The Dictatorship
We’re witnessing transparent attempts to diminish Black political strength
We’re awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callaisa case about how to draw congressional maps that may bring Chief Justice John Roberts’ final blow against a Voting Rights Act he already weakened. But in the meantime, the Louisiana Legislature has been engaged in an even more transparent attempt to diminish Black political strength. In November, 68% of voters in the majority-Black city of New Orleans chose as clerk of criminal district court Calvin Duncana jailhouse lawyer who was imprisoned for 28 years for a murder he didn’t commit. In what is the first legislative session since then, white lawmakers far removed from New Orleans (politically if not geographically) both chambers have now voted to eliminate the office that Duncan won before he can occupy it.
We can count on the state Senate approving some minor amendments to the bill — perhaps as early as Monday — and Gov. Jeff Landry has promised to sign the bill once it reaches his desk.
The Louisiana Legislature is making an even more transparent attempt to diminish Black political strength.
For the past two presidential cycles, many Democrats have argued that “democracy is on the ballot.” The implication was that Donald Trump represented a grave threat to the future of our republic. And Trump’s pardoning of Jan. 6 insurrectionists, his vote-throttling SAVE Act, his moves against birthright citizenship, his hypocritical stance against mail-in voting and his administration’s refusal to swear off sending immigration officers to the polls in November are all signs that he is hostile to full participation in democracy. And Roberts, who has had it in for the Voting Rights Act since he worked in the Reagan administrationand the other conservatives on the court appear to be equally hostile.
However, threats to democracy exist outside the White House and the Supreme Court: Plenty of states — and, to a much lesser extent, some local governments — have been choking out democracy themselves.
Preemptionin which a state government overrules the decision of a local government, has been rampant for decades, and it has had the expected effect of weakening Black political strength. Then there are those states that tyrannically strip away the authority of local governments. This week, Tennessee passed a law that will put political appointees, and not the duly elected school boardin charge of the Memphis-Shelby County school system, whose students are more than 70% Black. Mississippi passed a law this month that strips Jackson (the second-Blackest big city in the country) of majority control of its long-troubled water system. In 2023, as Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis, a Black woman, was pursuing a prosecution against Trump, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill to stop “rogue or incompetent prosecutors” who “refuse to uphold the law.” That was an attack on the Black voters of Atlanta.
But Duncan may soon be the most recognizable victim of such plantation-style attacks on democracy. Duncan got elected, and all of a sudden his office — which maintains the records used in a busy criminal court — was deemed superfluous. When the bill becomes law, those records are to be handled by the civil court clerk.
Knowing the future of his office was in doubt, Duncan defiantly took the oath of office Tuesdayahead of the scheduled May 4 start of the term. The Louisiana Legislature is still racing to have Gov. Landry sign the bill eliminating his office before May 4.
State Sen. Jay Morris, a Republican who lives about five hours from New Orleans, says he didn’t talk to anybody in the city before filing his bill: “It wouldn’t have made a difference. There was no point in that.” Morris hasn’t been convincing that his real motivation is saving money. Louisiana’s Republican leaders, especially Attorney General Liz Murrill, who wrongly claims Duncan wasn’t exoneratedhave seemed dead set on putting Duncan in his place — and, by extension, putting the voters of New Orleans in theirs.
Louisiana’s Republican leaders seem dead set on putting Duncan in his place — and the voters of New Orleans in theirs.
To be clear, this not the Louisiana Legislature’s first expression of racist paternalism. For more than 10 years after Hurricane Katrina, the state maintained control of New Orleans schoolsin the same manner Tennessee is taking control of the schools in Memphis. And when the Crescent City’s elected officials voted to remove a quartet of white supremacist monuments blighting its landscape, members of the Louisiana Legislature tried — unsuccessfully, but still — to strip the city of its power to take them down. Notably, their counterparts in Alabama did succeed in passing a bill protecting Confederate monuments — to keep any uppity cities there from following New Orleans’ lead.
