Random News and Notes 25 August
We start out in Texas because Walt asked for some analysis on the redistricting there. The main question was whether Al Green and Jasmine Crockett were going to lose their seats. The answer isn’t as clear cut as one might hope. While Abbott and company didn’t specifically note who they were targeting, we can make some assumptions based on the newly drawn boundaries. I’ll discuss that below. The new map seems to give the R’s 5 new seats in Congress.
Green – currently CD9 – is out. The new maps make the 9th a solid R district. Not knowing the previous boundary, I don’t know if the new 9th still encompasses much of the old borders or Green’s residence. Crockett in TX 30 is also likely out. That district went from lean D to a solid R. Both Green and Crockett have announced their intentions to run in the midterms. Given the new maps, I don’t see either of them winning re-election.
The remaining seats are a bit more difficult to parse. The 32nd – Julie Johnson’s seat – in the Dallas area goes from a solid Dem CD to a lean Repub. Henry Cuellar (28th) and Vicente Gonzalez (34th) are likely gone as both districts moved from D lean to R lean. Both the 28th and 34th are in South Texas and heavily Hispanic. The difference there is going to be whether or not the GOP can continue with their gains among that demo.
The newly redrawn 35th combines the districts of Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett. Doggett is the incumbent in the 35th so expect a primary there and will step aside if the maps stay as drawn. This leaves us with the loss of Casar’s current seat.
I told you the other day that Kilmar Abrego Garcia – the Illegal alien, human trafficker and MS-13 member – was released from a Tennessee jail by an activist judge. Well, he made it to his wife’s(?) home in Maryland and got to spend the weekend with her. Whether she wanted it or not – remember, she filed for multiple orders of protection. This morning he was scooped up by ICE or more accurately he surrendered to ICE.
As I wrote in the previous piece, ICE had given him the ‘required’* 72 hour notice of deportation, so he should be on his way to Uganda shortly. I understand he was given a choice; plead guilty to the human trafficking charges pending in Tennessee and get deported to Costa Rica or don’t and go to Uganda.
*The 72 hour requirement was made up of whole cloth by a federal judge. There is no requirement for this in any federal statute, rule, policy or regulation.
Adam Schiff is among the seemingly legion number of Dems looking down the barrel of mortgage fraud charges. He went on TV to try to debunk those charges. Fortunately for us, his claims have not gone unaddressed.
Poor Adam, the noose comes, slow in the drawing, tight and hard in the end.
President Trump is taking the DC Crime crackdown show on the road. The next stop? Chiraq. The Second CIty has been tops for homicide rate for at least 13 years.
Part of that crackdown is a new EO targeting cashless bail.
Israel is in the news again (not that the country has been out of the news since 10/7). This time it is over a strike on a hospital in Khan Younis. The Nassar hospital – where the strike occurred – has been in the news before. A while back Israel was accused of hitting the hospital with a 2000lb bomb and killing hundreds. You might recall that what actually happened was a Hamas rocket fell short and landed on a bunch of tents for displaced persons.
This time, the pro-hamas media is claiming Israel deliberately targeted ‘journalists’ and ‘aid workers’. Unfortunately for them, several of the deceased have already been ID’ed as Hamas fighters.
I get that attacks on hospitals can be seen in a bad light. I also get that appearing to deliberately target journos can be a bad look. However, when the enemy, in this case Hamas, takes over the hospital to use as a HQ, that hospital becomes a legitimate target. And when ‘journalists’ aren’t journalists but members of Hamas and PIJ, they become legitimate targets.
