Trinidad Born Judge Sparkle Sooknanan Blocks Sending Children back to Guatemala

September 3, 2025 — bunkerville

District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s order on Sunday was in response to reports children had been put onto planes and were about to be sent to Guatemala, where lawyers argued they would be at risk of abuse and persecution. Even though both Guatemala and the parents want the children back.

With a name like Sparkle the post almost wrote itself.Why am I not surprised? Another Biden appointment slid in just under the bell before Trump took office. Apparently every judge under Biden required birth from outside our country. She was 16 when she graduated High School.

Sooknanan was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, to parents of Indian descent.[4][5][1] Sooknanan graduated from Naparima Girls’ High School in 2000.[5]

Naparima Girls’ High School is an all-girls high school in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.

Rambally, Rhonda Krystal (March 3, 2013). “Sparkle shines with Sotomayor”. Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. Archived from the original on March 6, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2025.

B.S., summa cum laude, from St. Francis College in 2002, her M.B.A., with distinction, from Hofstra University in 2003, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School in 2010.

The years out there don’t match up but you get the drift. https://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/content/district-judge-sparkle-l-sooknanan

Thrilled to clerk for Sotomayor
Sooknanan is the first graduate of Brooklyn Law School to clerk for the US Supreme Court. On December 20 last year, the school published an article on its Web site highlighting Sooknanan’s accomplishment.School president Joan G Wexler wrote: “Sparkle is the first Brooklyn Law School graduate to achieve this great honour. “We are all enormously proud of her.” Sooknanan praised Sotomayor saying she was not only a brilliant jurist and person but an exceptional role model. 

At her confirmation last year in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, who is currently blocking President Trump’s attempt to deport children to Guatemala, faced tough questioning from Sen. Josh Hawley

Sooknanan’s representation of vulture funds in Puerto Rico has angered some of the island’s biggest defenders in Washington. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), ranking Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, condemned the nomination as “an insult to the people of Puerto Rico” last month. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) retweeted Velázquez’s post.

At the confirmation hearing, Sooknanan made the defense was that she complied with all ethical standards as an attorney and that her clients are entitled to vigorous counsel. But senators noted that she spoke against Jones Day’s representation of Donald Trump in cases challenging the 2020 election, and quit the firm a few months later.

It was claimed elsewhere that documents show she was the lead counsel.

Another D.C. Judge who will be there for the next bizzion years. The best of swamp.

Posted in Uncategorized. 20 Comments »

Bill Pulte Sends Second Criminal Referral on Embattled Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook

August 29, 2025 — bunkerville

Housing regulator Bill Pulte sent a second criminal referral on Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook after she was allegedly caught lying about a third property.

On Thursday night, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte dropped a second criminal referral against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook based on evidence that she entered into a 15-year mortgage on a third property which she listed as her “Second Home.” 

Bunk had her eye on Cook way back in the day. Back in 2022 from a previous post:

Did Radical Fed Reserve Candidate Pad Resume?

Senator Hagerty calls for further investigation into candidate Lisa Cook. She is not the only one. There are three nominees for the Federal Reserve that should give us pause. Biden is determined to put radical candidates in positions that control our monetary policies. A recent hearing got zero news coverage of the three candidates for the Federal Reserve but it should have. One candidate in particular, Lisa Cook could spell dire consequences. Tucker Carlson this week commented on one aspect of a little thing of her padding her resume. But the bigger issues remains. Included in the post is Senator Hagerty’s questioning of her at the Senate hearing.

Breitbart:

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) called for a more “fulsome investigation” into accusations Federal Reserve nominee Dr. Lisa Cook embellished her resume. Cook swore under oath she had not embellished her record.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a segment on Tuesday in which he reviewed Dr. Lisa Cook’s tenure packer.

Of course the tweet is now gone, but wouldn’t it be swell if we had real journalists that would sniff it out. Lying to congress would put the icing on the cake. Back to the post:

Cook has also supported many controversial policies, including studies for reparations, targeting the federal funds rate to improve the black unemployment rate, and claimed that alleged disparities in coronavirus aid are due to “systemic racism.”

She has also indicated support for reparations, instituting affirmative action at California universities, corporate board diversity quotas, and job guarantees.

