like a butterfly dropping into its grave, of course. a phrase we’ve all used and a very normal, relatable kind of image that conveys clear meaning. i’m always saying this. so beautiful, like a delicate butterfly croaking mid-air and gently floating into a tiny open bug grave at the insect cemetery.

Fascists succeed in general because they are willing to take stuff, break rules, get violent, while most of their opponents are not Fascists lose, in general, because they pick (at least) one fight too many with someone they didn't expect to fight back

Happy birthday to John Brown, who knew exactly how to handle the south’s “Peculiar Institution”

Was there ever a hand-wringing WaPo piece on “tree, rope, journalist, some assembly required” or any of the other psycho right-wing memes over the years? I doubt it. It’s only a problem when it’s pointed right.

Alabama House speaker said he hopes SCOTUS “will overturn Amendment 14,” the one that made Black people citizens and guaranteed equal protection under law. It wasn’t just a slip. Today’s newsletter. 👉 link.al.com/public/45636...

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Israelis set up a *secret military base* on Iraqi soil prior to the war against Iran, with the collaboration of the United States, and then they fired on Iraqi soldiers who almost discovered it.

I'll just note that critical race theory predicts quite a lot about the current racial retrenchment and for being *correct* it was pilloried in the press and by some academics.

1. 🧵"If you are taking seats from Black people...then you are a thief." Baton Rouge civil rights activist Gary Chambers said the quiet part out loud Friday as GOP lawmakers push to wipe out Louisiana’s majority-Black districts. See the heated exchange👇

So long as the Wizards In Robes from the far right authoritarian party are going to completely dispense with even the pretense of complying with the law, the Constitution, & the results of elections, this sort of hardball is going to be necessary to restore democracy & the rule of law.

A lot of people used to (and maybe still?) scoff at this but the only long term response available to a constitutional court that is hostile to democratic republican rule is to overhaul the constitutional order itself and cripple the court

The anti-data center movement isn’t just about limiting local development—it represents a new front in the fight against tech-enabled authoritarianism. Where else can people push back on job-eating algorithms, distorting deep fakes, and autonomous drone strikes? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

that the virginia supreme court allowed the referendum to go forward - they could have stopped it - and then ruled this way really gives up the game the only difference between now and then is that the we know the result and they didn't like it

Just to be clear, Justice Alito's majority opinion in Callais goes out of its way to purport to distinguish the 2023 ruling in the Alabama case. Now comes Alabama asking the Court to say "actually, these cases *aren't* different, and Justice Kagan's charge to that effect in her dissent was correct."

"This is a right of which no positive institution can ever deprive them."

"The consequence is, that the people may change the constitutions whenever and however they please."

if you look at generational voting patterns, you kinda have to conclude that lead poisoning causes people to become more conservative, so its not that surprising that republicans would actively support it.

Secretary Roadkill is literally trying to ban Prozac.

In his opinion gutting the Voting Rights Act, Justice Alito cited misleading data to claim the racial turnout gap has closed. In fact, it has “exploded” over the last 15 years — thanks to the Supreme Court, says @kevintmorris.bsky.social.

Again this should inspire wall-to-wall media coverage for months. The crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement is dead. Black people just lost all of their remaining political power in the South. This is a monumental moment in American history that simply isn't being treated as such.

yes. change the statute on which this decision turned and redistrict according to the legitimacy conferred by the people of the state

This is going to be met with a bunch of "that will never hold up in court" responses. Ok. So do it anyway. Force this administration to make its preposterous masking arguments in front of federal judges. Make them defend secret police on the record. Go on the offensive.

Multiple women serving sentences for nonviolent crimes at the minimum security prison where Ghislaine Maxwell is now serving time were punished for speaking to reporters about the special treatment Maxwell receives. At least two women were transferred to higher security facilities as punishment.

Was convicted in 2012 of child sexual abuse. The church knew & kept sending victims to him. The church tried to stonewall the court by not turning over documents. Gets a plea deal. The church calling him the holiest man alive. When is it RICO? www.joemygod.com/2026/05/prom...

One reason Republicans are banning books and classes on race is because reading even one book about Jim Crow or Reconstruction makes it clear that they are hoping to reinstate segregation.

