Like every Mother's Day today I am asking that you consider a donation to @nationalbailout.bsky.social to help free mamas who are separated from their families by the injustices of pretrial detention systems. secure.actblue.com/donate/freeb...

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.

I continue to think that "backlash politics" is the wrong frame. There has been a counter-revolution against the Black freedom movement for generations. It is a FRONTLASH and I think that not thinking of it this way has done a real disservice. It's been PERMANENT WAR.

TN Republicans, who have long devoted themselves to silencing Black colleagues, are condemning Sen. Charlane Oliver for her "outrageous and unprecedented display" yesterday. "The speaker cut me off from speaking," she said. "I was going to continue and stand on that table so everyone could hear me."

Words and photos from my colleagues who were at the Tennessee legislature this week: nashvillebanner.com/2026/05/07/t...

Shitty fucking day in Tennessee (and frankly kind of a five alarm fire for the rest of the country, but not enough people will notice, because they think we deserve this or whatever). Insanely proud of and grateful for my friends who stood against Jim Crow 2.0 in person all week. 🫡

WATCH: “HANDS OFF MEMPHIS! HANDS OFF MEMPHIS! SHAME! SHAME!” senate committee disrupted and adjourned as Republicans and @GovBillLee move to strip Memphis of representation with absurd, racist 9-0 maps no matter if they changed these words no matter what they do we still coming out

We discuss the ruling in the podcast this week, and what it actually means to live in a country where the states are allowed to disenfranchise voters of color en masse.

The proposed redistricting map splits Memphis, a majority-black/Democrat city, into 3 districts that swirl through the western half of the state. The map would put slices of Memphis into 2 of the same districts as Williamson Co, one of the whitest, wealthiest, GOP-leaning counties in the nation.

The new Andy Ogles 5th District runs from western Williamson and Maury, up to the Kentucky border, over to the Mississippi river and down to Memphis. How many congressional districts touch four other states?

An already long morning kicks off the second day of special session. The Senate hearing room is 100% full with hallway overflow. Memphis is HERE. #tngop

Tennessee has unveiled new congressional maps that would split Memphis into three districts and further fracture Nashville into five. If passed, Democrats would lose all representation in the U.S. House. wpln.org/post/tenness...

Criminalization is the fuel of fascism.

NEW: Trump's boat-strike murder spree continues. 3 more killed in a strike yesterday. The death toll now tops 190. We're tracking them all, @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2025/11/17/t...

Wow. Former Public Defender Dawn Deaner upsets Jim Todd with a huge Election Day rally to become the new criminal court judge

Banner era for the worst white men alive

This is crazy. Akela found out that the admin has diverted a *quarter of the entire FBI* away from their jobs to instead help Trump and Vance's immigration agents, whose most notable work includes kidnapping pro-Palestine students and murdering two Americans in broad daylight.

News organizations: You don’t need to consult legal experts for things that anyone without a law degree can see and read with their own eyes. It’s OK to call things as you see them.

NPR talked to immigrants + asylum seekers that the Trump admin deported to the DRC, where they "remain in limbo—thousands of miles from home, in a country that is unfamiliar to them, where they are far from welcome and have little sense of what comes next." www.npr.org/2026/04/28/n...

Attending the virtual Stillwater Awards, honoring incarcerated journalists. It's a beautiful event, and it's especially moving to see Rejon Taylor, once under a federal death sentence, recognized for this extraordinary, gutting essay. Congrats to Rejon & @solitarywatch.bsky.social. So well deserved.

I did not expect fascism to involve this much Kid Rock

As everyone talks about the deranged ballroom case filing today, I want to note that I had highlighted my expectation that something was amiss as soon as I saw Woodward make an appearance …

this is my family.

The Justice Department seems to be going out of its way to avoid saying that Cole Allen didn't fire any weapons at all inside the Washington Hilton — and that the officer hit was most likely hit by friendly fire. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/is-the-jus...

Fun fact: Stanley Woodward--who filed that bonkers legal motion over Trump's ballroom--came to Nashville in February to defend the DOJ's prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in federal court. I was there and published this today; a ruling could come at any time. New from me @theintercept.com:

This is indeed as bonkers as everyone says.

Hello Bluesky #BookSky! The Public Scholar is out today from @hopkinspress.bsky.social. You can buy it everywhere books are sold. Bookshop: tinyurl.com/2uj47sa7 Order from @moonpalacebooks.bsky.social and I'll sign it - moonpalacebooks.com/item/I12x_a-... You can read an excerpt here. (1)

I started this thread yesterday on Coretta Scott King for her 99th birthday. Every day I'll continue it. “Not enough attention has been focused on the roles that women have played in the struggle." she told a reporter in 1966, "Women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement.”

🧵

I think a fair question would be: If it is not reasonable for the president to attend an event anywhere except mythical DEFCON Ballroom, why attend so many events at the club in Florida?

Opposition leadership that's good at messaging could have a field day with this but alas we have the Democrats

I admit I may have lost the thread here, but is the current GOP line really that someone almost took out the whole cabinet therefore Trump needs his ballroom ASAP?

I understand being deterred — even a bit annoyed — by a paywall. I don’t understand directly complaining to journalists that you don’t think you should have to pay for their work.

Hearing the head of the WHCA—who just days ago participated in a Paramount dinner “honoring” Trump— say tonight that the First Amendment is “fragile” because of a random shooter rather than because of the president sitting next to her on the podium is, I guess, exactly as pathetic as you’d expect.

Clear the place out, send everyone home, begin controlled demolition, salt the earth so nothing can grow there ever again.

every few months, americans are asked to resume their banquet and pretend a shooting didn't just happen

Same.

Seems reasonable, think about everything that the attendees needed to deliberately ignore in order to show up in the first place

OMG "the tool has three modes, subtle, human, and CEO."

I resigned from the National Science Board in May when meaningful oversight became untenable. I respect colleagues who stayed to serve the NSB's mission. Today's news clarifies that was an erosion of oversight and function has become open elimination of the Board itself. 🧵 time.com/7285045/resi...

Today, I urge everyone to find and financially support an independent news outlet — one that will not be attending a spectacle dinner tonight to schmooze with the Trump administration while they berate the press.

Trump's latest death penalty push is obviously grotesque & makes me all the more grateful that Biden commuted most of the federal row. But just once I'd love to see Dems directly grapple with THEIR party's role expanding the federal death penalty--enabling Trump's killing spree--in the first place.

I only recently learned about #bloomscrolling, which I love. Here are some April flowers I’ve spotted.

Let's call it a wrap on this week, shall we? Nothing good can come from the hours that remain.

in the Trump admin's latest push to expand the use of the federal death penalty, DOJ calls for shortening the appeals process for people sentenced to death and adding firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation as execution methods www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

I’ll eventually write about this but it’s important to keep in mind that we will not be seeing firing squad (or any federal executions) anytime soon for myriad reasons, including that — unlike Trump’s first term — there’s no one left on the fed row in imminent danger of an execution date.

My last 2 stories were summarized and repackaged with ZERO attribution by a liberal Facebook account with millions of followers. I wrote to them and they apologized and retroactively credited me. Please clap. And please don't amplify accounts that steal work by journalists for clicks.

My friend Jake wrote about his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner ❤️❤️: open.substack.com/pub/jakerein...

Two weeks ago, we walked out of @propublica.org’s offices for a one-day strike to demand a fair contract. We haven’t gotten ANY proposals from management since then. Tell our bosses that you’ll support us if we have to strike again: actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...

Revoking kids' visas because their parents criticized Elon Musk.