“Sure, basically all available economic data suggests that society would become far more productive and stable if the neediest people were given enough stability to develop into contributing members of society, but if I don’t see people I don’t like suffering terribly then I will feel there is no right and wrong in the world and I might as well go have sex with a child like we all secretly want to.” - social conservatives (actually)

Also, under most measures of unemployment, people who aren’t looking for work don’t count as unemployed, and with the sexism of our society I bet the average researcher would be a bit more willing to just assume a woman wasn’t looking for work and that women on average have more opportunities to be stay at home partners. I’m not saying that’s the case everywhere, I’m sure there are tons of individual exceptions to it, but I think on the macro level women are probably slightly more prone to dropping out of the labor market in 2025 than men are, at least enough to account for some of this difference.

They can’t stop it forever.

Why do you think so?

My read on it is that some collaborator douchebags in the party tried to force their bullshit ideas on the rest of the party by telling the media it was bound to happen but then they just got contradicted by a public statement from their leadership.

After our initial reporting online and on television, a spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Caucus sent the following statement to ABC News:

“Members are still assessing their strategies going forward and are in a private meeting to make decisions about future plans currently,” he wrote. “If and when Texas House Democrats breaking quorum decide to go home is squarely dependent on the actions the Governor, Speaker, and Texas Republicans in charge make with regard to prioritizing flood victims over redistricting that hurts Texans.”

Honestly not sure how they can justify keeping that headline with this additional information

The fact that a random paperwork error can keep a two year old from getting medical care is another reason we need more “for All” systems (e.g. Medicare for All)

It wasn’t an opinion poll, it was a referendum vote that should have had binding legal effect but the Republican lawmakers and judges in the state made up a few bullshit legal loopholes and just made it go away

So when Republicans in Missouri repealed a paid sick leave mandate that the state’s voters approved by 58% after an aggressive lobbying campaign by the Missouri chamber of commerce and industry and other business industry groups

Oh, I remember that one and that is an excellent choice. “You have to integrate this into your character” felt like the most violent thing a game has ever done to me.

If the state police of California/New York/Illinois/etc. allow 20 FBI agents to get close enough to my door to knock on it I’m already screwed, but I would probably try to shout out a few clever insults before those agents break my jaw or whatever

The Titanic has the largest military force and nuclear arsenal on this planet tho

0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself sad. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov fucked him over personally with his socio-economic theory. It has, however, made him into a very, very smart boy with something like a university degree in Truth. Instead of building Communism, he now builds a precise model of this grotesque, duplicitous world.

Ok, now try to tell your average voter why gerrymandering is good actually, I’m sure they’ll be receptive to that message /s

The single greatest thing Democrats could do to get people in a voting booth is run on an anti-corruption, progressive economic agenda and show some backbone.

Completely agreed, but this isn’t that, this is using Republican misbehavior in other states to ruin their own states in a way that won’t even get us the house and will be a drag on other races outside of their states

Oh yeah, I’m sure if we get them down from a 5 vote margin to a 2 vote margin that will actually make a difference and Republicans will behave better /s

Agreed, but this particular road is a dead end

If we’re still just abiding by supreme court rulings and don’t have a plan to neutralize their influence all this talk is completely pointless, the supreme court will uphold Texas’s maps and strike down California’s if they think that will help Republicans hold on to the house, regardless of law and facts.

But the more immediate issue is that they don’t need to because we don’t have enough blue states to make this a guaranteed kill shot on Republican power and blue state governors talking about gerrymandering their states will damage the party’s brand in purple districts in other states, so this is ineffective at best and more likely a real step backwards

In light of this, pursuing a strategy that’s going to justify Republicans’ efforts to do the same but that won’t get us enough seats to take a majority in the House seems like a really bad idea

Offsetting some of the damage has zero practical effect with these Republicans, we need to cancel it out entirely. If they have even a one vote margin in the House they will shove the craziest legislation through with it.

The better strategy at this point is to draw a clear and simple distinction that the everyone can easily understand - the Democratic party doesn’t redistrict without a new census and they don’t ever say they’re drawing districts just to disadvantage political opponents, that’s something only illegitimate tyrants do. Besides the messaging, do whatever is necessary to keep Texas and the other states from pushing their redistricting forward (e.g. don’t let the Texas state house get a quorum again).

Keep hammering that simple message, then as soon as we get any kind of majority in the House and get to set the rules there we will be well positioned to say “Anybody elected through a mid-census redistricting is illegitimate and will not be seated as a lawmaker in this House” and throw these fascist dipshits from Texas and Florida and Ohio and wherever else out on the steps without making the average person who doesn’t follow politics that closely clutch their pearls over it.

we can’t stop them at the SCOTUS

Wrong

we can’t stop them at the Federal level

Wrong

cause gerrymandering is just the wrong thing to do.

Wrong, cause gerrymandering won’t work because we don’t have enough states to gerrymander. I respect the intentions behind it but it is a bad strategy.

Sorry, unlike giving water to thirsty people waiting to vote or food to hungry people without houses being evil isn’t a crime in America

or their exotic dancer affair partners.

I think they would throw any one particular affair partner over that same cliff to save themselves and their ability to chase new affair partners, but otherwise you’re spot on