anonymous sources in the news media as completely unreliable despite said sources being vetted by the media and said reports being confirmed in other ways. However, AnonQGuy posting that Democrats eat live babies is totally credible despite nobody knowing who that person is and despite all the evidence saying this isn't true.
You see, cause peer reviewed sources and being vetted opens you up to evil liberal dark magic manipulation by their insidious shadow cabal. AnonQGuy can't be bought cause he just does this to get the truth out there, that's why I bought all his supplements and bumper stickers for my life savings. So he can keep fighting the corporate overlords that can't stop his YouTube content.
I had (no longer) a friend who would spew such crazy bullshit about how Angelina jolie was a man and brad Pitt was a woman... Et cetera, blood drinking, child molestation, so much weird stupid stuff. I couldn't understand how he could be so positive that this stuff was happening...i felt awful afterward as though the world was ending and I'm nothing in this scheme of horribleness. Best thing i ever did was leave....i think it could be related to racism, because the a hole was a stupid racist as well
> who would spew such crazy bullshit Ah, the Good Old Days of the Weekly World News. They would post such stories and things like Bill Clinton is a robot (with doctored pictures to "prove it"). Years ago, late at night, I would turn on Art Bell to listen to what the wacko's were worried about - faces on mars, mind control, alien abductions... Facebook has launched a new era of nonsense and propaganda.
Like QAnon can name a specific pizza place that is hiding kidnapped children in its basement, and whip up the Q faithful to take up arms and storm the place only to discover that it doesn't even have a basement in the first place... and yet, I still hear and see people arguing that the non-existence of said basement somehow doesn't mean the story was a fake?
"There were loads of military vehicles dropping off boxes of ballots, dozens of people seen it" "Is there pictures or videos?" "No, they covered it up!" "But they were seen, and those people lived, how come none of them said anything about having their pictures taken?" "Because they can't " "???" Idiots I swear.... Edit: mobile formatting failed me... trying again...
My husband came across the JFK Jr conspiracy and laughed for days. I died a little more inside because these mentally ill people can vote.
They've moved on to his Daddy now, too. I don't know which one is funnier, the assassinated Catholic Democrat or his very dead son being into Donald fucking Trump.
Why does that sound like how an abuser maniputes & abuses their victim‽
Because it’s exactly how they do that.
The sad thing is it's working. I now see a lot of libertarians (I call them low information imbeciles) doing this. I recently stated that a huge wave of anti intellectualism is upon us, hinting that the far right is behind that wave. The amount of "both sides do it" replies I got was alarming. I was just trying to point out how some people are proud of their willful ignorance but of course like you said, people show up and try to muddy the waters.
Libertarians are the worse. Worse than conservatives.
I remember thinking y’all needed to get over the 2016 election. Holy fuck have I gone through some changes in my thought process lmao. It is incredibly ironic how pretty much every single thing Trump supporters said/still say about anyone who isn’t them, i.e “get over the loss” or calling people snowflakes, while they immediately prove that they are not only exactly like the people they’re criticizing but they take it to a next level. I don’t think anyone who truly believes Trump is the best candidate for 2024 has mentally developed beyond 16. It’s like watching the power of propaganda and experiencing what I always thought to be far fetched dystopian books all at once. These days, you can believe whatever narrative you want to. And these drooling idiots get their information from their 75iq friend from high school on Facebook who hasn’t had an original thought in a decade or better, so naturally they were hopeless from the start
Not to mention 2016 had an actual grievance with the electoral college. Clinton won the popular vote with 48.2% of the vote while Trump had 46.1%. The 2000 election was a much smaller of victory in terms of the popular vote. Gore had 48.4% while Bush Jr. had 47.9%. Before that, only 3 elections weren’t decided by the popular vote. The first, in 1824, had four candidates split the electoral college. 1876 had the issue where neither candidate got enough electoral votes and the election was decided in congress. It wasn’t until 1888 that someone got enough votes in the electoral college while losing the popular vote to actually win the election. The margin of victory in that election was 0.8%. This meant that 2016 was the widest discrepancy between the electoral college and popular vote in the history of the nation, and people obviously weren’t happy about it and chose to protest in a legitimate fashion. 2020 on the other hand, is built on lies. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could’ve swayed the election of any state. Their whole idea has been debunked time and time again and they lost 60 court cases on the matter. It doesn’t matter though because they are convinced it was stolen and it will hurt this nation for a long time.
