Capacity of TRUTH

Yesterday, more than 50 Texas House Democrats left the state to block Texas House Republicans’ gerrymandered map. Texas lawmakers returned to the legislature on July 21st, with flood relief at the top of their legislative priorities. But since then, they've held one single hearing on flood relief. Instead, they rammed through a heavily gerrymandered map personally demanded by Trump, with the express goal of creating five new Republican seats so his party won’t get wiped out in next year’s midterms. The map guts the voting power of Black and Latino Texans and entrenches Republicans’ rule even more. Redrawing maps usually only happens at the beginning of the decade after the Census is conducted – but when Trump says jump, Texas Republicans say how high. As long as Texas Democrats remain out of the state, the Texas House cannot conduct any business, including voting on Trump’s map. Let’s be clear: they aren’t running away from anything. They’re fighting, with every tool at their disposal, to save our democracy. And their courage is rattling Republicans: Governor Greg Abbott says he will attempt to remove them from office if they don’t return today and threatened them with felony charges. Kudos to Texas Democrats for taking this stand. We must all support them however we can in their battle against Trump’s authoritarianism. Their courage is a potent reminder that tyranny is only possible if we submit to it.

Fight!

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I love how "Sinners" didn't villify the sinners in the movie. Sammie's father told him that playing music for "drunkards and philanderers who abandon their family responbilities to sweat all over each other" was a sin. And he was right about the kind of people going to the juke joint: Delta Slim is an alcoholic, and Pearline a cheater. It would have been easy to villify them, but the movie tells us that despite their flaws, they are humans worthy of love, respect and freedom.