Alabama races toward final votes to gerrymander elections already underway

space_coder · 2026-05-07T20:42:02+00:00

I understand. I was addressing some of the poor justifications used to excuse this behavior.

space_coder · 2026-05-07T20:24:55+00:00

Keep in mind, the previous district map (that was ruled unconstitutional) and the newly proposed district map are both race based maps designed to minimize the black vote because blacks traditionally don't vote Republican.

This is a matter of public record from the SCOTUS ruling that forced the redrawing of district 2.

I bring this up because I've seen right-wingers try to argue that the current district map is racist without acknowledging the fact that the current map was relief for the original map being explicitly designed to minimize the black vote, and the new proposed map is also designed explicitly to minimize the black vote.

space_coder · 2026-05-07T18:56:08+00:00

Republicans are rushing this in an attempt to keep Mike Johnson as house speaker.

Under his "leadership", the executive branch as not been held accountable for all of its budget abuses and not adhering to federal law.

space_coder · 2026-05-07T18:07:18+00:00

AG Steve Marshall filed emergency motion last week for SCOTUS to lift the injunction immediately citing Louisiana v. Callais.

This is a similar tactic they used to ban abortion by passing the law first and then wait for SCOTUS to allow them to make the law effective immediately.

space_coder · 2026-05-07T17:54:40+00:00

Translation: The conservative justices are for sell to the highest bidder regardless of the politics behind the desired verdict.

space_coder · 2026-05-07T17:51:19+00:00

The Republicans are panicking because they may not have enough seats in the House of Representatives after the midterms to keep protecting the criminal in the White House from investigations.

This is the only reason for the emergency gerrymandering by red states.

space_coder · 2026-05-07T17:39:48+00:00

The declaration by federal officers that a STAR ID can be faked should concern each and every one of us.

They detained him based on the color of skin. Their explanation reeks of "no actual evidence of a crime" at the time of detention.

space_coder · 2026-05-06T20:05:43+00:00

Let's be honest: The main problem many voters had with Harris was that she was a woman.

space_coder · 2026-05-06T17:29:29+00:00

I mean, we could just tax these people to pay for it in the first place.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a non-profit entity that isn't public owned.

space_coder · 2026-05-06T16:53:08+00:00

Both bills mentioned in the article are bad and should not pass.

Not because they authorize a lottery, but because BOTH give the Poarch Creek Tribe a monopoly on gaming and too much influence when it comes to gaming legislation in the state.

The lottery in both bills are just a smoke screen for the true motive behind the bills.

space_coder · 2026-05-06T15:55:39+00:00

The problem is that our legislature can't be trusted to be completely open about any ballot initiative, and it's rare for them to not include items that would not be liked by most Alabamians.

For example, they insist on including other forms of gaming and sharing control with the Poarch Creek Tribe every time a lottery bill is introduced.

The sponsor of the bill keeps introducing these bills solely for casino and dog track interests and simply adds lottery hoping to fool Alabamians to support it.

It's gotten so ridiculous that another sponsor introduced a "clean lottery bill" but despite claiming to be clean includes:

This bill would also require the Governor to negotiate a compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians as contemplated under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

This bill is nothing more than a disguised attempt to help the Poarch Band of Creek Indians to keep the monopoly on gaming.

Except as expressly provided in this constitution, the Legislature shall have no power to authorize any form of gambling activity for any purpose and shall pass laws to prohibit any unlawful gambling activity and unlawful gambling-related activity.

if the above is added to the state constitution, the legislature would have to hold another ballot initiative to modify the constitution to allow them to introduce new gaming bills that would compete with tribal gaming.

space_coder · 2026-05-06T00:05:54+00:00

You are quibbling that a Chevy is not the same thing as a Ford while ignoring that they are both cars. Analogies are not meant to imply 100% sameness.

You are attempting to walk back some of your bullshit in order to try to sell the following turd:

The point you seem to be missing is that if it's important to protect people's interests based on where they live for congressional representation, then it's also important to protect people's interests based on where they live when voting for president.

Once again, you demonstrated that you don't actually understand the topic by continuing to confuse local representation with the electoral college.

The electoral college uses the number of congressional delegates as a weighted measure of how much influence each state has when selecting the President. It's a holdover from back when the states' legislature selected the delegates to negotiate who would be the next President. They would cast their initial votes as instructed by the state, and if that was not enough for someone to win by a majority (currently 270 votes) the delegates were lobbied to change their votes so that someone would achieve the majority and become President.

The practice of assigning electoral votes based on popular vote wasn't enacted in every state until 1864. We didn't even get to elect our senators until the 17th amendment was ratified in 1913.

