I was given this material yesterday, but was still not up to handling the subject matter, so it had to wait. And it’s a moot point now that Abbott has ended the special session to gerrymander the state. But oh, my goodness gracious, it’s still too good *not* to share. Heads up – this is going to be long. Found the originals on Imgur and then discovered I don’t know how to insert images. Nuts. Only found the first and last one in “plain” text. Grrrr.
“DONALD TRUMP, THE LOWEST POLLING PRESIDENT IN RECENT HISTORY, THIS IS YOUR SECOND-TO-LAST WARNING!!! (THE NEXT ONE IS THE LAST ONE!),” Newsom’s press office posted on the social platform X. “STAND DOWN NOW OR CALIFORNIA WILL COUNTER-STRIKE (LEGALLY!) TO DESTROY YOUR ILLEGAL CROOKED MAPS IN RED STATES.” “PRESS CONFERENCE COMING — HOSTED BY AMERICA’S FAVORITE GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM,” the post continued. “FINAL WARNING NEXT. YOU WON’T LIKE IT!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”
See what I mean? This is GLORIOUS. This is a better troll than Trump could *ever* manage. Maybe this is partisan, but I could vote for this man for President. Of course, that doesn’t mean others who come along won’t be as good (hello, Pete? Have you decided yet?). Oof, that would be a difficult choice. *ahem* But anyhow, back to the trolling.
It got better. And better! While researching this, I also found at least one lovely troll of JD. Hopefully, there will be an opportunity to use it. JD is finding out he just. isn’t. liked. anywhere he tries to go on vacation. The UK is doing some epic trolling over there. I’m thinking they’ll step it up a notch (or three) when Trump & Melania go over there next month. Let’s have the conclusion from Gavin, and then we’ll close.
In a Tuesday night post on X, Newsom’s press office said that “DONALD “TACO” TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!!” “CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS,’ THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!). BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM — YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR — THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR ‘MAGA.’ THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! — GN.”
Well, turns out “Governor” Abbott closed the special session, redrawing gerrymandering, so nothing needs to be done in response. Pity. The Texas Democrats are heading back. I was looking forward to what California, Illinois, and New York were going to do. Good times. Ah, well.
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that of all of the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, with the exception of one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to keep going in our quest to tell the truth about Trump and see democracy survive. If you can help, please do. Thanks. Ursula
Whatever are you talking about? The Texas Senate passed the new maps and Governor Abbott will call a second special session to pass it when the runaways return. We might even see arrests made and some of the runaways dragged to the capital to ensure a quorum. Not to mention Robert Francis prosecuted.
“… a report from national and local ABC News is circulating that the Texas state House Democrats who fled the state in order to prevent Republicans from passing a new, even more gerrymandered map, have decided to return home. However, there are a few important things to note about this report:
“First, if you read beyond the headline, the report clearly indicated that Democrats were only planning to return to Texas because the special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott to pass Trump’s new map was going to end on Friday.
“Second, the report indicated that Democrats could change their plans if Abbott called a second special session.
“Here are the first two paragraphs of the national ABC News write-up of the story:
‘Texas House Democrats who left the state to prevent a vote on new congressional maps will return to Texas, feeling they have accomplished their mission of killing the first special session, raising awareness and sparking national backlash about the mid-decade redistricting, multiple sources confirmed to ABC station KTRK and ABC News on Tuesday.
‘A source told ABC News the House Democrats loosely plan on returning this weekend. Those plans could change, the source noted, if Republicans go back on their word to begin a second special session on Friday.’
“Finally, the report was based on anonymous sourcing. By contrast, the lawmakers themselves stated that no decision to return home had been made, according to The Downballot.
“This report from ABC was taken by Fox News to supposedly show that ‘Texas Dems begin to crack.’ Even New York Magazine’s Intelligencer asked ‘Are Texas Democrats Giving Up the Redistricting Fight?’ That doesn’t seem to be what is happening here at all, and it isn’t even what the original ABC News report that started all of this indicated was happening. Instead, that report stated that the Texas Dems were planning to return to Texas this weekend if the special session of the state legislature ended on Friday, and if Gov. Greg Abbott did not immediately call a second special session to to try and pass Trump’s maps. Otherwise, no plans had been decided upon.
“I admit that I am surprised by the amount of misinformation swirling around this campaign, but perhaps I shouldn’t be. The idea that the ABC News report shows hat the Texas Dems were cracking or about to give up goes right up there with Greg Abbott’s claim from six days ago that “Texas DPS and the FBI are tracking down the derelict Democrats. They will be taken directly to the Texas Capitol.” That was obviously just a BS lie from Abbott, since six days have passed and the FBI has done no such thing.
“In news related to the Texas redistricting fight, Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to have Beto O’Rouke thrown in jail, which I assume is about as likely to happen as the FBI bringing the Texas Dems to the state capitol in Austin. Meanwhile, in California, Democrats continue to move forward with their own mid-decade redistricting in response to the events in Texas.
“The Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee is the state Democratic committee responsible for electing Democrats to the Texas state House. While any funds you donate to the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee cannot be used to pay the fines that Texas state House Democrats will face for feeling the state, they can be used to help elect Texas state House Democrats in the 2026 elections. With everything else Texas House Democrats have to deal with right now–fines, leaving their day jobs, leaving their families, potential arrest, potential expulsion–anything you can donate to the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee would be a big help to them right now. They will most definitely need that money in their re-election campaigns next year.” (Bowers Media).
They are also fundraising for the TX Statehouse Democrats, for which I found a link on Facebook if any wants to contribute to their upcoming election campaigns.
https://www.facebook.com/100000154823950/posts/25098986029689878/?_rdr
Sorry, I had written a brief introduction to the above explaining what the report I just posted was and why I thought it was important to post it. For some reason it fell out. It’s from Chris Bowers of Bowers Media, and I quoted most of it, because it is not available on the open source Internet. It’s certainly germane to Susan’s post. Yesterday when I first read the news about the TX Statehouse Dems, and I saw the negative reactions from readers on the blogs I read, I thought something didn’t smell right. I don’t really know what’s going on, but Bowers is suggesting that there has been a lot of heavy spin and we’re not getting the real story. That’s why I posted it.
Link to the Downballot article:
https://www.the-downballot.com/p/texas-democrats-say-they-have-not