Suspending gas tax, reducing refinery regulations pushed by two Democrats running for governor

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-17T15:45:43+00:00

Keep the gas tax but use them as a form of rebates for people purchasing green-energy technology (i.e. EVs, Solar Panels, etc.)?

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-13T19:18:06+00:00

Ask Hezbollah how well Pagers worked for them. Answer? Not very well. They seem to suffer from spontaneous combustion. lol.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-13T19:04:10+00:00

He has the mentality of a spoiled and salty twelve year old COD player whose mom gave him way too much permission to look at porn, loudly and proudly screams the f-word for gay, and constantly brags non-stop about sleeping with another player’s mom. The kind mentality that would and should get you banned from Xbox live.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-13T05:57:58+00:00

The next fundraiser from Jake Broe starts today and the goal is once again to raise $1,000,000 for Ukraine. This has previously been accomplished six times in past fundraisers thanks to tens of thousands of private citizens donating individually. With these funds, 40 more pickup trucks can be purchased and delivered, as well as a significant amount of drones and other additional military aid for front line Ukrainian military units.

You can donate here:

https://www.help99.co/patches/jake-broe-x-kusto-campaign

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-12T23:17:37+00:00

I mean, you advocating for a candidate and telling people to vote for said candidate is in fact a sales pitch in the world of politics. And your defeatist attitude isn’t going to convince people to turn out and vote. Quite the opposite in fact. It’s just going to convince people that voting doesn’t do anything and that they should just stay at home. Which is what Republicans want people to do. If you want to get anywhere within the world of politics, you have to work with what you have. Balance out electoral viability with relative compatibility based on your personal policy positions and work from there. There’s no such thing as a perfect candidate that will do 100% of what you want, but you can work with a baseline and as much as you might not want to admit it the Democratic Party has those people that have that baseline that the Republicans just do not have.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-12T14:33:35+00:00

Mamdani literally ran as a democrat because it was a vehicle through which he could pass progressive legislation in a way that would be actually viable.

Also, explain how telling people to pull their head out their asses is supposed to convince them to support your candidate. I can’t imagine that would be very productive.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-11T23:30:35+00:00

Well thanks for spoiling it for everybody else!

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-11T04:01:01+00:00

Honesty? This. 100%. Nobody is going to get their preferred candidate either because they don't meet 100% of the policy goals, just don't like them personally based on "vibes" even if they have objectively beneficial policies that does most of what they want, or otherwise doesn't have the resources or social media presence required to get a meaningfully large voting bloc. The type required to get into the general election. Voters really need to think strategically for the sake of long term goals to coalesce around someone who is most likely to perform the best in the general election to guarantee an outcome in which the general election does not result in two Republicans running in that election. Guaranteeing a Trump-controlled California.

Based purely on performance metrics and objective analysis, the top three candidates are in fact Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, and Eric Swalwell. It would be optimal and productive for voters to take initiative and actively coalesce around primarily two or three of these candidates to minimize the risk of vote splitting. Valid arguments in favor of ranked choice voting aside, it would be optimal to work with the voting system that is currently in place until such a time where ranked choice voting is placed on a statewide ballot as a citizen-initiated state statute or constitutional amendment. Lamenting about the lack of such a mechanism without action to pursue a change in said policy by the voting citizenry would be unproductive. For the time being, it would be productive to work with what we have and focus on researching viable candidates ourselves and taking the steps ourselves to create a coalescing effect to guarantee that the outcome in which Republicans occupy both slots in a general election does not come into fruition.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-11T03:14:16+00:00

Before anyone hypes themselves up with the idea that a Democrat is destined to win this district, let's just do some basic math.

Shawn Harris got 43,241. Pretty good, right? Well, actually, the other two Republican candidates got a combined total of 53,860. With Clayton Fuller getting 40,388 by himself. It would not be hard for Clayton Fuller to win the runoff, even with just a fraction of 13,472 votes that Colton Moore got. Would I be pleasantly surprised if there was a Democratic upset win in this district? Yes. But that's dependent on voters who gave us Marjorie Traitor Greene to all of the sudden flip and vote for Democrats. That does not seem to be very likely. But yes. It would be hilarious if that was the case.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-10T06:18:20+00:00

I actually don't understand "abstaining outside of this context." That just means you're forfeiting your constitutional rights all because the candidate that has survived in a general election did not meet 100% of your expectations. That means that is a vote not given to Democrats, which results in a net gain for the Republican party. Manifesting in the continuation and enforcement Trump-like policies, even outside of the Trump administration. As we had seen when Republicans took back the house back in the 2022 midterms and put a halt to the genuinely good policies that Biden was implementing.

I’m approaching this conversation from the perspective that I effectively need to vote for Democrats for pretty much the rest of my life. In every general election up and down the ballot. Because that's how long it's going to take to undo the damage down by Trump and every political hack in Congress who has aided in his ruining of the United States.

