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Posted
42 minutes ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Absolutely bizarre how often I hear Republicans claim they are against Corporate Welfare and sweetheart tax breaks that never seem to create the number of jobs they claim they will, but then they go and trip all over themselves to vote for it in the Texas House...

I have absolutely no fucking idea what is trying to be conveyed in that tweet.

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Posted
43 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I didn't realize that companies moving to Texas and getting tax breaks like Elon Musk's Tesla were "woke."  Or maybe this is an example of when idiots interject the term "woke" into something they think they're not supposed to like.

4 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

I have absolutely no fucking idea what is trying to be conveyed in that tweet.

Anytime anybody around me says "woke" I ask them to define it and give me three examples.  Everybody reading this should do that.

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Posted
38 minutes ago, Pancho said:

 

Hm I don’t find it funny. But I guess you had to be there. But then you might get sexually assaulted by Rep Slanton. So maybe I’m fine not getting it 

1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

Anytime anybody around me says "woke" I ask them to define it and give me three examples.  Everybody reading this should do that.

If someone is going to use “woke” to my face, I’m most likely just walking away 

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Absolutely bizarre how often I hear Republicans claim they are against Corporate Welfare and sweetheart tax breaks that never seem to create the number of jobs they claim they will, but then they go and trip all over themselves to vote for it in the Texas House...

May be an image of 1 person and text that says 'Everything I don't like is WOKE A BOOK FOR BASIC DICKHEADS "This engine is woke. ERLEMEMES PUKEMEMES HIP'

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Posted
On 5/4/2023 at 9:19 AM, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Will admit I'm probably a bigger 2A/gun guy that the average Surly Cloak Room denizen but all of these seem like perfectly reasonable amendments to me. The fact that these all got shot down on pretty strict party line votes just further shows that the system and more specifically the Republican Party is totally broken/lost. 

Every once in a while when I have the TXLege house video feed on in the background some Rep goes on and on about how each of them are representing the will of aprox. 200,000 Texans and every time shit like this happens I just imagine these Reps must think they are all prince/princess of their own little fiefdoms doing whatever the big man above them wants, not what us peasants want.

Yeah, as a big second amendment proponent myself I read those and thought they all sounded perfectly reasonable at face value, so there must have been some sort of poison pill language in them to cause them to be shot down. Then I remembered this is the modern republican party we are dealing with...

It is odd how many folks here want so desperately to disarm poor people (the practical outcome of the policy positions the propose), yet somehow hope that there will be some sort of populist uprising when the pubs toss out the Harris County election results.

Posted

Has it occurred yet to these MAGA Texans that once you overtake urban elections, even your dumbest fucking base will go from “election integrity!” To “wait, how do we blame everything on liberal, colored cities if we control them now?” In about ten minutes.  You’re broadcasting too loudly that you’ll get rid of the boogeyman and have nobody else to frighten them with. Your flex is your demise. The illusion/delusion only works if a solid red state government has a few blue opponents to fault when shit goes sideways.  And shit often goes sideways.  

Posted
7 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Yeah, as a big second amendment proponent myself I read those and thought they all sounded perfectly reasonable at face value, so there must have been some sort of poison pill language in them to cause them to be shot down. Then I remembered this is the modern republican party we are dealing with...

It is odd how many folks here want so desperately to disarm poor people (the practical outcome of the policy positions the propose), yet somehow hope that there will be some sort of populist uprising when the pubs toss out the Harris County election results.

Wanting the ability to mow down 30-40 people in less than a minute off the streets and out of schools isn’t a disarming. You need home protection, personal protection, you want to hunt, nothing stops that. 
 

and I don’t really know anyone that wants armed conflict, we don’t want voter suppression, we want winners win fair and square but Jan 6 style violence isn’t the answer on either side.

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Posted
10 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

That was Carrie Isaac.  She came across better than I expected.

Well she had other legislators whispering the answers.

