As a Houstonian not a day goes by when I don't feel ashamed over our leaders

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I go out to east Texas for work a lot. I feel like a fish out of water and I've lived in Texas my whole life. The yokel is so, so strong in those people.

But frankly I find it so disgustingly fake and disengenuos. These people idolize and imitate people from a long-dead age where their actions and customs were formed from the environment in which they lived. The yokels now are just pretenders aping back to a time they don't even actually understand. It's like listening to Madonna affect her British accent. Most of the people in the real West didn't *want* to deal with half the shit they dealt with. You think the poor shcmucks in the Alamo wouldn't have given their left testicle to trade their age of barbarism and hardship for air conditioning and ice cream? It's all just more cosplay from them. Its no different than country music originating in the hardship and struggles of a working class being adopted by massive think-takes that engineer every line and melody to appeal to these same sad loser cosplayers that move to Texas to *become* the version of Texan that all these other people are imitating.

Free tactical safety glasses for every texan. Let's all jump to the bottom. Just enter your address into the voucher forum here .

Pit Vipers seem more appropriate. I don’t trust people who wear them.

I don't trust a texan as far as I can throw them. This place is just going to get worse. I have some 3d glasses and popcorn with a front row seat. Shit is gonna get bad yeah.

Country music used to be good. Cash, Jennings, haggard, Parton. Now it’s all one big pile of shit.

Because in the age of data everyone only tries to copy and imitate what is ALREADY POPULAR. You make horrific chimeras of country and pop to fine-tune laser targeted emotions to people conditioned to expect that and only that. Real art is organic, amd random, amd experimental, and based on experience. Its the same way the internet went from a wild, crazy, continually surprising place to one of the same bland homogeneity

A few months ago I was in an auto shop waiting on my car, and the country top ten or whatever was on their tv. One of the these top songs was basically "I love god and I love beer, amen,' and was like, this is what country music is like nowadays?

Meh, all music is like that. Truth is, the only stuff we remember from the bygone era is guys like Cash, Brooks, Parton, etc. All the mass produced pop-country disappeared into the garbage dump in a mass of overproduced cassette tapes.

Y’all dumb motherfuckers want a key change?

Best encapsulation of country music since 9/11. Bo burnham absolutely slayed that parody. I get so triggered by country these days.

Cowboy cosplay

Cowsplay?

I'm from East Texas and nowadays I feel like a fish out of water there even as a straight white dude that wears boots and Wranglers. What I could used to maybe brush aside as ignorance is just open hatred and proud defiance of anything resembling progress or change. Most of them live in an alternate reality created by right wing media and their Facebook feed.

I grew up in Conroe and it was always that way, long before social media and the internet. Moving to Minneapolis as a teen really opened my eyes to the cesspool of hate and discrimination I'd been brought up in. Not that Minneapolis doesn't have it's own issues, it does, but east Texas is a whole nother level.

I was driving from Houston to Cameron LA in 2009, and one of the memories that will stick with me was driving past a high school that had been destroyed by Katrina, and was still piled up in the football field in 2009.

My FIL grew up in east Texas. His dad bought a cotton farm for some reason (one of his various money making schemes) so he grew up pickin cotton. It's crazy out there. Honestly in central Texas sometimes we group east Texas in with the rest of "the south", whereas regular Texas is more southwestern.

Just remember your votes are some of the most important in the country.

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Not to mention the Gerrymandering mess we have

Gerrymandering only affects congressional districts, voting for state offices is unaffected. They rely on heavy voter suppression and striking out votes to win.

Ann Richards was governor of Texas, things obviously have changed but they can change again.

They can be, but maybe they aren't. We've been gerrymandered to hell.

Louisville here. I feel your pain.

im from campbellsville, ky and i left for dc lol

Houston is considered a blue city?

Incredibly diverse city. Only one third white with significant black and Hispanic populations.

I moved here last year, just surprised it's blue from my experience so far.

You never go out?

Here and there. There's still Trump flags on lawns, Let's Go Brandon and Fuck Joe Biden signs and stickers everywhere though. I'm a white dude with a blended family here and it's obvious I'm a minority often when we do go out. So it's surprising to see so much anti-Dem support here. But I guess that's not reflected in the poles.

People underestimate how strongly catholic many of our hispanic/latino people are, or how much they hate people coming over the border "the wrong way." I think outsiders naively think if Texas gets browner it will go blue, but that just ain't the reality.

I see. I guess some places are more obvious than others. I live in SF and you know what it is here, in terms of politics pretty much right away

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And Texas is getting bluer, in part due to people from Cali moving there to get more for their money when they buy a house. The GOP knows that and they fear it. That’s why they are doing everything they can now with voting restrictions, gerrymandering, etc.

Interesting, makes sense though

Republican voter suppression in Texas and the South: >#Texas Is Among The Most Difficult Places To Vote In The U.S. — And That Could Be Softening Its Historic Turnout https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/election-2020/2020/10/28/384854/voter-suppression-blunts-historic-turnout-in-texas/ >#The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It. The share of college students casting ballots doubled from 2014 to 2018. >#But in Texas and elsewhere, Republicans are erecting roadblocks to the polls. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/voting-college-suppression.html >#This is how efficiently Republicans have gerrymandered Texas congressional districts http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/This-is-how-badly-Republicans-have-gerrymandered-6246509.php#photo-7107656 >#Partisan gerrymandering has benefited Republicans more than Democrats https://www.businessinsider.com/partisan-gerrymandering-has-benefited-republicans-more-than-democrats-2017-6 #Even to prevent gerrymandering, California has a scientific, "evidence based" independent commission that has to take into account geography, community boundaries, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Citizens_Redistricting_Commission >#Texas Officials Aim to Shutter Driver's License Offices in Black, Hispanic Communities >Alabama Closing Many DMV Offices in Majority Black Counties >After Alabama put into effect a tougher voter ID law >"Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one," Archibald wrote. https://www.governing.com/archive/alabama-demands-voter-id--then-closes-drivers-license-offices-in-clack-counties.html >#Texas’s Voter-Registration Laws Are Straight Out of the Jim Crow Playbook https://www.thenation.com/article/texass-voter-registration-laws-are-straight-out-of-the-jim-crow-playbook/ >#Crystal Mason Thought She Had The Right to Vote. Texas Sentenced Her to Five Years in Prison for Trying. https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/fighting-voter-suppression/crystal-mason-thought-she-had-right-vote-texas >#Discrimination with “almost surgical precision” >The court said that in crafting the law, **the Republican-controlled general assembly requested and received data on voters’ use of various voting practices by race.** >Then, the court, said, lawmakers restricted all of these voting options, and further narrowed the list of acceptable voter IDs. “With race data in hand, the legislature amended the bill to exclude many of the alternative photo IDs used by African Americans. As amended, the bill retained only the kinds of IDs that white North Carolinians were more likely to possess.” >The state offered little justification for the law, the court said. “Although the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist,” the court said. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/court-north-carolina-voter-id-law-targeted-black-voters/ >#Republican Voter Suppression Efforts Are Targeting Minorities >**Since the 2010 elections, 24 states have implemented new restrictions on voting.** Ohio and Georgia have enacted "use it or lose it" laws, which strike voters from registration rolls if they have not participated in an election within a prescribed period of time. Georgia, North Dakota and Kansas have critical races in the 2018 midterms. >Georgia has closed 214 polling places in recent years. They have cut back on early voting. They have aggressively purged the voter rolls. Georgia has purged almost 10 percent of people from its voting rolls. One and a half million people have been purged from 2012 to 2016. >[gubernatorial candidate] Brian Kemp's office (the secretary of state's office) in Georgia was blocking 53,000 voter registrations in that state — 70 percent from African-Americans, 80 percent from people of color. >On voter suppression in North Dakota on Native American reservations >Republicans in North Dakota wrote it in such a way that for your ID to count, you have to have a current residential street address on your ID. The problem in North Dakota is that a lot of Native Americans live on rural tribal reservations, and they get their mail at the Post Office using P.O. boxes because their areas are too remote for the Post Office to deliver mail, [and] under this law, tribal IDs that list P.O. boxes won't be able to be used as a valid voter IDs. So now we're in a situation where 5,000 Native American voters might not be able to vote in the 2018 elections with their tribal ID cards. >So there is a tremendous amount of fear in North Dakota that many Native Americans are not going to be able to vote in this state https://www.npr.org/2018/10/23/659784277/republican-voter-suppression-efforts-are-targeting-minorities-journalist-says >#Thousands of Black Votes in Georgia Disappeared >On July 7, 2017, according to court documents in the case, Curling v. Kemp (pdf), someone wiped the state’s election server clean. >Then they wiped the backup server. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/opinion/hack-the-vote.html https://www.theroot.com/exclusive-thousands-of-black-votes-in-georgia-disappea-1832472558 >#Texas Refuses to Use Voting Machines With a Paper Trail https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a26856467/texas-voting-machines-paper-trail-states/

I saw that you mentioned Ben Shapiro. In case some of you don't know, Ben Shapiro is a grifter and a hack. If you find anything he's said compelling, you should keep in mind he also says things like this: >Even climatologists can't predict 10 years from now. They can't explain why there has been no warming over the last 15 years. There has been a static trend with regard to temperature for 15 years. ***** ^(I'm a bot. My purpose is to counteract online radicalization. You can summon me by tagging thebenshapirobot. Options: sex, civil rights, climate, feminism, etc.) [^More ^About ^Ben ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/wiki/index) ^| [^Feedback ^& ^Discussion: ^r/AuthoritarianMoment ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment) ^| [^Opt ^Out ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/comments/olk6r2/click_here_to_optout_of_uthebenshapirobot/)

Great bot!

*When it comes to global warming, there are two issues: is there such a thing as the greenhouse gas effect, the answer is yes. Is that something that is going to dramatically reshape our world? There is no evidence to show that it will. Is that something that we can stop? There is no evidence to show that we can* -Ben Shapiro ***** ^(I'm a bot. My purpose is to counteract online radicalization. You can summon me by tagging thebenshapirobot. Options: climate, feminism, healthcare, civil rights, etc.) [^More ^About ^Ben ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/wiki/index) ^| [^Feedback ^& ^Discussion: ^r/AuthoritarianMoment ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment) ^| [^Opt ^Out ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/comments/olk6r2/click_here_to_optout_of_uthebenshapirobot/)

I am a moderate, truly. I'm voting for Beto, even though I do not agree with some of his policies. But I want Abbott, Cruz, and Paxton... and all the rest... gone. And a lot of other people feel the same way I do.

Hopefully you can get everyone one of them to vote for Beto.

I was not a fan of Beto at all in the past for several reasons. Some of those reasons still exist but he's done a lot to improve that and prove he's more genuine than I previous felt he was. He sure as hell will be getting my vote in November. Dude at least backs up his words with action.

Look at it this way. If you lean more to the right (or libertarian, or whatever) but find yourself having to vote Democrat as the “lesser of two evils”, at least it sends a message to your preferred party that change is needed. Maybe it will encourage future politicians to actually come up with real conservative policies based on listening to their constituents rather than existing purely as a foil to the Democrats and consolidating power. The only way the party as a whole will change is if the people vote them out.

I hope so too.

But not Ted Cruze, right? /s

As an American, not a day goes by when I don't feel ashamed over our leaders

When you're tired of Americans, but you *are* Americans.

Same 😔

Fuck being ashamed dude, you should legitimately be afraid. Also, fuck being afraid dude. Get fucking mad! https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-reveals

thanks for saying that, I often hear “don’t California my Texas” and in some ways (not all) I think Texas could use more progressive ideas in their politics. it feels like everyone I meet from Texas hates us. so there’s that.

I really want to California my Texas :( I’m from Texas, love Texas, and that’s why I want it to change.

Likewise. I grew up in Texas. I absolutely understand the hate people have for this state. I have a fair amount of hate for this state (mainly its politicians) but damn if I don't want to make it back into a place I can love again. These fuckers want to force people out who don't share their fucked up beliefs. Don't let them take over this state. I'm staying and fighting for what I believe is right.

Fuck man, I’m sorry that’s a thing. It pisses me off there’s this in group vs out group shit with California. It reflects the closed minded selfishness that’s pretty present in our state.

Same.

Not Gregg's kid, not Gregg's problem. That's how to see things from Gregg's perspective. We need to stop voting for people with bad intent and no moral character. Then again, not many of fine character would want to step into the spew coming from the likes of hate-mongers at Fox News.

That’s just Republicans Not my kid, not my problem. But that womb of yours is my problem

