#Texas State Senate

[filosofablogger]

Meanwhile, Down In Texas -- A Gross Miscarriage of Justice

Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, was brought up under 20 articles of impeachment … and acquitted on 16 of the charges, with the other four being ‘dropped’.  The charges were: 7 counts of “Disregard of Official Duty” 2 counts of “Misappropriation of Public Resources” 2 counts of “Constitutional Bribery” 2 counts of “Obstruction of Justice” 3 counts of “False Statements in Official Records”…

[collincountymagazine]

State Senator Angela Paxton: Texas Legislature passes largest property tax cut in Texas history

Friend,We finally did it! The Texas Legislature has passed the largest property tax cut in Texas history. Senate Bill 2 delivers $18 billion in property tax relief by buying down the school district tax rate, increasing the homestead exemption, and reforming the appraisal process. Senate Bill 3 helps 67,000 small businesses by eliminating the franchise tax for them. We also passed House Joint…

[supportingeducation]

Ten Commandments: Out

Texas GOP Aims to Combine Church and State

The Ten Commandments won’t be required to be displayed in public school classrooms, with the failure of a GOP-backed bill in Texas. Senate Bill 1515, written by Republican state senator Phil King, would have required that the Ten Commandments, a set of rules of behavior from the Christian Bible which begins with “You will have no other gods before me,” be displayed prominently in every classroom…

[study-of-happiness]

"There's fifty senetors right now who refuse to vote on HR-8, which is a background check rule that the house passed a couple of years ago, it's been sitting there for two years. And there is a reason they won't vote on it:

To hold onto power."

Steve Kerr speech following school shooting in Uvalde, Texas leaving 19 children and 2 teachers dead.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Republican members of the Texas state legislature introduced a slate of bills Thursday designed to subvert election processes and curb voting rights in the state. One of them would even allow the Texas Secretary of State to overturn election results in the state’s largest Democratic-leaning county, with very little rationale for doing so.

On Thursday, Republican state senators introduced Senate Bill 1993, a bill targeting Harris County, a diverse region that includes Houston and is also the most populous county in Texas, to a Senate committee for debate.

SB 1993 would grant Secretary of State Jane Nelson (R) the authority to order a new election in Harris County “if the secretary has good cause to believe that at least 2% of the total number of polling places in the county did not receive supplemental ballots,” according to the bill text. Secretary Nelson would have the same authority granted to a district court.

The bill would “allow really low thresholds” for ordering a new election, Katya Ehresman, the voting rights program manager at Common Cause Texas, told TPM. “Anything from a machine malfunction, which can necessarily be the fault of the county or of an election administrator getting stuck in traffic—which in Houston is incredibly likely—and having a delay in providing election results to the central count station,” she said.

The bill was introduced alongside over a dozen other bills seeking to restrict voter access and overhaul the state’s elections process. Senate Bill 260, for example, would allow the Secretary to suspend election administrators without cause, and Senate Bill 1070 would enable Texas to withdraw from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a bipartisan program that maintains voter rolls across state lines that has recently been targeted by far-right propaganda.

State Republicans quietly introduced the bills in the State Affairs Committee on Thursday morning—without giving the mandatory 48-hour notice. “Every part of today’s hearing highlights the subversive attacks on elections in Texas,” Ehresman said, “and (SB) 1993 is a part of that.”

With a population of nearly 5 million, Harris County is the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous in the U.S. It became the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories back in 2020, when the county experienced some technical difficulties as election officials tried to change procedures to make voting safer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Secretary of State’s office conducted an audit of the general election. They found that the county “had very serious issues in the handling of electronic media,” but none of those issues actually amounted to voter fraud.

Harris County saw issues again in 2022, however, as state and local Republicans went after the county’s election administrations by recruiting and deploying poll watchers throughout the county. This prompted local Democrats to request federal observers instead. On Election Day, the county did experience several issues that often take place in more urban counties, like polling sites opening late and some running out of paper ballots, among other things.

