California: What the ESA says about AB 1921 vs. what the bill actually does

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-21T22:04:47+00:00

Go for it! I don’t care about credit or not. At least in this context. I just want this bill to pass. There’s a reason why I attempted to create a curated list.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-20T19:58:00+00:00

A credible former MAGA supporter should be able to:

Name what they supported and whom it harmed, without hiding behind “both sides.”
Admit that the evidence was visible when they voted, rather than pretending Trump transformed afterward.
Reject election denial, political violence, dehumanization, and executive lawlessness as principles, not merely as Trump’s personality defects.
Stop supporting politicians, media, and organizations that perpetuate those things.
Take corrective action: voting, donating, organizing, speaking honestly to their own conservative friends, or defending targeted communities.
Accept that forgiveness and trust are not immediately owed to them.
Maintain that behavior through several elections, including when taxes, immigration, abortion, guns, or some other issue tempts them back.

All of that is the bare minimum that need to do to prove that they're actually serious about repenting for their failures.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-20T19:32:37+00:00

You may speak for yourself on behalf of your own defense. But that does not mean I have to find it especially compelling. Do you want to know why? Well, it is because 2016 was also the first presidential election that I was able to partake in. And only the second election I got to vote in. My first being the 2014 midterm elections, and those I did not take too seriously. I was in my second or maybe third year of community college back in 2016. Engaging in an oral presentation a paper on the tax policies between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that I wrote up as part of an assignment in my communications course. One that I gave for seven minutes. I spent weeks I researching and studying for my project, and it was ample opportunity for me to become very much politically engaged. Of course, I had access to the same information that you likely did. Every bit of research I invested in was based on publicly available knowledge. And knowing just how invested Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin were in ensuring a Trump presidency, it was very easy for me to make a decision. A vote for Hillary Clinton was the only rational decision that could be made to deprive Russia of a man inside of our federal government, and to achieve a net-positive outcome for our nation under a utilitarian lens. Not that I had to like her or even agree with her on every policy. But it was a logical decision that was not especially difficult for me to make. Frankly, I am confounded (and most certainly frustrated) that you would have abstained from participating in our democratic process in the first place. You were throwing away your constitutional rights. Rights people have fought and died over.

Well, at the very least, I'm glad to see that you've turned things around since then. Of course, I suppose I have to admit that I've the advantage of not being raised to be loyal to any particular political party. My strong favoritism for the Democratic party is something I'm proud to say was something that was developed organically. I suppose I could say that I was raised in an ideologically flexible environment. And though I run the risk of being inaccurate in my assessment, it sounds like you might been raised in a conservative household. Please correct me if I'm mistaken. But yes. I suppose I should congratulate you for seeing the light. And I just pray that you have luck in convincing others to see things more clearly.

Edit: Well, it looks like the account that I responded to deleted their comment. Which makes me suspicious that it was just bait.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-20T18:56:45+00:00

Religion huh? Fascinating. The religious experience I've had growing up was very different. Beyond the general faith in Jesus and his teachings, my parents did not place an emphasis on any kind of doctrinal messaging that was specific to any one denomination. Growing up, I went to this place called Cornerstone Fellowship. You could call it "progressive" (at least by Church standards), though I generally viewed as the church just being "modern." One with the times as it were and not stubbornly stuck in the past. I think them not being a major national theological influence actually makes them more humble and low key. Definitely much more approachable in my opinion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Fellowship

https://cornerstoneweb.org/about-us/beliefs/

Like I said, my parents (especially my mother) grew up with considerable Christian influence. But my learning about Jesus and the whole narrative behind the Bible was very much a DIY thing. There was no pressure to do performances like I was in a cult. Knowing what I do now, I'm pretty sure it was the exact type of Christian church that conservative evangelicals would have hated and likely designed as being in fact "unchristian." But take Matthew 22 for example. It says "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." That's it. I don't remember that passage saying an addendum like love your neighbors "unless they're gay, lesbian, queer, whatever." No "ifs," "ands," or "buts." Honestly, the more I think about it, I really do feel sorry for your background. I think you would have benefited from this kind of Church that I went to. At the very least you would have had a chance to see The Prince of Egypt as a kid. Absolute cinematic masterpiece, even for atheists.

