The good:
As Hakeem Jeffries sits in the minority of a GOP-controlled
Washington, he is still haunted by a Republican gerrymandering gambit
that he believes cost him the speaker’s gavel — and cost his party
control of the House.
This time, he’s making sure Democrats fight back.
Jeffries is leading the Democratic party’s counterpunch to President Donald Trump’s aggressive mid-decade redistricting push.
He’s going all in with money, legal firepower and his own political
capital to make sure no seat is left on the table for Democrats —
forcing the party to abandon the left’s longtime moral opposition to
party-line map meddling.
“Republicans started this redistricting war, and Democrats
have made clear, we’re going to finish it,” Jeffries said in an
interview with CNN. “When they go low, we strike back.”
Top Democrats, including Jeffries, are buoyed by signs of surging anti-Trump sentiment across the country — with special election wins even in ruby red parts of Texas
— and believe they will capture the House, and possibly the Senate, in
November. But Jeffries believes he can’t afford to ignore the GOP’s
gerrymandering, when just three seats in North Carolina in 2024 were
enough to cost Democrats the majority.
After a huge win on redistricting in California, Jeffries is vowing to spend “tens of millions” of dollars to push through an April ballot initiative in Virginia
to potentially give Democrats four more seats. And he is now turning
his attention to Maryland, where Democrats’ big gerrymandering gamble is
facing its most difficult test yet. Jeffries and other top Democrats
are now intensifying pressure on a key party leader, the 42-year-old
Baltimorean who runs the state Senate, who refuses to help draw his
party another more favorable seat that would target the state’s lone
GOP-held congressional district.
Jeffries issued a stark warning to that Democrat, state
Senate President Bill Ferguson — suggesting the move could help Trump’s
GOP win the midterms.
"One man shouldn’t stand in the way of the people of Maryland … being
able to decide, ‘Should we go in this direction? Or should we not answer
Donald Trump’s continued efforts to rig the midterm election?’”
Jeffries said...
The time for being on the back foot is over. Our democracy is literally at stake in every election now until the fascists are defeated. The Malignant Fascist and his lickspittles have made it clear they will lie, cheat, steal ballots, threaten, and intimidate in order to keep Democrats from winning elections. Any Democrat or other thinking person that doesn't recognize that and take appropriate counter measures is not meeting the moment.
The bad:
Democrats are linking President Trump’s unraveling of climate change regulations
to a larger story about corruption, a midterm argument they think could
hurt Republicans in the battles for the House and Senate this fall.
While climate change itself may not be an issue driving most voters
to the polls, Democrats are seeking to make a broader case about Trump’s
ties to powerful interests.
Asked his thoughts on the state of U.S. climate policy, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) was succinct
“Corrupted,” he told The Hill.
The latest battlefront is Trump’s repeal of the endangerment finding,
the landmark legal finding that climate change is a threat to the
public. The finding also underpins the nation’s climate rules,
particularly rules for cars and trucks that Trump wiped out Thursday
along with the finding.
While Democrats have long-sought to paint Trump as corrupt, including
on climate, it’s an issue that has become increasingly cross-cutting in
recent weeks amid the controversy over Trump’s ties to disgraced
financier Jeffrey Epstein and the president’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service seeking $10 billion in taxpayer money.
In remarks on the Senate Floor Tuesday in anticipation of the endangerment finding’s repeal, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) described the action as a “corrupt giveaway to Big Oil.”
“Big Oil has worked tirelessly for decades to undermine rules that
protect against emissions, and now that they have their guy in the White
House, they are taking their biggest swing yet,” Schumer said.
The repeal of the cars and trucks rule is expected to bolster
consumption of oil-based fuels like gasoline, as automakers won’t have
to shift their fleets toward electric vehicles to meet the standards.
Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee, described the latest move as “corruption in action.”
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told The Hill the change is “just another payback by the Trump administration to the oil, gas and coal industry.”...
The cruelty and corruption is everywhere, to be sure. It might involve a bribe for a pardon, or a payoff for entry into crypto mega-scamming, or a jumbo jet from a Gulf autocrat for unknown "considerations," or various other monetary enticements counter to our national interests. But this involves the planet and its people suffering irreversible harm in order to benefit the Malignant Fascist and his crony elites, i.e., the "Epstein class." If there's anything more eternally damning, we'd like to know what it is.
The ugly:
The Wasatch County GOP Chair was taken into custody after allegations of child abuse involving waterboarding.
David Nephi Johnson, 54, was booked into the Wasatch County Jail on
one count of first-degree felony aggravated child abuse, according to
court documents.
The arrest came after the Utah Division of Child and Family Services
received a report of child abuse. The teen reported not feeling safe in
her own home and feared for her life.
During an interview with investigators, the victim said Johnson had
waterboarded them after he found she had not cleaned her room to his
expectations before going out with her friends.
Johnson then allegedly took the victim into the bathroom and dunked
her head into a sink filled with water. The victim alleged Johnson would
then splash water in her face before dunking her head underwater again.
The teen told investigators she was unable to breathe for up to 30
seconds at a time.
At one point during the interview, the victim told investigators, "I
don't feel very safe. When I go to bed, I feel like I can't sleep
because I don't feel safe. When my dad's not home, I feel fine. But when
he's home, I never feel safe because I feel like something is going to
happen."...
Republican family values!
