screenshot of fact sheet from Planned Parenthood Federation of America (c3) and Planned Parenthood Action Fund (c4) with first bullet point highlighted in yellow: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/68/a6/68a6c411-5e28-4112-b7ec-ce3bc3043574/fact_sheet_c3c4.pdf Republican Lawmakers and President Trump are Decreasing Access to Birth Control and Dismantling the Health Care Safety Net H.R. 1 [the "Big Beautiful Bill"] and its provision “defunding” Planned Parenthood to try to block patients from using Medicaid at Planned Parenthood health centers — combined with the months of withheld Title X funds in 2025 — left entire communities without access to basic care. As attacks from the Trump administration and its backers in Congress continue, health care costs are rising for patients and communities, as other providers cannot fill the gap left by Planned Parenthood health centers. IT’S EVEN HARDER TO GET BIRTH CONTROL Taking away access to birth control and basic care creates contraceptive deserts in more communities *In 2025, over 50 Planned Parenthood health centers closed across 18 states, including over 20 closures since H.R. 1 was passed. Nearly all closures occurred in contraceptive deserts. • When people cannot afford the full cost of contraception, they rely on a network of publicly funded providers that offer free or reduced-fee care through public funding, primarily Medicaid coverage and Title X-funded services for individuals living with low-incomes or uninsured. *Planned Parenthood health centers serve one-third of all female patients seeking contraceptive care at publicly funded health clinics. • Over half of the counties where a Planned Parenthood health center closed now lack any Planned Parenthood provider. In those counties, these centers provided the majority of contraceptive care for low-income women in those counties

The war on birth control access is well underway, it's just less explicit

Planned Parenthood says 50 of its clinics closed last year as a result of an anti-abortion budget provision—and nearly all of them were in contraceptive deserts (link in alt). Translation: it's now harder to get birth control

"I was born fresh and my anti-vaxx disinformation was erased in 2025 when I took office."

Every accusation is a confession

Now why ever would that be? 🤔

That’s our money. Money that we paid into the treasury.

#VisibilityBrigade #pennsylvania #democracy #mayday #PeacefulProtest @maddow.bsky.social #saveact #rights
@visibilitybrigade.bsky.social @rosaliewong.bsky.social @jesscraven101.bsky.social @emmatk.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social
#epstein #ice #pa
#earthday #environment @altnps.bsky.social

Before EPA regulations, air and water pollution shaped life across the US. See what American cities looked like then. Federal actions like the 1970 Clean Air Act and the 1972 Clean Water Act helped regulate water and air pollution.

Today, I’m remembering what life was like before the EPA. Unchecked industry polluted air & water. Places like Love Canal dumped toxins near homes, sickening & killing people. The Cuyahgoa River in OH caught on fire two times-this led to the creation of the EPA. Trump gutted the EPA for industry.

Sky News: Human penises are shrinking because of pollution, warns scientist.

Greta Thunberg: See you all at the next climate strike :)

news.sky.com/story/human-...

OMG 🤣🤣🤣

This is SOOOOOO accurate.

This ad needs to spread like WILDFIRE, especially on #EarthDay!

You know what to do.
#sheshed

Wow, hosted a telephone call!

And Vance was busy campaigning for Orban.

JFC these people are stupid. Evil, too, but their stupidity gives me some small bit of solace.

getting blasted and going out looking for hydrocarbons

I really wonder how this is gonna work out. never before have I seen members of a presidential administration lying about current financial conditions like this. especially given they were put in place to lower prices. crazy shit

This account on X says it’s based in Africa.

Promoting Trump’s Freedom 250 Christian nationalist Rededicate 250 event on May 17.

The account’s website promotes Biblical “End times.”

What’s going on here?

News accounts are straining to portray the Virginia move as a betrayal of Dems' principled opposition to gerrymandering.

It's pure bullshit. Dems passed a 2021 bill ending it for *both sides.* The Dem position is that Trump/Rs don't get to play by their own rules:

newrepublic.com/article/2093...

Greg Sargent notes that the NY Times accepts the bogus "everyone loves their own gerrymandering" idea when Democrats have tried for years to end *all* gerrymandering. Republicans have blocked reform, leaving Dems with the options of gerrymandering or unilaterally disarming, i.e surrendering.

