Let's Be Clear About One Thing: There Is No "Department of Justice" Anymore

It's Trump's Taxpayer-Paid Legal Department.

The Justice Department on Thursday sued to block new congressional district boundaries approved by California voters last week, joining a court battle that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026.

They've done nothing about Texas's gerrymandering, hell, Trump called for it. But gerrymandering for Democrats is illegal, according to Trump's personal lawyer, the eminently bribable Pam Bondi.

Gerrymandering for the GOP without voter approval: Bondi likes.

Gerrymandering for the Democrats with voter approval: Bondi sues.

Tab Clearing

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Pro tip: Do not believe, because you are having a conversation in public in a foreign language, that your conversation is private.
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I shot an IDPA match in an indoor range, using a FN Hi-Power. One stage was low-light, with the single light shining from downrange towards the shooter. It was difficult. Powder smoke made it even harder to distinguish between shoot and no-shoot targets.
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I'll let the chattering classes talk about the debates. Until candidates start dropping out, it's not worth my pixels.
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So the Supremes are OK with political gerrymandering, but not naked racism. Good to know.
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The NYPD has been trying to figure out what to do about police suicides. What I didn't realize is that more cops kill themselves than are killed on the job. One of the struggles for the bosses is that seeking counseling is taken by most cops as a sign of weakness and it can lead to being put on the rubber gun squad.

This is not a new problem for the military.

Corrupt Fucks Persist in Being Corrupt

Last November, a proposal to bring ethical reforms to Missouri state politics was approved by 62% of the voters and thereby became law.

No surprise, the Lege hates that and is working to reverse it. Especially the part that seeks to rein in gerrymandering.

Corrupt fucks have to keep on being corrupt.

Politicians in Long, Black Dresses

North Carolina's highest court on Friday ruled that state law does not bar lawmakers from drawing congressional and state legislative maps for partisan benefit, boosting Republicans' odds next year of maintaining their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Friday's ruling vacated the court's previous decision, issued barely more than a year ago when Democratic judges controlled the court, that had found partisan gerrymandering violated the state constitution.

When the rulings depend on which party controls the court, then the rulings are nothing more than political calculations dressed up in highfalutin' legalese.

"Calling balls and strikes"? Yeah, and the umps have been bribed.

Have The Supremes Had Enough With Alabama?

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Alabama’s request to allow it to use a congressional map in the 2024 elections that a lower court had concluded likely violates the Voting Rights Act. The brief unsigned order, from which there were no public dissents, came less than four months after a divided Supreme Court agreed that the 2021 iteration of the map violated federal law by weakening the collective voting power of Black voters in the state.

Tuesday’s order from the Supreme Court means that the redistricting process in Alabama will go forward with court-appointed experts preparing new maps that include a second majority-Black district.

Courts do not like it when parties try to disregard their orders. They take it as a direct attack on their legitimacy. Even the batshit-conservatives on the court who were in favor of what Alabama did won't stand for this sort of obstructionist neo-Confederate gerrymandering when the court has already said "no dice, assholes."

New Jersey Democrats are as Evil as Wisconsin Republicans

The NJ Democrats are seekng to gerrymander themselves into permanent power:

New Jersey Democrats' proposed constitutional amendment to solidify their party’s hold is prompting outraged objections among redistricting reformers who see the measure as a blatant power grab.

Legislators meeting in Trenton hold their first hearing Thursday on the proposed amendment, which would hand the state legislature new power to control the makeup of a bipartisan redistricting board that draws new boundaries every 10 years.

This is evil. Voters understand that this is evil. Which is why in state after stat, where referendums are permitted, voters have approved referendums to take the power to redistrict their states away from state legislators and given it to bipartisan commissions.

Gerrymandering is anti-democratic. It is done by weasels in suits protecting their political power.

It is fundamentally unfair. elections should be contests of ideas, of policies. They should not be the anointing of a younger sleazeball to replace a retiring sleazeball of the same party.

The good news is that the voters in NJ have to approve this. We'll see, next year, if they are wise to the shenanigans of their legislature.

The Difference Between Cowardice and "Brand Protection" is Paper-Thin

This is what "brand protection" is all about. It is an inside-the-Beltway-think that Trumpism will burn out of its own weight and, so, there is nothing to be gained by taking a stand and fighting it in the present day.

