curated news excerpts & citations
Bulwark: Trump’s Targeting of ‘Narcoterrorists’ Is a Crime in Itself
THE UNITED STATES IS ENGAGED in summary executions on the high seas. That bald fact is being obscured by talk of drug interdiction and war powers and whether we’re certain the drugs on those boats were headed for the United States or somewhere else.
Let’s be clear. Even if we knew for certain that the boats being destroyed in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific 1) contained illegal drugs; 2) those drugs were headed for our shores; and 3) all on board were criminals, it would still be grossly illegal and immoral to blast them out of the water as we have now done some 14 reported times, killing 61 people. This is not drug enforcement. This is murder.
Drug trafficking is bad. It is a crime. But it is only very rarely a capital offense. In fact, no criminal in the United States has been sentenced to death for drug crimes that did not also include homicide since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1988. But the crucial thing to keep in mind is that the criminals involved were captured, charged, and tried. That’s what a law-abiding nation does.
The only time you can legally use lethal military force is when Congress has specifically granted authority against an enemy state or entity, or when American forces are attacked and act in self-defense. It was not illegal for American sailors to shoot back at Japanese planes on December 7, 1941. But we are not at war with “narcoterrorists.” That simply isn’t a thing, even if President Donald Trump has stated that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. Those words are without legal effect.
The “war on drugs” is a metaphor. Or was. …
(Bulwark more…)
UN News: US strikes in Caribbean and Pacific breach international law, says UN rights chief
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Bill McKibben: Climate Gates
I feel quite strongly that we should pay less attention to billionaires—indeed that’s rather the point of this small essay—so let me acknowledge at the outset that there is something odd about me therefore devoting an edition of this newsletter to replying to Bill Gates’ new missive about climate. But I fear I must, if only because it’s been treated as such important news by so many outlets—far more, say, than covered the UN Secretary General’s same-day appeal to international leaders that began with a forthright statement of the science. Here’s Antonio Guterres:
The truth is that we have failed to avoid an overshooting above 1.5C in the next few years. And that going above 1.5C has devastating consequences. Some of these devastating consequences are tipping points, be it in the Amazon, be it in Greenland, or western Antarctica or the coral reefs.’
Slate: Respectfully, Bill Gates Should Shut Up
The tech billionaire used to be a fierce climate advocate. What changed?
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Jennifer Rubin: Lesser Known Undaunted Heroes
Ordinary Americans defend neighbors against MAGA brutality and lawlessness
This space usually features prominent, public figures who have distinguished themselves in their defense of the rule of law, democracy, decency, truth, and other values the MAGA regime attacks. But especially this week, the work of ordinary Americans standing up in defense of their neighbors in the face of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)’s harassment, brutality, and lawlessness underscored how critical grassroots defiance is to democracy’s survival.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – October 31, 2025
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Neguse called out the dynamic in which observers refuse to hold President Donald J. Trump and MAGA Republicans to account and instead demand Democrats step in to fix whatever crisis is at hand. “The basis for your question is, and maybe the better way to state it would be, if the Trump administration continues to violate the law, if the Trump administration unlawfully refuses to release funds so that families in Colorado don’t go hungry, if the Trump administration refuses to follow the law, as they have for the better course of the last nine months, violating statute after statute, if in that scenario these actions unfold, then how will Democrats respond?” Neguse answered.“That [in] my view would be a more fair characterization of the question that you’ve posed,” Neguse continued, “because it does feel a little bit like we’re in the Twilight Zone here with an administration that is lawless, violates the law with impunity, is now doing so with respect to the release of funds for families that may go hungry.”
Neguse noted that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has kept the House of Representatives from conducting business since mid-September, sending members back to their home districts. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Egberto Willies: Beyond the choir: Let’s stop doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different results
You don’t have to but some of us must engage those we should abhor because of their ideological stance. This countries survival depends on it.
…While many castigate me—” Egberto, we need to expend that energy on getting out our own vote,” they say—I disagree. We must do both. The sad reality is that sometimes it is easier to flip a person who has a propensity to vote than to count on those who generally do not vote. And again, the pain Trump is inflicting on voting MAGA has opened cracks to give us entry if we choose to go in.
I choose to visit their space, engaging respectfully and civilly without compromising my progressive values, as I lay out a clear path for them to realize that the policies we support are more in line with their wants and needs than the polarized visions they have. This action is not mutually exclusive from informing and activating our own base.
(Egberto Willies more…)
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NY Times: The Debate Dividing the Supreme Court’s Liberal Justices
Outnumbered and facing vast stakes, Justices Kagan and Jackson are split over the best approach: investing in diplomacy inside the court or sounding the alarm outside.
On a yearslong campaign to sway her conservative colleagues, Justice Elena Kagan has mostly refrained from harshly criticizing them. But two years ago she briefly let her discipline slip.
(NY Times more…)
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emptywheel: Lindsey the Insurance Lawyer’s Disappearing Agreement to a Litigation Hold
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Undark: Inside the Marketplace for Vaccine Medical Exemptions
The organization Frontline Health Advocates provides medical exemption notes — for a fee. What exactly are they selling?
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Bloomberg: The World’s Secret Electricity Superusers Revealed
Data centers have caught a lot of heat for their electricity use. But there’s another sector that’s an electricity superuser, yet has largely escaped scrutiny.
Today’s newsletter pulls back the curtain on industrial gas manufacturers’ energy use. Plus, we have a Hurricane Melissa update and look at how the death of US residential solar tax credits is spurring a huge rush to get panels on roofs.
(Bloomberg more…)
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LAWdork: Trump admin ordered to distribute SNAP benefits, using contingency fund
A pair of rulings both found the effort to suspend SNAP payments is likely illegal, with one judge issuing a TRO on Friday.
(LAWdork more…)
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Above the Law: New Trump Rule Declares Most Public Service Work ‘Illegal,’ Ineligible For Loan Forgiveness
Don’t fall for their nonsense, this is a broadside against public service.
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NewsNation: GOP lawmakers question ‘long-term fairness’ of trade boost to Argentinian beef
McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A letter sent by over a dozen GOP lawmakers questions the “long-term fairness” by the Trump administration to allow Argentina to quadruple its exports of beef to the United States at a time when Texas and other U.S. cattle ranchers are struggling, Border Report has learned.
(NewsNation more…)
Trump Action Tracker
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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