Some unbelievably f**ked up stuff happening here

[Soph0571]

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/18/republican-party-texas-convention-cornyn/

The new platform would call for:

Requiring Texas students “to learn about the humanity of the preborn child,” including teaching that life begins at fertilization and requiring students to listen to live ultrasounds of gestating fetuses.
Amending the Texas Constitution to remove the Legislature’s power “to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.”
Treating homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice,” language that was not included in the 2018 or 2020 party platforms.
Deeming gender identity disorder “a genuine and extremely rare mental health condition,” requiring official documents to adhere to “biological gender,” and allowing civil penalties and monetary compensation to “de-transitioners” who have received gender-affirming surgery, which the platform calls a form of medical malpractice.
Changing the U.S. Constitution to cement the number of Supreme Court justices at nine and repeal the 16th Amendment of 1913, which created the federal income tax.
Ensuring “freedom to travel” by opposing Biden’s Clean Energy Plan and “California-style, anti-driver policies,” including efforts to turn traffic lanes over for use by pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit.
Declaring “all businesses and jobs as essential and a fundamental right,” a response to COVID-19 mandates by Texas cities that required customers to wear masks and limited business hours.
Abolishing the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, and guaranteeing the right to use alternatives to cash, including cryptocurrencies.

Emphasis mine

I know it is Texas but the proper theocratic cray cray has taken over the hate filled, misogynistic, homophobic asylum. Unless you want to live under his eye I would be getting out of dodge.

[vercetti2021]

1. Anyone wanna take in a refugee of Texas?

Especially a trans person so I don't get executed by the state when shit goes full blown fascist?

[viva la]

11. We're getting an idea of how countries like Bosnia

And Rwanda could descend into genocide, with one set of citizens righteously slaughtering their neighbors because someone told them God wants them to hate.

[Emile]

2. They embraced these far right lunatics to get their votes,

then they cower in fear of pissing them off.

[genxlib]

14. It's worse than that

The cynical embraced the crazy then the crazy decided it looked easy and would just do it themselves.

A bunch of true believers have taken over. The lunatics are running the asylum. There are still plenty of cynics in goo leadership but more and more of them are actually crazy.

[rubbersole]

3. The Texas Taliban is here...

...and it's starting to be like the handmaid's tale is a quaint relic of sane people. Imagine when your vote doesn't count.

[Funtatlaguy]

4. Under His Eye...nice Handmaids Tale reference.

[GoneOffShore]

5. And people are surprised when I say I'm not going to go back to the US.

[DFW]

6. The nut cases are running THAT asylum, but not the whole state (yet, anyway).

They'd have to send in an armed occupation force if they wanted to impose that kind of a Taliban regime in Dallas.

Don't forget that out of about 11 million votes cast in the last Presidential election, both Biden and Trump got less than 6 million, but more than 5 million. Of the 5.3 million votes cast for Biden, most of them came from cities like Dallas, Houston, Austin and El Paso.

Their chances of imposing most of their crazy platform on the state as a whole are slim and none. I think they purposely made their outrageous platform sound like it was made up be the inmates of a mental institution so they could rant about the "libbruls" responsible when they don't manage to make it happen.

[viva la]

12. But nasty loonies have taken over a lot of legislatures

And a craven governor like Abbott isn't going to veto them.

[DFW]

16. Even ridiculous laws passed by legislatures can be challenged

The more extreme they are, the more they stand a chance of being overturned when a court--even one stocked with Trump appointees--has to pass judgment on them.

At SOME point, they will go too far, and get voted out of office, even in Texas. This is why, of course, they are desperately trying to make it so that Republicans can nullify the result of any election whose outcome they don't like. The easiest way to assure that there ARE no such outcomes is to make sure that Democrats can't vote, which is also high on their to-do list.

[viva la]

19. I hope some companies decide not to move

Facilities to Texas and clearly explain they won't go where many of their employees are targeted, starting with the 50% with wombs.

[NJCher]

23. Thank you thank you thank you

For that. I’m in nj but nearly started searching for my passport after reading the op.

[MissMillie]

7. "normal"/"abnormal"

In a free country, people are allowed to decide what their own "normal" is.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. But will that provoke a wholesale immigration of Texans?

And if it did, would it matter?

If Beto's elected, he'll have his hands full, even if these so-called republicans (more like fascists) are demographically a minority.

Hard to believe that Texas was once governed by Ann Richards. Her heart would break.

