curated news excerpts & citations
James Eagle: Solar power keeps proving the experts wrong
Every revolution begins quietly, then suddenly looks inevitable. Solar power was once dismissed as expensive and unreliable, but it has spent the past decade proving every sceptic wrong. Forecasts that once looked bold now look timid. With more than 600 gigawatts added in 2024 alone, solar has become the fastest-growing and cheapest source of electricity on the planet.
Nowhere is that transformation more visible than in Europe. Spain’s vast sunlight and Germany’s relentless investment have pushed both countries to record solar generation. Even in the cloudier north, solar is becoming central to the power grid rather than a marginal addition. It’s proof that technology, policy and persistence can bend the limits of geography itself.
(James Eagle more…)
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Rook T. Winchester: Starving America on Purpose
There are breadlines in America again. Not the sepia-toned kind from history books, but fresh, pixel-perfect misery: thousands of people standing in the cold, waiting for a box of pasta and canned beans while the self-proclaimed “greatest country in the world” bleeds dignity on the sidewalk. The air smells like diesel, exhaustion, and the cheap coffee being passed around to volunteers who haven’t slept since the last distribution run. It’s 2025, and the soup line has returned — rebranded as “community relief.”
And once again, the common denominator is the same malignant strain of political cruelty that keeps resurrecting itself like a virus we refuse to eradicate. Call it fiscal conservatism, call it Christian nationalism, call it MAGA — it’s all the same damn thing: a theology of punishment disguised as governance.
This time, there’s no pandemic to blame. No act of God. The suffering is policy — a fully human, deliberately engineered hunger crisis. Trump’s government has weaponized austerity like an art form, cutting food assistance with one hand while handing tax breaks to billionaires with the other. He calls it efficiency. His cronies call it patriotism. Economists call it suicide. The rest of us just call it evil.
(Rook T. Winchester more…)
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Robert Reich: The True Test of our Progress
Trump has put America into reverse
…Eighty-eight years ago, in his Second Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt told America that “the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – November 5, 2025
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“In this new age we make for ourselves,” Mamdani said, “we will refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another…. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too.”Mamdani, who is Muslim, promised to “build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism. Where the more than 1 million Muslims know that they belong—not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Marisa Kabas: Mayor Mamdani redefines what it means to hope
His victory has created a harsh contrast between the world we want and the world we have.
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But unlike past moments of resurgence—the 2018 midterms, for example—it’s hard to feel that same unbridled joy. Part of it, I think, is that we’ve simply seen too much this year; witnessed enough cruelty for a lifetime. The other part is that some of this hard-won joy is being matched with such extreme hate and fear that it casts a vicious pall on the spirit of celebration.
(Marisa Kabas more…)
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Conversation: Zohran Mamdani’s transformative child care plan builds on a history of NYC social innovations
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Of all of Mamdani’s campaign commitments, free high-quality child care for every New Yorker from 6 weeks to 5 years old – while boosting child care workers’ wages to match that of the city’s public school teachers – could be the most transformative.
(Conversation more…)Fast Company: Zohran Mamdani actually won two elections
New York City’s new mayor-elect also won a fighting chance to enact his ambitious housing agenda.
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Liz Dye and Joseph Dye: 5 Dem victories you missed while celebrating Mamdani’s win
Rebecca Crosby, Noel Sims, and Judd Legum: Six election results that didn’t make the headlines
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Noah Berlatsky: The GOP War Over Which Jews to Hate
Left Jews? Or all of them?
… I think it’s clarifying to recognize that the current skirmish in the GOP is not really about whether antisemitism is acceptable in the GOP. Rather, it’s about who you’re allowed to use antisemitism against.
(Noah Berlatsky more…)Boing Boing: Heritage Foundation staff resign over leader’s defense [of] Nick Fuentes
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Intercept: YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations
The tech giant deleted the accounts of three prominent Palestinian human rights groups — a capitulation to Trump sanctions.
(Intercept more…)
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Miles Taylor: Why Trump is worried about last night
Dems didn’t become “more socialist” — they tacked toward the center, which is their key to defeating MAGA.
(Miles Taylor more…)WSJ: Trump Really Was on the Ballot
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Joyce Vance: What the Frogs Know
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Borowitz: Trump Flees to Argentina
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
