Illinois Senator Dick Durbin's statement on why he voted to confirm Marco Rubio for Secretary of State:

This is a new evil spawned from the ancient capitalist hydra, we need to be using historical context to fan the flames of what the FUCK and not just retreating to smug well this is how empire has always worked you can't be surprised by it Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

Everything is infuriating and the people in charge are irrevocably evil.

Thinking about Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti this morning as the news comes in about Venezuela. The word “empire” is not an exaggeration. This is how it regularly defines itself.

Heard NPR’s correspondent, who is not in Venezuela, explain that people in Venezuela woke up to this news. Yet everyone I’ve heard from was up all night. Intense observation on what the U.S. state is and isn’t doing requires critical attention to what the U.S. press is and isn’t doing, too.

Damn Reuters embarrassed itself and you so fast

Don't let anyone tell you that this is too complicated, that you don't have the expertise or background knowledge to understand some obscure nuance. It is exactly what it looks like.

I distinctly remember in the first Trump years when people would be like “no, you can’t call them fascist”

"This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal." -Aaron Bushnell

Three million people live in Caracas, five million in the metro area. It's one of the densest cities in South America. Remember this in the morning when they try to spin this as anything other than a cold-blooded attack on a major civilian center.

Unclear 1) how many casualties tonight's attack caused and 2) under what legal ground the US is citing to capture and extradited Maduro (if he is captured, Venezuela isnt saying just yet). Cartel de Los Soles almost certainly doesnt exist as an organization

This is fucking insanity

Video from the port city of La Guaira shows the aftermath of explosions that took place across Venezuela on early Saturday morning. President Maduro has declared a state of emergency after accusing the US of striking the country.

abandoning my journalistic objectivity to say that the U.S. should not be bombing Venezuela

unanimously confirmed by the United States senate btw

It's totally true. I live near Fuerte Tiuna, the main military base in the capital, recently attacked, and I still hear bombs exploding on surrounding zones

AP confirms apnews.com/article/vene...

@murosinvisibles.bsky.social has been a reliable follow for years, FYI

God fucking damnit

ICE vs ice at 44th and Hiawatha earlier today.

NEW: White Supremacist Mass Shooter of Protesters To Be Released From Prison in First Week of 2026 A decade after shooting five unarmed Black protesters in Minneapolis, white supremacist Allen “Lance” Scarsella is set to be released from his prison sentence on January 5, 2026.

“He spent the next 48 hours in a large room with 150 other men — in a room he was told was intended for 80 people. There were three metal toilets. The lights were always on.” “They never turned it off,” he said. Estrada had no bed, no mattress, no blankets.”

Generative “AI” is the perfect technology for policing because it automates the production of lies.

moon alert Chicago

Chicago’s Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability is holding a special meeting next Thursday, January 8. This is in response to a 2000+ signature petition asking CCPSA to hold a public hearing to “understand the extent of CPD's interactions with federal immigration authorities.”

We worked with our friends @unraveledpress.com and @chicagoreader.com to cover the militarized ICE and Border Patrol raids in Chicago. “I did witness when they shot directly at protestors. There are people with busted lips. Some horrible things have happened.” thetriibe.com/2025/09/and-...

This year, The TRiiBE did critical work to uplift some of the most important stories of our time and y’all tapped into thetriibe.com over 1 million times. For our small newsroom, that’s major! Our independent and Black-owned newsroom exists because of the love and support from our readers.

I had been taking the National Museum of African American History and Culture for granted since it opened in 2016, but the Trump administration's threats to it changed that. And I wrote a personal, reported essay about it for @veritenews.org. veritenews.org/2025/12/30/n...

We are deeply, deeply appreciative of everyone who's supported our reporting this year. Thank you for funding independent investigative journalism. We're not going anywhere—just taking some time away from social media through the end of the year. See you in 2026! 🌠

A cool thing about donating to remora house is that we turn around & just give it to people that need money for food, rent, medication, apartment application fees, IDs, or any damn thing they want because poor & unhoused people deserve simple pleasures too

Very funny part of this bogus lawsuit is Taibbi saying that Bari Weiss was a much more successful grifter than he was

Chicago people! They organize. They help each other. They understand the long haul. They don’t give up.

it is incredibly funny that Matt Taibbi, who considers himself very internet savvy, does not seem to know, or hopes to pretend before a judge that he does not know, what the word "owned" signifies in internet-speak

"Penalizing truthful reporting...criminalizes homelessness rather than enforcing registration law” Totally agree with Lori Jo Reynolds. This part has been 🤯🤯 I don't know what lawyer told CPD it could simply refuse to accept entirely accurate forms but that person should no longer advise the City.

Thanks to @prisonpolicy.org for including an @unraveledpress.com story on this list! From June:

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

I’ve said it and I believe it is true There is a willful forgetting and suppression of the memory of the hundreds of protests that shook this nation for the past decade and a half. So while Canadians and European laypeople whine “Americans don’t do anything,” the Americans are actively suppressed

The definitive proof that ICE was always a fascistic institution is that Trump didn't needed to reform It. No mass firing, no change in training, no mass hiring. He simply said "go, my attack dogs, find brown people". And they went, because they were always fascists.

Update. The ICE supervisor, who is 47, was arrested for domestic violence against his non-citizen partner who he started a relationship when she was 18 and he was 40. www.fox19.com/2025/12/22/i...

Current* conditions near Isle Royale NP, MI:

As well as @billshaner.bsky.social @gonebabygone.bsky.social @samthielman.com @unraveledpress.com @karengeier.com @joeyneverjoe.bsky.social @acatwithnews.bsky.social @rickpaulas.bsky.social @melbuer.bsky.social @pplscitycouncil.bsky.social ... www.welcometohellworld.com/the-best-of-...

I'm so lucky to have been able to publish a great array of talented reporters and writers this year. Here's the best stuff they wrote for Hell World in 2025. Ft: @seantcollins.com @davidjroth.bsky.social @raxkingisdead.bsky.social @parkermolloy.com + ... www.welcometohellworld.com/the-best-of-...

This story covers so much ground between the maze of rules seemingly designed to entrap people, a cpd detective’s “erroneous” reports, ICE, and the city’s relentless pressure on people with no permanent shelter. Great reporting.

Years of lead paint

Now if we could just get people to view US prisons through the same lens they view CECOT.

"The latest records are also limited to enforcement activity by ICE — and not Border Patrol, which initiated some of the most aggressive and violent federal actions in Chicago."

When police returned Reggie Williams’ wallet, an officer told him: Don’t do anything bad and keep your ID on you. To Williams, the warning echoed a slavery-era requirement that free African Americans carry documents to prove they weren’t enslaved. (Published Nov. with @mlk50.com)

I don’t mean to sound extreme, but I don’t think we should have torture camps for people with criminal records either.

I have a few stories in the works for next year, including a couple of investigations. I also intend to grow my independent reporting in between my freelance stories. You can subscribe to my work, and it would mean a lot if you became a paid subscriber while you were there: www.joeyscott.xyz

I launched my independent reporting project mid-year and reported, before local mainstream news outlets, stories about: - Hemet police dept raffling off a gun - LAPD not reporting their use of force against state law - the 10k less lethal rounds used at protests Read them here: www.joeyscott.xyz