Posted
11 hours ago, HenryJames said:

image.gif.7bc96425c4a142d74d7bea171a651af5.gif

Is this when they give a bill to a unqualified rep thinking even she can get through describing it and answering a few questions? Then her side realizes she cant.

Posted

Texas Dems do a horrible job communicating how the Texas GOP dictates how the major cities are run, to the point of not allowing the city majority to make decisions for themselves.

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Posted
2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Has it occurred yet to these MAGA Texans that once you overtake urban elections, even your dumbest fucking base will go from “election integrity!” To “wait, how do we blame everything on liberal, colored cities if we control them now?” In about ten minutes.  You’re broadcasting too loudly that you’ll get rid of the boogeyman and have nobody else to frighten them with. Your flex is your demise. The illusion/delusion only works if a solid red state government has a few blue opponents to fault when shit goes sideways.  And shit often goes sideways.  

Eh whatever Fox News tells them, they’ll switch to that argument 

Posted

 
and I don’t really know anyone that wants armed conflict, we don’t want voter suppression, we want winners win fair and square but Jan 6 style violence isn’t the answer on either side.


When you have a government that actually just voids real votes to declare the chosen party the winner, that is EXACTLY how you get political violence. I don’t want that to occur. I’m just telling you that we’re on a fast train to that happening, and that it’s actually the only rational response.
As compared with Jan 6, which was just a temper tantrum insanity by a sore loser and his rather large cult. They acted AS IF their votes were voided, but with one rather glaring problem: they weren’t. At all. Not even a tiny bit. They were just sore losers who will not accept an election result.
Which gets us back to the foundational problem. When one side in a political system refuses to accept an election result, and either insists that it was the result of fraud OR uses its political power to just throw out the votes it doesn’t like, you no longe have a democracy. You have fascism. And fascism always ends with violence. Always.
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Posted
45 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Texas Dems do a horrible job communicating how the Texas GOP dictates how the major cities are run, to the point of not allowing the city majority to make decisions for themselves.

republican voters are the minority so they want the GOP to run the city. it's a losing argument.

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Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 


When you have a government that actually just voids real votes to declare the chosen party the winner, that is EXACTLY how you get political violence. I don’t want that to occur. I’m just telling you that we’re on a fast train to that happening, and that it’s actually the only rational response.
As compared with Jan 6, which was just a temper tantrum insanity by a sore loser and his rather large cult. They acted AS IF their votes were voided, but with one rather glaring problem: they weren’t. At all. Not even a tiny bit. They were just sore losers who will not accept an election result.
Which gets us back to the foundational problem. When one side in a political system refuses to accept an election result, and either insists that it was the result of fraud OR uses its political power to just throw out the votes it doesn’t like, you no longe have a democracy. You have fascism. And fascism always ends with violence. Always.

don't want it though.  if it ends in that, okay, but I'm hopeful gen z that has been forced to be activist because their earliest memories of the broader world were not the ruskies and war games (i.e. an external threat), it was school shooters on a monthly basis and the burning of the planet.  my hope is armed conflict isn't the answer but kids telling their parents they are fucking idiots and taking over the electoral process.  I don't think it will happen the moment they turn 18, but unlike other generations, they are being forced into activism.  I'd also say many are kids of Gen X - a generation that isn't afraid to call a spade a spade but a generation that for the most part sold out due to cynicism and lack of numbers.  I don't think thse kids are cynics I think they are more aware and due to parental involvement (yay latch key kids for stepping up) they are less cynical.  I actually believe gen z will be the greatest generation (there's a compelling theory generations run in cycles of 4 from the greatest (WWII gen), worst (okay boomer), not good (X), better (Y), greatest again (Z)).

Edited by troph
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Posted
Yeah, 2010 was really shit - feels like people don't realize how important elections are to redistricting.
I don't know what Dallas/San Antonio/Bexar/Austin/Travis look like in terms of voter registration and increases in the numbers voting over the last 20 years, but something has clearly been happening in Houston/Harris County that is scaring the Texas Republicans.
I'm a little more optimistic about things after looking at the numbers in HC and seeing how scared Abbott, Patrick, etc. are of people voting.  If they move to toss out Harris County, then that means the state has flipped.  They can fuck around with 2024, but if the Dems realize the state is flipping, it could energize the hell out of them going forward.

