With the result in Virginia, here's what we know about how mid-decade redistricting has shifted the landscape.
Across the 7 states with new maps:
—11 districts have shifted toward Democrats;
—9 districts have shifted toward the GOP.
I'm sure Alito is fuming about the Virginia vote and itching to strike down the rest of the Voting Rights Act as petty revenge.
But Democrats are likely retaking the House, maybe the Senate, no matter what SCOTUS does now.
Killing the VRA would just be a final insult that speeds court reform.
every conservative political complaint comes back to "those people shouldn't count because they disagree with me"
The theory of the case -- that the SPLC defrauded donors by promising to "dismantle" hate groups while secretly paying informants inside said hate groups, a tactic that it has carried out for nearly half a century -- is completely absurd.
Indictment of @splcenter.org is based on clear false narrative.
False: DOJ and Kash Patel's claim that SPLC supported white supremacist groups via paying informants.
Reality:
“We frequently shared what we learned from informants with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI."
My most liberal idpol radlib take is that I think it's pretty bad that
right wing forces are actively intervening on behalf of the Klan with the full weight of the state legal apparatus
If FBI going to say when it pays informants that it is actually supporting criminal activity? I doubt it.
JUST IN: A federal judge has tossed a defamation lawsuit Kash Patel brought against former FBI official / pundit Frank Figliuzzi.
Figliuzzi’s claim that Patel spent more time in nightclubs than at FBI HQ was “rhetorical hyperbole,” the judge rules.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
VoteHub projects the Virginia Redistricting Constitutional Amendment to pass.
The implicit media consensus is that urban voters should not be able to overrule rural voters, but that rural voters should be able to overrule urban voters, an assumption so axiomatic and unquestionable that nobody even understands they're making it.
Starting a mid-decade redistricting war only to end up with -1 seats is the same fine strategic genius and subtle grasp of game theory that brough us the Strait of Hormuz.
Texas redistricts without a vote, Republicans cheer.
Dems in Virginia respond by putting it UP FOR A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE, it passes, Republican cry foul.
Oh well. Good job Virginia!!
So much false equivalence in media on gerrymandering in Texas vs California & Virginia. California and Virginia maps approved by the voters. That's a huge difference not enough people pointing out
The GOP entered this redistricting under the rather childish delusion they were going to gerrymander, and nobody would gerrymander them. In TX, MO, and a half dozen other states, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind
I will be on @maddow.bsky.social’s show tonight to talk about InfoWars. Unlike the site’s current proprietor, I am not presently shirtless.
BREAKING: Donald Trump just boosted Democrats’ chances of taking the House.
He said the quiet part out loud, “fair elections” means he loses power.
That’s not a warning, that’s a confession.
Seems to me like Trump is desperately begging Iran to sign a replica of the Obama JCPOA he tore up. All for the low low price of thousands dead, global instability, high energy prices, and a toll on ships through the once-free strait of Hormuz.
“It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
- Harry Truman
As Trump proves often, the reverse of this is also true.
It’s amazing how much you can fuck things up when the only thing you care about is getting the credit.
I had the opportunity to confront Pete Hegseth's bigoted spiritual mentor, Pastor Doug Wilson, and call him out on his history of hate, his misreading of the Bible, his hijacking of Jesus, and his cosplay Crusading.
It was worth it.
ICYMI — new HUNGARY 🇭🇺 PM Magyar says Netanyahu will be arrested if he goes to Hungary
FWIW, the answer to this question is “no”
Just a professor standing in front of BlueSky demoralized because exams my students used to get a mean of 83% on prior to 2020 are now failed in large numbers. It seems that their ability to APPLY concepts to new contexts/domains has all but disappeared.
I love these students & I am worried.
WOW: Jodi Kantor & Adam Liptak have the memos that describe the origins of SCOTUS shadow docket - the 2016 order halting Obama’s Clean Power Plan @jodikantor.bsky.social @adamliptak.bsky.social @nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...
Over just five days, the justices had decided the issue. Even as they debated the Obama plan’s possible burden on the power industry, in the entire chain of correspondence obtained by The Times, not a single justice, conservative or liberal, mentioned the dangers of a warming planet as one of the possible harms the court should consider.
Another data point in “originalism is a fraud.” So much for the law is the law we can’t think about the impact. They rail against “results oriented judging” in public but when their corporate clients make requests they know exactly what to do. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...
I know we are so far past the point of even pointing this out but it is wild that the fbi director is threatening to sue people over a news article
An NYT headline reading: Homeland Security Expands Deportation Fleet With High-End Jets
My headline from April 15 reading: Water is wet, and DHS's 'deportation fleet' boondoggle expands under Markwayne
The hed and dek of my story from February reading: ICE FLIGHTS Noem's luxury 'deportation' jet is the tip of the ICE-berg Kristi Noem's DHS has acquired at least nine new aircraft in recent weeks, with another one on the way. Half are luxury jets. Gillian Brockell 26 Feb 2026 - 9 min read
Hey @nytimes.com, I already reported this earlier this week.
And the G650s you mention? I reported on those in FEBRUARY.
You credit NBC News and WSJ for first reporting parts of your story. Please credit me, too.
Nobody declares victory after losses more often or as loudly as Donald Trump.
Stevens to RFK Jr: "To top it off, Mr Secretary, I got a copy of HR-944. You know what it is? It's your impeachment articles, sir. You have abused your office, you have gutted America's public health! You should be ashamed."
I watched Eastman, in real time, testify to the Georgia General Assembly that it was their *duty* to overturn my vote in 2020. He lied about evidence. He misled his client about the law. Law profs who back wannabe coup leaders and authoritarians should retire because what’s the point of law at all?
