I will say LLMs are very good at helping me find sources for things I already know. For example, If I recall someone commenting on an issue, but can't find it quickly, Claude will find it in seconds. Bottom line - they're good at basic research assistance.

Just want to mention that the Odyssey mostly takes place outside of Greece. 90% of the plot is about how, after Greeks won a foreign war, it took one of them FOREVER to get home. FFS, where do the illiterate right-wing culture warriors think the English word “odyssey” comes from?

Stop saying "rural voters" when you mean white people.

We do. We have Xavier Becerra.

Hi! we're Snopes, and we are experts at splitting hairs. We hope you will take us seriously!

Exemption, deduction, credit, imputation, allocation, apportionment.

I find it difficult to write my scholarship when the issue of my scholarship is making me infuriatingly mad. I thought I'd avoid it by having my area of expertise be tax law (rather than, for example, criminal justice). Alas.

The court-appointed amici submitted their memorandum yesterday, outlining the path to throw out this ridiculous lawsuit for lack of adversity. Judges Williams must act NOW and dismiss this insane lawsuit. There would little recourse left if they sign this corrupt deal before the case is dismissed.

Kamala Harris had a more progressive voting record in the Senate than Bernie Sanders. If you’re acting like her talking about progressive priorities is hypocritical or a flip flop, you just don’t know her. This who she’s always been.

Not the MOST important aspect, but Netanyahu abuses the phrase “blood libel.” The blood libel is a specific, horrific lie about Jewish religious practices. It’s led to pogroms. Even if Kristof were lying, it wouldn’t be blood libel. Netanyahu uses “blood libel” like Trump uses “fake news.”

Some of the identified individuals the US killed in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific showed "no indication of involvement with drug trafficking." And even if they were traffickers, they'd be low level. Killing them would make virtually no impact on the cartels or drug trafficking into the US.

My son got into Old Americana music so seriously that he now owns three banjos, a tenor banjo, bass uke, regular uke, and a washboard, and is pursuing a minor in ethnomusicology in college.

NEW from me: María de Jesús Estrada Juárez was brought to the US from Mexico when she was 15, and later received protection under DACA. But when she went to interview for her green card in 2025, she was deported anyway. She thought she was doing everything right. www.wired.com/story/a-woma...

Out now: In a special episode of Resistance Live, I sit down with Maine Senate candidate @andrealaflamme.bsky.social to discuss why she's the strongest progressive choice to defeat Graham Platner in the primary and Susan Collins in the general election. youtu.be/lg51_c6oQs8

New from me: Five years ago, I criticized a San Francisco TV reporter for getting her facts wrong. Ever since, she and her allies have alleged that I was part of a conspiracy to end her career. That narrative just got a boost with her new book, which is being promoted by some powerful tech people.

The deadline for this submission was May 21. This is an unusually early submission. I suspect Amici rushed it given the chatter today on the potential (corrupt) deal b/w Trump and the DOJ.

Court-appointed Amici submitted their memorandum on whether the court has jurisdiction in Trump v. IRS. Skimming it, it seems to me they make no concrete determination, but are very skeptical that there is real adversity between the parties. Full document: www.courtlistener.com/docket/72207...

Insanity

Raising the Flag Follow my work and writing on Substack: nickanderson.substack.com

Justice Alito complaining about the Court granting a stay without any reasoning is, shall we say, rich? He's been in the majority in scores of such cases, many involving elections.

BREAKING: the Supreme Court finally blocked a lower court's ban on telemedicine prescriptions of abortion drug mifepristone from taking effect, pending full hearing/ruling in Fifth Circuit. Dissents from Alito and Thomas, who claims that the dormant Comstock Act of 1873 bans mailing of mifepristone

Undoing Roe is about allowing the states to decide for themselves, they said. It is not about attacking choice nationwide, they said.

One of the leading academic presses in the world actually agreed to publish this drivel. Time to close shop. Redesign law schools from scratch.

Next on Patel's bucket list: a "VIP hike" in Bataan.

The reality in which elected reps can just disappear from DC for months, stop performing their Congressional duties, and no one knows what is going on with them, and there is no mechanism to address it - that's absolutely insane.

Oh, for fuck's sake. Even if not a single word in the article was true this would be deranged

The most unbelievable thing about this is that there was a lawyer licensed in NY who was willing to put their name on the lawsuit.

I would have expected that the demise (finally!) of the Bibi coalition would have received much MUCH more attention than it does here.

Yet another dark day in the demise of the Department of Justice. The DOJ no longer acts "without fear or favor". In fact, the best way to get a favor from the DOJ is to hire one of Trump's defense counsel. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/n...

I am begging journalists covering Callais to think a LITTLE BIT about how covering only the partisan implications of Callais reinforces the batshit opinion's assertion that the VRA was only about partisan power

These people are heroes. They are there knowing they will face violence for being there.

The bottom polling Dems (including Porter) should just drop already.

incredibly depressing that the reimposition of jim crow districts across the entire south is getting nothing more than generic horse race coverage

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Dear @merriam-webster.com, what's the definition of "frivolous"?

A new low (if possible). Read it for the frivolous arguments. Stay for the random screenshots of a seemingly amusing twitter feed.

Bibi finally surrenders. Kinda. We're going to have elections in Israel sooner rather than later. Of course, Bibi is trying to get ahead of it, dismantling his own coalition in an attempt to control timing (and I'm sure he'll try to control much more), but I am cautiously optimistic.

Well, then...

JD announces the Trump admin is illegally punishing California because most of us hate Trump. www.mediaite.com/media/news/j...

Abolish them.

Again: Any presumptive Dem nominee must clearly state RN that their future administration will not abide by this, will act to recover the funds, and will open a criminal investigation against anyone involved, including career employees at the IRS and DOJ.

She'll be POTUS one day.

Chinese EVs take the world by storm — except in the United States www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/c...

NEW: We've spent 10 months tracking the outcomes in tens of thousands of lawsuits brought by ICE detainees amid an unprecedented detention push. It's not a cose call: judges have ruled more than 10,000 times against ICE, a 9-1 ratio. See the database: www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

"Trade wars are good, and easy to win"

Georgia's governor signs a comically transparent law. It makes local elections in 5 big blue counties nonpartisan, to give GOP candidates a chance to win without a party label in places like Atlanta. And it doesn't change anything in the rest of the state, for red counties to know who's GOP.

The OLC opinion was released today on eve of the first court of appeals oral argument on the issue, presumably so that DOJ could (and did) file a letter with the court of appeals citing the opinion. Very shady. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Cancel Gen-X.