Sounding the Alarm: Supreme Court hears case to gut the Voting Rights Act - Velshi - MSNBC

[Rhiannon12866]

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could gut key protections in the Voting Rights Act.

Elie Mystal, columnist at The Nation, argues the civil rights-era legislation is one of the most important pieces of American law: "Before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, this was an apartheid nation where Black people were not allowed political power and representation in the country.” - Aired on 10/19/2025.

[littlemissmartypants]

1. Thanks, Rhi. I'm trying to be hopeful. And I will try ...

Very Hard to stay encouraged regardless of what happens. I'm not a quitter.

❤️

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Same here, but it depends on the day.

The good news regarding the No Kings protests is certainly encouraging, but was the convicted felon even told the truth? When he finally agreed to meet with Schumer and Jeffries, he had no idea what they were talking about...

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Or he was playing dumb to make them look bad.

Never underestimate a psychopath.*

Characteristics of Psychopaths

1. Aggressive, callous, and cunning
*2. Complete absence of conscience and empathy
*3. Very adept at manipulating others
*4. Willingness to engage in immoral, criminal conduct
5. Willingness to take what they want and do as they please, regardless of who is hurt or wronged
*6. Deceptive ability to appear outwardly benevolent
*7. Deceptive ability to behave in superficially charming ways to hide purely selfish motives
8. Willingness to use intimidation and violence to control others in order to satisfy their own needs
9. Willingness to intentionally violate the basic inherent human rights of others
*10. Complete absence of any sense of guilt or remorse for the harm their actions have caused to others
11. Rationalization of their own immoral behavior
12. Will attempt to lay blame upon someone else for their own conduct
13. Denial, will deny their own wrongdoing outright
14. Utter contemptuousness toward the feelings and desires of their fellow beings
*15. Pathological lying, will say anything without any concern for truth to advance their own hidden agendas
16. Ablity to feign [fake] normal human emotions and empathy
17. Distorted sense of the consequences of their actions
18. Total failure to accept any responsibility for their own socially irresponsible ways
19. Strong bellef that they will never be brought to justice for their criminal behavior

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Accurate list. The thing is why hasn't he been caught and locked up by now??

He's been a con man his entire life, cheating, lying, ignoring the law. We know that he's guilty of 34 felonies, he owes millions to the State of New York and E. Jean Carroll and all of those law breaks disqualify him from running for any public office, even before attempting to overthrow the government on January 6th.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Because people underestimate him and in doing such, give him the benefit of the doubt.

Last edited Tue Oct 21, 2025, 12:43 PM - Edit history (1)

It's also entirely contrary to the good nature of normal people (more than 7 million of which showed up for democracy and reason on October 18th) to entertain the notion that someone who appears so harmless would be planning ways to make everyone in his path suffer in pain in various proportions.

We want to believe that people are good natured overall.

We have a tendency to overestimate our own benevolence and hope that others in our world will be good to us even if we don't believe that we deserve it sometimes. We can't build cooperation and collective visioning otherwise.

Most people don't wake up everyday looking for a fight. It's one of the many things that psychopaths thrive on.

Unfortunately, as the population grows, so does the population of Psychopaths.

Thankfully ...

...
Studies show that approximately 1% of the general population exhibits psychopathic traits. In certain settings, such as criminal populations, the percentage increases significantly, reaching around 15–25%. This discrepancy highlights the importance of understanding psychopathy within different contexts. ...
https://mindpsychiatrist.com/what-percentage-of-the-population-is-psychopathic/

Neuropsych — June 18, 2019
...
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/psychopaths-by-state/
Here are the U.S. states with the highest prevalence of psychopaths.
...

Psychopathy statistics and facts
PDF with links and graphs
https://psychopathyis.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/PsychopathyIs_Graphics_07_03_23-2-1.pdf

[Rhiannon12866]

6. Yikes! New York has among the highest percentage?!

I'm hoping that the majority are downstate in the more populated areas...

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Look at the PDF file. It gives a breakdown in the data. 😉❤️