The Hungarian Solution

 Richardson's run down of the news from yesterday is...quite something. The following news stories dropped or were expanded upon:

- The Secretary of Transportation has spent a great deal of his term filming a reality show (his background) on a road trip.
- A No-Bid contract awarded to a Trump crony to paint the bottom of the reflecting pool to mirror an aboveground pool.
- The Iran War's stated cost of $25 billion is simply an equipment cost, not the various other costs that the war has incurred and will continue to incur.
- FEMA is denying aid to states run by Democrats.
- Trump us using "national emergency" to gut the Clean Air Act without letting Congress weigh in.
- Trump's latest tariffs were ruled illegal.
- Trump's cultists unveiled a 22 foot gold statue of Trump at his Florida golf course, in order to get more crypto lucre.

She then concludes with the lead story, which is the Virginia Supreme Court, on partisan lines, ruling that the new gerrymandered maps - which were approved by the Virginia electorate - was unconstitutional under Virginia law. 

In terms of partisan politics, this latest iteration of courts denying Democrats the same relief that they routinely provide Republicans is a gut punch to Democrats hoping to impose a political cost on Republican efforts to destroy majority rule in this country.

The only solution is the example that Hungary offers. Orban entrenched his rule even more soundly than Republicans have, but a massive wave overwhelmed his gerrymander and negated his control of the media. The lived experience was greater than efforts to control the narrative and people threw him out.

The overwhelming corruption of the Trump Administration is going to be increasingly difficult for Fox News to cover up. Gas prices aren't coming down. Food is going to become more expensive. Meanwhile, Trump is squandering money on ballrooms, reflecting pools and wars of choice.

The news from Virginia and about the Voting Rights Act was a gut punch. As Josh Marshall keeps reminding us, the Courts are currently handmaidens to the death of American Democracy. (Not ALL of the Courts, but enough and obviously the Supreme Court.) However, without the consent of the governed, government is illegitimate. Hopefully in November, the Blue Wave is high enough to swamp any barriers put in its place.