curated news excerpts & citations
James Eagle: What Americans die from and what the media talks about
Americans are far more likely to die from heart disease and cancer than anything else. You would not know it from watching the news. Together these two causes account for more than half of all US deaths, yet they barely register in media coverage. The headlines are dominated instead by rare events such as homicide and terrorism.
(James Eagle more…)
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Liz Dye: CNN shows that when media orgs fight Trump, they win
Take this grift and shove it.
Tuesday was a busy day for Donald Trump at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. At the very moment he was arguing to revive a RICO trollsuit against Hillary Clinton, his effort to revive a defamation trollsuit against CNN got unceremoniously kicked to the curb.
It’s just another day in the life of the world’s most vexatious litigant. It’s also a potent reminder that, when media outlets stand up to the president’s shakedown lawsuits, they always win.
(Liz Dye more…)
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Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz: The Terrifying Problem Of Fraud In Women’s Health
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In most respects, a very standard conference. This one, however, was different to most, because of the subject matter: fraud.Now, I use the term fraud a bit glibly there. Technically, what we’re always talking about is untrustworthy or unreliable research. It is hard for someone looking at a PDF of a study to make a judgement call about what the authors intended to do. Fraud, after all, is deliberate manipulation, and in many cases where you find a problematic piece of research it’s impossible to distinguish intentional fabrication from incompetence or even other problems that can impact scientific research. …
Regardless, in simple terms we were talking about scientific research that is either made up or might as well be—hence the term untrustworthy. It’s a much bigger problem than most people realize. And there’s one place in particular that seems to be taking everyone by surprise—women’s health.
(Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz more…)
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Robert Reich: The real danger to press freedom has nothing to do with Trump’s personal insults
And everything to do with his threats to corporate media’s profits.
(Robert Reich more…)
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AP: China’s diesel trucks are shifting to electric. That could change global LNG and diesel demand
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The surge in sales of electric trucks is cutting diesel use and could reshape future LNG demand, analysts say.Diesel consumption in China, the second-largest consumer of the fuel after the U.S., fell to 3.9 million barrels per day in June 2024, down 11% year-on-year and the largest drop since mid-2021, partly reflecting the shift to LNG and electric trucks, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
(AP more…)
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NewsNation: North Carolina raids have students falling behind, educators warn
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The so-called “Operation Charlotte’s Web” is now in its sixth day, and schools in and around Charlotte and Raleigh reported more than 45,000 absences on Tuesday alone, as raids rattle communities and families fear sending their children to school.
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – November 19, 2025
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Meanwhile, those combing through the files from Epstein’s estate released by the House Oversight Committee last week are turning up more disturbing information. Just a week before his arrest in 2019, Epstein wrote to Trump ally Steve Bannon: “Now you can understand why trump wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when he hears you and I are friends.”Trump’s attempts to distance himself from the horrors around Epstein will not be made easier by news reported yesterday by Robert Faturechi and Avi Asher-Schapiro of ProPublica that the Trump White House intervened to make Customs and Border Protection return the electronic devices they seized from accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan when they arrived in Florida earlier this year. The two have been accused of sex trafficking in Romania and the U.K.
Today Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Department of Justice would release the files within 30 days as the law requires, but suggested the administration might try to bottle up the files because, at Trump’s demand, she opened an investigation into the Democrats named in them. She told reporters that she couldn’t comment on that investigation because “it is a pending investigation.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Jennifer Rubin: Trump is in Full Retreat
A scandal that he inflamed engulfs his presidency
In ordinary political times, cutting off food to poor Americans—including children, seniors, and people with disabilities—would be enough to shake House members’ loyalty to a president of their own party. Murdering people on the high seas without due process or terrorizing American cities would certainly pry loose some support. But none of that—nor kicking tens of millions of Americans off health insurance—has eased Donald Trump’s grip on the MAGA cult. And yet, after all that, the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile ring and the relationship Donald Trump had with the child rapist have finally created a gaping chasm between Trump and his previously docile allies.
