Flotsam and Jetsam - Circuit Court Judge Nixes Virginia Gerrymander

How do like them activist judges now? Cathy Salgado at PJM reports Court Rules Just-Passed Virginia Gerrymandering Unconstitutional "Cuccinelli had already predicted that the election results last night were not the final say on Virginia Democrats' gerrymandering. He noted that the "[f]irst passage was invalid," as the "amendment was taken up during a special session convened in 2024 for budget purposes. The General Assembly's own call to the Governor (under Art. IV, §6 and Art. V, §5) and its governing resolution (HJR 6001) limited the session's scope. Expanding it to include a constitutional amendment on redistricting required a two-thirds vote that never occurred." In light of this, a Tazewell County judge ruled that this action was "void, ab initio." Beege Welborn at Hat Hair, Virginia Judge Rules VA Gerrymandering Vote Unconstitutional. Dmitri Bolt at TownHall, A Virginia Circuit Court Has Just Ruled The State's New Congressional Map Unconstitutional. Of course, it will be appealed. Ken Cuccinelli II @KenCuccinelli, "The "yes" vote has won Va's redistricting referendum — but the legal fight is just beginning. Four Va Constitutional challenges are now teed up: THREE challenges to the amendment process itself:..." Matt Margolis at PJM Here’s How Trump Can Nuke Virginia’s New Gerrymandered Map — And It's Brilliant! Rescind the separation of NOVA from DC, and gerrymander all those votes back into the district. Can he do it? Maybe, the original split happened when Virginia slaveholder disagreed with the Districts decision to ban slavery, before the Civil War. It's never really been adjudicated to the Supreme Court. Think of the fun!

At Decision Desk HQ, What happened last night: Virginia votes Yes on redistricting, "A review of Virginia's redistricting vote." Da Caller notes Soros-Linked Dark Money Puts Lopsided Democrat Gerrymander Of Virginia Across Finish Line. The Lone Raccoon @FSociety_1942, "VIRGINIA OK, I am trying to organize my thoughts about yesterday's vote in Virginia. Here is my analysis from my capturing of the election night reporting data...." He sees something fishy, "My old pet peeve, totals going down rather than up, was way too frequent. 23 counties had at least one case of "negative votes", including Chesterfield's whopping 71,903 deduction at 10:45 this morning (April 22). Augusta had a 11,968 deduction at 10:18. A whopping 13 counties had deductions in the SAME REPORT at 7:41PM on the 21st (for a total of 18,476). This is not acceptable and needs explained. (Other than, "well these numbers aren't official". They are official enough to show on the news.)" Nick Arama at RedState hears the Mic Drop: DeSantis Levels Hakeem Jeffries With Hilarious Invite to Florida for Redistricting Battle.

From the Chronic, How the 2020 United States Census Defrauded the American People.

At Althouse, "'If the Democratic Party is to flourish in the future,' Mr. Platner told me, 'it needs to be an antiwar party.'" The guy with the Nazi tattoo. The Persian Jewess @persianjewess, "Over 70% of the East Village voted for Mamdani. Now they’re suing Mamdani because he’s planning to relocate Bellevue homeless shelter to the East Village." Gooder and harder. NRO's Jim Geraghty is concerned that Young Democrats Are Now More Hostile Toward Israel Than Iran or China. Drew Pavlou @DrewPavlou, "When you listen to Hasan Piker speak it becomes very obvious why Lenin and Stalin killed so many people. He appoints himself judge, jury and executioner - anybody who ideologically opposes him is guilty of vague crimes like “social murder” and can therefore be executed." Quote Pirate Wires @PirateWires "In a new NYT interview, Hasan Piker says that many “understand” Luigi Mangione killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson because Thompson himself was guilty of “social murder”. VodkaPundet at PJM, Wait’ll You See This Crazy Lefty Lady Learn What Kamala and Hillary Said About Iran. Michael Holmstrom @MichaelH_MN, "BREAKING: Ilhan Omar’s sham winery LLC was dissolved 9 days after her updated disclosures."

