A 1930s MSM Myth About Clark Gable; + Mysteries You Never Asked Questions About Dept.: The History of the Undershirt

According to legend, when Clark Gable removed his shirt in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (the film that would relaunch the star's career and the first to win all five main Academy Awards at the Oscar ceremony), revealing no undershirt but a bare chest, it led to a precipitous fall in sales for the undershirt industry. Except for one thing: according to Cliff Aliperti, it seems to be another drama queen myth:

 … the legend has never been verified … The disappearance of the undershirt is never reported in the business columns, just on the entertainment pages. 

Now, here is one mystery you probably never asked a single question about: To the question of a reader who did do so, wondering "why the ribbed undershirt has become the ubiquitous garment of the moment" and asking Why Are So Many Men Wearing Tank Tops?, Vanessa Friedman proceeds to provide an answer in the New York Times regarding the garment's birth: 

a brief history of the undershirt is in order.

The “marcel undershirt,” as it was originally known, was born in the 1860s when French dockworkers decided to cut the sleeves off their sweaters for relief from the heat. Les Établissements Marcel, a knitwear company, took note and began selling ready-made versions of the style.

Those styles made their way into the American wardrobe in World War I, when U.S. troops in Europe encountered the tank top and realized its potential as a garment to wear under their wool uniforms, and it was officially adopted by the Navy. By World War II, it was a ubiquitous part of military garb.

While the Army was embracing the tank top, so too was the athletic world. Indeed, the “tank” part of tank top is a reference to early-20th-century swimming pools, which were called swimming tanks, and the tank top made its debut as part of the swimming costume of female athletes from Australia, Britain and Sweden in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.

From there, the shirt made its way into the mainstream, imbued with associations of physicality, strength and a certain gritty reality. By the time Marlon Brando and James Dean were plastered all over the silver screen smoldering rebelliously in their white tanks, it had reached iconic status — and its cartoonish masculinity was ripe for subversion and appropriation. (That aspect of the tank top never went away. See Bruce Willis in “Die Hard,” Hugh Jackman in “Wolverine” and Angelina Jolie in “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.”) 

But not Clark Gable. 

TV & Radio Debates in France: IF China Felt Secure About an Attack on Taiwan, It Would Invade the Island While Trump Is Busy with the Iran War

"In America, the economy is doing well, it's the rest of the world that is suffering — especially China." Among the guests on BFMTV's Marschall Truchot (video at the link) on Thursday discussing Donald Trump's visit to Beijing and the war in the Middle East was Philippe Karsenty (1:03:51-1:14:34). 

While the other guests praised China, equating the dragon and Uncle Sam as the new equals, the spokesman for le Comité Trump France went on to say that 

If Xi really wanted to launch an attack on Taiwan, now would be the time to do it — while the US are, according to some, fully mobilized on Iran, this would be the moment to attack.

But Beijing is not doing that. As usual, as soon as Karsenty starts making sense, he is interrupted in a manner that the others are not…

A few days later, Karsenty was on Sud Radio to answer the question, Can Trump Really Win the War in Iran?

Donald Trump peut-il vraiment gagner la guerre en Iran ?

Sud Radio

May 15, 2026 Le Grand Matin Sud Radio

Avec Philippe Karsenty (porte-parole du Comité Trump France) et Louis Nadau (journaliste politique à Marianne)

| Marschall Truchot

Édition spéciale du 14 mai 2026

Revoir en intégralité l'émission "Marschall Truchot" du 14 mai 2026 présentée par Alain Marschall et Olivier Truchot sur BFMTV.

1h34min|2026|Diffusée le 14 mai 2026 à 17h00 sur BFM TV

Marschall Truchot, c'est le grand rendez-vous de la fin de journée sur BFM TV, diffusé du lundi au jeudi de 17h à 19h. Portée par le duo emblématique Alain Marshall et Olivier Truchot, l'émission propose deux heures de décryptage, d'échanges et d'analyses autour des grands faits politiques, économiques et sociétaux qui façonnent l'actualité. Un rendez-vous essentiel pour comprendre et anticiper les débats qui font bouger la société.

Don't Fall for the Left's Fake News on Leo XIV: The Pope Turns Out to Be Surprisingly Conservative

Apparently, it turns out that — thanks, as usual, to "the left’s psyops" — the current pope has gotten a bad rap from conservatives. Over at Instapundit, Sarah Hoyt demonstrates this with a plethora of evidence showing that, contrary to Fake News, Leo XIV has been quite conservative. 

