Texas Republicans have voted to track down and arrest dozens of Democratic legislators who have fled the state to block passage of a partisan redistricting plan.
The vote passed by 85 to 6, following Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s threat of bribery charges against the absent Democrats.
After the vote, the governor ordered state troopers “to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans”.
The irony of a Republican lawmaker trying to make this point is unbelievable…
Ugh, Ken Paxton. I didn’t think there could be a worse senator from Texas than Ted Cruz, but Paxton is sure gonna try.
Hopefully, Texas police realize they’re being given an unlawful order and arrest the dickweed who issued it.
LOL. Texas police don’t have brains.
More importantly, they don’t have jurisdiction.
Y’all are one Reichstag fire away from invading Poland
Hi from Canada, we’re likely Poland in Nazi Boogaloo 2.
All I’m saying is that Canada and Mexico are going to need to step up their border defense game, just in case
That’s gonna suck all around; America already does poorly with insurgencies, let’s see them fight one against their closest neighbour, who speak the same language, look the same, and follow most of the same culture.
I know that part of the Canada defence plan involves a bunch of people putting on american hats and some maps of critical us infrastructure.
Don’t think that we have the same culture, ours revolves around not being americans.
Already burned the White House down once, can burn it down again.
I would like a certain jet to be burned as well.
Also that started with some militia red necks thinking they could invade.
It’s an interesting conundrum. They come in and say they’re from Canada, a good chunk of the US population would just say “I didn’t see nothing”
Don’t think that we have the same culture, ours revolves around not being americans
We consume much of the same culture, courtesy of Hollywood, which makes it easier for us to blend in
“How do you do fellow americans”
“Don’t worry about the anfo, by the way happen to know how well guarded the local power station is?”
Is this the long con to get Mexico to pay for the wall?
Y’all-qaeda is going to have to get through us northerners first, and there are some of us who have been preparing . 🔫🫡
I for one am not going to let my country’s army take a meter of my extended family’s homeland as long as I’m above ground. Also good luck on suppressing and insurgency in Chicago before heading north.
I see a lot of talk but no walking.
Yes, because this is, by design, a text only platform. You would not be able to see the “walking” here.
Yea like excuse me? I had my ass beat in 2020, I’ve been protesting here in Chi, and my community has been fucking up ICE. Look what their head said about Chicago. He hates us. Because we don’t fuck with ICE the way New York just let them stroll right in.
Sit down, Americans aren’t as lazy as you think we are. We arrested our governor and we’ll bring that to the white house.
Is it you all or Greenland right now? I honestly can’t keep up anymore.
Texas Democrats should tell Piss Baby Abbott that they all went to Cancun cause of their families. Worked for Rafael Cruz.
Who exactly has abandoned their duty to Texas? The people eroding democracy in Texas. Abbot you fuckhead!
Fleeing to another state, one that is HEAVILY gerrymandered to avoid a vote on redistricting because “They’re going to Gerrymander”! is peak irony and hypocrisy. They were also elected to represent their constituents, not abandon their duties and flee when things don’t go their party’s way. Not their constituents way, their PARTY’S way.
It’s pretty irrelevant where they go. As long as they prevent the erosion of democracy they are acting in the interest of their constituents.
“As long as they prevent the erosion of democracy…” you mean as long as they prevent the erosion of the Democratic Party’s ability to hold power. You seem to be entirely unconcerned about Democrat Jerrymandering.
Oh bug off with your tolerance of intolerance bullshit. If Republicans are going to rip up the rule book at every turn, then the Democrats must do the same. So much damage has already been done that it’s unlikely either party will survive in its current form.
It’s cute how you think Democrats “ripping up the rulebook” is because Republicans did it.
Remember that the Democrats exercised the nuclear option first, much to the cheering of their followers, who then got upset because Republicans turned around and did it too. Democrats were also the first to Gerrymander, but were known as the Democratic Republican Party at the time.
No, I mean it. Democracy is more important than mere policy goals. When Democrats atempt gerrymandering and the Republican minority in a state can prevent it they should also do so.
“Democracy” is Donkeyspeak for “Our ability to hold onto power” You can replace the word “Democracy” in anything they say with “our ability to hold onto power” and it works.
“Donald Trump is an existential threat to our ability to hold onto power!” “This bill is an attack on our ability to hold power!”
There’s also a REASON why Democrats will flee but not file a lawsuit to stop it. If a judge decides, “Jerrymandering and drawing congressional districts based on race is illegal!” the Democratic Party collapses because of how much they’ve Jerrymandered their own states to ensure that they maintain a single party system as much as possible.
Naturally setting precedent for when Republicans do the same?
They don’t plan on having fair elections anymore, they will never get the chance. If they can rig/win the midterm it’s basically game over for the US.
Cheeto man did say that we wouldn’t need to worry about elections again. Many didn’t understand and they cheered. Many understood, and they cheered too.
Too bad they don’t have a quorum…
Tx repugs are stupid beyond imagining
So. That just means they still won’t vote in redistricting I dont think they thought that through
They’ll arrest and force them to attend the vote to achieve quorum, and then it’ll pass. They don’t need the votes, just the people.
Honestly, at this point they could just break the rules and pass it anyway. Who’s gonna enforce the law?
Youre probably right about them breaking the rules. They may pull something clearly illegal like appoint temporary members of the state legislature just for the vote. But this is going to be like burning down chernobyl. Texas was already gerrymandered into oblivion.
