I do think that a lot of people are furious and ready to flip tables, if you just show them one they could flip, and the midterms will be seen as a table-flipping opportunity

One side is like “can we disenfranchise all the Black voters by this weekend” and the other is like gotta follow the rules that govern the rules that control the rulebook

Why does it seem like the court system is trying to make Democrats illegal

America, 2026— 🚫 Redistricting because it's the will of voters ✅ Redistricting to suppress Black votes

I think a lot of people are underestimating just how politically radicalizing this stuff is, when you see what the right is getting away with, including with the blessing of the Supreme Court majority

This will make for the quite split screen for when Florida's conservative supreme court likely ignores the state's 2010 constitutional amendments and blesses DeSantis' +4 map.

Virginia Supreme Court declaring Democratic gerrymandering illegal while Republicans are literally wrapping themselves in Trump flags while disenfranchising black southerners is the most on brand moment for the modern USA.

We've reached the point where one party has so obliterated the rule of law that everyone else continuing to abide by it will only hasten the end of our democracy. That's a recipe for chaos and violence. It's terrifying, and I don't know what we do about it.

Woke up feeling physically ill over what happened in TN yesterday and it’s only getting worse. If you’re feeling on the verge of panic & despair at what’s happening in this country, you’re not alone. Go offline, get some air, make some weekend plans, do what you need to preserve your mental health.

Today in 1961 the first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C to head to the South. They were "inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation".

Part of what we're seeing is the long-foretold victory of Lee Atwater's covert racism strategy. Forty years later and journalists still have no ability to accurately describe a racist who doesn't use the n-word in public.

I spoke to our son's entire 7th grade class just now+ talked about launching Elon Musk on a solo mission to Mars and *every last kid* belly laughed. You have to be the biggest loser on Earth to have 7th graders laughing at a mom making a joke about you. Infinite negative aura. The kids are alright.

Spend a day in the life with 3L Danielle Dyson, who is wrapping up a J.D. and Master of Public Policy dual degree: https://bit.ly/3QXYnpJ #BerkeleyLaw @goldmanschool.bsky.social#BerkeleyLaw

i was not prepared tbh

Breaking: Tennessee Republicans pass new 9-0 gerrymander after SCOTUS destruction of Voting Rights Act eliminating state’s only majority-Black district & last Democratic seat. Splits Memphis, which is 63% Black, into 3 districts to disenfranchise Black voters. Quite literally a return to Jim Crow

Excited to live in a country where you can mail someone a handgun but not an abortion pill

NEW, for @nysfocus.com: Last month, we obtained hours of body-cam from Oswego County. It showed sheriff's deputies pulling over drivers — and if the drivers didn't speak English, the deputies called Border Patrol. Some drivers were held for 30+ min while BP responded. nysfocus.com/2026/05/07/o...

There will be an elite media effort to rebrand Rubio as "the grownup in the room" when the GOP 2028 stakes heat up. It will involve a lot of magical thinking, but it will happen.

A lawmaker wearing a Trump flag into the TN House chamber on his way to stripping Black voters of their rights was rejected by the writers room as too on the nose and not really believable that any real person would do that.

Microcosm of the horror of this post-Callais moment: the Mississippi House plans to hold its redistricting session in the Old Capitol where they seceded & instituted Jim Crow. They'll meet there aiming to erase Bennie Thompson's district — the one majority-Black district in a state that's ~40% Black

the odyssey

Reuters documents the way that Trump's immigration surge has helped criminals in MN. 1) Drug & gun prosecutions stalled (& one was dismissed) 2) Partnering w/Feds has fallen off 3) Prosecutors have been stuck dealing w/Trump's witch hunts www.reuters.com/world/how-tr...

This Times story doesn't mention it, so I will: When Ron DeSantis briefly taught high school in his 20s, some students "questioned the focus, and sometimes the accuracy, of his lessons," and mocked "his takes on the Civil War" in a satirical video...for the video yearbook.