Keep in mind the man took the name Leo, our last strongly anti-communist pope before John Paul II and also that he has said this: “Communism has penetrated even Christian circles disguised as solidarity. It is our pastoral duty to expose it.” – Pope Leo XIV.

At According to Hoyt, Sarah has an even longer must-read article, We Need to Talk.

Imagine you’re a leftist in America, and you’ve miscalculated. Part of letting in Latins by the bucket full is that you knew — KNEW — all of them would vote for the left forever, and the more left the better. They also thought they had control of the Papacy by installing an old Argentinian leftist as Pope. Because the left absolutely believes Catholics will blindly do what the Pope tells them. (Frankly they also think Baptists and even Mormons — MORMONS! — will do so.)

Anyway, imagine their shock when Catholic immigrants (who by and large are actually against illegal immigration) were horrified by the left’s lurch into all gay, trans and sex sex sex all the time, not to mention insane feminist girl bossing, and … well, became more Catholic.

 … Was Axelrod’s visit to the Vatican part of the psyops? I can’t think of any other reason for that gutter-crawler to visit the Vatican. Did he actually have an audience with the Pope? I don’t know. The reporting on it was of that kind where it might be that. Or he might have seen the Pope’s third undersecretary. I don’t know. Either of them is possible. 

 … They’ve tried to scare Jews and Catholics. We were the low hanging fruit. I don’t know how they’re going after the other groups in the right, but I can promise you they are. There will be more of this.

To Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, conservative, and leftist readers alike, here is a suggestion: Read the whole thing. (Gratias ago diario interretiali Instapundit.)

Again, the message is: Don't let leftists, Catholics or others, try to give you lessons about religion (whether it's claiming that Jesus was/is a socialist or saying “If you are against the Pope you can’t be Catholic”) when it all turns out to belong to the Left's usual double standard department, as PJ Media's Chris Queen put it last weekend.

The left loves to trot out the term “Christian nationalism” every time a conservative talks about his or her Christian faith. Yet progressive churches and black congregations in particular have long made a habit of platforming Democrats during Sunday services — including politicians like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who aren’t [even] Christians. 

(There was another recent [PJ Media?] article on AOC's visit to Martin Luther King's church that made the same points — demonizing religion when it concerns subjects like abortion, praising it when it supports, or seems to support, the Democrats' talking points — but I have spent an hour looking for it, and I just can't find it…)

STOOO-pid: The Ds' VA redistricting gamble is the botch of botches, upturning the Ds' gloating and making them highly visible national losers

As Dan Crenshaw explains to the likes of Rahm Emmanuel and Bill Maher (who claim, respectively, that the nationwide gerrymandering mess "all started in Texas" and that "Republicans are winning the gerrymander war"), "Democrats have been winning this battle for a looong time."

On the contrary — to repeat a post written two days ago by Damian Bennett — the Lone Star State's gerrymandering has been in response to massive gerrymandering in Democratic states, notably Illinois, New York, and California, not to mention multiple states in New England, which turns out to be a political monoculture. "Republican voters make up 40% of New England. Democrats control the district lines."  (Thanks for the Instalink, Sarah.)

In addition, as one recent meme puts it, "The Democrats welcomed 20 million illegals into America in order to change the census for voting"… And it's the Republicans who are accused of gerrymandering?!?! 

Isn't that evidence, MSM — whose members are always repeating Democrats' denials of election fraud being anything serious enough to warrant investigation — of some form of cheating in American elections?! 

The gerrymandering debate always skips one inconvenient fact: Democrats dominated the redistricting game for decades and created wildly disproportionate representation in plenty of states.

California sends only a handful of Republicans to Congress. Illinois has a massive… pic.twitter.com/Zweyiu1Cvt

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 12, 2026

Our old buddy Damian Bennett, who lives in Virginia himself, has much more to add today, the most serious of which (2nd sentence below) I haven't seen elsewhere, that "before Rs start farting in public, please note SCOVA nullified the April 21 Referendum by [only] a 4-3 ruling. That's how close the Ds came":

My previous [contribution] laid out the timeline of the Ds' pre-gloat, vote gloat, full gloat, then -- gloat to SCOVA goat. However, before Rs start farting in public, please note SCOVA nullified the April 21 Referendum by a 4-3 ruling. That's how close the Ds came.

In all of this I have not read ANYONE address the Ds' bizarre theory for VA redistricting. Please read again the Referendum ballot Q:

 

Q: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily [!?] adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness [!?] in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes [!?] for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?

