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GOP Gerrymandering Strategy Flops in Virginia - the Wednesday AM Quickie 4/22/26

By Corey Pein —

It looks like The Onion will be taking over Alex Jones' Infowars after all. There is some justice in this world. Comedic justice. - Corey

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THE BIG NEWS

Virginia Redistricting Could Deliver Four House Seats to Democrats

It isn't only Donald Trump's growing unpopularity with voters that could cost Republicans the midterm elections. It's also his foolhardy electoral strategy, including the nationwide gerrymandering efforts his party started but now seems set to lose. Case in point: Viriginia voters yesterday approved a new congressional map that could add four Democratic seats to the House. "Virginians sent a message heard across this country: we will not let Donald Trump or MAGA Republicans rig our democracy," said state House Speaker Don Scott, who helped lead the $64 million redistricting campaign, per the Washington Post. Former President Barack Obama became the face of the Democratic campaign.

Still, the win was a narrow 51.5 percent. "It actually hurts more that it was so close," one GOP operative tells Politico, saying the party should have done more. Others are saying it's time to end Trump's misguided strategy. "This whole thing has just gotten completely out of hand, there have been no winners, and it's created such instability, maybe this is the time that we can come together and say, 'Alright, enough is enough,'" says Rep. Kevin Kiley, a former Republican "independent" hit by California redistricting.

Meanwhile, the Post reports, Republican strategists who joined the party's Monday meeting in Washington, DC, were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, an unusual step that certainly does not project confidence. Another anonymous Republican operative noted the irony that the part was "finally going to map out our plan to help working families with affordability at the Waldorf Astoria." As for the Democrats, victories like yesterday's in Virginia allow the party to expand the political map and challenge seats once believed safe for Republicans.

The Trump regime's opponents should take nothing for granted – but things are looking up.

War on Iran: Trump Extends Ceasefire Indefinitely

  • State of Talks Mediated By Pakistan Uncertain "One Iranian diplomatic outpost in Ghana pointed out on Tuesday: 'In the past 24 hours the president of the United States has: — Thanked Iran for closure of Hormuz; threatened Iran; blamed China; praised China; declared the blockade a success; confirmed Iran restocked through the blockade; promised a deal with Iran; promised bombs will fall on Iran.' The embassy described Trump as a one-man WhatsApp chat group." via the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and Politico.
  • 'Counterterrorism Czar' Seb Gorka Has No Plan and No Qualifications The deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council spends a lot of time watching and rewatching videos of US strikes on suspected terrorists and boasting about how they vanish in "a cloud of red mist." via ProPublica and the New York Times.
  • Two Israeli Soldiers Sentenced to Jail Over Photos Showing Desecration of Jesus Statue in Lebanon "The incident also prompted immediate and profuse apologies from Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its foreign minister, Gideon Saar." via the New York Times and the Washington Post.
  • Fewer Than One-Third of Americans Approve of Trump's 'Leadership' on Iran "I feel disgusted with myself," says one Trump voter, a retired captain in the US Air Force. via the Associated Press.

Nazis and Klansmen Rejoice as Trump Regime Indicts SPLC, Storied Civil Rights Group

The Southern Poverty Law Center, one of America's premiere civil rights organizations, has suffered from alleged mismanagement and union-busting during much of the Trump era, when its work exposing hate groups is of the utmost importance. But now the Trump regime hopes to destroy the SPLC completely. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche yesterday announced an 11-count indictment against the group, accusing it of bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering over $3 million in payments to informants lodged within extremist groups, including the organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia – which Donald Trump said included "some very fine people."

The FBI had a longstanding relationship with the SPLC, which Trump's lackeys canceled last year. SPLC interim president and CEO Bryan Fair expressed "outrage" at the "false allegations" by the government and defended the group's use of paid informants, which he says "saved lives." If there's a silver lining to the federal charges, it's this: "I don't think they can prove their case at trial," former federal prosecutor Andrew Tessman tells the Guardian.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • Two CIA Officers Killed in Car Crash After 'Countercartel' Operation in Northern Mexico Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is demanding an explanation from the US, saying her cabinet was not informed of the operation that preceded the crash, which also killed two Mexican officials. via the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.
  • No Joke: Ukraine Could Rename Part of Donbas 'Donnyland' to Win Trump Over in Peace Talks Russia is still fighting for the slice of land, 50 miles long and 40 miles wide, "depopulated, decimated," and home to Ukrainian coal and steel industries. via the New York Times.
  • FBI Investigates 10 Missing or Dead Scientists Linked to Sensitive Research; 'I Hope It's Random,' Trump Says The unsolved incidents include experts in aerospace materials, nuclear security, fusion and plasma physics, astrophysics... and UFOs. via the Los Angeles Times, CBS News, and CNN.
  • NASA Mars Rover Finds Organic Molecules, Another Sign of Possible Past Life "'It had all the conditions for life to start there when life was starting on Earth,' said Prof Andrew Coates, a planetary scientist at University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who was not involved in the latest findings. 'There's no known reason why it shouldn't have started on Mars as well.'" via the Guardian, Space.com, and the New York Times.

SOME NUMBER

400

That's the minimum number of children in a group of 1,100 Afghans who supported the US war against the Taliban whom the Trump regime wants to deport to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the New York Times reports. The Afghans are currently housed at a former US military base in Qatar, and expected to settle in America under the Biden administration.

"We think this is just [Donald Trump's State Department] wanting to send these people back to Afghanistan, where they know they will face certain death," AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver says. "They know that Afghans are not going to accept the DRC. Why would you go from the world's No. 1 refugee crisis to the world's No. 2 refugee crisis?"

ON THE SHOW TODAY

4/22: Sam will be hosting solo. The guests will be Chris Rabb, a DSA-backed candidate for Pennsylvania's 3rd Congressional district; Katherine Blankenship, an immigration Attorney from Sanctuary of the South, discussing abuses at "Alligator Alcatraz," the Florida ICE camp; and Lindsey Boylan, the Mamdani-backed candidate for New York City Council's 3rd district in the west side of Manhattan.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

Elizabeth Warren Exposes Trump's Fed Pick in Brutal Hearing

That opening question was brilliant.

This Is Insane...

Caitlyn Jenner might be a little slow on the uptake.

PARTING WORDS

"I think what really undercuts his apology is that a lot of people could reasonably infer you could have and should have and probably did know all of this, and you did it. There's no effort to make amends, not much effort to really acknowledge the enormity."

-- Oberlin College social psychologist Cindy Frantz, speaking to HuffPost about Tucker Carlson's unconvincing apology this week for "misleading people" about Donald Trump.

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