[wnylib]

27. Hard to believe that LBJ was from Texas.

[Bobespy]

9. Texas is a fucked-up srare

When I left Texas in 1973, smoking pot was a felony. The John Birch society was active. It was where JFK got murdered. Abortion was illegal. And on and on….
It had cowboys, cowgirls, and cow-gada.

[LastDemocratInSC]

10. Hey, what about all the other potential criminals in the state!

Why not include this, too:

Amending the Texas Constitution to remove the Legislature’s power “to regulate the construction of safes in banks, with a view to prevent crime.”

[greatauntoftriplets]

13. That red light only contributes to the "Handmaid" aura.

Noticed that on television, too. Very creepy.

I'm surprised that banning contraception was not on their agenda.

[DFW]

17. Texas Republicans are embarrassed when they need abortions for their mistresses.

They probably see legal contraception as the lesser evil.

[greatauntoftriplets]

18. They should be embarrassed when talking out of both sides of their mouth.

All I can say is that I'm happy that my gay great-nephew and my non-binary great live in a sympathetic state (Illinois).

[DFW]

21. My family all live "elsewhere," too

Germany, NY, NH, NJ, VA, one "lost" pair of cousins in Tennessee. The female cousin is very nice, keeps in sporadic touch by email. The male cousin is on his third (or more?) marriage, was a big Cheneybush supporter, probabyl thinks TFG was wonderful, too. No idea. I haven't seen him since our grandfather's 100th birthday party in New York in 1994. We make no secret of our political affiliation, so it's no surprise he has made no effort to get in touch, and it fine with us. While we have no gays in our family (that I know of), we still all prefer states where it doesn't make a difference whether you are or not.

I will say, though, that my housemates in Dallas are heavikly involved with a modern dance troupe where many of the members are gay, and none of them seems to have the slightest problem with living in Dallas. It's a different story out in Gohmertland, of course, but no one we know lives there.

[wnylib]

30. My out of state relatives don't understand

why I stay in cold NY instead of joining them in warmer climates. But a list of their locations explains it - Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona. All of us are originally from a Democratic city in Pennsylvania.

[DFW]

31. It's different over here, as you can imagine

Most of western Europe has good intentions, but they are mired in their bureaucracy. They have ten paper pushers for every task that needs getting done, and their jobs are guaranteed by the state for life. Not exactly a situation that provides incentives for dedicated engagement in carrying out their jobs. They are well-paid, with super-generous pensions, and the rest of the country foots the heavy tax bill to pay for it. My wife, on the other hand, is a retired social worker, and her pension is a miserly €850 a month, supplemented by a tiny bonus, since she is considered "handicapped" as a two-time cancer victim. If trying to live on $1000 a month seems hard in the USA, try doing it in western Europe, where the cost of living is more like Manhattan than Waxahachie. German medicare is easier and more comprehensive than in the USA, but there is still plenty of stuff (some dental, e.g.) that I have to pay for, since her insurance does not.

My paternal grandfather was born in South Carolina, but moved north, working himself through college as a janitor. My other grandfather was born in NYC, the descendant of deadbeat Mississippi river boat gamblers who fled north to escape their debts. Pretty distinguished ancestry, eh? But both grandfathers went from nothing to significant "somethings," One of my grandmothers, the wife of the former janitor, was Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's labor liason until he fired her for being friendlier with the unions than with him. She went on to be a NYC fundraiser for the Senate campaign of the Mayor of Minneapolis in 1948. His name was Hubert Humphrey. My family had been friends with the "Minnesota Democratic Mafia" ever since, although most of those connections have now passed on. Only Norm Ornstein and Al Franken are left, and Al is a recent addition (comparatively).

As for Pennsylvania, I went to college there, and stayed on for an extra year while trying to figure out what to do with myself. I was recruited by my current employer (a primitive version) in 1975. When it got mentioned that I spoke German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, French, Catalan, Swedish and Spanish, my suggestion to use my skills in Europe wasn't hard to push. Since I had already met my German wife-to-be a year earlier, I was only too happy to carve out a job that had me traveling to Germany (and neighboring countries) on a regular basis.

[wnylib]

34. One set of my great grandparents came

to the US as political refugees from Kaiser Wilhelm II. My great-grandfather was a military officer in West Prussia.
He had supported Wilhelm's parents, Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm and his British wife, Victoria, in their liberal reform plans. After his father's death, Wilhelm declared his parent's supporters to be traitors and started arresting them. G-grandpa's friends helped him get out of the country with his very pregnant wife and 3 toddler children. My grandfather was born in Buffalo 2 weeks after they reached America.