They think you're stupid.

this is how Utah's Congressional map deals with Utah's largest city, cracking it through to the middle into 4 different districts in order to deny it Congressional representation to make sure Dems get 0 seats

WTAF

But this principle has no application to government use of religious language or symbolism. See Lynch, 465 U.S. at 687 n.13 (declining to apply denominational preference cases to city crèche). Nor could it. Consider the cities of Corpus Christi, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Fe, San Jose, St. Augustine, and Sacramento, to name just a few. Do those names represent “denominational discrimination”? Or take our national motto. See 36 U.S.C. § 302 (“In God We Trust”). Does it show “favoritism” for monotheism over polytheism?

The Fifth Circuit says religious freedom doesn't apply to religious symbols posted by the government because place names exist.

I am not joking.

That is what they said.

(Incorporation is the legal principle that the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, applies to the States as well as the Federal government. The Fifth Circuit pretends this is not a thing.)

But somehow, it then gets even worse.

The key phrase—“an establishment of religion”—was readily understandable to founding-era citizens. See District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 576–77 (2008) (relying on a phrase’s “[n]ormal meaning . . . known to ordinary citizens in the founding generation”). The reason is simple. At the time, establishments were “a familiar institution.” McConnell, Establishment, supra note 12, at 2107.13 Someone on the streets of 1789 Boston, reading that phrase, would have instantly thought of the Church of England, the colonial established churches, or the current state establishments—in other words, a polity’s official church or religion. Ibid.

Although the colonial establishments became more tolerant of dissenters as independence approached, their essence remained unchanged. The original state constitutions reflect as much. Far from rejecting establishments, many states preserved the core components of their establishments, such as public financial support for the official church, regulation of religious institutions, and religious qualifications for civic participation.36 Most explicit was South Carolina, whose 1778 Constitution declared that “the Christian Protestant religion” was “the established religion,” requiring religious societies to subscribe to enumerated articles of faith to receive legal recognition. S.C. Const. of 1778, art. XXXVIII, reprinted in Poore, State Constitutions, supra note 36, at 1626.

The Fifth Circuit flatly states that when the First Amendment says Congress may not create an "establishment of religion," it means the Church of England. They then argue the Founders intended states to have their own churches unaffected by the First Amendment (!!!).

Marcy explains why taking this L is so impossible for Trump. And part of this trap is that even fighting feels like an L, given his larger ambitions with Putin and realigning the globe.

Jay Bhattacharya has ordered that a paper showing the effectiveness of COVID19 vaccines in preventing severe disease and hospitalization be suppressed and hidden.

This man has been crying nonstop about political censorship for 6 years.

But he’s the one who is actually doing it.

Joe DiGenova Back in the Criminal Frame YouTube video by emptywheel

Reupping my video and post explaining the most corrupt aspect of Todd Blanche's appointment to criminalize investigating RU: bc in 2019, he and Victoria were trying to get corrupt foreigners to lie abt the topic.

emptywheel.net/2026/04/19/t...

Southern Poverty Law Center indicted on federal fraud charges by Alabama grand jury Justice department’s inquiry focused on the civil rights organization’s prior use of paid informants to monitor hate groups, the CEO said

The Trump regime doesn’t like the Southern Poverty Law Center labeling hate groups as hate groups, so it’s weaponizing the Justice Department to try to destroy the SPLC. This is DOJ taking the side of the Klan.

Investigating the Good Guys DOJ claims the Southern Poverty Law Center was "paying off" the Ku Klux Klan. The group's track record and common sense suggest otherwise.

Understanding the federal government’s indictment of a civil rights icon, the Southern Poverty Law Center:
open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

How strange that the Bezos Post had no problem with TX doing the same thing! Maybe it’s bc TX didn’t bother to give their voters a choice in the matter!

Cancel the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Trump will be guest of honor at the “nerd prom,” with journalists serving as suck-ups

Journalists planning to honor Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner have a choice:
A. Party with the dictator, wear fancy clothes and network to boost their careers.
B. Stand up for democracy by staying home.
They’re going to choose A. It looks terrible now. It will look worse to history.