Please note that this is NOT the actual amendment language, it is a purported distillation of a legislative referral.* As a matter of law, Qs are not enshrined into Constitutional law followed by a Yes. The amendment language itself never appeared on the ballot. Does the ballot Q accurately represent the actual amendment language, which can be found here? No.

* Virginia uses the "legislative referral" method of amending its Constitution. An amendment is introduced as a legislative resolution, [the exact same resolution in its original form] must be approved by legislators during two separate sessions, and then approved by a majority of Virginia voters at the next general election.

Let's break down the actual ballot Q:

1. A Constitution is bedrock law, the fundamental law of a polity. It evokes permanency. It is above the sand-shifting of legislating policy or the gamesmanship of politics. The idea of a Constitutional amendment solely for the purposes of an incidental political win is antithetical to the very idea of a Constitution based on principles, tradition and precedent, uncolored by partisanship.
2. A 'temporary' amendment to permanent law is contradictory, incompatible with and deleterious to stable governance.
3. The purposive language 'restore fairness' of the Referendum Q NEVER appears in the actual amendment, which reads: 
   
• The Commonwealth shall be reapportioned into electoral districts in accordance with this section and Section 6-A in the year 2021 and every ten years thereafter, except that the General Assembly shall be authorized to modify one or more congressional districts at any point following the adoption of a decennial reapportionment law, but prior to the next decennial census, in the event that any State of the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state's congressional districts at any point following that state's adoption of a decennial reapportionment law for any purpose other than (i) the completion of the state's decennial redistricting in response to a federal census and reapportionment mandated by the Constitution of the United States and established in federal law or (ii) as ordered by any state or federal court to remedy an unlawful or unconstitutional district map.
  [This is conditional language. It does not explain, much less give, the purpose or intended effect of the amendment. Based on the amendment language, the Virginia General Assembly could "modify one or more congressional districts" following the recent CA gerrymander, which clearly contravenes the unspecified 'fairness' the Referndum Q refers to and the amendment is meant to achieve.]
  Any such decennial reapportionment law, or reapportionment law modifying one or more congressional districts, shall take effect immediately and not be subject to the limitations contained in Article IV, Section 13, of this Constitution.
4. The Referendum Q does not posit that VA elections are unfair. The 'fairness' the Referendum seeks to restore lies elsewhere, beyond the jurisdiction of the state and the interests of Virginians. How has it been construed that Virginians should forfeit their own fair Constitution-compliant electoral districts  so as to right 'unfair' redistricting in some other state? What other perceived wrongs elsewhere will Virginians next be called on to redress at the expense of peaceably abiding under established Commonwealth law? 
5. There is no guarantee that redistricting VA will produce the 'fairness' the Referendum Q posits to restore in 'the upcoming elections'. The point of this exercise is a specific result, scil. 'restore fairness' at the national level. The language of the Referendum suggests the amendment remedy (10D/1R) could remain in force until it achieves its purpose. 'Upcoming elections' means 2026 and 2028 or might also mean any future election cycle where the desired 'fairness' is seen in need of restoration (see next).
6. The Referendum Q provides no mechanism for "ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes". The purpose and actionable language of the Referendum Q is to 'restore fairness'. The wording of the Referendum Q certainly suggests that the ensured resumption of "Virginia's standard redistricting process" is contingent on the stated goal (scil. 'restore fairness') being met. However, the amendment language does provide a very specific operational window:
• The authorization in Article II, Section 6 authorizing the General Assembly to modify one or more congressional districts at any point following adoption of a decennial reapportionment law in the event that any State of the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state's congressional districts at any point following that state's adoption of a decennial reapportionment law shall be limited to making such modifications between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2030, in response to actions taken by another state between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2030.
7. The Referendum's redistricting (10D/1R) WILL stay in place till at least 2030 and possibly beyond (viz. #4 supra) regardless of any developments on the national 'fairness' front (even were all red state redistrictings thrown out by their various courts). Given the purposive political theory of the ballot Q, there's no reason to believe the amendment window would not itself be revisited and subject to extension by amendment. 

The actual amendment is conditional and procedural with no stated purpose. This is important, because the ballot Q asks voters to vote on a specific purpose (i.e., 'restore fairness') something absent from the amendment. The April 21 vote was thrown out on procedural flaws. The 'purpose' has not yet been tested in court, but it is hard to imagine any state court ruling in favor of intramural redistricting over the sovereign representation of its own citizenry. [Pause.] Then again, 'money, guns, and lawyers' is the new DNC order of settlement.