The Houston/Harris County thing is two-pronged. One is recency. County government was red until 2018. Second is size. Harris County is a lot bigger than any other county. Before it was Harris, the state was focused on picking on Travis County. It’s just a bigger target.

Dan Patrick is also out of Houston and I imagine there’s a personal aspect for him, as well as GOP leadership as a whole given it’s a young Latina who is playing the role of foil. Easy to rile up the with that.
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Posted
14 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

That was Carrie Isaac.  She came across better than I expected.

I mean in all honesty, take being a Republican or Democrat out of it, but who watches that cunt speak and says to themselves, “yeah, she should be running my local, state, county, whatever, government because she seems smart?”.  She shouldn’t be in charge of your local McDonalds let alone voting on laws for a state.  The people of TX that elect idiots like her (yeah I know there are hundreds of idiots like her in our state legislature) are the cause for this country’s decline.

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Posted

It was also a huge disappointment to see Ellen Troxclair behind her.  She is a right-wing Republican, but Ellen is smart as hell and good people.  To watch her stand and entertain the complete dumbing down of Texas is fucking sad as shit.  

Also, is somebody gonna explain to the GOP that you can't shout "DON'T CALIFORNIA MY TEXAS!" when your leader, Governor Abbott can't go 10 minutes without mentioning how he's bringing all these California conservatives to Texas for a better life?  Get your fucking stories straight you fucking morons.  You're confusing the fuck outta the 9 brain cells your average voter has on full function.  

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Posted
9 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I mean in all honesty, take being a Republican or Democrat out of it, but who watches that cunt speak and says to themselves, “yeah, she should be running my local, state, county, whatever, government because she seems smart?”.  She shouldn’t be in charge of your local McDonalds let alone voting on laws for a state.  The people of TX that elect idiots like her (yeah I know there are hundreds of idiots like her in our state legislature) are the cause for this country’s decline.

But she's the spouse of a former GOP legislator!  They don't even live in the district she represents and never have, lost her first foray into politics, so then they gerrymandered San Marcos out of her district so she just has NB and Wimberley, and her only real work experience is starting up a "veterans' organization" which accepted a huge donation from one person and never actually spent anything to benefit veterans.  IOW, the poster child for the GOP!

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Posted
3 hours ago, troph said:

 I actually believe gen z will be the greatest generation (there's a compelling theory generations run in cycles of 4 from the greatest (WWII gen), worst (okay boomer), not good (X), better (Y), greatest again (Z)).

Wait, what did us Gen-Xers do wrong?   Don't put that Boomer evil on us.

And I think the WWII generation should get a lot of shit for what they did post WWII.  They fucked up the Boomers something fierce.

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Posted
Wait, what did us Gen-Xers do wrong?   Don't put that Boomer evil on us.
And I think the WWII generation should get a lot of shit for what they did post WWII.  They fucked up the Boomers something fierce.

What we’ve done wrong is that we haven’t done nearly enough to fight this evil bullshit. As a generation, we poll pretty close to 40-45% pro-MAGA. In short we are shit, but yes, we aren’t as shit as the boomers. So…yay.
Posted

Not to derail, but WW2 fucked up a lot of Greatest gen folks.  What they had, there in the 50’s, politically, was nearly unprecedented unity.  Unity for the majority.  So, the gg enforced Jim Crow, got us into Nam, and raised such wonderful boomers as tfg.  No gen yet is free of our inherent evils.  

Posted

Slaton's starting to remind me of the guy in "Airplane II: The Sequel" who confesses to the priest next to him that, "I had an affair with these two young women from work.  And I had to steal money from the company to pay for their abortions."  And then he sneezes and the priest "Bless you."  And the guy thinks he's been absolves, "Oh, thank you father!  Thank you!" 