I think that a lot of the Democratic establishment is made up of cowards. For example, the main response to Trump's idea of gerrymandering Texas is to carp and whine. Despite the talking of governors like Pritzger and Newsom, most won't do shit to counter the GOP's attempt to set its kleptocracy in stone.

Trump's Plan to Seize Power (one of them, at least)

President Trump's campaign is reportedly in discussion with state and national Republicans to "bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority."
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Trump has been clumsily telegraphing this plot for months — not generally the smartest way to overthrow a government, which is best done in secret. It would unfold like this: The election result is closer than expected, and the ultimate winner remains unknown on election night, with millions of mail-in ballots to be counted in the decisive swing states. Trump declares victory when the (incomplete) election night count favors him, and then launches legal maneuvering to force states to stop counting mail-in ballots, papered over with some feeble pretext about the fraud the president himself keeps encouraging his own supporters to commit. Thanks to post-2010 gerrymandering, Republicans control both houses of the state legislature in nearly every contested state, and the president would presumably direct them to pass laws certifying Trump's slate of electors, even if updated counts show Democratic candidate Joe Biden ahead. Et voila, a second Trump term.

The Republicans are hoping that their efforts at voter suppression will pay off and that they don't have to so nakedly seize power. Trump may end up telling his armed militias to go into the streets.

But make no mistake: The Republicans will try this, some of this and all of this if they can. The GOP has no loyalty to the Constitution, to due process, to democracy. All they care about is power and if it means that they have to destroy this country to do it, they will.

America is not defined by its borders. It is not defined by the colors of the skins of the inhabitants. It is defined by the rule of law, by a written constitution and by an agreement to adhere to it.

But the Republicans are signaling that they are willing to rip all that up in order to seize and keep power. In that regard, they seek to transform the country into an English-language version of Putin's Russia (and a country that will, for all intents and purposes, be a Russian vassal).

The British, the Spanish, the Germans, the Japanese and the Soviet Union were not able to defeat us. We stood tall for freedom and the rule of law, however imperfectly it was administered. Yet right now, there are at least 35% of the population that will willingly scrap that if their party can keep power.

The best way to stop these wannabee fascists is to turn out on November 3rd, in droves. If you can vote early, do that.

Vote as though our democracy depends on it. Because now, more than ever before, it does.

The Caucus of Sedition

The insurrectionists of January 6th allegedly received help, including lotf of planning meetings, from Rep. Marrjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). Gosar reportedly floated the idea of blanket pardons for all concerned, which indicates that the above Congresscritters knew what was going to happen. Brooks was wearing body armor. Trump's Chief of Staff was "100% involved" in the planning.

It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. But one thing is clear: Repub;icans have given up on democracy. If they can't steal an electrion through gerrymandering and Jim Crow-esqe voting obstacles, they are clearly ready to steal it by force.

I don't see Republicans giving up on their path of sedition. We may be one election away from losing our democracy.

Democracy is on the Ebb

This is a damn good article about how Boris Johnson is methodically stripping away the freedoms of Englishmen. I am not quoting it, as there are numerout internal links worth pursuing.

The threats to our own democracy from extreme gerrymandering that imposes minority rule in many states need hardly be recounted in this post. I've written a bit about that.

The King of Grift failed at his first coup attempt. Republicans have been falling over themselves to pledge fealty to him. Republicans who were shocked, if not physically threatened by the Insurrection, have gotten over their disgust to go back to kissing Bone Spur's ample ass. They've made their loyalty crystal clear: Trump über alles. Über the rule of law, über the Constitution, über the right to vote, über free and fair elections. Republicans are so focused on "owning the libs" that they will burn down our Republic in order to achieve their aims. It is no surprise that Republicans love Putin and Orban.

It is an interesting twist of historical events that the most vibrant democracy currently may be Germany, with France and Italy not far behind.

How NJ Democrats Differ From MI & WI Republicans

NJ Democrats have a sense of shame.

Legislative leaders in New Jersey announced this weekend they would not move forward with a proposal to redraw legislative districts that would have essentially written gerrymandering into the State Constitution.

Or they also have a sense of democracy. Unlike the anti-democratic fascists in the GOP.