Roberts justified a 2013 ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act with the specious claim that the “blight of racial discrimination in voting” that had “infected the electoral process in parts of our country for nearly a century” no longer existed. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously dissented that Roberts’ thinking was akin to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” To the extent that there was less apparent discrimination, Ginsburg argued, it was because the Voting Rights Act was there to prevent it.
But egregious examples of racist voting policies continue to exist in this century. White people in my mother’s tiny hometown of Kilmichael, Mississippi, had, with one exception, long held every municipal position — because they were in the majority, and every elected position was voted on at-large. And 25 years ago, the town’s changing demographics meant a Black candidate was poised to win each of those seats, and the town canceled the election.
Yes, canceled. As in: We won’t have an election if the results will put Black people in charge.
Patrick Braxton wrote for this website two years ago that when he was elected mayor of Newbern, Alabama, in 2020, officials there responded by changing the locks at the town hall and refused to share the town’s financial records.
I hope that what happened to me, that they would make sure what happened to me would never happen to nobody in life.
calvin duncan
Kilmichael and Newbern have about 700 residents between them. But Atlanta, Memphis and New Orleans are big cities, and the attacks on Black political strength there have been only slightly less blatant.
News reports describe a series of speakers speaking up for democracy Tuesday as Duncan symbolically took his oath of office. “Today we honor the will of the people of Orleans Parish — manifested on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025!” said one former New Orleans councilwoman and state lawmaker.
“Regardless of what they do in Baton Rouge and whoever gets this position,” Duncan said, “I hope that what happened to me, that they would make sure what happened to me would never happen to nobody in life.”
Duncan was talking about being wrongly imprisoned for murder. But he could have been talking about the Louisiana Legislature’s shameless move to disenfranchise not only him — but also disenfranchise voters in a majority Black city.
Jarvis DeBerry is an opinion editor for MS NOW Daily. He was previously editor-in-chief at the Louisiana Illuminator and a columnist and deputy opinion editor at The Times-Picayune.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Millions more Americans might qualify for dual Canadian citizenshipunder a recent change to Canada’s requirements that has led to a surge in applications from its southern neighbor.
For people like Zack Loud of Farmington, Minnesota, it was a surprise to learn that under a new law, Canada already considered him and his siblings citizens because their grandmother is Canadian.
“My wife and I were already talking about potentially looking at jobs outside the country, but citizenship pushed Canada way up on our list,” he said.
Since the new law took effect Dec. 15, immigration lawyers in the United States and Canada say they have been overwhelmed by clients seeking help submitting proof of citizenship applications. Driven by politics, family heritage, job opportunities and other factors, thousands of Americans are exploring whether the easier process makes now the right time to gain dual citizenship.
Nicholas Berning, an immigration attorney at Boundary Bay Law in Bellingham, Washington, said his practice is “pretty much flooded with this.”
“We’ve kind of shifted a lot of other work away in order to push these cases through,” he said.
How the new law works
Canada has been changing its citizenship laws for decades, whether to update historic interpretations of law or to address discrimination issues.
Previously, Canadian citizenship by descent could only be passed down to one generation, from a parent to a child. But the new law opened up citizenship to anyone born before that date who could prove they have a direct Canadian ancestor — a grandparent, great-grandparent or even more distant ancestor.
Those born on or after Dec. 15 need to show that their Canadian parent lived in Canada for 1,095 days.
Under the new law, descendants of Canadians are already considered citizens but must provide proof to obtain a certificate of citizenship. Hayer estimated that there are millions of Americans who are Canadian descendants.
“You are Canadian, and you’re considered to be one your whole life,” said Hayer, who advocated for the new law in parliament. “That’s really what you’re applying for, the recognition of a right you already have vested.”
“The best way I can put it is like, if a baby’s born tomorrow in Canada, the baby’s Canadian even though they don’t have the birth certificate,” he said.
Americans interested in dual citizenship
American applicants have different motivations, but many say President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdownand other topics have led them to seek dual citizenship.
Michelle Cunha, of Bedford, Massachusetts, said she decided to move to Canada after reflecting on decades of political activism and deciding she had “nothing left to give.”
