curated news excerpts & citations
Jennifer Rubin: The real ‘terrorists’ are in the Trump regime
The Trump regime calls those it kills and abuses “terrorists.” Renee Good was defamed as a “domestic terrorist.” She was a mother, a daughter, a wife, a neighbor. Alex Pretti was also labeled a “domestic terrorist.” He was a beloved ICU nurse at the VA. Approximately 125 people that the Trump regime illegally killed on the high seas were dubbed “narco-terrorists.” That too is a lie. Indeed, whenever you hear “terrorist” uttered by this administration, you should understand that means “someone a fascist government had no right to kill.”
The family of two innocent men murdered on the high seas have brought suit against the Trump regime.
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The complaint reminds us that Trump’s regime has never provided proof that the victims were doing anything wrong
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
David Shuster: From Warrants to Whims: ICE’s New Authority to Enter Homes on Trump’s Say-So
Administrative warrants turn home invasions into internal paperwork—and erase a core safeguard of liberty.
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The Trump team distinction between a real warrant and an administrative one is not legal hair-splitting. It is huge. A judicial warrant is an interruption. It forces the government to explain itself to someone who does not take orders from it. An administrative warrant is a permission slip the government writes to itself, like a child excusing his or her own absence from school. The fact that such a document is now offered as justification for forced entry into a home tells you everything you need to know about the Trump administration’s view of constitutional limits: the limits are optional, situational, and are best handled internally.
(David Shuster more…)
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – February 3, 2026
Yesterday, the day before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s termination of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation, U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes stopped that termination until a pending court case worked its way through the courts.
At stake first of all were the lives of about 353,000 Haitians living legally in the United States since the catastrophic Haitian earthquake of 2010, whom the termination of that status would render undocumented overnight. …
As Judge Reyes explains, Congress established Temporary Protective Status in 1990 to change previously haphazard executive decisions about whether to receive immigrants from disaster-stricken countries that left recipients unclear about their immigration status. …
And yet, the judge explains, Secretary Noem ignored the process and the criteria, instead relying on ideology. …
… During the 2024 campaign, Trump falsely accused Haitian immigrants of “eating the dogs,” “eating the cats,” and “eating the pets” of people who live in Springfield, Ohio. He insisted he would revoke Haiti’s TPS designation and send immigrants “back to their country.”
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But, as Reyes points out, the facts simply don’t match their ideology. …
… “Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the [Administrative Procedure Act] to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.”
In the conflict between reality and white nationalist ideology, reality appears to be gaining ground. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Texas Tribune: After El Paso’s ME ruled migrant’s death a homicide, ICE sent the next body to an Army hospital
ICE bypassed the county medical examiner in favor of a military facility for the autopsy of a Nicaraguan man and won’t release a ruling to the public.
The body of a migrant who died at an El Paso immigration detention center was sent to a military hospital rather than the county medical examiner who investigated two previous deaths at the facility — and concluded that one of them was a homicide rather than a suicide.
Victor Manuel Diaz, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan, died Jan. 14 at Camp East Montana, a massive tent facility the federal government built on the Fort Bliss Army base. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Diaz was found unconscious and unresponsive in his room and died of “a presumed suicide.”
Diaz’s autopsy is being performed at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in Fort Bliss, which doesn’t release autopsy reports to the public — only to family members and investigators, according to Jessia Rovero, a public affairs officer at Fort Bliss.
This comes after the El Paso Medical Examiner recently ruled a previous detainee’s death a homicide, contradicting ICE’s contention that he died by suicide.
(Texas Tribune more…)
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Washington Post: Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon
In October, a retiree emailed a DHS attorney to urge mercy for an asylum seeker. Then DHS subpoenaed his Google account and sent investigators to his home.
(Washington Post more…)TechCrunch: Homeland Security is trying to force tech companies to hand over data about Trump critics
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U.S. House of Representatives: How Federal Enforcement Led to the Killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti
- The Trump Administration’s extreme policies, violent tactics, and culture of impunity led to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti.
- The Trump Administration’s lies about the killings cannot cover up what the American people saw with their own eyes.
- The available evidence suggests that the Trump Administration is attempting to cover up misconduct.
- The Trump Administration is continuing its cover-up by impeding thorough and impartial investigations into the shootings.
(U.S. House of Representatives more…)
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Terrence Goggin: Hitler had mass public support; Trump does not; that fact and the iPhone devastate his options to disrupt, distort or prevent the 2026 elections
With what has seemed to be the speed of light Trump’s MAGA has transformed itself from a relatively popular mass movement headed by a flawed but widely admired propagandist, the equal of Hitler and Goebbles, into a hollow shell rapidly emptying of followers and adherents because of Trump’s now obvious and grotesque lies. His banal, bumbling even boring storyline is now being mocked for its obvious falsehoods.
Even among the movements most loyal followers such as Joe Rogan, “the wolds most popular podcaster” it’s been a revelation. …
(Terrence Goggin more…)
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People’s World: Uprisings against ICE intensify and score some victories
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Robert Reich: Donald Trump vs. Donald Trump
Trump has sued the Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion.
In the suit, filed in Miami federal court on Thursday, Trump alleges that the IRS was responsible for the leak of some of Trump’s tax documents to press in September 2020. The leak occurred by an IRS contractor.
The leaked tax documents revealed that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he first won the presidency, and paid no taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.
…So how, exactly, is this $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS going to work? Who will represent the government — that is, you and I and every other taxpayer that would, in effect, have to shell out $10 billion if he wins?
How can the Justice Department represent us when Trump has directed the department to do whatever he wants it to do? If there are settlement negotiations with him, who’s going to negotiate the settlement with him? Who’s going to sign the final agreement with him?
(Robert Reich more…)
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Mary Geddry: Authoritarian Cosplay, Meet Gravity
Trump talks about nationalizing elections while losing control of Congress, DOJ, and the narrative
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Heather Delaney Reese: How deep does the corruption go?
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Jay Kuo: The War Inside the Department of Homeland Security
From a distance, the recent shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) looks like begrudging accountability. At least that’s the White House’s hope, and it’s how the mainstream press has been portraying it.
…But seen up close, it looks a lot like an old familiar movie, one where we don’t see accountability playing out so much as rival factions jockeying for position.
(Jay Kuo more…)
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Michele Hornish: We’re Not So Far Apart: Run Everywhere
The Message From Texas
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Tom Schaller: Guns for me, but not for thee
How the Rittenhouse Rules changed the Second Amendment.
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Paul Offit: Who‘s Really Behind the MAHA Movement?
RFK Jr.’s recent removal of FDA warnings about dangerous autism therapies shows exactly who is funding the MAHA movement.
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NY Times: Vaccines Are Helping Older People More Than We Knew
Many shots seem to have “off-target” benefits, such as lowering the risk of dementia, studies have found.
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zeteo: Trump Wants to Sue Trevor Noah for Defamation. Here’s His Problem
The law is clear, says law professor and Zeteo contributor Kim Wehle. The president would need to prove “actual malice” on the part of the comedian… plus comedy is protected by the First Amendment.
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Borowitz: King Charles Cancels US Visit and Will Send Andrew Instead
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.- January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
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
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