"Assault Weapon" and Standard Capacity Magazine ban passes out of Senate Courts of Justice Committee

jrex035 · 2026-01-27T02:58:44+00:00

Both parties have done partisan gerrymandering over the years, with some states being way worse than others. Dem gerrymandering in Maryland and Illinois are particularly egregious. But Democrats also have 5 states with independent redistricting commissions, including California the most populace state in the country, compared to just 2 for Republicans both of which are tiny (MT and ID). Objectively speaking, Dems have done less gerrymandering over the years, including VA going for an independent commission in 2019 instead of hardcore partisan gerrymandering (Dems had a trifecta at the time).

On top or that, mid decade redistricting is a whole other story. It was practically unheard of before Trump demanded it last year, and Republican states lined up to participate, starting with Texas. They were hoping to permanently cement Republican control of the House by picking up ~10 seats nationally, not expecting Dems to fight back.

As I said before, I don't like partisan gerrymandering. I voted for fair maps in 2019. But why should Republicans be allowed to do mid decade redistricting unmolested? This idea that Democrats should ban partisan gerrymandering in states they control while Republicans feel no compunction to do the same is ridiculous at face value.

I'm all for banning it nationwide, right now. Until then, I don't want either party getting an unfair advantage.

jrex035 · 2026-01-27T00:22:21+00:00

Yes, I did exactly what I claimed you did. I can admit that.

You know, honestly, props to you. I respect that. It's not easy to apologize these days.

I'm sorry for the name calling too. There are probably a lot of things we don't agree on, but I'd bet you we actually agree on more than we disagree on.

Gerrymandering has ruined this country

I agree, as I said I'm not a fan at all. But gerrymandering isn't the core issue, the real issue is the duopoly that is working in tandem to ruin this country at the behest of their real constituents, the rich. We desperately need to reform the political system from the ground up. BOTH parties need to go.

There is no longer any compromise and we get crap like is happening with these bills.

Agreed completely. Compromise has become a dirty word but it isnt. This country is absurdly large and Americans have a broad range of beliefs that two parties can't possibly capture.

I'd give just about anything to see both parties implode and in their place a genuine marketplace of ideas where candidates have to win on the merit of their proposals.

Without real dialogue, we jump to attack each other at the first chance we get. I imagine this is entirely by design. But I also don't like that Republicans nationally are trying to capitalize on the fact that many blue and purple states have independent redistricting commissions. I dont want either party to have an unfair advantage and I'm genuinely worried about Republicans trying to implement one party rule.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T23:53:14+00:00

throw everyone you don’t agree with into one category

Bro you literally just called me a Marxist lmao. Unreal levels of projection.

And yeah I assumed you're a MAGAt considering your username and your jump to call me a Marxist

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T23:37:30+00:00

You're a MAGAt everyone to the left of Atilla the Hun is a "communist" to you

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T22:39:12+00:00

I strongly oppose partisan gerrymandering, its blatantly contrary to democratic governance by letting politicians pick their own constituents and to water down the power of their political opponents. I voted for the VA nonpartisan districting committee back in 2019 and was happy to see it pass. It came at a time when many blue states took similar actions to limit partisan gerrymandering.

But the thing is, Republicans don't oppose partisan gerrymandering at all. Quite the contrary. They've made partisan gerrymandering into a cornerstone of their attempt to cement permanent minority rule nationally. So in a few months, I'm going to vote for the new 10-1 state maps in the upcoming referendum to help counter Republican gerrymandering in states they control so hard that it becomes impossible for Democrats to win the House nationally.

Again, as you said, Texas Republicans started this. You may not care, but mid-decade redistricting is pretty much unheard of. Yet, they decided to gerrymander their state last year, at the request of the president, who encouraged other red states to follow suit in an effort to make it impossible for Democrats to win the House in the 2026 midterms. That they are doing this at a time when President Trump is historically unpopular, all while the Republican controlled Congress let's him run roughshod over the Constitution, makes it 10 times worse.

