Gerrymander the court

I’ve written about the highly gerrymandered election maps in Pennsylvania were ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, and redrawn. The GOP led legislature threatened to impeach the justices who were a part of that ruling, but that threat didn’t get very far. The next tactic was to turn a proposal for a citizens redistricting commission on its head so that it gave the legislature more control of who drew the maps.

The GOP is trying to take the whole thing another step. Currently justices are elected state-wide. The latest proposal is to give each justice a district – that can be gerrymandered. The GOP claims the 31 justices for both the supreme and appellate courts come from only 15 counties. But justices don’t “represent” voters or counties. They’re to interpret the law. This is another GOP assault on the independence of the judiciary.



CNN looks at a report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). Here’s the opening paragraph from the article.

There's not a single state, county or metropolitan area in the entire United States where a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour can afford a modest 2-bedroom apartment.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. The minimum wage one must earn to afford the rent on a modest 2-bedroom apartment is $22.10, about three times the federal minimum wage. Perhaps a one-bedroom place would do? That requires a minimum wage of only $17.90. A person would need to work 2.5 full time jobs. Just to pay for a place to live. Food is extra.

This means housing assistance is essential. Yet Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson wants to triple the rent for those receiving housing assistance and bump the amount of pay to go to housing from 30% to 35%.



Looking at what the nasty guy administration is doing to children along the southern border Leah McElrath reminds us in a tweet that legal is not the same as not evil, illegal is not the same as evil.