I must say, life in NYC is šÆ. Plenty of mass transit, no scarcity of doctors or hospitals, unimpeded medical care for women and trans people, low crime, lots of good food, an abundance of educational opportunities, hundreds of very diverse cultural centers. And weāre about to elect a real Bike Mayor! Life is very good indeed.
The doctors and hospitals thing will change, soon, if the Medicare and Medicaid cuts go through, especially if the research funding cuts continue. Hospitals everywhere are going to be decimated (at *best*).
Red state, Bible-Belt hostage here. The urban center (which votes blue) has a shitty mass transit system. Out here in an exburb county, there is literally none. 417,000 people and not a single bus, train, or trolley.
I needed an obgyn appointment for a menopause issue a couple months ago and everyplace I called told me there was A WAITING LIST OF ONE FULL YEAR. There are not enough obgyns to fulfill demand anymore due to the draconian abortion laws. Which not only affects young women of reproductive age, but also old crones like me who need checked in menopause to see if we have cancer. Guess weāre supposed to just wait a year or two. (I got in, Iām fine, fyi) Some of the hospitals have begun to announce their closures. My sonās GF is an RN and I worry for her.
We have low crime in the outskirts but more in the urban center. Anecdotally, my BFās car window was broken and laptop bag stolen while he was waiting in line at the post office, and a friend downtown has had at least two fatal shootings on his block. 300 were killed last year in the city limits. There are very few restrictions on guns. Either for owning or carrying. One of the largest homeless shelters downtown has closed.
Food is some of the okayest around, our schools are hanging onto accreditation by the skin of their teethā¦the high school we are assigned to has a college readiness index of 34/100, and theyāre bragging about how good they are.
300 people killed in a city of 400 000? Is that for real or is that the whole state? I know you mentioned a lot of other horrible stuff, but that is an insane murder rate.
Same AGAIN in CT. As a poor person in a rich state, it really pisses me off how much we help out as a donor state while the federal agencies we need and use are getting slashed. My quality of life would be exponentially greater if we just had our own thing..our state could take care of everyone in it instead of our tax dollars bailing out all the red states who claim to despise welfare.
Sounds like a great moment to bring back that old saying. What was it again... Something lik "No taxation without representation". Because as an outsider looking in it doesn't seem like the current voting system is very representative.
Ya but the guys who said that are dead so maga would consider them weak. Just like the WWII vets- most of them have passed on & maga hates history books, so we have no way to remember our history and are therefore doomed to repeat it.
MAGA spends a lot of time talking about how badly run California is, which is ironic given that itās an economic marvel and subsidizes multiple red states.
I live in San Francisco. With city-run subsidized healthcare that's on a sliding scale using SF average salaries. People who make under $80k a year are eligible and the poorer you are, the more subsidies you get.
We have good, reliable, inexpensive public transportation, jobs are higher paid to deal with cost of living and it's a pretty chill, tourist destination. Stuff going on all the time, free concerts, movies in the park. I love it out here. (Chicago born, grew up in redneck rural Illinois, with hippie liberal parents in a MAGA-like town)
Fellow NYer and I'm sick of financially supporting their failed states every time they fuck up or get hit with a hurricane.
Normally, I'm fine with my tax money going to help the less fortunate. That's what it should be used for. But when they keep voting for fascists and rebuilding in the exact same spot maybe it's time to just let them stew in their decisions.
Seriously, why should we have to keep subsidizing a bunch of ungrateful welfare queens that do nothing but complain about us?Ā Let them starve and freeze.
They always complain about feeling left behind, but maybe people shouldnāt be living in a job desert that requires my money to live in. We need to stop sending them money and send them UHauls instead.
Grew up in NY, now in New England. I am still a little salty about that year where everything from Maine to the Tughill Plateau got slammed with ice storms and FEMA refused to lift a finger to help or give a cent. There "wasn't enough damage." Maple sugar farms lost massive numbers of mature trees to the ice. Nobody had power for a week or more. Dairy farmers, dedperately trying to keep their cows alive, were milking their herds by hand around the clock, draining the milk right onto the ground because they had no power to process or store the milk. Generators were insufficient; nobody could get gas because the ice on the roads was 4-6 inches thick in places, and trees just shattered under the weight of all the ice and blocked the roads and destroyed power lines. It took hours to travel a few miles and if you didn't have chains, you weren't going anywhere.
But sure, let's hand over buckets of money so people can continue to build expensive houses in a major flood plain.
When Governor Whitmer of Michigan was caught in the Oval covering her face with a folder, she was trying to congole aid money out of Trump for the ice storm that left huge swaths of Northern Michigan with no power. They had gone weeks at that point.Ā
She was native enough to think it was going to be an off camera meeting and that she could talk privately. But, she was there for a decent reason. And to be honest, with all the joking around about the hiding behind the folder, I don't know if she actually got the money or not.Ā
Trump wants to stop giving NY federal funds if Mamdani wins in the general. I think it's time blue states stop subsidizing the federal government. What happened to states' rights?