Keep in mind that Virginia Ds had access to the 'best' legal minds and scholars, think tanks and consultants, internal polling, lots of loot, and the DNC Brainiacs when drafting their rape of the Commonwealth Constitution and framing the rape in the language of the ballot Q. And still they made a complete flustercuck of it. This speaks to competence in law and the obligations of law.

• Eric Daugherty On X May 8, 2026: Dems are now asking the VA Supreme Court to defer their mandate, pending SCOTUS ruling — which is very unlikely... Democrats are so panicked they didn't even spell "VIRGINIA" ["Virgnia"; also "Sentator"] correctly as they move to appeal to the literal US Supreme Court
• Virginia Democrat Plan Would Fire Entire Supreme Court Over Gerrymander Ruling May 11, 2026
  [HAHAHA! Shoot first, think later.]
• Virginia Dems Reject Insane Idea To Nuke State Supreme Court To Push Gerrymandered Map May 12, 2026
• Virginia Democrats Seek Supreme Court’s Intervention Over VA Supreme Court Gerrymander Ruling May 11, 2026
  [Wait. Oh NOOoooes!]
• Virginia Dem [Attorney General] Jay Jones Appeals To Wrong Court In Another Proofreading Debacle May 12, 2026
  After the Virginia Supreme Court rightly ruled that Democrats unconstitutionally pushed through one of the most egregiously gerrymandered congressional maps in U.S. history...Democrats promptly appealed [with] the very first page of their motion to delay misspelled “Virgnia” and “Sentator.” Virginia Attorney General Jay “Kill the Kids” Jones did manage to correct those misspellings in his latest appeal,* but he forgot to change his template to reflect his appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, not the Supreme Court of Virginia.
      * Not so fast, see second bullet below.
• Eric Daugherty On X May 12, 2026: Virginia Democrats and AG Jay Jones appealed *TO THE WRONG COURT* while trying to get the Supreme Court to help reinstate their 10D-1R gerrymandered map... Filing with SCOTUS, Jay Jones wrote to "Supreme Court of Virginia"
• Matthew Clark Esq On X May 11, 2026: True to form, "Virgnia" and "Sentator" appear in all their glory on page 53a of @AGJayJones filing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Ds are twisting and writhing like a cut snake, biting everyone and anything in reach. SPOILER: Cut snakes eventually die.

• Hakeem Jeffries Declares War On Every Judiciary In The Country May 12, 2026
  Hakeem Jeffries: "We are going to have to explore massive judicial reform. State-by-state and at the federal level and everything should be on the table as far as I'm concerned."
  [Oh NOOoooes!]
• Congresswoman [Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA)] In Trouble For Agreeing Jeffries ‘Should Get Cotton-picking Hands Off Of Virginia’ May 12, 2026
• Democrat 'Superlawyer' Calls For Abolition Of Virginia Government May 13, 2026
  Elias, as with all the national Democrats, is absolutely gobsmacked that the scheme to subvert the Virginia Constitution in order to help the Democrats Gerrymander the state failed. Elias believes he is the cleverest man in the room, as apparently Hakeem Jeffries believed he was, and it never occurred to this snake of a man that the law would apply to Democrats.
• Dems Are Looking to Redistrict Delaware May 13, 2026
  [Delaware has ONE at-large CD seat. It is controlled by the Ds. Please, by all means pour some $MMMM of that sweet Soros cash into a kabuki redistricting. No, really, please do. Easy win. Make some headlines. Next, redistrict Connecticut. Go on. Do it.]

The Ds' VA redistricting gamble is the botch of botches. It is a disaster, not merely because it failed, but because it upturned the Ds' gloating and made them highly visible national losers. In March the smart money was predicting Hakeem Jeffries would be the next House speaker. Ds were +6 on the generic ballot (down from +18 earlier), only needing to win the House by a generalized 3 pts. 

After the VA fail and all the heated rhetoric, now the Ds are +3 (within MOE, toss-up territory) on the generic ballot. Had Hakeem not bragged on swinging his big dick and kept it in his pants big bat, well, with gas at $4.50/G, he could have coasted into November. But Hakeem is big king STOOO-pid in the kingdom of stooooo-PIDs.

Trump Is a Patient Man, Karsenty Insists to Incredulous Guests in a French TV Debate

Among the debaters at BFMTV's special War in the Middle East special (video at link) were Général Philippe Skios, ex-KGB agent Sergueï Jimov, and, last but not least, Philippe Karsenty (6:06-22:19), who proceeds to tell the others at BFMTV's round table that Donald Trump is most assuredly a man of infinite patience, which causes most of said guests, not to mention presenter Alice Darfeuille, to almost fall out of their seats.

