curated citations to news sources
Radley Balko: The police militarization debate is over
Quaint disputes about the proper role of police and military have been superseded by a more urgent threat: Donald Trump is creating his own, personal paramilitary force
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There has long been an important and consequential discussion about the proper, constitutional role of police, the proper, constitutional role of the military, and the ramifications of blurring the lines between the two. …
In six months, the Trump administration made that debate irrelevant. It has taken two-and-a-half centuries of tradition, caution, and fear of standing armies and simply discarded it.
(Radley Balko more…)
John Pavlovitz: The I.C.E. Atrocities Should Be the Final Straw for Decent Human Beings.
RNS: United Church of Christ synod denounces ICE raids as ‘domestic terrorism’
Atlantic: The Message Is ‘We Can Take Your Children’
More systematically than in his first term, Trump is rolling back protections for undocumented minors.
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What was supposed to be happening—according to ORR’s legal mandate, child-welfare experts, and a long-standing bipartisan consensus that all children deserve special protection—was reunification. When a migrant child is unaccompanied, as Brian was, immigration authorities are supposed to refer them to ORR shelters, where caseworkers are supposed to quickly place them with vetted sponsors in the U.S., usually parents or relatives, at which point the child’s advocates often pursue some form of relief from deportation.
(Atlantic more…)
Jennifer Rubin: Democrats Must Lean into Defense of Immigrants
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Free Press: The Right’s 1939 Project
How a visible faction of the MAGA movement is revising American history, reviving dangerous conspiracies, and erasing the taboo against open bigotry.
(Free Press more…)TNR: Tucker Carlson’s Harsh New Takedown of Trump Fuels Fresh MAGA Fury
As Tucker’s attack on Trump over the Jeffrey Epstein mess intensifies MAGA’s anger, a historian of the right explains why this particular obsession runs so deep—and why Trump has no easy way out of it.
Wired: The FBI’s Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Had Nearly 3 Minutes Cut Out
Metadata from the “raw” Epstein prison video shows approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds were removed from one of two stitched-together clips. The cut starts right at the “missing minute.”
TNR: Only One Republican Voted to Release Epstein Files
House Republicans blocked an amendment that would have forced the Justice Department to release the files.
Democracy Docket: Mike Lindell Said He Regularly Meets With Trump to Talk Election Conspiracy Theories
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – July 15, 2025
Without any explanation, the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court yesterday granted a stay on a lower court’s order that the Trump administration could not gut the Department of Education while the issue is in the courts. The majority thus throws the weight of the Supreme Court behind the ability of the Trump administration to get rid of departments established by Congress—a power the Supreme Court denied when President Richard M. Nixon tried it in 1973.
This is a major expansion of presidential power, permitting the president to disregard laws Congress has passed, despite the Constitution’s clear assignment of lawmaking power to Congress alone.
President Donald J. Trump has vowed to eliminate the Department of Education because he claims it pushes “woke” ideology on America’s schoolchildren and that its employees “hate our children.” Running for office, he promised to “return” education to the states. In fact, the Education Department has never set curriculum; it disburses funds for high-poverty schools and educating students with disabilities. It’s also in charge of prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race and sex in schools that get federal funding.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Fred Wellman: The “Values” of Pete Hegseth’s DOD
Two stories tell wildly different tales of what the real values of the Department of Defense have become under Hegseth’s woefully incompetent and malignant leadership
Closer to the Edge: Weaponizing Grok: how the Pentagon just invited an AI clown car into the war room
TNR: Trump Asked Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Shocking Question in Private Call
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On Tuesday, The Financial Times reported that Trump, in a July 4 phone call, asked Zelenskiy, “Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow?” and also inquired as to whether he could hit St. Petersburg, the second-largest Russian city.“Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons,” Zelenskiy is said to have replied. Trump was apparently open to this, reportedly mentioning a strategy to “make them [Russians] feel the pain” to pressure Putin to negotiate a peace deal.
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Jay Kuo: Dismantling It All With A Whisper
The Supreme Court’s “Shadow Docket” is letting the Trump White House burn it all down
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Reuters: Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit
- Federal Programs Branch loses nearly two-thirds of staff since Trump’s election
- Exodus strains unit defending Trump’s policies amid legal challenges
- Political appointees fill vacancies
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The tally has not been previously reported. Using court records and LinkedIn accounts, Reuters was able to verify the departure of all but four names on the list.Reuters spoke to four former lawyers in the unit and three other people familiar with the departures who said some staffers had grown demoralized and exhausted defending an onslaught of lawsuits against Trump’s administration.
“Many of these people came to work at Federal Programs to defend aspects of our constitutional system,” said one lawyer who left the unit during Trump’s second term. “How could they participate in the project of tearing it down?”
Liz Dye: Pam Bondi is breaking the DOJ
And will take generations to put it back together.
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Atlantic: The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food
Federal workers warned for months that the high-energy biscuits would go to waste.
(Atlantic more…)
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James Eagle: BRICS reshape world economy
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Here’s what’s stunning: China alone accounts for 70% of BRICS’ economic muscle, making this less a multilateral alliance and more Beijing’s global influence operation with supporting players. Add Indonesia as the newest member and Vietnam joining as a partner, and you’ve got 56% of the world’s population now aligned under the BRICS umbrella. The EU’s share has cratered from 22% to 16% in just two decades.
(James Eagle more…)
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Dispatch: Our Four Political Parties
Elon Musk isn’t trying to start a third party—he’s trying to start a fifth one.
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties