Texas Democrats in the state legislature denied its speaker a legislative quorum Monday by leaving the state, forestalling plans proposed by the White House to redistrict Texas’s congressional lines to more greatly favor Republicans.
Democrats hold 62 of the 150 seats in the legislature’s lower chamber, so as long as at least 51 members remain out of Austin, the Texas legislature cannot move forward with any votes, including a plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps to give Republicans five more seats in Congress.
In an extraordinary escalation, the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, said he he had ordered the Texas department of public safety to “locate, arrest and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans”
Note that last part. That’s why they went to a different State. Texas law enforcement has no jurisdiction outside Texas.
Quick question: What condition is the Rule of Law in the United States right now?
Do you honestly think jurisdiction has any meaning to a rising fascist oligarchy?
But here you tut-tut ‘But it’s illllleeeeeegaaaaaallll!’ when that has NEVER stopped fascists before
Texas isn’t going to be sending their police to Illinois to kidnap people and then traffic them across State lines without Illinois law enforcement at least getting in the way.
Man I wish I was as confident of that as you seem to be. I would have said three quarters of the shit that’s happened in the USA in the past five years would never happen, and then it did.
No but they sure as fuck will stochastic terrorism the MAGA cultbase into action and who the fuck knows then
It’s pretty funny to see so many good-intentioned people parroting the “Everything’s fine, this is normal, trust the rule of law” when it hasn’t been for almost a decade now
Oh my Surely you don’t expect our brave and in absolutely no way fascist supporting police departments to, you know, just step aside like they did during Jan6? How naive of you! I bet you even think we are heading towards civil war! How droll and amusing!
This is how you sound to me. Pigs almost unilaterally support the president as a quasi-religious figure and you somehow think that the state they are stationed in affects their loyalty?
Can you honestly tell me with no doubt that if a van of Proud Boys showed up at the hotel where the reps are being housed, that the cops would do anything but assist?
When are you people going to realize that the coup is over, he HAS the military, he HAS the police, he HAS the judiciary, the executive, AND congress.
The rule of law has been absent since his inauguration and you people STILL insist that propriety will save us
No wonder we fell so hard and quick, half the fucking people who should be fighting fascism is telling the other half ACTUALLY fighting that ‘everything is fine’.
Stop
Counter: You can bet on pigs fighting over “juris-my-dick-tion” crap.
Say I have one of these legislators in my living room right now and Texas Rangers show up. I’m calling the county cops, and they will not be fucking amused to find Texas cops on their turf, hassling “their” citizens.
Also, consider that cops mainly fall on the “lawful” side of the alignment chart. They’re sticklers for chain of command and paperwork and procedure. In my made-up scenario, the Rangers would have to present some sort of legal justification or the county cops would tell 'em to get fucked. Can you imagine a county pig explaining to his boss, the sheriff pig, “Meh. They rolled up. What are you gonna do?”
Think cops are bad when civilians challenge their authority? Imagine them meekly rolling over for out-of-state cops. Their collective testosterone would boil. Every cop in the fucking county would roll out to back the locals. Only men they’d roll over to would be soldiers, and even then they would want paperwork for CYA.
tl;dr: turf war
If there is any sort of legal justification for this, yeah, they gonna cooperate, but I cannot see how Abbot gets away with this.
But I get your rage and I share it! Yes, the rule of law is now too weak to protect us. Yes, it will get worse and worse. No, this is not fine.
“Go arrest those lawmakers resisting fascistic takeover so we can continue fascistic takeovering or I’ll do something really bad! … SHUT UP YOU’RE CRYING!!!”
Every time we minimize the danger by infantilizing them, we just make ourselves less capable of addressing them directly.
This isn’t a child throwing a tantrum, this is a fascist autocrat coalescing his power base and the fact you treat it so flippantly is exactly the kind of thing that brought them to power.
Either take this shit seriously or step aside, these are not normal times.
Easy on the friendly fire there, hoss. I’ve been saying this is a fascist takeover and taking it very seriously since way before the election. It’s ok to blow off steam sometimes.
And yes, there is a bit of temper tantruming happening when the fascist pricks don’t get there way. Mock them when it happens, because mockery shows others that these people are not to be respected as rational adults.
Oh I just say your home instance, makes a lot of sense now.
Sure wish blocking your instance meant I didn’t have to deal with any of you fashy bots.
Guess I have to do it manually.
This…is not coherent.
Glad you’re taking the horrid shit seriously though. Thanks for that.
Can’t this state just declare independence and leave the union? We got enough states that will vote for this. Let’s put this up in congress. Get them the fuck outta here. Take Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma with you.
I want this so bad
You really have no idea how inhumanely bloody a civil war would be right now
They are asking for an India style peaceful division.
Still a horrendous tragedy, but without the armies trying to kill each other.
Not every Christian is a conservative, but you don’t care because your mom wouldn’t let you bring your 3ds to church on sundays
- Wut
- I didn’t make this map
- I don’t think anyone thinks that, but that doesn’t invalidate the fact that Christianity (especially evangelical) is highly correlated with one political party in the US, and it’s spatially heterogeneous
Christianity (especially evangelical) is highly correlated with one political party in the US
Now here is where I get righteously angry.
Conservative Christians make up roughly 20% of the Christian population. I know you don’t believe this or really understand the implication
You have been lied to by the media’s constant portrayal of the worst aspects of Christianity, as well as you and your friends memery. The majority of Christians are not conservative, so saying Christianity and parenthesizing ‘especially evangelicals’ implies the opposite.
The problem is none of you ever bother to think about the Christians living quiet lives and trying to be like our savior because ONE FUCKNUGGET gets on the news with a ‘god hats fags’ sign has gotten all of your attention.
There’s really no point in discussing any of this, atheism is a cultural disease, not an individual choice.
Ok…
Again… no one is saying that 100% of Christians are anything.
Every single conservative Christian votes trump because they are conservative, not because they are Christian
They then build grand justifications in their head independent of all facts that align their conservative vote with their Christian framework. It is so funny to watch them justify the actions of a pedophile rapist who spits on everything Jesus taught.
The thing is, not every non-conservative Christian votes, and not everyone votes Democrat.
So even though we are 80% of the population of Christians, we make up less than 40% of Christian voters
The thing is, only 27% of the population identifies as a conservative Christian, with the total population being around 64%, meaning 37% of non-conservative Christians outnumber conservative Christians
but most vote 3rd party or don’t vote at all
I don’t really blame cheetolini’s supporters, they don’t really have conscious thought and just follow whoever is the biggest and loudest on the repugnican ticket
I really blame never-Harris progressives, non-voters, and 3rd party voters of which the majority of remaining Christians are.
I on the other hand am a blue voting theistic Christian and I"m done with being treated like shit by the rest of you progressives
If 27% of Americans identify as conservative Christians, and 64% are Christian, that means 42% of Christians are conservative, not 20%…
I feel like blue states should secede rather than hoping that red states do. Why would they leave the system that benefits them?
HELL NO it’s our fucking country, fuck fascists they get NOTHING
Good luck with that
I don’t need luck, I have a rural cabin, 2 years worth of food stocked, and plenty of firearms and ammo
Honestly I’m much more worried for the rest of the world when our fascist government decides to get expansionist
Do you honestly think they will stop at Greenland?
The US didn’t even start with Greenland it has been imperialist since its inception.
Saying stupid things like this are the reason progressives will never be taken seriously in American politics again.
Thanks for ruining our future.
All I’ve ever wanted was to ruin the future of America I’m so happy
Ah yes, it’s the progressives fault.
The red states would just invade their neighbors or something catastrophically stupid. Conservatives should not be left alone. They are bad people that need to be removed from power.
Nah, just withhold their Federal tax payments.
Probably right. Would be an easier vote too, more red states would vote to kick out blue states.
There really isn’t such a thing as red and blue states, mostly.
Oklahoma is the only solid red state, and Mass is the only blue.
Wiki definition: ““red state” and “blue state” have referred to US states whose voters vote predominantly for one party”
Doesn’t have anything to do with the colours on a map
Sure they can but they also know it will collapse their economy
But they’ll rattle that saber all the time thinking we actually want them to stay
So what’s the end game for democrats on this? Stay away forever, or at least until the 2026 midterms are over? Get Abbott to pinky swear that they’ve abandoned redistricting and then return? I recognize that they don’t have a lot of power here and few options, but I don’t see preventing a quorum as a viable strategy for any length of time.
Oregon Republicans did it and stalled any legislation from being passed for most of a session. For the Tx Dems, I hope that is long enough…
They’re democrats. Just enough of them will limp back into the office so republicans can pass this within a week.
most likely correct about that, given their performance so far
i think there is a deadline since this a special session. texas legislature is part time
Abbott has consistently shown that he will call unending special sessions over and over again. He uses it is a weapon really. To beat down and out last opponents of his agenda.
Hope that Abbot dies? Other republicans grow a soul? Good questions
The real answer to our fascism infection will not be through legal recourse
In all of human history only two fascist regimes have ever given up power peacefully, and I guarantee you that won’t happen here
Which two?
Spain and Portugal
Spain when Franco’s appointed successor Juan Carlos dismantled the regime after Franco’s death
Portugal during the Carnation Revolution of 74, was remarkably bloodless
Well we’re definitely fucked, then.
I didn’t want to go the blood route, but if that’s what it takes to stop evil men…
yeah, get out of the country if you can, they’re going to close the borders before too long just like every fascist regime
If you can’t, get a firearm, if you already have one, practice with it weekly