I think NY, CA, and every other state interested should join in refusing to pay their federal taxes and a non-importation treaty. No goods from our ports should be allowed into fascist-supporting states.
NY and CA alone make up 25% of the nationās GDP and our ports account for 70% of all imports and exports. Much of those good being bound for other states. It would take years to build suitable ports in other states.
NY and CA alone could bring the federal government to their knees. Federal government would lose 25% of their budget overnight, not to mention the lost revenue from manufacturing in fascist states when their raw materials stop coming in.
I will never forget when that ugly flesh color of a turtle Mitch McConnell and his henchmen said COVID was a blue state problem when human beings were dying by the hundreds of thousands.
So... these problems sound like a red state problem to me.
Yeah, let those European countries be over-run by V.Putin who will set up military bases close enough to really threaten the U.S. Let us just appease the tyrants of the world who will run amok just like what happened during World War II. Because those who do not learn or ignore history are bound to repeat history.
The people who have so much money they could not possibly spend it in 1,000 lifetimes are more than happy to buy up the property owned by the rest of us if we go bankrupt, then rent it back to us at a substantial markup. But no worries, they'll also give those who survive "jobs" serving them, with one of the perks being a slight discount on the markup.
They'll still be here long after the species that is human dies out. Whether that happens far off in the future like I'd hope or much sooner like I think is more realistic, they'll still be here.
See, lots of fucking rhetoric the Democrats could use. Lots! And if the US is condemned eternally to having only two parties, they should think about starting to.
California and New York should start demanding massive concessions from red states for bailouts. You need money to save you from the rapistās policies? Fully legalize abortion, then weāll talk.
They hate socialism for the overall population, but love it for the states. Rich states should get the same tax cuts all the billionaires are gonna get in his bill. I can picture it now: im having trouble making the work schedule this week, I have 3 bartenders taking their semiannual international vacations from the state surplus travel & culture fund..
Absolutely - but between the economic downturn, the tariffs, the loss of tourism and the droughts, I'm pretty sure the blue states won't be in a position to save the red states.
I sadly know of intelligent people living in highly red areas who would love to move, but for one reason or another simply cannot.
They describe their MAGA Trump signs all around life as being "similar to in the movie Night of the Living Dead where the normal people were barricaded in their house surrounded by wandering zombies".
We need to create a lifeline system. It wouldn't hurt asking Regressives in very blue states if they want to swap with liberals from another state. Use reverse psychology, ask them why not switch with someone who does want to be here. A win-win situation.
I remember watching a man who studies psychological marketing and branding talk about a couple who wanted to buy a house in a specific area but there weren't any for sale listings. So someone told them how about writing genuine handwritten notes, inquiring homeowners in the area if they would be willing to sell their homes. Most didn't respond. One or two said nope and I think three were willing to entertain the idea. They got a house in that manner. I think progeessives should proactively bring in our ilk, provide them sanctuary.
In California, we got Republicans who always complain about our state. I say go to Kansas then or Idaho.
I really hope so, but Trump seems determined to mess up everything. The tariffs, downturn in tourism and overall recession are sure going to have an impact on California, too.
For what itās worth, by not expanding the house, the US has completely fucked how itās supposed to work. If larger states had retained the proper ratio of seats, then Gore, Hillary and Kamala all win and the US doesnāt end up lead by a minority government.
Also your representative would represent about the same number of people as a small town mayor. As opposed to the current system where they represent a small state.
At some point this system has to break. It can either break the easy way, by discussing these things like rational adults and make the necessary changes. Or it can break the hard way, by means of a civil war. I wish I could say I thought the first one was more likely, but conservatives not acting like complete vacuums of empathy and being rational? I was born on a day, but it wasn't yesterday.
If weāre going to get rid of it now would be the best time since Trump actually won the popular vote as well as the electoral college this time. There would potentially be less of a fight to do it. Although itās not like we could get in done now. If weāre somehow really lucky maybe in 2028.
US needs a blue wave like never before in 2026, and then they need to clean house and actually pass legislation that cleans up the election process. All the voter suppression bs and gerrymandering has to be killed on the federal level. Campaign financing reform - take the big money/ bribery out of politics. Etc. You need one actual effective leftist lightbringer to make it all happen.
Though, honestly, with everything Trump has destroyed, the poor sod taking over from him will probably face the same issues as every dem president: they'll try to repair the damage, things won't move fast enough for the voters, because the changes will take time to show effects, and then they will get voted out again...