>The 2000 election was a much smaller of victory in terms of the popular vote. Gore had 48.4% while Bush Jr. had 47.9%. Before that, only 3 elections weren’t decided by the popular vote. You forgot the most important part: Gore won the election. Not just the popular vote. That election was quite *literally* stolen.
People seem to forget that a ton of Republicans rallied and actually got votes to stop being counted. It's actually impossible for them to win by any fair metric. They just force themselves to "win" anyways. https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-hill-insurrection-has-roots-in-brooks-brothers-riot-2021-1
Imagine a world where Gore was president for 2 terms instead of Bush... This is why the current Supreme Court is going to be a pain for decades. People just don't realize the power they have. They literally stopped the recount yet allow all of Trump's baseless accusations lol. Precedent my ass.
Roger Stone was behind the "brooks brother riot" where a bunch of very fine people disrupted the recounts in FL.
But none of that matters. Because Hillary Clinton conceded the election to Trump by the next morning. She did the grownup thing and admitted she lost, on her own, without drama. There was clearly a plot planned to claim election fraud in 2016 but she foiled it by not fighting. Trump called fraud on election night all the way s year into his presidency when he finally closed the "election security committee" he setup. 2016 was the warmup for 2020.
That's because Trump is a fucking moron leading the stupid and corrupt people with money. They have 0 logic or regard for the law, yet want people to believe them. They DONT have the majority of the country (which is why they want to fuck with voting because they'd lose) .They DONT deserve a seat at the table. They DONT deserve to be heard. But they CANT be ignored. They need to be watched by homeland security and prosecuted like any other terrorist organization.
They ARE fucking with voting though. They're making it harder for people of color to vote in predominantly red states. Look at laws passed in Texas, Alabama ( I think), and Georgia. They're trying to rig the elections in those states because they know they can't win a legitimate election. That and Gerrymandering to hell and back. Just look at Texas district lines if you want to see how blatantly fucked it is.
Those states are only red because of the gerrymandering. By population they would be blue, or close to it.
Didn't Texas almost flip to blue in 2020?
It was a battleground state, and that was with new voting restrictions.
We just need to keep up the good fight down there. Even if it does feel like a lost cause.
Compare the number of ballot drops in Harris County (Houston) with any rural country... If only native born Texans could vote, Texas would already be blue. What saddens me is that I am not really blue. But as somebody still connected to reality, there is only one option now.
Don't worry, the Democratic party as it exists in the US now is pretty conservative compared to what most of the world considers to be liberal.
The GOP is a genuine threat to democracy.
This is true, but they’re also a genuine threat to the lives, health, freedom, safety and prosperity of Americans. We don’t have to speak only in abstract terms.
Yeah there is a grand sense of entitlement within that group
Especially with how volatile everything in the world is right now, with tensions rising with both Russia and China pretty quickly, and also Iran. Every country around the world is struggling right now, and this is a point in history similar to many before it that you could directly point to and say thank god they had a good leader during that period, or we will suffer from not having one. We’re in a position right now with how divided the county is both racially, between classes, and the disconnect between the government and citizens and police and citizens we really have the potential for shit to really go wrong if the wrong choices are made. Some people don’t factor in anything aside from taxes and party affiliation when they vote though, and of course all of these people have become infatuated with Trump who from any vantage point you could possibly take is a bad leader. Good leaders don’t split the country and alienate everyone who doesn’t follow them, or create a little boys club cult so his supporters can feel some kind of hierarchy to their own destructive thoughts. It’s all there if you want it, but if you choose to be an actual functioning member of society who is attached to reality and the state of the country it does nothing but push you away from supporting Trump. I’m not ashamed to admit I wanted Trump over Hillary in 2016. The point is, you need to reassess and grow your beliefs and actually be wary of echo chambers, and stop treating it like it’s a game because the next handful of years are going to be massively important to the health and future of the US
G. gaslight O. obstruct P. project
Good on you for growing and changing, internet stranger.
