Yesterday’s News 2026 01 31

curated news excerpts & citations

Joyce Vance: Today Fulton County, Tomorrow???

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The most important question in 2026 is whether the midterm elections will be free and fair. And these developments go to the heart of that. If Trump gets away with seizing Fulton County’s ballots from the 2020 election, there is no reason to believe it will stop there. He will try to do it everywhere he thinks it might benefit him. For him, it’s not about the will of the voters; it’s about what he wants.

Last night, after news that the FBI was executing the search warrant broke, Donald Trump posted this on Truth Social.

Stolen Election. Obama. Cash to Iran. Hacked voting machines. Flipping votes from Trump to Biden. China. The Big Lie is back on—just in time for the midterm elections.

(Joyce Vance more…)

Heather Delaney Reese: Trump’s plan to win the election before a single vote is cast

Democracy Docket: DOJ’s legal machinery to subvert the 2026 election is already in place

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What was surprising was that the warrant did not originate from federal prosecutors in Georgia or Washington, D.C. Instead, it was sought by Thomas Albus, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.
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Unfortunately, according to Bloomberg News, the reason is far more straightforward — and far more dangerous for free and fair elections.
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Essentially, the White House and Attorney General Pam Bondi are creating the equivalent of special counsels — but without insulation from political influence. In this instance, Albus has reportedly been empowered to investigate election-integrity cases nationwide.
(Democracy Docket more…)

Jennifer Rubin: Undaunted

Some weeks, I find it impossible to isolate just one heroic or even a few heroic figures in the fight for democracy, truth, and decency. That is when I know we have reached a transformative moment that engages people from all walks of life and all parts of our constitutional system.
(Jennifer Rubin more…)

Adam Kinzinger: The Lesson of Greenland: Standing Up to Trump Works

Europe drew a line. Trump blinked. The lesson is bigger than the Arctic.

Brian Beutler: California’s Evidence Bank For ICE Crimes

A model for the next Minneapolis, from Attorney General Rob Bonta.

• NY Times: The Last Nuclear Deal Is Expiring. Does Anyone Care?

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  The only thing more alarming than the lack of interest among our elected officials in this matter is the mounting pressure on the Trump administration — from both inside and outside the government — to add more nuclear weapons to the stockpile, rather than reduce it.

  Once the treaty ends, we will have returned to an era without limits, when arsenals can reach unconstrained heights.
  (NY Times more…)

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• American Conservative: Rand Paul Checks Marco Rubio On War

  The Secretary of State couldn’t answer one of the most basic questions.
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  Rubio’s bad argument was not new. The Vietnam War was never an officially declared war but a “police action” similar to Rubio’s “law-enforcement operation.” But trying telling a Vietnam vet that it wasn’t a war, or the families of those who lost loved ones there.

  Was the recent U.S. war against Venezuela like Vietnam? Not remotely. Was Venezuela even like the more recent U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria that Western non-interventionists criticize? It was not. Wars can be different.

  But it was a war, something Paul was right to point out to Rubio in that setting.
  (American Conservative more…)

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• NY Times: The World Used to End Wars. Why Did We Stop?

  … for the first time, the United States — the primary architect of the United Nations — is openly experimenting with a rival body at least nominally aimed at peacemaking. “I’m a big fan of the U.N.’s potential,” Mr. Trump said last week, “but it has never lived up to its potential.”

  This move is best understood, though, not as a sudden break between the United States and the U.N., but as an accelerant. It is the latest chapter in a much longer history of America’s estrangement from its own creation, made possible by a global forgetting, often willful, of how war was once restrained.
  (NY Times more…)

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• Dispatch: The Smear Reflex

  The administration’s rush to malign Alex Pretti was embarrassing—and a blow to the public trust.

  Bulwark: When It Comes to Killing Protesters, Trump Sounds Like Iran

  From Minneapolis to Mashhad, similar rhetoric justifying lethal government violence.
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  WITH SUCH HEARTY AGREEMENT on matters of civil disobedience, crowd control, and lethal force, it’s a shame that leaders in Washington and Tehran don’t get along. Instead, the Iranians are accusing us of hypocrisy. In his speech at the U.N., Darzi suggested that the Security Council should examine “the killing of [the] innocent lady in Minnesota” and the “nationwide crackdown” in the United States.
  (Bulwark more…)

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• Guardian: Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon arrested on charges connected to Minnesota church protest

  Lemon’s lawyer said he was taken into custody after attending protest in which demonstrators disrupted a church service earlier in January
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  His arrest sparked outrage from former colleagues, first amendment advocates and members of Congress.

  “This is outrageous and cannot stand. The First Amendment is under attack in America!” Lemon’s former CNN colleague Jim Acosta wrote in a post on X.

  Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, called Lemon’s arrest “a naked attack on freedom of the press”.

  “Lemon’s arrest under a bogus legal theory is a clear warning shot aimed at other journalists,” he said in a statement to the Guardian. “The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them.”

  “There is zero basis to arrest him and he should be freed immediately,” the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, wrote in a post on X.

  The arrest comes as last week a federal magistrate judge took the unusual step of declining to sign off on an arrest warrant for Lemon, a decision that reportedly enraged Pam Bondi, the US attorney general.
  (Guardian more…)

  CBS: Independent Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort arrested at AG Pam Bondi’s direction

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  “This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media,” Fort said. “It’s hard to understand how we have a Constitution, constitutional rights, when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press.”
  