 

Posted (edited)
On 5/5/2023 at 10:13 AM, Brisketexan said:

If the GQP simply decides to void the election results in the 4th largest city in the country….shit should burn. If you want to know how you incite a justified populist violence, that’s how you do it.

It’s a page right out of Lulaschenko’s Manila in Belarus. Bela-fucking-rus, people. That’s what we’re dealing with.


my precinct has to be on the GQP hit list. I’m in SJL’s district by one block. Sylvia Garcia’s district is a block away. Trump, Abbott, Patrick are hated in this hood

Edited by tx 3 putt
Posted
2 hours ago, Macanudo said:

Wait, what did us Gen-Xers do wrong?   Don't put that Boomer evil on us.

And I think the WWII generation should get a lot of shit for what they did post WWII.  They fucked up the Boomers something fierce.

Well, we Gen-Xers don't actually exist - didn't you get the memo? 

Generation-X-Lost-Forgotten-Omitted-Gene

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Posted
She is a right-wing Republican, but Ellen is smart as hell and good people.

At best, a person can be two of these three things at once. This is delusional.
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Posted
Wait, what did us Gen-Xers do wrong?   Don't put that Boomer evil on us.
And I think the WWII generation should get a lot of shit for what they did post WWII.  They fucked up the Boomers something fierce.

Polls broken out by age typically show Gen X is the most GOP generation out there, which tracks with coming of age under Reagan-Bush. So there’s that.
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


At best, a person can be two of these three things at once. This is delusional.

it's like the classic creative triangle: speed, precision, cost - pick two. you can't be smart and good AND be a right-wing Republican. that is a state of being that is more fairy tale than most religions

Edited by Longhorn_Fan68
Posted
1 hour ago, safe sex said:

My guy, maybe she's not such good people after all

 

16 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


At best, a person can be two of these three things at once. This is delusional.

I know.  She really was a voice of reason on a batshit insane City Council.  And she has an entirely new agenda that I woefully disagree with.  But I've know her and her family a long time and she's really putting on a show to appeal to the lowest common denominator.  And I know that's just as bad as actually believing the moronic shit her party is trying to implement right now.  I'm just trying to see better in people as a way to see better in myself and get through my own shit.  

But as per usual in the last 6 years, looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue with Republicans.  

Posted
4 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

But I've know her and her family a long time and she's really putting on a show to appeal to the lowest common denominator. 

Whoa!  She sounds like REALLY good people!!!

Posted
10 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

 she's really putting on a show to appeal to the lowest common denominator.  And I know that's just as bad as actually believing the moronic shit her party is trying to implement right now.  I'm just trying to see better in people as a way to see better in myself and get through my own shit.

It's worse.  Cleetus actually believes that Trump and the Republicans are going to help him. He may have shit opinions, sure, but he actually believes in them. People like Foxy Troxy that perpetuate that myth are taking advantage of uneducated/ill-informed people.

I get trying to see the good in people, and I try with some MAGA family members, but at the end of the, Troxclair is just doing what Trump does, just on a smaller scale.

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Posted

Okay, I get it.  I'm just typing this shit out about Cruz's staff and state reps and other politicians I know.  I used to be able to separate out people's politics and they themselves as human beings.  We all do it almost everyday.  But yeah, it's all fucked now.  As Brisket says, the cruelty is now the feature not the bug.  I don't know what the fuck to do.  I gotta walk around with the knowledge of the exact room number at the Driskill where Briscoe Cain used to blow my buddy from UT while he screams about the evils of gaywad books in our elementary school libraries.  If we can't try to see the slightest hint of decency in even the worst of us, what the fuck are we supposed to do?  I'm fucking hanging on a by a thread here folks.  I now spend a lot of time and money and political capital to defeat this kinda shit.  Now they're attacking our first generation students of color leadership academy at UT.  And the head of the THECB, my cousin and a Hispanic Republican, is pushing back on their shit across all higher ed systems to dismantle DEI.  You gotta start recognizing the just because somebody hasn't voted straight ticket Democrat since their 18th birthday that they are not advocates for what is just and fair.  And some of us are just trying to be more accepting people even when the people we're trying to accept are bad faith actors.  We are doing a lot more to fight this tide of misery and hate than just cutting checks to Beto.  I can't give myself over to hatred again, none of us can.  

