Wut?

As I recall, he called it off after the Kremlin walked back whatever policy it was that pissed him off.

The next president will either be the Democratic party nominee or the Republican party nominee. I don’t fucking care about the popularity. The vote is for which party platform is better.

Third parties in the US will never be a reality without election reform. That in turn will have to be preceded by high voter turnout to push state legislatures more progressive.

My wife’s aunt died from Cirrhosis of the liver and “so much blood” is exactly what my wife said she saw.

the American GOP is seemingly Zionist and antisemitic at the same time

They’re Evangelic pro-Rapture Zionists, not pro-Jewish security Zionists.

I really wish the headline was more to the tune of “Supreme Court affirms federal government’s supremacy over the border.” The state has no jurisdiction on the matter and the Tres Locos running the show here are just drumming up bullshit headlines to campaign on.

While it was the second highest midterm turnout in Texas in 20 years, it was down 7% from the 2018 midterm. So momentum turned around even though it was above historical average. We need to beat 2018 turnout. If we can beat 2020 turnout (Biden receive more votes in Texas than he did in New York in 2020), then we have a real chance to make a statement. We have to make that statement to get the kind of national investment in the state in 2026 to have a chance at getting turnout high enough to win the flip governor, lt governor, and attorney general. And we need to flip those in order to have a chance to undo the gerrymandered maps and get a representative legislature.

I’m really hoping we get turnout more like 2020 and less like 2022.

Abbott, Patrick, and Paxton are all about provoking a confrontation that they can milk for rage-bait headlines. But I’m wondering if this doesn’t somehow tie into Patrick’s that too front Biden from the ballot. Like maybe they’ll say a confrontation would be insurrection against the state or something stupid like that.

I feel like you should have posted an article link, or some other supporting evidence.

PS - I have no idea who this is or who you are, my response is not driven by any bias for or against either of you.

I don’t believe we’ll have a representative legislature, or congressional delegation, until we can flip the state-wide offices. So blue voters in blue cities absolutely matter to get us there. We have to turn out in such high numbers to overcome the gerrymandering.

In 2020 we had about 66% turnout. In 2022 it was under 50%. The Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General are always offset from the Presidential election here. So I expect we won’t see any investment in the gubernatorial race unless we have enough turnout to go Democratic in a presidential race. Abbott won by a big enough margin in 2022 I don’t think it’s worthwhile to get a breakdown of native vs transplants. Republican voters showed up and Democratic voters didn’t.

2018: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/11/09/native-texans-voted-for-native-texan-beto-o-rourke-transplants-went-for-ted-cruz-exit-poll-shows/

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/californians-could-ruin-texas-but-not-the-way-you-might-think/

He wanted an excuse to go after Saddam Hussein, who had reportedly put together and assassination attempt on Bush Sr during a trip to Kuwait. Bush Jr was also surrounded by the PNAC crowd, who had published (before getting into the white house) goals to have a permanent US military presence in theiddle east to secure oil interests, and that they would likely need some catalyzing event to garner public support in the US.

Yeah, other states just don’t quite get proximity like we do in Texas.

I like your style

Yee Haw!

In the case of Beto in 2022, I think you’re right that the party wasn’t doing anything to compete in the state. But I think Beto only ran because the DNC wasn’t putting up anyone. The primary was 5 or 6 no-name folks with zero experience. One didn’t even have a web site. So Beto won the primary with over 90% of the vote. He didn’t really look like he wanted it at all, because clearly his comments on gun control during his presidential run tanked any future state campaigns.

We need someone like Howard Dean back in charge, with the fifty state strategy that paid off in 2008 and 2012. I think Beto can do that for the party within the state, if other candidates will step up. Seems like we have decent options to take on Cruz in 2024.

Yeah. Keeping hope alive for 2024.

I say disengaged to reflect the sentiment of giving up due to the suppression. Biden came within a million votes of winning Texas in 2020, amidst 66% voter turnout. Turnout dropped to under 50% in 2022 and Abbott/Patrick/Paxton coasted to victory. The suppression only works at the state level because the targeted voters disengaged from the process. If we had instead doubled down and gotten up to 70% turnout, we may have seen a Democratic sweep at the state level.