ICYMI: These Blue States are Stopping Trump; Alex Jones Just Lost InfoWars and The Onion May Finally Buy It; New Trump Admin ‘Stats Boss’ Was A Jan 6 Insurrectionist

Plus: Michael Cohen details strange Epstein meeting, Meta chatbots sexted with children, a third group chat containing war plans has hit the tower, and more

Aug 15, 2025

Blue State Gerrymandering?

(Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Blue state Governors are teaming up to stop Donald Trump from stealing the 2026 midterms - by gerrymandering?

It all started with the Texas plot to redistrict in an attempt to create five more Congressional seats for Republicans. To avoid voting on the redistricting in a vote Democrats surely would have lost, Texas Congressional Democrats simply fled the state to kill the vote a few weeks ago. Just yesterday, they announced that they would finally be returning, following threats of arrests, removals from office, and countless fines (which, to be fair, is something that WILL happen in the best case scenario).

Yet Governor Greg Abbott is undeterred by the delay, with Texas Republicans announcing they would end their current special session today and immediately start a new one. But you know who was inspired to fight back against this clear attempt at election rigging? California Governor Gavin Newsom, who announced this week he’s going to have a special election on November 4 to have California voters decide on redistricting in the blue state.

The goal, Newsom said, is to redraw the maps to give California an additional five seats - which would effectively cancel out any gains made in Texas by Republicans. This plan, known as The Election Rigging Response Act, is still somewhat in the works, with lawmakers having until August 22 to create a redistricting measure to put on the ballot, but sometime soon we should have the rough new district lines drawn out in a map.

Response to the move has been opposed by Republicans and some independents, but Democrats, for the most part, seem energized by Newsom’s actions. It gives off the impression of somebody actively fighting not only to give Democrats a fighting chance in a now-rigged system, but to protect democracy itself (and not just my special hat, in my store now okay sorry for the plug).

Yet the move has also seen states across the nation rushing to get into this redistricting game. Maryland Governor Wes Moore said “all options are on the table” when it comes to redistricting, something Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has also stated. New York actually has laws against gerrymandering, but Governor Kathy Hochul is exploring all options available to potentially revise those laws. According to NPR, the gerrymandering requests are going both ways now, however, with Missouri, Indiana, and Florida looking to get in on the action for Republicans, too.

Let me be clear: under any other circumstances, redistricting for blatantly partisan reasons is bad. It’s typically a sign of an easily exploitable system being taken advantage of, and the only real losers in these situations are the voters. But folks, we’re through the looking glass right now looking into the eye of a really volatile storm. Donald Trump is all but admitting he plans to steal the 2026 midterm elections, and if redistricting across the country is the most effective way to combat this, then we absolutely need to do whatever we can to save the things that ACTUALLY make America great ALREADY.

The Completely Satisfying Death of InfoWars

It finally happened: three years after losing a set of lawsuits for defaming the families of children whose lives were lost in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting back in 2012, Alex Jones is officially going to lose everything.

When Jones initially lost the cases, he was on the hook for $1.4 billion, something he was unable to pay as a result of his bankruptcy. Yet three years have gone by with little being done to procure the money for the families, so a Texas judge ruled this past Wednesday that InfoWars was to be liquidated - and everything sold off following the liquidation would be used to pay back the families what they are owed.

One of the first steps here, according to The New York Times, is for a court-appointed receiver to take possession of InfoWars’ parent company Free Speech Systems, LLC, within the week. This includes everything Jones physically owns for the show, such as mixing boards, microphones… and all intellectual property. I’m assuming that means all of Jones’ weird supplements, but it also includes the rights to basically everything Alex Jones has ever made.

But it gets better. Because The Seattle Times broke it down a bit further and revealed that there is a lot of uncertainty over the timeline for most of this, and the only thing we REALLY know is that the receiver is going to change the locks on every building Free Speech Systems owns by this weekend. This leaves Alex Jones in an uncertain place, not knowing if he’ll even be able to stream next week at all

According to the Times, he stated he was certain someone was going to buy Infowars to keep it on the air. Yeah, about that. According to The New York Times:

“Last year, a bankruptcy judge ordered that assets from Infowars be sold to pay the families. The Onion, a satirical website, won an auction to acquire Infowars, saying it wanted to turn the site into a satirical platform that would ridicule the kind of conspiracy theories that Mr. Jones has spread.
But in December, a judge rejected the sale, saying that the auction didn’t maximize the amount of money it would provide to Mr. Jones’s creditors. Instead, the judge suggested the families pursue their case in state court. The ruling on Wednesday, from a state court in Texas, came as part of a continuation of their efforts.”

And according to this headline from The Hill:

“Judge clears way for The Onion to revive bid for Alex Jones’s Infowars.”

Folks, do you remember around a decade ago when Peter Thiel helped finance Hulk Hogan’s defamation trial against Gawker, effectively destroying Gawker out of what seemed to be sheer and utter spite? It’s a case that’s widely regarded as one of the absolute worst things that has ever happened to the free press in America, and is part of why Peter Thiel is viewed as one of the most insidious men behind the scenes in American politics. Well, and there’s also… that other thing.

The purchasing of InfoWars by The Onion, in any case, would be the exact opposite of Peter Thiel’s destruction of Gawker: a net positive for the press, a decimation of one of the worst forces of disinformation in America, and a likely contributor to a future video of Alex Jones openly weeping about the death of his poor baby.

But I don’t know if I buy the death of InfoWars. I think it’s just a crisis actor.

MORE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Following several months of embarrassingly low jobs data, Donald Trump has hired Project 2025 co-author E.J. Antoni to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Turns out he was also a January 6 insurrectionist, meaning Antoni is probably just REALLY BAD AT NUMBERS, since he’s denying low jobs numbers AND a landslide election loss for Trump!
Following up on THAT story, it’s now being reported that CONSERVATIVES don’t want Antoni in office, either.
A THIRD war plans leak has hit the group chat: 404 Media has revealed that this time, it was an ICE agent who added “a random person” to a group chat, exposing every detail of a manhunt they were on to catch an alleged murderer.
Mark Zuckerberg has gone out of his way to kiss the ring of dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend Donald Trump at every opportunity since 2024. His company Meta also recently had data leak showing that its chatbots could “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.” I’m sure the two aren’t related in any way.
Back in 2015, Republicans believed strongly in a conspiracy theory known as Jade Helm that claimed Obama was going to federalize cities to declare martial law. It was so silly that even Barack Obama said it was silly. Steve Benen at NBC has noticed the irony in who was concerned about it then and who embraces it now.

Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen went on the Tara Palmeri Show to discuss the “one” Trump-Epstein case he ever worked on, and he may have accidentally confirmed more details regarding the “Katie Johnson” case.
“RFK Jr. Awkwardly Hauls Dr. Oz Up a Cliff in Bonkers MAHA Stunt,” writes The Daily Beast. “This is the single dumbest government ever,” writes Keith Edwards.
Donald Trump was bullied by virtually every European leader for his braindead meeting with Putin. Reportedly, Trump was “fuming” after the call, and what I wouldn't give to see footage of that call.
A British pub’s employees told management they would “stage a mutiny” if a reservation was accepted for JD Vance. A reservation was accepted for JD Vance. The pub was forced to shut down.
Under Trump’s new tax law, veterans are likely not going to have work requirement exemption for food stamps. I never thought I’d see a day where Republicans would be so far gone they can’t even PRETEND to care about the well-being of veterans.
A number of rabbits have been seen in Colorado with “horn-like warts,” which scientists say are harmless. Listen. If they’re so harmless, then why are THE GUARDIAN literally calling them “demon rabbits”?
A Department of Justice employee threw a sandwich at an ICE agent’s face and now faces federal charges. Again: he threw a sandwich at an ICE agent, was fired from the DoJ, and faces felony assault charges.
Reporters Without Borders, an organization that tracks press freedoms across the world and are the originators of the World Press Freedom Index, have been deemed by Russia to be an “undesirable organization.” It could have to do with the fact that Russia has effectively banned independent media, has currently 50 known jailed journalists, and out of 180 countries monitored by the organization, is ranked 171st.
Ron DeSantis has announced a sequel to Alligator Alcatraz: a new immigrant detention facility he’s called “Deportation Depot.” It’s only a matter of time before DeSantis really meets the alliteration where he wants it to go and creates his own SS.
Deepfake videos are being pushed online of AI-generated doctors giving medical misinformation. Not at all concerning: CBS News’ investigation found 100 KNOWN examples of this.

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?