curated news excerpts & citations
Thom Hartmann: Is Deporting a Journalist the Ultimate Form of Cancel Culture?
It probably shouldn’t surprise us. After all, intolerance and hate have always been the fuel that drives and sustains rightwing movements around the world and throughout history.
Now the hosts of one of the largest-circulation “conservative” podcasts in the country are calling for a Muslim commentator to be stripped of his citizenship and deported from America.
His sin? He called for the next president to take down the Hitler-style massive banners on the Justice and Labor Department buildings that feature Trump’s face, and the new one on the Education Department with Charlie Kirk’s face. And, of course, he’s a brown-skinned Muslim.
(Thom Hartmann more…)
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Teri Carter @ Kentucky Lantern: Racism is hazardous to Kentuckians’ health
The overtly racist ad from U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, who is running for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat, is both shocking and not.
Shocking for its in-your-face racism — while he smiles, such a great big smile — in a little 30 second ad. Not shocking in that Barr and his team appear to have decided that, to have a chance of winning a three-way Republican primary, he must be as President Trump-adjacent as possible.
And the Trumpism and the racism are as tightly coiled as a pile of mating snakes.
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Kentucky is already 81% white. Is that not white enough?The sooner we stop wasting energy on a nonexistent DEI problem to both assuage the tender feelings of white lawmakers and help them curl up like mating snakes with the proudly racist Trump administration, the sooner we can solve real problems, like recruiting and keeping enough doctors to make our citizens healthier and to make Kentucky a better place to live.
(Teri Carter @ Kentucky Lantern more…)Jess Piper: Run Everywhere
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Your Local Epidemiologist: Hep B vaccine rates declining, RSV is having a late surge, more disease=more economic cost, AI and triage, and the U.S. surgeon general
Paul Offit: The Toilet Seat Challenge Test
On February 12, 2026, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on a podcast called The Past Weekend with comedian Theo Von. “I’m not scared of a germ,” said RFK Jr. “I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats.” If you can get past the fact that this statement was made by the nation’s leading public health official, let’s discuss whether it makes sense.
We’ll start with the toilet seat, by which I assume he means the toilet seat cover, which is where the snorting normally takes place. Toilet seats are wrongly considered to be a place where people can be infected with sexually transmitted germs such as HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis or chlamydia. These pathogens require warm, moist surfaces; all will die almost instantly when exposed to the cold, hard surface of a toilet seat. RFK Jr. was right not to be concerned about them. Surprisingly, other items in the bathroom are more dangerous than toilet seats or toilet seat covers. …
(Paul Offit more…)
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Michele Hornish: The Fortunate Son Sends Us to War
It is easy to pay a bill if you’re not using your own money.
That’s the thought that kept ringing through my head as I watched the “Secretary of War” smirk and chortle his way through a war time press conference wherein he disparaged our allies for “clutching their pearls” and dismissed what he called “stupid rules of engagement.”
Anyone who cares about the sanctity of human life pauses and deliberates long and hard before resorting to violence. It’s not “pearl-clutching” – it’s quite literally the bare minimum of responsible governance. And anyone who cares about the morality of war – about the nobility of going to battle to prove your commitment to ideals – understands the need to adhere to a set of moral standards, especially in bloody battle.
But this disconnect between war as cosplay and war as reality is what happens when policy is made by people who have consistently failed up.
It’s what happens when life-or-death decisions are made by men of means with thin resumes and thick breath whose futures have been protected by a full-time cleaning crew charged with fixing their mistakes before there was too much damage or too much attention.
Consequences are rare for these people.
They are not rare for the rest of us.
(Michele Hornish more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 3, 2026
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Alison Durkee of Forbes reported today that Trump’s military strikes in Iran have already cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1 billion. The three F-15E Eagle jets lost to friendly fire on Sunday cost $90 million each. Transporting troops, ships, and aircraft to the Middle East cost about $630 million. Missiles and weapons systems are also expensive—a drone is about $35,000, and a Tomahawk missile costs millions—and the two aircraft carriers in the region together cost at least $13 million a day. And then there are the costs of operating aircraft, and so on.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Paul Krugman: War Is Expensive for the Little People
Operation Epic Fury will cost billions that could have been put to much better use
On Sunday, according to the U.S. military, Kuwaiti forces shot down three U.S. F-15s in a “friendly fire” incident. Fortunately, the crews were able to safely eject and survived. The sad truth is that such incidents are common in modern war. One of the highest-ranking U.S. officers to die in World War II, General Lesley McNair, was killed in Normandy by U.S. bombs, not the Germans.
