If that doesn’t make your heart a little lighter, I don’t know what will. 💕

Legislative approval followed by a majority vote is the way many states including New Mexico amend their constitutions. I suppose you’re entitled to think anything you want is absurd but this is a very normal and common way for states to do it.

Alaska State Troopers have arrested Misty Rehder on 26 counts of Animal Cruelty charges. #MatSu25 #Alaska #MusherSky #UglyDogs

i think if you want to say that the VA plan is vengeful and Becoming The Monster and all of that you need to explicitly grapple with the 2031 reset to nonpartisan redistricting.

otherwise i just kind of assume you don't realize it sunsets

RIP to anyone with allergies in the Treasure Valley right now

lovely tribute by bluesky to the 28.8k dialup modem. a single image could take minutes

Big Bend has recorded the fewest undocumented crossings along the border. Numbers have dipped even further as Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown has led to historically low apprehension 237,565 in 2025. Roughly 3,000 or a little more than 1% of apprehensions were in Big Bend.

Democrats did not want to do any mid-decade redistricting. It was Trump who started it in June 2025 with a phone call to Greg Abbott after more special election losses. Dems warned they’d respond. But Texas did it anyway - without the consent of the voters. Then Dems responded.

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.

most gerrymanders are republican legislators saying fuck the voters

these ones are the voters saying fuck republican legislators

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

A lot about the world is very heavy right now but if a college football podcast that got jettisoned by Vox during the pandemic for not having a marketable audience can raise this much money for refugees in Atlanta in two days then just think of all the stuff we can all do together

Partisan gerrymandering is a good example of how hardball and the maintenance of beneficial norms can be complimentary.

You maintain the ultimate goal of good governance, which is to say, an end to partisan gerrymandering. But you also recognize that unilateral disarmament is counterproductive.

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.

Woohoo!! Great birdie!

They aren't chasing the 36%, they are chasing the 14% that voted for him but are unhappy with him. You can disagree with that idea, but that's who they are after.

Fun thread of good works:

Opinion | Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know.

Like me, you may think you understand the horror of measles and the murder being committed by RFK & co. Read this, if you can handle it--my eyes are tearing up for this splendid child lost--and learn just how much more terrible and heartbreaking it is. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/o...

This is axios, don’t read the fucking story, but I wanted to note how enraging it is for them to say “a job in the administration” and include “Supreme Court justice” on the list.

I guess I don't see it as an imbalance because I don't see The Athletic and the Patriots/NFL as being equal in terms of how employees should be held to ethical standards. That doesn't mean it doesn't suck, but I'd feel the same way if the genders were reversed for the reporter and the coach.

Fair point. I'm certainly no apologist for Vrabel, so if the NFL wants to investigate and suspend him (they don't have the power to fire him, I don't think), I'm all for it.

He's a football coach. As far as I know, there are no ethical standards for football coaches that are taught and expected to be followed in reputable football leagues. His trustworthiness as an information source to the public is not part of his job requirement. Apples and oranges. 2/2

Because it's two different things. She's a reporter and it's a violation of journalistic ethics to have a non-disclosed romantic relationship with a person you report about. Her failure to make that disclosure taints everything she wrong about Vrabel or the Pats. 1/

OMFG

OK this only looks cool now out of a mix of novelty and nostalgia. This is not objectively cool and was not at the time.

#idpol

Culture of silence around abortions for active-duty military intensifies, researchers say • Stateline Speaking with active-duty service members about their experiences with accessing abortion has become more difficult in the current political environment, say researchers, who also confront long-standi...

Researchers say it’s important to understand what barriers active-duty service members are facing, especially in states with bans. But they said it is becoming increasingly difficult to study because of state laws, the DOD under its current leadership, and factors that existed long before Dobbs.

This story was important to me to do, because the topic of abortion related to active-duty servicewomen is chronically understudied. A review of existing studies between 1991 and 2022 found that in those three decades, there were only 15 studies or policy papers specifically focused on this subject.

Yet again I remind everyone (as Elizabeth does in her very next tweet) that "foreigners are corrupting our pure blood with weakness & disease" is Fascism 101. Not some variant, not some metaphorically similar thing, not some echo -- the thing itself.

A fair take.