Tag Archives: republicans

1812 – Packing & Cracking ~ gerrymander~ a repost and reminder

12/18/2025 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), American statesman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The information below is a historic timeline regarding the Census and Gerrymandering or Packing & Cracking rules

In December 1975, the Congress passed Public Law (P.L.) 94-171. This law requires the Census Bureau to make special preparations to provide redistricting data to the 50 states no later than April 1 of the year following a census (so April 1, 2011, for the 2010 Census). P.L. 94-171 specifies that within 1 year of Census Day, the Census Bureau must send each state the small-area data the state will need to redraw districts for the state legislature.

P.L. 94-171 sets up a voluntary program between the Census Bureau and those states that wish to receive population tabulations for voting districts and other state-specified geographic areas.

Under this program, those responsible for the legislative apportionment or redistricting of each state may devise a plan identifying the voting districts for which they want the specific tabulations and submit it to the Census Bureau.

Beginning in 2005, the Redistricting Data Office of the Census Bureau met with state officials in 46 states. These meetings explained the timeline and programs available for the 2010 Census, providing states the time to prepare and allocate resources in advance of the census. The states also provided the Census Bureau with valuable feedback on census program planning.

The 2010 Census Redistricting Data Program is a five-phase program. During Phase 1 (2005–2006), the Census Bureau collected state legislative district boundaries and associated updates to tabulate legislative districts. This phase also included an aggressive 2010 Census communications plan, with visits to state capitals, to make sure the states were informed and prepared for the upcoming census.

Phase 2 (2008–2010) consisted of the Voting District/Block Boundary Suggestion Project (VTD/BBSP) in which states received TIGER/Line® shapefiles and the MAF/TIGER Partnership Software (MTPS) to electronically collect voting district boundaries, feature updates, suggested block boundaries, and corrected state legislative district boundaries. Both Phase 1 and Phase 2 are voluntary programs that include a step where the state verifies the submitted data.

Phase 3 constitutes the delivery of the data for the 2010 Census. The Census Bureau will deliver the geographic and data products to the majority and minority leadership in the state legislatures, the governors, and any designated P.L. 94-171 liaisons. Once bipartisan receipt of the data is confirmed, the data will be made available online to the public within 24 hours through the American FactFinder. For this census, the P.L. 94-171 data will include population counts for small areas within each state, as well as housing occupied/vacancy counts.

After the Census Bureau provides the data, the states will begin their redistricting. States are responsible for delineating their own congressional and legislative boundaries and their legislatures. Legislatures, secretaries of state, governors, and/or redistricting commissions carry out the process.

Go to www.census.gov for the complete article …

For your information, wiki states, “Gerrymandering is effective because of the wasted vote effect.

The Etymology

First printed in March 1812, the political cartoon above was drawn in reaction to the state senate electoral districts drawn by the Massachusetts legislature to favour the Democratic-Republican Party candidates of Governor Elbridge Gerry over the Federalists.

The caricature satirizes the bizarre shape of a district in Essex County, Massachusetts as a dragon-like “monster.”

Federalist newspaper editors and others at the time likened the district shape to a salamander, and the word gerrymander was a blend of that word and Governor Gerry‘s last name.

Resources: www.Census.gov

and Wiki

~ my 2cents ..., ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Do You Look Illegal… first posted in 2012… are things any different in 2023?

08/31/2025 Nativegrl77

Immigration …

Republicans and some conservadems who say they want to help people get back to work, and give small businesses the means to create jobs have once again said one thing while on camera and then voted against the People of the United States. They say a small business needs to be helped because small business creates jobs … but Republicans lie and this is yet another example and now evidence of just what they have in mind for us … as Americans, we should all be outraged but use our voice and our votes to keep Republicans out of office. We need to vote for Politicians who have Americans’ best interests in mind, not …

I don’t believe Immigration is an issue that will bite the backs of any left-leaning politician because immigration has to be dealt with. It has to be comprehensive and, unlike what people on TV seem to want viewers to believe, immigrants, undocumented or not, didn’t just pop up after President Obama was elected. Immigration is the elephant in the room that Politicians on both sides of the aisle have avoided for decades unable to make progress on, the others who along with corporations were more interested in making a buck than solving the massive influx of undocumented people looking for jobs; not all immigrants or those called natural citizens are violent, take jobs away, are crazy or constantly break laws …

Immigration reform will ultimately affect every single person in this country. The notion that every State should be able to make up its own rules, policies, or laws is absurd, not to mention the crap coming from people on the right suggesting that the undocumented or illegals as they call them be rounded up and taken back to their homeland. The comment and the idea are not only offensive; the suggestion about how to pay for the round-up is in itself scary and brings up another time in History when the lives of people who were rounded up and well… we all know what happened, and thought it’s the 21st Century … men and women, called ICE Police, are engaged in rounding up what might be considered Dissidents for both concentration and internment camps.