“I put in my best effort for 30 years. I have done everything that I possibly can to make the United States what it promises the world to be, a place of freedom, a place of equality,” Cunha said. “But clearly we’re not there and we’re not going to get there anytime soon.”
Troy Hicks, who had a great-grandfather born in Canada, said he was spurred by an international trip.
“I recently went to Australia and you know, first words out of the first person I talked to in Australia was basically an expletive about Trump and the U.S.,” said Hicks, of Pahrump, Nevada. “It was just like, whoa, I walked off a 20-hour flight and literally the first words of somebody’s mouth to me were that. … So the idea of doing that with a Canadian passport just seemed easier, better, more palatable.”
Maureen Sullivan, of Naples, Florida, said she was motivated by the immigration crackdownin Minnesota, which hit home when her teenage nephew encountered federal officers near his high school in St. Paul. Sullivan, whose grandmother was Canadian, said she sees citizenship in Canada as an option in case things in the U.S. “really go south.”
“When I first heard about the bill, I couldn’t believe it. It was like this little gift that fell in my lap,” Sullivan said. “There was kind of this collective excitement amongst the (family) who just felt like, we wanted to feel like we were doing something to take care of our security in the future if needed.”
How much will Canadian citizenship cost?
For those with documentation ready at hand, the proof of citizenship application fee is a relatively inexpensive 75 Canadian dollars ($55).
But costs will climb for those seeking help from an attorney or genealogist to locate records like birth, death and marriage certificates that can establish the lineage to a Canadian ancestor.
Cunha said she used an attorney and estimates the cost will be about $6,500.
However, Mary Mangan, of Somerville, Massachusetts, filed her application in January using advice from online forums.
“There are some situations where a lawyer might be the right thing, but for many people, I would guess 90% of people can probably do this on their own,” Mangan said.
The website for the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada office, which processes applications, says processing times for a certificate is around 10 months, with more 56,000 people awaiting a decision.
The agency said that from Dec. 15 to Jan. 31, it confirmed citizenship by descent for 1,480 people, though not all were Americans. Last year, 24,500 Americans gained dual U.S.-Canada citizenship.
What’s the reaction in Canada?
Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, said Canadians are generally a “welcoming people.”
Hampson said some also worry a surge of interest from Americans could delay efforts by refugees and asylum-seekersfleeing vulnerable situations.
“I think where people start looking askance is someone who’s never been to Canada, who has very thin ties. They can get a passport, becoming Canadians of convenience. People don’t like that,” he said.
The Dictatorship
U.S. special forces soldier charged with using classified intel to win $400,000 bet on Maduro’s capture
Federal prosecutors have charged a U.S. special forces soldier with using classified intelligence to place winning bets worth more than $400,000 on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly accessed nonpublic details about a U.S. military operation targeting Maduro and used that information to make a series of wagers on the prediction market Polymarket, according to an unsealed indictment.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said Van Dyke “violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government by using classified information about a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that very operation, all to turn a profit.”
Van Dyke was directly involved in planning and executing the mission beginning in December 2025, giving him insight into the timing and likelihood of the operation’s success, according to prosecutors.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in January during a predawn U.S. military seizure in Caracas, when special operations forces stormed their compound after months of intelligence gathering. The couple was quickly taken into custody, extracted under heavy security and flown out of Venezuela to the United States to face federal charges. The pair is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Authorities allege Van Dyke placed more than a dozen bets totaling upward of $33,000 in late December and early January, correctly predicting that Maduro would be removed from power by the end of the month. Those wagers ultimately generated profits exceeding $400,000.
Van Dyke then attempted to conceal his activity by routing the proceeds through cryptocurrency accounts and other financial channels.
Van Dyke, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, faces five criminal charges including theft of government information, wire fraud, commodities fraud and unlawful monetary transactions. Officials said he had signed multiple nondisclosure agreements prohibiting the release or use of classified material linked to the operation.
“Today’s announcement makes clear no one is above the law, and this FBI will do whatever it takes to defend the homeland and safeguard our nation’s secrets,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Any clearance holders thinking of cashing in their access and knowledge for personal gain will be held accountable.”
