A Tale of Maps

 

Abuse and revenge. That's the pattern of Democratic and Republican gerrymandering for the last 20-some years in North Carolina.

I love maps, especially historical ones and most especially historical ones that show changes to landmasses over time, like "The Roman Empire At Its Height" and "The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire." Today, it's "The Evolution of North Carolina Gerrymandering" put together by Carolina Forward -- a compilation of historic maps of Congressional districts under both parties, analyzing how Ds and Rs fared. (Blair Reeves has built Carolina Forward into a go-to source for new data and for endorsements of General Assembly candidates. Reeves' frequent videos on Facebook are always enlightening about what's really happening in our state.)

Map 1, the last gerrymander of the Dem bosses before the Tea Party eruption of 2010, still makes me wince. The abuse looks palpable. But as the analysis points out, that gerrymander actually produced majorities of Republican reps in some 2-year cycles and a near-even swap in others. The election of 2008 stands out for its Democratic surge, which elected 8 Dems to 5 GOP House members. You might note that 8 Dem reps serving 2009-2011 is the highest Dem count in the last 20+ years. With improved computer programs, the GOP has done much more advanced gerrymandering, managing to arrange us voters so there are now 10 Rs to 4 Ds (Maps 2 and 4). Map 3, the court-appointed one that lasted only one election cycle, produced the first even split between the parties -- 7 Ds to 7 Rs. 

Those were the days, my friends! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

The Self-Parody of Franklin Graham

 

I have a church history. I sat in a hard wooden pew three times a week from the age of 12 until I went off to college at 18 (and found perdition). I've been harangued as a hormonal teenager by a pastor who demanded I reject worldly ways and turn away from temptation. I've been told by another preacher of the Gospel that I was inviting the Devil into my life by watching TV. I've been electrified by an evangelist who told us, as Christians, that we had every right to demand God smite the wicked wicked world on our behalf, and that if we did not pray with muscle and sweat, we were insufficient in our faith. I've been elated -- transported into the bare rafters -- by a visiting Christian platform performer who embodied the bubbling smug champagne of knowing we're saved and most others are lost.

I freed myself of preachers. I turned to other idols. Great is the God Irony. 

Last Thursday, Reverend Franklin Graham posted on Facebook an hilarious self-parody of the preacherdom I left behind:

I do not believe President Trump would knowingly depict himself as Jesus Christ — that would certainly be inappropriate. I’m thankful the President has made it very clear that this was not at all what he thought the AI-generated image was representing — he thought it was a doctor helping someone, and when he learned of the concerns, he immediately removed the post.

 

It's weak, limping around "that would certainly be inappropriate" with "I'm thankful the President has made it very clear yada yada" -- because, after all, Franklin Graham has been the main one to say that Trump is ordained by God and represents the living hand of Jesus Christ on earth. Which boxes the preacher in. "I do not believe Trump would depict himself as Jesus" is just plain bearing false witness. I chuckled as I read it. Pride goeth. 

 

Syndrome Rules

 

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.

--Donald J. Trump, April 7, 2026 

 

 

He really has become a 'toon, hasn't he? A mad tyrant or boy genius who got too big for his breeches, essentially the creation of paint, lighting, and gall. If we can see through the pathetic affectation of his pose, surely the Iranians can. And are laughing.

 

Also probably wondering, "Would he really do it?" -- along with some of the rest of us! It might occur to us that this time he boxed himself in so tight, delivering such dire ultimatums that can't be retracted without the great risk of looking like ... well, a 'toon.

 

If he does tonight what he promised this morning, it will be the end of him. The people of the United States are not going to tolerate it, finally -- Trump's final solution -- and the world will rise up in horror and condemnation. Arrest warrants from the World Court. That kind of thing. Talk about being boxed in! But he was never going to follow through on the threat. The threat was as empty as he is.

 

Another possibility -- and quite an attractive one for Trump, because he's a cold-blooded liar -- would be to claim some concession from the Iranians, whether one exists or not, and forestall hell on earth through some fiction that at least sounds plausible. Even MAGA true believers might heave a sigh of relief, while the liberals will all be slapping their knees and chortling "TACO!"

 

And finally, the remote possibility that the Iranians actually cave, because they haven't seen enough Hollywood endings.

Congressman Lists Addresses Where He Hopes Protesters Won't Show Up. Oops

 

Photo 828NewsNOW

 

 

Last November, Progressive activist Leslie Boyd of Asheville called for a boycott of Congressman Chuck Edwards's McDonald's restaurants because of his voting record:

“He says he stands for us, but he voted to reduce the availability of health care and food assistance for millions of Americans, including his own constituents,” Leslie Boyd said, speaking as a leader of Asheville Fights Back Network and calling for a walking picket at an Edwards McDonald's in Hendersonville. “He also voted for the torment of immigrants we’re seeing in the streets of North Carolina right now. That looks to me like he is the enemy.”

On March 31st, Boyd published on Facebook that she'd gotten a letter banning her for life from Edwards's McDonald's restaurants:

OK, this is freaking hilarious!!!!

My "representative " in Congress, Chuck Edwards, sent me a certified letter banning me from all his McDonald's restaurants.

First of all, I haven't eaten at a McDonald's in more than 25 years, so that's really no skin off my nose.

But here's the best part: He has hidden all their [McDonald's] addresses in real estate holding companies, so I couldn't figure out which ones were his.

Well, now I know, and now, so do you.

