curated news excerpts & citations
Joyce Vance: What Happens When The Government Loses Its Credibility: The Comey Prosecution
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The burden a defendant in a criminal case has to meet for a judge to make an order like this one is very high, because protecting grand jury secrecy is essential to protecting the integrity of the process. The Judge notes that a defendant has to show that “‘particularized and factually based grounds exist to support the proposition that irregularities in the grand jury proceedings may create a basis for dismissal of the indictment,’” and that the “‘burden [cannot] be satisfied with conclusory or speculative allegations of misconduct.’” That suggests that Comey’s lawyers came forward with information of compelling significance.
(Joyce Vance more…)
Law & Crime: Letitia James pleads with judge for crucial discovery of Trump admin communications as she details ‘illegal and unethical’ origins of bank fraud case
RawStory: ‘Meritless’: Trump’s CNN lawsuit over ‘big lie’ struck down by his own judges
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Washington Post: Trump defends Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi killing
The de facto Saudi ruler was branded an outcast after the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Now, U.S.-Saudi relations are approaching a high point.
(Washington Post more…)Steven Beschloss: Trump Excuses Murder and Blames the Victim
Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, culpable for the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi, enjoyed a warm welcome to Trump’s White House
Karen Attiah: Jamal Khashoggi Will Haunt Mohammed Bin Salman Forever
The Saudi crown prince accused of ordering the murder of my friend and Washington Post writer gets the (blood) red carpet treatment.
Jeff Tiedrich: ‘things happen’ — because bone saws, they’re so unpredictable
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Jess Piper: Raise Your Hand
Long story short, I tried to contact my State Rep for several weeks after he voted to ban abortion with no exemptions for rape or incest or life of the mother. I called and emailed and texted and sent DMs and tagged him in posts and even wrote a Letter to the Editor in our local paper to no avail.
After several weeks, I had an idea — I asked my husband to call our Representative. My husband received a call from our Representative in 20 minutes.
The call I had been waiting weeks to get.
My Rep did end up calling me after my husband insisted, and this is the part that always elicits gasps and groans when I retell the story: my Rep told me 1) He didn’t have to talk to me, and 2) He was calling me out of a favor to my husband.
(Jess Piper more…)
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RawStory: GOP sends ‘menacing texts’ to voters ordering them to un-sign petition: report
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Missouri is one of a handful of Republican-controlled states that redrew their maps in a demand from Trump. However, voting rights activists responded by gathering signatures for a ballot measure to repeal it. If that measure qualifies, the altered map is automatically suspended until and unless voters approve it.
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Texas Tribune: Federal court blocks Texas from using new congressional gerrymander in 2026 midterms
LAWdork: Court blocks Texas’s mid-decade redistricting, finding it likely unconstitutional, with DOJ largely to blame
“DOJ Asked Texas to Engage in Unlawful Racial Gerrymandering,” Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote for the 2-1 majority. Texas is appealing to the Supreme Court.
Yunior Rivas: Trump DOJ’s ‘Ham-Fisted’ Letter Key to Ruling Blocking Texas Gerrymander
Slate: Republicans Are Suing to Kill California’s Pro-Democratic Gerrymander. They Have a Huge Problem.
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ProPublica: How ProPublica Investigated a Bird Flu Outbreak in America’s Heartland
Early this year, bird flu ripped through 80 farms in Ohio and Indiana. Using genetic markers, wind simulations, satellite imagery, property records and more, we found that the virus could’ve been airborne.
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Daily Beast: Trump Sends Unhinged Message to Americans Worried About Rising Prices
LUCKY YOU!
The president told McDonald’s execs the country would be “bankrupt” without him.
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Jennifer Rubin: The Epstein scandal…er…Trump coverup scandal
Last week, the “Epstein scandal” took center stage once again. But that terminology is such an antiseptic way to describe the fallout from a pedophile ring that victimized hundreds of children and Donald Trump’s gob-smacking efforts to cover up the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Moreover, the present scandal is not about Epstein, but rather about other men who may be named in the documents, the financial institutions that enabled Epstein, and most of all, Trump’s role in perpetuating the conspiracy of silence and non-accountability.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)Brian Allen: “National Security” Blocks the Jeffrey Epstein Files — Here’s What It Really Means
Snopes: DOJ staffer told undercover date the department would ‘redact every Republican’ from Epstein files
Joyce Vance: “Quiet Piggy!”
