because I know y’all can’t click and read

CIS PEOPLE TIME TO STEP UP it’s once again time to yell at our bad government via online comment form the FCC is trying to make trans and nonbinary content require special ratings on shows GLAAD has a good writeup on it below TELL ‘EM NO direct link to comment form: www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings...

wow — the preprint host, arxiv, is banning authors for a year if they submit papers with hallucinated citations 🤖

Between 2021 and 2024, USAID is estimated to have saved 91 million lives. Before it shut down, the agency accounted for less than 1% of federal spending. The collapse may have already caused 762,000 preventable deaths and could lead to more than nine million preventable deaths by 2030, study says.

Literally a heist from government coffers and/or de jure instead of de facto impunity for tax crimes. We fought a revolution to not be ruled by a king.

Child protective services ripped a 14-year-old from her home to stop her from leaving the state for an abortion. They also threatened her mother with murder charges and the removal of her other child if they crossed state lines for care. So please don't tell me Republicans aren't banning travel.

An emboldened Democratic majority must immediately pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, fight the far-right's redistricting scheme with every power we can summon, and expand the Supreme Court. We need Democrats who are ready for this battle. (2/2)

This is absolutely outrageous. SCOTUS reinstated Texas gerrymander 15 weeks before primary because they claimed it was too close to election to block it but now allowing Alabama to gerrymander one week before primary after trial court found map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters

lol, they gave Artemis II astronaut (and Philadelphia sports fan) Christina Koch an astronaut Gritty

Oh my. This is spectacular. sinceyouarrived.world/taken

If Republicans enact their planned gerrymandering, they can lose the popular vote by *4 percent* and *still keep the House.* www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/u...

NEW: ProPublica identified at least 79 children who’ve been left screaming, unable to breathe, or otherwise hurt by tear gas and pepper spray during Trump’s historic immigration crackdown.

I would imagine having a working State Department and a working Secretary of State would stave off the problem of allies being surprised when you start using bases in their territory to re-hot a war. Ah well, I'm sure Steve Witkoff is a totally fine replacement. www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...

I think about this a lot, actually. There's a metaphor here about the currency of the academy being debased but I'm too tired to develop it any further

Folks, my usual Election Night plug: if you enjoy Bolts and like how we make it easier (and hopefully interesting and at times fun!) to follow local politics, consider becoming a member or subscriber! We have no paywall but love reader support. boltsmag.org/donate

"The lead plaintiff in the case that destroyed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) has a history of promoting false election conspiracies and anti-voting policies, and was at the Stop the Steal protest at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, before a deadly riot by pro-Trump insurrectionists." What a shock.

A Harvard study just published estimates Elon Musk's destruction of USAID has already caused 600,000 deaths 2/3 of them children. That is his legacy in this world.

It's absurd that a podcast about gender affirming care for trans youth failed to include a single interview of a current trans youth. And yet, this was considered pulitzer worthy. They were missing the entire subject of the story. Trans people are always spoken about but never spoken to.

Less than 800 NSF grants awarded over the first half of the fiscal year for the entire country. Previous years were already over 2-3k awards by now. It is not particularly overdramatic to say we are seeing the death of federally funded science research in the United States.

Passing this along - fucking scammers leveling up, here's a new one to pay attention to.

Can someone let the AP know that violating court orders is not a sign of "executive power. " It is a sign of contempt, lawlessness and authoritarianism.

God almighty, Uzbekistan wasn’t the last stop. This ICE flight continued on to Pakistan via this circuitous route. Migrant passengers onboard will have been shackled for at least 43 hours.

The thing I learned from watching Mamdani is that if you did something you have to constantly remind people you did it and not just mention it once and expect everyone to remember it or even notice

"Jennifer Kamrass confessed her worries to her therapist: her marriage, her finances, and self-esteem... 2 years later, a transcript of every word Kamrass had typed to her psychologist using the app Talkspace was produced in court by her former employer." 🤬

this is my family.

A well-reported update on the 15 South American people ICE sent to DR Congo two weeks ago. Trapped in a rat-infested hotel by the airport with no options but going back to the countries they fled. This is what we're doing to legal asylum-seekers who "followed the rules." www.npr.org/2026/04/28/n...

armed, grown men stalking daycares and we’re supposed go about our day like that’s ok

Omg

This morning at Hancock High, seniors headed to the floor of the gym to receive their caps and gowns, each from a teacher they had chosen. Stacy Campbell waited there, holding her student Israel Makoka's cap and gown. But he wouldn't come. He and his brother, Max, 15, had been taken by ICE.

And 9 seconds later … www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

if you Share This Post you will be Blessed by the Star God of Wealth (probably)

He "spent years quietly acquiring his arsenal," @bloomberg.com says about buying a pistol and a shotgun. If the media wants to say people with more than one gun (≈20% of US) have an "arsenal" and are inherently suspicious, fine, but they never talk about Republican gun policies that way.

I think you mean the White House is breaking a law that was put in place by congress after Watergate.

What the fuck are we doing here

U.S. President Donald Trump has fired all 24 members of the National Science Board, the body that oversees the National Science Foundation. https://scim.ag/4cxQWhl

... but I will be forever grateful to him for the catharsis that I, with most Hungarians, felt last night. What he did belongs in the history books. But how did he do it? There will be a lot written about it, and the factors that made it possible. This thread is only about political mobilization.

Ah

I'll say it again, one of the worst things this rampant push to cram "generative AI" into everything has done is make people suspect bright kids of cheating when they're just nerdy or bookish or neurodivergent, sanding down their unique edges to fit into people's lowered, homogenized expectations.

Me when people keep using ChatGPT:

Prosecuting every one of the people involved in this is the moderate position and voters need to be reminding every single Democrat running that this is how it is.

Thirteen U.S. troops died trying to get these people to safety — Afghan interpreters, soldiers, and the families of our service members. Veterans spent sleepless nights during the chaotic withdrawal fighting to keep them alive. Now our own government is going to abandon them.

'The NSF has only committed $500 million of the $8 billion it was appropriated for the fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1. The NSF will lose the billions of remaining funding if it does not spend it by Sept. 30.' thehill.com/homenews/adm...

I would submit that a gerrymander by politicians saying fuck the voters and one by voters saying fuck the politicians are two wholly different animals

Seems like NYT should have mentioned that UAE's spymaster bought 49% of Trump's World Liberty Financial and used $2B of its USD1 stablecoin, directing hundreds of millions to Trump. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/b...

First reaction: JFC, *McClatchy* is doing this? <brief Googling> Ah. Bought in bankruptcy by a hedge fund in 2020.

Collabra: Psychology is published by UC Press, a non-profit publisher. It's #openaccess and is the official journal of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science. Worth supporting! (read: resign from the profiteering corporate publisher you're editing for and apply to join Collabra!)

My next book, a practical guide for how to write for mass media, publishes four weeks from today. I hope you'll consider ordering it now, inviting me to speak, and to tell others. Here's what @tressiemcphd.bsky.social said about my work. Pre-order here: www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

The worst human beings in the country should not be running the country.

Unionized journalists at the Sacramento Bee stand united against McClatchy’s latest AI “articles” initiative. We have withheld our bylines from these stories because we do not want the public to think this is being done in our name — it’s not. We think it’s disgusting.