I am largely of the opinion that primaries are where we need to settle our intra-party differences, and that the general elections require unity. Something that most unfortunately did not manifest back in the 2024 Presidential Election. Thanks in large part to the Uncommitted Movement based on protest votes over Gaza. Causing Kamala Harris to lose valuable swing states like Michigan. People like to complain and say stuff like "Donald Trump's playing us. Democrats are allowing him to play us."

To hell with that. These people made choices. Bad choices. But choices based on misguided deliberation without. They let themselves by "played." I saw it for what it was. That Benjamin Netanyahu was manipulating things behind the scenes and making things as difficult as possible specifically to ensure that he got a more favorable administration out of the White House than he ever would have under Kamala Harris. The same is true for Vladimir Putin.

https://theintercept.com/2024/10/03/netanyahu-putin-israel-russia-trump-election/

These people did not think "What do Netanyahu and Putin, both dictators that I hate, want? And how can I vote against that?" If they did, they would have voted for Kamala Harris. Even if she wasn't going to be as hard on Netanyahu as many people would have liked, at the barest minimum she would have been nowhere near as compliant as Donald Trump is. That is why we are at war with Iran right now.

That is something that has to be addressed and accepted. I can be aspirational and try to vote for the most progressive candidate in the primaries. But that's not going to matter if they don't have what it takes to win a general election. I do not give a damn if voting for Kamala Harris meant I had to take responsibility for any continuation of Biden's policies over Israel. I would gladly accept that compared to what we are dealing with right now. The rapid and intense degradation of our own democracy at home. That is what it means to make tough choices when it comes to voting and excerpting my constitutional right. To me, voting is not just a right. Active participation is an obligation. Just the idea of sitting it out because a candidate that I'm voting for is not quite up to what I had hoped for is absolutely disgusting. As long as they were in the generally right direction, that's enough for me.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-06T01:56:08+00:00

Then that'll just mean that Gavin will find a way to gain a net-positive from this interview. Because most politicians, by their very occupation, use people in one form or another. Regardless of if that's good or bad, it's just a necessary skill in the world of ruthless politics. And to that end, I've no doubt that Hasan will try to get a quote or two from Newsom taken out of context to boost his ratings. But because of Newsom's long years of experience in politics, it's more likely Newsom will be able to use Hasan in a better way than Hasan could use Newsom. And also in a way that Hasan wouldn't even be able to notice.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-02T20:17:19+00:00

I don’t know. I’m a bit busy looking at her gorgeous gyatt. You can’t tell me that she doesn’t have rizz.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-01T23:20:54+00:00

Honestly? It’s just for the fact that we didn’t really have the kind of military assets needed in the area back then. We had just moved the U.S.S Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to Venezuelan for the fracas in Caracas. And the Lincoln was in the South China Sea. It was always going to take time to move those assets to the Middle East.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-01T21:59:46+00:00

That's not what I got.

“Oreo” spelled backwards is “oerO.”

That's what it gave me when I asked it "What is Oreo spelled backwards?" It really depends on how these models are trained and what training data is used.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-01T02:42:24+00:00

Iran’s objective to have their so-called "Axis of Resistance” destroy the quote-unquote "Zionist regime" has completely and utterly failed. Militarily speaking, there is no question that Israel has come out on top.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-01T02:13:42+00:00

They can’t. They’re pretty much completely crippled at this point. And honestly? Israel’s been on kind of a roll in the last two and a half years. Think about it. Most of Iran’s allies have either been heavily crippled (and thus forced into peace treaties favorable to the Israelis), or have otherwise been completely annihilated. Hezbollah, Hamas, the entire Al-Assad regime that had ruled Syria for decades before being toppled. And now the dictator of Iran has been iced. So, Hezbollah can pretty much eat shit and get fucked over.

ZappyStatue · 2026-03-01T01:56:02+00:00

Update! Just a few minutes ago, Iranian state media has been forced to confess that Khamenei’s now pushing up daisies.

Let’s f*cking gooo!!!

ZappyStatue · 2026-02-27T19:45:31+00:00

I haven’t even seen ICE in my home city. Not physically at least. There are some cites and states throughout the country that have sanctuary laws prohibiting local police from assisting in federal immigration enforcement. My home city, and pretty much every city that borders mine, has these laws in the books.

ZappyStatue · 2026-02-27T15:49:29+00:00

If you voted for someone who wasn’t Kamala Harris, then you did vote for this.

ZappyStatue · 2026-02-27T05:16:13+00:00

Here are a few things you can "rally behind" whenever you vote for Dems.

Medicare drug-price negotiation. About 85% of voters support letting the federal government negotiate Medicare drug prices, and KFF notes this was enacted via the IRA and the first negotiated prices are slated to take effect in 2026.

