curated citations to news sources
404 Media: Flock Removes States From National Lookup Tool After ICE and Abortion Searches Revealed
Flock, the automatic license plate reader (ALPR) company with a presence in thousands of communities across the U.S., has stopped agencies across the country from searching cameras inside Illinois, California, and Virginia, 404 Media has learned. The dramatic moves come after 404 Media revealed local police departments were repeatedly performing lookups around the country on behalf of ICE, a Texas officer searched cameras nationwide for a woman who self-administered an abortion, and lawmakers recently signed a new law in Virginia. Ordinarily Flock allows agencies to opt into a national lookup database, where agencies in one state can access data collected in another, as long as they also share their own data. This practice violates multiple state laws which bar the sharing of ALPR data out of state or it being accessed for immigration or healthcare purposes.
(404 Media more…)
-
Mark Hertling: First Reports Are Always Wrong. The Iran Strike Is No Exception.
Before we—or our political leaders—jump to conclusions, we should let the professionals work.
…
But even without trusting the news reports about the DIA assessment implicitly, I still take the DIA report seriously. …
…According to reporting, DIA assessed that several key facilities were either missed entirely or only partially damaged, including hardened centrifuge halls and subterranean power nodes essential to Iran’s ability to continue uranium enrichment. Some of these targets had long been assessed as deeply fortified beneath up to 90 feet of granite reinforced by concrete, likely requiring multiple rounds of strikes even with the “Massive Ordnance Penetrator,” or MOP, a weapon designed specifically for this purpose.
The professionals at DIA know that strategic effects aren’t always determined by the size of the explosions—the effects of any strike are confirmed by analysis. It appears we delivered a message, but we may not have delivered a knockout punch. …
(Mark Hertling more…)BBC: Damaged or destroyed – how much does leaked US report on Iran’s nuclear sites tell us?
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 25, 2025
…
Laura Rozen of Diplomatic notes that the strikes might have convinced Iran to abandon negotiations and commit to building a nuclear weapon. Rozen quotes former top European Union Iran nuclear negotiator Enrique Mora, who wrote: “This unprecedented strike has shown, for the second time, the Islamic regime that nuclear diplomacy is reversible, fragile and vulnerable to changes in leadership in Washington. There will not be a third time.” Mora continued: “If Iran now decides to move towards a bomb, it will do so following a clear strategic logic. No one bombs the capital of a nuclear-armed country. June 21, 2025 may go down in history not as the day the Iranian nuclear program was destroyed, but as the day a nuclear Iran was irreversibly born.”Tonight, on his social media site, Trump’s account called for Israel to abandon its trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, calling it a “ridiculous Witch Hunt.” Trump claimed that Netanyahu was a partner in “something that nobody thought was possible, a complete elimination of potentially one of the biggest and most powerful Nuclear Weapons anywhere in the world, and it was going to happen, SOON!” Trump called for the trial to be “CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero.” He continued: “It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Boing Boing: Pete Hegseth attacks former Fox colleague when she asks him a straightforward question
…
Griffin, a decades-long national security correspondent for Fox News, was part of a press briefing this morning when she asked the Fox-turned-Trump flunky, “Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow mountain?…”To which the novice Secretary, unable to come up with an answer, instead lashed out at the seasoned reporter. “Of course we’re watching every single aspect,” Hegseth growled before attacking her. “But Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst. The one who misrepresents the most intentionally!”
-
Closer to the Edge: How to Bring JD Vance Memes Through Airport Security
We don’t even know if this can be classified as satire anymore.
Closer to the Edge: He got deported for a meme
-
Verge: The Trump Phone no longer promises it’s made in America
-
LAWdork: 11 key allegations made in Erez Reuveni’s whistleblower disclosure about DOJ
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche attacked the claims as “falsehoods,” but many of the fired longtime DOJ lawyer’s allegations are already backed up by public facts.
-
Daily Kos: Trump says executive privilege for me—but not for thee
-
Thom Hartmann: Is Zohran Mamdani Too Extreme? Or Just What NYC Needs?
If fighting for housing, dignity, and a livable future is radical, then it’s way past time we all got a lot more radical…
(Thom Hartmann more…)Daily: New York Republicans Ask Trump To Deport Zohran Mamdani
Young Republicans in New York City have responded to Zohran Mamdani’s primary win by asking Donald Trump to deport the likely Democratic nominee for mayor.
Daily Kos: Trump loyalists go full-on racist over NYC mayor primary
-
James Eagle: Refugee numbers continue to increase
Global displacement reaches 120 million breaking point
(James Eagle more…)
-
Mary Geddry: No One Leaves Until It’s Fixed
As Trump rebrands diplomacy as war and the courts wrestle with lawless deportations, a different kind of power is rising, from tow trucks, budget books, and bus depots.
…
In Los Angeles, tow truck drivers are trailing ICE agents and towing their government vehicles the moment they’re illegally parked. No confrontation. No signs. Just clean, precise disruption. You want law and order? Great. The law says no parking here, and the order is your car gets impounded.In Chicago, immigration advocates are flooding ICE’s public hotlines with spam reports and false leads, tying up their systems for hours, deliberately wasting the agency’s time just as ICE has wasted so many lives.
In Tucson, activists are trailing unmarked white vans, livestreaming their movements, and notifying community defense networks in real time, turning once-invisible extractions into public emergencies ICE can no longer operate in the shadows.
In Oakland, a network of neighbors set off coordinated noise alerts when raids begin, creating chaos and confusion in the streets, forcing agents to abort their targets as the neighborhood flares to life in collective resistance.
As one observer put it: if they can immobilize our communities, maybe we immobilize them right back.
(Mary Geddry more…)
-
Jeff Tiedrich: wait — did [President DJT] tell Iran it was okay to bomb us?
…
“14 missiles were shot at us the other day. and, uh, they were very nice. they gave us a warning. they said ‘we’re gonna shoot ‘em, is one o’clock okay?’ they said it’s fine. and everybody was emptied off the base. so they couldn’t get hurt, except for the gunners. they call ’em the gunners.”
(Jeff Tiedrich more…)
-
Conversation: Self-censorship and the ‘spiral of silence’: Why Americans are less likely to publicly voice their opinions on political issues
(Conversation more…)
-
Isaac Saul: The “Big Beautiful Bill” gets a Byrd bath.
…
- The parliamentarian’s decisions are a result of Republicans choosing to cram everything into one bill.
- I agree with most of her choices, but think she didn’t apply the Byrd Rule consistently in some cases.
- Republicans should respect the parliamentarian’s choices and offer a cleaner bill for reconciliation.
Closer to the Edge: The woman who ruined everything for the GOP
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
Leave a Reply