After University of Chicago economics professor Harald Uhlig criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, Cook took to Twitter to accuse Uhlig of “racial harassment” and called on the economics professor to be fired as the editor of the Journal of Political Economy.

She claimed “free speech has its limits.”

Carlson’s segment is particularly revealing considering that Hagerty had asked every Federal Reserve nominee, including Cook, during the February 3 Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing if they had ever embellished any part of their resume, background, or publications.

Hagerty’s call to further investigate Cook could complicate her confirmation vote. Other Biden banking nominees have been withdrawn after facing strong scrutiny from Republicans and Democrat reluctance to confirm controversial nominees.

Biden announced in mid-March he would withdraw Sarah Bloom Raskin’s bid for the Federal Reserve after she had called to bankrupt the oil and natural gas industry.

The 46th president also withdrew the nomination of Saule Omarova to serve as the Comptroller of the Currency after Republicans and Democrats opposed her controversial views to eliminate community banks and fossil fuel companies.

Now the latest:

Pulte:

Today, U.S. Federal Housing sent a 2nd Criminal Referral in the matter of Lisa D. Cook, related to a mortgage on a 3rd property and alleged misrepresentations about her properties to the United States Government during her time as Governor of the Federal Reserve. On April 7, 2021, Cook entered a 15-year mortgage for a condominium in Cambridge, MA, representing it as her “Second Home”. Only eight months later, on December 1, 2021, Cook signed an ethics form with the U.S. Government that this property was an “investment/rental property”. In subsequent filings from 2022 to 2025, Cook consistently listed this property as an investment/rental property, not a second home. Representing the property as a second home may have allowed Cook to secure a lower “Second Home” mortgage down payment and rates, as investment properties typically carry higher down payments and higher rates due to increased risk. Additionally, Cook allegedly misrepresented her Atlanta, GA property from 2022-2025 to the U.S. Government as her residence, despite evidence suggesting it was being rented out to tenants. Similarly, Cook declared in a 2025 government filing that her Ann Arbor, MI property was her personal residence, however, we have reason to believe that as of 2025, the Ann Arbor property is being used as a rental property, not a personal residence. These inconsistencies appear Cook made additional, multiple false representations, including to the U.S. Government, regarding the status of her mortgages and properties.

We have to figure out what to do about these D.C. District Judges.

For more on Cook see Bunk’s latest post:

The Strange Background of the Fed Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Accused of Mortgage Fraud

After she lawyered up with the latest high voltage attorneys to sue for her job, this is getting rich.

The best of the swamp.

Posted in Federal Reserve. Tags: . 17 Comments »

Radical Minnesota a Sanctuary State for the U.S. Transgender

August 28, 2025 — bunkerville

Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) CALLS IT LIKE IT IS after a transgender suspect unleashed gunfire on a Catholic mass in Minneapolis. “When you “affirm” mental illness instead of treating it, people get hurt.” The correct response.

Let’s try and connect some dots. I have been covering the Mayor’s upcoming race in radical Minneapolis. Mayor Frey is the incumbent and is in a battle with a Marxist candidate. Meet Minneapolis Muslim Marxist Mayor Candidate Omar Fateh – Mamdomi 2.0 on Steroids

Both are far left candidates with a far left council. In recent elections, council membership has been dominated by the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL). As of 2024, 12 members identified with the DFL, while four identified with Democratic Socialists of America (three members identify as both DFL and DSA).

Candidate Fateh is the progeny of Somali parents. The city council? Two of the members are or were trannys. Phillipe M. Cunningham is a former city council member for Minneapolis Ward 4 and was the first transgender man of color to be elected to public office. As of July 2025, the Minneapolis City Council includes Councilmember Andrea Jenkins, who is the first openly transgender woman to hold office in the United States. She also served as the Council President, another historic first for an openly transgender person. 

I wonder how far Frey will improve his chances with voters with this. Here is his thought on the shooting. I can’t wait to hear from Muslim Fateh and his view on the matter. Stay tuned.

Frey takes it even further to offend.

Here is Walz a few days ago in the Dems summer camp.

Minnesota Becomes Transgender Sanctuary State

I think I got it. The best of the swamp.

