Tag: politics

Justice Dept says it will enforce SCOTUS ruling in every state with racially gerrymandered districts

nited States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said Thursday that the Justice Department will enforce the Supreme Court’s decision on gerrymandering districts in every state that has such a district.

The Supreme Court struck down two congressional maps in Louisiana Wednesday, ruling the state was unconstitutionally racially gerrymandering when it added a second majority black district. Louisiana redrew the maps in 2024 after a lower court ruled previous maps likely violated the Voting Rights Act because it did not include the second majority black district.

Missouri GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt asked the Justice Department earlier Thursday to enforce the Supreme Court ruling nationwide, noting it had the power to do so. 

“Senator — we are ON IT!” Dhillon replied on X. “The [Justice Department] under [Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche] continues to prioritize equal protection of the laws for ALL Americans, be it in employment, housing, education — and voting.” 

The commitment comes as 45 redistricting disputes remain unresolved in federal and state courts, casting a cloud of legal uncertainty over the fight for control of the U.S. House of Representatives this November. 

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Michigan Senate candidate doubles down on rural America jab when confronted on old tweets

Michigan Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow stands by her since-deleted post on social media agreeing with the notion that rural America could learn from coastal elites.

McMorrow joined CNN on Sunday and host Manu Raju said, “In 2016, a user posted, ‘I‘m from the rural Midwest. All this talk about coastal elites needing to understand more of America has it backwards.’ You wrote in response to that user, this thread, ‘I’m from rural New Jersey. This ranks 100%.’ So do you stand by that sentiment that rural parts of America can learn from coastal elites?”

McMorrow, who has deleted roughly 6,000 social media posts amid her Senate campaign, argued that everyone should try to understand each other a little better.

“Trump has succeeded in weaponizing us against each other, convincing us that we are each other’s enemies,” McMorrow said. “I‘ve lived all over the country. I’ve met a lot of different people, and I stand by that. Was it the most eloquent tweet I’ve ever tweeted? No, I’ve tweeted thousands of times. There is a level of authenticity and just grappling, in the wake of the 2016 election, of how somebody like Donald Trump could have been elected. And what I know is we are not each other’s enemies, and we need to understand each other better.”

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REPORT: Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger Considering a New Tax on GYM MEMBERSHIPS

Shortly after winning the Virginia governor race by running on a campaign about affordability, it was widely reported that Virginia Democrats were gearing up to create a slew of new taxes for their constituents.

Now it is being reported that Spanberger is considering a new tax on gym memberships and possibly on streaming networks as well. Wehere does it end and how is any of this considered part of affordability?

More importantly, why is cutting the size of the state government not even a consideration?

The Daily Mail reports:

Virginia’s new Democrat governor teases possible tax on GYM MEMBERSHIPS and streaming services

Virginia’s new governor has teased that she may sign a new tax on gym memberships and streaming services if the bills ever reach her desk.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger refused to give a straight answer when asked about the so-called liberal wish list of taxation opportunities that Democrats are attempting to pass in her state.

Spanberger, a former intelligence officer who became governor in January, has made clear she is looking for unorthodox ways to create new revenue streams in Virginia.

New bills were introduced in the Virginia state legislature that proposed expanding taxes to include storage facilities, counseling, dry cleaning, vehicle repair, website design, data storage and digital subscription storage.

A tax on retail sales of services was also floated as an idea under bill HB978 – which would include fitness memberships and athletic club services.

The controversial tax bills never got through the General Assembly before the session’s end on March 14, meaning that it never reached Spanberger’s desk – but that may change in the future.

It’s remarkable how quickly Spanberger and her Democrat cohorts moved to create new taxes.

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It Looks Like the Southern Poverty Law Center Wasn’t Only Funding White Supremacists

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) is already in a precarious position when it comes to keeping his seat in the upcoming midterm elections. His relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) might make things even worse.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings revealed that the SPLC contributed over $700,000 to his campaign during the 2020 race, according to Fox News. Oddly enough, this places Ossoff in the same category as the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups whose leaders have received oodles of cash from the organization.

Ossoff and the SPLC have a longstanding relationship. The organization was so zealous in their advocacy for the center that it even dedicated a page on its website to him.

The Justice Department brought an 11-count indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center in April, alleging that it secretly used donor money to pay informants inside potentially violent extremist organizations. The DOJ claims the organization concealed those payments and lied to financial institutions.

The organization faces charges of wire fraud, making false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Investigators claim the group opened bank accounts in the names of “fictitious entities” so it could pay the informants without anyone knowing where the money was really coming from.

