curated news excerpts & citations
Paul Waldman: The death of the CIA Factbook and Trump’s war on usefulness
Wherever government does something helpful, the regime wants to kill it.
When the Trump administration closes down public access to yet another worthwhile resource, it doesn’t always make news. But the decision last week to shutter the CIA World Factbook stands out for what it reveals.
This administration has been fighting a sweeping information war meant to distort and suppress facts, ideas, and history that doesn’t “align with the president’s agenda,” in the phrase they so often use. But at the same time, they’re also waging a war on usefulness.
The CIA produced the Factbook, a concise roundup of facts and figures about every country in the world, since the 1960s; it started as an internal resource and then was made public so anyone could access it. If you wanted to know how many square miles Argentina is, or see a list of political parties in Belgium, or find out what the GDP of Cameroon was last year, the Factbook was a handy resource. But not anymore. Not only will the CIA stop producing new iterations, all previous versions have been removed from the web (though they can still be found at the Internet Archive).
It’s the latter part that gives away their intentions. What would the cost be of keeping the old versions of the Factbook online? Essentially zero. So what’s the point of deleting them?
(Paul Waldman more…)
Paul Offit: RFK Jr’s War on the World’s Children
RFK Jr. has just withdrawn any future U.S. support from a program that has saved more than 20 million lives in resource-poor countries
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Joyce Vance: Fulton County: What’s In The Warrant?
Today, the affidavit submitted when the Trump administration got its warrant to seize ballots from Fulton County, Georgia, was unsealed. I was expecting, well, probable cause. Because that’s what it takes to get a search warrant. But I didn’t find it in the 19-page affidavit the agent submitted along with the application for a search warrant.
…At the outset, there appears to be a statute of limitations issue. The government has five years from the time they were committed to prosecute these crimes. The election was in 2020. It’s now 2026.
(Joyce Vance more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – February 10, 2026
As of yesterday, members of Congress who sit on the House or Senate Judiciary Committees can see unredacted versions of the Epstein files the Department of Justice (DOJ) has already released. As Herb Scribner of Axios explained, the documents are available from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM on computers in the DOJ building in Washington, D.C. The lawmakers cannot bring electronic devices into the room with them, but they are allowed to take notes. They must give the DOJ 24 hours notice before they access the files.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to release all the Epstein files by December 19. Only about half of them have been released to date, and many of them are so heavily redacted they convey little information. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby: Trump cabinet member ensnared in Epstein scandal
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said his relationship with Epstein was “absolutely done” after a single meeting in 2005. The Epstein files tell a much different story.
(Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby more…)NewsNation: Massie, Khanna spotted 6 individuals ‘likely incriminated’ in unredacted Epstein files
Jonathan Larsen: Did Kash ███ Illegally Redact Donald ████ from The Jeffrey ████ Files?
Jennifer Rubin: ‘Accountability’ has to mean something
Jeff Tiedrich: the Dead Pedo Bestie Files coverup just got a thousand times worse
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Michele Hornish: What Is America? The World Is Watching Us Answer
On Bad Bunny, Kid Rock, and the people-to-people diplomacy of everyday Americans
(Michele Hornish more…)
John Pavlovitz: So, You’re Not An Activist, White Friend? Well, it’s About Damn Time You Became One.
… It’s time to get comfortable with the discomfort.
Activism is no longer optional for good humans in America, and here’s why:
People of brown and black skin are disappearing. Today. Right now.
(John Pavlovitz more…)
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404 Media: With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet
Ring’s ‘Search Party’ is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.
(404 Media more…)
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EFF: Open Letter to Tech Companies: Protect Your Users From Lawless DHS Subpoenas
Chris Geidner: DHS’s investigation of a man who emailed a DHS lawyer is over — but not the concerns it raises
After 99 days, DHS retracted an administrative subpoena targeting a man following his exercise of his First Amendment rights — but never explained why it was investigating him.
(Chris Geidner more…)Above the Law: Judge Rules There Was No Reason To Detain Or Deport Grad Student Over A Damn Op-Ed Piece
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Dean Blundell: Let’s Fact Check Trump’s INSANE 3 AM “Gordie Howe Bridge/Anti-Canada” Rant…
NY Times: Bridge Owner Lobbied Administration Before Trump Blasted Competing Span to Canada
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Your Local Epidemiologist: TrumpRx, Super Bowl commercials, flu B is here, and more
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Borowitz: Olympics Update: Trump Wins Gold in Downhill Presidency
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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