Half the Answer

ICE flights are still happening and they are still horrifying. Gillian Brockell brings us updates on some of the major players in the game of torturing innocent people in the sky, their victims, and the regular people who do not want this abusive pack of monsters to continue using their resources.

Resources

https://gillianbrockell.com/

Send tips to: gbrockell.44 on signal

https://bsky.app/profile/gillianbrockell.com

https://www.patreon.com/cw/worstairlineever

https://gillianbrockell.com/interviews-podcast-and-some-r/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/vietnamese-man-deported-from-u-s-to-south-sudan-repatriated-after-year-in-detention

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/what-are-third-country-removals-factsheet/

https://bookshop.org/a/115699/9781324092407

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deep-swamps-archaeologists-fugitive-slaves-kept-freedom-180960122/

https://www.baloproject.org/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/world/africa/trump-deportation-us-judge-congo-colombia.html

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/omni-ice-deportations-charter-flight-stonepeak-private-equity/

https://theintercept.com/2022/02/17/amazon-ice-deportation-flights-omni/

https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/152641-stonepeak-completes-acquisition-of-uss-atsg

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/08/nx-s1-5629234/the-cautionary-tale-of-how-chicago-privatized-its-parking-meters

https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-parking-meter-deal-city-council-members-seek-block-morgan-stanley-sale-meters-stone-peak/19265309/

Why won't Gregory Bovino stay gone? Why can't Trump keep his pool clean? And how many fireworks is too many fireworks? We asked our friend and yours Amanda Moore to help us get to the bottom of these questions and more.

Resources:

https://www.instagram.com/noturtlesoup17/?hl=en 

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/an-ice-chaser-bovino/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/gregory-bovino-border-patrol-ice-minneapolis-chicago-new-orleans-video/

https://bsky.app/profile/noturtlesoup17.bsky.socialhttps://authory.com/AmandaMoore

https://www.turtlediaries.net/p/update-from-the-great-american-state

https://www.turtlediaries.net/p/semiquincentennial-and-ice

Why is Albania having anti-Jared Kushner protests? What did he do to them? And what on Earth is going on in the UK? We asked our resident Europe expert to explain it all to us.

Resources

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how-uks-keir-starmer-went-from-election-landslide-to-downfall

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/06/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-albania-luxury-resort-protest-movement-overthrow-albanian-socialist-prime-minister-corrupt-government/

https://www.wired.com/story/ivanka-and-jareds-island-resort-could-bring-down-albanias-prime-minister/

How did sports betting burst onto the scene so violently in the last half-decade? Danny Funt, author of Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling explains the legal, regulatory and business changes that have led us here.

For immediate help with problem gambling, please call 1-800-MY-RESET (800-522-4700) or visit https://www.ncpgambling.org/help-treatment/

Resources

https://bookshop.org/p/books/everybody-loses-the-tumultuous-rise-of-american-sports-gambling-danny-funt/f7b6cf17f7e3e9b9?ean=9781668062029&next=t

https://newrepublic.com/article/210094/sports-gambling-national-council-big-tobacco

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2026/02/20/everybody-loses-sports-gambling-danny-funt-review/

https://bsky.app/profile/dannyfunt.bsky.social

https://x.com/dannyfunt?lang=en

https://dannyfunt.substack.com/

https://www.congress.gov/bill/102nd-congress/senate-bill/474

https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-black-sox-scandal/

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/584/16-476/

https://sri.siena.edu/2026/04/13/more-than-a-quarter-of-americans-27-have-an-active-online-sports-betting-account-a-third-have-opened-an-account-at-least-once/

https://www.masslive.com/politics/2023/03/really-annoying-sports-betting-ads-are-protected-by-1st-amendment-lawmakers-say.html

What does the Callais decision mean for voting rights and other anti-discrimination protections in the United States? How is anybody supposed to defend their rights against race-based discrimination if they're not allowed to use disparate impact as proof? Catch the discriminators confessing on a voice recording carrot pen, "Zootopia"-style? Bust out the mind-reading machine? We ask Madiba Dennie, author of The Originalism Trap, to explain it, and to help us figure out what to do now.

Resources:

The Originalism Trap: https://bookshop.org/a/115699/9780593729250

https://ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/alito-callais-opinion-voting-rights-act-fifteenth-amendment/

https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-15/

Why has Bari Weiss, a liberal-presenting Trump sycophant, been handed the reins to CBS News, one of our most prestigious news organizations? What does her time running the Free Press, a website that publishes commentary, tell us about how she thinks about "doing the f--king news," which is to say, journalism? Radley Balko joins Trent and Caitlin to explain what he found when he dug into the work of one Free Press "reporter" who whitewashed Trump's refugee policy and demonized resettlement NGOs.