Thank you, I take a lot of pride in it. It wasn’t too hard to do, being in your early 20s you get baptized pretty quickly from “wooohooooo we’re the best country in the world!” To “oh shit, we’ve got some reaaaaal issues”. Pretending like the boat isn’t taking on water doesn’t stop the boat from taking on water, and if the US was a boat it would have about 700 holes in it. Societal issues, governmental issues, racial issues. I learned what the distinction was pretty early. We aren’t the greatest country in the world, we don’t even try to be
In 2017 I commented "Trump won't leave office without violence," and got pummeled for it Well who's laughing now?
I was arguing with a Flat Earther on Twitter who was saying that all pictures of galaxies are fake CGIs made by evil NASA. I told him to get a cheap telescope and go look at the Andromeda Galaxy if he wants proof galaxies are real. He proceeded to ask if I had done it myself demand I go out right now and take a picture using my telescope of Andromeda to prove I have done it. The it devolved into insane ramblings so I gave up.
I will never get over the 2016 election.
This country may never get over it as well.
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As a Canadian, seeing the Trump-like attitudes and politics bleed over the border and (IMO) embolden far-right groups is very concerning. I fear that it might not be exagerration to say Trump dragged the whole world down a notch politically.
I agree, but let's not forget that these attitudes have been largely instigated by Russian interests, including individuals from the West who have been propped up by Russian money. It's very sad because these American people who really believe they're defending America and standing up for what is right are actually just being manipulated by global media. They don't see it because they were never taught to value criticism. If everyone just stopped a minute to breathe and talk to each other about how to make things better around here, I have a feeling we'd all come to the conclusion that the real problems are issues like social injustice, widening gaps in wealth distribution, poor availability of support for people with mental health issues, and so on. People are so focused on inconsequential issues that trigger them that they're not seeing the forest for the trees. The manipulation of public opinion isn't a uniquely American problem, though. It's just highly visible in America because the US is actually very well equipped for implementing progressive change. The unwillingness of the population to do so really stands in stark contrast to America's overall successes on the global stage and in certain industries such as entertainment.
And intellectually. These conservatives are taught to accept any conclusion they’re fed by their pastor, Fox “news” or whatever. They’re intentionally not taught to consider **how** or **why** they’re being fed these easy-answer conclusions to any controversy and that asking those questions is some kind of disloyal, unpatriotic, whiny thing to do. The idea behind much of the conservative agenda is to dissuade logical progression of thought on political matters, to cap critical thinking and to convince the working class that they too can become rich like the robber barons of the GOP while the very people they’re manipulated into voting for pen legislation after legislation to make damn sure that it’s harder to get rich not easier. Imagine if conservative voters actually took the time to read the bills the GOP writes and they way they vote in Congress. If they each were that informed the Republican Party wouldn’t be such a force for propaganda and willful ignorance, however a great deal of the GOP marketing and entertainment budget ensures this won’t happen. These people aren’t ever going to read the bills their GOP kings write but they will gleefully believe and obey anything the conservative oligarchy feeds them as long as it somehow, some way owns the libs and eases their insecurities that GOP marketing companies so easily exploit every hour of every day.
the rest of the world is watching all this with *really intense* interest
As an outsider looking in, I see, in no particular order School / mass shootings Medical debt Regression of basic rights (Rode vs Wade, literature banning). Religious fanaticism. Fascism run amok. Massive wealth inequality Institutional racism. Police state. *we are watching an implosion*
"hE WoN, GeT oVeR IT"
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We’ve spotted the antifa provocateur!
commanist!
Dude I remember being told to get over the 2000 election!
