"Trump’s initial post about removing US troops from Germany came just hours after he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long sought to reduce the number of NATO troops in Europe... "The Pentagon 'was not expecting it'... www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

The post-Dobbs Republican pivot to healthcare

People in this country don't have health care right now because our leaders decided funding for ICE and war was more important.

Yep. It isn’t 2023. Telemedicine abortion remains broadly available everywhere: •Domestic providers can switch to a miso-only regime; slightly less effective but still extremely safe •International providers will still mail mifepristone uninterrupted The field has been planning for this moment.

US Troops are stationed in Germany for one reason: to protect the United States. They are NOT there to protect Germany. In the event of a genuine attack from overseas, troops stationed in Germany (and elsewhere) greatly reduce the US response time. Trump is punishing America, not Germany.

Frederick Douglass in 1883, after the Civil Rights Cases were handed down, cut to the chase: "O for a Supreme Court of the United States which shall be as true to the claims of humanity as the Supreme Court formerly was to the demands of slavery! omeka.coloredconventions.org/files/origin...

Another person has died in ICE custody. 33-year-old Denny Adán González died on Tuesday in Georgia. Authorities claim he died by suicide. González is the 18th person to die in ICE custody this year—this is also the 18th week of 2026.

NEW: Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas granted a DOJ petition on Thursday to enforce a subpoena issued in Washington, D.C. against Rhode Island Hospital for invasive gender-affirming care patient info. The petition was granted the same day it was filed.

Justice Department gets quick win in first bid to enforce subpoena on gender-affirming care reut.rs/4w3HUQZ

The Iran War is now as unpopular as the Iraq and Vietnam Wars. Americans are footing the bill every day for this war of choice… when will it end?

🚨BREAKING: A new lawsuit is challenging Louisiana’s decision to suspend congressional primaries already underway — arguing the state is illegally nullifying votes and plunging an active election into chaos following the Supreme Court’s gutting of the VRA. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

In the 24 hours since the Supreme Court's majority ruled to demolish the Voting Rights Act's remaining protections, Louisiana and Tennessee have already signaled that they'll redraw their congressional maps with the clear effect of shutting Black voters out.

Today, Gov. Andy Beshear announced that overdose deaths in the commonwealth decreased for the fourth year in a row, with a 22.9% decrease in 2025 compared with the previous year and a 50.8% decrease from 2021. Read more: tinyurl.com/38hb58hs

To be clear as day, this is, of course, absolutely intentional. It has happened with every Republican president of my lifetime (with the notable exception of HW Bush). It's what the GOP does. www.wsj.com/economy/u-s-...

The Virginia state govt losing most of its electoral support and getting six months of bad press and constant attacks in order to scrape out four new districts while Florida does it overnight with no discussion or controversy is going to be the story of the next few years of post-VRA gerrymandering.

Suspending elections where people have already started voting so you can gerrymander their voting power away. Very democracy.

The Voting Rights Act is essentially dead and it’s quite possible that we will, like when a similar SCOTUS gutted civil rights at the fall of Reconstruction, see a disappearance of much of the Black congressional representation, especially in the most heavily Black states, which are in the South.

Trump is threatening to withhold all HIV assistance to Zambia unless it grants American companies favorable access to rare earth minerals. Killing innocent people to advance piracy by his fellow Oligarchs. Our Congress, representing us, developed this important assistance project.

Well look at this… 45 minutes after we file contempt charges against Pam Bondi for defying her subpoena to testify, GOP Oversight finally announces a date for her appearance. When Democrats fight, we win. And we won’t stop until we get justice.

What a stupid waste of taxpayer money. No.

Black babies in Kentucky are more than twice as likely to die as white babies, according to a new report that shows health outcomes and access are, in general, worse in the commonwealth than the nation. From @sarahelizabethladd.bsky.social: kentuckylantern.com/2026/04/29/r...

Call me when the NYT is ready for a "12 Bitches Who Were Right about Everything" piece.

The New York Times writes far more stories about the trans community than any other US print outlet, and is the least likely to quote a trans person when it does. Seems bad?