The Texas GOP, including Gov. Greg Abbott, seized the opportunity to accuse county officials of “election improprieties,” and 22 right-wing candidates used it as an excuse to challenge their losses. Still, there was no evidence of widespread fraud.

State Democrats argue that the introduction of a flood of anti-voting legislation targeting Harris County has all been a retaliation against the county turning blue back in 2018.

“A lot of what we see is Harris County as an example of a need to invest in election administration and not penalize or detract from it,” Ehresman said.

[personal-blog243]

Please contact your governors or representatives if you live in one of these states and demand they stop this racist anti-immigrant bullshit!

Greg Abbot needs to know that this is a humanitarian issue and not a military invasion like he is treating it!

[oldbaton]

one of the things that is crazy about texas is because of its very unique history we generally have our own ethos regarding our country's founding in the same way america does as a whole. we even have our own founding fathers. i referenced sam houston to a friend once and they stared at me blank and i was thinking to myself "how do you not know who is he and what he did- oh right."

and lol dont worry about us missing out our founding fathers were racist slave owners too this isn't out of respect just observation

[tearsinthemist]

Delay, delay, delay

[fullhalalalchemist]

URGENT: 🚨🚨EARN IT ACT IS BACK IN THE SENATE 🚨🚨 TUMBLR’S NSFW BAN HITTING THE ENTIRE INTERNET THIS SUMMER 2023

April 28, 2023

I’m so sorry for the long post but please please please pay attention and spread this

What is the EARN IT Act?

The EARN IT Act (s. 1207) has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country.

This is the third time the Senate has been trying to force this through, and I talked about it last year. It is a bill that claims "protects children and victims against CSAM" by creating an unelected and politically appointed national commission of law enforcement specialists to dictate "best practices" that websites all across the nation will be forced to follow. (Keep in mind, most websites in the world are created in the US, so this has global ramifications). These "best practices" would include killing encryption so that any law enforcement can scan and see every single message, dm, photo, cloud storage, data, and any website you have every so much as glanced at. Contrary to popular belief, no they actually can't already do that. These "best practices" also create new laws for "removing CSAM" online, leading to mass censorship of non-CSAM content like what happened to tumblr. Keep in mind that groups like NCOSE, an anti-LGBT hate group, will be allowed on this commission. If websites don't follow these best practices, they lose their Section 230 protections, leading to mass censorship either way.

Section 230 is foundational to modern online communications. It's the entire reason social media exists. It grants legal protection to users and websites, and says that websites aren't responsible for what users upload online unless it's criminal. Without Section 230, websites are at the mercy of whatever bullshit regulatory laws any and every US state passes. Imagine if Texas and Florida were allowed to say what you can and can't publish and access online. That is what will happen if EARN IT passes. (For context, Trump wanted to get rid of Section 230 because he knew it would lead to mass govt surveillance and censorship of minorities online.)

This is really not a drill. Anyone who makes or consume anything “adult” and LGBT online has to be prepared to fight Sen. Blumenthal’s EARN IT Act, brought back from the grave by a bipartisan consensus to destroy Section 230. If this bill passes, we’re going to see most, if not all, adult content and accounts removed from mainstream platforms. This will include anything related to LGBT content, including SFW fanfiction, for example. Youtube, Twitter, Reddit, Tiktok, Tumblr, all of them will be completely gutted of anything related to LGBT content, abortion healthcare, resources for victims of any type of abuse, etc. It is a right-wing fascists wet dream, which is why NCOSE is behind this bill and why another name for this bill is named in reference to NCOSE.

NCOSE used to be named Morality in Media, and has rebranded into an "anti-trafficking" organization. They are a hate group that has made millions off of being "against trafficking" while helping almost no victims and pushing for homophobic laws globally. They have successfully pushing the idea that any form of sexual expression, including talking about HEALTH, leads to sex trafficking. That's how SESTA passed. Their goal is to eliminate all sex, anything gay, and everything that goes against their idea of ‘God’ from the internet and hyper disney-fy and sanitize it. This is a highly coordinated attack on multiple fronts.