Posted in Healthcare. Tags: , , . 25 Comments »

Migrant crime and carjackings ‘don’t matter to that many Americans,’ left-wing think tank VP tells Democrats

August 26, 2025 — bunkerville

The Democrats got off their summer camp with a bang.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. – As the Democratic National Committee (DNC) holds its annual summer meeting, party leaders and officials face a multitude of problems as they try to escape the political wilderness.

Well for starters, they might have thought twice about location location location. Minneapolis really? They brought out their old war horses with the same old tripe. Keep at it and we might just take the New Jersey governorship.

This is where this fine fellow is doing his thing running for Mayor. Says it all.

Meet Minneapolis Muslim Marxist Mayor Candidate Omar Fateh – Mamdomi 2.0 on Steroids

Always start with the land grab thingy. 

The New York Post reports:

Migrant crime and carjackings ‘don’t matter to that many Americans,’ left-wing think tank VP tells Democrats

Insha Rahman, the vice president for advocacy and partnerships at the Vera Institute of Justice, made the shocking statement as she framed Trump’s Washington, DC, crime crackdown as a “huge opportunity” for the Democratic Party.

“You want to talk about the crime issues voters care about,” Rahman explained to Democrats, as she shared the results of a recent poll commissioned by Vera’s political advocacy arm, showing which types of crimes respondents believe will most impact them personally.

“Don’t take the bait because most Americans are more worried about how we are going to address mental health issues, the visible homelessness that we see on streets, and how do we deal with mental health and other issues that drive the sort of random incidents that scare all of us – that’s what you should be talking about.” …

“Don’t take the bait and talk about migrant crime or carjackings or the things that actually don’t matter to that many Americans,” Rahman said.

“Don’t take the bait because most Americans are more worried about how we are going to address mental health issues, the visible homelessness that we see on streets, and how do we deal with mental health and other issues that drive the sort of random incidents that scare all of us – that’s what you should be talking about.” …

Good luck Dems.. keep at it.

The best in the swamp

Posted in election. Tags: , , , , . 21 Comments »

The Strange Background of the Fed Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Accused of Mortgage Fraud

August 21, 2025 — bunkerville

Trump Federal Housing Director Bill Pulte issues bombshell revelation that Biden-appointed Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook likely committed MORTGAGE FRAUD. “[Jerome] Powell must look into it or he is complicit.” “Ms. Cook: why did you designate your Atlanta Condo as your primary residence two weeks after declaring your Michigan home as your primary residence?” Another mortgage fraud investigation may be opened. Wow.

 

 

Well what another surprise. Why do you need to study in Senegal? Call for Reparations for Blacks?

Cook earned a BA in Physics and Philosophy, magna cum laude, from Spelman College in 1986 and was named a Harry S. Truman Scholar. She became Spelman’s first Marshall Scholar and went on to read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, completing her second BA in 1988. She also took postgraduate courses in philosophy at Cheikh Anta Diop University. She took courses towards a master’s degree in philosophy at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. Cook earned a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1997 under the guidance of Barry Eichengreen and David Romer.[12] Her dissertation focused on the underdevelopment of the banking system in czarist and post-Soviet Russia.[9][12]

Source: Times of India.

An authority on international economics, especially the Russian economy, she has been involved in advising policymakers from the Obama Administration to the Nigerian and Rwandan governments. Her research is at the intersection of macroeconomics and economic history, with recent work in African-American history and innovation economics.[3][4] Cook is regarded as one of the few prominent black female economists and has attracted attention within academia for her efforts in mentoring black women and advocating for their inclusion in the field of economics.[5]

Cook herself now speaks five languages: English, French, Russian, Spanish and Wolof, a Niger–Congo language spoken in a subregion of West Africa.

Lisa Cook was inspired to study economics by Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in economics in the United States. Cook’s research focuses on African American history and innovation economics. Her research suggests that violence against African-Americans under the Jim Crow laws led to a lower-than-expected number of patents filed. Cook has collaborated with other economists to collate a database on lynching in the United States.

On May 10, 2022, the Senate confirmed Cook’s nomination by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote. Cook was sworn in as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in May 2022, making her the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve’s board.

Cook supports reparations to compensate for Black Americans for being subjected to slavery and discrimination.

Source: Black Past

Why we need someone with such varied interests other than the American Economy is a question.