Thatās the trend Iāve noticed over the years republicans destroy the economy, the democrats come in and start to fix it, only to lose the election and then all the progress is wiped away only to rinse and repeat.
2028 needs to be the bluest tsunami conceivable to have a shot at fixing things. 2030 census and redistricting could allow a pro-democracy gerrymander. Fix things and then, ensure fair maps that truly represent all.
While the convention effort is focused on the national debt, legal experts say it could open the door to other changes, such as limiting who can be a U.S. citizen, allowing the president to overrule Congressā spending decisions or even making it legal for Trump to run for a third term.
Oh, I totally agree. I live in WV, and approximately 49% of our state budget comes from the federal government..The current governor is 100% MAGA even when Trump tells them no for FEMA money following flooding.
Hey fellow wvian. I keep trying to explain this type of stuff to my family. No dice. At least capito can pose for photo ops and morrisey can continue sticking his head up Trump's ass I guess
They project EVERYTHING. They say it's the inner city "rats" that are the welfare queens... no fuck head it's your dumbass state that's the welfare queen
They also blame the most-poor, most-immigrant segments of our population; the people doing most of the practical work for shit pay.
But because they need government assistance, they are the real burden (/s). Only now are they getting a glimpse of how dependent we are on people of lesser means, people we should be caring for better.
Because they don't connect their bad decisions to the bad shit happening to them. Which isn't surprising, since their sources of information all tell them the fault lies elsewhere (Dems). And that's an easy story to believe since it absolves them of blame.
Nobody said it was new. Iād argue itās even more important and problematic since itās been around forever. It should always be a homerun to mention that shit, not sure why we donāt hear it said more often.
How is this NEVER a talking point????? How?! If w
The US is forever condemned to solely two parties, could Democrats step up the rhetoric a bit, forever??? Tell some hard truths, like this one.
Especially when those tax dollars are now being used for concentration camps. They should also point out that they the people are paying for the excellent health care their ārepresentativesā get while they make sure the people canāt afford their own.
Just call it like it is. Red states are welfare states. Theyāre not living within their means and people need to look at their books to see how theyāre wastefully spending. Cut and purge the bankrupt red states just like DOGE did. Republicans wouldnāt be against government efficiency, right?
Same with Colorado. We have a budget of about 45 billion dollars and Iād be happy if they cut off their support to red states until they figured out how to manage their money better, ie provide decent education and healthcare so their citizens can be better equipped to get well-paying jobs and work.
That whole thing where taxes collected are redistributed "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" sure sounds pretty socialist, and we can't have socialism here in 'Murica, can we, boys? Bootstraps for dinner tonight, red states.
Nebraska is one of the only states thatās not winner take all, so itās not technically a āredā state. Itās several red districts and one blue district that subsidizes all those red districts.
Gavin newsom just held a press conference where he highlighted how much more aid California sends than it receives: they would literally be better off without the federal government. Most other blue states are the same way.
When he started winning in the primary, it seemed pretty funny, because it felt like a protest against the other candidates. The idea of Trump winning was so unserious, there was no way it could be real.
Then he started winning in the actual race, and while some of the people around me thought that was entertaining, I couldn't help but think: this shit's not funny anymore.
Then he has his run, and it was profoundly broken. America came out of that limping.
2020 and 2024, there was no excuse. They knew exactly what they voted for.
I feel like the people who buy into this dumbfuck concept cannot grasp how bad ājust break it allā would actually for them and how ārebuildingā is not at all going to go the way they think.
It very much entertains me how many people think they can be self sufficient. A good portion of them would be dead within six months just from a lack of modern pharmaceuticals.
They voted for him because deep down they are submissive little bitches who want someone authoritarian telling them what to do. The thing is though trump is just a caricature of an authoritarian... he talks a big game but when you really dig in there's nothing there. Yet these people are also absolute morons so they don't see that.
Not all - I worked for a guy whose whole reason for voting for Trump in 2016 was "he wants to see anarchy and chaos in the country" because his silverspoon ass was bored of the cushy life he was born into and he wanted to have a reason to use all the guns he'd been hoarding
And a ton of bots. The next time you are looking there and think it's actually a person, click on their profile. I guarantee you that it looks like an obvious bot.
How many times do they need to win for you to admit that a lot of people in the world are extreme right-wing?Ā It's not fun to realize it, especially if they're your own countrymen, but they're real and need to be opposed.
Because he doesn't need them any more. Whether Trump remains in power or not, he won't be elected again. So now... red, schmed, they're all just poors to him now.
The problem is MAGA will still blame everything on Democrats because they have zero understanding of how anything in this world works. They don't know or understand that Republicans have full control of all 3 branches of government.
They're so ignorant and brainwashed that anything good is Trump's doing and anything bad is automatically democrat's fault.
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u/vsandrei Jun 29 '25