Screenshot of DJSokeSpeaking's tweet noting that "AP has finally called it" for YES

AP finally called it for YES bluevirginia.us/2026/04/live... h/t @djsoke.bsky.social

"STATEMENT FROM SPEAKER DON SCOTT ON VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING REFERENDUM VICTORY RICHMOND, VA — Speaker Don Scott released the following statement after Virginians voted YES to approve the redistricting referendum: “Tonight, Virginians sent a message heard across this country: we will not let Donald Trump or MAGA Republicans rig our democracy. “This started in Texas when Trump launched an unprecedented power grab to rig the midterms and tonight Virginia voters ended it and voted YES to stop his power grab. “We trusted the voters, not politicians. We put this question on the ballot because we believe power belongs to the people. And tonight, the people of Virginia answered. “In a special election with everything on the line, Virginians showed up in extraordinary numbers and chose fairness over fear, truth over misinformation, and democracy over political games. “Let’s be clear about what this means: Virginia just changed the trajectory of the 2026 midterms. At a moment when Trump and his allies are trying to lock in power before voters have a say, Virginians stepped up and leveled the playing field for the entire country. “Virginia has done this before — and tonight, we did it again. When the stakes are highest, we lead.”"

“Tonight, Virginians sent a message heard across this country: we will not let Donald Trump or MAGA Republicans rig our democracy." - VA Speaker @donscott757.bsky.social bluevirginia.us/2026/04/live...

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell Releases Statement on Results of the Redistricting Referendum Mount Vernon, VA – Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell released the following statement on the results of the redistricting referendum: “Tonight, Virginians did what Virginians have always done: they answered a question about the nature of our democracy, and they answered it in favor of the people. In 1788, it was here in Virginia that Madison, Mason, and Henry debated whether this new Constitution could truly safeguard self-government. The compact they helped forge rested on a single, radical premise: that legitimate power flows from the consent of the governed, not from those who seek to entrench themselves against the will of voters. Virginia did not simply ratify the Constitution. Virginia shaped it, insisted on a Bill of Rights, and set the standard that representation must answer to the people. That is the tradition Virginians honored tonight. Faced with unprecedented gerrymandering in other states, naked attempts to decide elections before a single vote is cast, Virginians refused to stand idle. They voted to reclaim the founding principle that maps should reflect communities, not protect incumbents, and that Congress should be chosen by voters, not the other way around. President Trump told the country that if Democrats wanted change in Washington, we would have to win more House seats. Tonight, Virginians answered him in the same clear voice Patrick Henry used more than two centuries ago: the people will decide. Fairness won. Accountability won. And the Commonwealth that gave America its Constitution has once again reminded the nation what that Constitution is for.”

“Tonight, Virginians did what Virginians have always done: they answered a question about the nature of our democracy, and they answered it in favor of the people." - VA Senate Majority Leader @ssurovell.bsky.social bluevirginia.us/2026/04/live...

Trump is melting down on Truth Social tonight.

Screenshot of a tweet by Democrats Deliver (@DemzDeliver) highlighting that Minnesota now has the third lowest poverty rate in the nation, 45% lower than West Virginia. The post includes a split image of Governor Tim Walz smiling outdoors and an aerial view of the Minneapolis skyline along a river.

Blue governing leads the way.

Why don't the Saudis fight their own wars then?

The Virginia Department of Elections elections results page is here enr.elections.virginia.gov/results/publ...

Trump is not capable of doing the job.

That's it. That's the entire Republican agenda for 2026? 😂

Trump comes near the lowest point ever in the AP-NORC poll, with a 33% approval rating to a 67% disapprove. The lowest previous number was 32% in September 2017.

JD Vance also hits a new low, with 53% of the country saying they have an "unfavorable" view of him, compared to 31% favorable.

It must be Tuesday.

Did Donald Trump Promise Iran $20 Billion? If So—Is that Treason? On Earth One, no—it’s Iran’s money, after all. But on MAGA Earth, if Biden or Obama had done it …

If Axios is correct, offering Iran about 12 times that amount. If $1.7 billion was treason, then what’s $20 billion?

trib.al/4A2OgXB

Gil Duran tweet: TLDR: Fascism in response to Palantir's long fascists screed on X.

