How Power Protects Itself
Voter suppression in Texas, a shuffle at DHS, and the language of coercion from Washington to Tehran
Voting Irregularities are a Warning to The Entire Nation
“Every vote must be counted, every voice must be heard, “ Said Democratic primary winner James Talarico. “The voter suppression in my home county and in Congresswoman Crockett’s home county underscores the gravity of this moment.”
“What happened in Texas is a warning to the entire nation.” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of NAACP
In two Texas counties, Dallas and Williamson, local Republican Party chairs ended the old countywide voting system for the primary. Under the old setup, voters could cast a ballot at any vote center in their county. Under the new setup, they had to go to a specific assigned precinct instead. Many Democratic voters either did not know the rule had changed or were given bad information about where to go. They showed up at their usual locations, were redirected, waited in long lines, and many left without casting a ballot.
The problem was compounded by limited voting capacity. Officials provided far too few machines for the number of voters they redirected. At one location in Williamson County, for example, there were only three voting machines available for voters from 13 precincts, producing hours-long lines and causing people to leave without voting.
In Dallas, a judge reported that the confusion was so widespread that the county election website crashed.
Neither county was able to respond adequately in real time to the disruptions caused by the location changes and machine shortages, revealing a systemic weakness in the administration of elections.
In Dallas County, a district judge extended Democratic voting to 9:00 p.m., but the Texas Supreme Court stayed that order and said votes cast by people who were not already in line by 7:00 p.m. had to be separated.
In Williamson County, a judge extended voting at two polling places until 10:00 p.m. because of the confusion. But again, the Texas Supreme Court stepped in and reversed that ordering a block on counting ballots cast after 7:00 p.m.
Asked why they made these changes, the Williamson County Republican Party Chair, Michelle Evans, told KUT News, “I could get into all of those details, but at the end of the day, it’s because we can. It’s legal. It’s something we’re entitled to do, and it’s something that our party would like us to do.”
In a statement Wednesday, Dallas County Republican Party Chair Allen West reveled in in the confusion his rules change caused, saying GOP voters proved their “ability to adapt and overcome” election Day problems. By contrast, he said, “it’s apparent that Democrats struggled with grasping basic civics and their usual attempt at lawfare backfired. Steadfast and Loyal!”
Jen Rice of Democracy Docket spoke with Emily Eby French, of Common Cause Texas, about the two republican county chairs. French put it starkly, “Two individuals controlled the way millions of Texas voters were able to cast a ballot.”
North Carolina also saw a voting-rights controversy before the primary. In February, the state board sent letters to more than 241,000 voters whose identifying numbers had not matched against government databases. The letters created confusion and unnecessary obstacles.
Voting-rights advocates have long warned that database mismatches, voter-roll challenges, and demands for extensive voter data can be used to justify large-scale purges. It is a well known strategy. It was successfully used by the Republican Party in Florida in 2000, where it forced the Supreme Court to choose the winner of the Presidential election. It is why this administration is asking for voter rolls as that is what makes it possible to orchestrate massive disenfranchising purges and distort an election before a single ballot is cast.
Shuffle at DHS and its Funding
The House passed H.R. 7744 on March 5 by a vote of 221 to 209 to fund the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2026. The bill now heads to the Senate.
The bigger news is that Trump removed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday after she testified under oath that he had personally approved a $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign in which her own face featured prominently. Trump claimed he knew nothing about it, but he does not like to be embarrassed, and hours later he announced her replacement: Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
Mullin is a member of the Cherokee Nation, a former plumber, and, for five months, an undefeated professional MMA fighter. Oklahoma City News reported that he rails against liberal district judges and wants the Supreme Court to put them “on notice,” and he has shown little patience for dissent within his own party. Every news service seems quick to point out that Mullin likes dogs.
“We still got to go through this little thing called confirmation,” he said. Mullin may have reason to be wary. The committee he faces is chaired by Senator Rand Paul, whom he recently called “a freaking snake.” Mullin has a habit of mangling names and throwing shade, but not loyalties. He is a Trump man to the bone and says he is fighting “for the soul of our country.”