The shocking aspect of the story is the value of the equipment destroyed: A new F-15 costs U.S. taxpayers $97 million. So that’s almost $300 million lost in seconds. And we should think about what could have been done with that money other than launch a war without a clear plan or an exit strategy.
There are many reasons to be disturbed by Operation Epic Fury. Donald Trump has taken America to war, not only without Congressional authorization, but without even trying to make a case to the American people. Other than the hope that Iranians will rise up and overthrow the Ayatollahs’ regime, the war has no clear plan for either victory or exit. This strongly suggests that the rush to war was a Trump ego tantrum rather than a carefully planned campaign. …
(Paul Krugman more…)Jennifer Rubin: ‘Plummeting’? No, war makes inflation worse
Donald Trump’s illegal, immoral, and unjustified war will cost taxpayers billions and put upward pressure on energy prices and inflation more generally. Purely from an economic standpoint, the war is a disaster. And the inflation picture even before Trump’s war was ominous.
In short, inflation is back, despite Trump’s preposterous assertions in his rant last Tuesday night. He insisted inflation is “plummeting.” Well, if that is “plummeting,” then the word has lost all meaning. (Plummeting things do include Trump’s approval numbers and MAGA Republicans’ prospect for holding both houses.)
(Jennifer Rubin more…)
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Atlanta Black Star: Slurring Trump, 79, Squints at Teleprompter, Appearing Cold and Detached — As Americans Begin Paying the Price for His Reckless Decision
Three American troops are dead in a surprise war for regime change in Iran — and instead of offering shared grief, restraint, or even a coherent roadmap, President Donald Trump opted to bluntly prepare the country for more loss.
Heather Delaney Reese: Trump’s decline is a threat to the world
… As he stood at the podium for the next 40 minutes during what was supposed to be a Medal of Honor ceremony, he struggled to read his teleprompter and once again spoke incoherent gibberish while the world watched. “Finally, we honor one more American soldier, a fallen werria of whorl. Of wars. And really, of really terra,” Trump said, when introducing a Medal of Honor recipient. It was just the latest reminder of how much danger we are in with him as the President. This is the man who just started a war that has now engulfed an entire region in chaos.
Lisa Needham: Trump’s Iran War and the Article One crisis
Congress’s refusal to do its job is now the world’s problem.
Adam Mockler: Trump Admin Freaks Out over their Own Disaster
Ken Klippenstein: Congress to America: What War?
Al Jazeera: Trump: ‘We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain’
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Jonathan Larsen: U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus
A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.
From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).
The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.
The MRFF is keeping the complainants anonymous to prevent retribution by the Defense Department. …
ReligiousLiberty.TV: U.S. Military Commanders Frame Iran War as Biblical Apocalypse — and the Troops Are Filing Complaints
John Pavlovitz: The Republican-Evangelical Armageddon Death Pact to Kill the Earth and Bring Back Jesus
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PBS: Iranian drones strike U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia as war widens
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Joyce Vance: DOJ Changes Course
Last night, I wrote to you about reporting that the Trump administration would stop defending the clearly illegal executive orders the president issued last March. There was a lot of reporting on that story last night, and apparently Trump got wind of it because there is an update tonight.
After last night’s news broke, the Justice Department changed its mind. Perhaps, although we don’t know for certain, it would be more accurate to say Trump told his Justice Department to change its mind. Suffice it to say it’s enormously unusual for the government to one day file a motion to voluntarily dismiss its appeal on these cases and the next morning to say, “Nope, our bad, we’ll go ahead and defend those appeals after all”—which is precisely what happened this morning.
(Joyce Vance more…)
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Daily Beast: Trump Cabinet Goon Busted at Party She Claimed Never Happened
THE CAMERA NEVER LIES
A photo shows the labor secretary enjoying a birthday party she denied the existence of under oath.
(Daily Beast more…)
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Jack Hopkins: Patel Fired the Iran Experts. Then He Lit the Match.
Mediaite: The FBI Staffers Kash Patel Ousted Because They Worked on Mar-a-Lago Probe Had Iran Expertise
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Daily Beast: Trump Denounces Two of MAGA’s Biggest Stars in New Civil War
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
- 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
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
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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