DL Open Thread: Friday, August 20, 2021

Virginia Redistricting Panel Ends Up Exactly As I Thought It Would. Same thing would happen here:

When Virginians voted nearly 2-to-1 last fall to establish a bipartisan redistricting commission, the idea was to embrace a fairer method of drafting the state’s political maps. There was certainly reason to hope for an end to the brazen incumbent-protection racket that had prevailed for decades, enabling sitting lawmakers, helped by ever-more-deft technological gizmos, to choose their own voters. But even before the commission has drawn a single state legislative or congressional district, it is engulfed in tribal partisan skirmishing, precisely the opposite of the compromise and consensus it was designed to encourage.

First, the 16-member panel — split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, citizens and state legislators — was unable to agree on hiring a single, nonpartisan lawyer to guide its work, settling instead for one affiliated with each party. Then, at a similar impasse over hiring a firm to draft boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts, it opted for two firms, each partisan. So much for consensus.

RWNJ Rethug Official Dies Of COVID.  Hey, it was his decision:

“Listen to me please: I am making a decision to go on a ventilator. This is my OWN decision. I trust God to keep me. I ask you to trust Him, too. He IS ABLE, right? My faith is strong that I will come through this. May be days or weeks, but God IS in CONTROL! Patty, I LOVE YOU! Pressley 3, Bart, Cavin and Linc, I LOVE YOU DEEPLY! Remember what I have instilled in your hearts and minds. I WILL wake up from this short rest and be back in the game soon! PLEASE PRAY LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER PRAYED BEFORE! I HUMBLY ASK YOU. GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU!”

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally A Breeding Ground–For Child Sex Trafficking.  When Horribles gather, they engage in Horrible behavior.  You may wonder, Why South Dakota?  Here’s why:

Regrettably, the Sturgis rally has become a main event that drives human trafficking within the state of South Dakota. However, it’s not the only time the state sees human trafficking.

The two major interstates that run through the state, I-90 and I-29, are “part of the ‘Midwest Pipeline,’ the superhighways used to deliver trafficking victims to cities across the country, ” according to this fact sheet.

The reality is that whenever there is an event that attracts a large number of men, there is a market for some form of sex trafficking. And, while sex trafficking exists around the nation, there’s something distinctive about South Dakota. The peaceful, homegrown mentality that exists here has made it an excellent “cover” for sex trafficking.

South Dakota is also home to 9 Native American reservations and designated tribal land areas…more than any other state. Native women and children are at higher risk for trafficking than any other racial group. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, over 40% of those trafficked in the state have been Native women. What’s even more startling is that only 13% of South Dakota’s residents are Native.

Speaking of Native Americans–Congressional Democrats Push Biden To Yank Permits For Line 3:

“The Trump Administration aggressively expanded fossil fuel infrastructure projects under a new policy of ‘energy dominance’ and severely limited public scrutiny on those projects,” said the letter, which Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) led.

The Army Corps conducted “almost no independent evaluation of the risk of oil spills at the crossings it authorized, despite the fact that the route for Line 3 crosses 227 lakes and rivers, including the headwaters of the Mississippi River and rivers that feed directly into Lake Superior,” the letter said.

The lawmakers complained that the Army Corps’s final permitting analysis last November of how the pipeline would affect climate change came down to “a single paragraph in which greenhouse gas emissions from construction and operation of a major tar sands pipeline are dismissed as ‘de minimis.’” They asked instead that the administration examine how the potential for serious drought across the region could “exacerbate the environmental costs of an oil spill.”

Yet “the most serious areas of omission” appeared in the infrastructure agency’s failure to adequately consult local tribes, many of whose members have led the ongoing protests against the pipeline’s construction, braving assaults from police and private security and blasts of debris from deliberately low-flying federal helicopters.

I am more than proud to say that my youngest daughter has been taking part in these actions in Minnesota for the past two weeks.  If everybody had (a) her sense of right and wrong, and (b) her willingness to act on it, we’d be in a much better place.  BTW, Bon Iver were among the musicians raising bail money for the protestors.

A Valentine To The Worst Of The Delaware Way.  A love letter to Dennis Rochford from those who knew him best–Nancy Karibjanian, Bobby Byrd, and Joe Farley.  EE-eeww.  Sorry, you need a subscription, but that photo says it all.  Tried, but couldn’t, cut and paste it.

What do you want to talk about?