The Brief | Tennessee Redistricting - Steve Cohen Lost His Seat and Democrats Freak
Plus: Spencer Pratt mops the floor with Karen Bass at the LA mayoral debate, Kamala starts prepping her 2028 lap, the UFO files drop today, and Disney has another cruise problem.
It’s Friday!
What’s the plan this weekend? I want to do yard work but it’s probably raining, so instead I will be reading.
Speaking of reading, I started a new newsletter: The Bookie. It’s not gambling, it’s books. My goal: fall back in love with physical books. The feel, the smell, the dog-eared corners, all of it.
If you love reading, want to talk books, or have been meaning to crack open something that isn’t your phone, come hang. I want to hear what you’re reading too. Drop your picks in the comments. There’ll be exclusive paid subscriber Bookie chats along the way.
ICYM, the first edition is below.
The Bookie | The Secret History Is Just Pretty in Pink with a Body Count
I used to read. Not voraciously — I had a serial killer phase, the kind where you tear through a whole series in a couple weeks — but I read. Then the algorithm got me. Somewhere between the 200-character posts and the 2-minute clips, I stopped picking up books.
In today’s Brief:
Tennessee dissolved its lone majority-Black district. The Democrat who held it for 20 years is white.
Spencer Pratt is gaining traction by pointing at $250,000-per-bed homeless math. The LA debate did him favors.
Kamala Harris suddenly wants the DNC’s 2024 autopsy released. The DNC has it locked away like the Ark of the Covenant.
The first batch of UFO files drops today. Inverted teardrops over the UAE. Take from that what you will.
Twenty-eight cruise crew got hauled off five ships in a child porn sting. Ten were Disney’s.
The Steve Cohen Civil Rights Cosplay
Tennessee Republicans passed a new congressional map Thursday that splits Memphis and Shelby County into three districts and dissolves the state’s only majority-Black district. Gov. Bill Lee signed it the same afternoon, after lawmakers torched their own ban on mid-decade redistricting to make it possible.The new lines cement a 9-0 Republican delegation.
The seat belonged to Rep. Steve Cohen. Twenty years. White Democrat. He went on CNN OutFront and accused Republicans of racist gerrymandering, tearing apart “the work of Dr. King and John Lewis.”
This is the same Steve Cohen who tried to join the Congressional Black Caucus in 2007 because, in his telling, he represented a majority-black district. They told him no.
Meanwhile the Tennessee 9th has been challenged repeatedly by Charlotte Bergmann, a black Republican woman from Memphis. She ran in 2010, 2020, and 2024 (Cohen beat her every time), and is on the 2026 primary ballot. None of which stopped the Congressional Black Caucus from calling Thursday’s map “the theft of fair representation.” The “representation?” A white Democrat, because the black Republican woman trying to represent that same community apparently doesn’t count.
The Tennessee House floor was chaos. Democrats linked arms and blew air horns to drown out the vote. State Sen. Charlane Oliver said Tennessee is “not a red state” but a “gerrymandered” and “suppressed” one. (Trump won it by 30 points in 2024.) The NAACP filed suit Thursday.
Then there was state Rep. Justin Pearson, Memphis Democrat, expelled in 2023 over a Covenant gun-control protest. After the vote, he lit into state troopers: “MOVE THE F*CK BACK! BOY!... You STUPID MOTHERF*CKER!” The caucus elevating him as a civil-rights heir is calling this map a stain on John Lewis.
State Rep. Todd Warner, meanwhile, did a victory lap around the Capitol wearing a MAGA flag like a cape.
The progressive class spent a decade arguing race-conscious districts were a moral imperative. SCOTUS narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act last week, and Republicans are running with it. Democrats can’t argue against partisan gerrymandering after California’s ballot measure. They can’t argue against racial gerrymandering when the white Democrat is the one losing the seat.
Spencer Pratt Walked Into the LA Debate and Started Adult Conversations
Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt, and DSA-aligned councilwoman Nithya Raman sat down Wednesday for the LA mayoral debate. Then Pratt (yes, that Spencer Pratt) set the tone by calling Bass’s signature homeless program a public hazard.
“Inside Safe makes all of us outside, unsafe,” Pratt said. He cited the DEA stat that 93% of LA’s homeless crisis is drug addiction, then dared Raman to walk under the Harbor Freeway with him to offer treatment to the people actually there. “She’s going to get stabbed in the neck.”
Then he hit Bass on the Palisades. The $17 million the fire chief asked for nine weeks ahead, denied. The reservoirs Bass’s DWP head drained that firefighters needed. A thousand firefighters with no engines. Bass was in Africa when LA burned. Pratt’s home was one of the 16,000 that didn’t survive.
Asked whether non-citizens should vote in local LA elections, Pratt said “no” in one syllable. Bass said it depends. Raman started a sentence about school boards and got cut off.
His viral opener was the $16 million for 16 tiny homes housing 64 people ($250,000 per bed). Bass accused him of “exploiting the grief” of fire victims, which is hard to do when you are one. Even the LA Times ran begrudging praise. Prediction markets still favor Raman because LA gonna LA, but Pratt is outraising Bass. Primary is June 2.
The LA political class spent ten years calling Pratt a clown. He’s the only one talking about the math.