The EARN IT Act will lead to mass online censorship and surveillance. Platforms will be forced to scan their users’ communications and censor all sex-related content, including sex education, literally anything lgbt, transgender or non-binary education and support systems, aything related to abortion, and sex worker communication according to the ACLU. All this in the name of “protecting kids” and “fighting CSAM”, both of which the bill does nothing of the sort. In fact it makes fighting CSEM even harder.

EARN IT will open the way for politicians to define the category of “pornography" as they — or the lobbies that fund them — please. The same way that right-wing groups have successfully banned books about race and LGBT, are banning trans people from existing, all under the guise of protecting children from "grooming and exploitation", is how they will successfully censor the internet.

As long as state legislatures can tie in "fighting CSAM" to their bullshit laws, they can use EARN IT to censor and surveill whatever they want.

This is already a nightmare enough. But the bill also DESTROYS ENCRYPTION, you know, the thing protecting literally anyone or any govt entity from going into your private messages and emails and anything on your devices and spying on you.

This bill is going to finish what FOSTA/SESTA started. And that should terrify you.

Senator Blumenthal (Same guy who said ‘Facebook should ban finsta’) pushed this bill all of 2020, literally every activist (There were more than half a million signatures on this site opposing this act!) pushed hard to stop this bill. Now he brings it back, doesn’t show the text of the bill until hours later, and it’s WORSE. Instead of fixing literally anything in the bill that might actually protect kids online, Bluemnthal is hoping to fast track this and shove it through, hoping to get little media attention other than propaganda of “protecting kids” to support this shitty legislation that will harm kids. Blumental doesn't care about protecting anyone, and only wants his name in headlines.

It will make CSAM much much worse.

One of the many reasons this bill is so dangerous: It totally misunderstands how Section 230 works, and in doing so (as with FOSTA) it is likely to make the very real problem of CSAM worse, not better. Section 230 gives companies the flexibility to try different approaches to dealing with various content moderation challenges. It allows for greater and greater experimentation and adjustments as they learn what works – without fear of liability for any “failure.” Removing Section 230 protections does the opposite. It says if you do anything, you may face crippling legal liability. This actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on your platform to search for and deal with. This liability would allow anyone for any reason to sue any platform they want, suing smaller ones out of existence. Look at what is happening right now with book bans across the nation with far right groups. This is going to happen to the internet if this bill passes.

(Remember, the state department released a report in December 2021 recommending that the government crack down on “obscenity” as hard the Reagan Administration did. If this bill passes, it could easily go way beyond shit red states are currently trying. It is a goldmine for the fascist right that is currently in the middle of banning every book that talks about race and sexuality across the US.)

The reason these bills keep showing up is because there is this false lie spread by organizations like NCOSE that platforms do nothing about CSEM online. However, platforms are already liable for child sexual exploitation under federal law. Tech companies sent more than 45 million+ instances of CSAM to the DOJ in 2019 alone, most of which they declined to investigate. This shows that platforms are actually doing everything in their power already to stop CSEM by following already existing laws. The Earn It Act includes zero resources for proven investigation or prevention programs. If Senator Bluementhal actually cared about protecting youth, why wouldn’t he include anything to actually protect them in his shitty horrible bill? EARN IT is actually likely to make prosecuting child molesters more difficult since evidence collected this way likely violates the Fourth Amendment and would be inadmissible in court.

I don’t know why so many Senators are eager to cosponsor the “make child pornography worse” bill, but here we are.