The SPLC then allegedly used the accounts to route more than $3 million in contributions to informants between 2014 and 2023 who occupied leadership roles in groups that the SPLC publicly labeled as dangerous hate groups.

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Tim Walz’s Daughter Just As Dumb As Dad on Gun Control

Gov. Tim Walz was in a position to become vice president. I think I speak for most of us when I say that I’m glad he’s still governor of Minnesota. It’s not because he’s been stellar at his job there, mind you, as the Minneapolis day care scandal, and Walz’s reaction to it, amply illustrates that he sucks at it. It’s because it means he and Kamala Harris aren’t in charge in Washington.

Both were terrible on gun issues, despite Walz trying to portray himself as a macho man who could out shoot any of us. In fact, when he tried to act big and bad, he just embarassed himself.

When it comes to guns, though, it seems the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.

Hope Walz, the daughter of disgraced Minnesota governor and failed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, called for gun control this week in the aftermath of another attempted assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.

“Gun control doesn’t just save Democrats’ lives. It also saves Republican lives,” she said in a TikTok video posted this week, apparently attempting to position herself as a leftist taking moral high ground.

“You’d think we’d be at a point now where we could call for some common sense legislation, but I don’t know. I don’t know,” she said sarcastically. “Also here to say that political violence is never ok. Duh. That’s the difference between us and them. It’s never ok.”

Walz continued, “But there’s something we can do about it: common sense gun legislation.”

She ultimately called on her audience to “do something about that for everybody’s sake.”

“For everybody’s sake, yeah. Yeah. Happy Tuesday,” she added. “Feeling a little anxious today, but we’re going to get through it.”

Notably, this is the same “anxious” Walz who described Trump’s previous crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital as nothing more than “bitch baby, wussy, scaredy cat behavior.”

Fascinating, ain’t it?

Look, I agree that political violence isn’t OK. I’ll point out, though, that the left hasn’t exactly been showing any belief in that position. How many have been upset that Thomas Crooks missed, or that this guy didn’t get a shot at the president? How many celebrated the assassinations of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and Charlie Kirk?

Yeah, don’t do the “That’s the difference between us and them” bit. It’s not going to fly.

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Eric Swalwell Sent Women ‘Videos of Him Masturbating’ and Other Perverted Messages After Joining Snapchat to Restore ‘Faith’ in ‘Democracy’: Report

Former Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell was accused by multiple women of sending sexual messages, including “videos of him masturbating,” after becoming one of the first members of Congress to join Snapchat in an effort to restore “faith” in “democracy.”

In a bombshell report on Sunday – less than a month after Swalwell resigned from Congress after being accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple women – CNN spoke to “more than a dozen” women who claimed the congressman had made them feel uncomfortable, both in person and online, over the past decade.

Several women told CNN that the congressman had sent them sexually explicit messages on Snapchat after he became “one of the first lawmakers to join Snapchat” and was heralded in the media as “the Snapchat king of Congress,” according to CNN.

“We can restore a lot of faith that people have in their democracy by opening it up a little bit more,” Swalwell told The Hill in 2016 after joining the messaging service. “Snapchat is a great way to do that.”

However, it allegedly wasn’t long before the congressman began to use his Snapchat account for purposes other than politics.

One young woman claimed Swalwell would send her Snapchat messages about her future, before asking inappropriate questions such as, “What are you wearing?”

Two other women told CNN that Swalwell sent them “sexually explicit messages and unsolicited nude photos and videos of himself” in 2021, while a third woman also claimed to have received “sexually tinged messages and videos.”

One former congressional staffer allegedly developed a consensual sexual relationship with Swalwell after he began flirting with her on Snapchat in 2021.

During the relationship, Swalwell reportedly sent “nude photos of himself and videos of him masturbating,” which showed the congressman’s “face and naked body.”

The videos, which were saved by the woman, were shown to CNN.

“His stories would be his, like, congressional content, but then he would be sending me dick pics,” she alleged, adding that Swalwell sent her another “explicit video” late last year, just weeks before he announced his 2026 California gubernatorial campaign.

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Redistricting wars at a glance: Where the states stand after historic Supreme Court ruling

A handful of states began making moves this week to reconsider their congressional maps after the Supreme Court struck down maps in Louisiana, ruling that the maps were an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The Supreme Court ruling narrowed the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act on Wednesday to bar race-based districts, prompting Louisiana to reschedule its upcoming House primaries while the lines are redrawn.

