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BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI & CROOKED MEDIA Thursday, June 27, 2019 |
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| —Joe Biden has a bad plan for responding to his Democratic critics |
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| THE HOUSE THAT GERRY BUILT |
| The Supreme Court’s five conservatives dealt voting-rights advocates and American democracy a gut punch today, but, hey! It could have been worse!
Here’s what they did:
First, they effectively decided that federal courts can’t undo partisan gerrymanders, which are legislative districts drawn to give one party an unfair advantage over the other.
That means horribly gerrymandered maps in Republican-controlled states will stand for now, and we’ll continue to see Republicans lose the popular vote in states like Michigan and Wisconsin, yet win the vast majority of those states’ seats in Congress and state legislatures.
How’d they do it? In the worst possible way! The argument against these gerrymanders was that, by penalizing people based on their political affiliations, they violate citizens’ free speech rights. The Court didn’t just disagree, but ruled that disputes over gerrymandering can’t be settled in federal court at all.
Uh, so now what? Great question! The ruling means your engagement in politics is more important than ever. Federal courts literally can’t solve this problem anymore. Some state courts might help, but most of these gerrymanders aren’t going anywhere unless you vote for new state legislators who will change these maps; for new members of Congress who will support legislation prohibiting partisan gerrymandering; and for ballot initiatives that seek to take redistricting out of partisan hands. Here’s where to start → http://go.crooked.com/gerry
Is there any good news here? Some, yes! The Court’s four liberals and Chief Justice John Roberts also ruled that the Trump administration’s rationale for putting a citizenship question in the 2020 Census was a lie. The question must thus be removed unless and until the administration comes up with a valid, honest reason for including it. [Lesson for evil people: don’t write a bunch of emails explaining all your evil deeds until AFTER you win in court.]
Why is that important? Because a citizenship question would have discouraged immigrants from responding to the Census. That would have led to an undercount, which would have cost those communities federal resources and representation in Congress.
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| The first Democratic primary debate continues in Miami tonight at 9 p.m. ET with Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Andrew Yang, Michael Bennet, Marianne Williamson, John Hickenlooper, and Eric Swalwell on NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo. We’re getting anxious just thinking about it.
Watch with us live on YouTube and Facebook where we’ll be streaming Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan’s group chat. You’ll get real-time reactions, hot takes, and who knows what other kinds of surprises.
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| In case you didn’t get our recap of last night’s debate (sign up for Vote Save America, people!), read it here! You’ve still got time! → |
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| An Alabama grand jury has indicted a woman named Marshae Jones on manslaughter charges because a gunshot wound she suffered in 2018 ended her pregnancy.
Jones didn’t even fire the gunshot, but authorities claim she initiated the dispute, and dismissed the charges against the actual shooter. She has been taken into custody and will be held on a $50,000 bond.
This horrifying injustice has ignited outrage across the country. Alabama passed the nation's most restrictive abortion ban earlier this year and will not stop until women in the state can be punished, even for accidental harm to fetuses. |
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| The House “reluctantly” passed the Senate’s version of a $4.6 billion emergency border funding bill to address the migrant crisis at the southern border. The House’s legislation contained more restrictions on how the Trump administration could spend the money, and progressive lawmakers worry that the Trump administration will divert the money the Senate bill provides from humanitarian aid to immigration enforcement.
The Supreme Court has decided to rehear Carpenter v. Murphy, a case about a murder in Oklahoma that will likely determine the treaty rights of five Native American tribes and the ownership of half the land in the state. The case will be reargued in the fall and decided next term. Carpenter v. Murphy is the topic of Crooked Media’s new podcast This Land, and its host Rebecca Nagle will address what this punt means for the future of the case on the next episode of the show. Send her your questions at thisland@crooked.com →
Twitter will leave up tweets that clearly violate its terms of service, which prohibit hate speech, incitement, etc., when it deems those tweets necessary for “public interest,” but it will “label” those tweets. Lol, Trump’s gonna flip when @jack puts a “this is racist” stamp on half of the bullshit he posts.
Some Google employees have petitioned the organizers of San Francisco Pride to remove the company from its celebrations and revoke its sponsorship. They have been critical of YouTube in particular for enabling the continued abuse of LGBT people by allowing anti-gay videos and comments to remain on its platform. SF Pride has said it will not remove Google or its sponsorship from the festivities, calling the company a longtime “ally.”
Asked about Facebook’s role in election security, the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg called it “a little bit above our pay grade.” He claimed Facebook “[doesn’t] have the tools to make the Russian government stop,” and called on Congress to take the lead. Yes, Congress should do more to defend election security, he is right, but that doesn’t mean he should sit there and twiddle his thumbs until Mitch McConnell stops being evil.
Even Highlights, the children’s magazine in every dentist waiting room, has called out the Trump administration’s horrendous immigration policies. |
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| A new United Nations report says over 120 million people could fall into poverty worldwide within the next decade because of a “climate apartheid” caused by extreme weather. This would effectively force the world’s poorest people to choose between starvation and migration. While the wealthy will be able to pay to escape climate change’s worst effects, poorer communities that are heavily reliant on agriculture may be forced to fend for themselves amid droughts, floods, and hurricanes, while global inequality widens.
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| Thirty-one year-old public defender Tiffany Cabán appears likely to become the next district attorney in Queens, NY. Cabán ran on a platform of criminal justice reform and racial justice, and promised to eliminate cash bail, decriminalize drugs and sex work, and end mass incarceration. She won endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and other high-profile progressives nationwide.
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