The Common Room

Hey my name is Alex and I'm a 19 year old college student. This blog is personal and is mainly political or black&white. Shit happens and if you ever need someone to talk to, my ask is always open.

[thehill682-deactivated20180122]

In case you’ve forgotten (and given the events of the last nine months, many of us have) this is what true leadership, toughness and determination look like.

[politico]

Supreme Court eyes partisan gerrymandering

Kennedy seen as swing vote that could blunt GOP's map-drawing successes. By JOSH GERSTEIN

The Supreme Court wrestled Tuesday with a case that has the potential to halt or even reverse an increasingly common phenomenon of American political life: Republicans’ ability to tilt the political playing field in their favor through the tedious task of redrawing district lines.

The politically explosive high court fight over so-called partisan gerrymandering has the potential to radically reshape the political scene by thrusting courts across the country into the role of vetting district maps for excessive partisan bias.

Critics of that idea say judges are ill-suited to that complex task, while proponents say the practice of legislators essentially picking their voters has gotten out of control and is contributing to extreme political polarization by virtually eliminating competitive or toss-up districts.

The arguments Tuesday were tailored almost entirely to an audience of one: Justice Anthony Kennedy. He’s widely believed to be the only Republican-appointed justice who might side with the court’s Democratic appointees to invalidate a redistricting plan Wisconsin adopted for its state assembly in 2011.

Kennedy was cryptic about how he might rule in the case, but gave no sign that he has abandoned his view that extreme partisan gerrymandering might—at least in theory—violate the Constitution. Moments into the argument, he suggested that extraordinary efforts to pack one particular party into one district or break them up into several others, could violate the right to free-association.

“Suppose [the court] decides this is a First Amendment issue, not an equal-protection issue. Would that change the analysis?” Kennedy asked as the court debated the legality of the Wisconsin plan. A three-judge panel ruled that the GOP-led legislature tilted the table so sharply against Democrats that it ran afoul of the Constitution.

Read more here

[jonnygordo-blog]

[michellepsychologist]

You matter

[ithelpstodream]

[thatdiva]

[cartoonpolitics]

(cartoon by Nick Anderson)

[cartoonpolitics]

(cartoon by Signe Wilkinson)

[lovemakesyouwonder]

[mouroes]

Rear Window (1954), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

[rejectingrepublicans]

[sanesparza]

[tastefullyoffensive]

by San Esparza

[lierdumoa]

[whatyouwanted-whatyougot]

I reblog this every time I see it, because it’s one of life’s hardest lessons.

[daddyxdarren]

I don’t like to give celebrities credit for saying wise things, but I remember watching Beyonce say that and it was a huge life lesson that kind of stuck to me. 

[quakerjoe]

[sheisatragicstory]

She was the tragedy at the back of everyone’s memory.

1227 (via sheisatragicstory)

[lewky]

[lewky]