The story of the SPLC being indicted on 11 counts related to their funding of far-right extremists (mostly financial crimes) blew up yesterday. Ace woke up and realized The SPLC Paid Off the "Unite the Right" Marchers in Charlottesville -- Which the Democrat-Media Party Then Used as the Centerpiece of the 2020 Election Campaign "They didn't just pour money into "Unite the Right." They poured donor money into dozens of "far right"/"white supremacist" groups." Hat Hair's Dave Strom, SPLC Funded 'Unite the Right' Rally That Spawned 'Fine People' Hoax DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, "THREAD: How the Charlottesville rally and SPLC birthed an entire billion-dollar-plus "democracy" ecosystem 11 federal counts. Wire fraud. Money laundering conspiracy. But here's what the SPLC headlines are missing: • The indictment describes a paid informant in the leadership chat that PLANNED Unite the Right • That informant "helped coordinate transportation" to the rally... at SPLC's direction • There is ONE publicly identified organizer whose documented role was transportation coordinator • His Discord posts about running over protesters were made 26 DAYS before Heather Heyer was killed by a car • The indictment says postings were made "under the supervision of the SPLC" • Charlottesville then became the founding event for a billion-dollar political machine • SPLC installed itself as that machine's definitional gatekeeper I report. You draw your own conclusions. As always, patience as I pull together the thread." Karol Markowicz @karol, "A reminder than in 2022 SPLC (and the ADL) worked with PayPal to decide which "extreme" groups to remove from PayPal's service...all the while funding actually extreme groups." Quote Karol Markowicz @karol Dec 13, 2022, "Southern Poverty Law Center is a total scam org. That the ADL is involved with them is pathetic. That Paypal is taking advice from these 2 groups is reason enough to drop service even if you don't think you'll be targeted. Great piece, @rupasubramanya." Patrick Casey @restoreorderusa, "This one's wild. The SPLC paid a member of the National Alliance over one million dollars (!) in less than a decade. At one point, the informant entered the headquarters of a presumably different organization and stole 25 boxes of their documents, which he delivered to the SPLC. He later returned them. A different informant was paid $6000 to take responsibility for the theft." Northern Barbarian@xnoesbueno, "The growth of batshit crazy is exponential. I could not have envisioned any of this 20 years ago. Then again, just 2 years ago, I could not have envisioned the United States and Israel destroying IRGC nuke facilities, and decapitating the Islamic Republic, to the applause of the Arab world. While isolating China, liberating Venezuela, etc. Over Europe's objections." Quote Austen Allred @Austen "Think about how crazy you’d sound a decade ago if you said, “There’s a secret pedophile island where the global elite go to abuse underage kids, the government is funding research of a virus that will kill millions, and anti-hate nonprofits are funding the KKK.”" Marc Andreessen @pmarca,"We’re learning in real time why the censorship-industrial complex was so certain that so much of what they hated was inauthentic misinformation. So much of what they liked was inauthentic misinformation. Incredible." YouTube, The SPLC: How The Left Created the Sperg-Right - Razör Rants.

Althouse pretends cruel neutrality in Shaping the SPLC story. "I'm taking a position of cruel neutrality and see myself spending much of the day observing how the 2 sides are shaping the story." Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze, "You're talking about a 10 year narrative from our national media based on fraud. It's been their main topic. It's been at the forefront of every story that they approach. It's been the main focus of everything they've done, or published or broadcasted in a decade and it was all mostly made up. They can't just let it go and they won't. They are going to dig in on this unlike anything that we have seen before." Quote PoIiMath @politicalmath "There is a pending community note on this, but it is infuriating that a huge newspaper will just flat-out lie about the news SPLC was not "indicted for paying sources". They were indicted for wire fraud and making false statements. Just tell us the truth! It's not that hard!" Hans Mahncke @HansMahncke, "One thing that’s been very conspicuous over the past 24 hours is how many big name Democrats are lashing out over the SPLC charges, making totally ridiculous claims that they are baseless or illegitimate, even though there is a grand jury indictment. It’s so completely detached from any semblance of rational thought that you have to wonder whether some of these politicians are themselves implicated." Quote Richard Blumenthal @SenBlumenthal, "Trump’s baseless attack on the Southern Poverty Law Center shows his politicized DOJ once again persecuting anyone who defends civil rights & fights hate-fueled violence. It’s a vengeance agenda."18275/southern-poverty-law-center-fraud-charges-paid-informants Bonchie at RedState, The Democrat Lie About the SPLC Indictment Has Been Formed, and Now They're Running With It. USA TODAY @USATODAY, "The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted for paying sources to infiltrate hate groups, a tactic federal agencies have used for decades." Mike Lee @SenMikeLee, "Committing wire fraud to send money to the KKK is an odd way to safeguard democracy, Senator." Quote Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer, "The Trump administration is waging a vindictive campaign against the organizations that safeguard our democracy. Weaponizing the DOJ to indict long-standing watchdogs is a message: if you defend voting rights, fight white supremacy, or protect civil rights, you’re next." Hollywood in Toto amusing speculates Did George Clooney Help Fund KKK, Unite the Right? "Stunning allegations against SPLC's methods must be challenged by Oscar winner."

