Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…
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.
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
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
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?
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:
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.
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 compactVirginia 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.]
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"
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.]
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?]
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!
Not So Fast: Virginia Judge Blocks Redistricting ReferendumApril 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.
“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.
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 XMay 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?
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!
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.
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.]