BFM TV - 9 mai 2026 - Guerre en Iran, la stratégie de Trump face à la Chine et la Russie

ÉDITION SPÉCIALE : GUERRE EN IRAN 

Revoir en intégralité l’émission « 20h BFM » animée par Alice Darfeuille du 9 mai 2026.

1h40min|2026|

 

Gerrymandering Wins & Fails Across the USA; + the Hysterical Response in Mudville

In a recent C-SPAN debate involving Glenn Youngkin and Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrat charged that the nationwide gerrymandering mess "all started in Texas," meaning Republicans are the original sinners. Of course 

it did not. (When the former governor of Virginia started to protest, the former mayor of Chicago immediately cut him off.) On the contrary, the Lone Star State's gerrymandering has been in response to massive gerrymandering in Democratic states, notably Illinois, New York, and California, not to mention multiple states in New England, which turns out to be a political monoculture. As Dan Crenshaw responded to Bill Maher (when the Real Time host claimed that "Republicans are winning the gerrymander war"): "Democrats have been winning this battle for a looong time."

Indeed, what is even worse in my eyes, or at least just as bad — and this is yet another news item that emerged in the Trump years that floored me and that the MSM should have revealed years ago — a dozen states have something akin to 60-40 D-R voting patterns, but do not get a single Republican lawmaker in Congress.  

"Republican voters make up 40% of New England. Democrats control the district lines."  

In addition, as a recent meme puts it, "The Democrats welcomed 20 million illegals into America in order to change the census for voting"… And it's the Republicans who are accused of gerrymandering?!?!

Isn't that evidence, MSM — whose members are always repeating Democrats' denials of election fraud being anything serious enough to warrant investigation — of some form of cheating in American elections?! Duncan Hill writes: 

My state, Connecticut, has about the same proportion Dem to Republican. Yet, we have no, zero, zip, nadda Republican representation in Washington. Hmmmm...how can that be? 

Duncan is responding to our old friend Damian Bennett, — aka the man who notes that with the Left "it's always Trump 24/7/365¼" — uncovers many of the shady dealings that have characterized the Old Dominion's smoke and mirrors, which started with 

Abigail Spanberger promising to be a moderate whose agenda placed focus [only] on living costs and public service, i.e., applying only to economics and "affordability." 

By the way, Gavin Newsom, the South became the Confederate States (or attempted to do so) precisely because it was one single Democrat stronghold, one which sputtered with outrage when a Republican had had the gall to win the race to the White House in 1860. 

If you don't have the time to read his entire plate of hyperlinks, then scroll all the way to the bottom, because Damian's basic reaction on the gerrymandering news front is his very final word at the bottom of this post. His in-depth work starts below the X video:

The gerrymandering debate always skips one inconvenient fact: Democrats dominated the redistricting game for decades and created wildly disproportionate representation in plenty of states.

California sends only a handful of Republicans to Congress. Illinois has a massive… pic.twitter.com/Zweyiu1Cvt

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 12, 2026

Damian Bennett:

A Democrat ballot initiative seeks to redistrict purpley Virginia from 6D/5R to 10D/1R. This would reduce the 48% state red vote to 9% representation in the House.

Q: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily [!?] adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness [!?] in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes [!?] for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?

□ YES 

□ NO

Interlude: 

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:

The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play. ...

Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

 (Apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer)

We resume with some pre-gloats, the vote soap, the post-gloats, and the gloat reach-arounds:

• Hakeem Jeffries: Only Republicans Are Initiating ‘Partisan Gerrymandering’ October 26, 2025
• L. Louise Lucas (Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore (D)) On X October 29, 2025: Thinking of some new plates for my Hummer… 