HOW TO FIGHT BACK

EARN IT Act was introduced just two weeks ago and is already being fast-tracked. It will be marked up the week of May 1st and head to the Senate floor immediately after. If there is no loud and consistent opposition, it will be law by JUNE! Most bills never go to markup, so this means they are putting pressure to move this through. There are already 20 co-sponsors, a fifth of the entire Senate. This is an uphill battle and it is very much all hands on deck.

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.

This website takes you to your Senator / House members contact info. EMAIL, MESSAGE, SEND LETTERS, CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL. Calling is the BEST way to get a message through. Get your family and friends to send calls too. This is literally the end of free speech online.

(202) 224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline. Here is a call script if you don't know what to say. Call them every day. Even on the weekends, leaving voicemails are fine.

2. Sign these petitions!

Link to Petition 1

Link to Petition 2

3. SPREAD THE WORD ONLINE

If you have any social media, spread this online. One of the best ways we fought back against this last year was MASSIVE spread online. Tiktok, reddit, twitter, discord, whatever means you have at least mention it. We could see most social media die out by this fall if we don't fight back.

Here is a linktree with more information on this bill including a masterpost of articles, the links to petitions, and the call script.

DISCORD LINK IF YOU WANT TO HELP FIGHT IT

TLDR: The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship of any and all adult & lgbt content across the entire internet, open the floodgates to mass surveillance the likes which we haven’t seen before, lead to much more CSEM being distributed online, and destroy encryption. Call 202-224-3121 to connect to your house and senate representative and tell them to VOTE NO on this bill that does not protect anyone and harms everyone.

[filosofablogger]

Just Two Snarky Snippets Today ...

Just a couple of little snippets of snark to share with you today … I only saw this yesterday, Sunday, though the interview took place last Friday.  And I had never heard of Jann Wenner until then, either.  Wenner, as it happens, is the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine.  But friends, I am begging you NOT to buy this man’s book which is due to hit the shelves on September 26th.  The book is…

[thenewdemocratus]

ABC News: Senator Ted Cruz Discusses Opposition to President Obama's Newtown Gun Agenda

. Source:FRS FreeState Anytime you are real popular in your party even if you’ve only been office for a short period of time, like in U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s case and you are a Governor or U.S. Senator, you have to at least consider running for President at that point. Because it might be the best shot that you get and you may never get another shot at it. And if you are a U.S. Senator or a…

[ttpd-chair]

Happy Ken Paxton got impeached day to all who celebrate 🎉

[jecoleje]

[ANALYSIS] How Democrats Can Win Texas in 2024

To clarify, this does not necessarily mean on the presidential level; this means any statewide office. The last time a Democrat won any statewide election in Texas was in 1990 when Democrats won the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, and Land Commissioner races that year. The last of these Democrats left statewide office by 1999. (Source for all of that)

While history may not necessarily be in their favor, as they have not won a statewide race in the 21st century, Democrats have a real shot here. For the last several years, Texas has been shifting to the left, so much so that the question of Texas flipping is no longer "if," but "when." And regardless of who the Republican nominee for president is, it is seemingly likely, as of now, that Texas will remain red on the presidential level, however, there will be a Senate election held concurrently with the presidential election. This election features incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, who is relatively unpopular for a Texan Republican's standards, running for reelection against a to-be-determined challenger.

Many Democrats are being talked about to be this challenger, but as the Republicans were reminded in 2022, candidates that primary voters like are not necessarily liked by general election voters. Since Texas is still a red-leaning state (with a Cook PVI of R+5) and Ted Cruz is the incumbent, Democrats are inherently fighting an uphill battle, yet it seems to be a battle that can still be won, assuming the Democrats nominate the right candidate and said candidate plays their cards just right.