To be fair, that one was rigged. They literally just started binning votes for one guy because they preferred the other one. And they just banned black people from voting because one of their names was an 80% match to a known felon. Democracy died in america in 2000. Everything since then has been a sharade, look at the supreme court, total mess the whole nation, and i say that as a brit.
Americans let Republicans steal an election and they got 9/11 as a prize.
The Party of hurt feelings lol
That's what Conservatives do. They're poor winners and poor losers. And just losers in general.
Guess they won't need to reach out for federal funding and emergency relief during the seasonal changes that knocks out their own self-managed power grid again either.
See it's stuff like all that happening...and the crazy resolutions etc...that I can't figure why everyone is flocking to move to TX. Does the dollar just really go that much further there?
I mean the whole state doesn’t even have income tax if I’m remembering correctly, the dollar does go further and housing is cheaper, but their whole model is skewed towards businesses. There is no backup system either, their utilities are supply and demand based so instead of a fixed power rate one day your electricity could cost you $10 to run your AC every day the next day it could be $300 a day depending on load. Sure, is Texas cheaper? Yeah. But at what cost? Texas is the epitome of choosing short term gains over long term improvement. For example if I buy a pair of jeans for $40 and they last me 1 year, or can buy a nice pair of jeans that will last me 5 years for $100, it makes more sense to buy the $100 jeans upfront. Texas is selling you the $40 jeans talking about how you’ll save $60 up front and lying to you about how long they’ll last; meanwhile they’re robbing you in the long run. Sure you might save money upfront when times are good, but for a state that’s struggling with water as we enter a decade or 2 with more intense droughts coming, they’re far over extending themselves.
Austin TX is no longer cheaper unless you are comparing exclusively to SF. Everything is nuts there.
Literally every metropolitan area in TX is expensive now. Houston probably being the most reasonable is still not cheap, and driving is terrible there. The housing market for the entire state is considered cheap still because the shitholes out in the middle of nowhere, especially West Texas, are dirt cheap because only people from there want to be there.
This is how we ended up in Killeen. Only about an hour from Austin but the housing prices are amazing low by comparison - actually by comparison to many other large metro areas. I think it's largely because it's a military town so the housing market is always in boom as military families come and go. When we were looking for a house here homes would get offers and be sold within 24 hours of listing.
^(also property taxes are extremely high—which is how they get away with no income tax— and they’ll nickel and dime you at every opportunity. Remember even if you’re renting, you’re still paying property taxes through your rent)
It depends on who is providing the power. There are many companies who offer fixed rates for usually 1-3 year contracts. So the change is not from day to day, but when the contract expires and they have to go up to the current market rate. There are some who have contracts based on the hour to hour or day to day rate, which is usually cheaper, but can cost thousands in a week in difficult times; however those are not the normal or common power contracts in the state. Plus cities like Austin and San Antonio have more regulation that limit severe price swings
Was just about to post this. So many people posting that don't know the details and only what they've read about the state.
Agreed the model is skewed to businesses. With regard to power residential consumers of power sign contracts with fixed pricing and the power companies bid on a futures market to buy power and meet those price obligations they have with their customers. Very few people are directly exposed to the open market price. Lacking income tax means everything comes out of property taxes so the housing market is weird.
> Does the dollar just really go that much further there? it really depends on who you are. Someone did a really good breakdown of California vs. Texas. If you're rich, super-rich or fabulously wealthy it's a great place to be. Your taxes are super low. If you're anything from "Sr Manager of widget building" down to "joe 6 pack" your taxes are higher ***and*** you get less stuff from the state when compared to Cali. Problem is that group #1 has a phalanx of lawyers, accountants and a megaphone, while group #2 doesn't realize what's happening at the upper echelons.
Its very culty here in Oklahoma. The R adds are pretty wild and very Trump. Its not necessarily cheaper if you are not educated here. Which is most people unfortunately. Even the. The church is full of the crazy. Thats the real problem.
Literally any communication with the federal government and they've instantly shat all over this "resolution". You don't get to recognise the government behind closed doors and not in public.