It is time to ask yourself how many ethnic groups have come to America, been treated poorly, and yes, some succeed while others are still in the shadows, or in concentration camps in the year 2019. In this era of trump, the extreme right or white nationalists noticed the significant browning of America and are now suggesting an en masse round-up and deportation. I will admit I was definitely offended and surprised that folks in 2010 would suggest using stimulus money to round up people and ship them back to their homeland, but what we heard doesn’t even match up to what we are now experiencing, in this era of trump or 2.o trump!

Is it me, or are these wild, wicked, and stupid comments from people getting on the airwaves, talking seemingly crazy and getting paid $175K to do #ThePeoplesBusiness, sound completely absurd? The other question is, do most, if not all, long for a time when most Women and folks of colour were not seen or heard ? They performed duties that the white masta set

Repealing Obamacare cost America at least $70 million with over 50 attempts in 2014, now 63 attempts in 2016 … so, you do the math

A Cruz Government Shutdown cost $24 billion

Benghazi Hearings cost almost $8 million, maybe more!

Email gate cost $82 million or more

The current bills brought to the floor of Congress should give everyone engaged in living in this 21st Century life and the country an opportunity to stop, consider, and debate the obvious ramifications, maybe accept that comprehensive immigration reform needs to be clearly explained and understood. Unfortunately, what the right calls Amnesty. It would be in all of our best interests for those on the right to avoid the notion that all the undocumented or “illegals” are violent and malicious folks doing all kinds of bad things. However, they cannot help themselves though we all know that not all undocumented, “illegals” as they call the undocumented are bad and decades ago, employers decided to look the other way when folks started coming across the border to look for jobs getting the jobs that were paying little or nothing but saved them money.

It is time, to be honest, and deal with the reality of the impact and contributions that undocumented people have on the US economy, because it is big. The idea is not lost on me that the immigration laws republicans want implemented across the country would also have some negative consequences on all folks of colour, women, children, as well as the elderly, by pushing Americans back to a time that we all hoped was nearly gone and stayed in our history books.

However, we have to remind people that we cannot go backward. It was not that long ago when women and people of colour were seen as 3rd class citizens, and servants, and rarely heard from by anyone unless they were forced to do the unthinkable or worse.

Photo is from Getty Images.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

1935 – FDR signs the Social Security Act

Image 08/14/2025 Nativegrl77

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935. Press photographers snapped pictures as FDR, flanked by ranking members of Congress, signed into law the historic act, which guaranteed an income for the unemployed and retirees. FDR commended Congress for what he considered to be a “patriotic” act.

socialsecurityposter1

Roosevelt had taken the helm of the country in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression, the nation’s worst economic crisis. The Social Security Act (SSA) was in keeping with his other “New Deal” programs, including the establishment of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, which attempted to hoist America out of the Great Depression by putting Americans back to work.

In his public statement that day, FDR expressed concern for “young people [who] have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age” as well as those who had employment but no job security. Although he acknowledged that “we can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life,” he hoped the act would prevent senior citizens from ending up impoverished.

Source:

history.com

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a Letter From Virginia ~In Memory~ (Free Before Emancipation) ~~ July/August edition

08/01/2025 Nativegrl77

Letter From Virginia
Excavations are providing a new look at some of the Civil War’s earliest fugitive slaves—considered war goods or contraband—and their first taste of liberty

click on the graphic below to get the complete story, it’s six pages of American History

(Library of Congress)

Following an 1861 decision by a Union general, escaped slaves were declared contraband, or illegal war goods, and freed. Thousands of fugitive slaves, including this group in Pamunkey Run, Virginia, provided the Union army with labor and established independent communities.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Injectable Skin Lightening Products: What You Should Know – repost

07/29/2025 Nativegrl77

So, it’s starting to heat up and Summer is not far away. So, are you using a skin lightener, brightener, or whitener, thinking it’s cute?

In September 2014, U.S. Marshals seized a variety of unapproved, improperly labeled, and potentially harmful injectable drugs being marketed as skin whitening products, including the Relumins Advanced Glutathione kits and Tatiomax Glutathione Collagen Whitening kits shown above.

Injectable Skin Lightening Products: What You Should Know

09/02/2015 01:00 PM EDT

Injectable skin lightening products are unapproved, untested drugs that could potentially cause harm, FDA warns. FDA has not approved any injectable drugs for skin whitening or lightening.

“These products pose a potentially significant safety risk to consumers. You’re essentially injecting an unknown substance into your body—you don’t know what it contains or how it was made,” says In Kim, a pharmacist at FDA.

Read the Consumer Update to learn more.

Related Consumer News