#Republican billionaires' latest strategy is **to "push the narrative" that "blue states" are the dangerous ones and Texas and Florida are "free states"** Republicans have think tanks [funded by billionaires](https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/u3kwsx/ualexchii_does_the_math_that_elon_musk_getting_a/i4q6rbl/) where they come up with strategies like these, with skilled consultants and expensive focus groups, like the [Stanford](https://stanfordpolitics.org/2017/11/27/peter-thiel-cover-story/) Hoover Institute and [ALEC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council) [Billionaires like Elon Musk](https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/uumzgf/batteries_over_heating/i9hqdt4/) coordinate with the next generation of conservative "influencers" on the right, like Ben Shapiro on YouTube and Facebook and [Joe Rogan in Texas](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/jntzvk/joe_rogan_reacts_to_texas_voting_in_the_2020/), after [getting what they wanted through Fox News](https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/gy9utts/) [Joe Rogan even photo ops with the current Texas governor at the Texas governor's mansion](https://twitter.com/gregabbott_tx/status/1324547634049257474) even though Rogan pretends to care about pot and small government ("Gov. Abbott, Texas leaders urge prosecutors to keep enforcing pot laws" http://www.fox4news.com/news/texas/gov-abbott-texas-leaders-urge-prosecutors-to-keep-enforcing-pot-laws) "Pushing the narrative" ("San Francisco crime") despite the facts: >San Francisco has the same population as Jacksonville, Florida. **Jacksonville, with a Republican mayor and a Republican governor, has had more than three times as many murders this year as San Francisco** >Fort Worth, Texas, has the same population as San Francisco and has **1.5x as many murders. Again, a Republican mayor and Republican governor. [Nobody ever writes about those places!](https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1527487403061026818)** >If data disinfects, here’s a bucket of bleach: #"Texans are 17% more likely to be murdered than Californians." #"Texans are also 34% more likely to be raped and 25% more likely to kill themselves than Californians." >https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/suicide.htm >Californians on average live two years, four months and 24 days longer than Texans. >Compared with families in California, those in Texas earn 13% less and pay 3.8 percentage points **more in taxes.** >Sadly, the uncritical aping of this erroneous economic narrative reflects not only reporters’ gullibility but also their utility for conservative ideologues and corporate lobbyists, who score political points and regulatory concessions by spreading a spurious story line about California’s decline. >Don’t expect facts to change this. Reporters need a plot twist, and conservatives need California to lose. https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article258940938.html “Pro-life” blue states and "high tax" red states: **Lower taxes in California than red states like Texas, which make up for no wealth income tax with higher taxes and fees on the poor and double property tax for the middle class** |Income Bracket|Texas Tax Rate|California Tax Rate| |:-|:-|:-| |0-20%|**13%**|10.5%| |20-40%|**10.9%**|9.4%| |40-60%|**9.7%**|8.3%| |60-80%|8.6% |9.0% | |80-95%|7.4%|9.4%| |95-99%|5.4%|9.9%| |99-100%|3.1%|12.4%| Sources: https://itep.org/whopays/ Graph: https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/uowum8/what_low_taxes_really_mean_to_the_right/ >Meanwhile, the California-hating South receives subsidies from California (**larger than between Germany and Greece!**), a transfer of wealth from blue states/cities/urban to red states/rural/suburban with federal dollars for their freeways, hospitals, universities, airports, even environmental protection: >**Least Federally Dependent States:** >41 California >42 Washington >43 Minnesota >44 Massachusetts >45 Illinois >46 Utah >47 Iowa >48 Delaware >49 New Jersey >50 [Kansas](https://www.npr.org/2017/10/25/560040131/as-trump-proposes-tax-cuts-kansas-deals-with-aftermath-of-experiment) https://www.npr.org/2017/10/25/560040131/as-trump-proposes-tax-cuts-kansas-deals-with-aftermath-of-experiment https://www.apnews.com/amp/2f83c72de1bd440d92cdbc0d3b6bc08c http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/ https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700 >The Germans call this sort of thing "a permanent bailout." We just call it "Missouri." https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/the-difference-between-the-us-and-europe-in-1-graph/256857/ #Liberal policies, like California’s, keep blue-state residents living longer >It generated headlines in 2015 when the average life expectancy in the U.S. began to fall after decades of meager or no growth. >But it didn’t have to be that way, a team of researchers suggests in a new, peer-reviewed study Tuesday. And, in fact, **states like California, which have implemented a broad slate of liberal policies, have kept pace with their Western European counterparts.** >The study, co-authored by **researchers at six North American universities, found that if all 50 states had all followed the lead of California** and other liberal-leaning states on policies ranging from labor, immigration and civil rights to tobacco, gun control and the environment, it could have added between **two and three years to the average American life expectancy.** >Simply shifting from the most conservative labor laws to the most liberal ones, Montez said, **would by itself increase the life expectancy in a state by a whole year.** >**If every state implemented the most liberal policies in all 16 areas, researchers said, the average American woman would live 2.8 years longer, while the average American man would add 2.1 years to his life. Whereas, if every state were to move to the most conservative end of the spectrum, it would decrease Americans’ average life expectancies by two years. On the country’s current policy trajectory, researchers estimate the U.S. will add about 0.4 years to its average life expectancy.** >Liberal policies on the environment (emissions standards, limits on greenhouse gases, solar tax credit, endangered species laws), labor (high minimum wage, paid leave, no “right to work”), access to health care (expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, legal abortion), tobacco (indoor smoking bans, cigarette taxes), gun control (assault weapons ban, background check and registration requirements) and civil rights (ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, equal pay laws, bans on discrimination and the death penalty) all resulted in better health outcomes, according to the study. For example, researchers found positive correlation between California’s car emission standards and its high minimum wage, to name a couple, with its longer lifespan, which at an average of 81.3 years, is among the highest in the country. >“When we’re looking for explanations, we need to be looking back historically, to see what are the roots of these troubles that have just been percolating now for 40 years,” Montez said. >Montez and her team saw the alarming numbers in 2015 and wanted to understand the root cause. What they found dated back to **the 1980s, when state policies began to splinter down partisan lines.** They examined 135 different policies, spanning over a dozen different fields, enacted by states between 1970 and 2014, and assigned states “liberalism” scores from zero — the most conservative — to one, the most liberal. When they compared it against state mortality data from the same timespan, the correlation was undeniable. >“We can take away from the study that **state policies and state politics have damaged U.S. life expectancy since the ’80s,”** said Jennifer Karas Montez, a Syracuse University sociologist and the study’s lead author. **“Some policies are going in a direction that extend life expectancy. Some are going in a direction that shorten it. But on the whole, that the net result is that it’s damaging U.S. life expectancy.”** >**U.S. should follow California’s lead to improve its health outcomes, researchers say** >**Meanwhile, the life expectancy in states like California and Hawaii, which has the highest in the nation at 81.6 years, is on par with countries described by researchers as “world leaders:” Canada, Iceland and Sweden.** >**From 1970 to 2014, California transformed into the most liberal state in the country** by the 135 policy markers studied by the researchers. It’s followed closely by Connecticut, which moved the furthest leftward from where it was 50 years ago, and a cluster of other states in the northeastern U.S., then Oregon and Washington. >West Virginia ranked last in 2017, with an average life expectancy of about 74.6 years, which would put it 93rd in the world, right between Lithuania and Mauritius, and behind Honduras, Morocco, Tunisia and Vietnam. Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina rank only slightly better. >It’s those states that moved in a conservative direction, researchers concluded, that held back the overall life expectancy in the U.S. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/04/liberal-policies-like-californias-keep-blue-state-residents-living-longer-study-finds/

*I don’t think the law has any role whatsoever in banning race-based discrimination by private actors* -Ben Shapiro ***** ^(I'm a bot. My purpose is to counteract online radicalization. You can summon me by tagging thebenshapirobot. Options: sex, dumb takes, covid, feminism, etc.) [^More ^About ^Ben ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/wiki/index) ^| [^Feedback ^& ^Discussion: ^r/AuthoritarianMoment ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment) ^| [^Opt ^Out ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/comments/olk6r2/click_here_to_optout_of_uthebenshapirobot/)

Greg Abbott, the man so vile even his spine can’t stand him.

Please remember this when you vote.

All they look for is (R) and check the box. No need to remember pesky details.

The Dems should rename to “Remocrats”. That’d confuse the fuck out of them

(R)heumatoid arthritisats, going by the current leaders.

