“What you’re saying to us [is]…‘You can use [race] to help yourself achieve goals that reduce particular groups’ electoral participation, but you can’t use it to remedy that situation,’” - Justice Sotomayor

I say it again and again: Because we don’t learn the real history of this country, we do not understand what this country is capable of. After 1870, 22 Black men served in Congress. By 1901, because of racist SCOTUS rulings, electoral coups and election cheating and violence, there were none.

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.

My Threads feed is full of Black folks absolutely gutted and despairing over today’s Voting Rights Act ruling. I love Bluesky for so much, but today is one of those historical moments where it is stark that we really live in two different Americas.

Uhh apple.news/AwOtgO-LsTWW...

A woman sued OpenAI last week alleging that ChatGPT reinforced the obsessive, violent delusions of her stalker (her ex-boyfriend.) This woman's claims (as detailed by TechCrunch, left) are chillingly similar to those of a completely different woman whose story Futurism reported on in Feb (right):

In my new piece in @theatlantic.com, I argue that the consensus about birthright citizenship extended far beyond elite legal circles to readers of newspaper advice columns and letters to the editor pages for well more than a century. nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

With devolved and local elections fast approaching, it's worth refreshing yourself on the different electoral systems across the UK - How they work, and what effects they have: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/el...

mill's dedication: this is a jointly authored work a century & a half of male editors: mill exaggerated out of a sentimental fondness for his wife mill's letters: no, really, most of "my" work was partly by her, i really could not be clearer on this

Jay Bhattacharya pulls a study because he doesn’t like the conclusions. I cannot explain how bad this is and how it reeks of the stench of ideological zealotry and has no basis in science. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

Holy shit. The FBI raided this woman's house with a helicopter based on the word of a "gait analysis" quack they found on X.

There is no way to solve the "congestion problem" by expanding roadway capacity; no such approach exists. No surprise, though, to watch an administration that denies the fact of climate change opt to reject the science on induced demand, too.

I study racist politicians from the Jim Crow era and this is on par with anything that John Rankin, Theodore Bilbo, or Cotton Ed Smith ever said in public

NOW there's a "wake up call" that county sheriffs will use their investigatory powers to disrupt elections despite me writing about this since 2021. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

This Day in Labor History: April 19, 1911. Furniture makers in Grand Rapids, Michigan went on strike to protest the terrible wages and working conditions that defined their lives. But this was divided by religion and goes far to explain how uch of Protestantism serves capital!

It's crucial to remember that RFK Jr isn't just doing all he can to roll back vaccination & drive up childhood infectious diseases in the US but also WORLWIDE & he's especially targeting children in the lowest income countries He has suspended US funding to Gavi, which supports global vaccination 🧵

Altho there is variation, communicating by computer versus in person results in less psychological engagement, impact, learning, info. processing, effective group decision making, etc., particularly for asynchronous (vs. synchronous) communications. buff.ly/uDZWa5H #psychology #academicsky

The Trump administration’s $605 million funding request for the National Guard’s ongoing deployment in Washington, D.C., is raising questions among appropriators on Capitol Hill. The request is for fiscal year 2027, which begins on Oct. 1, implying an extended deployment.

The AMOC is the current that keeps Europe’s climate significantly milder than N America at the same latitudes, and that supports the marine ecosystem (i.e., fishing) of the N American Atlantic coast. A collapse would be catastrophic. apple.news/AccWp7lQIQ1y...

The idea that universities ”tend to exclude conservative intellectual traditions” is off base on two fronts: 1) how are “conservative intellectual traditions” relevant to the most of the popular majors and faculty research areas, such as computer science, engineering, the natural sciences?/1

This is HUGE. Props to all those in Hungary and elsewhere who have kept up this fight for the last 16 yrs. Orban not only dismantled Hungarian liberal democracy, but undermined the EU at every turn and served as a beacon and support to parties/pols of the far right across Europe.

Tisza now at 132 seats, one seat away from supermajority.

Recall that Hungary does NOT have a proportional representation system. Orban gerrymandered all of the districts. PLUS, Hungarians get two votes - one for a representative, one for a party - and the final result is a complex combination of the two votes. www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/how...

the election office just updated (at 8:12 CET) -- with 6.6% of the vote counted, Tisza is projected at 110 seats to Fidesz 71. If that holds (and it's still VERY early), Tisza wins.

Kennedy canceled $500 million in mRNA research and announced no new mRNA projects will ever be initiated—killing the technology that produced the fastest vaccine rollout in human history.