• L. Louise Lucas On X January 16, 2026: I have the utmost respect for Senator Kaine and Senator Warner but we do not need "coaching" on redistricting coming from a cuck chair [!?] in the corner. How about you all stay focused on the fascist in the White House and let us handle redistricting in Virginia. 10-1
• Virginia Democrat Gives Profanity-laced Response To Cruz's Criticism Of [Virginia]'s Redistricting Push February 7, 2026
  L. Louise Lucas, the 82-year-old Democrat who spearheaded the plan, hit back at [Senator Cruz], saying, "You all started it and we f---ing finished it," referring to a controversial redistricting effort in Texas that sparked fights over districts in several states. ... Democrats across the country were left fuming after the U.S. Supreme Court moved to allow Texas to use redrawn congressional maps.
• Obama Lies To Sway An Election March 30, 2026
  Like the misleading official Explanation published by the Commonwealth and the language on the ballot itself, Obama’s election pitches are false and intended to rig the election to unfairly deprive almost half of Virginia’s voters of effective congressional representation of their choice. 
• Redistricting Battle In Virginia Has Soros-affiliated Dark Money Flowing Through The State Like Poison April 21, 2026
• Virginia Redistricting Referendum Election Results: Y51.7% N48.3% April 21, 2026
• Virginia Dems Pull Off Massive Power Grab, Win Vote To Redraw Political Map April 21, 2026
• [VA Governor] Spanberger (D) Gloats About Redistricting Referendum Squeaking By: ‘Voters Have Spoken’ April 21, 2026
  [She's been a very busy naughty girl.]
• Spanberger Signs Law [HB965] Which Will Award VA's Electoral College Votes To Popular Vote Winner April 14, 2026
  National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, scil. HB965: Virginia agrees to award all 13 of its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that wins the national popular vote across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, regardless of the outcome of the vote within Virginia.
  [Prior to joining the compact Virginia used a winner-take-all system for its Electoral College votes, meaning the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote receives all of the state's electoral votes. Watch what you wish for, Dawgs.]
• DAMNING Thread BUSTS Spanberger For Being Even SHADIER In Redistricting April 24, 2026
• Luke Rosiak On X (severally) April 24, 2026: Incredible: Gov. Spanberger (D-VA) told localities NOT to post pictures of the gerrymandered maps that people were voting on, saying they should direct people to the General Assembly's [GA, infra] website if they wanted to know. But the General Assembly doesn't seem to show the maps either! 
• Despite asking people to vote in making a 52-48 state have 91-9 representation in Congress, the 'redistricting' page on the GA's website hasn't been updated in years, and just links to the Redistricting Commission--which the amendment does away with, and also has only old maps.
• I've spent a while looking at the GA's website, Dept of Elections, etc, and have not found the maps prominently available on any public source. If they are there at all, they're not where voters could reasonably find them. ... Looks like to find the map, a voter would have to go to lis dot virginia dot gov, somehow know to search "Budget Bill," then click a link to "http://blob.core.windows.net"
• Jeffries: GOP Will Be Lucky To Gain 2 Seats In Texas, We TOOK AWAY 4 In Virginia As ‘Response’ To Gerrymandering April 21, 2026
• [Senator Tim] Kaine (D): Virginia Stood Up To Trump’s Tyranny April 21, 2026
  “So we’re going to stand up against tyrants and try to match what he’s doing. And that’s what Virginians did tonight.”
• Tim Kaine Inadvertently Blurts Out The Truth About Virginia's Gerrymandering Scheme April 20, 2026
  Fox: Why should 90% of Virginia's congressional delegation be Democrats when Kamala Harris only won the state by 5 points?
  Kaine: 90% of Virginians are not Democrats. That's true... but we need a congressional delegation that will stand up to Donald Trump's tyranny.
  [Backstop, it's always Trump 24/7/365¼. The argument here is that after red states being short-sheeted in the 2020 census, corrective mid-decadal redistricting is tyrannical and wrong. But since Dems have no principled objection, they will tyrannically and wrongly respond in kind. Tim Kaine is such an embarrassment, a clown.]
• ‘Unconscionable Liar’ Obama Celebrates Virginia Disenfranchising Hundreds Of Thousands Of Voters April 22, 2026
  “Congratulations, Virginia! Republicans are trying to tilt the midterm elections in their favor, but they haven’t done it yet. Thanks for showing us what it looks like to stand up for our democracy and fight back.”
• The FOO On X April 22, 2026: Democrats spent ~$70 MILLION on this referendum. Almost every penny came from out of state.
  They broke laws. They wrote a deceitful ballot measure.
  They ran tv spots for two months, nonstop.
  They brought in Obama. They brought in Hollywood.
  We had grassroots. That’s really it.
  They only beat us by 70k votes. In an April election.
  Here’s the most ironic part … what do you notice? All that money, all that effort, and all they did was prove our 6/5 map is accurate. Almost exactly.
  
  
  
• L. Louise Lucas On X April 27, 2026: We have now had over 100 “Ten Fuckin’ One” shirts ordered and raised over $5k to help defend our Virginia Senate Democratic majority that delivered these maps!
  [Let's be honest. That is one shitty $50 gloat tee. Can we reach across the aisle on this one? Hakeem?]