Charlottesville used bookstore’s got game

Mound Bayou, a self-sufficient Black town in Mississippi founded by formerly enslaved people that thrived for decades. Mamie Till was famously protected there as she sought justice for her son. Today, White South Africans are displacing those descendants www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2...

RFK Jr has taken his vile, extreme, deady anti-vaxx crusade worldwide He is now literally holding children in low-income countries hostage, which is astoundingly cruel And his MAHA movement, of "MAHA moms" & "MAHA dads," are with him all the way (they love him cuz he says he'll get rid of Red 40)

the United States is becoming East North Korea

BREAKING: Jim Comey has been indicted again. We don't know the charges yet. His first indictment was tossed out because Halligan was appointed unlawfully. www.cnn.com/2026/04/28/p...

How Volodymr Zelenskyy manages to survive in a literal war without a ballroom to keep him safe is just shocking to me.

there is something genuinely clarifying and useful about this kind of stuff. they are totally hoods off and proud of it, which means we should not hesitate to describe them accordingly

This is what Marco Rubio decided to do with his life: "AIDS Creeps Back in Parts of Zambia, a Year After U.S. Cuts to HIV Assistance: A once-robust HIV treatment and prevention system, credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives, has begun to crumble..." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/h...

Trump Claims Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Reinforces Need To End Journalism https://theonion.com/trump-claims-correspondents-dinner-shooting-reinforces-need-to-end-journalism/

Every day we move closer to the scandal that will start the push to recriminalize sports gambling

Lol

518,428 children have died preventable deaths in the year since Musk dismantled USAID, saying, “Time for it to die.”

How black music took over the world. Many of the world’s most popular music genres have their origins in black traditions. Western notation can’t always capture African musical innovations.

🚨BREAKING: Virginia court REJECTS Republican lawsuit in challenging the legislature’s authority to alter the 2021 congressional map. A HUGE victory for our client the DCCC and the voters of Virginia. Another defeat for the GOP. www.democracydocket.com/cases/virgin...

About last night’s scrambling from gun fire at White House reporters dinner .. Rep Jamie Raskin (D-MD) makes a critical point on CNN: “This is happening in schools across the country.. the kids have no resources to process their trauma”

The gap between this and most people is actually hard to fathom. He was running at over 20 km/h for *2 hours*. That's a sprint for most people. And they would only be able to sustain it for a few minutes max. Many couldn't run that fast under any circumstance, let alone for 2 hours straight. Wild

The story of the Iran war is that Trump lost it in the first days. Everything since has been trying to deny that cardinal fact. You can see this by the fact that everything happening since has been trying to break free Iran’s hold on the strait, something it didn’t have before the war.

Update: It appears they don’t like it.

Holy shit. The Hubble Space Telescope, photographer in space, BY A SATELLITE ALSO IN SPACE (Happy 36th birthday, Hubble!)

Remember last year when the Army lost four soldiers on a training exercise in Lithuania and our allies moved literal earth to find them and Trump, Hegseth, Driscoll, Caine, and George were mute?

Holy crap, guys. His approval rating is down 300%.

This is actually a very good way to think about the situation. You can be a high engagement high info voter, but if the info is a work of fiction...

Right, yeah. They HAVE been following "American politics" all these years but it's a semi-fictional version mediated through the internet and their friends. A story, with obvious narrative beats everyone knows. It's not the very real space where real people like Biden exist and make decisions.

New USDA data released today: H.R. 1 enacted the deepest SNAP cuts in history last July. By January, more than 3 million fewer people were receiving food assistance. Nationwide, SNAP caseloads fell by more than 8% in just 6 months — despite no improvement in economic conditions.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has called a special legislative session to address redistricting for the Mississippi Supreme Court, saying the Legislature will convene 21 days after the U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling on the Voting Rights Act. www.mississippifreepress.org/mississippi-...

Mental health is just as important as physical health, and I am proud of the progress we're seeing in Kentucky – and across the nation – after implementing the 988 Lifeline. Learn more: bit.ly/4u3f1SZ

Southern Poverty Law Center: “We will not stand for this perversion and misuse of the criminal legal system and will continue to expose hate and defend civil rights as we always have - no matter who tries to stop us.” Go SPLC! 🔥