Republicans feeling the heat

While on a Brews & Choos mini-adventure yesterday, I learned that US Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has leaked that she won't seek re-election. This comes just a day after Democrat Catelin Drey flipped Iowa Senate district 1 from +20 OAFPOTUS to +5 Democratic. (Drey's win also breaks the Republican Party's supermajority in the Iowa Senate.)

You may also remember Senator Ernst responding to her constituents alarm at HR 1* and its effects on their ability to remain breathing by saying "we're all going to die" and doubling down with a tin-eared video from a cemetery the next day.

Then, just a few minutes ago, I heard Scott Simon on NPR interviewing California Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) who proposed splitting California into two states along the coast because poor Republican politicians can't get any of their programs through, given they make up only 39% of the state's electorate. "It's not fair!" he whined. "The Democrats don't care about the smallfolk!" He then went on to list three different ways the OAFPOTUS has screwed his district, suggesting the Democrats did it.

Gallagher's proposal would create a Democratic-majority state and a Republican-likely state, with the coastal part having 30 million of the state's 40 million residents and 80% of its GDP. He neglects to mention that this would increase Republican representation in the US Senate by net +2, further diluting national Democratic power. Plus, the putative interior state would become a brand new taker state, as the coastal part would increase its relative payment imbalance to the Federal Government while the new interior part would need even more outside money to stay afloat. He also ignored the many other semi-serious proposals to divide California into three states, which would increase Democratic representation in the Senate by net +2 while increasing the population-to-Senator ratio of everyone in the State. Does Gallagher support that plan? No? Why not?

Also yesterday, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington threw out the majority of the OAFPOTUS's tariffs, but stayed the ruling until October 14th. (For a complete list of the administration's losses for the week, I give you Amanda Nelson.)

Welcome to the "find out" phase.

* I'm just not going to call the thing by the juvenile and stupid name Republicans gave it.