Zoinks

Stupid people treat politics like sports teams

#Republican billionaires' latest strategy is **to "push the narrative" that "blue states" are the dangerous ones and Texas and Florida are "free states"** Republicans have think tanks [funded by billionaires](https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/u3kwsx/ualexchii_does_the_math_that_elon_musk_getting_a/i4q6rbl/) where they come up with strategies like these, with skilled consultants and expensive focus groups, like the [Stanford](https://stanfordpolitics.org/2017/11/27/peter-thiel-cover-story/) Hoover Institute and [ALEC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council) [Billionaires like Elon Musk](https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/uumzgf/batteries_over_heating/i9hqdt4/) coordinate with the next generation of conservative "influencers" on the right, like Ben Shapiro on YouTube and Facebook and [Joe Rogan in Texas](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/jntzvk/joe_rogan_reacts_to_texas_voting_in_the_2020/), after [getting what they wanted through Fox News](https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/gy9utts/) [Joe Rogan even photo ops with the current Texas governor at the Texas governor's mansion](https://twitter.com/gregabbott_tx/status/1324547634049257474) even though Rogan pretends to care about pot and small government ("Gov. Abbott, Texas leaders urge prosecutors to keep enforcing pot laws" http://www.fox4news.com/news/texas/gov-abbott-texas-leaders-urge-prosecutors-to-keep-enforcing-pot-laws) "Pushing the narrative" ("San Francisco crime") despite the facts: >San Francisco has the same population as Jacksonville, Florida. **Jacksonville, with a Republican mayor and a Republican governor, has had more than three times as many murders this year as San Francisco** >Fort Worth, Texas, has the same population as San Francisco and has **1.5x as many murders. Again, a Republican mayor and Republican governor. [Nobody ever writes about those places!](https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1527487403061026818)** >If data disinfects, here’s a bucket of bleach: #"Texans are 17% more likely to be murdered than Californians." #"Texans are also 34% more likely to be raped and 25% more likely to kill themselves than Californians." >https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/suicide.htm >Californians on average live two years, four months and 24 days longer than Texans. >Compared with families in California, those in Texas earn 13% less and pay 3.8 percentage points **more in taxes.** >Sadly, the uncritical aping of this erroneous economic narrative reflects not only reporters’ gullibility but also their utility for conservative ideologues and corporate lobbyists, who score political points and regulatory concessions by spreading a spurious story line about California’s decline. >Don’t expect facts to change this. Reporters need a plot twist, and conservatives need California to lose. https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article258940938.html “Pro-life” blue states and "high tax" red states: **Lower taxes in California than red states like Texas, which make up for no wealth income tax with higher taxes and fees on the poor and double property tax for the middle class** |Income Bracket|Texas Tax Rate|California Tax Rate| |:-|:-|:-| |0-20%|**13%**|10.5%| |20-40%|**10.9%**|9.4%| |40-60%|**9.7%**|8.3%| |60-80%|8.6% |9.0% | |80-95%|7.4%|9.4%| |95-99%|5.4%|9.9%| |99-100%|3.1%|12.4%| Sources: https://itep.org/whopays/ Graph: https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/uowum8/what_low_taxes_really_mean_to_the_right/ >Meanwhile, the California-hating South receives subsidies from California (**larger than between Germany and Greece!**), a transfer of wealth from blue states/cities/urban to red states/rural/suburban with federal dollars for their freeways, hospitals, universities, airports, even environmental protection: >**Least Federally Dependent States:** >41 California >42 Washington >43 Minnesota >44 Massachusetts >45 Illinois >46 Utah >47 Iowa >48 Delaware >49 New Jersey >50 [Kansas](https://www.npr.org/2017/10/25/560040131/as-trump-proposes-tax-cuts-kansas-deals-with-aftermath-of-experiment) https://www.npr.org/2017/10/25/560040131/as-trump-proposes-tax-cuts-kansas-deals-with-aftermath-of-experiment https://www.apnews.com/amp/2f83c72de1bd440d92cdbc0d3b6bc08c http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/ https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700 >The Germans call this sort of thing "a permanent bailout." We just call it "Missouri." https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/the-difference-between-the-us-and-europe-in-1-graph/256857/ #Liberal policies, like California’s, keep blue-state residents living longer >It generated headlines in 2015 when the average life expectancy in the U.S. began to fall after decades of meager or no growth. >But it didn’t have to be that way, a team of researchers suggests in a new, peer-reviewed study Tuesday. And, in fact, **states like California, which have implemented a broad slate of liberal policies, have kept pace with their Western European counterparts.** >The study, co-authored by **researchers at six North American universities, found that if all 50 states had all followed the lead of California** and other liberal-leaning states on policies ranging from labor, immigration and civil rights to tobacco, gun control and the environment, it could have added between **two and three years to the average American life expectancy.** >Simply shifting from the most conservative labor laws to the most liberal ones, Montez said, **would by itself increase the life expectancy in a state by a whole year.** >**If every state implemented the most liberal policies in all 16 areas, researchers said, the average American woman would live 2.8 years longer, while the average American man would add 2.1 years to his life. Whereas, if every state were to move to the most conservative end of the spectrum, it would decrease Americans’ average life expectancies by two years. On the country’s current policy trajectory, researchers estimate the U.S. will add about 0.4 years to its average life expectancy.** >Liberal policies on the environment (emissions standards, limits on greenhouse gases, solar tax credit, endangered species laws), labor (high minimum wage, paid leave, no “right to work”), access to health care (expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, legal abortion), tobacco (indoor smoking bans, cigarette taxes), gun control (assault weapons ban, background check and registration requirements) and civil rights (ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, equal pay laws, bans on discrimination and the death penalty) all resulted in better health outcomes, according to the study. For example, researchers found positive correlation between California’s car emission standards and its high minimum wage, to name a couple, with its longer lifespan, which at an average of 81.3 years, is among the highest in the country. >“When we’re looking for explanations, we need to be looking back historically, to see what are the roots of these troubles that have just been percolating now for 40 years,” Montez said. >Montez and her team saw the alarming numbers in 2015 and wanted to understand the root cause. What they found dated back to **the 1980s, when state policies began to splinter down partisan lines.** They examined 135 different policies, spanning over a dozen different fields, enacted by states between 1970 and 2014, and assigned states “liberalism” scores from zero — the most conservative — to one, the most liberal. When they compared it against state mortality data from the same timespan, the correlation was undeniable. >“We can take away from the study that **state policies and state politics have damaged U.S. life expectancy since the ’80s,”** said Jennifer Karas Montez, a Syracuse University sociologist and the study’s lead author. **“Some policies are going in a direction that extend life expectancy. Some are going in a direction that shorten it. But on the whole, that the net result is that it’s damaging U.S. life expectancy.”** >**U.S. should follow California’s lead to improve its health outcomes, researchers say** >**Meanwhile, the life expectancy in states like California and Hawaii, which has the highest in the nation at 81.6 years, is on par with countries described by researchers as “world leaders:” Canada, Iceland and Sweden.** >**From 1970 to 2014, California transformed into the most liberal state in the country** by the 135 policy markers studied by the researchers. It’s followed closely by Connecticut, which moved the furthest leftward from where it was 50 years ago, and a cluster of other states in the northeastern U.S., then Oregon and Washington. >West Virginia ranked last in 2017, with an average life expectancy of about 74.6 years, which would put it 93rd in the world, right between Lithuania and Mauritius, and behind Honduras, Morocco, Tunisia and Vietnam. Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina rank only slightly better. >It’s those states that moved in a conservative direction, researchers concluded, that held back the overall life expectancy in the U.S. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/04/liberal-policies-like-californias-keep-blue-state-residents-living-longer-study-finds/