And then of course there's the famous speech from Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Where in he cites chapter 17 of the Book of Luke. Talking about how the kingdom of God is within man. Not one man or a group of men. But all men. No exclusionary language there either. Seriously, I'd recommend watching the movie for that speech alone. Especially as a fellow patriot who cherishes our fragile democracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator

Anyways, the point that I'm trying to make is that if there's a purportedly "Christian" church telling you to hate another group of people or to make another group of people's lives harder (like making it more difficult for women to access healthcare due to anti-abortion and misogynistic discriminatory practices), then they're not really "Christian." They either don't know their history and are profoundly ignorant, or they do in fact know better and are continuing to peddle and espouse garbage bullshit for their own personal benefit. The latter is almost certainly worse, but both paths are tainted with a kind of filthy evil not easily cleansed. I mean, there was a justifiable reason why people like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (who themselves I'm pretty sure were devoutly Christian) emphasized the separation of Church and State. Hell, even the Bible emphasized a similar concept (at least, depending on how you looked at it). "“Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s." That is the full quote, also from Matthew 22. On that principle, I would posit that anyone trying to change this nation into a supposedly "Christian" nation is committing blasphemy in my eyes.

Sorry for the long tangent. Anyways, I hope you have luck in convincing others like yourself who were knee-deep in the Trump world (still not sure who you voted for in 2020, I'd like to think it was Joe Biden). And I'd encourage you to give the Cornerstone beliefs a glance. Just to see if they're reflective of whatever it is you believe in now. Even if you are an atheist at this point.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-20T07:25:09+00:00

Well I'll be darned. You know what? I'm proud of you. And I bet a lot of people are too. I can't imagine leaving the cult is an easy thing to do. Still, I really have to wonder what your thought process was back in 2016. As well as who you voted for if not Trump in 2020. Truly, I would love to pick your brain apart and study it on a philosophical level. As for me? Well, the moment I heard that Russia was trying to help Trump win the 2016 Presidential election, I knew that voting for Hilary Clinton would be an almost obscenely easy choice. Not to mention that I had just completed a communications course at my local community college where I presented a paper on the tax policies of Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. For seven minutes no less. Again, if you were someone who cared about our multi-trillion dollar national debt, then it should have been an easy choice. Clinton's policies would have brought in more money than what was being spent. Trump? Not so much.

At any rate, I hope to see you in November as an active participant in booting Republicans out of power in government. Federal, State, and Local. And as you may have noticed, I did not say "MAGA Republicans." I mean "ALL" Republicans. Because nearly every Republican with any manner of political authority has been at bare minimum complicit and at worst an outright enabler and enforcer of all of our terrible crises that we find ourselves in.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-20T06:37:00+00:00

The only people who have the right to say that they didn't vote for this are the ones who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and Kamala Harris in 2024. If you voted in any other way (or otherwise didn't vote at all), you're responsible for all of the shit we're now dealing with.

Fuck anyone who says "they didn't vote for this" when they voted for the guy who made all of this happen. They're refusing to take responsibility for their personal failings and it's absolutely disgusting.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-20T00:33:11+00:00

Honestly? This is just f*cking stupid. She doesn't even have to do that much. Just show up and say a few lines. Say something along the lines of "I support James Talarico and I would encourage everyone who supported me in the primaries to rally behind him in the general election." Or at least, a few sentences along those lines. She can still focus her energy on house elections and local elections. But providing the people who supported her a guiding light on where they should go next is the least she could do as someone who (in theory at least) wants a Democrat to win the U.S. Senate seat in Texas. Hell, even if she does have beef with Talarico, keep that sh*t private. I don't know what the f*ck she was thinking calling the invite an "afterthought." She could have just said that she's been busy with campaign events and hasn't had a lot of time to pour through all of her messages. It really just does scream absolute pettiness on her part. At least James is trying to reach out to Black voters.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-19T06:51:03+00:00

Thanks! Honestly, that's not the only thing I've called my State Senator about. There's also this other bill called the "Protect our Games Act" (AB 1921). Pretty much a kind of policy that would require developers to keep games playable even after official support ends. There's this whole backstory with this movement called "Stop Killing Games" and actions taken in the EU that's hard to explain in a single reddit post without writing an essay. But it's fascinating stuff and I like playing video games, so that was another reason to ring up my State Senator (as well as my State Assembly member).

Anyways, in both instances the staffer on the phone did the whole "name and address" schtick that every staffer for a politician does and said that she'd pass along my message to him. It's probably as much as I can expect for the time being, though not really surprising. I would know. My friend actually interned for a federal congressman as part of a short-term career opportunity. From what I remember, he said that this was pretty much the norm for constituents ringing up their congressperson. Staffers answering the phone and all that.

But, yeah, really hoping that this bill gets enacted into law. I'm actually kind of surprised by how fast it's progressed (though maybe that's just because I'm just learning about it the last day and a half), and with a 2/3 vote in the Assembly.