Resources

"How Bari Weiss's Free Press Laundered MAGA Talking Points About Refugees" https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/how-bari-weisss-free-press-laundered

"Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces" https://bookshop.org/a/115699/9781541774537

"The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South" https://bookshop.org/a/115699/9781541774056

Last Week Tonight: https://youtube.com/watch?si=azsf62uWi2915K-6&v=gieTx_P6INQ&feature=youtu.be

Academic freedom: https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-falsely-denies-her-years-of-attacks-on-the-academic-freedom-of-arab-scholars-who-criticize-israel/

"Inside Bari Weiss's Hostile Takeover of CBS News" https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/26/inside-bari-weisss-hostile-takeover-of-cbs-news

In Bed With the Right: https://www.patreon.com/posts/152713931?collection=1409249

What was the first American Reconstruction after the Civil War? Why are some historians suggesting we just left a second sort of Reconstruction Era?

Join Caitlin and Trent as they got into it all with Historian Thomas Zimmer, going from the first period of reconstruction, across the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before pressing through this second reconstruction, which Thomas considers as being from 1965 to 2026.

They then turned their attention towards what lays ahead for the United States, as well as why some Germans just don’t care about what’s going on across the Atlantic Ocean.

Resources:

democracyamericana.com

www.thomaszimmer.online

What was Andrew Jackson's favorite gelatin-based meal? Why did Hilary Clinton feel a deep and urgent need to tell everyone about her fantastic chocolate chip cookie recipe? Did Ronald Reagan really eat that many jelly beans? We answer these questions and more with Bennett Rea, creator and host of Cookin' With Congress. Plus a little taste test!

Resources

https://www.cookinwithcongress.com/

https://www.instagram.com/cookinwithcongress/?hl=en

https://www.youtube.com/@cookinwithcongress

https://www.tiktok.com/@cookinwithcongress

https://cookinwithcongress.substack.com/

Is this chatbot sentient? Is AI my friend? Is isolation hackable? Trent and Caitlin discuss recent AI news, Sam Altman's troubles legal and otherwise, labor organizing as a strategy against the worst fears of AI experts, and whether Richard Dawkins is conscious, in this news digest episode with linguist and AI researcher Hagen Blix.

Resources

https://bookshop.org/p/books/why-we-fear-ai-on-the-interpretation-of-nightmares-hagen-blix/377a4501006cfc55?ean=9781945335174&next=t

Letter to Meta leadership https://mcipetition.com/

https://jacobin.com/2025/02/tech-workers-silicon-valley-trump

https://jacobin.com/2025/12/hype-artificial-intelligence-vc-capital

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/meta-start-capturing-employee-mouse-movements-keystrokes-ai-training-data-2026-04-21/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/18/sam-altman-house-attack-ai

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05/12/technology/openai-trial-sam-altman-elon-musk

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-layoffs-bad-vibes-mark-zuckerberg-ai/

https://tech-insider.org/meta-layoffs-8000-employees-135-billion-ai-capex-2026/

https://unherd.com/2026/05/is-ai-the-next-phase-of-evolution/?edition=us

https://unherd.com/2026/05/when-claudia-met-claudius/

In a time when the ruling party seems to be totally fine with breaking every law, every rule, and every norm that was holding our country in the general shape and consistency of a democracy, what should the opposition party be willing to do? Are there times when retaliation that goes against one of our principles might serve a greater purpose? Are there times when it would only further erode our values? Trent and Caitlin ask Political Theory Professor Jacob T. Levy what he thinks.

Resources

jacobtlevy.com

https://bookshop.org/p/books/rationalism-pluralism-and-freedom-tomlinson-professor-of-political-theory-jacob-t-levy/70b7b87a3f2b1667?ean=9780198717140&next=t

https://bsky.app/profile/jacobtlevy.bsky.social

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/06/supreme-court-john-roberts-voting-criticism-00909592

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a71244450/john-roberts-scotus-political-power/

https://ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/louisiana-v-callais-opinion-recap-voting-rights-act/

https://theconversation.com/racial-gerrymandering-may-be-here-to-stay-282349

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/trump-civil-service-schedule-f/682609/

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/house-lawmakers-press-paramount-ceo-warner-brothers-acquisition-2026-05-12/

SCOTUS photo By Fred Schilling - https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/justices.aspx, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124352288