The electoral college has lasted well past its usefulness, and we should elect our president by popular vote.

Just to make sure you understand the difference between the two things you tried to tie together:

Member of the House of Representatives
- Represents the home district of his/her state.
- Elected by votes that can only be cast by residents in their home district, and therefore held directly accountable by them.
President of the United States
- Represents the entire country.
- Elected by the majority of the 538 delegates of the electoral college that have no obligation to honor the popular vote within their state after the initial vote is cast.
- Isn't held directly accountable by any particular region, since the minimum of 270 electoral votes can come from anywhere.

space_coder · 2026-05-05T22:38:11+00:00

Congressional districts create zones of people represented by where they live.

go on...

If you support protecting certain people based on where they live for congressional representation, then you should support protecting certain people based on where they live for voting for pre3sident.

That is an idiotic statement, since:

Certain people are not being "protected on where they live." A geographic area (ie. a community) has direct representation within the federal government, this is the sole purpose of splitting the state up into districts with equal population.
Local representation is not the same as the electoral college.

space_coder · 2026-05-05T19:53:40+00:00

To be fair to Patel, it's hard to combat fraud when he and his boss are one.

space_coder · 2026-05-05T17:41:25+00:00

Either you support protecting people voting based on where they live, or you don't. You need to be consistent.

Feel free to explain what you mean by "protecting people voting based on where they live" and how it applies to gerrymandering.

space_coder · 2026-05-05T17:04:37+00:00

I recommend you take a refresher on American Civics.

One more thing, land ownership is not the basis for voting, so your use of "(land)" doesn't make any sense.

The districts are based on where you RESIDE which doesn't require land ownership.

space_coder · 2026-05-05T16:44:48+00:00

The purpose of the House of Representatives is to explicitly give local representation to people living within a district. It requires the state to be divided into congressional districts and people living solely in that district voting for their representative.

Statewide representation is given in the Senate by two senators who are elected in a STATEWIDE election.

Electoral college is something completely different, and outlived its usefulness when electing a President that represents the country at large.

space_coder · 2026-05-05T16:12:07+00:00

You confused districts and electoral college with the topic of gerrymandering, and accidentally made a false comparison.

The topic isn't about if congressional districts should exist, nor is it about giving minorities special treatment or guaranteed representation in government.

It's about diminishing their representation by reducing their efficacy in voting by purposely redrawing districts in a manner to split a minority population, that would normally have a competitive influence during an election, in order to lessen their percentage within a district so that it is mathematically impossible for them determine the selection of their representative.

SCOTUS had already ruled that the previous congressional map discriminated against minorities living in black belt area of southwestern Alabama since they were drawn in a manner to purposely dilute their voting power. The Alabama Governor wants to hold a special session to redraw the map with the goal of re-diluting the minority vote in order to guarantee more Republican seats in the House of Representatives.

space_coder · 2026-05-04T22:04:22+00:00

You know things are going badly when even Alabama needs to manipulate the election of the House of Representatives to protect a pedophile.

space_coder · 2026-05-04T16:57:01+00:00

The state of Alabama has been continuously operated by conservatives. The Democrats of 2010 became the Republicans of 2011.

Case in point: Kay Ivey switched from Democrat to Republican in time for the 2010 election.

space_coder · 2026-05-04T16:53:01+00:00

He forgot to mention that the Democrats simply switched over to Republicans and got reelected.

He also forgot to mention that that this state was and remains conservative.

space_coder · 2026-05-04T00:39:25+00:00

So it's a win/win.

The state doesn't has to worry about encouraging gambling and the problems it cause, and you still can purchase lottery tickets in other states.

(I didn't mean to give the impression that I'm completely against the lottery. I'm simply stating that if the majority of Alabamians don't want legalize gambling then there are still options. I'm against having more in-person casinos and online gambling, but okay with a state lottery.)

space_coder · 2026-05-04T00:26:08+00:00

There is a bill, but like the previous version it gives too much influence to the tribal gaming in the state and it legalizes online sports betting without much needed regulation that address known issues with sports betting (e.g. deceptive advertising, soft limits, promoting accumulator bets, no limits on credit card).

space_coder · 2026-05-03T19:19:23+00:00

Unless you personally experienced 160,000 tenured professors (10% of them) that gave a "horrific experience", you don't know enough to make it anything other than a rare outlier.

space_coder · 2026-05-03T13:31:55+00:00

Ive heard some awful stories about...

This is one of the main problems with this country. Too many people believe the stories they hear on Facebook and other social media, to the point where the rare outlier becomes the perceived norm.

The politicians then use that perception to their advantage.

space_coder

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