NEW: A federal judge just barred federal agents from making arrests in immigration courts in NYC. The ruling abruptly halts a policy that had become a centerpiece of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Manhattan. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/n...

There’s a massive immigration operation in Memphis right now, but you may not have heard about it. Why? Community members face retaliation for trying to spread the word out, a lawsuit alleges.

Millions of privileged Russians living in Moscow are now hearing, seeing, and feeling the war that Putin started for the first time.

Breaking NOTUS: Trump pressed Senate Majority Leader John Thune to fire the Senate parliamentarian after she ruled Republicans could not include funding for the ballroom in a budget bill, two sources familiar with the request told NOTUS.

Ellis Boyle has charged 4 people w/threatening Trump or his top aides (probably Tom Homan and Todd Lyons) in the last month. The differences are telling. Obviously, it goes w/o saying that those differences start w/the presser involving Todd Blanche & Kash Patel. emptywheel.net/2026/05/18/e...

BREAKING: The judge in the $1.7B slush fund suit has dismissed the case, but she says THERE IS NO SETTLEMENT OF RECORD. As I said earlier, the media must stop reporting that this slush fund is a settlement. It's just plain THEFT. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Incidentally, when you're reading coverage of this terrorist and sex predator slush fund and it seems *off*, keep in mind that Stan Woodward was probably the most aggressive defense attorney working the press on Jan6 (crime scene AND Trump) and stolen docs case. So...he's got mushy ties w/journos.

BREAKING: Senate Republicans just rubberstamped 49 Trump nominees without the consent or agreement of Democrats, weaponizing the partisan procedural workaround they created last year.

Here's the roll call vote to confirm Stan Woodward (along with a slew of others), who signed off on corrupt terrorist and child sex predator slush fund today. Every Republican but Curtis and Sheehy owns this, and if they're you're Senator, make that clear to them. www.senate.gov/legislative/...

AND they just did it again with the USA whose misconduct led to the dismissal of nine indictments last week, including an alleged murderer.

We’ve had a mass shooting at the San Diego Islamic Center & Mosque today. Children were there attending school. 3 unalived. 2 shooters taken out.

Liz Oyer @lawyeroyer.com

Can’t believe people were stupid enough to vote this treasonous bastard back in.

You don’t think Trump and his Big Oil donors are screwing you on purpose? Seriously??

That extra $45 billion you paid is just the appetizer; the real feast is nearly a quarter-trillion dollars of excess Big Oil profit coming out of your pockets over the rest of this year.

Rep. Raskin: Despite evidence of monopolistic conduct, the Trump administration cut a deal with Ticketmaster. The settlement did nothing at all for consumers. It makes no sense unless you consider the timing. The head of the antitrust division opposed the settlement. By February, she had been fired.

⚡️UPDATE — MEMPHIS PD body cam footage released by Shelby County DA Video shows CLEARLY the “NO KINGS” protesters were entirely peaceful, marshals were attacked & pepper sprayed in the face by police for no reason right as it was ending. Full: www.scdag.com/news-release...

Five hours later, this staggering, perverted act of gargantuan corruption is not even one of the top 10 news stories on the NYT homepage. NYT has normalized Trump’s degeneracy.

An American doctor in Congo is among the newly confirmed cases in an outbreak of a rare variant of the Ebola virus with no approved vaccines or therapeutics, Congolese officials said Monday. https://to.pbs.org/3PPGaKK

AI botched their graduation…

Marco Rubio's State will exclude people for discussing moderating comments, but will invite corrupt far right operatives on run from the law.

In ALABAMA alone, over 22,000 ACA enrollees have been priced out of the market entirely, and by my estimates the ~450,000 who managed to cling to their coverage are paying an average of ~$730 more in premiums than they did last year *plus* another ~$830 more in out of pocket costs.

NEW: More Than 100,000 American Kids Have Had a Parent Detained in Immigration Sweeps, Report Estimates Far more American children have likely been separated from their parents during immigration sweeps than previously understood, according to a new Brookings report.