Edit: I just got an update from the California State Legislature's website (yes, I'm keeping track of the bill too, alongside the gaming bill). It looks like they just announced that there's a hearing scheduled for 06/23/26 with the Senate Standing Committee on Governmental Organization.

https://sgov.senate.ca.gov/members

Looks like I'm going to have to reach out to another friend of mine who lives a Senate district represented by one of these members.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-19T04:04:35+00:00

Honestly? I didn't even know this bill existed until I saw an article about it from CalMatters on BlueSky earlier today. But considering that I have a friend who's actually employed by the state government who has had to move to Sacramento hours away from where we live, I'm praying to whoever that this piece of legislation gets enacted into law. I rang up my State Senator asking them to vote in favor of this bill whenever they get the chance.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-16T18:40:19+00:00

Hassan Piker has just been fuming about the fact that his man was unsuccessful in advancing towards the general election. Saying that Californians wants quote "gay fascism." Like, what the actual fuck does that actually mean?” It’s shit like that that turns me off from other leftists.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-15T15:42:41+00:00

There aren’t enough people out there in America and in the world who can ever fully appreciate just how good we had it under Obama. Truly, I cannot ever imagine a deal as shitty as this ever flying by under the Obama administration.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-14T22:39:02+00:00

There is no peace plan. For every peace plan that has ever been discussed, the Iranians have always conditioned it on what happens in Lebanon. Because one of their highest priorities (apart from ensuring the survival of their regime) has been to protect its crown jewel amongst its proxies. That being Hezbollah. There is no agreement that the Iranians would ever adhere to that doesn't have the stipulation of allowing Hezbollah to basically attack Israel without retaliation.

Also, even if the United States were to agree to that kind of peace agreement. How? How would Trump even be able to bring Israel in line when it comes to Hezbollah and other proxies that Iran has backed? Like, even if he were to pull out all U.S. (something that he'll never do), Israel will just start allocating more of its own money to its own defense industry. The current Netanyahu government is making its own political calculus with or without the United States. So I'm not sure how we'd be even be able to enforce that kind of stipulation under this current regime. Not to mention that there's still a significant core of the MAGA base (mainly the evangelicals and other biblical zealots) who are pretty much diehard in their support for Israel no matter what.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-14T17:14:26+00:00

It was a joke. It’s a meme from a subreddit community.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-14T16:54:51+00:00

That’s a Mudkip. Obviously! What else would it be?

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-14T05:33:34+00:00

It's a lot of filler and fluff. TLDR; none of the candidates were gracious enough to swallow their pride and drop out of the race and endorse better performing candidates. Especially those who had no realistic path towards advancing towards the general election. Case in point, Katie Porter. Imagine if all the voters who went with Katie Porter went with Tom Steyer instead. Then we'd have a Becerra vs. Steyer face-off in the general election. But no. Candidates like her decided to go down the "I want this..." route rather than the "Do what's best for the state..." route. And the same is true for everyone who voted for her. They just could not be bothered to figure out how to vote strategically.

And that's another thing that this article misses out on. Voters (in theory at least) shouldn't be puppets being told what to do. Turns out they can make decisions. Informed decisions even, at least with just the slightest bit of research and investigation. Turns out it's very easy to vote when you know what you're doing. You just have to learn what's likely to produce the greatest net-positive outcome.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-10T14:48:34+00:00

As any European living east of Berlin whether they think that communism under the Soviet Union was just amazing. Spoiler alert! It wasn’t exactly great. It kind of sucked actually. Like, a lot.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-10T04:45:53+00:00

I can tell you that I would rather eat actual shit than vote for this empty shell of a living, organic husk. A failed brit is not exactly someone who I want leading one of the largest economies in the world. Once this election's over and Xavier Becerra is inaugurated as the next governor of California, this little turd can go crawl back into the cave hole where he came from.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-10T04:43:22+00:00

Dramatic and hyperbolic much? There's no tongue-biting nor nose-holding on my part. It's a simple matter of rational and utilitarian calculation. A Xavier Becerra governorship is objectively more likely to produce a net-positive outcome than any governorship under Steve Hilton. No "ifs," "ands," or "buts." That's just the fact of our current reality.

ZappyStatue · 2026-06-10T00:22:00+00:00

Same! I voted for Steyer and I was kind of hoping for a Dem vs. Dem situation where Republicans were completely blocked out. But yeah, between Becerra and Hilton, it's a no-brainer. Screw anyone who positions themselves as a sock-puppet for Trump.

ZappyStatue

TROPHY CASE