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Bloomberg.com •

Courts Aren’t Buying Trump’s Voting Lies. He’s Not Giving Up

President Donald Trump’s assault on elections took another hit Monday when the US Supreme Court rejected a Republican bid to restrict mail voting. In a 5-4 decision, the justices upheld Mississippi’s grace period for ballots postmarked by Election Day — and the principle that the Constitution gives states authority over elections. But Trump isn’t listening. He’s trying every angle to sidestep the courts and weaponize the federal government to interfere with the midterms. President Donald Trum...
Bloomberg.com •

Florida Needs Haitian Workers. Congress Should Let Them Stay

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration has the unfettered ability to end temporary protected status for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians, allowing federal officials to begin deporting them.The 6-3 ruling from the conservative court means these TPS holders will lose their ability to live and work in the US by the end of July, forcing them to return to countries the US State Department has determined are too unsafe to travel to. The US Supreme Court on Thursd...
Bloomberg.com •

How a Conservative Georgia Town Defeated an ICE Mega-Prison

A tiny town in rural Georgia, which four months ago was destined to become the home of a massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, has fought the White House and won. By all accounts, Social Circle — located about halfway between Atlanta and Augusta — doesn’t seem a likely place to mount a revolt against the overreach of the Trump/Vance administration. It has only about 5,000 inhabitants. Its voters are overwhelmingly Republican. And about 72% of the county voted for Presiden...
Bloomberg.com •

DeSantis’ Plan to Gut Property Taxes Is a Soviet Power Grab

Florida legislators have approved an amendment for the November ballot that gives new meaning to the phrase “the red state of Florida.” Think Soviet, not Republican. The proposal, offered up by Governor Ron DeSantis and rammed through yesterday in a special session, would give property tax exemptions of at least $250,000 to residents who have owned homes in Florida at least five years. In return, city and county spending would be at the mercy of the state. Florida legislators have approved an a...
Bloomberg.com •

A $5.5 Million Airport Rebrand the Trumps May Profit From

Travelers to Florida take note: Palm Beach International Airport will soon be renamed the President Donald J. Trump International Airport, complete with new call letters: DJT. When the name-change takes effect in July, it will not only be the first time an airport will be named after a sitting president, but the first time such an arrangement can create new revenue streams for him and his family.We will all be paying for it, and not only in taxes.Trump has a tradition of using government infrast...
Bloomberg.com •

Ken Paxton Ran as a 'Change' Candidate. How Ironic

“Today, change was on the ballot, and change won,” Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, declared in his victory speech an hour after polls closed in Tuesday’s runoff election. Paxton, buoyed by a late endorsement from President Donald Trump, had just defeated veteran senator John Cornyn in a blowout.Unfortunately, in the Trump era, the change the scandal-plagued Paxton promotes means one thing: even greater fealty to Trump and even fewer checks on corruption. “Today, change was on the ballot...
Bloomberg.com •

Democrats Are Putting Their Faith in Military Veterans

Voters have lost faith in just about every institution right now — with the exception of the military, according to Gallup’s annual survey. So Democrats, in their quest to win back a majority in the US House, are recruiting military veterans. Their appeal boils down to one thing: courage. Voters want to see it. Few Republicans in Congress have been demonstrating it. And no one can deny veterans have it. Alex Vindman, 50, is one of their recruits. The retired Army lieutenant colonel and Iraq war...
Bloomberg.com •

Trump’s Massie Smackdown May Cost Him in November

President Donald Trump’s GOP revenge tour reached a new level on Tuesday with the expensive defeat of Congressman Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who dared to challenge the president over his abandoned campaign promises. It was a commanding win for a president who is epically unpopular with most Americans, yet retains a vise-like grip on his party. But it was a devastating blow for democracy. The total cost of the takedown: $33 million.
Bloomberg.com •

A Fix for Gerrymandering Both Parties Could Love

America’s political landscape has become a stinking mess. More and more states are joining the race to the bottom to gerrymander away the power of their voters. But we don’t have to hold our noses any longer — there’s a fix in sight. And it doesn’t even require a constitutional amendment. It’s time to shift to the system most of the world’s advanced democracies use: proportional representation. It’s a power-sharing arrangement in which parties get seats according to their vote share. America’s...
Bloomberg.com •

Of Course the South’s Redistricting Rush Isn’t ‘Race-Neutral’

Until South Carolina tapped the brakes on the redistricting rush on Tuesday, it seemed that throughout much of the old Confederacy, the Republican Party had decided it was finished with representative democracy. Within hours of the US Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, southern states lined up to erase decades-old congressional districts that had given voice to minority communities.
Bloomberg.com •

Epstein’s Victims Don’t Want a Maxwell Pardon

Flying home from San Francisco to Miami earlier this month, Frankie Lopez diverted his trip to stop in the rural heart of Kentucky. Dressed in a sleek suit jacket and crisp black dress shirt, he arrived in a converted barn in Williamstown as guests were gathering for the annual Grant County Republican Party dinner. Lopez pulled the featured speaker aside. “Thank you,” he told Congressman Thomas Massie quietly, “for giving voice to the victims.”
Bloomberg.com •

Republicans Are Tempting Fate With Florida’s Redistricting

Florida becomes the next battle in the White House redistricting wars this week as legislators begin a four-day special redistricting session on Tuesday. But the question before Republicans isn’t easy: Do they draw a new map that pleases the president but risks electing more Democrats, or do they just tinker a bit and hope to hold tight to safe seats? Florida lawmakers don’t seem to have an answer.
Bloomberg.com •

Florida’s Embrace of ICE Has Come at a Cost

Florida is dramatically — but quietly — changing the way immigration enforcement is practiced. The state’s Republican leaders have made it a testing ground for the aggressive immigration enforcement tactics championed by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. And although arrests have soared, the heavy-handed approach has had little measurable effect on crime — and is destabilizing communities across the state.
Bloomberg.com •

Florida Woman Could Blow Up Democrats’ Anti-Corruption Message

The House Ethics Committee last week found US Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of 25 ethics violations, concluding that the Florida Democrat had misused millions of Covid relief dollars to fund her 2022 special election. The unanimous, bipartisan vote followed a seven-hour hearing which the normally secretive panel held in public. Cherfilus-McCormick has denied the allegations and said she will be exonerated.
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