So far, the frontrunner for the nomination seems to be U.S. Representative Colin Allred, who likely would not do too greatly in the general since Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and Elections Daily all have Texas classified as "Likely R" right now, meaning that Cruz has a very significant chance of winning, though not insurmountable. These classifications were made after Allred's candidacy was announced, meaning that he, if he gets the nomination, would probably lose to Cruz. This is also likely true for other Representatives seeking to unseat Cruz, including Representatives Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett, and Veronica Escobar. There is a Representative who may have a better shot at the seat, though: Joaquin Castro, who has been in the House of Representatives since 2013 and is the brother of Julián Castro, a former cabinet secretary and 2020 presidential candidate (Julián has already ruled out running, while Joaquin has not done the same). While Joaquin also would likely lose to Cruz given his electoral mediocrity, he may be able to make more of a dent in Cruz' margin of victory than most Representatives.

Beto O'Rourke, a former Representative and the Democratic nominee for this seat in 2018 and for the governorship in 2022, notably got the race very close in 2018; Cruz only won by a margin of 2.6%. However, given his governor campaign wherein he expressed his support for gun control, it is hard to see O'Rourke defeating Cruz in 2024.

Most notable Democrats outside of the House of Representatives are either statewide elected Democrats that are too old to win the race or members of the state legislature that do not have the name recognition requisite to unseat an incumbent senator. This is why Democrats are in such a tricky position- they do not have relevant candidates with enough name recognition to win. Republicans have faced this problem several times before, and they have come up with a solution that sees success enough of the time to keep trying it, and it may be time for the Democratic Party, at least in Texas, to try this strategy out for itself: run a celebrity.

There is a historical precedent for celebrities winning (see 2008 MNSEN; 2003 CAGOV; 2016 presidential) and losing (see 2022 PASEN; 2022 GASEN; 2022 AZGOV) electoral races, and a few Democrats or independents that may be able to have a shot at taking down Cruz.

The first candidate that has potential to run is Shark Tank cohost Mark Cuban, who is an independent, but might run as a Democrat. Cuban, by virtue of being on Shark Tank, is incredibly wealthy, with a net worth of nearly $5 billion and would therefore be able to fund a large portion of his campaign himself. Cuban's political views, though not explicitly stated very often, he seems to lean towards libertarianism, which may very well help him in the largely conservative state of Texas. He commissioned a 2020 presidential poll with himself as an independent candidate and pulled large numbers of voters from both Trump and Biden. Further, Cuban does not even need to run as a Democrat- if he were to run as an independent (or other classification, for that matter), his candidacy may be endorsed by the Texas Democratic Party, a la Evan McMullin's 2022 Senate candidacy. This would help to lessen alienation of Republican voters and make himself more appealing to conservatives while not severely worsening his appeal to liberal voters. Cuban could make a good shot for Cruz' seat, but he would have to play his cards just right to fend off a challenge from the left.

Another maybe-independent-maybe-Democratic candidate is legendary actor and potential 2022 gubernatorial candidate Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey has not publicly stated which party he affiliates with, but he heavily considered a bid (though we do not know with which, if any, party) against incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott in 2022. Though he did not end up running, the speculation of a bid was so great that polls were conducted with him as a candidate. In a three-way race, there were a few polls that had McConaughey coming in second, defeating a Democrat. There were several one-on-one polls done between McConaughey and Abbott that had McConaughey winning, and Abbott is not nearly as disliked as Cruz. The key difference here, though, is that this is a governor race and not a senate race. Since senate elections are federal and governor elections are local, senate races are much more likely to be partisan, which would hamper any Democrat's/Democratic aligned candidate's ability to win this race, which is only further amplified by the increased turnout of partisans in 2024 on account of the year's status as a presidential election year. McConaughey, who has little to no political experience right now, would also likely be best suited for a gubernatorial seat as opposed to a senatorial seat, as most celebrities successfully seeking political office start off by running for an executive position (see Ronald Reagan; Donald Trump; Clint Eastwood). Should he run, though, McConaughey seems to be pretty popular in Texas, which is more than what Cruz can say, so he may be able to pull off a victory, especially if he does a McMullinesque strategy and is a Democratic Party-endorsed independent.