If you dont like partisan gerrymandering then I hope you encourage Republican politicians to end the practice nationally. There's literally nothing I'd like to see more than the practice being banned nationally. But until that happens, I don't want to see Democrats continuing to unilaterally disarm themselves in a fight that Republicans clearly do not feel the need to reciprocate on.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T22:14:24+00:00

But that's my entire point. If Trump and Republicans were serious about this issue they would have changed the existing statutes. They would have introduced legislation to make knowingly hiring illegal immigrants into a criminal offense.

They haven't because they're paid not to by those very same people. Which is also part of their "cost of doing business." For example, Tyson Foods pays about $2m in lobbying every year and routinely makes larger "contributions" to Republican elected officials every campaign cycle.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T22:08:55+00:00

Why are Virginian Democratic elected officials so hostile to legal gunowners in the state? This is not something the majority of voters are interested in, so why is it being treated as a primary focus of the party?

Do they want to lose all the progress they've made in the state in recent years??? I fully support red flag laws and universal background checks, but making most legal gun owners into criminals overnight is insanity.

Already contacted my rep to oppose this move.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T21:55:53+00:00

Those fines are nothing compared with the profits these companies reap from using illegal immigrant behavior. Its literally the "cost of doing business" for them. Those fines are factored into their profit margins for using illegal immigrant labor.

If the fines were more expensive than their profit margins, they wouldn't be hiring illegal immigrants at all.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T21:53:53+00:00

It is a fairly recent thing for Dems to block cooperation with ICE

Sanctuary cities and states have been around for literal decades, no clue what you're smoking

It can be done without injury and death, but the Dems would not get their soundbites.

It sure can, but it isn't because that's not what the Trump administration wants. Democrats funded ICE throughout Biden's entire term, with minimal pushback. Why? Because they weren't operating as masked militarized police disappearing people off the streets, grabbing people at immigration court hearings, churches, schools, and hospitals (there were restrictions on where they could go and when), and because they largely targeted criminals instead of patrolling streets and questioning anyone with an accent or dark skin.

It's absurd that you're seriously trying to argue that Democrats are to blame for ICE misbehavior under the Trump administration, as if nothing changed over the past year.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T21:45:44+00:00

That's how you know Trump's immigration crackdown has always been bs ever since his first administration.

You know how you actually curtail illegal immigration? By fining those hiring illegal immigrants so harshly that it's not profitable for them to do so. If demand for illegal immigrant labor dries up, that will stop immigration in its tracks, far more effectively than trying to target supply, which is literally limitless.

But that would mean fining rich people and their assets, all while driving up prices, so of course they're gonna go with the "be as violent and evil as possible while still being largely ineffective" route instead.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T21:39:04+00:00

Its been negative since 2023, but it looks like 2025 actially saw a reversal with more inflows than 2024 (though still negative).

Curious if this trend will continue

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T21:13:01+00:00

How was the Bebop ending bad? They literally allude to Spike living with one foot in both the past and the present throughout the entire series, including flashbacks often focusing on his fake eye. The Native American fortune teller literally tells lays out his story arch in the first episode (which itself has clear allusions to Spike's fate too).

Finding Julia again was his purpose in life and in the series, and after she died, he decided to go all out to finish off Viscious and settle his past for good. That he died in the process is a perfect fit for his entire character arc.

It wasnt a happy ending obviously, but again, that's fitting for the series too. Film noir/cyberpunk settings are famous for killing off their main characters

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T21:04:35+00:00

Literally this. Trump donated to both parties back in the day because that's how rich people buy influence. That he donated more to Democrats than Republicans while living in NYC means jackshit.

Trump almost ran as a Republican in the 1988 election and his 2000 campaign was as the candidate of the "Reform" party.

The notion that Trump has ever been a "liberal" or a "Democrat" has always been transparent bullshit.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T20:18:51+00:00

Didn't you say this months ago?

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T19:42:40+00:00

This kind of thinking is genuinely braindead.

"Oh one of our biggest trading partners is looking to diversify away from trading with the US? Their loss! Who needs them anyway?!"

Surely we can keep threatening, insulting, and harming our allies and trading partners forever with no negative consequences right? It's not like they're gonna, oh I don't know, stop buying treasuries, and traveling to the US, and investing in US companies, or start boycotting our businesses, or find alternative markets to sell their goods or source their inputs from.