Kamala Wants the Autopsy. Now.
Kamala Harris is, per NBC News, telling allies the DNC should release its 200-page autopsy of the 2024 disaster. DNC chairman Ken Martin promised it would come out, then locked it away in December and called any further talk “navel-gazing.” Meanwhile Harris is on a memoir tour, hiring coalition staff and quietly prepping a 2028 run. Timing is not subtle.
The report covers hundreds of interviews, $1.5 billion burned through in 107 days, every battleground lost, internal analytics that allegedly told Harris she was ahead in all seven swing states until election night. Whatever’s in there, the DNC very much does not want anyone reading it. Bernie’s people argue Martin is shielding Harris ahead of the primary.
She read the room. She’s calling for release because not calling for release was costing her more. Interestingly she is throwing Martin under the bus. If the report blames the consultants, Future Forward, and the Biden holdovers, that helps her. If it lands on her, she’s in front of it.
The part that’ll keep me up: $1.5 billion, 107 days, zero swing states. Whatever institutional rot produced that math is still there. Same consultants running the same machine. The bench the DNC is currently boosting for 2028? Newsom, AOC, Shapiro, Wes Moore, Booker. The crew that lost 2024.
The UFO Files Drop Today
A story people are curious about but disclosure: I don’t care.
President Trump’s first batch of UAP files hits today, per Rep. Tim Burchett. Pilot materials. Possibly one video. Not yet the 46 UFO videos Congress demanded. Releases will come in weekly tranches, not one Epstein-style dump.
An inverted teardrop over the UAE the War Department can’t identify. An unresolved UAP over Iraq.
No, this batch isn’t going to reveal little green men. The Pentagon’s been candid about Navy pilot encounters since 2017. The interesting question is what’s been classified, and why. Information control is information control, whether the subject is JFK, Epstein, or a tic-tac off the USS Nimitz.
The Disney Magic and Twenty-Eight Arrests
Between April 23 and 25, US Customs and Border Protection boarded five cruise ships docked in San Diego, including the Disney Magic. They arrested 28 crew members. Ten were Disney’s. CBP said all 28 were involved in possession, distribution, or viewing of child sexual exploitation material. Visas cancelled, removal underway.
Passenger Dharmi Mehta filmed it. Her server was one of those cuffed. Crew dragged off in chef whites and blazers, name tags still on, in front of stunned families. Disney said: “zero-tolerance policy,” they cooperated with law enforcement, the staff “are no longer with the company.”
This is not the first Disney cruise crew member arrested for child porn. Or the second. There’s a running list going back to 2014.
Two things can be true. ICE busting 28 alleged predators is a win for the kids on those ships. Disney’s screening keeps producing this exact headline, on a service marketed at families. “Magical vacation” is doing some work.
Quick Rundown
FBI raids redistricting Dem’s office and her cannabis shop. Agents searched Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas’s Portsmouth office Wednesday and her marijuana dispensary next door. Lucas, 82, led the Dem gerrymander push that netted Virginia four extra blue seats. The probe involves alleged cannabis-business bribery.
Epstein’s suicide note got unsealed. A federal judge ordered release of his purported handwritten note, “They investigated for month — found nothing!!!... It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye.” Found by cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione after Epstein’s first failed hanging in July 2019. Jessica Reed Kraus broke this story first awhile back. The legacy media is just catching on.
Karoline Leavitt had her baby. The White House press secretary announced on X that daughter Viviana (”Vivi”) was born May 1. Leavitt, 28, was the first pregnant WH press secretary and returns to the briefing room later this year.
Karoline Leavitt@karolineleavittOn May 1st, Viviana aka “Vivi” joined our family, and our hearts instantly exploded with love. 💕 She is perfect and healthy, and her big brother is joyfully adjusting to life with his new baby sister. We are enjoying every moment in our blissful newborn bubble. Thank you to
2:18 PM · May 7, 2026 · 14.9M Views24.7K Replies · 22.4K Reposts · 283K LikesTrump drove a motorcade through the drained Reflecting Pool. A $1.8 million resurfacing he says fixes Obama’s $38 million leak job. Color: “American Flag Blue.” Two-week timeline.
Margo Martin@MargoMartin47President @realDonaldTrump drives through the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial to see the progress of the project and meet the hardworking team behind it 🇺🇸12:14 AM · May 8, 2026 · 84.1K Views101 Replies · 524 Reposts · 3.35K LikesRubio announced new Cuba sanctions. The Secretary of State rolled them out Wednesday targeting the Castro regime.
Let’s Talk About It
The Congressional Black Caucus called Thursday’s Tennessee map “theft of fair representation.” A district that’s been challenged by Charlotte Bergmann, a black Republican woman, in cycle after cycle. If a black Republican wins that seat under the new map, are they still going to cry racisim.
How interested are you in the UFOs?
The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.
Not interested in UFOs what so ever...
Meseidy, do you have any past posts about re-districting? I know something changed somewhat recently that allowed redistricting to be done whenever (at least I thought that was what it was) but all these states wanting to redistrict seems a bit chaotic! Would love to read about how it was in the past, what changed and why. Thanks!
All the SCOTUS ruling says is that states cannot redistrict by skin color.
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/democrats-and-the-tennesssee-two