»The election could mark the conclusion of this chapter in Hungary’s democratic struggle, or else the start of a grim new one.« 🎁 link (no paywall)

🚨 NSF is already quietly eliminating the SBE Directorate, despite Congress’ mandate that NSF support the behavioral & social sciences. Steps to counter this are in motion. If you - have an SBE proposal under review - serve on an SBE grant panel You can help! Fill out this form: shorturl.at/xuKw2

This Day in Labor History: April 10, 1917. Four days after the U.S. declared war on Germany, the Eddystone Ammunition Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, outside of Chester, exploded, killing 139 workers, mostly women and children. Unsafe conditions were blamed on the workers themselves!

The United States effectively no longer has an asylum system. Our asylum system was created by our Congress, under the rule of law, and it is the duty of the Executive Branch to administer that system. It has instead disemboweled the system so that it no longer grants asylum.

As a reminder, the Forest service are the ones who manage public lands to reduce and mitigate forest fires, prevent the spread of destructive invasive species, study the ground, water, and air quality and do tons of beneficial science for the public good. That Forest Service. F’n Smokey the Bear.

Ok who do I know who is really good at formal modeling and wants to do a democratic erosion project with me?

'Research published...in Science suggests that receiving excessive approval from artificial-intelligence systems could encourage uncouth behaviour.....participants who received highly flattering feedback from chatbots tended to be more certain of their own correctness during social conflicts'. 1/2

On Aug 24, 1869, Ohio Rep. John Bingham, principal framer of the 14th amendment, gave a remarkable speech on “Equal Rights-Impartial Suffrage,” in which he said of those who sought to reject the principal of birthright citizenship, “no greater political atrocity than this can possibly be committed.”

At a time of assassinations, leaked communications, and abuses of executive power, it might be good to reflect on the legacy of the Church Committee investigations. Last week, I recorded a @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social episode with @mguariglia.bsky.social and @brianhochman.bsky.social.

"Every citizen or subject of another country, while domiciled here, is within the allegiance and the protection, and consequently subject to the jurisdiction, of the United States."

Celebrating One Year of Freyja today! Love you so much my goofy goddess 🥰 (n.b. she is three; I’ve had her for one yr)

Minnesota State Patrol officials estimate more than 50,000 people have arrived at the Capitol for the #NoKings rally. 📷️: Kyeland Jackson

Trump: "We have a thing called a war, or as they would rather say, a military operation. It's for legal reasons. Because as a military operation, I don't need any approvals. As a war you're supposed to get approval from Congress. Something like that. So I call it a military operation."

A propos of nothing

Wow. Buria is Hegseth's Chief of Staff, Driscoll is Secretary of the Army

NEW: The FBI went down to Georgia, looking for some ballots to seize. Now, in an Atlanta courtroom tomorrow morning, the government must defend a search warrant built on recycled fraud claims & glaring omissions. My primer on Fulton County’s battle for ballots: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/fult...

I’m old enough to remember ppl claiming the JCPOA involved sending “pallets of cash” to Iran (n.b. it did not; part of the deal was unfreezing Iranian assets in return for them limiting fuel cycle activities), and that alone was proof that it was a “bad deal” 🤷‍♀️ www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Here is a pro tip to tell whether your latest Army Girl crush is AI-generated: photo 1 is actual Army service uniform skirt and shoes. Photo 2 is AI-generated Army service uniform skirt and shoes. See if you can spot the differences!

Missed this when it came out a few months ago, but it's stunning reporting. Vividly captures how Trump and Miller have unleashed violence and chaos on these communities -- and how their lawless goons exact retribution on anyone who gets in their way, even unintentionally. Bovino should be in prison.

If you have ever struggled with Clausewitz's On War (that's all of you, be honest), try this as a supplement.

If five states ban fluoride in drinking water, the costs to Medicaid for a significant increase in kids with cavities could top $40 million within three years, a new analysis finds.

Wildlife traffickers selling protected animals on Facebook use coded language to evade moderation. Research by Bellingcat and @mongabay.com has identified nine groups, with more than 70,000 members combined, leading back to six profiles and one broker in Indonesia. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/03...

"Palantir CEO Alex Karp says his AI technology will lessen the power of “highly educated, often female voters, who vote mostly Democrat” while increasing the power of working-class men." Just saying it right out loud now. newrepublic.com/post/207693/...

Naval escorts would cap tanker transits at under 10% of normal volumes ▶️Despite public statements from US and European leaders, no escort system has been launched, and political, logistical and security hurdles continue to stall any deployment

That's about half of what it cost for USAID for a whole year www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...