curated citations to news sources
Heather Cox Richardson: The Nineteenth Amendment
…as right-wing Christian nationalists supported by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are calling for an end to women’s right to vote, it seems crucial to remember the history of the drive for women’s suffrage in the United States of America
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Jennifer Rubin: The Police State is Here
Miles Taylor: Trump installs czar to oversee U.S. elections
Conspiracy theorist hired for top U.S. “election integrity” job, hinting at broader White House plans to hijack 2026 vote
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – August 26, 2025
Today, for the second time in as many days, President Donald J. Trump suggested that Americans want a dictator. In a meeting in the Cabinet Room that lasted more than three hours, during which he listened to the fulsome praise of his cabinet officers and kept his hands below the table, seemingly to hide the bad bruising on his right hand, Trump said: “The line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.’”
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And yet, for all their talk of dispatching soldiers to combat crime, National Guard troops today were picking up trash in Washington, D.C., and working on dozens of “beautification and restoration” projects.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Borowitz: How NOT to Stop Trump
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Sarah Jones: The Problem with National Guard Tasked with Picking Up Trash in DC
The images and video of troops picking up garbage are bad optics for Trump. They do not scream “strongman”; they scream “wasteful and pathetic attempt to look strong.”
(Sarah Jones more…)Bulwark: Trump Is Strangling the Life Out of D.C.’s Restaurants
“We’re back to a very pandemic-feeling city.”
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BBC: Denmark summons top US diplomat over alleged Greenland influence operation
(BBC more…)Dean Blundell: Denmark Summons U.S. Envoy Over Alleged Covert Ops in Greenland — Does This Brush Up Against NATO’s Article 5?
Looks like Trump is employing Putin’s ENTIRE Playbook…
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Josh Barro: Trump’s War on the Fed is Pointless
His effort to wrest control of the board poses risk to our economy but offers him no great political upside.
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…as we have seen in recent years, inflation is a political disaster for the president who presides over it. Despite this, President Trump appears intent on overstimulating the economy: the signature legislative accomplishment of his term, to date, is a huge fiscal expansion, and he now appears intent on remaking the Federal Reserve Board so that it will be willing to set inappropriately low interest rates. His attempt to fire Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee to the Federal Reserve Board, is just the latest escalation in that effort.Trump likes to be in control and he apparently thinks pushing rates down will cause non-inflationary growth. He identifies as a “low-interest-rate guy” because of his years borrowing to finance real estate development projects. Many of his voters want him to bring back the economy that prevailed during his first term, before COVID, and I’m sure he believes he can do that.
So Trump may attempt to fire and control and strong-arm his way to a 2019 economy, but the problem is that economic circumstances have changed greatly since 2019. The combination of low interest rates and low inflation that prevailed then is not possible in the current environment. …
(Josh Barro more…)
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Bulwark: RFK Jr. Could Blow Up the Vaccine Industry With One Simple Move
A seemingly obscure change to liability laws could wreck the market for some vaccines.
(Bulwark more…)
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Independent: FEMA employees forced on leave after issuing open letter critical of Trump administration
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In the letter, sent Monday, the employees warned that FEMA’s capacity to respond to a major disaster was dangerously diminished. Thirty-five signed their names while 141 signed anonymously for fear of backlash.
(Independent more…)
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Lucian K. Truscott IV: Army of outrage
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Why is it every man and woman for themselves against the enormous fascist power of Trump’s federal government? Shouldn’t there be a 1-800 number you can call if the FBI shows up at your door with a search warrant, or a gang of masked ICE Nazis grabs one of your family members off the street?This is a war. Trump has fielded his army on the streets of Washington D.C., and he has plans to put soldiers on the streets of blue cities all over the country. We need our own army of outrage that is organized to channel the efforts of the many law firms and liberal non-profits that already exist and are engaged in the fight against Trump’s dictatorship. There is power in numbers, but there is even more power when those numbers are added up and organized into a single fighting force.
We’ve got the numbers, and we’ve got the talent, but we’re fighting with one hand tied behind our backs. It’s the hand you raise in the air and motion forward calling out, follow me.
(Lucian K. Truscott IV more…)
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Bill McKibben: A Modest Proposal
What if we just flooded the planet with cheap or even free solar panels?
Normally I try to confine this newsletter to the practical—but sometimes I dream a little. This week, perhaps inspired by my despair at the ongoing brutality emerging from the White House, I’ve been trying my best to conjure up how we might actually build the world we need, fast enough to matter for its people and for its climate.
(Bill McKibben more…)
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Steward Beckham: City States in the Republic
Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit
(Steward Beckham more…)
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Babbage: Intel in Oz
What to make of Intel’s turbulent few weeks?
(Babbage more…)Paul Waldman: Chairman Trump’s Great Grift Forward
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404 Media: Flock Wants to Partner With Consumer Dashcam Company That Takes ‘Trillions of Images’ a Month
That dashcam in your car could soon integrate with Flock, the surveillance company providing license plate data to DHS and local police.
(404 Media more…)
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Decoding Fox News: Trump – Are the Peace Deals in the Room With Us? Also – EPSTEIN!
A condensed overview of 23 hours of Fox News for the week ending 8/24/25
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
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
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