curated news excerpts & citations
Jason Easley: Inept Republican Senate Majority Leader Demands Democrats Reopen Government He Controls
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) demanded that Democrats reopen the federal government that he and his party control.
The difference between John Thune and Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader is that McConnell refuses to sell out the Senate’s independence to Trump. Thune abandoned the Senate’s status as part of a coequal branch of the government.
Republicans keep trying to blame Democrats for the government shutdown when poll after poll shows that their strategy is not working, but since this is what Trump told them to do, Republicans keep failing.
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Sen. Thune could announce today that he is bringing the Senate back into session tomorrow to vote to change the rules to require 51 votes to pass the House CR.
Thune can do that, and he could do it very easily, because Republicans have total control of the federal government.
This is a Republican shutdown.
(Jason Easley more…)
Your Local Epidemiologist: The shutdown’s impact on health, RSV is stirring, Covid-19 vaccines finally given green light, deadly pasta outbreak, and lots of good news!
Fortune: America saw ‘essentially no job growth’ last month, warns Moody’s, and any roles added were in three wealthy states
… “Also of note, the job growth last month was almost exclusively in California, New York, and Massachusetts” …
Sarah Jones: As Trump Attacks America Your Job is to Fill the Space
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International Business Times UK: Trey Reed Case Update: Kaepernick-Funded Autopsy Confirms It Wasn’t Suicide — What Really Happened?
With new findings of blunt force trauma, the death of Trey Reed demands answers about transparency, accountability, and the fight for justice in Mississippi.
(International Business Times UK more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – October 5, 2025
On Friday the Minnesota Star Tribune reported a conversation on the messaging app Signal between one of Stephen Miller’s top deputies, Anthony Salisbury, and a senior advisor to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Patrick Weaver. Stephen Miller is the deputy White House chief of staff and is widely identified as the figure directing the administration’s attacks on immigrants and diversity initiatives.
Salisbury was in Minnesota to attend a funeral. His Signal chat was clearly visible to bystanders, one of whom provided images of it to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The two men were discussing a plan to deploy the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to Portland, Oregon. Since World War I, the elite 82nd Airborne has specialized in parachute assaults into hostile areas.
…This conversation raises the question of how involved Trump is in the decisions his administration is making about the use of the military. On September 29, Hugo Lowell of The Guardian reported that Miller has taken the lead in the administration’s strikes on boats in the Caribbean, vessels the administration claims are Venezuelan drug boats although it has offered no evidence either to lawmakers or to the public for that claim.
…As Dan Froomkin spelled out last week in Press Watch, Trump has been focused on the misguided idea that Portland, Oregon, is a war zone ever since he apparently watched a September 4 Fox News Channel special report that passed off footage from the violence of 2020 as happening now. …
…Both California and Oregon asked Judge Immergut to stop the Trump administration from taking this end-run around her initial ruling. Tonight, Judge Immergut held an emergency hearing on the administration’s deployment of National Guard troops from California to Oregon. She forbade the deployment of any federalized National Guard troops from any state to Oregon for 14 days.
After staying out of the public eye since his performance last Tuesday in front of the nation’s top military leaders and the press conference later that day, Trump spoke to sailors in Norfolk, Virginia, today. The president arrived an hour late and delivered a meandering, political address much like the one he gave on Tuesday.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Steven Beschloss: Stephen Miller and Donald Trump Want War
Judd Legum: How federal agents are terrorizing American citizens
Yahoo: Chicago Police Officers Struggle to Keep Eyes Open as Tear Gas Used During Anti-ICE Protests
(Yahoo more…)Mary Geddry: Trump’s Red Queen Weekend
From Portland to the Fed to the DOJ, judges and prosecutors told him no, and still he storms around shouting “off with their heads!”
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Jack Hopkins: Congress: They Know He’s Dangerous. They Enable Him Anyway.
(Jack Hopkins more…)
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Verge: Jane Goodall’s death triggered the premiere of Netflix’s new show
“Absolutely there are people I don’t like, and I would like to put them on one of Musk’s spaceships and send them all off to the planet he’s sure he’s going to discover … He’d be the host … Along with Musk would be Trump … And then I would put Putin in there. And I would put President Xi. I’d certainly put Netanyahu in there, and his far-right government. Put them all on that spaceship and send them off.” – Jane Goodall
(Verge more…)
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Bulwark: Illegal Immigrants Are Already Getting Health Care Under Donald Trump
The program financing ER care for illegal immigrants has been around for four decades, and not even Trump wants to take it away.
(Bulwark more…)
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: COVID & Health News, 10/5/25
According to JP Weiland, there are about 510,000 new COVID infections daily with about 1 in 66 people currently infected in the U.S. Michael Hoerger’s calculations state that there are about 743,000 new infections daily also with 1 in 66 Americans currently infected. …
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James Eagle: Germany doubles down on defence
(James Eagle more…)
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
