On DOGE’s watch, federal spending did not go down at all. It went up. But is still led to cuts that closed offices, canceled programs and deprived people of food, medicine and other aid. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...

Tyson Foods is closing its beef plant in Lexington, Nebraska, laying off 3,200 workers next month in a town of just 11,000.

“These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.”

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

🚨BREAKING: On behalf of the Illinois AFL-CIO, Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans, and Illinois Federation of Teachers, my law firm has moved to intervene as defendants in the DOJ's lawsuit seeking Illinois' complete statewide voter registration database. www.democracydocket.com/cases/illino...

It's kind of funny that the last time CBS News/60 Minutes did something like this it became such a big scandal that they made a movie about it www.rottentomatoes.com/m/insider

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

“When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

60 MINUTES CORRESPONDENT: “Our story was screened 5x and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” #CBSNewsMAX #BariWeiss www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

Why did CBS delete this promo and cancel this from airing in full?

"The landslide victories in Miami and Miami Beach did not happen by accident. They were the result of deliberate, sustained investment in municipal elections and year-round infrastructure." www.miamitimesonline.com/opinion/miam...

Rand Paul: "We've never in our past decided just to shoot smugglers who are unarmed without even proof they're smuggling anything. So I think this is a horrendous thing that should stop. I think it's illegal & immoral... the kids in the military - I'm not for sending them down there to die for oil"

Where is President Trump's $1,776 military bonus money coming from? Congress only approved $50 million for bonuses in the Big Beautiful Bill. Instead, the Pentagon is shifting $2.6 billion of the $2.9 billion in money approved for military housing assistance.

Lawmakers are leaving for the holidays without a health care deal, guaranteeing higher insurance rates for millions come January. “We’ll deal with it in January,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters.

This has the votes to pass with bipartisan support, but Johnson is going to adjourn the House again to delay it as long as possible just like he did with Epstein.

Massie: Previous presidents told us to go to war over WMDs that did not exist. Now it's the same playbook. Except we're told that drugs are the WMDs. If it were about drugs, we'd bomb Mexico or China or Colombia. This is about oil and regime change.

BREAKING MS NOW: FBI deputy director Dan Bongino has quietly told confidants he plans to formally leave his job early in the new year and will not be returning to headquarters to work this month, according to eight people briefed on his account. www.ms.now/news/bongino...

Massive defeat for Mike Johnson. Still has to clear the senate, but this is what Dems wanted all along. Johnson has essentially lost control of the gavel after Epstein and now this. Weakest speaker in history.

‼️BREAKING: Our discharge petition has enough signatures. Speaker Johnson is now FORCED to bring a vote to the House floor to extend ACA tax credits. This can’t wait. Call your Member of Congress. We must vote NOW to protect healthcare.

NEW: In an historic pick, Pope Leo XIV will appoint Bishop Ron Hicks — a protégé of progressive Cardinal Blase Cupich — as the next Archbishop of New York. He replaces the retiring Cardinal Dolan, who recently faced criticism for calling Charlie Kirk a “modern-day St. Paul.”

A quite startling overperformance for Democrats in tonight's special election for a state Senate seat in Kentucky: Democrat Gary Clemons won 72% to 25%. He was defending a Dem-held seat where Kamala Harris beat Trump by 5% last year.

The Republican propaganda that Trump “inherited” a bad economy from Biden and is making it better is the exact opposite of true. The numbers don’t lie and people know what they are experiencing.

Golden age. 🇺🇸

US payrolls grew by 64K in November, but shrunk by 105K in October.

Breaking: The U.S. labor market lost 41,000 jobs over October and November, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6% — the highest since 2021.

More than 126 cases have been declared in the latest outbreak and 303 people have been quarantined.

Payrolls fell -105k in October and rose +64k in November. August and September payrolls were also revised down a total of 33k. These data suggest VIRTUALLY NO EMPLOYMENT GROWTH since April ("Liberation day"). Unemployment is now up to 4.6%. This is a tricky report, so stay tuned.

Big announcement from Gov. Newsom:

The pilot of a JetBlue flight reported on Friday that he narrowly avoided colliding with a U.S. military aircraft over the Caribbean after an Air Force refueling tanker passed in front of the commercial plane without broadcasting its position, according to air traffic control radio communications.

🇭🇺Massive demonstrations in Budapest, Hungary against the Viktor Orbán’s regime. Protesters carried toys and torches under the banner “Protect the children!” showing solidarity with children who became victims of abuse in the state care system

"The virus can lead to brain swelling, which can cause lasting damage, including blindness, deafness and intellectual disabilities..." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/w...

What could go wrong?

> @amysiskind.com

Arkansas is officially single… from PBS. Effective July 1, the state will sever ties with the beloved network that taught generations to count to ten, identify shapes, and wonder why a cookie monster is more relatable than most elected officials.

Update: DOJ haw now sued 18 states. My law firm has already filed to intervene to defend voters in 13 of the first 14 cases. We are working on the remains 5. This is an insane effort by DOJ and we are a small firm. But we are committed to protecting free and fair elections in 2026. More soon.

JUST IN: Judge Boasberg won’t back off his planned contempt hearings next week and says the crime-fraud exception would overcome potential privileges. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Democrats CAN win in Florida, and Miami proved that this week. We have to capitalize on this momentum and build our coalition ahead of November. There’s a brighter future waiting for Florida, help be a part of it. https://bit.ly/3KrdAwQ

But Fox News said...

🚨BREAKING: More than 300,000 Missourians have signed a petition demanding that the gerrymander be put to a statewide referendum, advocacy organization People Not Politicians announced as it delivered those signatures to the state government Tuesday. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

It wasn’t even close.

BREAKING: Democrats and Republicans in Congress just voted to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act to restore federal workers’ union rights – the first time the House has voted to overturn a Trump executive order in this term. https://bit.ly/4oNyBQc

NEW: The DOJ sues Colorado and Hawaii, making them the latest targets of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign to force states into handing over their unredacted voter rolls. The lawsuit comes after the department warned just yesterday it would amp up its legal efforts to hunt down voter data.

BREAKING: The Indiana Senate just REJECTED the gerrymandered congressional map that Trump and his allies pressured Republicans to support. The GOP-controlled chamber voted down the map, 31-19.

#Redistrict 🇺🇸

🚨BREAKING: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says it’s readying to sue Georgia, a key GOP-led swing state, after being told to “pound sand” over the issue. Other red states have expressed “serious concerns” about handing over the voter data, a top DOJ official revealed.

Just what airports were missing: play areas turned pandemic laboratories

Uncontrolled measles outbreak in South Carolina is “accelerating” with no end in sight following Thanksgiving gatherings and low vaccination rates. Some unvaccinated kids sick and in isolation / quarantine for a second 21-day period. Preventable. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Powell: "Inflation for goods has picked up, reflecting the effects of tariffs."

Status update on House Republicans and a health care plan, after this morning’s conference meeting: “The consensus is we need to come up with something,” Rep. Ralph Norman says.