That’s how the President of the United States addressed a journalist who was just doing her job on Air Force One. Catherine Lucey, the White House correspondent for Bloomberg, asked Donald Trump about releasing the Epstein files. In response, Trump leaned forward, slashing an accusatory finger her direction and barked, “Quiet! Quiet Piggy,” at her.
…The New York Times’ Glenn Thrush noted that, “Just 217 minutes elapsed between Mr. Trump’s command on Friday morning that she [Bondi] investigate prominent Democrats like Bill Clinton who were named in documents Congress obtained from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate and Ms. Bondi’s announcement that she had referred the matter to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.” Why open a case after the July announcement that there was nothing left to investigate, which came in the wake of a thorough investigation by the SDNY, the successful prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, and the announcement that the investigation was closed? Why indeed.
It’s a dodge, of course. Trump is safe in the knowledge that he could take the publicly popular position on release of the files, watch it pass the House and Senate, as it did tonight, and count on his lawyers at the Justice Department, with their newly refreshed investigation open, to decline to release files, or at least parts of them he wants withheld.
…I keep coming back to the Joseph McCarthy moment where the red-baiting senator was finally asked, “Have you no decency,” and his cult of personality burst. “Quiet, Piggy.” We shouldn’t forget that the president of the United States uttered those words in this moment. At a time when women were fighting for justice, the man who cut himself out of the investigation into wrongdoing had that to say about a woman who was simply trying to do her job.
Portland has reclaimed the frog as a symbol of its resistance to Trump’s efforts to militarize the city. Perhaps women should claim the glamorous, sassy Muppet Miss Piggy, a known diva with a fierce karate chop, as their own symbol. Call a woman a piggy, and see how that goes for you, Mr. President. Enough demeaning of women. Signing the Epstein Files bill when it hits his desk, which Trump has promised to do, won’t be enough. The files have to be released, no excuses. It’s time to emulate the great Miss Piggy, who has never stayed quiet in the face of those who don’t respect her.
(Joyce Vance more…)Dean Obeidallah: Trump trashing female reporters was despicable. The other reporters not standing up to Trump was inexcusable
Corporate media failed us again
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – November 18, 2025
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On November 19, 1863, about fifteen thousand people gathered in Gettysburg for the dedication ceremony. A program of music and prayers preceded Everett’s two-hour oration. Then, after another hymn, Lincoln stood up to speak. Packed in the midst of a sea of frock coats, he began. In his high-pitched voice, speaking slowly, he delivered a two-minute speech that redefined the nation.“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” Lincoln began. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Gil Duran: Silicon Valley’s Extortion Letter to Democrats
In an unusual op-ed in the Washington Post, a former Palantir official named Wendy R. Anderson warns Democrats: bow down to Silicon Valley oligarchs or lose the future:
A political coalition is forming around the people turning America’s technological innovation into national strength—and Democrats must decide whether to lead it or lose it.
Silicon Valley, writes Anderson, is drifting away from the Democratic Party “not because of ideology, but because the party is not seen as capable of transforming innovation into strategic advantage.”
(Gil Duran more…)![[Screenshot from nytimes.com]](https://kewus.net/yesterday/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot_2025-11-18_at_4.42.17_PM.avif "[Screenshot from nytimes.com]")
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Marisa Kabas: Moral rot in elite journalism is killing the whole field
The Nuzzi/RFK Jr. mess and the revelation of Esptein’s journo pals lay bare a profound moral absence at the heart of our free press.
The news of journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s affair with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the married former presidential candidate and current quack Secretary of Health and Human Services, shook both the journalism and politics worlds when it broke in September 2024. Over the following year the story moved to the back-burner as a madman was allowed back in the White House to literally destroy it. But in the past week we’ve been reminded of this saga as Nuzzi promotes her tell-all book, her ex-fiance hits back, and even side characters try to get some attention.
(Marisa Kabas more…)
GriftMatrix
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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