# The Union's in a state **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 24, 2026, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923 "2026-02-24T04:33:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/341 "2026-02-27T03:27:41Z")
[saddling up the Tauntaun to escape] [![](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gme3wshdrukjfhbnrj4ittzf/bafkreig6putzgzk66rywbvvfmyqsxbjxufn67z3vyhwystg5myds6qbt3q@jpeg) ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gme3wshdrukjfhbnrj4ittzf/bafkreig6putzgzk66rywbvvfmyqsxbjxufn67z3vyhwystg5myds6qbt3q@jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/342 "2026-02-27T06:31:24Z")
I’m had to cross-post this from the current cluster thread. Remember when the felon complained about Democrats not standing in support? [He lied about who did the killing.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/cnn-host-schools-maga-senator-031458278.html) (The **bolding** is mine.) > [@](#): > > CNN host Jake Tapper called out a Trumpy senator when his partisan rhetoric didn’t add up. > > During Wednesday evening’s episode of _The Lead with Jake Tapper_, Tapper spoke with Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin about President Donald [Trump’s Truth Social attack](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/trump-thirsts-over-bonkers-scheme-210103131.html) against Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from earlier in the day. > > Johnson, 70, used the talking point to target Democrats, whom he called “sourpusses,” and implied that they didn’t care about murder victims like Laken Riley or Iryna Zarutska. > > Democrats “wouldn’t stand as we were expressing sympathy and support for the mother of a Ukrainian young woman who was brutally murdered on a train by an illegal immigrant,” he said, noting the moment Trump brought Zarutska’s mother, Anna, as his guest to his State of the Union address. > > Tapper took the opportunity to fact-check the senator. > > “I don’t think that the woman killed in North Carolina was killed by an immigrant,” he told the senator. “It’s a horrible story, but I don’t think that’s an example of the illegal immigration criminal issue.” > > **Zarutska, 23, was fatally stabbed on a light-rail train in North Carolina last year. Her accused killer, DeCarlos Brown Jr., was born in Charlotte and has a driver’s license, according to [the Assembly](https://www.theassemblync.com/news/politics/justice/fact-check-decarlos-brown-is-not-an-undocumented-immigrant/), citing court records.** ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/343 "2026-02-27T14:13:42Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You have to be carefully taut. Krugman used that song as the Musical Coda in today’s Substack (scroll to the bottom): > **[The Economics of Faltering Fascism](https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-economics-of-faltering-fascism?publication_id=277517&post_id=189312470&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=false&r=4y8eu&triedRedirect=true)** > > Unfortunately for Trump, and fortunately for us, he didn’t inherit an economic crisis [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VPf6ITsjsgk/maxresdefault.jpg ""You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" - SOUTH PACIFIC (1958)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPf6ITsjsgk) ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/344 "2026-02-27T14:25:04Z")
In general, I was pleased by the awfulness of the speech. It was clearly aimed at shoring up support among the 30%. However, those aren’t the voters he needs to win over. The smart move would have been to take a more conciliatory tone and try to appeal more to the folks that voted for him in 2024 (independents, Latinx, etc.) but have fallen off by droves if the polls are to be believed. One could argue ‘yeah, but Trump isn’t running for office’. This, however, ignores how midterm elections are almost always a referendum on the Executive’s policies. Trump may have no desire to act conciliatory, but the GOP certainly does. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/345 "2026-02-27T14:35:03Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Latinx Yeah… I think that ship has sailed. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/346 "2026-02-27T14:35:46Z")
He wasn’t planning on winning over a single voter from the middle. He’s planning on rigging the election so Republicans can’t lose. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/347 "2026-03-05T13:49:59Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > He wasn’t planning on winning over a single voter from the middle. He’s planning on rigging the election so Republicans can’t lose Yup. He wants to prevent blue areas from voting. Well or seriously discourage it. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/348 "2026-03-05T14:22:40Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > He wasn’t planning on winning over a single voter from the middle. He’s planning on rigging the election so Republicans can’t lose. Perfect segue to something in Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack re Texas Primaries yesterday. > … > But the Texas election also revealed Republicans’ attempts to suppress Democratic voting. Jen Rice of _Democracy Docket_ explains that Texas voters used to be able to vote at any polling place in their county, but in Dallas and Williamson counties, the Republican Party chairs abandoned that system, making it harder for people to vote. Williamson County Republican Party chair Michelle Evans told KUT News in Austin that she could explain why they had made the change, “but at the end of the day, it’s because we can. It’s legal. It’s something we’re entitled to do, and it’s something that our party would like us to do.” > > The Texas secretary of state’s office didn’t provide voters in those counties with accurate information of where they should vote, creating chaos. Democratic Party chair Kardal Coleman in Dallas County and the Texas Civil Rights Project in Williamson County filed emergency petitions to give people more time to vote. A district court judge in Dallas ordered Democratic primary polls to stay open two additional hours, saying that “there has been mass confusion as to where…voters were entitled to cast their ballots on election day, and voter confusion was so severe that the Dallas County Election Department website crashed.” A Williamson County judge ordered two polling places to stay open until 10:00 PM. > > Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, a Republican who is himself running for the same Senate seat Talarico is, challenged the order, and the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court blocked the lower court’s orders. It allowed people who were not in line by 7:00 PM—the original time for the polls to close—to cast ballots, but those ballots were separated from the rest and it is not clear they will be counted. > … > **[March 4, 2026](https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/march-4-2026?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4y8eu)** > > Buried in the cascade of news this week, Sadie Gurman and Caitlin Ostroff of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that 47,635 files are missing from the Epstein files documents that the Justice Department has made public. There will be plenty more of that stuff ahead. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/349 "2026-03-11T15:18:10Z")
I lived on the forest of Calakmul (Mexico’s southern Yucatán peninsula), which continues into Guatemala as the Peten. I was once on an expedition to the border — a long hike after a long drive on a dirt road. There is a linear forest clearing along the border there, but no wall. Along the one highway about 80 miles to the north, Mexican soldiers will sometimes stop and check your vehicle for (among other things) undocumented individuals. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/350 "2026-03-11T15:48:20Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > There is a linear forest clearing along the border there, but no wall. I had to check Google Maps. There it was; a straight line nominally on the border. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923/351 "2026-03-11T15:59:22Z")
Yup. I camped there with several Mayans, and the then-director of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. (The nearest villages, fifty miles away, are NOT Mayan, but that land had been ceded as “forest annexes” to Mayan villages 130 miles to the north, in the “Chenes” region) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-unions-in-a-state/1027923.md?page=17)