Is Pam Bondi next?
Danger in America?
In a phone interview with TIME on Wednesday, Trump acknowledged the possibility that Americans should be worried about retaliatory attacks at home.
“I guess,” he said. “But I think they’re worried about that all the time. We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”
“Their air defense, air force, navy and leadership are gone. They want to talk. I said ‘Too Late!’,” the US president wrote on Truth Social, adding that the US was prepared “to go far longer” than a four to five-week war against Iran.
Trump to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
“I’m once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military, and the police to lay down their arms. Now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country... You’ll be perfectly safe with total immunity, or you’ll face absolutely guaranteed death.” Those who defect will be on “the right side of history.” — Trump from the White House on March 5, 2026, and Truth Social on February 28, 2026.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Like other autocrats, Ali Khamenei built power not only through the state, but through an enormous opaque economic empire. In a six-month investigation, Reuters estimated his holdings to be $95 billion, roughly $52 billion in real estate and $43 billion in corporate holdings, with stakes across finance, oil, telecommunications, arms, and other sectors. The holding company was called EIKO for Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order or Setad. Reuters also reported that this wealth expanded through the seizure of properties and was not overseen by the Iranian parliament. It was a third dimension of Khamenei’s power, one that gave him financial independence from parliament and the national budget and insulated him and his family from Iran’s factional infighting. That is what made it so potent: not just wealth, but wealth beyond oversight.
Setad created from a 1989 order by Ruhollah Khomeini right before his death, and it is believed to be managed by Khamenei’s sons, Mojtaba, Masoud, and Meysam, and held in bank accounts in Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, France, Britain and several African countries, with funds allegedly transferred through shell companies to banks in Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
This wealth accumulation reminds me that CNN reports President Donald Trump has money from oil assets seized using our U.S. Military and held in an account in Qatar, thereby similarly insulated from oversight by our Congress.
Shia and Sunni
Shia comes from Shi‘at Ali, the party or followers of Ali. Sunni comes from Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama‘ah, “the People of the Tradition and the Community.” Shias are the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan, but globally Sunni Muslims make up the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world, at roughly 87 to 90 percent.
Shia = followers of Ali, emphasis on bloodline and designated authority
Sunni = followers of the Prophet’s tradition, emphasis on community consensus and practice
The irony of Khamenei’s rise is that when he was elevated in 1989, he was not a Shia marja, the senior clerical authority through knowledge or bloodline that the constitution required for the office of supreme leader. The law was secretly amended right before Ruhollah Khomeini’s death, and the Assembly of Experts confirmed him, allowing him to be seen as something he was not, but it made his elevation controversial from the start. It is believed that Khomeini expected a manageable successor, but instead, Khamenei consolidated power, built a far more expansive security and personal financial empire around himself than anyone had ever imagined, to become the longest serving head of state in the Middle East at the time of his death, and left ordinary Iranians far too poor to absorb the costs. The resulting outcry seen in the Jan 2026 protests with a death toll believed to be upwards of 36,500 people, were among the largest massacres in the modern history of Iran.
The exiled son of Iran’s last Shah, Reza Pahlavi, has strongly condemned Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei labelling him the “chief monster“ of a “mafia regime,” “the bloodthirsty despot of our time,” and “the murderer of tens of thousands of Iran’s bravest sons and daughters”.
Scott Galloway said something tonight on Pivot with Kara Swisher that stayed with me; two people are in the hearing rooms even when they are not physically in the hearing rooms. Roy Cohn is there in the style, deny, insult, deflect, never yield, never apologize. Jeffrey Epstein is there in the atmosphere, hovering over the day’s events, and whenever the pressure rises, the administration seems to answer with distraction: throws someone under the bus, announces a tariff, or starts firing missiles.
Galloway also predicts that if James Talarico wins Texas, he will be on a vice-presidential ticket in 2028.
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I always learn so much from your meticulously researched articles, and I love the photos too!