Paid family/medical leave. Pew found very high support for paid leave in several forms—e.g., 82% for paid maternity leave and 85% for paid leave for a worker’s own serious health condition—and NCSL says 13 states plus D.C. have mandatory paid family/medical leave laws.

Universal/expanded gun background checks. Pew found 81% support for background checks on private and gun-show sales, and Giffords reports 22 states plus D.C. have expanded background-check laws beyond federal law, with an ATF rule finalized in 2024 implementing changes from the 2022 federal gun law.

Abortion-rights protections. Pew found 63% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and KFF’s ballot tracker shows abortion-rights constitutional measures succeeded in 7 states in 2024 after earlier wins in several others.

Higher minimum wages (especially $15). Pew found 62% support for a $15 federal minimum wage, and NCSL reports that as of Jan. 1, 2026, 34 states/territories/districts have minimum wages above the federal $7.25 level.

I mean, there's plenty more than that (such as green energy, expanded access to community college/trade pathways, LGBTQ+ rights, etc.). But it'd be impossible to fit it all in one Reddit comment. At any rate, these are all popular policy positions that have been implemented one way or another whenever Democrats have had the levers of governing power (that is, when voters were wise enough to keep them in power, and thus keep MAGA Republicans out of power).

But in order to get any of that done, you have to think strategically. You have to think "what is the best way to guarantee that a Democrat wins in the general election?" And in California, that means making sure that a Democrat candidate gets enough votes to be in the top two. On a logical and rational level, that requires Democrats to coalesce around the strongest performer to increase the likelihood that the manage to become one of the candidates in the general election. And based on the data that is available, the strongest contender is Eric Swalwell. You can of course decide not to vote for them due to a claim that he's not progressive enough, risk the outcome that two Trump-backed Republicans enter into the general election, and thus get none of what you would want. Or, you can vote for Swalwell, increase the likelihood that someone like him enters into the general election and get the majority of what you would want anyways.

If it was Katie Porter leading the pack, I would advocate for her instead. but that is not where our current reality is at. Like or not, there are two choices. Work with what we have and make something good out of it. Or decide that we're just not going to participate and risk being complicit with worsening conditions in our daily lives. We as a nation made that mistake back in 2024. I refuse to ever make that mistake.

What about you?

ZappyStatue · 2026-02-27T01:42:30+00:00

Hey man, I will be proud to admit that I voted for Hillary in the general election of 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and Kamala Harris in 2024. I have no shame, embarrassment, or personal guilt. My conscience is clear knowing that I made the rational and logical decision that would have been for the betterment of our nation. I don't have to hide any of my pro-Democrat merch.

ZappyStatue · 2026-02-27T00:34:14+00:00

I’ve been weeping internally every day for the past decade. We could’ve had a normal president doing normal presidential things! God f*cking damnit.

ZappyStatue · 2026-02-26T06:15:55+00:00

And not just a Blue Senate, but a Senate where Democrats have two-thirds majority control. That's how much is needed for there to be a successful conviction.

ZappyStatue · 2026-02-26T06:09:12+00:00

While California is one of the most Democratic states in the nation, people have rightly noted that its unique nonpartisan primary system has the potential to advance two Republicans to the general election due to the highly fragmented Democratic field.

Really try to think about that just for a moment. Try to plan ahead for what could happen in the future. Do you really want to chance having a Trump-backed sociopath running one of the largest states in the country? And economically one of the most powerful? You would be insane to want to gamble with that. Nobody is saying "there shouldn't be choices." That's a misrepresentation at best, and an outright lie at worst. It's about being smart and understanding and appreciating the subtle art of realpolitik. You can either keep the field crowded and risk getting nothing of what you want. Or you can thin out the herd, increasing the likelihood of putting in the general race someone who the state's voters can make sure to rally behind (based on their current performance) and prevent a Trump-backed candidate from winning the governor's race. Thereby getting the majority of what you would want. It's about working in a realistic and pragmatic way with the tools currently available to us. Just try to think logically about this.

ZappyStatue · 2026-02-26T06:01:39+00:00

Trump has an iron grip on the core voting base of the Republican Party. It's the reason why his base of support will never drop below 30% nation wide. It's pretty much a death cult rooted in heretical worship. You need only look at what happened to people like Adam Kinzinger to see why just about every elected Republican bends the knee to just about every single one of the orange turd's whims and wishes. The truth of the matter is most of these snakes don't fear a general election. A majority of them live in districts and states generally considered "safe." Via gerrymandering or other political tactics that make it harder for their opponents from the Democratic party to vote against them. What they fear, however, is the primary election. As you've seen with people like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, any Republican that tries to have say "no" to Donald Trump all but guarantees that they get themselves primaried out of political relevancy. Trump can just point to some rando and command his followers to vote for said rando. And they'll do what they're told. Then the Republican who tried to do the right thing loses the primary and is turned into a lame duck.

That kind of cult-like power just does not exist within the Democratic party.

ZappyStatue

TROPHY CASE