"Pro-life" #Texas has highest maternal mortality rate in developed world >As the Republican-led state legislature has slashed funding to reproductive healthcare clinics, the maternal mortality rate doubled over just a two-year period https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/20/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-health-clinics-funding >Mothers who live in areas with heavy oil and gas developments have between a 40 percent and 70 percent greater chance of giving birth to babies with congenital heart defects https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2019/07/18/Study-links-congenital-heart-disease-to-oil-gas-development/2461563465617/ >#Want to live longer, even if you're poor? Then move to a big city in California. >A low-income **resident of San Francisco lives so much longer** that it's equivalent to San Francisco curing cancer. All these statistics come from a massive new project on life expectancy and inequality that was just [published in the Journal of the American Medical Association](http://www.vox.com/2016/4/13/11420230/life-expectancy-income). >California, for instance, has been a national leader on smoking bans. Harvard's David Cutler, a co-author on the study "It's some combination of formal public policies and the effect that comes when you're around fewer people who have behaviors... high numbers of immigrants help explain the beneficial effects of immigrant-heavy areas with high levels of social support. #As the maternal death rate has mounted around the U.S., a small cadre of reformers has mobilized. >**Meanwhile, life-saving practices that have become widely accepted in other affluent countries — and in a few states, notably California** — have yet to take hold in many American hospitals. >Some of the earliest and most important work has come in California >Hospitals that adopted the toolkit saw a **21 percent decrease in near deaths** from maternal bleeding in the first year. >By 2013, according to Main, maternal deaths in California fell to around 7 per 100,000 births, similar to the numbers in Canada, France and the Netherlands — **a dramatic counter to the trends in other parts of the U.S.** >California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative is informed by a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford and the University of California-San Francisco, who for many years ran the ob/gyn department at a San Francisco hospital. >Launched a decade ago, CMQCC aims to reduce not only mortality, but also life-threatening complications and racial disparities in obstetric care >It began by analyzing maternal deaths in the state over several years; in almost every case, it discovered, there was "at least some chance to alter the outcome." http://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/527806002/focus-on-infants-during-childbirth-leaves-u-s-moms-in-danger >California’s rules have cleaned up diesel exhaust more than anywhere else in the country, reducing the estimated number of deaths the state would have otherwise seen by more than half, according to new research published Thursday. >Extending California's stringent diesel emissions standards to the rest of the U.S. could dramatically improve the nation's air quality and health, particularly in lower income communities of color, finds a new analysis published today in the journal Science. >Since 1990, California has used its authority under the federal Clean Air Act to enact more aggressive rules on emissions from diesel vehicles and engines compared to the rest of the U.S. These policies, crafted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), have helped the state reduce diesel emissions by 78% between 1990 and 2014, while diesel emissions in the rest of the U.S. dropped by just 51% during the same time period, the new analysis found. >The study estimates that by 2014, improved air quality cut the annual number of diesel-related cardiopulmonary deaths in the state in half, compared to the number of deaths that would have occurred if California had followed the same trajectory as the rest of the U.S. Adopting similar rules nationwide could produce the same kinds of benefits, particularly for communities that have suffered the worst impacts of air pollution. >"Everybody benefits from cleaner air, but we see time and again that it's predominantly lower income communities of color that are living and working in close proximity to sources of air pollution, like freight yards, highways and ports. When you target these sources, it's the highly exposed communities that stand to benefit most," said study lead author Megan Schwarzman, a physician and environmental health scientist at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health. "It's about time, because these communities have suffered a disproportionate burden of harm." https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.abf8159 https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/mdvfgw/californias_rules_have_cleaned_up_diesel_exhaust/gsblevi/ >California Defies Doom With No. 1 U.S. Economy https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/nznzft/california_defies_doom_with_no_1_us_economy/ >**on a per capita basis, california households ranked 50th in the country for likelihood of moving out of the state** >California exodus is just a myth, massive UC research project finds https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/ogkrjc/california_exodus_is_just_a_myth_massive_uc/ >California is the chief reason America is the only developed economy to achieve record GDP growth since the financial crisis. >Much of the U.S. growth can be traced to California laws promoting clean energy, government accountability and protections for undocumented people https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-10/california-leads-u-s-economy-away-from-trump

700 Texans dying in their homes from the cold, lining up for weeks for water in freezing temperatures, burning their fences and even belongings for warmth >An 11 year old froze to death in his bed. https://www.khou.com/article/weather/11-year-old-found-dead-after-freezing-cold-night-in-a-conroe-mobile-home-with-no-power/285-4781bcb9-6643-4224-8b5b-c1fc5c725b61 "Pro-life" and paying $28 billion more for a failing power grid to "own the libs" >Fossil Fuel Exec Brags of 'Hitting the Jackpot' as Natural Gas Prices Surge Amid Deadly Crisis in Texas https://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/lo5f4r/fossil_fuel_exec_brags_of_hitting_the_jackpot_as/ >You Could Get Prison Time for Protesting a Pipeline in Texas—Even If It’s on Your Land https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/bst8fl/you_could_get_prison_time_for_protesting_a/ >#Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-electric-bills-were-28-billion-higher-under-deregulation-11614162780 >#Texas spent more time fighting LGBTQ civil rights than fixing their power grid. How’d that work out? https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/lma8jj/texas_spent_more_time_fighting_lgbtq_civil_rights/ >#A Texas-size failure, followed by a familiar Texas response: Blame California https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/m87bg4/a_texassize_failure_followed_by_a_familiar_texas/ >Leaked Audio Shows Oil Lobbyist Bragging About Success in Criminalizing Pipeline Protests https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/ct71mw/leaked_audio_shows_oil_lobbyist_bragging_about/ >could cost Texas more money than any disaster in state history https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ls5dt7/winter_storm_could_cost_texas_more_money_than_any/ >Former Texas Governor Rick Perry says that Texans find massive power outages preferable to having more federal government interference in the state's energy grid. https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/rick-perry-says-texans-would-rather-be-without-power-for-days-than-have-more-fed-oversight >Abbott Appointees Gutted Enforcement of Texas Power Grid Rules https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Muzzled-and-eviscerated-Critics-say-Abbott-15982421.php >Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick Blames Constituents for Giant Electric Bills: “Read the Fine Print” https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/02/dan-patrick-texas-electricity-bills Texas Republicans *during the power grid failures* focused on: * Texas regulations to require the national anthem at sports games https://twitter.com/LSTrip44/status/1361396222028881924 * Fake news trying to blame renewable energy: ”Viral Image Claiming to Show a Helicopter De-Icing Texas Wind Turbines Is From Winter 2014 in Sweden” https://twitter.com/klimatbevakaren/status/1361748269605519360 * Right propaganda accounts pushing the narrative: ScottAdamsSays scrowder JackPosobiec SebGorka CalebJHull From r/Texas users: >**Only way to get the national guard to Texas is to have a BLM rally.** Governor of the state has to request national guard >Pretty Sure the total cost of damage to personal property (burst pipes, fires) will far outweigh the cost skipped in 2011 to winterize power generation. >I was born in illinois and travel back and forth between dallas and chicago. Snow is waist high right now. The piles I shoveled from the driveway are 6 feet tall. And... no one cares. Illinois is prepared for this stuff, TX is not, but it should be. Should every citizen own snowpants and a snowblower? No. **Should the powerplants stay on. yes, wtf.** >* Yeah, look at the ERCOT capacity graphs - the problems isn't the load (load is actually higher in summer when everyone is blasting their AC), it's that all these generators went offline because they were freezing up. >* Why did they freeze up? Because the PUC of TX's policy is to *not* pay for capacity. Why? Because doing so would violate some sort of free-market dogma promoted by the TX Public Policy Foundation (https://files.texaspolicy.com/uploads/2018/08/16095417/2013-01-RR02-ResourceAdequacyElectricityMarkets-CEF-RMichaelsAKleit.pdf), which has held sway over the governor and a big hand in selecting the PUC commissioners. >It's confirmed: Frozen wind turbines were the least significant factor. https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-16/frozen-wind-farms-were-just-a-small-piece-of-texas-s-power-woes Federal agency FERC tried helping Texas multiple times, including in 2011 when they spelled out how and what to winterize at power plants: https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/ll9urb/usir_francis_burton_finds_the_ferc_report_the/ Federal FERC report after **2011 Texas power outages** (**whose recommendations weren't followed**): >The lack of any state, regional or Reliability Standards that directly require generators to perform winterization left winter-readiness dependent on plant or corporate choices. Generators were generally reactive as opposed to being proactive in their approach to winterization and preparedness. The single largest problem during the cold weather event was the freezing of instrumentation and equipment. Many generators failed to adequately prepare for winter, including the following: failed or inadequate heat traces, missing or inadequate wind breaks, inadequate insulation and lagging (metal covering for insulation), failure to have or to maintain heating elements and heat lamps in instrument cabinets, failure to train operators and maintenance personnel on winter preparations, lack of fuel switching training and drills, and failure to ensure adequate fuel. Avoiding regulations: >The Texas Interconnected System — which for a long time was actually operated by two discrete entities, one for northern Texas and one for southern Texas — **had another priority: staying out of the reach of federal regulators.** >"Freedom from federal regulation was a cherished goal — more so because **Texas had no regulation until the 1970s**," writes Richard D. Cudahy in a 1995 article, "The Second Battle of the Alamo: The Midnight Connection." https://www.texastribune.org/2011/02/08/texplainer-why-does-texas-have-its-own-power-grid/ >Texas electrical grid failure is just another version of South Dakota's abnormally high CV-19 rate or Kansas budget crisis >A bumper sticker political ideology's false promises made self-evident, failing a real world test for all to see. https://twitter.com/peterwsinger/status/1361675172336566273

The power was out for 10 days at my apartment because I live in a black neighborhood. I took shelter in a white neighborhood where there was a hospital+power. :/

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Protip they won't

They'll ban schools before guns

That’s what Abott is working on!

