A lot of people are saying the gift they really want tomorrow is a subscription or donation in their name to Bolts! Don’t disappoint your loved ones… and help us close our year-end fundraising drive strongly! boltsmag.org/donate

Here's a particularly juicy nugget I found in my reporting . . .

The Intercept reports on the companies that are making millions as ICE bounty hunters: theintercept.com/2025/12/23/i...

Trump still hasn’t paid E. Jean Carroll's her money. Seize his pay and assets.

NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

“Babies Are Freezing to Death in Gaza. Israeli Policy and the World’s Inaction Are to Blame”

Modern surveillance tools like automated license plate readers “let the gov’t monitor millions of people with ease. Law enforcement can track movements, detect faces, record conversations— & store such information indefinitely.” Cato brief urges Eleventh Circuit to recognize Fourth Amendment claim.

It’s really strange the vice president of the United States is a white supremacist, who says white supremacist slogans, who publicly praises and follows the work of white supremacists, and it’s simply not mentioned or discussed in political media

What i appreciate here is the reminder of how power works, and how its influence permeates the culture of the workplace in ways we aren't comfortable confronting. newrepublic.com/article/2047....

His wife says they were refusing to properly treat his diabetes. The facility where he died is a private prison.

Conservatives love to talk about meritocracy and then brag about which white people they happen to be descended from

Our responsibility to fight Trump and this corrupt administration is not just to protect ourselves but to acknowledge that this violence and degradation was enacted in our names, with our money, and with our knowledge.

Private property owners and leaseholders: You can post a notice saying you do not authorize certain immigration enforcement activities, such as staging for an operation. ➡️ Read more: www.minneapolismn.gov/government/programs-initiatives/city-federal-response/business-owners-common-questions

BREAKING: A federal judge ruled the Trump administration violated due process by deporting Venezuelan men after invoking the Alien Enemies Act. This is an important ruling for these men who were tortured, and for the rule of law.

ICE agents illegally break into a woman's bathroom in a NY nutrition bar manufacturing plant. "Pull up your pants," says a male agent. The agents only had a warrant to review employer documents. They didn't have a warrant to search for, detain, or arrest anyone there.

This has been made available, so for purposes of commenting on Bari Weiss's decision to spike the story, here's a live-post of that segment. It begins with a "you may recall" summary of the deportation to el Salvador. Describes the admin's claim that it could deport the men without due process

After what we're seeing at CBS, if today is not the perfect day for everyone to find some independent journalism & nonprofit newsrooms to support... what day could be better?

here's the 60 minutes cecot video part 1 of 5 - recorded/uploaded by and all credit to @jasonparis.bsky.social I just reduced background noise, chopped the 14 minutes into 3 minute segments each compressed under 100 mb for bsky's limits, cropped and rotated a few degrees for easier viewing on here

The pulled “60 Minutes” episode on the CECOT prisoners is down on that YouTube link but up now here: www.muellershewrote.com/p/watch-the-...

CBS didn't run the 60 Minutes segment on CECOT, but over here at @propublica.org we've been working on the story since March, including finding out who each and every man sent to that maximum security prison was. You can see our reporting here: www.propublica.org/series/depor...

SCOOP: Flock left at least 60 of its AI-powered, people-tracking surveillance cameras exposed and livestreaming to the open internet. We tracked ourselves. The exposure highlights the power of these cameras and types of things they're tracking. Not just cars. www.404media.co/flock-expose...

For generations scholars have debated about whether fascism was driven more by elites or the masses. I’ll just say that Bari Weiss is an entirely elite phenomenon

"Get the principals on camera" is such a telling phrase here, because it tells us that for Weiss there's no world in which the victims of these horrific actions can actually be seen as the subjects of the story: They're background noise, and the people who matter are the ones sending them.

really cannot be emphasized enough that bari weiss has literally never done journalism. i don’t mean that in the pejorative sense. i mean that in the “has never performed the job she was hired to do” sense

But also, don't curse us. The 2020s can make any slow news week a nightmare in the blink of an eye.