One lesson to take from this abysmal moment is that no victory is permanent and politics never ends. The right knew it, and the left can no longer ignore it. But that also means that the horrors now being unleashed on the country can be undone. By @paulwaldman.bsky.social in @atrupar.com’s PN:

Just once I’d like to see a news outlet write a headline saying: PRESIDENT WHO LIES ALL THE TIME SAYS SOMETHING NEW WE CAN‘T VERIFY It would be the perfect headline for our time.

Emails show the Shapiro administration fast-tracked a proposal backed by drugmaker Merck to ease water pollution reporting regulations. The idea ran into opposition from environmentalists and others.

This is awful. And the HHS spox blames Biden, of course.

I will never get over the loss of Google Reader.

Jose Altuve just took the worst swing I’ve seen from anyone this season. Wow.

SCOOP: The F.D.A. blocked the release of studies finding that Covid and shingles vaccines were safe. In the case of Covid, FDA staff had to withdraw studies heading toward publication: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/u...

It’s just ongoingly infuriating to have someone in charge of modern public health whose major qualification is “being against it”

The one big thing this guy could do to relieve depression in America is to quit and disappear. This nonsense he’s pushing will, like all his other pet policies, greatly increase many people’s suffering and mortality. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/s...

Trump tore down nearly half the White House, without approval, then told you this ballroom would not cost any taxpayer money. Now, Republicans are requesting $1 Billion of your money for security features related to it. #ballroominflation https://bit.ly/4tdZaAg

I am not sure most people understand how completely bananas these investigations are. Title IX has an explicit carveout for private college admissions (meaning it is entirely up to Smith who to admit). This is not just arguing for a reinterpretation of Tile IX, it is plain and simple bad faith.

she can do what she wants

If you want fewer people to take antidepressants but don’t have a plan to address things like high cost of therapy (both time and money) and most of your policies are making life harder not easier for the average person ….

A detail I didn’t know: “The Herald entered the Epstein series for a Pulitzer Prize that year, but it was not a finalist. Alan Dershowitz … who helped broker Epstein’s original deal, wrote a letter to the Pulitzer committee that year, urging them not to honor Brown’s work.” share.inquirer.com/THMiUZ

A Pulitzer for Julie K. Brown. Richly deserved, and overdue!

What an absolute coup (complimentary) for the Washington Post to win a Pulitzer for its amazing coverage of the destruction of the federal government by a president its own owner thinks so highly of www.pulitzer.org/winners/wash...

New: Aides to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly devised a plan to kick as many as 100,000 Floridians off their health insurance — including mothers of children as young as six years old, according to records obtained by Seeking Rents. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/desantis-p...

NASA just dropped more than 12,000 photos from the Artemis II mission. It'll take me a few days to go through them all, but so far it's one stunner after another. Link: eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos... Credit: NASA/Artemis II Crew (h/t @jonostrower.com)

Goin to go over great in early ‘28, especially after Shapiro has been rolled a third time by the PA Senate Republicans on transit funding

It was wonderful to be in this room and pay tribute to my friend Greg, an incredible man who we miss every day. Really appreciate @inquirer.com for circling back on this story.

As my colleague David Rosnick puts it: the Roberts Court is just calling the balls and strikes. The problem is that they do it before the pitch is thrown.

Now that we are living in a post-jinx Sixers universe I can point out that Joel Embiid is currently the same age (32) that Dirk Nowitzki was when he went on that 2011 Mavs run

RESULT out of Texas. The Lake Travis school district in the Austin area become a focal point for book bans (see this story from 2024: www.kut.org/education/20...) Two conservatives school board members who were integral to that push just lost their reelection bids tonight, and are ousted.

[“Hamilton wrote the other FIFTY-ONE!” voice] Joel Embiid had an appendectomy on APRIL 9TH

Louisiana Republicans have eliminated a city clerk position in New Orleans days before a Black man was set to take office. “It’s a sad thing to see the state government repeating what happened to Black public officials during Reconstruction,” said Calvin Duncan, who was set to take office Monday.

Who the hell is Some Worry, the fretful conservative voice who shows up in NYT headlines all the time?