Oh. Wait a minute.

• Trump Blasts Virginia Redistricting Vote As 'Rigged' After Late Ballot Surge Flips Tight Race To Dems April 22, 2026
• The Lone Racoon On X April 23, 2026: Until I see data pointing otherwise, it looks like Fairfax was used as the vote bank, and they waited to withdraw  when they needed a bump. [More here.]
• USA On X April23, 2026: There it is folks!  Three separate Dumps [F-Curves]!
  TOTALING 65,000 VOTES! And every vote was a YES!
  Which was impossible! They [Fairfax County] only had 3 high speed scanners!
   65,000 votes in 5 MINUTES was impossible! 

• America First Policy Institute: Election Probe Targets 'Unusual' Reports In Wake Of Virginia Redistricting Referendum April 28, 2026
  Fairfax County reported a late tranche of votes that helped the 'Yes' camp cross the finish line in the referendum
  [This is the election day MO for Fairfax, wait and dump the differential plus the marginal win.]

WHOA! WHOA, Dawgs!

• Not So Fast: Virginia Judge Blocks Redistricting Referendum April 22, 2026
  A Virginia judge ruled on Wednesday that the state’s redistricting referendum approved by voters a day earlier was invalid, nullifying the election results. ... Judge Hurley’s ruling declares that any and all votes for OR against the proposed constitutional amendment in the April 21, 2026 special election are ineffective and enjoins Defendants and their successors from certifying the results of the election. 
• Former Republican Attorney General Of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli: Virginia Dems May Have Gerrymandered Themselves Straight Into A Legal Buzzsaw April 24, 2026
• Virginia Supreme Court Just Dropped A One-sentence Hammer On Dems' Gerrymander Scheme April 28, 2026
  SCOVA has denied VA Attorney General’s [Jay Jones of two bullet notoriety] Motion for Emergency Stay... One sentence. No dissent. No partial relief.
  
  “Upon consideration whereof, the Court denies the motion.”
• Virginia’s Constitution Is Not A Suggestion: An Analysis Of The Unconstitutional Redistricting Scheme May 1, 2026
  [This article provides a good breakdown of the several Constitutional issues before SCOVA. In ranked ineffectuating order, i.e., the court need only rule FOR the plaintiff on one issue to void the referendum, any issues still pending rendered moot and NOT adjudicated. The defendant must survive ALL challenges or the vote is voided.] 

We all want 'fairness' even at the expense of Constitutional abuse, yes? Actually NO.

• VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT KILLS DEMOCRAT GERRYMANDER SCHEME
  May 8, 2026
• Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Down Gerrymandered Maps In ‘MASSIVE’ LOSS For Dems’ Attempt To Take [scil., STEAL] 4 More House Seats May 8, 2026
• Donald J. Trump On Truth Social May 8, 2026: Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP
  
• PoliMath On X May 9, 2026: All the “smart” Democrats are saying that the court should have addressed this issue before the election. But the Court says IN THE DECISION: “Thoughout this litigation, the Commonwealth (ie the Democrats) has insisted that we cannot lawfully decide this case prior to the referendum”.  
  

Oh NOOoooes! Let us check in on Mudville.

• Hakeem Jeffries On X May 8, 2026: The decision by the Virginia Supreme Court to overturn the will of more than three million voters [!?] will not stand.
  [Hakeem, how will it not stand? Where can you shop your appeal? (BTW, redistricting was the will of only 1.6M voters of that 3M.) Read his whole statement at the link. Whatever has become of 'maxium warfare, everywhere, all the time'? What has become of the April 21 gloat? What has become of the midterms? More here. Dawg, pull up your pants and stop with the tough-talk microstiffy.]
• Matthew Klein On X May 8, 2026: Overturn this decision? It’s a ruling from the State Supreme Court on a state constitutional matter, who are you going to appeal it to? God?
• Kamala Harris Claims SCOVA ‘Ignored the Will Of The People’ By Killing Democrat Gerrymander Plan May 8, 2026
• Jonathan Turley On X May 8, 2026: Hakeen Jeffries: “F around and find out”
  Virginia Supreme Court: The Democratic position "ends poorly." ...
  ... The court found that the gerrymandering effort is "wholly unprecedented in Virginia’s history." It characterized the position as a "clever argument is a story of the tail wagging the dog that has no tail."
• Democrats In Disarray After Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Down Redistricting Referendum May 8, 2026: Axios reported that some Democrats are now openly questioning whether spending roughly $62.5 million to support the Virginia referendum effort was worth the investment. Nearly $40 million reportedly came from Hakeem Jeffries-aligned House Majority Forward. “I feel like this is a colossal waste of resources that will further erode our politics,” one House Democrat told Axios. Another asked, “How many millions of dollars are we spending on this when the DNC is in debt and we have 40 frontline races to win?” 
  Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger: “I am disappointed by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s ruling, but my focus as Governor will be on ensuring that all voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard this November in the midterm elections because in those elections we — the voters — will have the final say.” [Ooh PUH-leeze! See Luke Rosiak bullets above.]
• Gavin Newsom On X May 8, 2026: No vote in Tennessee (+1 GOP); No vote in Florida (+4 GOP); No vote in Missouri (+1 GOP); No vote in North Carolina (+2 GOP); No vote in Texas (+5 GOP); Virginia’s voter-approved maps thrown out. MAGA has rigged the system.
  [Glad to see SOMEONE keeping score at the DNC.]
• Gavin Newsom On X May 7, 2026: Confederate states are rushing through rigged maps to erase Black districts off the map.
  