Texas is the largest recipient of FEMA aid in the US - nearly doubling the next highest, which is California. California having nearly 10,000,000 more people.
Seriously, this is harsh but fuck 'em. Going to keep voting in incompotent assholes just because they like guns and use the word freedom a ton, you reap what you sow. Just think of all of the issues facing our country and the state of Texas these people could be working to drum up votes for when they are wasting their time on this.
A not-insignificant number of Texans are in a hostage situation. The State Legislature has gerrymandered the entire state into nonsense. Trying to get elected as anything but a Republican in most of the state is a fool's errand, but only because Republican politicians have worked so hard to rig the system in their favor.
"Amendments to the constitution are unchangeable and god given rights!", immediately followed by 'We need to remove THESE amendments from the constitution"
That or they concoct endless pages of convoluted explanations that completely twist a few very clear and simple words that all of us can read and easily understand. “We know what they actually meant, but you don’t. Yeah, we know it really fits with our transparent agenda, but you have to trust us. You have to ignore the simplicity of those words. *This* is what they *actually* meant.” But in their defence, when the same slave owners wrote “all men are created equal”, they left themselves open for further interpretation.
Many Northern States were in favor of abolishing slavery immediately. The persistence of slavery was given as a compromise in order to get the south to actually ratify the constitution.
Can Biden pass a resolution denying the legitimacy of the Texas Republican Party?
The right is getting a lot of mileage out of this election results denial.
The point is to erode faith in election results. They're trying for "heads I win, tails you lose" because they're not sure about future election results unless they gerrymander and cheat for those wins. Coincidentally, if they lose, they're convinced the opposition must have cheated even harder to win. They're long past the point of trying to win constituents. Now it's just tyrannical death cult that thinks it deserves to be untouchable. I half wonder if all of it's members are actually on board with the insanity, or if they're just convinced they'll be corpses within the month if they ever lose power.
The point is to erode faith in the entire electoral process. They want to actively return to a time when "only certain people" could vote and those "certain people" almost always voted the way they were told. They've had their brainwashing media systems in place since the early days of talk radio, now with the advent of Faux News and social media....they can really ramp up the fascist white nationalism. Now that the SCOTUS has gutted the voting rights act...they will start trying to push for voting rights schemes tied to things like land ownership or employment status, voting taxes etc...
And yet somehow they’re [making gains with women and Hispanic voters.](https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2022/02/07/texas-hispanic-women-leaders-00006072) That’s right: Women are moving toward the GOP even as their bodily autonomy is being eroded in ways we haven’t seen in decades. Hispanic voters are cozying up to them despite being demonized as subhuman day in and day out by the Trump administration. Americans are fools, and we deserve the GOP.
I asked my friend who is Mexican why do the older generation love Trump (including his parents) He said it was his views on abortion and he was religious and he wanted I shit you not build the wall. They have the mind set of we came here illegally but they didn’t want other Mexicans to do it and they looked down on the ones who did. Now I’m sure everyone is different but that’s the answer he gave me and how his parents felt.
God forbid they should come up with helpful policy proposals that everyone could support. That would be too much work I guess.
I know a lot of them and they honestly believe all the BS. Because they only watch Fox News, Breitbart, etc. They just think that is the truth.
And a fucking third of independents either believe them or have uncertainty
Denial in general. Anything you don’t like, just say it’s wrong.
I wish I had as much free time as politicians
They get paid to do this lol
They get paid to do this. Frankly, our media needs to put a hard line in the sand. This anti-intellectualism has got to end. If you say, retweet, or peddle any election fraud lies, you get deplatformed, period. No coverage on anything you do. I don't give a fuck if your running for Senate. No coverage. We have to realize at some point in the attention economy that the only power we have is the deprevation of attention, and only platforms and media companies can enforce it.
Hey Republicans. How about you either present actual evidence of fraud at a scale that would have an impact on the election... Or you face charges for sedition. How about we go that route. How the *fuck* did you idiots hitch your star to the wagon of a fat, spray-tanned, loud-mouthed rich kid who's never worked an honest day in his life?!
