Tag Archives: gerrymandering

And So It Goes

Today is Thursday, October 16, 2025. In just two days, the nation will witness the largest protest rally during the Orange Turd’s second term, and this one might prove to be the largest ever. You can thank these ugly repugnicans who are addressing the spectacle of millions of people demonstrating on the street with loathsome lies and misinformation regarding as to who is actually demonstrating. To a man, all of those in this neofascistic party are describing the demonstrators as belonging to “Antifa” (which is not even a centralized group with any leader), pro-Hamas, and even Marxists, which many of these lawmakers could not even define for you if their lives depended on it. Also, as a result of drawing attention to these protests across the country, they are actually doing the opposite: emboldening even more people like myself to sign on to one of these protests in their community. Which means that this Saturday could see millions protesting this brutal regime modeling itself on Nazi Germany, as I’ve mentioned before.

Today the retribution campaign of the Orange Turd turned even uglier with yet another superfluous indictment, this time in which Chump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, has been indicted on eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information. This whole series of charges are laughable, considering that Drumpf himself should have been indicted on similar charges by former special counsel Jack Smith years ago – but wasn’t.

Allegedly, part of Dump’s Justice Department’s investigation centers around notes Bolton was making to himself in an AOL email account – at times writing summaries of his activities like diary entries – when he was working for Drumpf.

Bolton asserts he is a victim of Dump’s weaponization of the Department of Justice. In a statement, Bolton said, “When my e-mail was hacked in 2021, the FBI was made fully aware. In four years of the prior administration, after these reviews, no charges were ever filed. Then came Trump 2 who embodies what Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police once said, ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.'”

This weaponization of the Justice Department is just one reason why millions of disgusted Americans are taking to the streets on Saturday. There are a million others as to why people are protesting this Saturday. I can’t list them here. I’m sure you have some idea as to what they are.

An article in my online edition of the Daily News is quite unsettling. It concerns what the current “Extreme” Court could do to the landmark Voting Rights Act, passed during Lyndon B. Johnson’s tenure. Every American should fear the potential decision from this right-leaning court that has given the current president too much damn power. The article is written by Dave Goldiner and there seems to be no title for some reason.

As of now, this disreputable court has heard a challenge to the landmark legislation yesterday that could erase many Black-held congressional seats and help the hideous GOP keep control of the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms and beyond. The possible result of this challenge is totally frightening if this court sides with the challengers to the Voting Rights Act which was designed supposedly to even the scales in minority voting rights.

If this patently conservative court agrees to gut provisions barring racial discrimination in redistricting, this could then open the door for Republican-held legislatures to redraw congressional maps across the South and potentially eliminate 10 or more seats held by Black or Latino Democrats. This would be a total disaster.

Such a decision would amount to a political and racial earthquake that could conceivably tip the scales of control of Congress in favor of the Orange Turd and repugnicans.

As expected, Democrats warned the court not to eviscerate the law that formed the centerpiece of the civil rights movement. Talking about this, Representative Hakeem Jeffries said, “The unfettered right to vote is as American as motherhood, baseball and apple pie. It’s the cornerstone of our democracy.”

Republicans this week moved to grab another Democratic-held seat in North Carolina and could seek to eliminate two such seats in deep-red Indiana.

The case before the Extreme Court concerns the congressional map in Louisiana, which has two majority Black districts and has four other seats held by white Republicans.

If the court now weakens or strikes down the legislation, states would not be bound by any limits in how they draw electoral districts, potentially setting off a new rush to extreme gerrymandering.

Even though this matter does sound dreadful as to what the court’s potential decision could be, the justices are not expected to rule anytime soon, and it’s unclear how quickly any decision could be implemented, although it could be in time for the 2026 midterms. Let’s hope these radical justices see the error of their ways before they even consider weakening or gutting this legislation. How could they live with themselves if they give this country away to these disgusting repugnicans for far more than they should be in charge? Don’t they see what their little Donnie is doing as president? Are they fucking asleep all through his second administration?

Today I worked on my protest sign that I will proudly carry on Saturday. It’s a little offensive, (it shows Dump – not really him at all – taking a dump on a toilet seat, with the caption, “The only throne for this asshole!” written across it, with a “No Kings” crown above it), but it certainly delivers the message that this country had a revolution against a king close to 250 years ago, and this is a good time as any to register our disgust with our president displaying monarchical tendencies at this present moment.

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Monday, August 18, 2025. The Texas Democrats, equaling more than 50, who fled the state in the wake of their repugnican colleagues’ undemocratic redistricting of the state map, have now returned, restoring a quorum and allowing the shameful GOP’s efforts to proceed. This new development is covered in an online MSNBC article entitled “Texas Democrats who fled state in protest of gerrymandering return home, restoring quorum,” by Erum Salam.

A more outrageous corollary to this shameful episode in the further erosion of our fragile democracy is the news that I just heard on the Rachel Maddow show tonight about one lone Texas state representative named Nicole Collier, a six-term Democrat representing Fort Worth, who is now being detained in the Capitol only because she refuses to sign a “permission slip” that would place her under 24/7 police escort in order to guarantee that she and her fellow Democratic representatives show up for Wednesday’s special session that would allow repugnicans to ram through racist, pro-Dump gerrymandered maps that would give five extra seats to MAGA.

