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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 12, 2025
It was just 20 days ago—on March 24—that editor in chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg reported that the most senior members of the Trump administration discussed a military strike on the Houthis in Yemen on an unsecure commercial messaging app and that they included him on the chat.
Their Signal chat, which Goldberg published later in response to the administration’s insistence that there was nothing classified in the chat, showed that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had posted precise details of the munitions and planes involved in the strikes. It showed that neither President Donald Trump nor the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—a Biden appointee—was on the chat, and that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller apparently made the decision to strike based on his interpretation of what President Donald Trump wanted. …
This extraordinary lapse in national security protections would normally have defined an administration and caused a number of resignations, but the White House called the case “closed” on March 31.
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That story has been almost completely driven out of the news by President Donald Trump’s tariff machinations since April 2.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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John Pavlovitz: Forget Anti-Christian Bias. The Trump Administration Has Anti-Jesus Bias
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There is no anti-Christian bias in American Government. There is anti-Jesus bias in MAGA Christianity.The truth is, the Jesus of the Gospels wouldn’t have stood a chance under this Administration.
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(John Pavlovitz more…)
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NY Times: How the G.O.P. Fell in Love With Putin’s Russia
What explains the Trump administration’s radical reversal toward Moscow?
In 1989, shortly before the fall of communism, Boris Yeltsin — the reformer who would soon become the first freely elected president of post-Soviet Russia — visited a supermarket in Houston, Texas, and was overwhelmed by the dizzying array of meats and vegetables on offer. “What have we done to our poor people?” he later asked an associate traveling with him. The story became instant fodder for the crusade to convert Russia to capitalism.
(NY Times more…)
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Dean Blundell: Trump’s Authoritarian Iron Fist: DOJ Witch Hunts and the Death of Dissent In America
The Trump Regime Is Now Targeting ANYONE Who Disagrees With Him.
(Dean Blundell more…)
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Root: Trump Plans To Deport This Duke Basketball Star
Marco Rubio wants to “revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders” — immediately.
[It was] a tough weekend for Duke University basketball player Khaman Maluach. Just hours before he and the Blue Devils lost in the NCAA Final Four against the Houston Cougars in devastating fashion on April 5, he learned that he may be deported due to a new policy from President Donald Trump.
(Root more…)
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Root: White Georgia Teacher Writes the N-Word on Whiteboard in Front of His Class, Messes Around and Finds Out
(Root more…)
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Law Dork: State Dep’t official says embassy confirms Abrego Garcia is alive in El Salvador’s CECOT prison
A State Department official stated in a declaration filed on Saturday in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case that, per the embassy, “Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. He is alive and secure in that facility.”It was the first time any official confirmed in writing Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts and that he is alive.
Michael G. Kozak, a longtime State Department official, submitted the declaration, which was filed on the docket about 10 minutes after the court’s 5 p.m. deadline by a member of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland who is working on the case.
The Justice Department did not file anything else in the case on Saturday, despite the ongoing order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis. The other questions Xinis is seeking answers about — about what the government has done and is planning to do to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia — remain completely unanswered.
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Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed a request for the government to show cause why it should not be held in contempt for its failure to comply with the court’s orders in the case, particularly in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s order. They also are seeking a more specific order from Xinis and discovery into the government’s actions in the case.Ultimately, of course — and citing President Donald Trump’s own words — they call for their client to be brought back to Maryland.
(Law Dork more…)Allison Gill: Contempt Proceedings Have Begun in the Abrego Garcia Case
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NPR: Worried artists reached out to Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell. His responses didn’t help
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Daily: Media Lets Trump Get Away With Propaganda Health Report
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Guardian: The rise of end times fascism
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Now, all of a sudden, this once-fringe network of corporate secessionists finds itself knocking on open doors at the dead center of global power.
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: Health news, COVID & more, 4/13/25
The CDC reports low levels of respiratory illness overall with COVID, RSV, and flu trending downward nationally. Influenza A levels are low, but Influenza B levels are still increasing in many places including the Northeast. This week marks the first time Flu B is more prevalent than Flu A.
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Despite Measles outbreaks spreading in the United States, and the fact that 2 doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective against the measles, this week RFK Jr. falsely told CBS News that measles vaccines “aren’t safety tested”. …
(Ruth Ann Crystal MD more…)
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BBC Mundo: “EE.UU. es un país en búsqueda de un enemigo”: Óscar Arias, el expresidente y premio Nobel de la Paz al que Washington le revocó su visa
(BBC Mundo more…)
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Daily: The Truth Comes Out As Mike Johnson Admits GOP Is Going To Gut Medicaid
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson admitted that the Republican plan for Medicaid is throw people off of the program.
The key word in Johnson’s answer was “real.” Republicans in Congress are going to decide who has a “real” disability and who doesn’t.
(Daily more…)
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Verge: Smartphone tariffs are coming back in ‘a month or two,’ says Trump admin
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TechCrunch: Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk would like to ‘delete all IP law’
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NY Times: Texas Muslims Want to Build Homes and a Mosque. The Governor Says No.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas is trying to stop a planned community near Dallas that has fueled anti-Muslim hostility and divided locals.