Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.
And if you’re looking for a little more from COURIER, Akilah Hughes breaks the chilling wave of corporate capitulation to Trump in the most recent episode of “How is This Better?”
Since day one of Trump’s political career, people have desperately attempted to normalize his absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – and 10 years later, much of corporate media remains a victim of their own attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.
It’s time to stop sane-washing the insanity.
What Happened
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to illegally remove elected Democrats from office on Sunday as retribution for stalling a Trump-backed scheme to legally oust elected Democrats from office.
The plan centers around the universally despised practice of gerrymandering, an electoral strategy where political parties manipulate the boundaries of certain congressional districts in order to gain an unfair advantage when they’re up for reelection. Redistricting typically only happens every 10 years based on US Census data, but the Trump administration has successfully pressured Texas lawmakers into gerrymandering its congressional districts in order to keep Republican control of the US House.
“If they succeed here, they are going to do it in every red state across the country before the 2026 elections,” state Rep. James Talarico said, as reported by Courier Texas. “If they succeed with this power grab, they’re never going to have to fear the voters ever again.”
Support for Republicans has cratered this year, as a result of their insistence on passing unpopular legislation that benefits the wealthy, combined with a mad rush to protect powerful individuals implicated in former Trump associate Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. Republicans clearly see gerrymandering as their best chance to retain power, and redrawing Texas’ maps could potentially kick three Democrats from the US House, and add five more Republican-friendly seats.
While the special legislative session Abbott called to redistrict congressional maps five years early is unheard of — off-year redistricting is usually a result of a court order — the decision is being depicted as run-of-the-mill partisan political posturing. Its implications, however, are twofold: it injects chaos and disorder into the reliable, routine practice of redistricting, and it gives Trump allies another avenue to prosecute political opponents.
“No longer will we have a check on his lawlessness, accountability for his corruption and crimes, and we will see a Republican-majority Congress roll out the royal red carpet for a third Trump term,” former US Rep. Beto O’Rourke said on MSNBC. “Those are the stakes, and that’s why we got to fight and we got to fight to win.”
Trump has gone to great lengths over the past decade to destabilize voting systems and erode trust in elections. Despite its flaws, redistricting was a stable pillar in the electoral process, and gains were being made to end gerrymandering and use Census data to provide more equitable representation.
After Texas decided to hold its special session, elected leaders from eight other states announced plans to follow suit. More moving parts in an already complex machine create additional pathways for the Trump administration to call election results into question — or reject them entirely, as the president attempted to do when he incited the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The predictable outrage over redistricting five years early has also given Republicans an excuse to threaten legal action against their political opponents, another staple of Trump’s second term. This isn’t the first time during Abbott’s tenure as governor that Democrats have left the state in order to stall far-right legislation — in fact, it’s a century-old tradition — but the threat against them is new. Abbott told Democrats he would remove them from office if they didn’t return to the state legislature by Monday afternoon.
“I'm a lawyer. There is no felony in the Texas penal code for what he says,” said state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who left the state to block the vote on redistricting. “Respectfully, he's making up some shit, okay? He has no legal mechanism. He's putting up smoke and mirrors.”
The removal would be illegal, and Abbott has admitted that his self-proclaimed authority would need to be affirmed by the courts. But the threat was made, and in court systems where Abbott and Trump have stacked the odds in their favor, Texas could blaze two trails for Republicans to remove Democrats from state and federal office, no voter input required.
Attempts to Sanewash
Texas Democrats walked out to block the GOP. How well has the tactic worked before?
Gov. Greg Abbott’s options to force a redistricting vote are more limited than they appear
What to Know About the Texas Redistricting Clash After Democrats Walk Out
Far-Right Spin
Texas House Dems Flee to Illinois, Could Face Felony Charges, Extradition
How Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Intends to Nuke the Dems' Plan to Block New Redistricting Map
Absent Texas Democrats may be removed from office as redistricting standoff escalate
Nursing student and family abducted by ICE, threatened by agents
By Dylan Rhoney, Cardinal & Pine / COURIER
*The following is an excerpt from Rhoney’s article. The whole piece is worth a read, and please share it if you can — public awareness on situations like Allison’s have proven to be crucial to stopping the Trump administration’s horrific and illegal actions against immigrants and their families.
On the morning of Feb. 20, Allison Bustillo Chinchilla was at home taking care of her three brothers. While cooking breakfast and getting them ready for school, she saw several vehicles pull up to the family’s apartment. Fearful, she went into one of the bedrooms to call her mom, who was at work.
Moments later, FBI agents busted through the door, armed with weapons, but according to Bustillo Chinchilla, no search warrant was offered. Officers said they were seeking a man who Chinchilla claims had rented a room in the apartment last year, but no longer lived there. Bustillo Chinchilla, who was living in Louisiana when the man was a tenant, said she never met him. She recalled the FBI saying they were looking for him as part of a drug trafficking investigation.
She said 15-20 officers then entered the apartment with guns drawn on her and her three siblings. Bustillo Chinchilla put her hands up in an effort to convey that she and her siblings were not a threat, hoping to deescalate the situation.
Despite being told ICE wouldn’t be involved, the FBI called the agency anyway, which then detained Bustillo Chinchilla and Chinchilla.
On Feb. 23, she was given the option to be sent to Mexico, alongside her entire family.
“‘The only solution I have for you is to go to Mexico with all your children,’” she recalled being told by a DHS agent.
Confused, she tried to explain that they were Honduran, not Mexican, and that two of her children have American citizenship.
“I have two citizen children,” she pleaded with them. “My son needs me. He is sick, has treatments here, and we do not have a criminal record to be treated in this way, and we have rights.”
Chinchilla claimed the DHS agent told her, “I don’t care, take them also with you, the two citizen children.”
When she refused to agree to the deportation of her entire family, Chinchilla explained that the agent became very upset, and told her, “Just remember that your daughter is of legal age.”
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