LetMyPeopleVote
LetMyPeopleVote's JournalPPP polling discussed on Rachel Maddow tonight
https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/900166587126136832https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/900167012122370049
https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/900167284001357824
George and Amal Clooney donate $1 million to Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC is doing great work https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-amal-clooney-give-one-million-grant-to-combat-hate-groups/
Through their Clooney Foundation for Justice, the couple is donating $1 million to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization that tracks hate groups and extremists in the U.S.
In a statement to CBS News, George Clooney said: "Amal and I wanted to add our voice (and financial assistance) to the ongoing fight for equality. There are no two sides to bigotry and hate."
"What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate," the couple said in a statement.
Texas Democratic Party trying to get Joaquin Castro to run for governor
the Texas Democratic Party has arranged a number of call to actions for voters to meet Joaquin Castro and to try to encourage him to run. The Meyerland Democrats had an event this afternoon and tonight the Katy Democrats had an event where we had over 140 attendees. There was a great deal of love shown to Congressman Castro. 140+ attendees for this event was a major accomplishment. I was very pleased with the event.
There is another event at the Harris County Democratic Party headquarters tomorrow morning at 10 AM. http://www.harrisdemocrats.com/joaquincastroaug2017 If you are in Houston, go meet Congressman Castro. He would give Greg Abbott a good run and could win if Greg and Patrick continue to push things like bathroom bills and the sanctuary city silliness
Texas Appeals 3-Judge Court Ruling on Congressional Redistricting to Supreme Court
Texas has the option of letting the court redraw the boundaries or having the Texas legislature redo the boundaries. Texas is going for a third option of appealing to the SCOTUS. https://electionlawblog.org/?p=94354
On the merits, the ruling is pretty good for Texas compared to what the Court might have done, and the Supreme Court may not choose to get involved in this aspect of the case. (There are other meaty issues, including the findings on discriminatory intent, and possible order to put Texas back under federal supervision for voting which I expect the Court would fully review).
The court will hold hearings on Sept 5 to 8 unless enjoined or stayed by the SCOTUS. I think that there is a decent chance that the SCOTUS will let the court draw new boundaries pending determination of appeal
Organizers of white nationalist rally in Virginia, driver sued for $3 million
The Southern Poverty Law Center bankrupted the KKK in the South and the Aryan Nation in Idaho by suing these organizations for the acts of their members. This tactic was very effective with respect to the KKK and the Aryan Nation. Now this tactic is being used against the idiots in the alt right http://www.politicususa.com/2017/08/15/organizers-white-nationalist-rally-virginia-driver-sued-3-million.html
Tadrint Washington and Micah Washington said in papers filed in Charlottesville circuit court that they had been among the people hurt when James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one.
They had been driving home and their car was struck by Fields car, and some of his pedestrian victims were also hurled onto their vehicle, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit names Fields, “Unite the Right” rally organizer Jason Kessler and about two dozen alt-right leaders and organizations as defendants.
“There was no doubt that violence was intended at this rally,” the pair said in the lawsuit, noting that participants came bearing shields and weapons.
Kessler has denied that the event was intended to provoke violence, contending that the counter-protesters sparked the fighting and blaming police for failing to protect his group. He could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Federal court invalidates part of Texas congressional map
Source: Texas Tribune
Federal judges have invalidated two Texas congressional districts, ruling that they must be fixed by either the Legislature or a federal court.
In a unanimous decision Tuesday, a three-judge panel in San Antonio ruled that Congressional Districts 27 and 35 violate the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act. The judges found that Hispanic voters in Congressional District 27, represented by U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, were "intentionally deprived of their opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice." Congressional District 35 — a Central Texas district represented by Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Austin — was deemed "an impermissible racial gerrymander" because mapdrawers illegally used race as the predominant factor in drawing it without a compelling state interest, the judges wrote.
The 107-page ruling — the latest chapter of a six-year court battle over how Texas lawmakers drew political maps — sets up a scramble to redraw the districts in time for the 2018 elections.
The court ordered the Texas Attorney General’s Office to indicate within three business days whether the Texas Legislature would take up redistricting to fix those violations. Otherwise, the state and its legal foes will head back to court on Sept. 5 to begin re-drawing the congressional map — which could shake up other congressional races when the boundaries are changed.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/15/federal-court-invalidates-part-texas-congressional-map/
If the Texas legislature does not elect to redraw the boundaries, then there will be a hearing on Sept 5 to 8. This ruling is only on the Congressional Districts and a separate ruling will be issued on the Texas state house seats
Rep: Texas A&M cancels Sept. 11 White Lives Matter event
Here is some good news http://www.chron.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/Rep-Texas-A-M-cancels-Sept-11-White-Lives-11818626.php?ipid=ntk
Texas A&M administrators consulted with law enforcement, system leaders and regents before cancelling the rally, spokeswoman Amy Smith said.
Preston Wiginton, a former Texas A&M student, had announced on Saturday that he would host a White Lives Matter event in College Station on Sept. 11. He planned to host a White Lives Matter representative from Houston and Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who espoused racist views on that campus in December.
The story of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and an indicted IT staffer thats lighting up the right, expla
The RWNJ sources are pushing this story as the next E. Farkas, Susan Rice and/or Seth Rich conspiracy theory. I had never heard of this story and it seems that there is nothing to it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/08/the-story-of-debbie-wasserman-schultz-and-an-it-staffer-thats-lighting-up-the-right/?utm_term=.b94fdc35fed2
Left-leaning sites have either stayed away from it or defended Wasserman Schultz's account of it.
The congresswoman says conservatives are making a big deal of this to distract from the much more real Russia investigation. “Undoubtedly, the easier path would have been to terminate Mr. Awan, despite the fact that I had not received any evidence of his alleged wrongdoing,” she said in a statement issued last week, “but that is not the woman my constituents elected, and that is not the mother my children know me to be.”
Clearly, there are a lot of political accusations tied up in this nuanced story. Here's what we know about the timeline of accusations against Arwan, his arrest and his dismissal by Wasserman Schultz.
After reading the timeline in the Washington Post article, there is not anything to worry about despite the hype on RWNJ sources
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