Judge drops BOMBSHELL UPDATE in redistricting case

We have a major update here as it. relates to the Virginia referendum. So, on Tuesday, everybody who is a fan of. democracy celebrated the referendum. passing, which will likely lead to a. 10-1 map in the congressional. delegation, and serves to offset the. Republican gerrymanders that have taken. place mid-cycle in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and soon-to-be. Florida. It not only showed that. Democrats are fighting fire with fire, but that they did what Republicans in. none of those states I just named were. willing to do, which is to say, put the. question to the voters. But, the.

momentum is now temporarily paused as a. Republican-appointed Tazewell Circuit. Court judge has ruled the referendum. unconstitutional. The judge entered an. injunction blocking certification of the. election and denied a motion to stay. pending appeal. Jay Jones, the Virginia. Attorney General, a Democrat, said, quote, "My office will immediately file. an appeal in the Court of Appeals. As I. said last night, Virginia voters have. spoken, and an activist judge should not. have veto power over the people's vote. We look forward to defending the outcome. of last night's election in court." Now, before you get worried, here is some.

very important backstory. This is not. the first time that this Republican. judge, whose name is Jack Hurley, has. ruled against the amendment. He ruled. against it three times in total. The. first two were ultimately overruled by. the Virginia Supreme Court. This case is. now being appealed to the Virginia. Supreme Court. Now, there are no. guarantees in politics, but if I were to. bet, I would put 100% of my money on. Jack Hurley being overruled a third time. in short order. And in fact, the. Virginia Supreme Court seems to be. moving very quickly. They just announced.

today that arguments on Monday, April. 27th at 9:00 a.m. All of which is to. say, if Republicans were hoping for some. delay here, they're not getting it. Now, keep in mind that the Republicans. decided to sue in that circuit in. particular because they went judge. shopping for a conservative judge, and. they found him. Jack Hurley is not some. neutral arbiter here. He is a right-wing. hack. Guy literally ran as a Republican. candidate for the Virginia legislature. years ago, and he didn't get elected. And so, instead, he's litigating from. the bench on his party's behalf. Now,

luckily, he is not the last word, but. the whole situation sure is rich. considering the Republicans have been. decrying activist judges for my entire. life. And now, that's how they're. passing half of their agenda, from. blocking referendums in Virginia to. undoing Roe v. Wade. All of which is to. say, I would not lose sleep over this. injunction. Just as Hurley tried to. block this amendment twice before and. failed, he will fail again here, too. But, zooming out, I want to discuss the. overall Republican reaction to this. amendment passing because it has been.

pearl-clutching since the moment it. passed. First of all, I cannot tell you. the extent to which I am unmoved by. Republicans bitching and moaning about. redrawing the maps when it was Trump who. said this last summer. >> Are you calling in for a complete. redrawing of the congressional map ahead. of next year? >> I just a very simple redrawing. We pick. up five seats. We have an opportunity in. Texas to pick up five seats. We have a. really good governor, and we have good. people in Texas, and I won Texas. I got. the highest vote in the history of. Texas, as you probably know. And uh we.

are entitled to five more seats. He's. entitled to those seats, and weirdly, not a single member of the Republican. Party spoke out against it. No grand. stands against the scourge of redrawing. maps mid-cycle. Crickets from these. defenders of fair representation. But. now, now that Democrats dared fight. back, now that Democrats dared not. unilaterally disarm, we're watching a. party-wide meltdown on the right. Like, for example, Mike Johnson. It's a. hyper-partisan gerrymandering.

boondoggle. We fought hard. We raised. a ton of money. We did our best, but the Democrats in. charge of Virginia hoisted this upon the. people. It is still in the courts. We. are confident in calling upon the. Virginia Supreme Court to do the obvious. and right result, and that is to strike. this thing down. Why? Because it was. demonstrated again last night, this is a. divided state. It's almost 50/50. >> Keep walking. So, a 10-1 map does not is. not justified in that state. And the.

people showed it again last night. The. fact that it was so close. demonstrates and proves exactly what. we've been saying from the beginning. Or. Trump, who wrote, quote, "A rigged. election took place last night in the. great Commonwealth of Virginia. All day. long, Republicans were winning. The. spirit was unbelievable until the very. end, when, of course, there was a. massive mail-in ballot drop. Where have. I heard that before? And the Democrats. eked out another crooked victory." But, here's how you know that these lines. from Trump, Mike Johnson, and the rest. of the GOP are complete A, not.

