curated news excerpts & citations
Steward Beckham: Christmas Strikes in Nigeria
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But the narrative that Christians are uniquely or singularly targeted in Nigeria, while politically effective, is at best a half-truth. NPR’s Emmanuel Akinwotu reports from Benue State, which is a region often dubbed Nigeria’s breadbasket, and revealed that the violence afflicting farming communities is deeply tied to resource conflict. Herders, many of whom are Fulani and Muslim, need grazing land for their cattle. Farmers, predominantly Christian, need land for their crops. Climate change, population growth, and land degradation have turned what were once localized disputes into large-scale violent clashes. Terrorist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have exploited this chaos, piggybacking on grievances to pursue broader agendas. But to reduce this to a simple Christian-versus-Muslim genocide ignores the structural realities and intercommunal complexities driving the conflict.
To understand the gravity of this U.S. strike, it helps to step back and consider the historical arc of Nigeria–U.S. relations.
(Steward Beckham more…)
Reuters: Nigeria averts unilateral US action by cooperating on airstrikes
NY Times: Facts Clash With Trump Claim of Hitting ISIS and Shielding Nigerian Christians
NewsNation: Texas, Florida lead GOP battle against Muslim advocacy groups
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James Eagle: China is pulling away in power generation
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I keep coming back to how unglamorous this is. People argue about models, chips and geopolitics, but the constraint is often a transformer, a substation, a planning committee meeting that runs out of time. The future is built in spreadsheets and permits, not speeches.
(James Eagle more…)Verge: Trump’s war on offshore wind faces another lawsuit
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – December 26, 2025
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So, the justices concluded, “before the President can federalize the Guard…, he likely must have “statutory or constitutional authority to execute the laws with the regular military and must be ‘unable’ with those forces to perform that function. At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois. The President has not invoked a statute that provides an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Hill: Nursing homes are about to get a lot worse, thanks to Trump and RFK Jr.
For years, families assumed that if a loved one lived in a nursing home, someone qualified was always watching. Not just anyone, either — a registered nurse. Someone trained to recognize a change in condition, to intervene when minutes matter, to prevent a crisis before it starts.
That assumption is about to disappear.
Beginning Feb. 2, 2026, the federal requirement that nursing homes maintain a registered nurse on-site around the clock will no longer exist. It was a straightforward, common-sense rule created under the Biden administration. A 24/7 nurse presence meant residents were less likely to be left in medical limbo while an overworked or undertrained staff member tried to decide whether something was “urgent.” It meant quicker intervention for strokes, sepsis, respiratory failure and the countless complications that define elder care. It meant accountability in facilities where staffing has been a chronic problem for decades.
As of Dec. 2, 2025, that requirement has been repealed by President Trump and the secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. …
(Hill more…)
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Nate Silver: The 51 biggest American political moments of the 21st century
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Brian Allen: The Paper DOGE Didn’t Want You to Read
Internal data shows DOGE was far less likely to cancel contracts with companies that donated to Republicans than with companies that donated to Democrats.
When the Trump administration created the Department of Government Efficiency, it sold DOGE as a neutral instrument, a scalpel meant to cut waste, fraud, and inefficiency from federal contracting. What Bellodi and Lee document instead is something far more dangerous: a procurement apparatus that systematically punished Democratic-aligned firms while shielding Republican donors from cancellation.This was not ideological speculation. It was empirical.
(Brian Allen more…)
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Bulwark: The President Is a Pirate
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Sarah Jones & Jason Easley: The Trump Administration Disgraces Christmas With Racism
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Here is how Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s deportation agenda, says he spent Christmas:Watched the Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas with my kids. Imagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the third world.
The only thing more transparent than Miller’s xenophobia is his ignorance.
Both Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were first-generation children of immigrants.
The families of Martin and Sinarta were the very same people that Miller and the Trump administration are attempting to remove or keep out of the United States. Perry Como was also a first-generation child of immigrants.
(Sarah Jones & Jason Easley more…)
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Brian Allen: Inside Trump’s Pardon Bazaar
How Presidential Clemency Became a Multi-Million-Dollar Marketplace
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Dan Rather: Redacting The Truth
Nothing to see here, or so Trump wants you to think
Joyce Vance: He Looks Like A Witness To Me
RawStory: Trump DOJ’s new Epstein claim fact-checked by ex-prosecutor — using Kash Patel’s own words
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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