American Politics from 2019 on

[L'Emmerdeur]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-19/ ... /105669664

Texas Democrats say they will return to the state's legislature, ending a two-week stand-off over the proposed gerrymandering of its seats in the US House of Representatives that could favour US President Donald Trump and Republicans.

Their return comes only after Democrats in California launched a counter-effort to redraw their own congressional districts to disadvantage Republicans in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.

Dozens of Texas House Democrats left the state more than two weeks ago to deny their Republican-majority colleagues the attendance necessary to vote on redrawn maps intended to elect five more Texas Republicans to the US lower house.

They declared victory after Republicans adjourned that first special session, and Democrats around rallied in opposition to the Trump-led gerrymandering effort.

Their decision to return will allow the Republican-run legislature to radically redraw the state's seats in the US lower house, but that will now be offset by tit-for-tat changes in California.

To me, this is a perfect example of how flawed democracy is in the US. The whole gerrymander thing is an affront to sane, sensible representative voting. Juggling electoral boundaries for partisan political purposes, whether by Republicans or Democrats, makes a complete farce of elections. They need an independent Electoral Commission like in Australia.

Definitely flawed, and currently structurally rigged to give greater power to those who don't live in cities. It's a close run thing, been teetering on the edge of minority rule for a while now. You work with the machine you have though.

Despite Trump's plan to attempt a dictatorial power grab, according to the US Constitution the states control elections not the federal government, as noted by Tero.

The Republicans understand that their bullshit isn't actually popular with the majority of the population and in fact they're losing ground. That's the larger picture but in the next election they could easily lose the House of Representatives. The effects of Trump's cretinous tariff flailing on top of rigging the system to screw pretty much everybody but the wealthy should change some minds. The only solution his party sees is to subvert democracy.

Down the road the Republicans know that they'd be increasingly on the losing end if neutral election maps were the norm. Meanwhile the US Supreme Court has said that if a party has control of a state they can draw the electoral maps to favor themselves politically. With Texas pulling the trigger on partisan redistricting ahead of the next national election, the game is on.

California has an independent redistricting process brought in by a referendum of the voting public in the state. Governor Newsom, ever the operator, has put partisan gerrymandering up for a vote as a temporary measure in specific response to the Texas power-play: After three years the map reverts back. If you believe that attempt at a fig leaf.

In Illinois, Democratic Governor Pritzker is making similar noises. It wouldn't be a surprise if other states follow suit. I don't know if anybody has a handle on how the numbers might shake out. Might be an entertaining spectacle for those who have a taste for political turmoil.

[JimC]

I can understand the Democrats deciding to fight fire with fire, to at least prevent a Trumpian majority in the house. But I stand by my assertion that this is a perfect example of the flaw in democracy enshrined in your constitution. States should control their own affairs, not meddling in the nation's electoral process.

[pErvinalia]

You've got to break democracy to save democracy!

[Brian Peacock]

The 2010-2015 Cameron govt tasked the uk electoral commission with reducing the number of seats in parliament and evening constituencies out numerically. Under the new formula constituencies also had to consist of a broad mix of social and economic demographics, with the community minister giving the final approval to the boundaries. The argument was one of bringing fairness and equality between voters within constituencies and between constituencies themselves, but the upshot was that many urban seats had their boundaries redrawn and extended into the countryside (imagine a region like a pizza, with a city in the middle cut into segments across its centre), thus diluting votes in wards that had traditionally gone to Labour by incorporating voters which traditionally voted Tory. The big losers in the 2015 general election were the Liberal Democrats, which saw them falling from a party that sat in coalition with the Tories to having just 6 MPs.

The point is, even independent Electoral Commissions can only operate within the requirements laid down by their political overseers.

Neither can boundaries be considered in isolation or separated from the voting system itself. The uk for example has a plurality system, which can (and usually does) put a candidate in parliament that most of the constituency doesn't vote for.

[JimC]

Brian, there are imperfections in most democratic voting systems, I was just addressing the most egregious example of a perversion of any reasonable attempt to have equality in voting...

