very much of the view that a democratic congress should wield the guarantee clause against ad hoc, mid-decade redistricting, a practice which is an end run against representative government itself

The rule appears to be that redistricting is always legal when it benefits Republicans and never legal when it benefits Democrats.

Content recommendation systems that suggest movies, music, or products to users miss “gems” that could be favored by millions but are invisible to platforms whose feedback comes from users’ choices within many small sets of recommendations. In PNAS Nexus: https://ow.ly/2B3L50YXGzo

Retractions never get proportional attention. This one should.

West Virginia Republicans tried to remove all five of their Supreme Court justices in 2018 over alleged corruption (two were convicted of federal crimes). Republicans successfully created three vacancies and flipped the court’s majority

Those who know, those who don’t know etc bsky.app/profile/anne...

I hope all of them go bankrupt. I hope their assets are sold at auction. I hope they, destitute, end up experiencing what it is like to be marginalized by society, and maybe, just maybe, in the experiencing of it, repent for the harms all of these malignant fucks have caused.

We lost Douglas Adams 25 years ago today. This has made a lot of people very sad and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

Very good reporting and interviewing from Sargent here

"Democratic governors and state legislators need to realize that this is no longer about fairness; it’s about fighting back so that they are not engineered out of the House forever. And I get that Dems don’t have the stomach for this kind of warfare--- find it."

Weird how people who write for a living and who try to write what audiences will want to hear have all decided that "fuck AI" is a plot line that everyone loves.

I try really hard not to be a doomer but I swear to god this type of all dessert no veggies politics will be the death of me. Will we ever be adults and give up any little treats for the greater good?

Dems once again choosing Respect For Process over victory.

It’s worth noting that, absent further intervention by SCOTUS, VRA §2 claims can still succeed post-Callais if the plaintiffs can show discriminatory intent by lawmakers.

Why does everyone hate the Democrats

“Even if you stopped climate change today, New Orleans’s days are still numbered,” he added. “It will be surrounded by open water, and you can’t keep an island situated below sea level afloat. There’s no amount of money that can do that.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Reminders: 1. You get no credit from me by praising me while simultaneously running down another author 2. I know rather a lot of authors, particularly in science fiction and fantasy, so there's an excellent chance that when you're dissing that other author you're insulting a friend of mine

Alan doesn't mess around when he writes. If this is your bag, please consider pre-ordering a copy. From your local independent if you can. Please and thank you.

Wow. “So far, the investment has produced an astonishingly small audience: just 182 YouTube subscribers, with many videos attracting only a few dozen views.”

There has been a lot of frankly justified disappointment lately regarding various members of the Democratic Party & in particular, the DNC’s apparent embrace of a primary candidate (who has not won yet, going against DNC bylaws) with severe character questions.

I’m not highlighting this to stir up arguments about the DNC, but to highlight a positive while a lot of us are pissed off re DNC Chair Ken Martin, as well as recent ignorant comments from others aimed at former Chair Jaime Harrison. Malcolm Kenyatta is a DNC Vice Chair. He’s doing good work in PA.

A recent vote in PA has been going viral. PA Dems passed a bill to block the creation of whites-only housing communities. It was introduced to stop extremists using housing loopholes. It passed 101-100. No Republicans supported it. It still has to pass the PA Senate. www.pahouse.com/InTheNews/Ne...

AMA

One of the many reasons I resent that Romance novels get shit on—if dudes would read a wide cross-section, they might notice a distinct lack of comments about the size of a hero’s scrotum. If you can’t bring yourself to ASK A WOMAN, maybe consume the media they consume and take notes?

People who have lost their moms, mothers who have lost a child, people who desperately want to be moms and can’t be, people who have strained or no relationships with their mothers…. It’s a big boat. 💔 You are not alone.

Happy Mother's Day to all who are celebrating today. 💐 (Also thinking about everybody who's experienced grief, loss, and trauma related to this day.)

If AOC is on one side & Cenk & Ryan Grim & Marge are on the other side it shouldn’t be difficult to figure out who’s speaking the truth & who’s a fucking Russian stooge asshole.

The austerity mindset traps our politics in a death spiral of exclusionary violence: there is not enough to go round; ‘responsible’ leaders must make ‘tough choices’ about who to leave out. 1/3

**🚀BONUS EPISODE ALERT🚀** This week, @abbymsommer.bsky.social & @shelfnerds.bsky.social start a new, limited mini-series exploring the 2-part episodes of TNG, DS9, & VOY! In this episode, they sit around the conference room table and talk TNG 2-parters! Let us know which ones are your favorites!

If you are NYC-based and you want to join with other New Yorkers who are fighting for our public libraries, you are welcome to attend our next monthly meeting on May 17 at 1:30 pm. It's in person. Email [email protected]

I want to circle back to this, and I'll probably be ignored, but let's try: There's this naive myth that because *you* don't read stories about Issue X, it's because the Big Bad Media is failing to inform you. Odds are high that it's actually that you are ignoring the stories.

I will add to Damien’s point: we need to add representatives as well. So while we redraw fair maps, double the reps.

That these white southern elites thought they were going to take Black voting rights away with 0 pushback shows how they have started to believe their own myths. Do that not remember the real history of their states?

I think I’m traumatized by technology I don’t control and that force things I don’t want into my life. And a VCR never made me spend ten minutes on updates. A VCR never let a stranger steal my personal information.

“After Britain abolished slavery on 1 August 1834, £20m was paid in compensation to enslavers for loss of their “property”. The enslaved people themselves received nothing.”

“I’m realizing that a sort of gooey sitcom resolution is not in the cards for my mother and me. Sometimes the people we most need to love us stubbornly refuse to give us what we need. Sometimes we run out of time to fix everything.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/o...

My wife lost her mother exactly two months ago Three more friends have watched their mothers pass away this year Until this year hadn’t truly realized how hard Mother’s Day could sometimes be Cherish every moment you spend with your loved ones. Because they’re always more fleeting than you expect

If you’ve spent 55 years on this Earth and you’re thinking like this just hang it up. You got sent to the wrong planet, this shit wasn’t meant for you.

It doesn’t.

This hit me so hard this week.

Americans often complain about the two-party duopoly here but in the UK it seems that a multiparty system just means an endless cycle of "here's an even *more* racist party for you"

Folks have been using their hatred of Israel to push antisemitism and it's never low.

Yep, the idea that the ballroom is popular is the delusion of minds pickled in MAGA online discourse. As I argue here, MAGA seized on the shooting incident to try to force us to genuflect before Trump's imperial/dictatorial presidency. But Dems plowed through the propaganda and emerged unscathed:

a not insignificant number of people in the left tent both lack commitment to liberal democracy and share at least some of her prejudices. thats why they see her as a more natural ally than liz cheney

this is the closest I've ever come to actually suggesting a "one neat trick" suggestion for anything, but I'm so serious here. the Virginia Constitution gives the legislature the power to set retirement ages for judges "REGARDLESS OF THE TERM TO WHICH ELECTED OR APPOINTED." make it 54 right now.

If being anti-Israel is your one and only moral litmus test to the point where MTG is a welcome part of the coalition, you won't have much of a coalition. Maybe you'll have Ryan Grim, Rania Khalek, Cenk Uygur, Tucker, Max Blumenthal. And everyone else will stay away from that outright horror show.

given my background I have to clarify that I mean no disrespect to yams, potatoes, or plantains. but rice is the undisputed God-tier GOAT carbohydrate and it's not close