The fact that the Republican Party always has legislation to make it harder to vote or to disenfranchise Black people ready to go whenever the Supreme Court takes another whack at the Voting Rights Act tells you...a lot.

happy 9th anniversary to the day we watched Zendaya fall madly in love with Tom Holland in real-time

When democracy is restored, all the people engaged in this sort of corrupt war profiteering need to be put in jail: www.marketwatch.com/story/trader...

Unearthed reports reveal that RFK Jr. fired every full-time CDC cruise ship sanitation inspector ahead of the Hantavirus cruise ship outbreak. www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-cru...

“I live in constant fear that I will be subjected to further baseless detentions just for going about my daily life." On May 2, Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a Florida-born US citizen, was detained by ICE in Alabama for the third time (!) in the span of a year. And he's suing the federal government.

This headline from Justice Roberts and the red banner of what Tennessee just did to Memphis after the SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act..

White people disgusted by this racist display are making pithy jokes in the replies. I want acknowledgment that it’s physically painful to think about our black elders, in particular, enduring the consequences of a Supreme Court decision that augurs a return to the Jim Crow era.

The great flaw in Plessy is its refusal to see segregation for what it is. This willful naïveté animates Callais as well It pretends partisan gerrymandering is a reasonable, race- neutral prerogative of the state, the same justification Plessy used for Jim Crow www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Shell is the latest oil major to announce a surge in profits off the back of the war on Iran and price gouging and privation for hundreds of millions of people around the world Do you get it yet? They are richer because you are poorer. www.cityam.com/shell-launch...

This week, Trump painted a more dire picture of Iran's situation, saying “their economy is crashing,” their currency is “worthless” and "their missiles are mostly decimated." But U.S. intelligence offers a much more sobering assessment:

Triple the rate. 3 times more likely to have grants suspended. “Compared to the all NIH-funded investigators in 2024, investigators who received targeted terminations were more likely to self-identify as… Black/African American (n = 86, 11.9% vs 4.0%)”

Russia is ramping up its attempts to kill opponents in Europe, intelligence officials say apnews.com/article/russ...

Elon Musk accidentally revealing his mom's account is one of his alt's means that he has both impersonated his own infant child and mother online

we haven't even seen the BAGNAROK S1 filing yet, but the people who have are like "um, sorry to bother our busy regulators, but this all looks fake as hell"

“We are specifically concerned that SpaceX’s IPO will expose numerous investors — many unwillingly – to a company whose value may decline once its financial disclosures can be independently assessed and verified.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The supreme irony of the last decade has been MBS, trying to ape MBZ, charging into Yemen guns ablazin' in 2015 and getting burned so bad that he then retreated into traditional Saudi statecraft based on restraining backroom influence so hard his main enemy is now MBZ

Trump's bank regulators are finally realizing that consumer fraud is a problem for the financial system. Huh, I wonder if there's a federal agency designed to stop consumers from getting scammed? Oh wait, there is, the CFPB — and the Trump Administration is trying to destroy it.

absolute heater from @jamellebouie.net one of those pieces where I find myself saying MMHMM repeatedly while reading www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/o...

But if all you do is attack the Democratic Party while Black leaders are being targeted, Black voting rights are being dismantled, Black political power is under assault, and HBCUs are under attack, then don’t expect me to treat you any differently than I treat Trump and his MAGA acolytes.

relentless poll chasing + contempt for your political base + a total absence of principle or vision = political disaster www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/o...

This dropped around the same time as this interview - Neil Gorsuch on Megyn Kelly’s show. He was talking about how “young conservatives must have courage to stand by their beliefs.” Sounds apolitical to me!

This is self-evidently true and virtually nobody of consequence in American politics believes it.

i write abt this in my book: J6 was so bad that initially GOP blamed violence on antifa "provocateurs." Eventually 58% of Trump supporters believed J6 was a "mostly an antifa-inspired attack." but GOP discarded this scapegoat when it felt fine to take credit for the insurrection, to celebrate it

Louisiana GOP is obviously & severely harming the public by nullifying the election of Calvin Duncan but also my jaw dropped, when researching, seeing how much Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill are like 'fuck this one Black man in particular' ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

My new take for @msnowreports.bsky.social is similar to @marisakabas.bsky.social’s. Antidepressants help me to thrive & build a career in health policy. And RFK Jr is acting like docs/pts aren’t discussing tradeoffs of meds. (Projection amid MAHA docs selling magic beans?) www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...