The case underscores growing scrutiny of prediction markets and the potential for insider abuse, particularly when tied to geopolitical events.
“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” Clayton said. “That is clear insider trading and is illegal under federal law. Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain.”
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets such as Polymarket, also filed a formal complaint Thursday against Van Dyke. The CFTC is seeking financial repayment, penalties and a permanent ban on trading activities, along with an injunction to prevent any future violations of federal commodities laws.
“I have been crystal clear that anyone who engages in fraud, manipulation, or insider trading in any of our markets will face the full force of the law,” said CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig.
When asked about Van Dyke’s indictment on Thursday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he was not aware of the case, but referenced a former Major League Baseball player who was permanently banned in 1989 for betting on games, including those involving his own team.
“That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team,” Trump said.
Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at BLN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.
Billionaire crypto mogul Justin Sunwho has invested tens of millions of dollars in President Donald Trump’s family’s various crypto ventures, has sued World Liberty Financial, one of the Trump family crypto firms.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Sun alleged that World Liberty Financial illegally froze his holdings of its tokens, which he said has been valued at more than $1 billion, accusing the firm of “engaging in an illegal scheme to seize property.”
Sun accused World Liberty Financial of “egregious misconduct,” alleging that “World Liberty Financial’s operators” see the project as a “golden opportunity to leverage the Trump brand to profit through fraud,” which “has caused Mr. Sun and his companies to incur hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.”
Zach Witkoff, co-founder of World Liberty Financial and son of Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, called the lawsuit a “desperate attempt to deflect attention from Sun’s own misconduct,” alleging on X that Sun’s “claims are entirely meritless, and World Liberty looks forward to getting the case thrown out promptly.”
The Trump Organization and Sun’s lawyers did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment. The White House referred to the Trump Organization.
It is unclear whether the lawsuit will jeopardize the crypto investor’s status among the Trump family’s business associates.
The lawsuit comes just days ahead of an exclusive “conference” and “luncheon” this Saturday for top holders of Trump’s memecoin at the Mar-a-Lago club hosted by another Trump family-linked crypto firm Fight Fight Fight LLCwhich is inviting the top 29 “qualifying VIPs” to a reception with the president. According to the memecoin’s “leaderboard,” the top holder is currently listed as username “Sun,” though it is unclear whether this is Justin Sun.
But Sun was among the VIP guests when Fight Fight Fight LLC hosted a similar dinner gala for the top memecoin holders at the president’s Virginia golf club last year. During and after that event, Sun posted photos and videos from a reception with Trump, as well as photos and videos of himself at an exclusive White House tour given to VIP guests. Crypto experts estimated his holdings of the memecoin at the time to be roughly $16 million.
Sun’s unusual relationship with the president’s family came to light just a month after Trump won the 2024 election, when Sun announced he had purchased a whopping $30 million in World Liberty Financial tokens. He purchased another $15 million worth of coins in January, a day before Trump took office for the second time, becoming one of the firm’s largest investors.
Later in March, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission settled a fraud case against Sun’s crypto company, which paid a $10 million penalty with no admission of wrongdoing.
After his investment, Sun appeared to become a key member of the Trump family’s crypto ventures. Sun has boasted about his relationship with the older Trump sons, posting photos of himself with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump on social media. Sun also moderated a panel discussion last year between Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff at a crypto conference in Dubai, where Witkoff announced that World Liberty Financial had partnered with an Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm in a $2 billion deal.
Even as Sun has accused the Trump family crypto firm of defrauding him, his lawsuit said Sun “has long been (and remains) an ardent supporter of President Trump and the Trump family,” and that he invested in World Liberty Financial in part “because of the Trump family’s association with the project.”
Soorin Kim is a White House producer with MS NOW.
Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.
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- U.S. special forces soldier charged with using classified intel to win $400,000 bet on Maduro’s capture
- We’re witnessing transparent attempts to diminish Black political strength
- Crypto investor Justin Sun sues Trump’s World Liberty Financial over ‘misconduct’
- Americans are asking if the president is OK
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