In today's political climate, their chances of being admitted into the US after escaping a treason charge would be slim to none. I remember that when I hear about asylum seekers today being turned away.

None of my recent ancestors have any claims to fame, but they did have some interesting achievements. The grandfather who was born in Buffalo right after his parents arrived became a musician in John Phillip Sousa's band. His son, my uncle, was a WWII vet whose knowledge of German got him special assignments in the army in Europe. He was captured and spent 2 years in his grandfather's homeland as a POW.

On the other side of the family, my father's mixed Native and British ancestry from his mother had some very illustrious people (both Native and British), but that was a few centuries earlier. His father's family were poor farmers, mixed Native and German Swiss. My father grew up on a very isolated farm in rural PA during the Depression. Literally "dirt poor." Electricity had not yet reached their area when he was growing up. Went to a one room country school until 8th grade and then, as the oldest boy, quit to help run the farm during the Depression while his father took on odd jobs for cash.

At 18 he got a job in the city as a general laborer in a factory. Three years later, he was drafted for Pacific duty in the Navy in WWII. Rose in rank as a non-com and went back to the same job after the war, but older, wiser, and very ambitious. He was promoted a few times but reached a plateau where his limited education also limited further advancement. The plant was owned by an individual family, not a corporation. The owner paid for the courses he needed and he was promoted again. By the time he retired, he was general manager, running the company. Meantime, my mother's cousin, who was general manager of another business in town, took my father under his wing socially to introduce him to several people and sponsored him for membership in a few organizations.

Both he and my mother remained staunch Democrats all their lives. They thought FDR was next to God.

[paleotn]

26. Contraception? Oh....that's next. Believe me.

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/05/19/some-states-already-are-targeting-birth-control

[2naSalit]

15. Not only are they not hiding it anymore...

And saying the quiet parts aloud, they are now blatantly advertising.

[ashredux]

20. These are just PLAIN STUPID people...they have no idea how thing actually work...

“… Abolishing the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, and guaranteeing the right to use alternatives to cash, including cryptocurrencies.”

Idiotic!

[DFW]

22. Indeed

They don't display a vast knowledge of how the world works, do they?

[NJCher]

24. There's a word for that

Rubes.

[paleotn]

29. Abolishing the Fed has been a reich wing trope for years....

That's tied to some really bizarre conspiracy theories, many of which have a rather antisemitic, Nazi-esqe tone to them.

[Cozmo]

25. As we expose the evil that is the right-wing, the more they dig in their heels to prove us right

[paleotn]

28. Either the TX metro areas stand up and put an end to this ...

at the voting booth, or TX is lost.

If they think the election was stolen, fine. Just leave. They were a sovereign nation once before. They can be again.

[Hortensis]

32. All actions cause reactions, whatever they will be. All of this is culture warring;

even abolishing the Fed. Cultural issues of who we are "as individuals, as communities and as a nation" tend to be more important than personal economic concerns, and we certainly see that here. To the hard right, these positions all relate to ultimate moral truths which won't allow the compromises of politics.

“They see it as an existential threat to their way of life, to the things that they hold sacred. The earlier culture war really was about secularization, and positions were tied to theologies and justified on the basis of theologies,” says James Davison Hunter. “That’s no longer the case. You rarely see people on the right rooting their positions within a biblical theology or ecclesiastical tradition. [Nowadays,] it is a position that is mainly rooted in fear of extinction.”

Cultural extinction. Moral extinction. This is from a terrific article in Politico, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/20/culture-war-politics-2021-democracy-analysis-489900

[IngridsLittleAngel]

33. The terrorist state of Texbekistan

Working hard to fit right in with such progressive nations as Saudi Arabia or Russia.

So homosexuality is "abnormal", but showing up to an elementary school and killing innocent kids is perfectly healthy? Gotcha.

You know, maybe you all make that "lone star" mean something and leave America if you hate it so much. Just secede. We'll be just fine with 49 states. Maybe even fewer...

My advice to all LGBTQ's, women, people of color and progressive in Texbekistan? Leave while you can. Not only for your safety, but the fact that the state is a lost cause.

[alterfurz]

35. "If I owned Texas and Hell...

...I would rent out Texas and live in Hell." -- Phil Sheridan (also attrib. to Gen. Wm T. Sherman, post-Civil war military governor of Texas)

[boston bean]

36. All those large corporations have moved their HQ there.

Makes me sick.