The letter:

 

Cost/Benefit for the Better Educated

 

I always have my doubts about hot-news social science research ("Being liberal extends your life!"), but this research below seems solidly based in math (econ) and matches the impression I've had after some 64 years of inhabiting various college and university campuses and hanging at numerous coffee pots to hear the gossip. So for what it's worth: 

The Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American University, using research from the Yale Tobin Center for Economic Policy "found that graduate degrees in medicine, law and pharmacy generally have the highest return on investment. By contrast, degrees in popular fields such as social work, psychology, and curriculum and instruction may actually have a zero to negative return after factoring in the full cost." (WashPost)

Yikes. 

 

The Man Who Shut Down Early Voting at Western Carolina

 

Bill Thompson, presiding

 

 

Bill Thompson, the new Republican chair of the Jackson County Board of Elections, has managed to establish an early reputation as a nasty piece of work. But isn't that the way Phil Berger and Tim Moore intended election administration to go in North Carolina? They changed the law, put themselves in charge of elections, and just naturally attracted the meanest and most partisan people to make things as difficult as possible.

As chair of the Jackson BOE, it was Thompson who led the nasty move of killing an early voting site at Western Carolina University. “ By law, we could have just one site in Jackson County,” Thompson warned, ignoring evidence that the WCU early voting site was the most used in the county. “One site is required for every 30,000 voters. We've got four, that's plenty.”

Two complaints were lodged with the NC State BOE against Bill Thompson for his conduct in a Cullowee precinct polling place during the March primary. A voter, seconded by two other witnesses, and an actual poll worker both filed complaints on the second day of early voting, saying Thompson came into the polling site talking trash about Muslims and saying that both Germany and France were ruined now because of the Muslim invasion, and that he especially didn't trust Germans. The poll worker who heard all this was born in Germany and he summed up the grief  brief against Bill Thompson, that "he exposed deep and unfounded disgust against Muslims and their faith as well as any non-European culture.”

Bill Thompson's not the first bigot to chair a board of elections, but still....

The NC BOE on March 25th (last Wednesday) held an initial review to determine whether the complaints against Thompson "presented sufficient evidence of misconduct or a violation of election-related duties." The board voted 4-1 that the threshold had not been met. One Democrat voted with the Republican majority, though she lectured Thompson: "We're cautioned not to bring politics into the polling place, and discussions of politics. At least one of those instances cited in the complaints is arguably a political commentary, or brings in issues that really have no place in a polling place.” But she agreed to let him off the hook.

Republican SBOE member Stacy "Four" Eggers did give Thompson a highly decorous, because indirect dressing-down:

"Mr. Chairman, I think it is worth cautioning the chair [Thompson] as to his discussions, choice of words and what he chooses to discuss at the polling place. I know that Miss [Angela] Hawkins [another Jackson Co. board member] and I both have spent a lot of time in county precincts, and generally the discussion is limited to the weather, or perhaps your favorite sports team or something innocuous like that.

“Although the comments were not appropriate for the discussion in the area, they still, in my mind, don't show a violation of Chapter 163.” 

I suspect this may not be the last dressing-down that Bill Thompson will be needing.

 

Cornyn Shoots the Moon in Texas

 

Holy mackerel! I just saw this commercial attacking Ken Paxton, paid for by a proud Senator John Cornyn. Talk about a frontal assault! That's how mean and personal the Republican Senate primary run-off has gotten in Texas between the bland Senator Cornyn and the poisonous Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn, not so bland after all. He's had to go very negative after Trump failed to endorse him, which according to the entire world of political punditry, Trump promised he would do -- to save Texas from born-again James Talarico, because most Texas Republican operatives think Paxton's baggage is as deadly as a suppressed sulfur fart. The very heavy ethical baggage that Cornyn has just aired in this minute commercial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let Us Sit Upon the Ground and Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Kings

 

Politicians abhor a vacuum as much as nature does, and the sudden concession of NC Senate President Phil Berger late yesterday afternoon has created one of the biggest vacuums in North Carolina history. Berger had ultimate power over every bill that made it through to a vote, every appointment to every important post that the General Assembly controls, every ambition of every fellow Republican senator who wanted to rise. Berger was the undisputed king, and perhaps no one will celebrate his absence more than some of his own allies.

The resentment of putative allies got a surprise airing yesterday in the New York Times, when reporter Eduardo Medina outed Sen. Thom Tillis for secretly lobbying wealthy Republican donors against Berger. On a Zoom call last month, well before the primary, Thom Tillis was clear that Berger had to go because he's too power-hungry, too authoritarian, too dismissive of any idea not his own, and too already fat with campaign cash.

So I can only imagine the ambitions right now surging through the Berger troops still in the Senate, the ones who could not rise because Berger stood in the way. The rivalries will now show themselves in the Raleigh Thunderdome. And all the while the in-fighting goes on and consumes the Republican ecology, the date of the mid-term reckoning with voters advances apace. Who knows? Voters appear quite irritated with abusers of power, and perhaps all the GOP's corrupt gerrymandering may not be shield enough against the wrath to come.

Meanwhile, Sam Page can take his seat in January as a new back-bencher -- he may need two seats to accommodate that ridiculous chapeau. He'll soon learn that his vote has been pre-programmed by higher ups (and probably doesn't matter anyway, if the Republican super-majority holds. Ha!). What High Sheriff Sam Page doesn't know about being low-man in a new pecking order might possibly be a harsh and disappointing education.