Here are the states that moved this week to begin reviewing their maps:

Alabama: Gov. Kay Ivey ordered a special session of the state legislature next week to pave the way for redistricting.

Florida: The state legislature approved new districts that could help the GOP win up to four new House seats in November.

Louisiana: Gov. Jeff Landry postponed the state’s House primaries while the state works on a new congressional map.

South Carolina: Gov. Henry McMaster stopped short of ordering a review Friday but suggested the state might want to review its districts to ensure it is in line with the Supreme Court ruling.

Tennessee: Gov. Bill Lee called for a special session of his state legislature to review their congressional maps. 

Here are states that have also signaled they plan to review maps in the future: 

Georgia: Gov. Brian Kemp said it is too late in the election cycle to redistrict the state for 2026, but the decision requires the state to adopt new maps by 2028.

Mississippi: Gov. Tate Reeves said he is calling for a special session to take place 21 days after the Supreme Court ruling.

Virginia and California have also attempted to redraw their congressional maps, which would favor Democrats, but Virginia’s plan is in limbo because it is stuck in a legal battle with the state Supreme Court. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear challenges to California’s new map. 

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A detransitioner confronted a California lawmaker on the harms of gender transition. Here’s why he spoke out

A young man who went viral for confronting California lawmakers about harms he says he faced from childhood medical transition is speaking out against a bill he believes could make it harder for vulnerable minors to get proper counseling.

Jonni Skinner, a detransitioner and ambassador for Genspect, testified at a California Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week against SB 934, a bill sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener that would let victims of “conversion therapy” seek damages through malpractice lawsuits, even years after the counseling occurred. Wiener’s office defines conversion therapy to include “sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts.”

Critics, including the California Family Council, say SB 934 is so broadly written that it could expose therapists to lawsuits for talk therapy on sexuality and gender identity.

Skinner says he grew up in a small town in Michigan in a religious family and was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at a young age. He said he struggled with feeling different from other boys and was bullied for having stereotypical feminine interests. As he reached puberty, he became increasingly uncomfortable with his body and carried shame that he might grow up to be gay or an effeminate man. After seeing online influencers he admired undergo gender transitions, he said he found the idea appealing.

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Does Someone Want to Tell Him? Pete Buttigieg Gets ROASTED as He Forgets An Inconvenient Fact While Calling for Abolishing the Electoral College

Pete Buttigieg likes to fancy himself as a sophisticated and intelligent man, but ended up looking dumb while at a recent town hall event in Oklahoma.

As FOX 23 reported, the former Secretary of Transportation held a “Win the Era” town hall at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma two weeks ago where he discussed a variety of topics including artificial intelligence, LGBTQ rights, and healthcare.

But in a clip that has gone viral today, Buttigieg also pondered how great it would be if just got rid of the ‘pesky’ electoral college and used the popular vote to elect presidents.

This movement has been a Democrat clarion call ever since George W. Bush defeated Al Gore back in 2000 while losing the popular vote.

“One thing that would make a huge difference is if we selected our president by letting the person who got the most votes take the office, instead of the national Electoral College,” Buttigieg said to the roughly 2,000 people in attendance.

The audience responded to this by erupting in cheers for several seconds.

“It would be a really good idea,” Buttgieg continued. “Because any Democrat wanting to be president would have to campaign in Oklahoma.”

“By the way, any Republican would have to campaign in Brooklyn! that would be good for our democracy.”

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Gavin Newsom’s Team Claims This Cringe Maher Clip ‘Triggered’ Trump, Then the Facts Hit

California lost more than 50,000 residents last year, according to a report released Friday by the state’s Department of Finance, as officials pointed to changes in migration patterns and housing trends impacting overall population levels.

The department described the decline as a “slight” drop, noting it represented less than one-seventh of 1% of the state’s total population.

In a press release, officials attributed a significant portion of the slowdown in growth to changes in legal international migration, which they said were influenced by federal policy shifts.

The report found that legal international migration fell sharply, dropping from 248,400 people in 2024 — the highest level since 2018 — to 126,400 in 2025, a decrease of more than 50%.

State officials said that without those changes, California’s population would have grown by an estimated 66,000 residents.

“Net legal international migration has been a significant driver of California’s overall population, offsetting declines in natural increase — the net number of births and deaths — and net domestic migration from California,” officials said in the release.

Despite the report’s findings, Gov. Gavin Newsom offered a different characterization during a Friday appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” where he stated, “We’ve also seen the last three year population growth — we’ve got to update our talking points.”

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