Sinemanchin, Generals throw Biden under the bus, Abbot blows Trump, Gerrymander fails, and Cyber Ninja clusterf—s

All that and more in one episode

The North Coast is getting some very bad coverage

And understandably so.

Redistricting map in Oregon – Democrats consolidating

Old map – Democrats had a 4 to 1 advantage in current Congressional House delegation, but they had to fight hard for two of those seats. But because of their population gain, mostly in the Portland metropolitan area, Oregon gained a seat. Because the districts had to spread out from Portland to make a new one, there are now more safe Democratic districts. The Democrats tried to play hardball and guaranty five seats to one, but the Republicans did what the Democrats have done in Texas and left town and so a deal was struck before the deadline in which the Democrats now have four safe seats to one Republican safe seat with one “highly competitive seat.” So the Republicans may pick up a seat, but the Democrats do not have to fight hard to maintain their four. And some pols think that the Democrats have a very good chance at winning that fifth, so pretty good result for Democrats. And because more people from Portland will be moving into that district over the years, it will inevitably turn blue.

First look at a potential redistricting map – Texas

Not the final map, but probably pretty close to it.

Are the Republicans squandering an opportunity to expand on their Congressional seat lead in the state? To be fair, the state is about as gerrymandered as it can be and the primary population growth which led to an additional two seats has been around the urban areas, particularly Austin. That makes it really hard to carve out new Republican districts.

But also if you try too hard you run the risk of disrupting existing districts and even if they remain in the same party, you might have incumbents running against each other.

This map protects the Republican incumbents and probably locks most of them in for the next ten years, basically twice as many Republicans as Democrats even if Democratic voters outnumber Republican voters. So probably it is party-strategic to some degree, but mostly selfish “saving-my-own-ass” strategic.

Ironically it’s also locking in more Democratic incumbents, reducing the number of competitive districts from 6 to 1.

Addendum: Not so fast however! This map will probably be challenged under the Voting Rights Act because despite the fact that much of the population growth of the state was Latino, it does not add a single Latino-majority district. Additionally, it appears to merge two black-majority districts into one. Even the SCOTUS majority may not approve that.

Where it may end

The Maricopa County “audit” more than a waste of money and time. It was a profoundly irresponsible stunt signed off by gutless politicians caving to a belligerent authoritarian movement increasing stress on a democracy which is becoming increasingly fragile over the past decade as one party is governed by cynical clique for which everything is about power and a second one is basically a collection of myopic special interests thrown together with self-congratulating spokespeople for shallow dogma with weak political skills. It’s really scary. That a charade involving something called the “Cyber Ninjas” was even allowed to go this far and that the courts allowed its orders to be ignored without issuing contempt orders and they wreaked havoc and there are calls by the growing lunatic fringe for more crap like this across the country to perpetuate the Big Lie, I just don’t see how we climb out of this or slow our descent towards a Banana Republic status where we have to rely on professionalism and integrity of military leaders and Dan Quayle to hold people like Trump and Pence off. Movements like what began as the Tea Party and has evolved into MAGA are relentless – they don’t ease up. They push and they push. A poll released today said that 21 percent would support removing Biden from office by force. We know the progressive voters will stay the course, but if centrist voters and the far left are going to buy into the notion that we are in a political time just like any other, and persist in the notion that what has happened in “stable democracies” like Germany circa 1932, Chile circa 1973, Spain circa 1936, Dominican Republic circa 1965, Greece circa 1967, etc. can’t happen here, well, all I can say is that when they open the camps and you join me there – I get the top bunk!

Man I really wish these right wing prophesies would come true!

Making the rounds on Facebook, as if this should scare us.

Pot is officially an American farming institution

We now have pot farming subsidies.

California now has the lowest COVID case rate

It’s what happens when enough people vaccinate and mask up.

Asshole Managers and Workers Who Stood Up to Them

Inspiring Stories at MoJo.

Some great stories! Much of the usual. Sexual harassment. Racism. Unreasonable demands of productivity. But also some exotic workplace abuses like Zoom meetings at 2 a.m., keeping time of visits to the bathroom, and running a workplace like a cult.

Great callers on my radio show last night!

This is what respectful discourse sounds like! All about the recall, pandemic and the strange medical conversation at this week’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting.