Re: USA News and Discussions
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:28 pm
A community of futurology enthusiasts
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https://www.futuretimeline.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=157
It isn't "getting better". Pro Life support has barely changed in over 50 years. Both sides have 0 clue about why the other side believes what they believe. Pro-Choice people think pro lifers hate women and want to get rid of women rights while pro lifers think pro choicers want state atheism and are ok with killing babies. People just stay in their little bubbles and fail to understand the other side.
(Common Dreams) California voters on Tuesday roundly defeated an effort to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose ouster likely would have resulted in right-wing radio host Larry Elder—a longtime climate denier who recently said the ideal minimum wage is $0—becoming the leader of the most populous state in the U.S.
Faced with two ballot questions—whether Newsom should be recalled and who should replace him—California voters overwhelmingly voted no on the first, rendering the second meaningless.
With 67% of precincts reporting, just 35% of California voters cast ballots in favor of the Republican-led recall effort, according to the New York Times' tally. The Associated Press called the contest in Newsom's favor just before midnight, and Elder—who was baselessly claiming fraud before the results were released—conceded defeat at his election night party at the Costa Mesa Hilton.
"I'm humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of Californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote and express themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division, by rejecting the cynicism, rejecting so much of the negativity that's defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years," Newsom said late Tuesday.
"It appears that we are enjoying an overwhelmingly 'no' vote tonight here in the state of California, but 'no' is not the only thing that was expressed tonight," the governor told reporters. "We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to people's right to vote without fear of fake fraud and voter suppression. We said yes to women's fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body, her faith, her future. We said yes to diversity."
(Mother Jones) In recent weeks, the GOP-controlled Texas legislature has passed some of the country’s most unpopular and divisive policies: a six-week ban on abortion enforced by citizen bounty hunters; a prohibition on teaching students about “critical race theory” and the 1619 Project; and a sweeping voter suppression law targeting communities of color. Despite the national outcry, Texas Republicans seem unconcerned about a backlash in their home state. Here’s why: They know they can choose their own electorate rather than the electorate choosing them.
As Texas becomes more diverse, urban, and Democratic, lawmakers reconvened in Austin on Monday for another special legislative session to draw new redistricting maps for the next decade that will concentrate power in the hands of politicians who represent constituencies that are far whiter, more rural, and more Republican than the state as a whole.
Texas has an appalling history when it comes to redistricting. Since the state was covered by the Voting Rights Act in 1975, federal courts have objected to its redistricting maps every decade for discriminating against Black and Latino voters. During the last redistricting cycle, Republicans went to spectacular lengths to gerrymander the state: Though 90 percent of its booming growth from 2000 to 2010 came from communities of color, three of the four congressional seats gained because of this demographic change were drawn to elect white Republicans. Although Latinos constituted two-thirds of the state’s growth, the number of majority-Latino congressional and legislative districts actually declined, an example of what the League of Women Voters called in 2011 “by far the most extreme example of racial gerrymandering among all the redistricting proposals passed by lawmakers so far this year.”
There’s every reason to believe history will repeat itself in 2021, especially since this is the first redistricting cycle in five decades where Texas will not have to get federal approval for its redistricting maps after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. “I’m concerned Texas will repeat the errors of the past,” says Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).