There are significantly more registered democrats in Texas than Republicans. Proportionately greater than California. The fact that they are dominated by Republicans shows how lacking in democratic values the state is. Sad that they are going to throw away the last remaining bits.
It’s more symbolic to force your enemy to bend the knee.
The gerrymandering bill has enough votes to pass. Democrats can’t do anything about that.
If enough representatives don’t show up, there’s not enough quorum to even hold a vote.
From another article about this, oh the irony:
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who fled his own impeachment hearings and refused a court order to release his travel records after speaking at the rally in Washington that preceded the January 6 insurrection, has described wayward Democratic legislators as “cowards”.
Voters don’t care, why should they act differently?
Monday’s vote was mostly symbolic, according to the Texas Tribune, as the warrants only apply within state lines.
The move empowers the chamber’s sergeant-at-arms and state troopers to arrest the absent lawmakers and deliver them to the state capitol building in Austin.
They would not face any civil or criminal charges as a result of the warrant, the newspaper reports.
So basically it’s toothless posturing and only real consequences is that they get sent to the state capitol to go back to work.
Only immediate consequences. The gerrymandering they want to pass has the potential to screw the state and country depending on how the gerrymandering works and is perceived to work. I’m afraid this may make our voting numbers go down even more.
No telling what can happen if Republicans achieve their goal of solidifying a bigger majority in the US House. We’ve already seen that Texans are willing to keep Cruz in the senate, rather than spend 30 minutes voting.
CRUZ is the GOPsenates necessary evil to maintain a majority, so was mitch until he realized the magats were turning on him, he bounced.
Yeah, he has been great for the GOP power grab back from the Tea Party that shoved the Republicans so far to the right.
A large portion of the Texan population holds that their vote is worthless and won’t take 20-30 minutes to go vote. Beto O’Rourke was so close to beating Cruz and then last time Cruz was up for election of ~23 million in the voting age population, ~18 million were registered to vote, and ~11.3 million actually voted. There were some Trump voters that didn’t vote for Cruz, but we didn’t get enough Democrats out to vote and defeat Cruz.
It’s frustrating to see what all is at stake and still see people sit at home instead of waking up early one day to go vote when polls open at 7 AM.
all beto had to do, was not mention 2A related issues.
In 2018, there were 19.9 million in the Votaing Age Population, 15.8 million registered voters, and only 8.3 million voted in the Senate race.
People needed to get out and vote. To say gun control stopped democrats from voting Beto is insane. Beto lost by a mere 215,000 votes, that’s about 2/3 the population of a suburb in any of the metro areas. We need democrats to pay any amount of attention and engage voters here.
Francis couldn’t have won if his life depended on it. No one likes a fake person and he was as fake as they come.
Propaganda is one helluva drug!
until he realized
the magatsgravity was turning on him
Well, that serves their goal at the moment. That may change. After having so easily made this posturing move, next time, they will have this language available to them, with more severe and less legal consequences.
In my head, I keep going back to that fascist guy that Medhi Hasan got sat down with. These fuckers would pick up the ball and run with it in a soccer game, chuck the ball in the goal, keep their own score and time, then jog off the field pumping up the 10% of the crowd that’s on their side.
It’d be funny if they were just deluded, but they are setting it up so they can deport or arrest anyone that doesn’t cheer.
After the vote, the governor ordered state troopers “to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans”.
So which trooper is going to be brave enough to follow the governor’s orders and arrest him?
Has Rafael fled to Cancun yet?
as the zodiac killer, he also possess the ability to shapeshift, and travel at great speeds to a tropical environment.
Yes arrest them for not helping subvert democracy to keep an illegitimate fascist in power. “States rights”, party of “freedom”, my ass. Bunch of nazi clowns.
Seems like the governor told the troopers to arrest people like the governor.
“states rights” are just what people complain about when the federal government isn’t doing what they want.
My understanding - This term “states rights” is wrong. The People have rights. States have powers - which are limited by people’s rights.
That might be technically true, but I’m not sure there’s a legal difference.
The one who wants a promotion?
Only four states, TX, IN, TN, and OR, have rules like this that require 2/3rds of members be present for legislation to be passed. The republicans in Oregon have done it so often that the voters passed (with 70% of the vote) a law that states that any legislator with 10 or more unexcused absences from votes cannot run for office again.
Democrats in Texas have done this to stop redistricting that could result in a fascist take over of the country. Republicans in OR have done this six times since 2019. They did it to block legislation on gun safety, reproductive health, education funding, cap and trade, COVID-19 restrictions, and once on redistricting.
Both sides are the same though amirite
Does seem like a good idea that has been fully abused
Wow there’s no way the American people will stand for this.
lol j/k of course they will.
Is this an appropriate time to say that not even Abbott stands for it?
No, that would be making fun of a disability.
Meh, texas ain’t the first state to go through these motions. Oregon did similar but with the roles reversed a year or two ago. And they weren’t the first either.
Heck, Minnesota had something similar this year, and the Republicans still tied to pass multiple things without quorum. Dems got it all thrown out in court, though.
Arresting political dissidents lol
Looks like the us is at that point. But I can’t wait for the bunch of videos about how “this time trump is cooked/done/finished/over” or some other nonsense about how america is not actually at the place it clearly is.