When Jack Smith charged the stolen document case, Stan Woodward ALL OF A SUDDEN accused Jay Bratt of misconduct wrt Walt Nauta case. It didn't pass the smell test. And now Walt Nauta stands to make bank from the terrorist and sex predator slush fund!!!!!

This is the greatest single act of corruption in the United States ever? Worth mentioning in news reports. Calling it "unusual" is .. not sufficient. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/u...

New reporting reveals that Trump has plans to replace the grass on the South Lawn of the White House with a concrete helipad. The helipad is the newest addition to Trump's demolition of historical White House features like the Rose Garden, the East Wing, and the Lincoln Bedroom.

Trump cuts to weather data may make forecasts less reliable, experts warn [via @theguardian.com]

He didn’t move. He’s filed notice. He’s not asking for the court’s permission. He’s telling the court he’s dropping the lawsuit. But the settlement for $1.7B is not mentioned. Which means if he goes ahead with the slush fund, it will be without court approval.

The Trump/Musk dismantling of USAID having very real, deadly consequences. www.commondreams.org/news/ebola-d...

Everything is a trash fire except for all the students booooing pro-AI graduation speeches ❤️

1/ "Two former models have told AFP that a modelling scout named Daniel Siad allegedly groomed them with the aim of delivering them to Epstein in one case in the 2000s, and Mr Marie in the other case in the 1990s." French probe into Jeffrey Epstein sees 10 new victims www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05...

*Not* The Onion.

Many Americans have started realizing the Epstein class has contingency plans ordinary citizens will never have access to. Multiple homes. International assets. Dual citizenships. Private security. Bunkers. When things collapse, they do not plan on suffering alongside you.

Jesus, this is insane. Alex is great.

Also, it will need millions of gallons of water as Lake Mead—the water supply for Las Vegas—is plummeting rapidly. The Colorado River is in crisis due to a megadrought and too much demand for too little water.

As Eric Trump promises a lawsuit against @jenpsaki.bsky.social for pointing out that his trip with Daddy to China was little different from Hunter Biden's, Forbes describes how his cancer charity billed events at Trump properties. www.forbes.com/sites/danale...

After covering a busy week of #SCOTUS news, today’s “One First” takes a deep dive into justices testifying before Congress—how it used to be a regular occurrence (and not just to ask for the Court’s budget), how it’s petered out over the last 15 years, and why we should really make it a thing again:

Remember when the Republicans were hysterical about a Chinese weather balloon crossing over the USA? Their Mango Messiah just signed a deal letting Chinese Communist Party members buy up US farms. Bravo, MAGA! You’re consistently the dumbest people on Earth.

NEW: Tiny footprints. A blue blanket. The autopsy reports of babies who died after not receiving a vitamin K shot at birth included heartbreaking details about how small the babies were — and what items they had with them when they died.

Twenty six, incl a toddler girl & a 10yo boy, were injured in a brutal overnight bombing of Dnipro. For 6h, russians shook the city w drones, ballistics & cruise missiles. Isn't it terrifying that this daily violence stopped being newsworthy? Silence kills. Photo Hromadske.

Nevada's largest utility says it will need three times the electricity required to power Las Vegas just to handle proposed data centers — and it probably can't do that without fossil fuels. https://to.pbs.org/4c0Eh6n

scheduled post David Sparks And The Urban Appalachians

Nobody can remain neutral in the conflict between Russia and Europe, I told the Austrians... orf.at/av/video/onD...

Democracy, Kleptocracy and more....with Steven Bartlett youtu.be/kwEtOyaFhCA?...

Meanwhile, Trump's DOJ is demanding 2020 ballots from swing states that they have no legal basis to demand.

Autozone just announced that the Republican’s War in the Middle East is causing oil supply shortages of 40%. Prices are about to skyrocket.

John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus bridge Selma, Alabama March 7, 1965 Tom Lankford photographer

Congressman John Lewis: "This is not just the struggle for one day, for one week, for one year. This is the struggle of a lifetime, of many lifetimes. Each one of us in every generation must do our part."

If you’re going to force people to pay money to watch what used to be free playoff basketball, the least you can do is have neutral commentators.

Trump just put him in charge of the FDA. He has no medical background at all. But he does turkey hunt with Don Junior so ok. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...