In 2017, Criselda Vasquez painted this portrait of her parents and titled it "The New American Gothic." Last month, her father, the man in this portrait, was abducted by ICE after being in the US for 30+ years. The family is now struggling with bills. A GoFundMe has been started: gofund.me/456d8a193

"UNUSUAL OFFER"?? No, headline writers. "Charges Dropped Against Indian Billionaire Accused of Bribery, After Offering Trump A Bribe."

He chose job security over the good of the country; he and we now have neither.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his GOP primary after opposition from Trump, finishing third behind Julia Letlow and John Fleming, AP projects.

For all it mattered, he could have stopped RFK and Hegseth and ended up with the same result but a better government

Trump just said that he and Bill Lee are determined to eliminate our representation in Congress. District 9 is the ONLY Democratic and ONLY Black-majority congressional district in Tennessee. This is a direct attack on Black political power and our community in Memphis. We’re not backing down!

'Thousands of people from across the country descended on Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, following the supreme court’s Louisiana v Callais decision last month, which essentially gutted the Voting Rights Act and severely limited protections against voting discrimination.'

Big city

Today in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, crowds gathered for the National Day of Action. Activists, lawmakers, and everyday people pushed back against attacks on voting rights and Black political representation happening across the South. Here are scenes taken by Nikolai Pizarro on Instagram.

T.hanks for doing the Wilson bit with Mr. Met

“They think they can draw us out of power. They do not know the sleeping giant that they just awakened.” - Rep. @aoc.bsky.social in Montgomery #AllRoadsLeadToTheSouth

"As they rushed into his apartment...he felt the jaws of a large dog biting into his ankle, knocking him to the floor. He screamed as the dog tore the flesh from his thighs, hip and wrist. Down the hall, agents took a mother and her 16-yr-old son at gunpoint..." www.propublica.org/article/chic...

It’s really hard to describe how insane this story is. Of course Patel went snorkeling over the USS Arizona - that’s what happens when you put an irreverent internet troll in charge of a government agency. Disrespectful assclown.

Harrison Ford’s commencement address.

Thoughts for people living in safe blue cities and states: Alabama is the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. People bled and died for our right to vote. #AllRoadsLeadToTheSouth 🧵

I hope we see millions of paramount plus cancelations after Stephen Colbert's last show.

Animals can’t grasp the concept of service duty and don't understand why their humans have to leave for a long time. This makes them miss their friends even more. Just look at how eagerly this good boy reaches to greet his owner, who came back from the front to visit❤️

BEING BRITISH! Is about driving a GERMAN car to an IRISH pub for a BELGIAN beer. Then traveling home, grabbing an INDIAN curry or a TURKISH kebab on the way, to sit on SWEDISH furniture and watch AMERICAN shows on a JAPANESE TV. 🤷‍♂️

Thomas Massie pushed for the release of the Epstein files, and the response has been tens of millions in outside spending, smear campaigns, and coordinated attacks. If this is what they do to a sitting member of Congress, imagine what Epstein survivors face when considering whether to come forward.

This year, 4-5 million Americans are set to be priced out of health coverage. Congress let the ACA tax credits die, and Republicans spent years blocking any expansion. And that "TrumpCare" plan? Turns out it was another MAGA ploy. 😔

“Short-term pain.” Tell that to the Uber driver who can't afford to show up to work with gas prices so high. Tell that to the retired couple who just skipped their dinner. And tell that to those who are being forced out of retirement to cover their electric bill.

I will never understand why people talk during concerts.

The stories & photos from today’s voting rights marches in Alabama deserve to be seen by people who weren’t able to stand there in person. If this piece moves you, please share it widely & help make sure these voices aren’t lost in the noise of a crowded news cycle. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

I thought that was from The Onion.

“Before he joined the Trump administration last year, Christine was an Alabama-based urologist who specialized in penile implants. He has little public health experience & a history of far-right commentary & promoting conspiracy theories.”

Trump’s hantavirus response leader is a urologist who hosted “Erection Connection,” compared Biden to the Nazis, called Covid a government control scheme, and said vaccines barely worked. A conspiracy theorist with a specialty in penile implants is leading a federal outbreak response. 😫😩

guy who works in the field of penile implants is anti-trans, of course

The HHS official helping lead Hantavirus response is an expert on penile implants and has a YouTube series called “Erection Connection”. More on Substack at: open.substack.com/pub/thefrank...

In case you missed it, President Xi gave President Trump a parting gift of rose seeds. Trump was too dense to understand the insult since he and Melania replaced the White House rose garden with a concrete slab.

Ryan Hass: Trump’s visible sympathy for Xi’s framing on Taiwan will embolden Beijing to increase pressure on Taipei. This will elevate – not lower – the risk of confrontation. www.brookings.edu/articles/tru...

Internal AutoZone memo: “.. We’re facing the largest supply shortage of lubricating fluids in the modern history of America. Realistic, middle-of-the-road estimates are for our average available supply in this product category to drop by 40%.” (via Costa Oil) #$AZO

the way to think of this is that it is the judicial version of “you’re the real racist for noticing my racism or even thinking about race”

incredibly depressing that the reimposition of jim crow districts across the entire south is getting nothing more than generic horse race coverage

"We are keenly aware of it, and we keenly don’t give a shit."

i have been writing about the virginia supreme court decision with a certain amount of analytical detachment but if i’m being honest i’m also fucking furious i took the time to go vote and then my ballot got tossed out by these dipshits

Happening now: Members of Congress from across the country are gathered in Montgomery's Legacy Park to send a clear message to the nation that the rollback of voting rights will not happen quietly, unchallenged, or without organized resistance. #AllRoadsSouth

✊

"CBS is assenting to its own diminishment." "The biggest loss is to core America values, including the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power..." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/o...

Marching in Alabama… same bridge, same fight, different century… (H/T @memphisforall )

Cartoon by Nick Anderson. (Follow him on Substack: https://nickanderson.substack.com/)

"The moment you begin to censor the writer- and history bears this out in the ugliest of fashions -so begins a process of decay in the body politic that ultimately leads to disaster." ~Rod Serling Speech, Library of Congress (1968)

And with the exit of Stephen Colbert, the Tiffany Network became a Dollar General. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/o...

If you never read the book or saw the movie, you missed one of the greatest Pulitzer Prize winning sagas ever written. To dishonor Alex Haley like this is disgraceful.

Rep. @brotherjones.bsky.social in Montgomery: “We’re here united to take on this new confederacy, 60 years after the Selma March… because we know their intent is to dismantle everything gained during the civil rights movement.”

First he abandoned Ukraine and now he is abandoning Taiwan. Sucks to be a democratic friend of the USA these days.

The most depressing thing about America’s rapid decline under Trump is that while he is busily throwing Taiwan under a bus, he has received no Chinese help with Iran. He has left the US weak and exposed with his ill conceived war.

Chinese political cartoon mocking Trump. But we can all laugh.

Chinese citizens are calling Trump an "attention-seeking" influencer. Xi sat him in a shorter chair. Experts are calling it one of the worst summits in modern history. Ben has the full breakdown.

Listening to insecure buffoon Trump fawn and gush over President Xi of China is just one more example of the mind-numbing stupidity of MAGA. 😂🤣👇

WTF?