   
  [Oh, Gavin, you sweet summer child. Confederate states? Way to win the South in 2028. Wait! Your map OMITS VA, the arch Confederate state, the state that hosted the capital of the CSA. Why? Also, best brush up on latest SCOTUS VRA ruling, the Dems' imagined right to segregated 'black' districts is Constitutionally disallowed.]
  

In conclusion, dear reader, sometimes life is sweet, and sometimes it is all-day-double-portions-of-ice-cream-&-cake and indescribably DELICIOUS!

• FBI Raids Office Of Virginia Democrat Behind 'Ten F---in' One' Gerrymander Map May 6, 2026
• Virginia Democratic State Senator [L. Louise Luca] Suggests FBI Search Of Her Office Was Politically Motivated May 7, 2026
  The search, according to NBC News, was part of an investigation into public corruption, which started during the Biden administration. It targeted Lucas' office in Portsmouth and a nearby marijuana dispensary that Lucas owns. While the Drug Enforcement Administration is involved in the investigation, an official told NBC that drugs aren't the primary focus.

• Virginia Redistricting Ruling Revives Never-Litigated Questions About California's Prop 50 Scheme May 8, 2026
  [Good article. Worth the full read.]

Coda:

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Jeffries has struck out.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! -- Excuse me, a final word. Redistricting is presented by both parties as rightful spoils, court-sanctioned certainties. There is some truth to that, but never lose sight -- as the chatty panel pundits do -- that every seat is contestable and the quality of a candidate is a better bet, the correct civic disposition, than a legislative штурмовщина's dog's breakfast. Alright, where was I? -- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! [Snort.] 

RINOs Explained: Be they Democrat or Republican, political insiders slow walk issues because a problem solved is one less issue to raise money from donors

In a a Substack article titled Trump saved Indiana in 2016, Don Surber reveals a plethora of information about Hoosier state politics that many, or most, of us have no more than an inkling about (if that much), and related issues, be they regarding former Governor Mike Pence, Dan Coats, or Ronna McDaniel. 

Naturally, Karl Rove the architect of Dubya’s 2000 and 2004 elections, and the Wall Street Journal hated [the Indiana primary] because both are Establishment Republicans who want to do as little as possible. Most of the Republicans (and Democrats) in Congress seem to be going through the motions until they die or collect their pensions … 

… Trump picked [then-Governor Mike Pence] as his running mate and saved Indiana for Republicans in November [2016]. … Pence paid Trump back by siding with the deep state and Nancy Pelosi in the January 6 [2021] charade. 

Speaking of VP Pence, Don Surber proceeds to explain the politicians of all lands, and especially the RINOs, in one single sentence (in bold as well as in the headline).

By GOP, Rove refers not to Republican voters but to the Grand Old Party of insiders. Small donors send them money and they party.

 … From Rove’s standpoint as a political insider, you can see why he is so upset with President Trump because he gets things done.

Be they Democrat or be they Republican, political insiders slow walk issues because a problem solved is one less issue to raise money from donors.

Why do you think Congress has not changed immigration law in 40 years despite their repeated cries for reform?

In addition, that explains the intense hostility Donald Trump faces from politicians everywhere, be it in America or abroad. It is something their (willfully? blinded) allies in the mainstream media refuse to acknowledge. That the animosity that Trump is the subject of derives not from any sense of fact-filled rationality from but from partisanship that will showcase their actions or, rather, their lack of actions.