The Alabama Districts 'Problem'

 This past week, the Supreme Court said that the new map of districts (seven of them) in Alabama, based on the Census of 2020....can't be used.  Go back and re-draw it....was the spoken word.

What caused this?  Well....a challenge by the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

If you look at the past 'old' map....one particular district (the 7th) was designed to have around 65-to-70 percent black votes, and the other six had black populations of roughly 25-percent or less.

The challenge?  The folks want two districts to exist which have either "Black voting-age population majorities" or a 'device' where Blacks have a bigger voice.

The problem?  After you sit and ponder over this.....the 7th is designed in a unique way....taking up middle-of-the-state and Birmingham (3/4th of the city), and most of Montgomery.  

If you did carve off part of the 7th to make this reality of a 2nd district going Democrat?  Well...you start weakening the 7th (last election, the Republican running got 34-percent).

The fact that the black population in Alabama lives in 'zones'?  You can make the case that in various counties of the state, the black population makes up no more than 10-percent of local population.  You can make the case that Birmingham itself...is now 68-percent black, but a lot of that population came from the past 30 years of people leaving the city (keeping their jobs) and living 30 to 40 miles outside of the region.

Same can be said for Mobile at 51-percent black.

Same for Montgomery, at 60-percent black.

What'll happen in the end?  I suspect the 7th district will be weakened up enough....that it might not be pure Democrat anymore.  I'd also start to wonder about the Hispanics in the state, and if their population in the 2030 Census....matters.   

If You Grew Up In The 1970s.....

 You probably have a unique prospective on life, and certain things stand out:

1.  You probably won't sit long for lectures or political-indoctrination chatter.

2.  You probably have a 'limit' on stupidity, and even PhD-types in irrational chatter....will get muted.

3.  If there's more than 36 buttons on the TV remote control.....you probably only identify seven of them, and the rest are never used.

4.  You probably don't give a damn about calorie charts at restaurants.

5.  You probably still believe that Coke or Pepsi.....served in a glass bottle....will taste better than from a can.

6.  You probably prefer a seven-day adventure car-ride across America than spending seven days in Miami.  

7.  You probably have a certain negative reaction whenever someone speaks up about pagans, demons, or exorcisms. 

8.  You probably still remember some relative or neighbor, in that era, who went off for several weeks at some state mental facility, and 'recovered'.

9.  You can't envision going to a NFL or NBA game....spending $300 for the ticket and food/beverages.

10.  You probably have a 'minimum-required' story for a movie to make sense.  You can also probably name ten movies from the past decade that were worthless.  

Ten Observations

 1.  If this fed indictment of Trump on the document-business fails?  

Well...I'd say that it'd gear up everything for a Trump win and bring more than two-thirds of the country to the opinion that Biden's group runs some 3rd-world operation.  

2.  CNN's biggest problem?

Lecture....lecture....lecture.  

3.  On a daily basis in the 1980s....the term 'Banana Republic' probably came up an average once or twice a month.

Right now?  I probably hear or read the words....around twelve times a day.  I think if you asked a 12-year kid to describe what it means (today)....they'd give you a decent version.

4.  On blackmail potential for Hunter Biden?  I'd rate his potential on a one-to-ten scale at eleven.  

5.  Most all of this transition stuff revolves around three key features: (1) Somehow---someway, there's a perfect 'world' for you, (2) You just aren't satisfied, and (3) There are pump-up people around you to emphasize your fantasy world.

6.  NY City in some legal move....suing upstate counties and Long Island county....for refusing to participate in migrant 'distribution'.  The problem I see....if you view the state constitution....people distribution simply isn't mentioned, and for some judge to say he invented it and can enforce it....well...it's hard to imagine where this goes. 

Personally, if I were a migrant from Honduras, and you showed me blizzard-like conditions for winter in the north part of the state....I'd say no thanks to moving up there.

7.  If you are someone who is prone to hearing 'voices'......the odds of you making rational decisions on anything....is less than 10-percent.

8.  Almost all of the big-name movies out of the 1960s....could not be shown to a public situation today, without some cut or deletion.  Think about that for a minute. What kind of people were we in the 1960s?

9.  It hit me this morning....I'd gone probably two weeks without uttering Covid....then yesterday suddenly, I must have uttered the word twelve times. 

10.  There's reality, and there's fantasy.  As long as you can identify the two as separate things....you will do OK in life.  If you can't.....it's going to be a pretty rough path that you venture upon.