Hell, sue every single Republican office holder, and all their relatives. Make them DENY that they had an abortion. Make them PROVE it. Have them provide every single medical record that exists in their entire life, and then claim that they are hiding the important ones. Print big headlines “Mrs. XXX, wife of congressman XXX IS IN COURT AND DENIES HAVING AN ABORTION”.
Then someone else can sue them again the next week.
How long before we can ban guns using the same legal structure?
Just for a bit of historical perspective, in Texas prior to deregulation there were legal monopolies by power companies over geographic regions. So the Houston area had HL&P for example, and they were basically a one stop shop for electrical generation and distribution. You were stuck with whoever had the monopoly for your specific area.
When they deregulated the system, it split into power generators, retailers, and distribution companies. Consumers deal with the latter two primarily- they’re billed by the retailers, and part of that bill is a charge for the distribution company.
In general, the old monopolies split up- HL&P became Texas Genco (generation), Reliant (retail), and CenterPoint energy (distribution).
The distribution companies still have the monopolies in place- it makes sense to have one company running electrical lines and maintaining one power grid in an area. But the retailers and generation companies are more free-form. The retailers basically buy power from the generators and resell it to consumers via the distribution providers. So someone might live in a CenterPoint serviced area, and buy their power from PowerNext, but that power might be generated by Texas Genco, or it might be from TXU, or it might be from someone else entirely.
The problems in February were mostly due to the PUC and ERCOT not exercising appropriate regulatory authority over the generation companies to ensure a steady and reliable power supply in the face of the freeze. And some problems with the fee structure/pricing structure between the generators and retailers was exposed- lots of the retailers took a beating when the spot power prices went through the roof- they were still buying power, but at such a high rate that they were losing money on it hand over fist.
So of course, the Legislature is letting them recover that from consumers. Which is utter bullshit; they should have had them recover it from the generators, which would have been incentive for them NOT to let that kind of thing happen again. Instead, they’re pushing it onto the consumers… who in large part DID NOT have power during the episode, and at any rate, were not responsible for the huge increases in cost.
Beyond the de facto reversal of Roe itself, the more problematic issue for me is that the SCOTUS is increasingly, and boldly, making decisions that are ideological in tone. It used to be that outcomes were not quite so predictable. But judges have been selected for ideology first and foremost over the last 20-25 years, and this is the result. In theory, the judicial branch is a separate, independent branch of government; in reality, however, it’s an extension of partisan politics.
To be sure, jurists have always been ideologues on some level. Political leanings certain influence how to interpret constitutions and how to apply prior rulings, to some reasonable degree. But we cannot ignore the fact that the last three justices come from a very dark political place - recruited, nominated, and confirmed by the same party that fomented an extra-constitutional effort to overturn an election to the point of encouraging sedition and violent insurrection. Make no mistake about it: the judiciary, is broken. And if the judiciary is broken, then we’re just an election away from a completely broken republic.
It may be time for the OP to request a title change. It has a extra word that is no longer needed.
The only way to save the judiciary is to end the filibuster and pack the courts - that’s it. Anything less, and liberal democracy in America is dead. And that’s just for starters. Democrats still have to win local and congressional elections, and they’re increasingly at a disadvantage on that front.
As the OP: never. I despise the shitheels who govern this state and despair of those Texans who voted them into power out of fear, avarice or complacency. But Texas is more than its current government. There are millions of good, decent people here who deserve better.
I may occasionally conflate my anger at our state’s politicians with anger at the state at large, but some pecan pie and a friendly chat with a neighbor about how the bluebonnets really are in bloom this year helps bring me down to Earth.
The folks in this state are worth fighting for.
But how bad is the gerrymandering in Texas? Is a case of a large majority of decent people helpless to vote out the fuckheads because the democratic process has been subverted, or is it there just aren’t enough of them in the first place.
If somebody voted for Abbott, Cruz, Cornyn, and Patrick, I really don’t care what they think about bluebonnets.
Not sure if this belongs here, but here goes. Hopefully this article won’t be paywalled for you.
David Frum, former speechwriter for Bush 43, writes that the Texas abortion law just might backfire on the GOP. Interesting perspective.