The last notable celebrity that may run is Gregg Popovich, commonly regarded as one of the best coaches the NBA has ever seen. Though relatively advanced in age (74 as of 5/14/2023), even by senatorial standards (the oldest freshman senator was 75 on election day), Popovich has been politically active recently, typically in favor of the Democratic Party. Though his age might be a turn-off for some voters, his legendary status in the sports world would help him win over independent, and even some Republican, voters, which can be seen in 2020, when longtime football coach Tommy Tuberville defeated incumbent Senator Doug Jones by a margin of over 20%.

Even with any of these three celebrity candidates, unseating Cruz is a tall task for anyone, regardless of his approval ratings, though these three candidates may be more capable of defeating him than most politicians. They have the ability to shape their platform from scratch and do not have a history of making statements while still having a high name recognition that may win them a seat in the federal senate.

Regardless, Colin Allred seems to be the frontrunner for the nomination until or unless someone else more prominent enters the race. And no matter who the Democratic nominee/endorsee is, chances are Cruz still wins more often than not.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Use of the national motto "In God We Trust" is expanding from its famed placement on U.S. currency to framed posters on public school walls thanks to a Texas law that recently went into effect. Senate Bill 797, which was passed last year, requires that elementary and secondary schools "display in a conspicuous place in each building of the school or institution a durable poster or framed copy of the United States national motto" so long as the signs have been donated to the school district and/or purchased with private donations.

"We just felt like it was a great opportunity to display our national motto in our public schools," said Tom Oliverson, a Houston area Republican state representative who co-authored the bill, in an interview with KHOU. "This was a idea I had after seeing something similar happen in a couple different states."

Other requirements for the sign include a representation of the American flag "centered under the national motto," and a representation of the Texas state flag. However, the use of glitter pens when crafting isn't strictly necessary. Signs with the phrase have already started popping up throughout schools in Carroll ISD near Dallas-Fort Worth this week after being donated to the district by Patriot Mobile, which bills itself a Christian conservative wireless provider.

Soon, similar signs could be spotted around schools in the Houston area. The Yellow Rose of Texas Republican Women posted photos on Facebook this week showing framed signs that volunteers made and donated to a number of Cy-Fair and Tomball ISD schools.

Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), who also co-authored the bill, promoted the signs on Twitter Tuesday. "The national motto, In God We Trust, asserts our collective trust in a sovereign God," Hughes tweeted. "I'm encouraged to see groups... and many individuals coming forward to donate these framed prints to remind future generations of the national motto."

While Oliverson claims that most of the feedback he's gotten about the signs has been positive, not everyone is enthused about the new state-wide requirement. Cy-Fair parent Aly Fitzpatrick told KHOU that the signs were a "disgrace" and an attempt from Republican groups to hijack public education. "The point is we are America and not everyone does believe in the same God," Fitzpatrick said. "And telling children that is very confusing."

In 1956, President D. Eisenhower signed a law declaring "In God We Trust" as the official national motto. The resolution was reaffirmed by Congress as the nation's motto several times, most recently in 2011.

[ahaura]

i saw someone point out the frequency with which liberals back social justice movements... how, for instance, when ferguson happened under obama it was not popular and there were many, many liberals who found the blm movement, in a sense, "in violation of [liberal] sensibilities" (when liberalism as a rule does not challenge the status quo, only maintains it and sees any call for revolution or real change as disruptive or 'bad for optics' and therefore not acceptable) but then when trump became president and he opposed blm a lot more liberals decided that the blm movement had merit because they viewed it from a team-sports perspective rather than a worldview based on morals and an understanding of the systems in place in the U.S. - that it was more comfortable for them to operate from a "trump bad" basis rather than "the american justice system and the police are inherently white supremacist, which are inherently, automatically, and always violent"