Let’s not forget Bunk’s post earlier:  Marxist Fed Reserve Chair Daly of San Francisco, Former High School Drop Out, Oversaw Bank That Failed

Bonus: How is this fine fellow I posted about last week doing?

The very best of the swamp.

Posted in Federal Reserve, Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , . 19 Comments »

UN Spotlights Radical Mahmoud Khalil As Keynote Speaker at UN Education Conference

August 20, 2025 — bunkerville

The United Nations wants every girl in the world to know that the true purpose of education is to prepare for revolution. And we give the UN $18 billion for this nonsense.

  • US Contribution:
    The US is the largest single contributor to the UN, providing $18.1 billion in 2022, according to The Heritage Foundation. This includes both assessed and voluntary contributions. The UN’s total funding exceeds $74 billion, with the US being the largest contributor. 
     
    As it marks its 80th year, the United Nations is facing a major budget shortfall. The situation could worsen as the United States – the UN’s largest funder and debtor – reassesses its ties to the organization.Jul 31, 2025

I know Trump has his hands full right now,  but before his time runs out, could we please have him address the whole UN nonsense? He is the man for the job.

From  Hot Air:

UN-Backed Feminist Education Program Features Syrian Mahmoud Khalil Praising Terrorist Icon and Urging Student “Revolution”

A refresher on this Muslim fellow first: After more than three months in ICE detention, Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil returned home to the New York area after a federal judge ordered his release. NBC News’ Maya Eaglin has more.

Earlier this week, I attended Transform Education’s From Classrooms to Revolution, featuring Columbia University’s Mahmoud Khalil.

What’s troubling is that Transform Education is part of UNGEI, the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative. Instead of focusing on education, the event promoted student “revolution” as a moral duty and necessity. 

Khalil praised PFLP terrorist Ghassan Kanafani as an inspiration, framed education as “resistance,” and lauded Columbia’s militant campus activism and mutual aid networks that supported students during arrests. He described carving protest chants into his prison bunk, hailed students as the “moral compass” of radical change, and even preached about “positive masculinity.” 

Quotes by Kanafani:

“Imperialism has layed its body over the world, the head in Eastern Asia, the heart in the Middle East, its arteries reaching Africa and Latin America. Wherever you strike it, you damage it, and you serve the World Revolution.”

Given the militancy of Columbia’s protests, it’s alarming that a women’s education program would choose Khalil as its keynote speaker.

Now I remember a time when education was presented as transformative, but the transformation was supposed to be internal to the student. Before one went out into the world to transform it, young people needed to expand their own minds, learn how to think and analyze, understand the complexities of history, and learn how to think in general. 

Khalil was famously the spokesman for the Columbia student “occupiers” who vandalized the campus and harassed Jews. His icons are Marxists, and his goal is to decolonize the West. 

How very UN of him. 

On top of it all, the very idea that the United Nations is promoting revolution is bizarre. It is, after all, an organization of sovereign nations. It happily includes some of the worst regimes in the world and even gives them spots on its human rights commissions, so it would be interesting to have the Secretary General specify exactly which countries the UN is trying to foment revolutions in. 

The very best of the swamp.

Posted in Education. Tags: , , , , , , , , . 13 Comments »

How the Deep State Took Down Richard Nixon

August 18, 2025 — bunkerville

It turns out that Trump was not the first President that the deep state attempted to dispatch. A fascinating documentary on the take down of a previous President. Richard Nixon. A terrific interview by Steve Bannon of the author led Bunk to a couple of free great videos for the next couple of weeks over at Bannon’s website. Well documented.

Here is part of the setup:

But less than halfway through his term in office, Richard Nixon was gone.

Why? Not because of Watergate. Not because of a smoking gun.

No; it was: Secret meetings between judges and prosecutors; evidence hidden from defense attorneys; biased juries; an unaccountable prosecution force packed with political enemies, Congressional leaders who were out to get the president, and a dishonest media.

The Deep State took Richard Nixon down by unprecedented prosecutorial misconduct, withholding of exculpatory evidence, reprehensible judicial misconduct that included many prohibited secret ex-parte meetings with prosecutors, massive violations of Fifth Amendment due process rights and Sixth Amendment fair trial rights, and the one-sided dishonest reporting by ALL of the dominant media outlets of the day—CBS, NBC, ABC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine and Newsweek Magazine.