This is a new reality, and one that opens a way for the prolonged U.S. abortion-rights debate to be resolved. If the Texas Republicans prosper politically, then abortion-rights advocates must accept that the country truly is much more conservative on abortion than they appreciated and adjust their goals accordingly. But if not, and I’m guessing that the answer is not, anti-abortion-rights politicians are about to feel the shock of their political lives. For the first time since the 1970s, they will have to reckon with mobilized opposition that also regards abortion as issue No. 1 in state and local politics.
HA! I was going to say the exact same thing.
I seriously wondered about the logistics and dangers of setting up some sort of modern Underground Railroad to smuggle women out of Texas.
I love this message board; I know that there are limits and statements which may never be broached or crossed to stay here. Saving women from these Texas Scum is the limit which we are allowed to discuss.
I have a niece who is soon to be married and who is to settle in Texas. If needed, I know a hundred places to hide her. The second half of that thought may never be discussed.
Bad. Really bad. The congressional district shapes around Houston are ridiculous.
I’d say there are a fair number of decent folk who are worth fighting for. A majority? Hard to say. Maybe a majority of Texans. But a majority of the voters? Probably not.
It’s still a solidly conservative state but less so than the representation would indicate. And demographics are changing, though that’s not a cure-all - it’s not like all the changes in the electorate hurt the state GOP.
How many times over the previous Administration did some commentator say, “This is it! This is a bridge too far that will backfire on Republicans?” And then in 2020 they won nearly every contested House and Senate race?
OTOH, Donald Trump lost by four million more votes than he lost by (save those EC observations for another time, assholes) in 2016. Dem voters can be pushed too far by Republican dipshittery, just not nearly often enough for my druthers.
Unfortunately I tend to agree. David Frum is one of those rare creatures: an enlightened conservative. This gives him a tendency to attribute greater rationality to his fellow conservatives than is warranted by the evidence. It’s possible to be overly analytical when sometimes what you’re really dealing with is just a gang of marauding lunatics. The right-wing morons who empower the extremism of Texas Republicans aren’t going to change their votes over this; in fact, this abortion travesty is a ploy to strengthen the moron vote.
I didn’t interpret Frum’s article as saying anything at all like what you’re suggesting, i.e., that Texas right-wingers are going to change their votes or that conservatives are going to be more rational.
Rather, AFAICT he’s saying that Republicans have now pandered so hard to the extremist-moron vote that they’re risking seriously rousing the other side: the abortion-rights supporters who heretofore haven’t bothered to get out the vote for abortion rights because they thought, mistakenly, that the courts would protect them.
If abortion-rights opponents are a largely energized minority, and abortion-rights supporters are a largely indifferent majority, then the anti-abortion side will obviously have influence disproportional to its size. But if the majority gets energized on the opposing side…
As Frum remarked,
An indifferent and disengaged pro-abortion-rights majority isn’t going to do much to hamper Republican shenanigans. But an angry and alarmed pro-abortion-rights majority might.
I get it, and I hope you’re right. But the historical trajectory of Texas politics suggests that morons greatly outnumber informed voters. An increase in the proportion of the youth vote may help. But increased diversity may not: while Latinos are generally regarded as liberal on many issues, they tend to be religious and to side with redneck lunatics on matters of abortion rights.
I’m not a big fan to ascribing political leanings to Latinos as a group, but it’s undeniable that Republicans made big inroads this last election with a particular segment of Hispanic voters – mostly rural, culturally conservative South Texas Hispanic voters who had traditionally voted Democratic due to the party machine down there. This law will likely be a centerpiece of Republican efforts to consolidate and expand their support among this group.
But this is a relatively small portion of all Hispanic voters in Texas. Houston urbanites and suburban Dallas soccer moms who happen to have a tilde in their name are less likely to see this particularly egregious assault on abortion rights as a good thing.
Assuming, of course, these pissed off voters aren’t already gerrymandered into solid blue districts, that there’s more than one voting machine per 100,000 residents in those districts, and that their votes won’t simply be disregarded due to completely unfounded allegations of voter fraud.