curated news excerpts & citations
Adam Kinzinger: The GOP’s Long Dance With Racism
The leaked Young Republican chat shows a party culture decades in the making
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The bigotry and racism exposed when someone leaked transcripts from a chat group of Young Republicans has much of the country rightly outraged. But not Vice President J.D. Vance. …
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The Vice President makes no sense. First, these young Republicans are not kids. Eight of the eleven in the chat group are between 24 and 35 years old. Not one was under 18. (Vance himself is 41.)
Second, there’s no evidence the racist and anti-Semitic comments (and there are many more than I noted above) were jokes. “I was only kidding” is the refuge of a bigot who just doesn’t want to be held accountable.
Third, there’s something deeply wrong when the Vice President of the United States seems more concerned about racists being “ruined” than the racism itself. This is smoke that tells me there’s a big fire inside the GOP.
As someone who spent most of my life rising in the Republican Party, I always knew there were bigots among us. But I hoped they weren’t more common than in the rest of society. I didn’t hear much from them because they knew I wouldn’t tolerate it. And yes, people on the other side sometimes used racism against me. There are bad apples in every barrel. But as time passed, and I considered the trend inside the party, I recognized that both GOP culture and political strategy have a serious racism problem.
(Adam Kinzinger more…)
Jess Piper: Men Will be Boys. Girls Will be Women.
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Jason Sattler: Fighting Trump Without Becoming Him: Democrats’ Plan?
Subtlety obviously isn’t impressing the party base. They want leaders who match their fury with action, or at least memes.
Democrats have never been this unhappy with their own party, at least not in the last 30 years.
…Still, somehow, this branding nightmare doesn’t mean the party’s future is cooked.
Democrats have pulled ahead of Republicans in party identification for the second time since early 2024, and they also hold a lead on the generic ballot, though a far smaller lead than at a similar point in 2017.
(Jason Sattler more…)Noah Berlatsky: Unity Without Solidarity Is Fascism
Marginalized people are not the barrier to a big tent.
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – October 23, 2025
Julia Ainsley and Didi Martinez of NBC News reported today that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s rush to get new recruits onto the street has meant they have pushed into their training program more than 200 people who have disqualifying criminal backgrounds, fail drug testing, or don’t meet the academic or physical requirements.
…In August, ICE began to offer a $50,000 signing bonus and got rid of its age limits. To fill the ranks, Ainsley and Martinez note, ICE has already shortened its training program from 13 weeks to 6. They report that nearly half of those dismissed from ICE over the past three months could not pass an open-book exam. Others could not run 1.5 miles in less than 14 minutes, 25 seconds, or do 15 push-ups and 32 sit-ups.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Ken Klippenstein: VIDEO: FBI Agents Visit Anti-ICE Protester
“Your name was brought up.”
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Serafini said he didn’t engage in any violence and hasn’t been detained or charged with any crime. But last month’s presidential directive NSPM-7 authorizes federal law enforcement to treat “extremism on migration” as an indicator of terrorism.Under the domestic counter-terrorism cases of the Trump administration, no crime needs to be actually committed for authorities to open an investigation. In fact, NSPM-7 explicitly calls for a preemptive approach where law enforcement intervene in things “before they result in violent political acts.” …
(Ken Klippenstein more…)
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Sojourners: As a Palestinian Pastor, I Can’t Call This ‘Peace’ Plan Justice
… I cannot pretend that this ceasefire, or the so-called “peace” plan that follows it, represents anything close to justice. Last weekend, Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, which killed close to 100 Palestinians and wounded over 200 more. Israel claimed that this breach of the ceasefire was a retaliation for Hamas attacking and killing Israel Defense Force troops in Rafah. But reports indicate that the two IDF casualties were not a result of a Hamas attack, but due to a bulldozer running over an unexploded ordnance. As reported by Al Jazeera, Gaza’s media office alleges that Israel has broken the ceasefire agreement 80 times since it took effect on Oct. 10. Still, despite violent rhetoric from both U.S. and Israeli officials, Hamas told BBC that it remains committed to the ceasefire agreement. The killing of Palestinians continues in large numbers.
(Sojourners more…)
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Al Jazeera: ‘Kill them’: Trump says no Congress nod needed to attack ‘narco-terrorists’
US president says strikes on land to follow US military attacks on suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean, Pacific Ocean.
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Mary Geddry: The Gipper, the Grifter, and the Wrecking Ball
Ronald Reagan warns against tariffs from beyond the grave, Canada packs its bags, and Trump keeps demolishing America, one institution at a time.
(Mary Geddry more…)TNR: Trump Ends All Trade Talks With Canada Over Ad He Doesn’t Like
Donald Trump won’t stop posting about the ad featuring Ronald Reagan.
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WSJ: The UVA Model for a Trump Deal
The public university worked out a plan with no fines or monitors and preserves academic freedom.
Hill: Abbott spooks academia after declaring Texas will go after professors for ‘ideological differences’
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Daily Kos: Trump team goes full racist with timeline of White House history
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Wired: How Hacked Card Shufflers Allegedly Enabled a Mob-Fueled Poker Scam That Rocked the NBA
WIRED recently demonstrated how to cheat at poker by hacking the Deckmate 2 card shufflers used in casinos. The mob was allegedly using the same trick to fleece victims for millions.
(Wired 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
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