+ that, if trump was president while israel is carrying out its genocide, liberals would have NO problem denouncing israel and demanding for a ceasefire because they're comfortable operating from the 2-party system basis, NOT from a framework based on material conditions or factors or any acknowledgement or analysis of imperialism, colonialism, or capitalism. but because biden is a democrat, and democrats are supposed to be "the decent party" "the lesser evil" "more respectable" when, in functionality - in real practice, they don't want to disrupt the status quo. (internally, maintaining systems of white supremacy and capitalism; externally, furthering U.S. imperialism by maintaining hegemony and continuing the practice of exploitation and extraction of labor+capital+resources from the global south)

which is why we're here, a month into a genocide, and liberals are so cowardly and gutless that, in the face of our democrat president allowing and funding the genocide of palestinians in order for the U.S. to maintain its military base in the middle east, liberals IMMEDIATELY jump to "well, you HAVE to vote for him still, because trump will be worse!" and go "well im powerless there's nothing i can do", immediately folding like a wet paper bag in the face of the american empire rearing its ugly head in the most blatant, naked way in years, instead of thinking "this is unacceptable, i should pressure my elected officials and do everything i can - be it combating propaganda, contacting my congresspeople or senators, protesting, or engaging in direct action - to ensure this stops as quickly as possible".

there are liberals STILL IN MY NOTIFICATIONS who go "well you'll be electing a fascist if you vote for trump" not realizing that YOU CAN'T SIMPLY VOTE FASCISM AWAY. (which is not to say you should vote for republicans; that's not what i'm saying. none of us have said it.) we're pretty much already there. it's 2003 all over again, with the patriot act and all. the american war machine is pumping out racist, orientalist, pro-colonial, pro-genocide propaganda on behalf of the ethno-state america and its allies have backed since the so-called state's inception. people are being doxxed, fired, harassed, and attacked for visibly supporting palestine/opposing israel. islamophobic hate crimes are on the rise; a 6 year old boy was murdered not one month ago, an arab doctor in texas was stabbed to death. antisemitism is on the rise as well, thanks to the conflation of antisemitism with anti-zionism (which nazis have and will attempt to co-op in order to 'justify' + then act on their antisemitism, racism, and genocidal worldviews). our government is silencing people, brutalizing protestors, and arming and funding an ethno-state committing genocide - everything that would have been called fascist if it was under trump. but because it's a *democrat* liberals place "vote blue no matter who" and "optics" over the extremely basic moral stance that "genocide is wrong and people have the right to self-determination, autonomy, and life". arabs and muslims are already so dehumanized in the west that liberals (whether they consider themselves liberals or not) consider it an inconvenience to talk about the ongoing genocide that is happening with the blessing of OUR government. in this they expose their selfishness, the shallowness of their morals, their chauvinism, and their racism/orientalism/islamophobia/et cetera.

for example, if you see israeli troops waving a gay pride flag and the israeli state touting its support of gay people while said iof soldiers are murdering men, women, and children en masse every single day and you somehow????? think that because gay people are the ones doing the killing or a state claims to support gay people is doing the killing is ok then 1) you have fallen for pinkwashing propaganda and 2) that you find the murder of palestinians, or any people, permissible by a colonial force that uses causes liberals may genuinely care about in order to disguise, whitewash, or "lessen" the severity of the injustices it does unto usually black and brown people outside of the U.S., then you are just as bloodthirsty and depraved as anyone you would personally assign those descriptors of.

once again, it goes back to resorting to a team-sport understanding of the world rather than approaching it from a material one.

[biglisbonnews]

Texas senator wants to label food that contains aborted human fetuses As per usual, another Republican is proposing a law to regulate a false crisis. This time: cannibalism. Texas state Senator Bob Hall is in a panic, worried that food companies using additives made from aborted human fetuses don't have "clearly and conspicuously labeled" packaging. — Read the rest https://boingboing.net/2023/01/18/texas-senator-wants-to-label-food-that-contains-aborted-human-fetuses.html