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Posted
Okay, I get it.  I'm just typing this shit out about Cruz's staff and state reps and other politicians I know.  I used to be able to separate out people's politics and they themselves as human beings.  We all do it almost everyday.  But yeah, it's all fucked now.  As Brisket says, the cruelty is now the feature not the bug.  I don't know what the fuck to do.  I gotta walk around with the knowledge of the exact room number at the Driskill where Briscoe Cain used to blow my buddy from UT while he screams about the evils of gaywad books in our elementary school libraries.  If we can't try to see the slightest hint of decency in even the worst of us, what the fuck are we supposed to do?  I'm fucking hanging on a by a thread here folks.  I now spend a lot of time and money and political capital to defeat this kinda shit.  Now they're attacking our first generation students of color leadership academy at UT.  And the head of the THECB, my cousin and a Hispanic Republican, is pushing back on their shit across all higher ed systems to dismantle DEI.  You gotta start recognizing the just because somebody hasn't voted straight ticket Democrat since their 18th birthday that they are not advocates for what is just and fair.  And some of us are just trying to be more accepting people even when the people we're trying to accept are bad faith actors.  We are doing a lot more to fight this tide of misery and hate than just cutting checks to Beto.  I can't give myself over to hatred again, none of us can.  

Sure you can. It’s the only thing that works.
We didn’t defeat fascism in WWII with love and good thoughts. We shot fucking Nazis in the face and bombed them into pink mist.
All the poetry and philosophy shit and “love wins” and “only light can defeat the darkness” crap is fucking fairytale candy land bullshit for people who pretend that humanity and history ain’t what they actually are. These fuckers have chosen the side of evil cruelty so they can hold transitory power. Choices have consequences.

60848037705e8abc3316c6fff591100b.jpg

You defeat evil by relentlessly and mercilessly attacking it with force. That’s it. It’s the only thing that works. A crapload of dead Nazis, and a Europe that is not a Third Reich, is the most recent glaring piece of proof.
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Posted

No, my neighbor’s daughter who I’ve known since she was an elementary school kid was creepily approached by Slaton while she serves as deputy chief of staff for a state senator.    She knows the staffer he assaulted.  She provided confidential testimony to the committee.  He’s Not good people.  And if so much as looks at her while emptying his office, then my thoughts and prayers to his family on his upcoming involvement with the Nate Paul money laundering scheme.  

Posted
2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Okay, I get it.  I'm just typing this shit out about Cruz's staff and state reps and other politicians I know.  I used to be able to separate out people's politics and they themselves as human beings.  We all do it almost everyday.  But yeah, it's all fucked now.  As Brisket says, the cruelty is now the feature not the bug.  I don't know what the fuck to do. 

There's plenty of little points where you could point to and say that "such-and-such sold their soul to the devil at this moment in time" but the fact is, it's been building because a lot of us let it.  I'm not as connected as you are - my active political connections mostly evaporated after I left the GOP around 2003/2004, but I've stayed in touch with plenty of people from back then, and I know plenty of Republicans that I worked and volunteered alongside in the late '90s/early 2000s during some campaigns who left the party, plenty who stuck around and just keep their head down and didn't embrace the Trumpiness, but they didn't challenge it, and plenty who embraced the Trumpiness either because they believed it, or they took advantage of the MAGA/Qanon idiots, just like Troxy.

Those who take advantage of MAGA/Qanon/etc. like Troxy and like folks you and I know, they are a part of the problem as much as anybody who actually believes in that shit because they legitimize it - Troxy should in theory be really good people, and in a different timeline, she'd be somebody that we could respect for various reasons, but she's embraced the crazy.  Whatever goodwill she generated is gone, just like with Diane Feinstein or Ruth Bader Ginsburg - she crossed a line where her actions were working against the people she claims to serve.

