Originally published at: SCOTUS Cobbles Together Excuse to Let Alabama Discriminate Against Black Voters in New Order
The Supreme Court showed beyond a doubt Tuesday that it will never again put a stop to Republican states snuffing out the Black vote. The six right-wing justices granted Alabama’s request for a stay, which clears the way for the state to hold its 2026 elections under a 2023 map crafted to deliver Republicans six…
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The Sinister Six are the textbook example of becoming the thing (“activist judges”) that “conservatives” have asserted for decades is what judges appointed by Democratic presidents are. They are Activist Republican Justices™.
Note: I put the word “conservatives” in quotation marks because I don’t believe the terms liberal and conservative have any useful meaning anymore.
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If they win control of Congress and the presidency in 2028, Democrats would he self destructively insane to not eliminate the filibuster, expand the Court, add binding ethics rules with criminal penalties, and pass national anti gerrymandering legislation.
One hopes Democrats have learned their lesson that timidity, weakness, and fear never work. The era of Merrick Garland and Biden needs to end.
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And Clarence looks down his nose at black Alabamians and mutters under his fetid breath, “There, but for the largess of Harlan Crow, go I.”
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With Republicans, every accusation is a confession.
Every. Single. One.
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This is my surprised look.
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There is nothing to be said about John Roberts and his fellow MAGAt toadies except that they totally suck.
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Also expand the houseto 600-ish members to unrig the Electoral college
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FYI
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CBS News has fired veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley a day after he confronted the show’s new executive producer at a staff meeting.
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Skimmed some of the early commentary on X and Bluesky last night, and the outraged tone calling for Supreme Court reform was new and noticeable. The legal and voting rights commentary was matter-of-fact… they had been cautiously hopeful but were completely unsurprised, and still have lots on their plates. For them, another day ending in y.
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For the Fascist 6, this is an investment in authoritarianism. If there was any doubt about their cause, they clearly are ending it.
I think Democrats need to convey that affordability, corruption and authoritarianism, they are all part of the same rotten branch. As long as Republican politicians worship power and money for themselves, and themselves only, they will never care about an ordinary person’s plight.
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BREAKING NEWS: Strict Constructionist Fail!
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Trump Has Given Up - Paul Krugman
Donald Trump will never admit that his gratuitous Iran war has been a total disaster. But the debacle has clearly broken him. So we are now saddled with a president who has given up governing, but will maintain his grip on power wherever he can. And his power will be exclusively focused on rage and revenge.
Hence Trump has appointed Bill Pulte as the acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI), a position critical to national security.
The word “acting” is crucial. The statute creating the position of DNI explicitly requires that the appointee “shall have extensive national security expertise.” Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has no background in anything related to national security. So Trump is trying to bypass a Congressional confirmation process that would put Pulte under the spotlight. Even Republicans might shed their slavish obedience at this point, given Trump’s plummeting poll numbers and his betrayal of John Cornyn.
But Trump appears to have given up on governing — even governing aimed at consolidating his own power and legacy. He wants to punish everyone he imagines has wronged him but has lost all interest in making the government work, even for nefarious purposes. So he don’t need no intelligence, just someone who will indulge his rage. And that will be Pulte’s job.
Just to be clear, I am by no means saying that Trump’s descent into rage-madness has ended the threat to U.S. democracy. The Koch-backed Federalist Society, which now controls the Supreme Court, is going all in on rigging U.S. elections with the goal of locking in permanent Republican rule. The architects of Project 2025 are marching ahead with their goal of turning the federal government into a spoils system that answers only to billionaires and their political pawns. Politicization of research funding is getting very close to destroying a scientific community that took generations to build.
But Trump himself is, at this point, little more than a festering ball of anger and hate.
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Sincere question from your neighbour to the north 
, where we don’t know how to gerrymander, and my coffee may not have kicked in. Wouldn’t the new seats just be allocated in the same proportions and then be regerrymandered to suit? I don’t understand how expanding the House makes it more representative or fixes the Electoral College.
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That depends a great deal on whether an anti-gerrymandering law is enacted - it is possible to stipulate how districts are defined to ensure equity.
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The more seats you have, the more the population has to be spread between districts, which makes it much more difficult to pack a district so one political party dominates it.
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Ok. Conditional on ending gerrymandering, expansion works. But just ending gerrymandering works too.
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86 Minutes. How the once respected CBS show is known by journalists with integrity.
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But if expansion makes it more difficult to pack a district, does it not make it more difficult to crack a naturally-packed district? Apologies, this is not a math application my mind wraps itself around.
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