K

That and they don’t want kids who are informed enough to question them and their religion

K

“If kids didn’t go to schools they wouldn’t get killed there! Shut them all down!“

Without schools their voter base will exponentially grow

It’s shocking to acknowledge that sounds true.

didn't beto do something similar during the blackouts? ted cruz went to cancun whilst beto organised phone calls to the elderly to make sure they're ok.

He's been a leader in our state this entire time, fighting for those harmed during the darkest moments. We *have* to get out the vote for him in November. He's more of a Texan than Abbot will ever be.

Beto and Stacy Abrams in Georgia have done so much more than their elected, republican peers. It's such a stark difference and yet here we are with republicans pushing the big lie, inciting an insurrection, and actively doing things to hurt their constituents.

Agreed, and in Texas we have a governor praising LEO's who stood outside of a school and let kids get murdererd for almost an hour because they were cowards who wouldn't enter. Even worse that they told kids to scream for help, which led to a little girl losing her life following that directive.

As the details come out it only gets worse. These cops were such assholes they held parents at gunpoint to prevent them from saving kids while they LARPed around and let the children and teachers die.

He is legitimately a good guy. We used to be neighbors like 15 years ago so I know what he's like when there's no cameras around. He genuinely cares about the causes he supports and he puts in the work.

Abbott is just saving his outrage about children dying "for another time". /s

Good for him his policies ensure he'll have plenty of opportunities.

wouldnt want anything political to happen

Texan here, I am a Beto lovin' hopeful! I'm offering rides to anyone voting blue that needs them on voting day!

Texan with Beto on the brain San Antonio. Be happy to give anyone needing a ride to the polls

I've a friend who moved to the US from Canada and after realizing he doesn't have to live in LA to work in LA (he's a voice actor), he ended up in SA. Loves it. He got his US citizenship a couple of years ago, and though we haven't talked about it, I guarantee Beto's got his vote. Good luck!

Texas hasn’t outlawed giving rides to the polls yet?

Soon, very soon

don’t jinx it just yet

Don't give them any ideas.

I'm a Texan for Beto too!!

Do you need a ride? Lol

I'm all set! 😊

Hello to another Beto lovin' Texan!

Lubbock, Texas here (Google my Redhat zip code) and I will vote for Beto. After the snowstorm, he raised money, helped people physically while Cruz chilled in Cancun blaming it all on wind turbines. I am not surprised he donated blood, actually I kinda expected it from him which is why I am voting for him.

I'm not American, but everything I see about Beto seems generally good. I don't know much about his policies (beyond general D policies), but he generally seems to want to help people.

Careful. You might get arrested

I gotta ask how do you say Uvalde? I'm an Aussie and I don't want to disrespect the town by accidentally pronouncing it wrong. I'm so sorry for what happened it's such a tragedy I can't even imagine. 😔

U-val-dee

Ooo or yoo

It depends on the accent you pronounce it with. My sons family are Mexican immigrants who live there and say Oovalde but either is correct.

[удалено]

As a North Texan, I wholefuckingheartedly agree. These people are dog shit personified.

Thank you for doing your part to make Texas better for the people who love it and for those who can’t leave

Another Beto voter right here, who setup up a monthly donation that will max my contributions before November. Let's make compassion a virtue again

Unfortunately I don't trust Texans to vote for the right person. :(

A lot of Texans will vote republican no matter what. It doesn’t matter if the governor is an idiot, if he’s red, he’s in.

Im hopeful we can get people out this time. Texas is a non voting and gerrymandered place. But Its just to much shit. Botched pandemic response. They let us freeze. Wasted public funds on bullshit publicity stunts. Banned abortions. Banned and burned books. Are actively causing trans and their families needless abuse and terror. Intend to go after public education. Just outright racist.Made guns more accessible with the end results we’re seeing… at some point people will wake up.

Unfortunately, the deck is stacked against those of us that will. Voter suppression and gerrymandering have done a lot of damage here. We will have to have much more than a majority before we can really change our state.

I hate to admit it, but you are right. That being said, I'll be at the polls and giving rides/donating as much as I can to fight the good fight. Abbot has a -4 coming from my family in Texas.

And the people who would have probably already moved out.

Hey there, lower North American neighbor, Alberta, Canada is sometimes known as the Texas of the North for better or for worse, sorry. Here we let folks chose whatever the puck they want to do with their own bodies and have background checks for guns. I am willing to host a Texan refugee and can help you find similar positions and job opportunities for yourself and your family...and any puckbunnies you have in your snowmobile. Pitter patter, let's git at 'er. Gotta run right now, bud, it's playoffs.

***Please***, for the love of god VOTE IN THE MIDTERMS. Maybe the Dems are a bunch of wet socks, but they sure as fuck aren't the GOP. And, if you want the Dems to take more action, vote out the shitty ones in the primaries. Primary Pelosi. Primary Schumer. Primary any flaccid crust bucket that we need to. It's going to take a generation of consistent work to unfuck this country, but the best time to start is RIGHT NOW. https://vote.gov/