Breakthrough of the year? Renewable energy www.science.org/content/arti...

The maga divide summarized: does the gutter racism that is the mortar of our coalition apply to Jews or not? And if it doesn’t do we mean that or are we just pretending for the moment?

Pin it.

I'm not so easily shocked these days, but it might actually be shocking that the vice president of the United States is as violently, smugly, publicly racist as he is.

Emmer is a coward sacrificing his own constituents to protect himself from the power of a corrupt, morally fetid Trump admin. It's not ideologically driven or even politically necessary in outstate MN to be this way. It's just a fearful man with no long-term vision tap- dancing for Trump.

one of four in a week www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/n...

New at The Watch: A comprehensive primer on the drug boat strikes open.substack.com/pub/radleyba...

I was reminded today of one of my favorite stories we did this year: on how Hawaii's Supreme Court keeps releasing opinions that denounce the U.S. Supreme Court. boltsmag.org/hawaii-supre...

“The thing that’s been the most difficult so far is that, in all of our interactions with the government, they’re denying that any of her birth certificates, which are from Laurel, Maryland, her records of immunization, medical records — they’re denying the authenticity of them.”

That Compact essay is very easily picked a part with actual data/evidence, but what has become clear is there is very little will to do so as its dubious claims confirm a deeply held grievance amongst an apparently large % of our white colleagues that they are the victims of rampant discrimination.

NEW: The FDA won’t tell Americans where their generic drugs are made, so ProPublica did it instead. Use information from your prescription label to locate the factory and see if the plant has a history of inspection violations.

Officials in Tennessee aren't just banning books, they're now demanding information on who checked out contested (largely LGBTQ+) books, including names, addresses, and "household composition." A librarian who was given the directive has come forward asking for whistleblower protections.

One of the most depressing things of the last 5 years is that I love photography, love seeing people's powerful and distinctive snapshots of life and the world, and now every time I see a cool photo online I have to first dig around to see if it's just AI.

In NYC immigration court, the names of fired judges have been taped over with replacements. Now, asylum is denied at near 90 percent rates, medical documents are rejected, and requests for remote hearings are denied forcing people to face ICE in the halls. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-a-h...

"Mainstream" libertarians see shit like this from the Libertarian Party chapter in the most libertarian state in America and conclude the only real racism in America is against white male millennials.

Melissa Hortman Died in a Shocking Act of Political Violence. This Is the Story of Her Life The Minnesota Speaker’s closest friends and family open up for the first time. Read @stephenrodrick.bsky.social's exclusive: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

A story I found about Haiti: In 1999, a group of Haitians were tired of political disorder and dreamed of a better life in the United States. So they built a small, 23-foot boat by hand using pine trees, scrap wood, and used nails. They called the boat "Believe in God."

The photos of those Haitian refugees was his first big break, as they earned him the Robert Capa Gold Medal award, which catapulted his career. But at the moment he took the images, he and the other men on the boat thought they were going to die. He had this to say about the experience:

Total victory on this issue; members of Congress will again have the right to conduct surprise inspections of ICE detention centers.

I oppose Massie on many things, but on this, I applaud his clarity.

"Overall, this data does not really support Savage’s material thesis. Ambitious white men in their thirties have not seen much, if any, decline over this period. Their overall employment is up. Their employment in the arts and media is unchanged. Educational attainment is up."

7 Dems joined House Republicans in voting for a bill that would enable ICE agents to strip search 12-year-olds. Henry Cuellar (TX-28) Don Davis (NC-01) Laura Gillen (NY-04) Jared Golden (ME-02) Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34) Adam Gray (CA-13) Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03)

it's so cool that he was able to run for president again and people elected him. just awesome stuff.

JUST IN: Judge Cobb blocks ICE's policy that limited Congress' ability to visit immigration detention facilities, saying it imposed illegal restrictions by requiring 7-day advanced notice and excluding ICE field offices. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

BREAKING on MS NOW: Jack Smith, in his opening statement to House Judiciary, says: "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power."