I've kind of wondered if part of the problem is that so many of us left, and so many who remained just put their head down and ignore the Trumpiness.  If instead, a lot more Republicans had stayed in the GOP, stood up and challenged the Trumpiness instead of bailing on the party or putting their head down, and said "okay, this is fucking ridiculous, Trump is never going to arrest Hillary, Oprah is not feasting on little kids, Trump has weird shit going on with Russia and Putin and his finances, you all need to grow the fuck up and acknowledge this".

Our leaving the GOP, or those who stayed in but put their head down and stuck their fingers in their ears created an echo chamber that allowed Trump to take over the party.  Yeah, the party has always had some...evil undertones with some (looking at Dick Cheney, etc.), but it was never out in the open like what Trump did, and by the time he came in and took over, those who could have been a moderating voice were shouted down/in the minority.

2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

I gotta walk around with the knowledge of the exact room number at the Driskill where Briscoe Cain used to blow my buddy from UT while he screams about the evils of gaywad books in our elementary school libraries. 

There are probably people on Surly who walk around with the knowledge of where the bodies of their former elementary school bullies are lying in shallow graves in some remote wooded area in East Texas and there is always that temptation to put it out there anonymously on the internet, with the tidbit of "such-and-such died a horrible death because he was a fucking asshole to a lot of little kids" but the temptation is resisted and those people walk around just dealing with life as it is.

In your case, the only thing keeping you from putting Briscoe's shit on blast is probably some kind of defamation lawsuit, and that's understandable.

2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

If we can't try to see the slightest hint of decency in even the worst of us, what the fuck are we supposed to do?  I'm fucking hanging on a by a thread here folks.  I now spend a lot of time and money and political capital to defeat this kinda shit.  Now they're attacking our first generation students of color leadership academy at UT.

Like I said, part of the problem is that a lot of us didn't push back really hard early on.  We can say "well hindsight is 20/20", but it's clear that shit was going off the rails (arguably with Palin being the VP pick). Unfortunately, today's GOP is like a little kid - they were given a lot more freedom before being told "no" than they should have been, and so it's hard to rein them in.  Hell, we went from the fucking aggy Rick Perry, who pushed for open borders in August of 2001, who was pushing for a guest worker program in 2006, to Longhorn Greg Abbott, who wants to invite civilians to practically hunt other human beings along the border, and who wants the power to throw out the state's biggest county's elections.

The only thing I can say is that it's going to take them losing multiple times before they get it in their heads that they fucked up and went down the wrong road.  When they lose some more, and their mega donors start going to the Dems, they'll change their tune.  But it'll take another White House loss with Trump in '24, and the House flipping back down the road, and the Senate improving for the Dems, before Republican leaders realize that they can't win by embracing the crazy and the hate.

And the fact that our legislature is wanting to make it so that the state can throw out Harris County's votes is telling - they are scared of the the demographics changes and the changes in voting patterns, but more importantly, nobody is telling  them "YOU FUCKING MORONS, YOU THROW OUT HARRIS COUNTY, YOU'RE GOING TO LITERALLY CREATE THE THING YOU FEAR - A SHITLOAD OF INCREASED VOTING AGAINST REPUBLICANS ACROSS THE STATE BECAUSE YOU PISSED THE LEFT AND THE MODERATES OFF, AND YOU MADE THEM REALIZE THAT THE STATE IS FLIPPING, ELSE YOU WOULDN'T MOVE TO TAKE OUT HARRIS COUNTY!"

That's the irony - if the Republicans weren't fucking around so much, they wouldn't tip their hand about what the state could look like within a few elections - hell, I kept saying Republicans had internal polling showing bad news for them to want to take control away from Harris County, but then right there  in plain fucking sight on the Secretary of State's page, it shows that Harris County has the actual numbers that could flip the entire state, even if the gerrymandered districts for the House and the Texas legislature remain. What does the state look like with Democrats in the Governor's Mansion, Lt. Governor's seat, etc.?

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