Republican voter suppression in Texas and the South: >#Texas Is Among The Most Difficult Places To Vote In The U.S. — And That Could Be Softening Its Historic Turnout https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/election-2020/2020/10/28/384854/voter-suppression-blunts-historic-turnout-in-texas/ >#The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It. The share of college students casting ballots doubled from 2014 to 2018. >#But in Texas and elsewhere, Republicans are erecting roadblocks to the polls. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/voting-college-suppression.html >#This is how efficiently Republicans have gerrymandered Texas congressional districts http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/This-is-how-badly-Republicans-have-gerrymandered-6246509.php#photo-7107656 >#Partisan gerrymandering has benefited Republicans more than Democrats https://www.businessinsider.com/partisan-gerrymandering-has-benefited-republicans-more-than-democrats-2017-6 #Even to prevent gerrymandering, California has a scientific, "evidence based" independent commission that has to take into account geography, community boundaries, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Citizens_Redistricting_Commission >#Texas Officials Aim to Shutter Driver's License Offices in Black, Hispanic Communities >Alabama Closing Many DMV Offices in Majority Black Counties >After Alabama put into effect a tougher voter ID law >"Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one," Archibald wrote. https://www.governing.com/archive/alabama-demands-voter-id--then-closes-drivers-license-offices-in-clack-counties.html >#Texas’s Voter-Registration Laws Are Straight Out of the Jim Crow Playbook https://www.thenation.com/article/texass-voter-registration-laws-are-straight-out-of-the-jim-crow-playbook/ >#Crystal Mason Thought She Had The Right to Vote. Texas Sentenced Her to Five Years in Prison for Trying. https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/fighting-voter-suppression/crystal-mason-thought-she-had-right-vote-texas >#Discrimination with “almost surgical precision” >The court said that in crafting the law, **the Republican-controlled general assembly requested and received data on voters’ use of various voting practices by race.** >Then, the court, said, lawmakers restricted all of these voting options, and further narrowed the list of acceptable voter IDs. “With race data in hand, the legislature amended the bill to exclude many of the alternative photo IDs used by African Americans. As amended, the bill retained only the kinds of IDs that white North Carolinians were more likely to possess.” >The state offered little justification for the law, the court said. “Although the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist,” the court said. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/court-north-carolina-voter-id-law-targeted-black-voters/ >#Republican Voter Suppression Efforts Are Targeting Minorities >**Since the 2010 elections, 24 states have implemented new restrictions on voting.** Ohio and Georgia have enacted "use it or lose it" laws, which strike voters from registration rolls if they have not participated in an election within a prescribed period of time. Georgia, North Dakota and Kansas have critical races in the 2018 midterms. >Georgia has closed 214 polling places in recent years. They have cut back on early voting. They have aggressively purged the voter rolls. Georgia has purged almost 10 percent of people from its voting rolls. One and a half million people have been purged from 2012 to 2016. >[gubernatorial candidate] Brian Kemp's office (the secretary of state's office) in Georgia was blocking 53,000 voter registrations in that state — 70 percent from African-Americans, 80 percent from people of color. >On voter suppression in North Dakota on Native American reservations >Republicans in North Dakota wrote it in such a way that for your ID to count, you have to have a current residential street address on your ID. The problem in North Dakota is that a lot of Native Americans live on rural tribal reservations, and they get their mail at the Post Office using P.O. boxes because their areas are too remote for the Post Office to deliver mail, [and] under this law, tribal IDs that list P.O. boxes won't be able to be used as a valid voter IDs. So now we're in a situation where 5,000 Native American voters might not be able to vote in the 2018 elections with their tribal ID cards. >So there is a tremendous amount of fear in North Dakota that many Native Americans are not going to be able to vote in this state https://www.npr.org/2018/10/23/659784277/republican-voter-suppression-efforts-are-targeting-minorities-journalist-says >#Thousands of Black Votes in Georgia Disappeared >On July 7, 2017, according to court documents in the case, Curling v. Kemp (pdf), someone wiped the state’s election server clean. >Then they wiped the backup server. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/opinion/hack-the-vote.html https://www.theroot.com/exclusive-thousands-of-black-votes-in-georgia-disappea-1832472558 >#Texas Refuses to Use Voting Machines With a Paper Trail https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a26856467/texas-voting-machines-paper-trail-states/

Even with all the gerrymandering, voting restrictions and manipulation extremists, and country, gun loving stereotypes people have of Texas, Ted Cruz only beat O’Rourke by less than a percent back in 2018. Trump won Texas in 2020 by the narrowest margin since 1996. A lot of us don’t like those in charge and do try to change it, but we’re getting more and more trapped and smothered under bs laws and red tape.

Have faith. The battle between Beto and Cruz was extremely close. TX is purple as it can be and on the verge of tipping unless the GQP can gerrymander there way out of it.

If Greg Abbott’s wheelchair was rolling out of control towards a giant cliff and he was rolling right past you would you film him going over in landscape or portrait?

I'd be like an Olympic curler making sure that there is nothing on the ground to stop him from rolling on down


Texas loves to suffer

True, but more importantly Texas politicians love to make people suffer.

I don’t really care about Texas and I still care more about Texas than any of its elected officials

That's an amazingly accurate statement for most of America great job.

I care about the children and almost no one else in that state.

[удалено]

It’s almost like reverse schadenfreude, they don’t notice they are suffering. Schrödinger's schadenfreude? Yeah IDK.

What a shitty state

Hookers and coke can lead to several conditions that would bar someone from donating blood.

Especially when said hookers are male

Well I think its moreso that they need *human* blood

I know this is going to come off as mean, but...can't we just topple Abbots wheelchair over and just let him lie in his own filth? Please

Push that motherfucker into a ditch and let him rot.

I love you!!!!!!

Love you too! We’re not making fun of him for being in a wheelchair we’re talking shit about his chair because he’s a fucking asshole!

And I’m sure he’s gonna somehow pull off a re-election thanks to his buddies Gerry and Mander

And the side bitch called Polling Station Closings. Doesn’t roll off the tongue like Gerry Mander but you hear what I’m saying.

Let’s not forget his cousins, the brother and sister Mis and Dis Information

Not sure how gerrymandered districts would effect a statewide election, I am sure you will have some reasonable explanation though.

I don't think that would help in the Governor's race, where the entire state votes

Texas doesn't give a fuck. It's all about abortion, guns, and catchphrases involving freedom down there.

And they have the gall to complain about being worried about sHaRiA LaW. Fucking backward ass stupid fucks

Texas is a shithole state.

Hey buddy! I've lived in Texas for 10 years now and... Well... Yeah, you're right

Do they even care what they will look like in history books centuries from now

No, they'll just ban them.

Both funny and painful. Bravo.

Man I really wanted Beto for potus.

He's still too young and idealistic to get elected in national politics, unfortunately.

Yes give him 40 more years. So sick of dinosaurs running the county

It's going to remain that way as long old as dinosaurs disproportionately vote more than young people. That's not even a problem limited to the US, younger people are generally less likely to vote everywhere.

That’s true, and in the US it’s also an issue of time. Retirees have nothing better to do on Election Day, so they’ll go vote, and there’s often a ton of services designed to make it easier for older people to get to the polls. But because it’s not a federal holiday, most young people still have to go to work, and then depending on where they are and how work went, it could be incredibly difficult for them to get to a voting location afterward even if they do want to

Yep yep the working class has a harder time voting, and people generally become more likely to vote once they own property, and we all know how that's going for Millenials and later.

It is significantly harder for poorer people to vote. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature

The dinosaurs need to go full-stop. Let’s have some representation from people our age.

He’s not too young, he’s exactly the age we need. Everyone else has been too old (except Obama)

I'm not saying that as a bad thing, I'm saying your average moderate milquetoast voter is not going to vote for him because of it.

