curated news excerpts & citations
Anne Applebaum: The Biggest Tent
To defeat autocracy in America, we need as many different people campaigning in as many different places as possible
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Ezra Klein has argued this week that the Democratic party should embrace the Spanberger and Sherill victories, not in opposition to the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor race, but alongside it. In his New York Times video essay, Klein argues that winning back the House or even Congress in the midterms next year—and the White House in 2028—is not about moving left or right, but about expanding the party’s tent to make room for radically different candidates who can win in both urban America and rural America.
I agree. In fact, I would add that when countries have successfully beaten back authoritarianism, they have often done so by building wide coalitions. …
(Anne Applebaum more…)
Rebecca Solnit: In 2025 We Showed Up: Notes on Resistance to the Regime
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Sunday Times of London: Deep in the Amazon, three sisters fight for the last uncontactable tribes
At one point these women were the only Juma left. Now they’re defending a way of life from mining and MAGA
Deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest is a tribe of three sisters. The only single man was killed by a jaguar and when the women’s father, Aruká, the chief of the Juma people, died of Covid in 2021, most people assumed that was the end of the tribe.
The New York Times ran an obituary for what it said was “the last man of the tribe” and when Boreá Juma, the eldest sister, assumed the chiefdom and spoke at a meeting of local indigenous leaders, she was shouted down. “Your tribe is extinct!” she was told.
“They don’t listen to us because we are few and we are women,” she said.
…Government officials from around the world (though not the Trump administration) will gather in the Amazonian city of Belem this week for Cop30, the United Nations climate conference, where ending global deforestation is one of the key pledges to reduce carbon emissions and a tropical forest fund will be launched.
…A report by Survival International, the London-based indigenous rights organisation, revealed that there were 196 uncontacted groups worldwide, far more than previously thought, of which 124 were living in the Brazilian Amazon. The report warned half could be wiped out within ten years.
…Funai uses the expression indios isolados, or isolated Indians, rather than uncontacted. Daniel Cangussu, co-ordinator of the local protection front for Funai, said: “There is no such thing as uncontacted Indians. They are all aware of the outside world but are choosing to hide themselves as they have seen what happens to those who make contact. The tendency is for more and more to isolate themselves.”
(Sunday Times of London more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – November 10, 2025
In order to pressure the Democrats to cave to Trump’s demands that they sign on to the House Republicans’ continuing resolution to fund the government, the administration has been refusing to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that 42 million Americans depend on to eat.
…Tonight, the news is swirling about Democratic senators agreeing to a deal to end the government shutdown, but so far, the contours of such an agreement are not clear.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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NY Times: Trump Administration Demands States ‘Undo’ Work to Send Full Food Stamps
In late-night guidance, the Agriculture Department also threatened financial penalties against states.
The Trump administration told states that they must “immediately undo” any actions to provide full food stamp benefits to low-income families, in a move that added to the chaos and uncertainty surrounding the nation’s largest anti-hunger program during the government shutdown.
(NY Times more…)LAWdork: DOJ says full SNAP payments were “unauthorized,” as USDA directs states to “undo” them
ABC: In SNAP appeal, Trump administration says it faces more harm than people who can’t buy food: ANALYSIS
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The opening sentence asserts that “the district court’s order threatens significant and irreparable harm to the government which outweighs any claimed injury to plaintiffs.”In plain English, the Justice Department is telling the court that it would hurt the federal government more to comply with a judge’s order requiring full food stamp payments than it would hurt millions of low-income Americans to potentially starve.
Hill: Appeals court refuses to block full SNAP payments
A federal appeals court late Sunday rejected the Trump administration’s bid to halt an order requiring full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments during the government shutdown.
…The payments remain on temporary hold under a Friday night ruling from Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, but the appeals court’s decision begins a 48-hour clock for Jackson’s hold to expire.
(Hill more…)
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Hans Christensen: German Food Banks Feed 37,000 US Soldiers
The record-breaking long shutdown by the Trump administration is now forcing US soldiers stationed in Germany and elsewhere abroad to collect food and necessities for themselves and their families at charitable food banks.
The shutdown has eliminated salaries for civil servants or placed them on compulsory leave. Specifically for them, the German government has temporarily stepped in and provided funding to pay civilian US military employees in Germany.
There are approximately 37,000 US soldiers stationed in Germany, including those at Ramstein Air Base and at the Bavarian garrisons. They face continued uncertainty about November wages because of the protracted US closedown and dispute over government funding. The same is obviously the case for US personnel stationed in other countries in Europe and around the world.
The local newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau wrote yesterday:
American troops stationed in Germany are suffering under the record-breaking shutdown. The US Army had officially referred its soldiers to food banks and food sharing initiatives [but the advice was later withdrawn because of embarrassment]. No salary payment has been received since 1 October.
The precarious situation has prompted the US Army Garrison Bavaria to take an unprecedented step: On its official website, it published a guide for affected soldiers – with information on German welfare organizations. Specifically mentioned were Tafel Deutschland (the German food bank), the organization “Essen für Alle” (Food for All), and Foodsharing. For the world’s largest military power, this is a humiliating situation: The guide explains in detail that Tafel Deutschland distributes food to people living in poverty and has “more than 970 local food banks.”
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Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Hawaii evictions loom as federal shutdown persists
An Oahu family headed by parents who are both working without pay for the shuttered federal government was evicted in the final days of October, and the Mediation Center of the Pacific expects more to follow as the country last week set a record for the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The parents wanted to negotiate a new rent agreement with their landlord, who instead went to District Court and had them evicted, according to Tracey Wiltgen, executive director of the Mediation Center.
(Honolulu Star-Advertiser more…)
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Atlantic: Why I Am Resigning
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed me as a federal judge. I was 38 years old. At the time, I looked forward to serving for the rest of my life. However, I resigned Friday, relinquishing that lifetime appointment and giving up the opportunity for public service that I have loved.
My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.
(Atlantic more…)
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: COVID, Respiratory Illnesses & Health News, 11/9/25
Your Local Epidemiologist: Infant formula botulism cluster, black box warning for HRT, flu is waking up, new blood pressure guidelines, and 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