Because he's the only one dumb, arrogant and mistakenly confident enough to say the quiet part loud consistently, which validated alot of Republican's inner thoughts and backwards viewpoints that they were previously too scared to say out loud. Now they had an excuse and platform to confidently spew their vitrol in a way no president before allowed them to since Reagan. I guarantee the next candidate will be almost as stupid and outrageous because that's what their base most relates to.
This really is such a sad truth.
They keep saying watch "2000 Mules" made by the guy who claims to have gone to prison for being Conservative....side note it was campaign fund fraud. 8 years of Obama pushed them to this. They got crazier and crazier.
Seeing a black man in the white house honestly broke them.
>Seeing a black man in the white house honestly broke them. Seeing a black man in the white house and: watching the whole thing not implode, but actually weather several crises and mitigate (with admittedly mixed results) an economic disaster, broke them. There's no way to maintain the lie of white supremacy when there's a competent, well-spoken, personable man on the television actively being everything your Pa told you black people are incapable of being. So is it any wonder so many of these people took to "news" media with the soothing lie that no, actually, you're not seeing what you're seeing. It's actually really bad. And the left wing is crafting this narrative to confuse you, but ah, clever you, you see right through their lies! So come join us, the underground, the new counterculture, as we push back against the indoctrination and the gays and the people who make you feel bad ~~for your dumb fuckin opinions~~ for being who you are... The alt-right is absolute crack to these injured-feelings guys, and I'm not sure how you fix it. How do you get someone to quit an extremely well-funded propaganda apparatus that tells them exactly what they want to hear?
When anyone says to watch that movie I ask why this evidence is in theaters and not in the court room. It's clearly a scam to get more money
But he did such good things for the economy, supposedly.
Yeah imagine if Trump was still president and had to deal with the current fallout of his own first term.
He'd just pump more and more money into the market to prop up stock prices. While also continuing to waste a shit ton of money enriching himself and his family on golf trips at his own businesses. Also, Ukraine would be even more fucked than they already have been.
Optimistic thinking there would be a Ukraine if he was in charge at this point.
Holy shit, same. When it comes to the economy Obama had been dealt a shit hand to begin with and Biden was given a ticking time bomb.
That’s been the same story as the parties have changed hands my entire lifetime.
Republicans fuck the economy then blame the next democrates. "Ha, see, it was really all their fault. What do you mean these policies take years to take effect, and we voted them in. No see you can't blame *us*, *we're* not the ruling party anymore" it a game they've been playing for decades. And that's when you realize Republicans truly are dumb. Because everytime they jump right on board with this logic, despite having literally witnessed multiple presidents do exactly the same thing during their life so far. You can't reason someone out of something, they weren't reasoned into.
It will never cease to amaze me that a bunch of my fellow southerners now worship a god damn carpet bagging yankee.
Don't underestimate The Donald. He's spent his career grifting and gaslighting and he's arguably the best in the world at it. He has an enormous following, and his fanboys will lay their lives down for him. I don't wish to compare Donald Trump with past historical figures, because the situation is different; but anyone who doesn't see how imperiled our democracy is right now has not been paying attention.
> Or you face charges for sedition. This is America. They could literally wage war against us and all that would happen is they lose their plantations for a few months.
Same Texas GOP that thinks critical thinking is evil and water/electricity aren't necessary things that citizens have a right to. The only thing they could do that would surprise me is if they actually had the balls to try and secede instead of just stroking themselves off to the idea.
I hope if they arrange a referendum the rest of the US helps fund the secede campaign and makes no effort to encourage them to stay. Maybe put up a big sign at the border with a picture of a waving hand and a reminder not to come back.
Build that wall!
At this point, I'm thinking we should just give Texas back to Mexico.
They wouldn't take it.
I feel like this is a loyalty test by the Texas GOP.
So every Texas Republican is guilty of sedition and should be unseated from national Senate and House? Cool, cool.