"Your Account is Suspended" Message on X

The CEO of Palantir posted a fascist manifesto on X.

I pointed out that it was fascist—which resulted in a permanent suspension from X (my second time!).

So, when you hear the tweeters complaining that BlueSky is intolerant, remember why many of us came here in the first place.

Flipping a solid south senate seat would be the funniest thing humanly possible for a party that hates itself more then life itself

The media blackout of Jared Kushner’s historic, ongoing corruption scandal As Trump's son-in-law returns to Pakistan for more talks with Iran, major news outlets are largely ignoring an egregious conflict of interest.

The media blackout of Jared Kushner's historic, ongoing corruption scandal.. #filth #media
popular.info/p/the-media-...

Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears The president’s impulsive style has never been tested in a sustained military conflict, and he’s been ruminating on Jimmy Carter’s failure in Iran.

It doesn't say so explicitly, but this WSJ piece is basically a detailed accounting of just how catastrophically bad Trump is at his job, specifically the "waging a war" part. Every detail is just incredibly damning. What an embarrassment.

Trump has basically turned the presidency into a giant Bribe Delivery System.

newrepublic.com/article/2092...

Trump Library Saga Takes Dark Turn: Where Did Millions in Funding Go? Four huge media conglomerates forked over $63 million in “settlements” earmarked for Trump’s presidential library. Democrats are trying to track that money—and the latest developments don’t inspire co...

What happened to the combined $63 million that Paramount, Meta, X, and ABC paid to the ‘Trump Presidential Library’ fund after surrendering? It just kinda disappeared. newrepublic.com/article/2092...

Chart showing media bias

You failed in your analysis during the campaign. Now we reap what you have sown.

Steve Kornacki: New Gen Z poll shows clear divide on Israel-Palestine NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki breaks down a new NBC News Decision Desk poll for Meet the Press showing Americans are evenly divided in their sympathies between Israelis and Palestinians, ...

A new NBC News Decision Desk poll shows that 75% of all Democrats sympathize more with Palestinians than with Israelis.

It also shows that 74% of all of Gen Z, total, sympathizes more with Palestinians than with the Israelis.

i was just saying to a friend a few days ago that trump's public opinion collapse opens up the field of possibilities in ways that are truly unpredictable. it is one thing for a president to be this popular at the *end* of their turn, but not even two years in?

SEN. @ossoff.bsky.social : “Draft-Dodging Donald loves sending other people’s children to war… Just 2 weeks into this war Trump said he needed $200 BILLION to fund it — that’s a decade of nationwide universal pre-k… instead, a war no one voted for, and no one can explain.”

Actually got choked up remembering having a president like this.

Sarah Isgur QTing the NYT shadow docket story: In 2014 and 2015, the Court used the “shadow docket” to stop Texas’ anti-abortion restrictions from going into effect while the case was pending. The left was thrilled with the shadow docket at that point—years before this case even existed…

Isgur is such a fucking hack. the case she’s referring to is one where the 5th Circuit entered a stay and it was appealed to SCOTUS. the case in the Times story involved the Court intervening to stay an EPA rule while a lower court was still adjudicating the issue.

Or she knows and is pretending not to so she doesn't have to take a definitive stand on the issue.

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...

Joe Rogan is standing directly behind Trump in the Oval Office

Most striking to me about these memos is the radically different assessment of the harm imposed by the president not being able to pursue his initiatives. Over the last 15 mos., that harm has in numerous cases been treated as almost per se serious and irreparable. Here, it gets no analysis at all.

Screenshotted excerpt from linked article reading as follows: "In public, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has cultivated a reputation for care and caution. The papers reveal a different side of him. At a critical moment for the country and the court, the papers show, he acted as a bulldozer in pushing to stop Mr. Obama’s plan to address the global climate crisis. When colleagues warned the chief justice that he was proposing an unprecedented move, he was dismissive. “I recognize that the posture of this stay request is not typical,” he wrote. But he argued that the Obama plan, which aimed to regulate coal-fired plants, was “the most expensive regulation ever imposed on the power sector,” and too big, costly and consequential for the court not to act immediately."

OOP

New York Times got receipts on John Roberts being like, 'I know this isn't how anything works, but a Democratic president is about to implement a policy!!'

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...