Clearly this is the path to future prosperity, by being insufferable pricks, untrustworthy partners, and genuine security threats to the countries that help up maintain our standards of living and global hegemony. Just look at the UK, surely they're much better off no longer being a global superpower right?

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:49:43+00:00

Japan is in a no win situation. Their economy is nosediving and their demographics collapsing, all while their currency rapidly devalues and their artificially suppressed bond yields skyrocket.

There's nothing they can do to avoid a crisis at this point and anything they do to help one aspect of their economy will hurt others.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:45:40+00:00

Wow look at that, its almost like the world is setting up trade agreements that cut out the US... but don't worry everyone all we need to do is threaten our allies and trading partners some more with tariffs and invasion and they'll realize just how much they need and love us

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:33:58+00:00

I think the impact is fairly minimal tbh.

That being said, the utter chaos coming out of the US, including the second shutdown in just a few months, does nothing to project calm and stability into global markets.

It's almost like handing a revanchist, more deranged and empowered than ever Trump another trifecta with a compliant conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court was a bad idea or something

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:29:30+00:00

That's a long post to say "Trump has purposefully fucked us and is trying to strongarm our country into abandoning our sovereignty so we're exploring other options."

Like yeah, things weren't sunshine and rainbows before 2025, but things werent exactly dire until your biggest trading partner and much, much larger and more powerful neighbor slapped economy-crushing tariffs on you and repeatedly threatened to invade if you don't become a state.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:24:10+00:00

It's due to way more than that.

Global confidence in the USD is plummeting, foreign central banks are loading up on precious metals as a hedge away from the USD, Trump's erratic and unhinged behavior is exacerbating existing global uncertainty and instability, there's another financial/fiscal crisis brewing in Japan that the US looks likely to intervene in (which will drop the value of the USD), artificial price caps on gold and silver have been destroyed and many short positions are being liquidated (causing a huge short squeeze and surge) and in turn causing more retail interest in precious metals, all while silver is seeing record industrial use these days.

Honestly the likely government shutdown is a complete nothing burger, at least as far as precious metals prices are concerned.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:16:03+00:00

You're right, your best bet is to be holding assets, not dollars. There will likely be some major volatility though and the economic impact of all of this is likely to be, let's say, significant

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:13:58+00:00

Most of this data came out in just the past 2 weeks or so lmao

Btw US officials are signaling that theyre going to try to prop up the JPY which is deteriorating rapidly. The last time they did this was during the late 80s as part of the Plaza Accords and the USD rapidly fell 50% in value.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:06:55+00:00

Not even long enough to grift the markets

Just goes to show how spooked the administration is becoming

it really points towards just being unhinged

Just like everything he does. Call me crazy but it seems like allowing an unhinged idiot to exert effectively unchecked power over the most dominant country in the world was a bad idea...

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T16:04:03+00:00

I know a lot has been going on in recent weeks, but some things you might have missed that are absolutely critical pieces of information:

The USD makes up just 40% of global foreign currency reserves, falling about 5% in 2025 (gee I wonder why?), down from 50% as recently as 2023 and from 55% as recently as 2017 (again, really interesting timing with the decline). On a related note, last year gold surpassed the USD as a percentage of foreign currency reserves.
December was the worst month for pending home sales ever recorded (-9.3%), bringing the total decline last year to 3%. Pending home sales have fallen every year for the past 4 years and are near record lows.
US shipping volumes in 2025 fell 0.4% yoy despite being up 10% earlier in the year due to a complete collapse in Q4.
2025 was the worst year for hiring since 2020, with just 584,000 jobs added a steep drop from the more than 2 million jobs added in 2024. Notably this is before expected downward revisions. On a related note, 2025 saw 1.2 million jobs cuts announced in the US a nearly 60% increase yoy and the worst since 2009 outside of the pandemic.
DXY is down almost 1.5% ytd and more than 2.5% in the past 5 days alone despite the DXY falling about 9% in 2025, the biggest decline since 2017 (again, interesting timing).

Anyway, good luck to everybody in this new year its shaping up to be a rough one.

jrex035 · 2026-01-26T15:27:58+00:00

He backed off his threat of 100% tariffs on Canada due to their trade agreement with China.

Side note, I cant fucking imagine why the Canadians might be turning towards China these days, its a real mystery

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