Kurt Schlichter @KurtSchlichter, "If you’re not clear on what’s going on with this SLPC thing, the federal prosecutors believe that they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the SLPC was, among other things, funding the various organizations that it then cited to justify its own fundraising. In other words, it’s accused of funding white supremacist groups, and then pointing to these white supremacist groups to get people to give it money. That’s not “paying informants.” That’s a massive fraud." Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok, "Remember when an SPLC lawyer was arrested on domestic terrorism charges at an Antifa riot?? This is who the FBI would get tips from on who to label an extremist and investigate." Northern Barbarian @xnoesbueno, "Good point. How does the FBI skate in this?" Quote Mike Benz @MikeBenzCyber Replying to @MikeBenzCyber, "No small irony in SPLC going from being partnered with the FBI to raided by the FBI in under 4 years..."

From Sundance at CTH, The Declassified Impeachment Material Was Stunning, but What Came Before It Is Worse and CIA Security Officer Shauni Kerkhoff Files Lawsuit Against Steve Baker and The Blaze for Identifying Her as J6 Bomber, "This is going to be an interesting lawsuit to watch unfold as there are various types of conspiracy claims similar to Mr Baker that are circulating. If their claim is false, both Mr Baker and The Blaze could end up in the same financial position as Alex Jones. I suspect this is not going to end well for Steve Baker, The Blaze or Glenn Beck."

Jeff Charles at TownHall, Trump Just Went Scorched Earth on Supreme Court Over Recent Rulings.

Capt. Ed at Hat Hair, Trump To Iran: Get Your S*** Together – Or Else. From RCD, If Iran Won’t Deal, Here’s What Comes Next. Ace, Iran Attacks Three Ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Claims It Has Seized Two of Them, "The third I've read was not seized and wasn't damaged too badly but it has stopped movement. The attacks were conducted by the "fast attack boats" -- speedboats converted for military use -- that for some reason we never dropped daisy-cutter bombs on. I don't know why. But while we observe a "cease-fire," they're shooting up ships and taking the crews hostage. " Nick Arama at RedState, Iran Claims It Fired on and Seized Ships - but There's More to the Story. FatMan @FatManTerra, "New reports from today indicate that this Indian tanker fell for a fake IRGC crypto scam. They paid USDT to the scammers, thinking they could now pass through freely, and got shot at by the real IRGC forces. First time a crypto transaction led directly to maritime warfare?" Quote OSINTtechnical @Osinttechnical, "Audio of the Indian oil tanker Sanmar Herald pleading with Iranian forces to stop shooting at it in the Strait of Hormuz this morning." At NYPo, Two women Trump called for Iran to spare already released on bail, rights group says.

From I&I, J.D. Vance’s Approval Dips Into The Red In 2026; Can He Reverse That In Time For 2028 Vote? I&I/TIPP Poll. At Am Mind, The President Versus the Pope. VodkaPundit at Insty says ATTENTION, JOHN THUNE: Nearly 70% support SAVE America Act to require voter ID. “Overall, 68% of registered voters supported the bill, while 32% opposed it in the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll. Support was split by party, with 90% of Republicans backing the measure while 55% of Democrats opposed it. A further 66% of independents supported the plan.”

Sundance notes Canada Does NOT Want to Open USMCA (CUSMA) for Renegotiations. Who cares what Canada wants? 

Athena Thorne at PJM thinks There Is Simply Too Much Schadenfreude in This New York Times Profile of Former USAID Workers. "I am 100% for sure going to hell for enjoying this New York Times article as much as I am."

Yehuda Teitelbaum @chalavyishmael, "You really can’t hate the @BBC enough. For context, Abdullah Albadri, armed with two knives and carrying a “martyrdom note,” tried to storm the Israeli embassy in London, told police he wanted to die “for the glory of God,” and was then charged with preparing a terrorist attack."

Still Mor (as the Chick-fil-A cow would say) at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 04.21.26 (Morning Edition) and In The Mailbox: 04.22.26.