All told, a corrupt judiciary and unaccountable prosecutors violated the due process rights of Nixon and the Watergate defendants more than a dozen times. We will document all those due process violations—something that no one else has ever done in more than half a century.

This is how the Deep State took down a president — and created the playbook they’ve used ever since.

Michael Patrick Leahy, is an investigative journalist, author, radio show host, and CEO of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.

Here is a bit of the discussion and the film Leader. Go to the 31:00 time stamp in the video for the beginning.

Clinton Cash is another great flick.

All you need to do is enter a name and Email to catch them free for now.

Estimated run time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

How the Deep State Took Down Richard Nixon

Home

The very best of the swamp.

Posted in Deep State. Tags: , , , , , . 27 Comments »

Power Bills Skyrocket – New Jersey to Maryland – Will it Doom Dems as “Green” Explodes

August 15, 2025 — bunkerville

Energy prices are skyrocketing in the Mid- Atlantic thanks to the Democrat run governments and the chickens are now coming home to roost. What was clear to most intelligent thinkers is that with the Green New Deal starting to have results, the outcome was for told. So let’s hope this high cost of power bills sinks into the mid-term electorate and those who espouse the wonders of Green energy.

Zero Hedge:

A power bill crisis is gripping parts of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and is set to worsen, threatening to financially crush households as long-range forecasts point to a brutally cold winter. 

…

The common denominator in both states? A disastrous green energy agenda, pushed by radical leftist lawmakers, is dismantling reliable and cheap fossil fuel power generation in favor of unstable solar and wind. This has unleashed a power bill armageddon on working-class and middle-class households, as well as mom-and-pop businesses, all while baseload power demand surges in the era of AI data centers.

Fox News is beginning to latch onto the power bill crisis theme, starting with coverage of New Jersey residents who are absolutely furious over exploding power bills. This new development could severely damage the state’s Democratic leaders in the upcoming elections.

Perhaps Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s decision to shutter the state’s nuclear and coal plants, without a one-to-one replacement for lost capacity on the grid, was a catastrophic error that is only now coming home to roost. He also prioritized offshore wind farms and other green energy projects, which have left the grid more fragile than ever. 

Let’s head three hours south down the I-95 corridor to Baltimore, Maryland, where far-left activist lawmakers, including Governor Westley Watende Omari Moore, who is being positioned for the party’s 2028 presidential run, have sparked a very similar power bill crisis. 

Cut from the same climate-crisis-cult cloth, these Democratic leaders across the Mid-Atlantic states have failed voters with disastrous green policies.

In Maryland, the power bill crisis seems much more severe than in New Jersey!

Rising costs of energy bills in Maryland spark debate over state’s climate policies

Keep reading

The chickens are coming home in the swamp.

Posted in Energy, Green. Tags: , , , , , , . 21 Comments »

Meet Minneapolis Muslim Marxist Mayor Candidate Omar Fateh – Mamdomi 2.0 on Steroids

August 13, 2025 — bunkerville
 
Add Another likely Muslim Mayor to the ranks for implementing a Marxist agenda to a major city. This time the target is Minneapolis in 2025. Another sleeper that is not getting the attention it deserves. In some ways worse than the likely Mamdomi Mayor for New York City. The city council is already about as radical as It can get.
 
The Minneapolis City Council is the legislative branch of the city of Minneapolis in Minnesota, United States. Comprising 13 members, the council holds the authority to create and modify laws, policies, and ordinances that govern the city.
 
In recent elections, council membership has been dominated by the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL). As of 2024, 12 members identified with the DFL, while four identified with Democratic Socialists of America (three members identify as both DFL and DSA).
 
So let’s see how the endorsement by the DFL of this Somali parented candidate got started off. Says it all
 
 
 
So just who is Omar Fateh?.
 
Mayoral candidate Omar Fateh of Minneapolis said in an interview that his first priority as mayor would be to protect “undocumented residents” from what he claimed was a “hostile federal government.”
 