No one believes that Trump actually wanted House and Senate Republicans to vote to release the files (with a single dissenting vote in the House) that would clarify what he knew about Epstein and when he knew it; he simply realized the vote would represent a humiliating repudiation of him after days of failed arm-twisting. He went along with the vote, but no one should forget that he could release every scrap of paper without any congressional action.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)Aaron Parnas: Trump and Johnson “Disappointed” and Blindsided by Senate Republicans for Failing to Delay Epstein Files Vote
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Adam Kinzinger: Video: Another Who Left MAGA
Miles Bruner worked for the GOP for a decade. But he finally had enough
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Sarah Jones: They’re Trying to Hide Puppy Killer Kristi Noem’s History of Big Spending on the Taxpayer Dime
Kristi Noem just got busted in a huge spending scandal that echoes another Noem spending scandal Republicans are trying to cover up in South Dakota.
(Sarah Jones more…)
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LAWdork: Judge Boasberg says “justice requires” him to continue contempt inquiry into Trump admin
“I certainly intend to find out what happened on that day,” Boasberg said of the March 15 Alien Enemies Act flights. He plans to begin hearings on Dec. 1.
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NY Times: Trump Loyalist Admits Grand Jury Never Saw Final Comey Indictment
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The most surprising development might have been the government’s admission, first delivered by Mr. Lemons, that Ms. Halligan had never showed the revised indictment in the case — the one that was ultimately used to charge Mr. Comey — to all of the grand jurors. Grand jurors have to vote on indictments to approve them, but Mr. Lemons told Judge Nachmanoff that only the foreperson formally approved the second charging document, a move that could in theory cripple the case.
When Ms. Halligan first went into the grand jury, she had initially sought a three-count indictment against Mr. Comey. And after the grand jurors rejected one of the charges, she did not re-present the case with only two counts, but simply had the original indictment redrafted to reflect the failure of a third.
Judge Nachmanoff seemed stunned by the events, and asked Ms. Halligan to stand up in court to answer questions. He asked her whether the entire grand jury had the opportunity to see the second indictment.
She told him it had not. He thanked her and told her to sit down.
(NY Times more…)Marcy Wheeler: Lindsey the Insurance Lawyer Confesses There Is No Indictment
Above the Law: Lindsey Halligan Officially More Stupid Than You Imagined
This 8647 case is being handled in a very 6-7 manner.
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Todd Blanche is ordering prosecutors not to answer questions from the judge at the same time we’re learning that the government submitted a vibe-backed indictment? Cool, cool, cool.
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NY Times: An F.B.I. Trainee Hung a Pride Flag Near His Desk. He Says He Was Fired for It.
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What he did not expect was the letter he was handed when he arrived at the F.B.I. Academy’s front office.
It was signed by the bureau’s director, Kash Patel, he said, and announced that he was being “summarily dismissed” from the academy because of “political signage” he had once displayed at his work space in Los Angeles. The only thing that could be, he quickly realized, was a rainbow pride flag that had hung near his desk for years and had been given to him as a gift by his former bosses.
On Wednesday, Mr. Maltinsky filed a lawsuit against Mr. Patel and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, claiming that his firing was illegal and asking a federal judge to reinstate him at the academy, where he had been pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a federal agent. He and his lawyers described his dismissal as the latest move by senior F.B.I. officials to play politics with internal personnel moves in a way that has not only damaged morale inside the bureau but has also hindered its ability to carry out its public safety mission.
(NY Times more…)
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Marisa Kabas: NJ GOP congressman’s former staffer charged in staged MAGA attack
Natalie Greene worked for Rep. Jeff Van Drew and had body modifications to make it appear she’d been assaulted.
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NY Times: Lubbock Will Remove Buddy Holly-Themed Crosswalk After Federal Crackdown
A Trump administration directive targeting political road markings has left places like Lubbock, Texas, helpless to challenge broad new policies.
(NY Times more…)
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Decoding Fox News: A Thanksgiving Primer to Help you Deal with Your Fox Loving Relatives
Some fact checking to keep you sane this holiday season.
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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