one of those people spoke out against. Texas gerrymandering their maps. In. other words, they're not actually. against gerrymandering, they're just. against Democrats using it. When it's. Republicans doing it, they're fine with. it. No fainting spells, no. pearl-clutching. They love to throw. punches, but when you punch back, they. collectively lose their minds. But, B, and more importantly, they could outlaw. partisan gerrymandering today if they. wanted to. Do not forget that. Republicans have full control of. government, House, Senate, White House. If they were truly, truly against the.

scourge of gerrymandering, this race to. the bottom, then do something about it. Remember, Democrats tried to pass the. Freedom to Vote Act in 2021, which. included a ban on partisan. gerrymandering nationwide. Guess how. many Republicans voted for it? Zero. Not. one. Again, they're not against. gerrymandering, they just don't like. when their opposition can return the. punch. They want unilateral disarmament, and they don't know how to react when. the response by the left isn't just a. strongly-worded letter. In fact, to reiterate the point that the.

left actually wants no partisan. gerrymandering, I myself write in my. upcoming book, which is titled The Day. After, quote, "There would be a ban on. partisan gerrymandering with clear rules. for redistricting and judicial remedies. for manipulated maps. That would. presumably be a welcome solution for all. those Republicans clutching their pearls. amid California's map redraw. There. would be added protections for local. election officials to prevent their. firings for partisan reasons, as well as. penalties for destroying ballots or. election records.". Now, that book, The Day After, is now.

available for pre-order. If you. appreciate my coverage of politics, which is never paywalled, it would be a. huge help for you to pre-order this. book. I'm going to put a link right here. on the screen, and then the post. description, and in the comments. So, if. you're able to grab a copy, I would. really, really appreciate it. But, that really does put the whole game. on display here. Republicans want to. gerrymander with abandon, and only. complain when Democrats reciprocate. They don't want activist judges, and yet. they seek them out to entrench their own. agenda. They claim they want good. governance, but refuse to pass any such.

laws even with full control of. government. Which puts the truth on full. display. Republicans don't actually want. these things, they just want to be able. to use them and prevent the Democrats. from doing so, too. They don't want to. win a fair fight, they want to codify. their cheating. Which brings me to what. I think is the saddest part of all of. this. Look at how much time, energy, resources the Republicans are spending. on these un- underhanded tactics. The. voter suppression tactics and. six-year-old disproven fraud claims. If. they gave even a fraction of the.

attention that they're giving to that. stuff to actually governing, they. wouldn't need to engage in election. subversion. But, they just can't do it. They cannot bring themselves to hold. true to any of their campaign promises. They can't bear the thought of actually. lowering prices or protecting healthcare. or reducing inflation or releasing the. Epstein files or staying out of war. And. so, instead, they promise these things. on the campaign trail, and then when. people inevitably get pissed off because. they realize they've been conned, Trump. and the GOP just decide to rig the rules. of the game instead. Talk about contempt.

for your own voters. Lie to get their. votes with zero intention of delivering, and then lie about non-existent election. fraud as a pretext to undermine the. election and entrench your majority so. that you don't actually have to be held. to account by the voters. This is what. the death of democracy looks like in. real time. So, if ever there was a. reason to accelerate the demise of MAGA, they are putting that reason on full. display. >> [music]. >> Before you go, I'm very excited to. announce that I've written a new book. titled The Day After: How to Wield Power.

in a Post-Trump World. The book explores. what is, in my opinion, the single most. important theme that we're dealing with. in politics today and moving forward, power. Specifically, how Republicans. abuse it and how Democrats refuse to. wield it. This book explains how we got. here, and more importantly, how we. should finally wield power if we're. lucky enough to get it back. It is the. blueprint for progressives who want to. do far more than just restore the status. quo. Please pre-order today by following. the link on this screen. You can grab. yours from any of the major retailers. like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or.

stroll down on the page and get a copy. from an independent bookstore closest to. you. Thanks so much for supporting. independent media.