Some rare good news from our Supreme Court, as they have thrown out Alabama’s 2020 redrawing of Congressional districts on the grounds that it unlawfully concentrated Black voting power into one district. Blacks comprise more than a quarter of Alabama residents, so they can easily have two districts to represent them. I keep hearing that the ruling will have ripple effects in other Southern states, but that would require our Supreme Court (or one of the lower federal courts) to specifically rule against their district maps; the idea that these states will preemptively give up power strikes me as more than a little optimistic. No one gives up power easily, particularly those who never deserved it in the first place.
George Chidi at The Intercept wonders why, if “no one believes in” the Cop City training facility in Atlanta, then “why did Atlanta’s city council fund it?” One reason is that virtually no one thinks current police training facilities are anywhere near adequate, but another reason is that the mostly-Democratic city council is afraid of being painted as “soft on crime” – and/or thinks they won’t suffer too much electorally from building it, which may not be true, given how close the 2020 Presidential/Senate and 2022 Senate races were. I will say that the activist who said to a City Council member “I will fucking find your ass” belongs in jail. Hey, if the pricks who say “I know where you live” to school board members belong in jail, so do those I might find more sympathetic. Threats are threats, no matter who issues them.
Ho hum, right-wingers take to our airwaves to tell us that all that carcinogenic wildfire smoke that was all over the Eastern seaboard last week was perfectly safe for us to breathe! Just like the air in India and China, one Koch-funded hack said; even the least informed among us know the air is not, in fact, safe to breathe in India and China. “(W)ildfire smoke” is “natural,” they say, but particulates cause breathing problems whether they come from “nature” or burning coal or driving cars. We all know it’s climate change causing more wildfires, too. Now would be a good time to remind everyone that highly-paid fossil fuel industry hacks wouldn’t exist if we still had a 91% tax bracket on millionaire income.
In the wake of Target’s cowardice in the face of a few drama kings, Sonali Kohatkar reminds us that “corporations are not allies” to the queer community. Seems to me knocking down a pride display at a store is a reason to call the cops, not capitulate, and it also seems to me that when someone accuses you of putting trans-friendly bathing suits in the kids’ section when you haven’t done any such thing, you shame them for their stupidity/evil, but then I’m not a very flexible person. Also too, “(c)orporate support of causes is simply public relations. It is a sign that the culture is shifting thanks to the hard work of those impacted. It does not mean the business actually cares. Target’s recent capitulation to right-wing bigots proves this point.”
Florida Republicans, trapped between a rock and a hard place of their own making, start telling migrants that Gov. DeSantis’s new anti-immigration law “has no teeth” and is only “designed to scare you.” So that’s what you have to do when you’ve stepped in it that badly! One is of course tempted to laugh at Republicans attempting to justify having voted for the worst bill they could possibly find. And of course this law bites pretty hard for something with “no teeth” – ask anyone working in Florida’s farming industry if they’ll go to a hospital now that they’re going to get asked their immigration status. Oh, well – wherever Democrats are weak, fascism flourishes. It’s that simple.
Finally, North Carolina Republicans formally censure their senior U.S. Senator, Thom Tillis, for not being adequately conservative I guess, and all I can say is how soon they all forget! Thom Tillis was the North Carolina House Speaker who helped shepherd the most reactionary agenda in history from 2012-2014, and though North Carolina’s legislature has done far worse since then, these fools should be grateful for all he’s done for them. So North Carolina Republicans can primary him out in 2026 in favor of a “true conservative,” and then primary that fool out in 2032 in favor of a “true conservative,” and on and on and on until they start electing actual rabid raccoons to office. If any courageous Democrats ever emerge in North Carolina, of course, they’ll stop the cycle cold dead.
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