 
Omar Fateh’s background includes:
  • Early Life: Born in Washington D.C. in 1990 to Somali immigrant parents, Fateh is a first-generation American. His experiences as a Black Muslim shaped his political views. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University.
  • Public Service: Prior to the Senate, Fateh held positions at the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Department of Revenue, and served on local government advisory committees.
  • Historic Election: In 2020, Fateh became the first Somali American and first Muslim elected to the Minnesota Senate, representing District 62.
  • Senate Tenure: Serving since 2021, he has authored legislation including bills on fentanyl testing strips, free college tuition, and protections for Uber and Lyft drivers. He chairs the Senate’s Higher Education Committee and vice-chairs the Human Services Committee.
  • Political Views: Fateh identifies as a democratic socialist and progressive. His platform includes universal healthcare, the Minnesota Green New Deal, public transportation improvements, equitable education, police reform, and housing justice.
  • Mayoral Candidacy: Fateh is running for Mayor of Minneapolis in 2025. His campaign centers on economic and social justice, proposing measures like a $20 minimum wage by 2028, rent freezes, affordable housing expansion, and alternative public safety solutions. He has received the DFL endorsement.

    Sitting down with Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh

 
 
 
 
 
Matt Walsh sums it all up.

Socialist Mayoral Candidate Omar Fateh Reveals America’s Greatest Threat – White America. Just skip over the short ad midway. He goes on to discuss gratitude and the lack of it.

 

Lest we fall asleep at the switch: We are losing our cities to Radical Muslim Mayors.

Check out Bunks earlier post: It covers the New Jersey cities Muslim Mayors and the unbelievable background of the D.C. Court Judges.

NJ Muslim Mayors and the Foreign D.C. Court Judges: The Road to Germany 2.0

April 15, 2025 — bunkerville 

Remember

A warning….in England.

 
All this was achieved by just 4 million Muslims out of 68 million people in England. How is this possible ?
 
 
 
London video after mayoral election The Mayor of London is a Muslim.
The Mayor of Birmingham is a Muslim.
The Mayor of Leeds is a Muslim.
The Mayor of Blackburn is a Muslim. 
The Mayor of Sheffield is a Muslim.
The Mayor of Oxford is a Muslim 
The Mayor of Luton is a muslim. 
the Mayor of Oldham is a Muslim.
The mayor of Rochdale is a Muslim. 
 

The worst of the swamp.

Posted in election. Tags: , , , , , , , , . 22 Comments »

Gerrymandering has sordid history as old as Constitution

August 12, 2025 — bunkerville

Nothing new with Gerrymandering. It’s been going on since the beginning of our Republic.An interesting piece now at the Washington Times on Gerrymandering and worth a read. My old homestead county in rural Pennsylvania has been essentially Gerrymandering out of existence for any representation with miles outside the county included by any number of Representatives.

One item on the list our Founders should have given some additional thought to perhaps.

Washington Times:

We’ve come a long way from the country’s first gerrymander, which involved two future presidents vying for election to the first Congress.

James Madison, the future No. 4, faced off against James Monroe, the future No. 5, in a district crafted by Patrick Henry specifically to be tough for Madison to win.

 

Henry, a committed anti-federalist, wanted to deny Madison any role in Congress. He hoped to wound the new government system, which he despised.

Madison pulled out a victory and went on to shepherd the Bill of Rights through Congress.

Henry operated at the bluntest level, adding whole counties to Virginia’s 5th Congressional District and deciding which ones to leave out.

 

As technology improves, gerrymandering has gained precision to the point that it has become a dark science, reducing people to their basest political, racial or cultural beings, often in the service of a political party’s power.

Just after the turn of the century, Arizona lawmakers drew a district that tracks the waters of the Colorado River for 40 miles as it flows through the Grand Canyon. It gained no voters but served as an electoral bridge before stretching out to encompass the Hopi reservation.

That district was a nod to centuries-old animosity between the Hopi and the Navajo, whose reservation surrounds the Hopi lands. This animosity forced the mapmakers to get creative to ensure that the two reservations had different representatives in Congress.

For former Rep. Steve Israel, a New Yorker who ran the Democrats’ House campaign committee from 2011 to 2015, the most extreme gerrymander became known as “Goofy kicking Donald Duck.”

Keep reading

The very best of the swamp.

Posted in election. Tags: , , , , . 18 Comments »
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