There’s a bit of discussion going on about redistricting Texas seats in the House of Representatives between Decennial Censuses. The Governor of Illinois has badmouthed it as Gerrymandering. Illinois has 3 Republican Representatives and 14 Democrats. In the last election, Kamala Harris got 54.37% of the votes, Trump got 43.47%. 3 out of 17 is 17.64 percent. The County election map looks like this:

In California, Democrats outnumber Republicans about 2:1. In California’s Congressional Delegation, there are 43 Democrats and 9 Republicans. California becomes a bit more special when you remember that house seats are apportioned by population, not by number of citizens. According to https://www.kff.org/ , California has 33,398,800 citizens and 4,739,400 non-citizens. A little over 14% of California residents are non-citizens. If you contrast that with Montana’s 1,096,297 citizens and 9,300 non-citizens, less than 1% of Montana residents are non-citizens.

Now, back to the proposed Texas redistricting:

Texas has 26,713,800 citizens, and 3,081,700 non-citizens. A higher percentage of citizens in the population than California. I suspect that, from my perspective, all three example states will wind up Gerrymandered – it’s just a question of which party is doing the Gerrymandering.

Let’s give Elbridge Gerry his due – initially, the man opposed political parties, and the original Gerrymander cartoon appeared only after he had given up and signed on with one party. I doubt if Elbridge Gerry ever got so ambitious as the politicians in Illinois, California and Texas have. To be fair to Gerry, he signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, served as the fifth Vice-President of the United States, refused to sign the Constitution because it did not include a Bill of Rights, and is the only signer of the Declaration buried in DC.

Echelon Insights ( https://echeloninsights.com/tribes/ ) identifies 8 political ‘tribes’ that determine our nation’s electoral results. It seems more sensible than a 2 party system – personally, if I had to classify my voting pattern, it would be ‘reliably republican’ – and I don’t particularly like the Republican Party – it’s just that the Dems are, in general, a little harder to stomach – and they definitely lose me at the second amendment.

I got to looking at this because of an article in my newsfeed from the Liberal Patriot ( https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/a-fascinating-new-look-at-americas?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=223eek&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email ) It’s worth reading. Personally, I like the title of “Middle American Optimists.”

I can’t say that Echelon Insights has all the answers – or even any answers. On the other hand, I do like a way of looking at American politics that goes beyond the simple two party classifications – I really don’t feel alone disliking both major parties. There’s a lot more on the Echelon Insights website, and I encourage folks to look beyond the teasers I’ve presented.

I began watching Mohammed Ali when he boxed as Cassius Clay in the Olympics. Part of it was probably the time, another part was watching how different physical gifts lead to different lives – sizewise, I could have dressed out of Ali’s closet, but could never have accomplished what he did. I still recall with bitter feelings when he was stripped of the Heavyweight title because of his stance on the Viet Nam war and the draft.

Let’s look at some of the things he said in his life and career.

If you look at the world the same way when you’re 50 that you did when you were 20, then you wasted 30 years.

I calculate that I took 20,000 punches, but I earned millions and kept a lot of it. I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.

I can’t believe some of the things I did.Can’t believe it. Sayin’ I was the greatest and the beautifulist and I was gonna whup this guy and that guy, sayin’ I’m pretty, I can’t be beat.

We all have the same God, we just serve him differently. Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans all have different names, but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways forms and times. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. When you believe in God, you should believe that all people are part of one family. If you love God, you can’t love only some of his children.

When you’re right, nobody remembers. When you’re wrong, nobody forgets.

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.

And the saddest quote – going back to my high school days: I came back to Louisville after the Olympics with my shiny gold medal. Went into a luncheonette where black folks couldn’t eat. Thought I’d put them on the spot. I sat down and asked for a meal. The Olympic champion wearing his gold medal. They said, “We don’t serve niggers here.” I said, “That’s okay, I don’t eat ’em.” But they put me out in the street. So I went down to the river, the Ohio River, and threw my gold medal in it.

Amazing what a block of color can do to interpreting a chart:

Sitting with a recovering knee, I found the time to hunt down the court case that legalized discriminating against higher IQ scores. I knew it was out there, but finding the story took some effort. We have to go back nearly thirty years – to a time when a man named Robert Jordan applied for a job with New London’s police. Jordan scored 33 on the placement exam – the equivalent of an IQ score of 125. He didn’t get the job. New London’s police interviewed candidates who scored from 20 to 27, believing that folks who scored higher would get bored and quit, wasting the community’s training. (ABC News, Court Okays Barring High IQ for Cops Sept. 8, 2000).

Now it wasn’t a Supreme Court decision – just the second court of appeals. The court did also notice that “the policy may be unwise, but is a rational way to reduce job turnover.” The article goes on to describe the police average IQ as about 104 – basically just a little above the average. Jordan’s score of 125 places him in the top 5% of Americans.

Now I’ll have to check on the average convict IQ – I don’t see any court cases where discriminating against criminals by IQ is a thing.