[Brian Peacock]

Brian, there are imperfections in most democratic voting systems, I was just addressing the most egregious example of a perversion of any reasonable attempt to have equality in voting...

Absolutely. This is why I think those fundamental principles should be constitutionally enshrined - not the specific mechanisms maybe, but the fundamental principles.

The UK doesn't have a written constitution, and the US constitution seems to be freely reconfigurable to match the whims of the highest bidder.

[Tero]

You should not take presidents for granite

That has been true since the beginning. Carving for Jefferson’s face initially started to Washington’s left but had to be moved to his right to find stone that was acceptable. Any new carving could jeopardize the already present fractures, Nelson said.

“And so if you’re going to do any other carvings on the surface, you have to remove a lot of rock to get down to the competent rock, and you run the risk of maybe mobilizing some fractures,” he said. “So, no, I wouldn’t want to be messing with Mount Rushmore.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politi ... rcna227086

Trump's face there might just fall off.

[pErvinalia]

I kind of hope he puts it up there. It will stand as a reminder of what America did to itself during this time.

[Brian Peacock]

They could just put a maga hat on the heads of the others.

[Tero]

https://esapolitics.blogspot.com/2025/0 ... y-too.html
It's our country too

The one event in college was a cop stopping me for jaywalking. I had long hair. he wanted to "deport hippies" to the next county. When I had a local driver's license he gave up even giving me a ticket.

[rainbow]

I can understand the Democrats deciding to fight fire with fire, to at least prevent a Trumpian majority in the house. But I stand by my assertion that this is a perfect example of the flaw in democracy enshrined in your constitution. States should control their own affairs, not meddling in the nation's electoral process.

The Dumbnuts should've made Puerto Rico and Washington DC into states, while consolidating the Dakotas into Wyoming
Then they could've packed the Supreme Court to balance out the Trump nominees

Idiots.

[Tero]

Well it has to do with slaves. The states made the deals and we got the electoral college. Once you gave the states that, we are stuck. The small states will never ratify any amendment.

[Tero]

Trump DOJ in court
https://www.threads.com/@ash.renee411/p ... yhu4MCZcng
Tomorrow morning Judge Xinis will hold a scheduling conference in Abrego Garcia v. Noem.
What’s at stake isn’t the asylum claim yet — it’s who controls the pace.
DHS wants open-ended delay.
Kilmar’s team wants deadlines, transparency, and a bar on removal.
The judge will decide which roadmap this case follows.

[Brian Peacock]

If this were happening somewhere else – in Latin America, say – how might it be reported? Having secured his grip on the capital, the president is now set to send troops to several rebel-held cities, claiming he is wanted there to restore order. The move follows raids on the homes of leading dissidents and comes as armed men seen as loyal to the president, many of them masked, continue to pluck people off the streets …

Except this is happening in the United States of America and so we don’t quite talk about it that way. That’s not the only reason. It’s also because Donald Trump’s march towards authoritarianism is so steady, taking another step or two every day, that it’s easy to become inured to it: you can’t be in a state of shock permanently. And, besides, sober-minded people are wary of sounding hyperbolic or hysterical: their instinct is to play down rather than scream at the top of their voice.

There’s something else, too. Trump’s dictator-like behaviour is so brazen, so blatant, that paradoxically, we discount it. It’s like being woken in the night by a burglar wearing a striped shirt and carrying a bag marked “Swag”: we would assume it was a joke or a stunt or otherwise unreal, rather than a genuine danger. So it is with Trump. We cannot quite believe what we are seeing....

Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian

[Tero]

atlantademocrat
1h
No confirmation if Trump is alive, White House refuses to show proof of life. JD Vance wearing extra eye liner.

teige_reid
2h
BREAKING: RFK. Jr seen being rushed into the White House carrying a golden bucket full of live leeches and an echinacea pill on a velvet pillow.

jana_morse
WhereIsTrump
5h
So I just asked Chat if Trump was dead and this was how it responded:
https://www.threads.com/@jana_morse/pos ... 6rwH9WyZUg

The press is ready. Pizza places near the WH overworked in the morning hours.

https://www.threads.com/@deyanira.away/ ... 6rwH9WyZUg