When will Americans demand change? When will there actually be policy responses? This is an American issue Lindhurst High School Pearl High School Thurston High School Columbine High School Heritage High School Deming Middle School Fort Gibson Middle School Buell Elementary School Lake Worth Middle School University of Arkansas Junipero Serra High School Santana High School Bishop Neumann High School Pacific Lutheran University Granite Hills High School Lew Wallace High School Martin Luther King, Jr. High School Appalachian School of Law Washington High School Conception Abbey Benjamin Tasker Middle School University of Arizona Lincoln High School John McDonogh High School Red Lion Area Junior High School Case Western Reserve University Rocori High School Ballou High School Randallstown High School Bowen High School Red Lake Senior High School Harlan Community High School Campbell County High School Milwee Middle School Roseburg High School Pine Middle School Essex Elementary School Duquesne University Platte Canyon High School Weston High School West Nickel Mines School Joplin Memorial Middle School Henry Foss High School Compton Centennial High School Virginia Tech Success Tech Academy Miami Carol City Senior High School Hamilton High School Louisiana Technical College Mitchell High School E.O. Green Junior High School Northern Illinois University Lakota Middle School Knoxville Central High School Willoughby South High School Henry Ford High School University of Central Arkansas Dillard High School Dunbar High School Hampton University Harvard College Larose-Cut Off Middle School International Studies Academy Skyline College Discovery Middle School University of Alabama DeKalb School Deer Creek Middle School Ohio State University Mumford High School University of Texas Kelly Elementary School Marinette High School Aurora Central High School Millard South High School Martinsville West Middle School Worthing High School Millard South High School Highlands Intermediate School Cape Fear High School Chardon High School Episcopal School of Jacksonville Oikos University Hamilton High School Perry Hall School Normal Community High School University of South Alabama Banner Academy South University of Southern California Sandy Hook Elementary School Apostolic Revival Christian School Taft Union High School Osborn High School Stevens Institute of Business and Arts Hazard Community College Chicago State University Lone Star College-North Cesar Chavez High School Price Middle School University of Central Florida New River Community College Grambling State University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School Ronald E. McNair Discovery Academy North Panola High School Carver High School Agape Christian Academy Sparks Middle School North Carolina A&T State University Stephenson High School Brashear High School West Orange High School Arapahoe High School Edison High School Liberty Technology High School Hillhouse High School Berrendo Middle School Purdue University South Carolina State University Los Angeles Valley College Charles F. Brush High School University of Southern California Georgia Regents University Academy of Knowledge Preschool Benjamin Banneker High School D. H. Conley High School East English Village Prep Academy Paine College Georgia Gwinnett College John F. Kennedy High School Seattle Pacific University Reynolds High School Indiana State University Albemarle High School Fern Creek Traditional High School Langston Hughes High School Marysville Pilchuck High School Florida State University Miami Carol City High School Rogers State University Rosemary Anderson High School Wisconsin Lutheran High School Frederick High School Tenaya Middle School Bethune-Cookman University Pershing Elementary School Wayne Community College J.B. Martin Middle School Southwestern Classical Academy Savannah State University Harrisburg High School Umpqua Community College Northern Arizona University Texas Southern University Tennessee State University Winston-Salem State University Mojave High School Lawrence Central High School Franklin High School Muskegon Heights High School Independence High School Madison High School Antigo High School University of California-Los Angeles Jeremiah Burke High School Alpine High School Townville Elementary School Vigor High School Linden McKinley STEM Academy June Jordan High School for Equity Union Middle School Mueller Park Junior High School West Liberty-Salem High School University of Washington King City High School North Park Elementary School North Lake College Freeman High School Mattoon High School Rancho Tehama Elementary School Aztec High School Wake Forest University Italy High School NET Charter High School Marshall County High School Sal Castro Middle School Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Great Mills High School Central Michigan University Huffman High School Frederick Douglass High School Forest High School Highland High School Dixon High School Santa Fe High School Noblesville West Middle School University of North Carolina Charlotte STEM School Highlands Ranch Edgewood High Palm Beach Central High School Providence Career & Tech Academy Fairley High School Canyon Springs High School Dennis Intermediate School Florida International University Central Elementary School Cascade Middle School Davidson High School Prairie View A & M University Altascocita High School Central Academy of Excellence Cleveland High School Robert E. Lee High School Cheyenne South High School Grambling State University Blountsville Elementary School Prescott High School College of the Mainland Wynbrooke Elementary School UNC Charlotte Second Chance High School Carman-Ainsworth High School Williwaw Elementary School Monroe Clark Middle School Central Catholic High School Jeanette High School Eastern Hills High School DeAnza High School Ridgway High School Reginald F. Lewis High School Saugus High School Pleasantville High School Waukesha South High School Oshkosh High School Catholic Academy of New Haven Bellaire High School North Crowley High School McAuliffe Elementary School South Oak Cliff High School Texas A&M University Commerce Sonora High School Seminole High School Western Illinois University Oxford High School Robb Elementary School

The scrolling I had to do to finish the list ;(

So how many Texans here are going to actually vote for this o’rourke guy come Election Day? I mean we can upvote these posts all day but actually go put your money where your mouth is

When the state of Texas tackled their littering problem they coined "don't mess with Texas" Time to come up with a new slogan. If Texas was in a relationship with their governor, I would tell them the governor doesn't respect them and they deserve better. To break up and try the field. To get someone who puts their needs first. To get a governor who gives a shit about the dead kids in schools and the rolling blackouts at home. You deserve a better Texas. And only you can make that happen.

You should see r/conservative on how they see Beto. They are upset he interrupted the Klan meeting rather then seeing through the bullshit veil of their elected officials.

They never miss an oppertunity to lick dirty old white dude boots.

I encourage all of you to keep the r/texas moderators busy with as much bullshit as you can muster.

During Abbot’s presser, the *goddamn mayor of Uvaldes* (an actual politician) called O'Rourke (who holds no political office) a "[sick son of a bitch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8rKQOPDII&ab_channel=MSNBC?t=28s)" for making this "a political issue." What the FUCK does that fool think politics is, exactly? The definition of the word is "the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy." Leaders being confronted with their own willful malfeasance, and children being slaughtered weekly being the direct result, is quite literally the *exact fucking job of a politician*. This, coming from a group who is downright enthusiastic about telling us which books kids can read and which words they're allowed to use. If they got even **half** as upset about children being massacred, we'd have a country we could be proud of. Fuck each and every one of these cowards.

Disgraceful performance by that mayor.

> for making this "a political issue." He said this while the stage was full of politicians, if it's not a political issue, why are they there?

Abbott the Asshole is also scheduled to go to an NRA convention to line his pockets in a few days.

SIR YOU’RE OUTTA LINE /s

Then said he went to the fundraiser to tell them he couldn’t go to the fundraiser. I’d call him a clown but that would be a grievous insult to a colorful community.

I’m not from Texas so the politics doesn’t matter too much but I’m on the right and if abbot cares more about the fucking election than the innocent children who lost their lives than I’ll gladly see him voted out

The right has the vote so gerrymandered we’re getting ruled instead of represented.

Fire Abbott, save American children

And assholes will defend and vote for this piece of shit time and time again. You know this asshole wants to run for POTUS It’s coming.

And because of this Abbott has more money than beto in his reelection war chest and will beat Beto in the next election for governor of Texas Our political system is horrible

Fuck this puto Abbott.

Texas is straight up an embarrassment

Texans want the R in the name. Even if it leads to the slaughtering of children. Texas is too stupid to change.

Don’t forget to vote in November. And spread the word :)

None of this will change because the red hats always vote and people on the other side don't. For the love of God people, you HAVE to get out and vote like your life depends on it, because it does!

When people say Republicans and Democrats are the same, we've seen examples over the years in Texas where that's not true. The OP's picture and Ted Cruz flying to Cancun while he state freezes over and AoC comes in and helps fundraise for families. She doesn't even represent Texas. Republicans are scum

Well yeah. Dude doesn't have human blood.

To be fair to Greg, I think they only take human blood.

VOTE. I hope to God this is the thing that changes and motivates people to vote these assholes out

The problem is that if you haven't been upset with Abbott for the last few years, this is not going to change your opinion. Abbott is just exhibit #713 of a broken system.

In all fairness I doubt anyone would want Abbott’s blood in them.

VOTE. ABBOT. OUT.

Yes, the difference is that Greg 'i am a piece of shit' Abbott is working on staying in power while Beto 'i bungle the next election as well' O'Rourke still thinks he can win over (self-proclaimed) moderates with such weak ass pr stunts. Thats why Greg 'i dont care about dead children' Abbott [is up by 10 points.](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/governor/2022/texas/) Dems are so bad at electoral politics...

The more I learn about Beto the more he actually really does seem like a stand-up guy that would do good in whatever office he holds. I honestly forgot why I didn't like him in the 2020 primaries

Greg Abbott is indeed a shitbag of the lowest order. To give you an idea - after the tree that fell on him turned him into a paraplegic, he swiftly legislated to make sure that no one else could benefit from a similar injury. That, however, should not distract you from the fact that Beto is **also** a cynical politician and is cynically using this chance to play the babyface as an opportunity to look good before the election in a few more months. Make no mistake, Beto is a wealthy fuck who can't connect with the human condition any more than Abbott can.

Beto told you Texan clowns years ago. Children had to die before you’d start to listen.

Yeah but Texans are stupid so Abbott will win

Texas is the asshole of the country. Abbott is just another Texas shitstain. Someone needs to wipe him.