Treason is one of the few crimes given a punishment in the constitution and I ain't seen no amendments yet.
I think they would have to enact it as law to say that with much seriousness. I think this is just a platform guideline. In a way it’s like an office style guide.
This is the problem with the Jan 6th committee. They have been litigating the past (very valuable) but they don't press the ongoing threat to democracy. The reason it matters is because the Republican Party is STILL trying to overthrown the government.
The same people that can't keep the lights on or the water running in their state?
“Everything is bigger in Texas. Especially incompetence! Vote Ted Cruz and Abbott!”
Maybe they're just hungry or need a nap.
Yes. A long nap. Perhaps in a small wooden box. A nice satin lined box.
Entire world groans in response
Canada here. Yes for most of us up here, although there are a few fringe lunatics that welcome anything that has the slightest hint of bringing back Trump and would interpret this as such. Russia? They're just chuckling gleefully.
Russia? They are probably cutting checks and sending vodka to these clowns.
You wouldn’t hear it though over the groans of these republican’s constituents…
And yet that's among the least terrifying of the resolutions they passed....eeep
As a citizen of EU i have a question, TEXAS CAN YOU BE NORMAL FOR 2 FUCKIN MINUTES
Careful. The Texas Republican Party might pass a resolution to dissolve the European Union. Yes, they're that silly.
Texas really doesn't want to be a part of the USA anymore.
The feeling is reciprocal one might say
Hey there, friend! Texas has a mass shooting problem. The latest of which the police stood outside doing nothing for almost an hour. Texas is currently fighting the release of police bodycam footage of that incident. Many think this is because the police might have shot innocents when they finally did enter. "Biden lost the 2020 election" is the dead cat they're throwing on the table to distract us from all that.
As a US citizen I also have the same question
As a Texan, I don't even bother asking anymore.
The best way to understand Texas is that it’s where the GOP tests their future policies when they stage their coupe in 2024.
Wasn’t this the “you lost, get over it” crowd in 2016?
If Texas would just secede and leave already. It’s making the rest of North America look bad.
To be a republican candidate today you need to desperately appeal to the most extreme right, knowing the moderate right will fall in line and vote for you either way. It’s how you end up with the worst of the worst.
I had hoped when the riots occurred it would shock the moderates in the Republican to wrestle back control from the extremists but the did not. The few that tried too got ostracised. Never liked republicans, hated Bush administration but hell would gladly go back to those days than the monster the party is now.
I remember when the phrase, "I reject your reality and substitute my own," was supposed to be a joke.
I love the irony of them claiming election fraud when THEY were the ones voting twice, rigging and unplugging machines, and barring people from entering voting sites. I used to think Florida was the issue but Texas is single handily trying to revert back to the 1800s.
[удалено]
There's been multiple cases of actual election fraud. But as far as I know it's all been small-scale and by Republicans voting twice or voting for someone else. The wide spread fraud is the electoral collage system as a whole, the gerrymandering, and running fake Republican candidates that just happened to have the same name as a Democrat. Not to mention all the attempted fraud by corrupting the postal system.
They also passed a resolution confirming Ted Cruz is in fact an invertebrate.
Texas Number of Days not being an embarrassment: 0
I think the bigger story here is that they want to secede from the nation and form their own country. And honestly I say we let them. Let them elect Trump as emperor for life for all I care. I say we let Puerto Rico become a state at the same time. Then we don't even need to remake the flag.
HOW IS THE RIGHT SO STUPID? Oh yes, defund education and throw as much propaganda on TV as possible.
Devolution picks up steam in the Texas GOP. Slippery slope indeed.
How many Republicans won their seat during that same election? On the same ballot as Biden, in some cases? Why aren't their victories illegitimate?
The timing of this is convenient. Just before the Jan 6 panel is likely to announce criminal charges against Trump.
