A day or two ago, mariner was watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. She mentioned that the democratic House of Representatives released their first bill traditionally called HR1. It had strange language in it that was clearly different. It said that, nationwide, gerrymandering would stop and redistricting would be controlled by impartial citizens; it said that election day is declared a holiday; it said that voters will be automatically registered; it forbade the purge of voter records, said that political action committees had to reveal their donors – all these changes applied to every state in the Union and the three branches of the Federal Government.

What happened? Had legislators found a conscience? Mariner could not believe his ears. When it reached the floor, a republican commented that the bill was nothing more than a power grab for the democrats. A democratic representative retorted, “You are right, it is a power grab – by the citizens!”

Amos scoffed. He said it had the same chance of passing as a snowball in hell. We shall see.

There is such commotion in our Federal Government: Everything Trump, identity politics splitting our nation apart, Putin and the Russians, Mueller, McConnell, climate change, unfair economy, and on and on. Behold, an honest, righteous HR1 begins its path through this mess. Care to offer odds?

Ancient Mariner