Yes, finding some way of saying they are doing things equally while not counting individual votes equally.
Not to mention this one:
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GOP wants to play bullshit politics, OK. Once we get rid of trump we are going to add seats till the conservatives are in a minority. Then we are going to move that the last two trump appointments were invalid and take those seats too.
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âIf the US Supreme court believes they have no role in preserving fair elections, then they have no role in preserving democracy.â -Comment found on NYT
Welcome to Republastan.
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Some clarification: The Supreme court did not uphold partisan gerrymandering. That would mean they found constitutional support for preserving it. The actual ruling is a little more subtle and says it could not find constitutional support for eliminating it (despite admitting it is bad). Furthermore, it explicitly says that states are allowed to eliminate gerrymandering (even giving a nod to those that have), which effectively creates a ruling states are constitutionally protected if they do so.
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To me, the most interesting thing about the dream of the State of Jefferson is how it has transitioned from a hippie ecotopia to an armed, flag-waving compound. Again and again I am astonished at how much of contemporary conservative ideology has its roots in hoary California hippie culture â albeit viewed through a funhouse mirror. So much of the drive of conservative thought seems to be about finally coming to terms with culture and ideals from 25 to 40 years ago.
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This is largely a punt and seems to have been expected. Its also likely that theyâre going to uphold the citizenship question in the census case currently before the court.
But the silver lining is that voting rights groups and lawyers recently got a hold of a massive set of documents, drives, and communications from the architect of GOP gerrymandering and voter suppression. And all of it; from the notes, to the studies and emails with GOP leadership. Is flatly clear that âpartisan gerrymanderingâ is a surrogate for racial gerrymandering. That voter ID and the citizenship question exist to disadvantage non-whites. There are even emails back and forth with the White House and DOJ about how to structure the actual arguments they are actually using in these actual cases, that indicate theyâve clearly lied to the public and in court.
There are cases spooling just below the Supreme Court level using a lot more of those documents, and using arguments predicted on this evidence. Theyâll be much harder to counter because they arenât built around things like whether partisan gerrymandering is allowed. Theyâre built around proving that partisan gerrymandering is not partisan gerrymandering. And they apparently have millions of documents, stretching back more than a decade to prove it. Including a bunch where these idiots discuss how to hide it.
IIRC it got a pass. Maryland has been gerrymandered to all fuck to benefit Democrats for decades. Not as extreme or in the same way as GOP controlled states, and not as part of a nationwide centralized plan. But it has been used as a test case for exactly that reason. Demonstrating to partisans that it is bad by showing them what it looks like when the other side does it. Hasnât worked from what I remember. There may be further cases in the wind coming out of Maryland, but i havenât heard anything about it in a while.
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The supreme court should probably have a mandate to protect against voter suppression regardless of whether or not the constitution doesnât explicitly say that this form of suppression is illegal.
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All the hippies grew up to be teabaggers. 
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The small-l libertarian aspects of the Californian Ideology has a lot to do with with smoothing the affiliation between the pot-growing hippies and the militia types in that area, as has resistance to the failed War on Drugs.
Iâve been through that area, and itâs very different ideologically from the rest of the state (which a lot of the residents resent). I donât know if theyâll ever get their own separate state, but if things go pear-shaped theyâre in a position to express their grievances by playing havoc with the water supply for the rest of California.
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My district is somewhat sane by comparison:
It used to be almost as ridiculous as your example, extending much further westward and much less into the city.
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Iâm more than a little disappointed with Justice Ginsberg. The very fact that she remained on the court so long â through a perilous presidency, where her seat would be flipped to a right-wing moron in a heartbeat â suggests that her critical faculties are impaired.
Seems like youâre a little late for your departure.
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It is worth mentioning that, in Maryland, the gerrymandering is in favor of the Democrats.
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Yes. This is beyond ridiculous. Crazy crazy crazy. How the voters put up with this is incomprehensible.
Fucking hell. Institutionalized white supremacy all over again.
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It is time to increase the number of congresspersons.
On average one congressperson represent about 600,000 persons. That is fucked up.
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Yes, Elwood is in the same district as the Near South Side. Thatâs mind boggling. But not nearly as mind boggling as a district that meanders randomly along North Ave, Lake Street, and Roosevelt and includes the Tri State itself. Not one block to either side of the Tri State but the middle of the fucking Tri State. Where nobody lives, by definition.
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Whatâs been so disheartening to me is how many assumptions weâve all been making about how democracy works, and that in the face of people who are actively anti-democratic, many of our institutions in actuality have no teeth. A lot of the ethics and other things presidents and politicians did in the end are turning out to be basically the honor system. And when someone comes along (McConnell is as big an awful example as whatâs-his-face-in-chief) who gives no f*cks, weâre screwed. Very depressing day today.
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