curated news excerpts & citations
Robert Reich: Our power, our courage, and our resolve
The man who notoriously said in his first campaign for president that he could murder someone on Fifth Avenue without losing a vote is now effectively murdering Americans on the streets of our cities and murdering Venezuelans and Cubans in Caracas and the Caribbean Sea, and doesn’t have to face voters in another presidential election.
He is unconstrained in every other way as well: not subject to congressional oversight because supine Republicans are in control. Not subject to judicial oversight because the Supreme Court has given him a pass. Not subject to international law because the U.N. charter has no teeth.
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We will strive for a nation and a world governed by laws, rules and norms that constrain the powerful, including Trump and his thugs.
We will stop Trump not with violence but with our steadfast dedication to democracy, the rule of law, and social justice. We will stop him with our determination that our children and grandchildren will not live under a dictatorship. We will stop him with our power, our courage, and our resolve.
We will not succumb to despair or doom. We will not become paralyzed with fear. We will not abandon our principles or abdicate our power.
We will win this, but winning is not enough. From the rubble Trump and his thugs are making of our laws and values, we will also rebuild.
We will build an America whose strength comes not from its bombs and bullets but from its moral authority. An America whose greatness comes not from the value of its stock market or the wealth of its billionaires but from laws and values that serve us all.
My friends, we will win and we will rebuild. We have no choice.
(Robert Reich more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – January 11, 2026
The news has seemed to move more and more quickly in the last week.
The story underlying all others is that the United States Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files—the files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the activities of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—no later than December 19, and it has not done so.
…Another part of the backstory of the past week is that the Supreme Court on December 23, 2025, rejected the Trump administration’s argument that it had the power to deploy federalized National Guard troops in and around Chicago, a decision that seemed to limit Trump’s power to use military forces within the United States.
…Yet another part of the backstory is that on New Year’s Eve, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released a 255-page transcript of former special counsel Jack Smith’s December 17 closed-door testimony before the committee. In that testimony—under oath—Smith said that his office had “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.
…With pressure building over the Epstein files and Jack Smith’s testimony, and with the Supreme Court having taken away Trump’s ability to use troops within the United States, the administration went on the offensive.
Only a week ago, on January 3, the military captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. After months of suggesting that he was determined to end what he called “narco-traffickers,” Trump made it clear as soon as Maduro was in hand that he wanted control of Venezuela’s oil.
…On Friday, Trump threatened Greenland, saying that he was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.”
…Yesterday the government made public an executive order President Donald J. Trump signed on Friday, declaring yet another national emergency—his tenth in this term, by my count—and saying that any use of the revenue from the sale of Venezuelan oil to repay the billions of dollars owed to oil companies “will materially harm the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
…Tonight Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he is under federal criminal investigation related to his congressional testimony about a $2.5 billion renovation of historic Federal Reserve buildings. On Friday the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve grand jury subpoenas.
…Kyle Cheney of Politico observed that it is “[h]ard to overstate what a remarkable statement this is from a Republican senator…accusing the Trump White House of weaponizing DOJ to control the Fed.”
Over a picture of the demolished East Wing of the White House, conservative lawyer George Conway noted: “I also must say that it’s a bit rich that Trump and his DOJ think it’s a good idea to gin up a b*it investigation about supposed illegalities in….{checks notes}…renovating a federal building.”
On social media tonight, Trump posted a portrait of himself with the title: “Acting President of Venezuela.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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arsTECHNICA: The oceans just keep getting hotter
For the eighth year in a row, the world’s oceans absorbed a record-breaking amount of heat in 2025.
…“Last year was a bonkers, crazy warming year—that’s the technical term,” Abraham joked to me. “The peer-reviewed scientific term is ‘bonkers’.”
(arsTECHNICA more…)
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Chance Meeting: ICE Out For Good Protest
Lucian K. Truscott IV: ICE is the MAGA militia of Trump’s dreams
I received a notice in my newsfeed this morning that included links to videos of ICE agents arresting, and in several cases, viciously beating American citizens. These videos are hard to watch.
Sarah Jones & Jason Easley: Democrats Force Republicans To Pull ICE Funding Bill
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truthout: Amid Trump’s War on Antifa, Activists Face Arrest for Zines and Group Chats
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Guidelines issued by the White House in September detail how the Trump administration will target and pursue anyone it deems to be motivated by “anti-Americanism, anti-Capitalism, and anti-Christianity” as domestic terrorists. Trump has also designated “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. Those of us who are anti-fascist know that “antifa” simply refers to a collective sense of being anti-fascist and believing that fascism is ultimately a real and present threat to all life. It is not a unified entity or organization. Antifa is a rallying cry, a politic, a historical reference that connects one to a legacy of fighting Nazism in Germany, and fighting other fascists in Italy, Spain, and elsewhere in the 1930s.Texas resident Des Revol, in particular, is being targeted by the Trump administration under these guidelines. He did not attend the July 4 demonstration in Alvarado, Texas, but he was arrested two days afterward after he had a phone call with his wife, who was detained at the noise demonstration. FBI agents stopped him for a traffic violation in Denton, Texas, and took him into custody at gunpoint. Authorities charged him with evidence tampering constituting obstruction of justice as well as conspiracy, alleging he “transported a box that contained numerous Antifa materials” from his residence to another location. This literature — pamphlets and zines commonly found in activist spaces — became the basis for his prosecution. Despite having no connection to the original demonstration, Des faces potential federal imprisonment and additional risks from both immigration enforcement and hostile right-wing groups that have publicly identified him online.
(truthout more…)
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Bulwark: Turns Out the Obamacare Subsidy Extension Was Only Mostly Dead
Last week’s House vote sets up a big fight in the Senate over relief for millions.
THE EFFORT TO RENEW those enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies has come back to life. Again.
The House on Thursday passed a “clean” three year-extension, meaning the extra subsidies that expired on December 31 would restart and remain in place through the end of 2028 with no adjustments to the formula. The aid would be retroactive to January 1, providing some belated relief for the more than 20 million Americans whose insurance got more expensive once the extra subsidies lapsed.
(Bulwark more…)
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ABC News: DOJ launches criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, he says
In an extraordinary escalation of a months-long attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve, federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, he confirmed in a statement Sunday night.
The investigation is related to Powell’s testimony earlier this year about the multi-year renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings, Powell said in a video message released by the Fed.
But Powell says it’s clear the investigation is ultimately part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s increasingly hostile push to pressure the Fed to lower interest rates.
(ABC News more…)WSJ: For Years, Powell Avoided Fighting Trump. That’s Over.
Fortune: ‘Sell America’: Investors dump U.S. assets in fear of the end of Fed independence
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: COVID, Flu, & Health News, 1/11/2026
(Ruth Ann Crystal MD more…)
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Thom Hartmann: Chapter 8: The Heist of Democracy
Your weekly excerpt from one of my books. This week: “The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink”
(Thom Hartmann more…)
Black Music Sunday: Remembering Howlin’ Wolf
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
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