As of this writing, Rep. Collier is refusing to sign while invoking her First Amendment right to dissent, and the Republican response is to threaten her with arrest. According to an article on the MeidasTouch Network, this measure is “state-sanctioned intimidation designed to silence the minority party and crush any resistance to their fascistic power-grab.”

Today the true hero of the Ukrainian conflict, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and this performative president met in the Oval Office to try to try to remove the stain of Chump’s consummate fawning of his strongman chum, Vladimir Putin, last Friday. I don’t know, literally, how the meeting went, since I couldn’t bear watching the Orange Turd making any kind of pronouncements from the meeting. I did hear, though, that the pedophile in chief announced he wants to get rid of mail-in ballots for the next election, which is just par for the course of someone who is suffering from ADHD. I believe he went off the rails many times during the conference between Zelenskyy and other European leaders who were there to offer support for Zelenskyy.

Let’s just say that everyone should be disgusted with what’s going on in Texas and how this current president intends to steal the 2026 midterm elections. This would amount then to a tremendous abuse of power exercised by this president. But what else is new here with regard to this lawless turd?

And so it went!

And So It Goes

Today is Wednesday, August 6, 2025. In light of the despicable Texas attempt to redraw the political map in order to pick up more Republican seats – in which the pedophile in chief arrogantly chimed in that repugnicans are entitled to five more seats when clearly they’re not – NBC Politics has an article today entitled “Democrats draw up plans to retaliate if Republicans gerrymander Texas – but they face legal hurdles,” and it’s by Sahil Kapur and Adam Edelman and it outlines steps that Democrats could adopt if Texas gets away with this effort to suppress the vote for millions of minority Texans.

Retaliation threats have come from California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who lead states where Democrats control large legislative majorities. Two can play at this game, they say, vowing to eliminate GOP-held seats in their states.

But that’s easier said than done, according to this article. Democrats have legal hurdles to clear in California and New York, which have restricted partisan gerrymandering, which liberal advocates pushed in previous years in the name of good government. But as expected, Texas has no such limits, and that’s why odious Governor Greg Abbott can call a special session to draw a new map.

Still, Newsom of California intends to get around those limits in his state only if Texas dares to enact its GOP-favored map, which is aimed at giving GOPers up to five more seats in the U.S. House, thus giving them a majority yet again.

Newsom hopes to work with the Democratic-dominated Legislature starting this month to set up a special election for a statewide ballot measure on November 4. It would offer a newly drawn map if Texas moves forward, a source close to Newsom told NBC News.

In a fighting spirit after hearing about Texas’ immoral bid to stack the deck against democracy, Newsom said, “We’re not going to roll over. And we’re going to fight fire with fire.” The governor added, “We will also punch above our weight in terms of the impact of what we’re doing. And I think that should be absorbed by those in the Texas delegation. Whatever they are doing will be neutered here in the state of California.”

The potential Republican-held seats that could be flipped by Democrats in California if this change does go in effect is three, four, or five seats, according to Paul Mitchell, a California-based redistricting consultant who has advised Democrats and has said any new House map would be constrained by the Voting Rights Act as well as the governor’s office and the Legislature, which would need to green light it.

As for New York, changing the redistricting process must move forward as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment – a lengthy and arduous exercise that probably wouldn’t lead to new congressional maps until the 2028 election cycle, even if Texas acts before the upcoming midterms.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on All In, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “I wish I could just call a special election and change it. I’d do it in a heartbeat.” She added, “But we have a constitutional amendment process that’s required first. I’m willing to do that. I’m working hard with our legislative leaders to pass legislation immediately – as soon as they return in January – pass it in this current session of the Legislature, go to the next one, which is required, so it won’t be until 2027 we can get it on the ballot. But what would that mean – is that in 2028, we could have different lines.” Thus it appears that New York will have barriers to redraw the map before the 2026 midterms, which is bad.

Maybe only California will be able to sidestep the ingrained barriers to redrawing their maps and can effect change only if Texas gets away with its undemocratic move. The article doesn’t mention other blue states, so I’m not sure what these states could do in light of the Lone Star State’s push for unfairness in the political realm. Let’s see what happens next.

Democracy was in sharp relief at a repugnican town hall held by Representative Mike Flood (R-NE) in Lincoln, Nebraska, as he was pelted with boos, catcalls, and fierce opposition from his constituents who voiced their opposition to his endorsing the “big, beautiful bill” that his party rammed through Congress. You can say that this representative was “flooded” with his constituents’ ire at this town hall.

Thus House members are facing mounting backlash from voters on multiple fronts, including controversies around convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein and the slashing of Medicaid funding.

In light of such hatred directed at them, it’s totally inexplicable that House repugnican leadership has demanded that their vulnerable members go home on a hopeless mission to try and sell this cruel, unpopular law that election experts have said will cause House Republicans to be ‘eaten alive’ for their support of it. I say, “Let them be eaten alive by their voters who now wish them dead!” Or at least to be removed from political office.

On a personal note, this will be my last blog until next week, probably until next Wednesday, since we will return later on Tuesday. As I mentioned, we’ll be flying to the West Coast to attend our friends’ 50th-wedding anniversary party. And to celebrate our 11th-wedding anniversary on Sunday.

Have a great rest of week and a good weekend.

See you next week.

And so it went!