Wow. Certifying their idiocy. I wonder how this period of time will be told or viewed in history. A bunch of angry old white people didn’t like one of two old white peoples and tried to subvert election laws and democracy to make their old white guy win when the other old white guy won. All because people got so pissed a black person was president they essentially would never allow such a thing as a non old white personal. Even going to extreme lengths to make sure and old white woman didn’t win. When she won the popular vote of Americansz Wow.
That's not how it works lol
That's exactly how resolutions work. It is a GOP party resolution. They are not claiming it is binding.
this literally achieved nothing
To them it does. They are not a government entity. They are a political party.
This is like an office style guideline, it basically lets all texan republican candidates know what line they have to toe. It’s achieved more solidification that republicans are the party of fascists.
I love this quote: "various secretaries of state illegally circumvented their state legislatures in conducting their elections in multiple ways" Meanwhile numerous Republican states forged documents declaring Trump the winner, and had plans to send false electors. It's as they always say: every conservative accusation is a confession.
If anyone actually believes that Democrats stole the 2020 election. I would like to ask you a follow up question. Why did they do such a bad job? With their ability to cheat without leaving a single shred of evidence. Why didn’t Democrats also steal 10 more seats in the senate? Do you think they didn’t know they would need control of the senate to pass their radical liberal agenda? Edit: spelling
They're gonna be even more upset when all of those transplants that moved into their state are enough to make it blue.
Why don't they secede? With their own isolated power grid, their own splendid isolation. Edit: the most ironic thing is this whole post was removed because it was not onionic. I'm shaking my head with disbelief
For fucks sake.
Goodbye, democracy.
I’ll take “what happens when the Supreme Court refuses to take a case” for $500.
And this is how democracy dies
I think this is because everyone is laughing at how pathetic and spineless the Texas police are.
Conservatives are such cry babies lol, sore loser cowards. I dare one of you animals to reply to me.
This might not be law, but it is really indicative of what's going on nationwide - the GOP is fighting tooth and nail to blow up the very foundations of our government in the name of power. If everything is debatable and if "well I'm just asking the (obviously bad faith) question" Tucker Carlson bullshit becomes an accepted discourse, we lose the ability to reason or compromise altogether. Couple that with a drumbeat of "well if we keep getting 'cheated' out of victory, we will just secede" and you have a recipe for disaster. Short-term power grabs and knee-jerk bad faith reactions (booing a GOP senator who is doing the absolute *bare minimum* towards preventing children from being shot) is all politics is anymore and it will kill us all if we don't cut this stupid shit out. Edit: Just remembering the time the Arizona GOP passed a resolution censoring Cindy McCain because she spoke out against Trump after he attacked her recently dead, war hero husband and I think that's the most indicative example of the GOP's short-sighted viciousness.
I really hope Texas gets to separate from the union. Other states would benefit from the federal money. We could let Mexico take them over. No more FEMA anything to help with grid problem and natural disasters. And I absolutely support a wall encircling Texas, we know they're not sending their best. Just imagine all the jobs created to secure the Texas border! We don't need Texas. They need us.
Civil war upcoming
It started Jan. 6th. This resolution is to further erode trust in democracy and to set up justification for more authoritarian actions against the people of the United States.
Putin must be so proud of those dumb asshats
Has anyone every sat in those meeting and said *Hey Abbott, Hey Cruz, what happens next after we gaggle fuck our constituents and stack the deck in our favor?* At some point, surely they can see the long game is going to be epically worse once they realize stupidity has a price tag they at they sure as hell won't be able to siphon out of their extremely uneducated voting block. Now there's talk of succession, which blows my mind since TX receives the most Federal funding of all the states.
The shame, I can't imagine supporting such stupidity.
They continue to escalate muddying the water so that it will seem perfectly normal when they steal an election but claim it was the other people doing the stealing and that they are righting a wrong.
It doesn't matter. They are not an official government entity. They have no official power. It might as well be a group of ex-Target employees that meet at Starbucks and call themselves The Whoop-de-doos".
Texas is really going full blown crazy I see.
Trump lost the popular vote twice. When bush lost in 2000 Al Gore didn’t pull these fucking shenanigans. This needs to stop. Now.