  
  (CBS more…)

  Robert Reich: The Untimely Death of Civil Rights in America

  And what can be done to resurrect them.
  Robert Reich

  Joyce Vance: Why Indict Don Lemon?

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  It isn’t about convicting him. It’s unlikely that will happen. It’s about intimidating journalists & attempting to make them censure themselves out of fear of consequences, which can be very expensive, especially for an independent journalist who lacks the backing of a major company. It’s about eroding the free press because the administration can’t afford the criticism.
  …

  So for these and other reasons, the prospect of a conviction for Lemon at trial is bleak. Why do it then?

  For one thing, it certainly served as a convenient distraction for a lot of other planned announcements DOJ had on tap today. It consumed the newscycle, predictably, as an attack on a journalist’s First Amendment rights would. It served as a major distraction from at least three key stories:

  1. ICE outrages
  2. The Epstein Files
  3. Fulton County

  (Joyce Vance more…)

  Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – January 30, 2026

  As the American people continue to express their fury over the violence of federal agents in Minneapolis and elsewhere, officials from the Trump administration today tried to shift the public narrative to shore up their softening base and silence their opponents.
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  The growing concerns of administration officials that they have lost control of the narrative over ICE and federal authority might have been behind their willingness to drop what they say is the last of the Epstein files they will be releasing. Congress passed a law requiring the full disclosure of those files by December 19, but until today, the Department of Justice had released less than 1% of them. Today Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department is continuing to withhold nearly 3 million pages of documents because they contain child sexual abuse material and the department has an obligation to protect victims’ rights. He said the department is withholding another 200,000 pages because of legal privileges.

  “Today’s release marks the end of a very comprehensive document review process to ensure transparency to the American people,” Blanche told reporters.

  For all the talk of protecting the personal information about Epstein’s victims, the new files released the names and identifying information of a number of survivors, including some who have not previously been associated with the Epstein operation. Twenty Epstein survivors released a statement saying: “This latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files is being sold as transparency, but what it actually does is expose survivors. As survivors, we should never be the ones named, scrutinized, and retraumatized while Epstein’s enablers continue to benefit from secrecy. This is a betrayal of the very people this process is supposed to serve.”
  (Heather Cox Richardson more…)

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• 404 Media: Read the manual for a Palantir-ICE app

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  Earlier this month we revealed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a Palantir tool called ELITE to decide which neighborhoods to raid. The tool lets ICE populate a map with potential deportation targets, bring up dossiers on each person, and view an address “confidence score” based on data sourced from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other government agencies. This is according to a user guide for ELITE 404 Media obtained. 404 Media is now publishing a version of that user guide so people can read it for themselves.
  (404 Media more…)

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• Paul Krugman: A Bad Heir Day at the Fed

  No, Kevin Warsh isn’t qualified

  TNR: Trump’s Pick for Fed Chair Pops Up in Latest Epstein Files

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• Lisa Needham: The protection racket regime

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  At the same time the administration blamed Pretti for his own murder, Bondi decided to go full protection racket. All Minnesota has to do is pay off the regime by agreeing to Trump’s unconstitutional demands that have literally nothing to do with the so-called fraud that has been the justification for occupying the state.

  According to Bondi, the federal government will only leave Minnesota if:

  1. The state gives the federal government all Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service program data, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program information.
  2. The state repeals any sanctuary policies and require all state and local detention facilities to imprison detained immigrants, and allows ICE access to all detainees in order to determine their immigration status.
  3. The state gives the government all its voter data.

  (Lisa Needham more…)

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• Jess Piper: I Told You So

  Missouri public schools

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• Bloomberg: The Push for US Balcony Solar Comes to California

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  Millions of balcony solar systems have been deployed in countries like Germany, which regulates the technology. But only about 5,000 have been installed in the US, according to advocates, most without utility authorization. That’s because plug-in solar has remained in the shadows due to a lack of safety standards and often costly requirements imposed by utilities, but that’s changing. …
  (Bloomberg more…)

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• Daily Beast: Epstein Victim Gave Bombshell Testimony on Trump and Ghislaine

  One of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims told the FBI how Ghislaine Maxwell effectively tried to pimp her out to Donald Trump and his party pals, making it clear that she was “available” for them.

  But the names of the men involved in the victim’s testimony, other than the president’s, have been hidden by the Justice Department, prompting claims of another attempted cover-up.
  (Daily Beast more…)

  Daily Kos: Trump’s incompetent DOJ makes a mess of latest Epstein files drop

  NY Times: Here’s What to Know About the Millions of Pages of Epstein Documents

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• Daily Beast: Panicked Trump, 79, Ramps Up Deranged Hockey Warnings to Canada

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  “I know China very well, President Xi is a friend of mine, I know him very well…The first thing they’re going to do is say you are not allowed to play ice hockey anymore. That’s not good. Canada’s not going to like that,” the president added.

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  ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
  1. January 24: Alex Pretti
  2. January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
  3. January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
  4. January 9: Parady La
  5. January 7: Renée Good
  6. January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
  7. January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
  8. January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
  9. December 31, 2025: Keith Porter

  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

  1. The Impact Map
  2. United States Disappeared Tracker
  3. ICE Flight Tracking
  4. Regulatory Changes Tracker
  5. Trump Administration Litigation Trackers
  6. Far Right Groups Targeting Pride Month